One announcement away from destroying the Nexus

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Abdel Ibrahim:

But unfortunately for Amazon and Google, as good as their impending tablets are shaping up to be, Apple’s got something up its sleeve, too.

I agree with Abdel on Google, but not as much with Amazon. When Apple releases its smaller iPad, all tablet manufacturers are going to feel the heat — there is no doubt in my mind about that. However, I believe people purchase the Amazon products for a different reason. They buy into the Kindle brand as opposed to just purchasing a tablet. While some people may choose to buy the smaller iPad, many will continue to buy the Kindle because it does the one thing they really want from it — read books.

Canadian weather

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I mentioned Canadian weather on Amplified the other day, which lead Dan Ruswick to make this funny page.

Christianity isn’t the only religion?

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It’s an honest mistake, assuming that the Constitution only protects your own personal megachurch faith. But one Louisiana Republican is learning the hard way that religious school vouchers can be used to fund education at all sorts of religious schools, even Muslim ones. And while she’s totally in favor of taxpayer money being used to pay for kids to go to Christian schools, she’s willing to put a stop to the entire program if Muslim schools are going to be involved.

Hate

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Erin Gloria Ryan:

Obscene images, hate sites and a game where people are invited to beat you up have been inflicted on Anita Sarkeesian.

Just terrible.

The bullshit story of the week

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There’s a a lot of shit stories out there, but a site called “Trusted Reviews” outdid everyone. They actually did a comparison between the Microsoft Surface and the iPad to see which one was better.

How in the sweet hell do you compare a product that isn’t on the market, nobody has touched and we don’t know the full specs or even price.

Bullshit.

Who wrote this shit?

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New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg talking about his speech at Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. […]

Marketcircle Daylite 4

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I’d like to thank Marketcircle for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week.

Marketcircle develops award winning business apps for the Mac, iPhone & iPad. Makers of Billings Pro & the totally redesigned Daylite 4.

Billings Pro is a time tracking & invoicing application for the Mac & iPhone that’s perfect for freelancers, lawyers, designers and more.

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Learn more and download your free trial at Marketcircle.

Def Leppard will re-record hits to spite record company

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“Our contract is such that they can’t do anything with our music without our permission, not a thing. So we just sent them a letter saying, ‘No matter what you want, you are going to get “no” as an answer, so don’t ask.’ That’s the way we’ve left it. We’ll just replace our back catalog with brand new, exact same versions of what we did.”

The band doesn’t like the way the record company is paying them (or not paying them) for digital downloads, so they will re-record and bypass the company altogether.

The stylus

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I have mercilessly ridiculed products like the Samsung Galaxy Note and the Microsoft Surface for including a stylus. Here’s why. […]

Malware hits the App Store

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Antivirus researchers at Kaspersky say they’ve spotted an app known as “Find and Call” in both the iPhone App Store and Google’s Play market that secretly uploads all of a user’s contacts to a remote server and then sends text message and email spam to every number and email address listed in his or her phonebook.

I hate Malware. I wonder if Apple will change the way it does app reviews now that someone found a way to get through the walled garden?

Ballmer: ‘Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy!’

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Here’s what he told an engineer who left for Google in 2004, after hurling a chair:“Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy!” Ballmer yelled, according to the court document. “I’m going to fucking bury that guy! I have done it before and I will do it again. I’m going to fucking kill Google.”

Checkmark for iPhone

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Reminders — when and where you want them.

The app is coming soon and I’m excited to see it.

Bill Gates is wrong

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From my latest column on Techpinions:

By trying to combine what people do on their PC with what they want to do on a tablet, Microsoft feels it is offering the best of both worlds.The problem with that, as I’ve said before, is that people interact differently with a PC than they do a computer. So, in reality, you don’t get the best of both worlds, but rather a mishmash of each.

Amplified 14: Kids Steal Everything

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This week, Dan and Jim tackle the latest rumors of a 7″ iPad. They also compare RIM’s BlackBerry 10 transition to Apple’s shift to Intel processors, and more.Sponsored by Zoompf, Sifter Stickers, and Dark Sky.

Corrupt App Store binaries

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An explanation from Marco Arment about what happened to his Instapaper update for iOS last night. After downloading the update, the app would just crash on launch.

Music making on the iPad

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Lukas Hermann has quite an in-depth piece on MacStories today about music apps for the iPad. I’ll be honest — I skipped the discovery content and moved right into what he had to say about creation. I agree with his choice of apps, although I would have added the Apogee JAM to the list of hardware devices.

Definitely a worthwhile read.

Customer service counts

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When will retailers learn that future purchases rely heavily on how we’re treated now?

Ferrari designer dies at 85

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Born in 1926 near Turin in the industrial north of the country, Pininfarina worked with top carmakers during his long career, designing the Ferrari Testarossa, Fiat 124 Spider and Maserati GranTurismo, among others.

There’s a lot of design talent in one man.

Bill Gates says Apple may need a Surface-like device

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Chris Matyszczyk, CNET:

Gates began by being circumspect, saying that the market hadn’t declared this was what it wanted yet, but he said that the idea of Apple having to create a Surface-like device was “a strong possibility.”“This is a seminal event,” he declared.

Um… no.

Apple’s evolving products

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Rene Ritchie:

One of the worst things a company can ever do is mistake their products for their business. Products come and go. If you mistake your product for your business, when — inevitably — that product goes, your business goes with it.

Apple evolves its products as technology allows, giving users a new way to do things. Other companies try desperately to hold on to a successful product and milk it for all its worth. Consumers are becoming more educated and see stunts like that for what they are.

PCalc for iPhone and iPad

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The most common request we’ve had over the years is for editable user constants, so they’re now available. Not only can you create and export your own categories of constants, but they will sync automatically to all your devices via iCloud.

Another great update from James Thomson.