Amplified live from iTunes Festival in London today

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I’m in London today and will be attending the opening show at the iTunes Festival, featuring Lady Gaga. Dan Benjamin and I will be doing a special Amplified podcast at 2:00 pm ET before the concert starts. You can join us live to hear about the festival.

The Bundle of Bundles: $147 of software for $47

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Many thanks to Mighty Deals for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. There are bundles and there are bundles. And then, well, then there are bundles of bundles.

In this Mighty Deal’s case, however, it feels like we have a bundle that consists of bundles of bundles! Confused yet? Don’t be. Just know that this is one of the biggest bundle deals ever! With literally thousands of high-quality elements for creative designers, this Bundle Storm pretty much has it all!

Stock photos! Vector images! Backgrounds! Patterns! Themes! Gradients! Actions! Icons! Buttons! Infographics! Why, there’s even tools to quickly create your own mascot!

You can also check out the Full Smashing Library Deal.

The Loop Magazine Issue 9: Chasing Eddie Van Halen’s “Brown Sound”

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In this issue, Alex Vollmer describes his 20 year obsession with Eddie Van Halen’s famous “Brown Sound” guitar tone; Matt Gemmell reminds us that everything we do online can affect our reputation; Peter Cohen talks about how he got started with the Mac 27 years ago; Steven Aquino is a sports fanatic and technology has made his hobby better; and Dr. Robert Carter tells us how Apple’s commitment to accessibility has changed his life.

You can download The Loop Magazine free on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. You also get a free 7-day trial when you subscribe.

The Loop issue 9 grey gradient

Writing tips

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Matt Gemmell has some solid tips that you can try the next time you sit down to write. Two tips in particular that I’ve done for a long time are:

I have a habit of adding a bullet-point right after I stop, briefly outlining the very next thing that happens. The following day, I just transform it into a sentence or two, and I feel that I’ve at least started.

I actually do this throughout my stories. As the story evolves, I think of things that need to be added or points that need to be made. The problem is if I stop and add it in, I lose my momentum and I don’t like that. Sometimes a single word will be enough to jog my memory and by the time I’m finished, all of the relevant points have been made in the article.

Just trust yourself. Something will emerge. Unplanned structure.

For me, it’s not necessarily lack of planning, but lack of putting it on paper. I formulate my ideas in my head—sometimes for days or even weeks—before I ever write anything. When I do sit down to start writing, I have a flow that gets me through the toughest part of the article.

Amplified: Giant Hand

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Jim and Dan discuss the Chromecast app being blocked by Google, the New York Times getting hacked, and Apple TVs getting more and more channels.

Sponsored by Mailchimp and Shutterstock (use code DANSENTME8 for 25% off).

Patent trolls sue Apple 171 times in 5 years

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After being hit with 171 lawsuits from non-practicing intellectual property owning entities in the last five years, Apple has further solidified its place as the No. 1 target for so-called patent “trolls.”

No company should be sued by patent trolls. Something has to be done.

Nine Inch Nails offers “audiophile mastered” version of their album

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Hesitation Marks was mastered in two different ways – the standard, “loud” mastering (which is what you’ll find on the CD, on iTunes, and everywhere else), and also an alternate “audiophile” mastering, which we’re offering as a free download option for anyone who purchases the album through nin.com. For the majority of people, the standard version will be preferable and differences will be difficult to detect. Audiophiles with high-end equipment and an understanding of the mastering process might prefer the alternate version.

It’s great to see bands getting away from the “louder is best” mentality or at least giving us an alternative.

The Onion on why Miley Cyrus was the top story on CNN

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It’s a good question. And the answer is pretty simple. It was an attempt to get you to click on CNN.com so that we could drive up our web traffic, which in turn would allow us to increase our advertising revenue.

Great answer. It also explains the shitty tech stories we read everyday.

Bloat

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Des Traynor:

Once a company succumbs to it, bloat seeps through its veins. A round of layoffs becomes a “Strategic Talent Re-Architecture”, sharing a link becomes “Internal Socialising”, or “Knowledge Cross Pollination”. You no longer “think about things” any more you “incubate them internally”. If you’re thinking about them really hard, you’re now “deep diving to disambiguate”.

Wonderful article. Bloat is everywhere.

NASA remembers Neil Armstrong

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Famed Apollo 11 moonwalker Neil Armstrong died one year ago today and NASA is remembering the iconic astronaut with a touching music video tribute.

