Apple beats Google, Amazon in cloud war

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Apple is dominating the cloud storage wars, followed by Dropbox, Amazon and Google according to Strategy Analytics ‘Cloud Media Services’ survey.

In a recent study of almost 2,300 connected Americans, Strategy Analytics found that 27% have used Apple’s iCloud followed by 17% for Dropbox, 15% for Amazon Cloud Drive and 10% for Google Play (see chart).

No thanks Google

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Om Malik on launching Google Keep after just killing Google Reader:

I spent about seven years of my online life on that service. I sent feedback, used it to annotate information and they killed it like a butcher slaughters a chicken. No conversation — dead. The service that drives more traffic than Google+ was sacrificed because it didn’t meet some vague corporate goals; users — many of them life long — be damned.

Looking from that perspective, it is hard to trust Google to keep an app alive.

I agree completely. How can Google expect users to trust them with an app when they could shut it down at any time. No thanks Google.

Rarely used CSS3 properties

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There are some CSS3 properties that aren’t used as often as you would expect. Despite their rarity, they are extremely useful.

The end of Android

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Dan Frommer:

But even from the outside, it’s easy to see that the Android situation isn’t ideal. Yes, it is the world’s “most popular” mobile phone platform, if you sort by the number of people using it, and that’s an impressive achievement. But it certainly isn’t making the sort of impact — on the world and on Google itself — that it perhaps could or should.

Interesting thoughts.

The return of NetNewsWire

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Daniel Pasco:

Second, even though we’ve been quiet about it, we have been working on new versions of NetNewsWire for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. We have some great new features and a modern design that we can’t wait to show you.

Great news for RSS users.

Job titles

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It’s amazing how much people respond to your job title. Michael Lopp has a great article on the subject.

iZotope Nectar Elements vocal plug-in

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Getting a great vocal sound doesn’t need to be hard. Whether you’re recording or you’re mixing, Nectar Elements makes vocal treatment a snap.

There are a couple of videos on the page that are worth watching.

Amplified: New Overlords

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Jim and Dan talk about Kevin Lynch, the iOS update, Google Reader’s demise, leaving Feedburner, Google’s priorities, privacy, Dropbox, BlackBerry’s claim that the iPhone is “old”, learning guitar chords, the Line 6 amp, and more.

Walmart expands iPhone scan-and-checkout

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Wal-Mart Stores Inc said it is tripling the number of U.S. stores in a pilot program that lets shoppers scan items with their iPhones and pay at self-checkout counters.

Walmart’s “Scan & Go” program will soon be in more than 200 stores, up from about 70. The pilot began near its home office in Bentonville, Arkansas in late 2012, then expanded to Atlanta.

Obviously it’s working well.

Governments enter the “patent troll” business

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Patent competition in the United States is usually a fierce arena for private companies, but now the South Korean and French governments are suiting up.

Both countries have launched patent-acquisition companies, with the goal of helping domestic technology firms and possibly making some money in the process. China and Japan are making moves into the business too.

Great, just what we need.

Bozo

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John Gruber giving his thoughts on Apple’s newest VP Kevin Lynch. There is also an Exhibit B. Like Gruber, it concerns me that Lynch kept beating the Flash drum for so long, even when it was clear it was dead.

“Why I left Google”

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James Whittaker:

The Google I was passionate about was a technology company that empowered its employees to innovate. The Google I left was an advertising company with a single corporate-mandated focus.

This article is a year old, but I think it says a lot about the changes Google has been, and still is, going through. Worth a read for sure.

March Madness apps

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NCAA March Madness Live:

Watch every game with NCAA® March Madness LIVE on your iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and iPad Mini! Download to follow the tournament bracket, check schedule and scores, fill out your bracket, set game alerts, listen to live game radio, and track social activity around all the games. Log in with your TV provider to enjoy unlimited access to live streaming video of all 67 games of the 2013 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV. A 4 hour live video pass will be available prior to logging in.

ESPN Bracket Bound 2013:

The ESPN Bracket Bound App is the ultimate college basketball companion. Follow the nation’s top teams with the latest scores, news, Bracketology and highlights. Personalize your experience for unprecedented coverage of your favorite teams. Create up to 10 brackets in ESPN Tournament Challenge and compete against your family, friends, co-workers as well as ESPN celebrities.

Adobe CTO Lynch joins Apple

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CNBC reporter Jon Fortt posted the message on his Twitter account. Lynch will be the VP of Technology.

Leaving Feedburner, please change your RSS link

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Google is shutting down most of its good services for publishers like Feedburner and Google Reader, so I need to make a change at The Loop. If you are using The Loop’s Feedburner link in your RSS reeder, could you please change it to this one ASAP.

http://www.loopinsight.com/feed/

I will be shutting off the Feedburner link in the near future. Thanks for understanding.

If you are a member of The Loop, keep using your existing link, I’ll be in touch with more info on that later.

This is what pisses me off about Google Reader

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Khoi Vinh:

It’s a decision that has infuriated many, partly because when the company launched Google Reader in 2005, its free price tag undercut and then virtually destroyed the market for competitive products.

Soon enough, Google Reader had become a de facto industry standard, even as it became more and more apparent over the years that the company cared little for the market that it had come to own.

Assholes.

Squarespace [Sponsor]

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Squarespace is a beautiful and intuitive website publishing platform that allows anyone to easily create professional web pages, blogs, and galleries all in one place.

Simply start with one of Squarespace’s award-winning designs, add images and content, connect your social accounts, and you’ll have a website that looks great on every device.

All Squarespace accounts come with award-winning 24/7 support, as well as cloud hosting, real-time analytics, and a free domain.

Whether you’re a creative professional, business owner, or blogger, Squarespace makes it easy to bring your ideas to life.

Start your website for free today at Squarespace.com.

Samsung is working on a watch

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“We’ve been preparing the watch product for so long,” Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung’s mobile business, said during an interview in Seoul. “We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them.”

In other words, ever since they heard Apple may be working on one.