Tough competing with the iPhone

Written by

Ben Bajarin wrote a great piece on the iPhone and its market share in the U.S. There are so many takeaways, you should just read the whole thing.

Galaxy Round: “absolutely, completely, totally, utterly useless gimmick”

Written by

The Galaxy Round exists because the Galaxy Round exists. Samsung built and launched it so that it would be the first company in the world to build and launch a smartphone with a curved display. That’s it. The curved shape of the phone adds nothing of value to the user experience and once again, Samsung didn’t even attempt to add any useful new functionality to the device. It’s a gimmick.

That pretty much says it all.

iPhone 5s and 5c available in more countries on Oct 25

Written by

iPhone 5s and 5c will be available on Friday, October 25 in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, French West Indies, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion Island, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and Thailand. iPhone 5s and 5c will also be available on Friday, November 1 in Albania, Armenia, Bahrain, Colombia, El Salvador, Guam, Guatemala, India, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and UAE. Both iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c are currently available in the US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK.

Listastic

Written by

This is a great shared lists app. My wife and I tried it last night and it worked great. I’m a fan.

Apple’s rumored Oct 22 iPad event

Written by

People familiar with Apple’s plans tell AllThingsD that the company will hold its next invitation-only event on Tuesday, October 22. The focal point of the gathering will be the latest updates to the company’s iPad line…

Yep.

Eric Schmidt says Android is more secure than iPhone

Written by

The comparison, made during a question-and-answer session at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, drew laughter from a packed-house audience.

Gartner analyst David Willis, who is chief of research for mobility and communications and who runs Gartner’s Senior Research Board, said to Schmidt: “If you polled many people in this audience they would say Google Android is not their principal platform […] When you say Android, people say, wait a minute, Android is not secure.”

Schmidt didn’t miss a beat, replying, “Not secure? It’s more secure than the iPhone.”

Eric Schmidt has lost his fucking mind.

Jimi Hendrix documentary premieres Nov. 5

Written by

Hear My Train A Comin’ unveils previously unseen performance footage and home movies taken by Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell while sourcing an extensive archive of photographs, drawings, family letters and more to provide new insight into the musician’s personality and genius. Recently uncovered film footage of Hendrix at the 1968 Miami Pop Festival is among the previously unseen treasures featured in American Masters: Jimi Hendrix – Hear My Train A Comin’.

I can’t wait.

[caption id="attachment_38946" align="aligncenter" width="500"]Neale Cousland / Shutterstock.com Neale Cousland / Shutterstock.com[/caption]

Capo 3

Written by

This is one of my favorite music apps. The new version now does chord detection among many other things.

Joanna Stern reviews Galaxy Gear

Written by

It turns out that the Galaxy Gear isn’t a very smart watch. Sure, it might do more than the watch you are wearing right now — at least on paper — but your everyday watch can tell time faster than the Gear, and is certainly more comfortable and attractive. And while the Gear does put some smartphone functionality on your wrist, it still requires you to grab your phone quite a bit, whether it is for installing apps or checking for more information about certain notifications. And that’s all assuming you can keep it on for long enough, given the comfort and battery life hurdles.

Joanna did a great review of the Galaxy Gear. Samsung’s entry into the smart watch market was more about being first than actually helping users. That is very clear.

AskingPoint Mobile App Analytics [Sponsor]

Written by

AskingPoint provides Mobile App Analytics, In-App Messaging (great for cross promotion), and SaaS for Mobile Apps. Push messaging and Ap Monetization tools are coming later in October and November.

AskingPoint let’s you use your App Analytics to control anything in your Apps, in real-time. Check it out, and learn how to remote control your Mobile Apps!

Using Markdown with MarsEdit

Written by

I use Markdown and MarsEdit every day to update The Loop. Here are a few tips to make sure you are getting the most out of MarsEdit.

SEC ends review of Apple taxes

Written by

Four months after raising questions about Apple’s foreign earnings and taxes, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has ended its investigation without plans to take any further action.

Terrible reporting

Written by

I agree with Rene Ritchie. What passes for tech reporting these days is often no more than misinformed drivel designed to get pageviews. What’s worse, it can cause harm to unsuspecting users.

Tweeter Home shares explode

Written by

Excitement for Twitter’s coming IPO is running pretty high – so much so that some investors on Friday mistook the nearly worthless stock of long-dead electronics retailer Tweeter for the “tweeting” site, sending shares up more than 1,000 percent.

Fuck people are stupid.

Mac App Store Volume Purchase Program

Written by

Apple has informed Mac developers that it is preparing to launch the ability for educational institutions and developers to purchase apps from the Mac App Store in volume for a discount.

This is a big deal.