Xbox One unveiled

The new machine sees Microsoft add a Blu-ray drive and Skype functionality to its console, built in feedback into its gamepad triggers, and upgrades its Kinect camera sensor to 1080p high definition resolution.

Xbox is the one Microsoft product I really like.

Top 10 audio compressors

Bobby Owsinski takes a look at some of his favorite compressors. I love the ones he chose, especially the Fairchild and the Universal Audio LA series.

Mackie mixers with iPad control

There have been a number of mixers that utilize iOS devices that I never really liked, but this looks promising. It’s the first one I’ve seen that I’d like to try.

Capping WWDC tickets

Michael Lopp:

The cap on WWDC tickets means it won’t go the way of SXSW – a wildly successful conference that has grown consistently since its inception. I used to go every year until one late night we looked around a huge sea of strangers and decided that we no longer knew this conference. The experience had become diluted. It had become unfamiliar, full of strangers, and unknowable.

There is a lot of truth to that. A lot of people go to WWDC to meet up with old friends — the socializing is just as important as the sessions for many people. Lopp provides some other great insights in the article too.

Tumblr users flee to WordPress

Matt Mullenweg:

Imports have actually spiked on the rumors even though it’s Sunday: normally we import 400-600 posts an hour from Tumblr, last hour it was over 72,000.

I understand why people are worried — Yahoo has a terrible reputation for screwing things up, but I don’t think it will happen this time. Maybe I think too highly of Marissa Mayer, but I think Tumblr will be okay.

Yahoo board approves $1.1 billion Tumblr deal

According to numerous sources, Mayer determined quickly in her research that the fast-growing content site, turbocharged by mountains of user-generated content, was just the kind of property that Yahoo needed to make it both “cool” and relevant to new audiences.

I agree with that strategy.

World 1-2 videogames-inspired music album

My thanks to World 1-2 for sponsoring The Loop. World 1-2 is a new videogames-inspired music album by Koopa Soundworks, directed and produced by Mohammed Taher. It hosts a number of famed superstars as well as rising indies, including Austin Wintory (of Journey), Akira Yamaoka (of Silent Hill), Manami Matsumae (of Mega Man), Chipzel (of Super Hexagon), and a lot others.

Get it on either Bandcamp or iTunes.

Yahoo board considering $1.1 billion Tumblr buyout

Yahoo has been mulling some kind of deal with the hip New York-based blogging site, from a strategic investment to an outright acquisition. Sources said that the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s CEO Marissa Mayer has decided that buying Tumblr was going to be “the stake in the ground of what her strategy is going forward for Yahoo.”

This would be very interesting.

Apple retail gets top scores in UK

Over 11,000 UK consumers responded to the survey, with Apple coming out on top with an 85% satisfaction score. Apple Retail Stores were praised specifically for their “unique look and feel” and “great customer service.”

No surprise, but good to see.

Tech gear and saving money on energy

Jeff Bertolucci for The Saturday Evening Post:

Beware. Your tech gear is costing you money while you sleep. Sure, the stuff looks innocent enough: cable box, HDTV, computer monitor, and sundry other electronic gadgets that consume power even when in “sleep” mode. While their energy-sucking ways may seem harmless, they cost you big bucks over time.

It all adds up.

Intel passed up on the original iPhone

Intel CEO Paul Otellini:

”We ended up not winning it or passing on it, depending on how you want to view it. And the world would have been a lot different if we’d done it,” Otellini told me in a two-hour conversation during his last month at Intel. “The thing you have to remember is that this was before the iPhone was introduced and no one knew what the iPhone would do… At the end of the day, there was a chip that they were interested in that they wanted to pay a certain price for and not a nickel more and that price was below our forecasted cost. I couldn’t see it. It wasn’t one of these things you can make up on volume. And in hindsight, the forecasted cost was wrong and the volume was 100x what anyone thought.”

So basically, Otellini is the Pete Best of the tech business.

Mophie Juice Pack Plus for iPhone 5

I have never used a case on my iPhone, except for the Mophie Juice Pack Plus. Having the extra battery power made it worth while and the Mophie never let me down. Good seeing it available for the iPhone 5.

Zakk Wylde, others celebrate Les Paul’s birthday

Zakk Wylde, Lee Ritenour, JJ Grey & Mofro, and Rock Candy Funk Party (RCFP)–featuring Tal Bergman, Joe Bonamassa, Ron DeJesus, and Mike Merritt–will take The Iridium stage to celebrate Les Paul’s 98th birthday with more than a week of shows June 3-12.

I was at the first celebration at the Iridium in New York after Les died sitting at a table with Zakk Wylde and Steven Van Zandt. Jeff Beck played that night — it was absolutely amazing.