He truly inspired a generation.

Oscar Wilde on Art

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A true artist takes no notice whatever of the public. The public are to him non-existent. He has no poppied or honeyed cakes through which to give the monster sleep or sustenance. He leaves that to the popular novelist.

Microsoft’s downfall

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Software isn’t an industry where the monster company selling the last generation’s product gets to stay being the monster for the next generation. It’s the industry where a thousand hungry small companies are waiting for a shift in the market that will allow them to slay the monster, carve it up and eat it for breakfast.

Very interesting article.

[Via Rian van der Merwe]

I’m speaking at FutureStack; get 50% off registration

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In the future, nothing is impossible. FutureStack 2013 is an opportunity for disruptive Developers, innovative Technologists and world-changing Creatives to imagine, build and help craft the future of Modern Software. Big ideas aren’t just welcome — they’re required.

I’ll be speaking at the FutureStack conference, which will be held in San Francisco in October. There are a lot of very smart people on the speakers list and some great sessions. If you’re interested in going to the conference, you can get 50% off the registration fee because you know me.

Infinite State

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First, it takes three months to understand a new job. Until those 90 days are over, you don’t really know what hand you’ve been dealt. Second, it takes approximately three years before you’ll become bored with your current gig. While I can’t point you to the definitive research paper that confirms this hypothesis, I have been stumbling around Silicon Valley for a couple of decades and my advice hasn’t changed: 90 days to understand the new gig, three years before you’re bored with it.

Interesting article from Michael Lopp. I never really thought about it like that before, but maybe that’s because I’ve been doing the same job for 20 years.

The Bundle of Bundles: $147 of software for $47 [Sponsor]

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There are bundles and there are bundles. And then, well, then there are bundles of bundles.

In this Mighty Deal’s case, however, it feels like we have a bundle that consists of bundles of bundles! Confused yet? Don’t be. Just know that this is one of the biggest bundle deals ever! With literally thousands of high-quality elements for creative designers, this Bundle Storm pretty much has it all!

Stock photos! Vector images! Backgrounds! Patterns! Themes! Gradients! Actions! Icons! Buttons! Infographics! Why, there’s even tools to quickly create your own mascot!

You can also check out the Full Smashing Library Deal.

Elementary OS

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elementary OS is a free replacement for Windows on the PC and OS X on the Mac. It comes with what you’d expect, like a fast web browser and an app store with thousands of apps. Plus some things you may not expect, like free updates and no known viruses.

I don’t know a lot about it, but it looks like OS X. I’m also not sure where the “thousands of apps” came from.

Google cripples Chromecast

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According to AllCast developer Koushik Dutta, the most recent Chromecast firmware update not only breaks the functionality third-party apps were using to stream local media and other stuff that doesn’t have built-in Chromecast support but breaks it on purpose.

It’s like they don’t want people to buy it.

F-Sim Space Shuttle

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Many thanks to F-Sim Space Shuttle for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. F-Sim Space Shuttle is a fun and highly realistic flight simulator for iOS. Your goal is to land one of the most amazing aircrafts ever built: the Space Shuttle Orbiter. Flight dynamics and the head-up display are simulated in great detail and accuracy. During descent the orbiter is an extremely heavy, unpowered glider, so there’s only one chance to get it right. Air speeds two times faster and glide slopes seven times steeper than a typical airliner approach make for a unique challenge.

Landing a space shuttle is not easy, but there are several landing aids and tutorials that will help you make your first safe landing. Every landing is rated, and more experienced pilots can try a perfect landing or add more challenges (night approaches, crosswind landings, system failures, and much more). A landing analysis screen shows how you performed and how you can improve future landings. You’ll also get a score that can be uploaded to Game Center. You can watch breathtaking replays of your flight from different camera angles and even record your replays to the camera roll in full HD.

Apple opposes Feds new proposal in e-book case

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The United States offered to ease the terms of a proposed civil injunction against Apple Inc for conspiring to raise e-book prices, but the company said the revised proposal is still designed to “inflict punishment” and must be rejected.

Sounds to me like Apple is in this for the long haul.

Samsung creates horrible ad

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Samsung might have a 10-figure advertising budget, but it still managed to create an ad with such bad acting (and horribly sexist undertones) that it was pulled shortly after being spotted–and relentlessly mocked–by Reddit members Thursday.

It’s just painful to watch.