PC shipments in US fall, but Apple is up

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PC shipments in the US dropped 2.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to a new report from research firm Gartner. Despite the drop in overall shipments, Apple’s market share went up. […]

Bold Poker

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Many thanks to Bold Poker for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week.

Bold Poker replaces your deck of cards with iPhones and has been praised by The Loop, Daring Fireball, and Mashable.

Try out Bold Poker at your next poker game. They’ll buy you a Heineken (i.e. give you a full refund) if the app doesn’t change your Texas hold’em home game for the better.

Video game industry meets to discuss gun violence

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Hayley Tsukayama for the Washington Post:

So on Friday, the ESA, game developers, academics and retailers met with Vice President Biden to have a deeper conversation. And — perhaps sensing their apprehension — Biden told the attendees that he came in “with no judgment” about how their products fit into the conversation about gun violence and said he was“anxious” to see what input they could provide.

I’m surprised the gaming industry agreed to this.

Samsung cancels plans for Windows RT device

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Mike Abary, the head of Samsung’s PC and tablet business in the U.S., tells CNET that the company will not be releasing its Windows RT device in the U.S. because retail partners don’t see strong demand and because the value proposition for Windows RT isn’t clear to consumers.

Ouch.

When Steve Jobs introduced Safari

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Don Melton:

Steve started the Safari presentation with, “So, buckle up.” […]

And for the entire six minutes and 32 seconds that Steve used Safari on stage, I don’t remember taking a single breath. I was thinking about that network failure during rehearsal and screaming inside my head, “Stay online, stay online!” We only had one chance to make a first impression.

What a great story.

The gadgets Wirecutter likes

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Eight Wirecutter writers and I convened at the Consumer Electronics show this week. You know, CES–The big gadget trade thing that serves as a sneak peek into the future of hardware. Instead of soaking your news feed with hundreds of posts, we spent most of our time filtering 99.99% of the stuff out. This is what’s left.

Thanks Brian and crew for filtering it down for us.

CNET bullshit

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The Dish Hopper with Sling was removed from consideration due to active litigation involving our parent company CBS Corp. We will no longer be reviewing products manufactured by companies with which we are in litigation with respect to such product.

CNET is supposed to be a news organization. News should be free from such bullshit.

AutoRip for books

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Still, AutoRip is painfully close to something I’ve found myself pining for since starting to use a Kindle e-reader: free Kindle copies of purchased physical books.

A lot of people would love that.

Ottawa Citizen praises Qualcomm keynote

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The challenge for Qualcomm was to find a way to showcase their technology and keep the keynote about them and not the products of the companies that use their technology. Not only did they pull it off, they did it in style.

Everyone in the tech industry looked at the Qualcomm keynote and said WTF? Except the Ottawa Citizen. Now you know which Canadian site to never read.

Designing the empty pages in apps

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Empty states are places in apps that have no content or data. They are empty. A blank page. Traditionally empty states are overlooked as most designers focus on how best to display lots of content or data.

Great article. When I see an app where the empty pages have seen some attention, I’m confident that the designer has thought about the details of the app. Strangely, it’s these pages that often make you feel like the designer missed something.

If Apple was more like Samsung

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While Apple released one new iPhone last year, Samsung let loose a whopping 37 different phone variations. (For those keeping score, HTC released 18, Nokia introduced nine, and LG launched 24.) Certainly good hardware design played a role in Samsung’s healthy sales. But it also didn’t hurt that the company flooded the market.

Apple puts all of its efforts into making one great product for users. Clearly everyone else is just throwing as much at the market as they can.

Scarbee Rickenbacker Bass

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Scarbee Rickenbacker Bass captures the unmistakable sound of a Rickenbacker 4003 for the first time in software. Delivering meaty, low end thunder and the crisp, defined midrange that has shaped rock and pop history, Rickenbacker BASS is the first software instrument to be officially approved by Rickenbacker.

Sounds good.

Amplified: Burrito, Hoagie, iPhone

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Jim and Dan discuss people’s expectations of Apple now and in the future and the top stories coming from Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

Sponsored by Hover (use code DANSENTME for 10% off), Harvest (use code 5BY5 for 50% off), and Lynda.

Man up

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I agree with Michael. If you do a review, don’t waste your readers time.

Apple moves to stop App Store scammers

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This small but important update shuts down a widely used scam tactic, where developers would upload game screenshots to get an app approved by Apple and then switch them out with screenshots from another popular app.

Great move by Apple.

Kickstarter in 2012

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The company put together a little slideshow of the high points from last year. Some fascinating numbers.

Website usability tests

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In one of the first usability tests I ever did, I met a lovely old lady who could not use a mouse. She kept lifting it in the air and pointing at the screen, speaking words of encouragement to the cursor. At the end of the test I got absolutely nothing, but she did think I was a “lovely boy” who should meet her granddaughter. Very quickly I learned the value of setting very clear criteria for participant recruitment.

That’s classic. Thankfully Damian Rees offers some tips to improve your results.