The return of Mosspuppet

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There is a kickstarter-like page for people to donate to have Mosspuppet come out of retirement. He’s a funny little man.

A kickstand for the beard

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Justin Michael made this incredible illustration after I joked on Amplified 12 that I wanted a kickstand on everything I owned.

Google vs everyone

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Om Malik:

However, when you stand back from all the announcements made by Google today and increase the periphery, you start to notice that this is a company that is fighting a lot of battles on many fronts. In some places it is winning, but most places it is trench warfare.

Killing a wildly successful product

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Michael Lopp:

One of my favorite Apple product announcements happened on September 7, 2005. In an Apple music event announcement, Steve Jobs got on stage, gave the usual state of the business update, and then he did something I’d never seen before. He killed a wildly successful product.

I often use this as an example of how Apple beat its competition and drove them crazy. Who would kill a product as successful as the iPod mini? Steve Jobs would.

Amplified: Uncle Tim’s lunch money

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Jim and Dan discuss the Podcasts app for iOS and the implications it has for both existing podcast applications as well as for podcasting as a whole, Sirius and the Google TV, Epic games success on iOS, when Apple fanboys attack, Orbitz, the Retina MacBook Pro’s financial affect on Apple, and more. Jim also offers his advice for getting back into the guitar by practicing Megadeth.Sponsored by Shopify (use code 5BY5 for 3 months free), Igloo Software (they’re giving away an Aeropress to a B&A listener), and MailChimp’s new Mandrill email service.

iOS crushes Android in app retention

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According to a new report from Localytics, app retention is increasing in the mobile market as developers move away from focusing just on downloads. The report says that the iPhone and iPad is crushing Android in app retention. […]

Preparing to relearn Megadeth songs

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There was a time when I could play a lot of Megadeth songs without even thinking about it, but if you don’t keep it up, eventually you lose your edge. It happens to all us — life gets in the way sometimes. […]

Apple releases Podcasts app for iOS

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Podcasts app is the easiest way to discover, subscribe to and play your favorite podcasts on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Explore hundreds of thousands of free audio and video podcasts from the Podcasts Catalog, and play the most popular podcasts, organized for you by topic, with the all-new Top Stations feature.

Business BMX DVD premieres Friday

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Byron Kutchera and Ian Fleming (my daughter’s longtime boyfriend) are premiering their DVD this Friday. They are having a Facebook event as well. Very talented guys.

Dystopia

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Kyle Baxter on building products to last:

The issue is that the computing industry, and especially the mobile computing industry, are developing very quickly, so hardware and software that’s as good as it gets today simply won’t be in a year’s time.

Good point.

Woz defends MegaUpload’s Kim DotCom

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Karen Haslam:

Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak has spoken out about his recent visit to the founder of MegaUpload, who is currently under house arrest. Woz accused the US government of a “poorly thought out attempt to extradite” MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom, with prosecutors “attempting to take advantage of loopholes.”

Google tries to ban U.S. imports of iPhone, iPad

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The U.S. International Trade Commission said it will review ITC Judge Thomas Pender’s findings that Apple was violating one Motorola Mobility patent. The commission is scheduled to issue a final decision on Aug. 24, and has the power to block devices made in Asia from entering the U.S. The iPhone, iPad and related devices generate 78 percent of Apple’s revenue.

Indev email tools [sponsor]

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Indev is proud to sponsor Loop Insight this week. Indev is the leading developer of plugins for Apple Mail Application. Mail Act-On, MailTags and Mail Perspectives transforms Mail.app into a email powerhouse and gives users the ability to process, organize and monitor their email more effectively and efficiently.Use Mail Act-On to create sophisticated rule workflows to automate actions and process email with keystrokes. Use MailTags to add meaningful metadata, including keywords, importance, projects and dates, to your messages and create a flexible email organization system. Use Mail Perspectives to create compact windows for your messages to monitor the contents of your mailboxes and smart mailboxes at a glance.MailTags 3, Mail Act-On 2 and Mail Perspectives are all compatible with OS X 10.7 and will soon be compatible with OS X 10.8. Loopinsight readers gain a 15% discount on all Indev products when they use the coupon code LOOP when ordering from Indev’s secure store.

RIM stock falls 7 percent

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The stock closed at $9.11 on the Nasdaq. The 7.6 percent fall is its steepest since late May, when it said it expected to report an operating loss for its fiscal first quarter and said it had hired investment bankers as part of a strategic review.

SHOOT IT ALREADY!

Peter Ha came so close

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I just finished reading TechCrunch Managing Editor Peter Ha’s “The Future Of Microsoft Is Sunny With A Chance Of Thunderstorms,” which is his take on the Microsoft Surface announcement. I wanted to reach out and strangle him when he said the iPad is a consumption, not a creation device though.

Overall, this is probably the most balanced article I’ve read on the subject.