Gmail on iOS Notification Center support

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Our team has been working hard to bring your most-requested features to the Gmail app for iOS. Today, we’re excited to add three new improvements to that list of updates: full notification center support, the ability to send messages from your alternate email addresses and an improved login experience.

Retina profits

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Rags Srinivasan:

If Apple sees no change in total number of units sold from the current quarter, this ASP bump will still result in a minimum additional profit of $200 million. If you include net new purchases and higher percentage up-sells, this number could easily become $1 billion in additional profit.

Apple washing machine

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A good bit of humor on a Monday. I especially like the “Find My Socks” feature.

RIM as two companies

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The report mentions Facebook and Amazon as potential buyers, but on Sunday several people close to RIM dismissed the news as “a silly fantasy,” and “one of the most ridiculous ideas I have heard in a while.”

The Globe and Mail’s headline says that “RIM dismisses report of splitting firm in two,” but that’s not actually true. It’s unnamed sources that said that.

So if they’re not going to split the company, how about just shutting it down.

Google kills its Mac blog

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Our Mac and iOS support has now become so mainstream that we realized we just don’t need to keep Mac news on its own blog, so we won’t be posting here any longer.

Ethically challenged

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David Roth:

I would argue that, in many instances, the record companies’ desire to force people to buy (or rent) music in a way that contradicts their desires as consumers “justifies” (in the users’ minds) the continued stealing.

Great post.

Google to launch cloud services platform

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Om Malik:

Google is very likely to launch a cloud services platform at its annual developer conference, Google I/O next week in San Francisco. It was one of the topics of discussion in the hallways of our Structure 2012 conference. We have since confirmed with multiple sources who are familiar with Google’s plans which include a more comprehensive offering that its current app engine and storage offerings.

This will be very interesting.

Sidecar

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Many thanks to Sidecar.me for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week.

Sidecar re-imagines the traditional phone call for your smartphone.

Sidecar lets you call and share:

  • See What I See Video: Share amazing real-time videos.

  • Photos: Snap brilliant pictures, or share photos from the phone’s gallery.

  • Locations: See where you are in relation to others, and share locations.

  • Contact: Information: Pass along and integrate contacts from their phone’s address book.

  • Whisper Text: Send a private text message to another Sidecar user during a call.

And the price is unbeatable:

  • Sidecar users can call each other anywhere in the world for free

  • Sidecar users can call regular phones numbers in the US or Canada for free over Wi-Fi.

Download the app for free in the App Store:

Nick Bilton responds to criticism

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Nick Bilton:

Why? Well, I didn’t knock their baby teeth out, that’s for sure. Instead, I said something slightly negative about an Apple product.

First of all, when you title your follow-up article “When Apple Fanboys Attack,” you’re probably going to get some shit. […]

App Store reviews

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Matthew Panzarino:

By a huge margin, the number one request by these developers was for Apple to allow them to respond directly to reviews on the App Store.

I agree.

More CNET ‘Hands on’ trickery

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It looks like CNET has done it again — or is at least trying. In it’s latest “Hands On” a CNET reporter films a video while a Microsoft employee flips through the start screen on a Windows phone. So someone had their hands on the device, just not CNET. […]

TabToolkit for iOS now has a Tab Store

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TabToolkit now includes a Tab Store right inside the app, with instant access to hundreds of officially licensed, full-score transcriptions with complete notation for each guitar, bass, drum, and keyboard part, as well as vocal tracks with lyrics.

I’ve been using TabToolkit since it was first released. Love this app.

The Surface and the iPad

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My latest Techpinions column looking at Microsoft’s Surface strategy compared to Apple’s:

From what I’ve seen, it seems to me that Microsoft is trying to do a similar type of dance with the Surface that it did with previous tablets. The company is trying to convince consumers that this device can be a computer and a tablet at the same time. Based on the sales of the iPad, I’m not sure that’s what consumers really want.

Android app can steal credit card data

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The app, dubbed paycardreader, will skim card numbers and expiry dates, along with transactions and merchant IDs, and was successfully tested against a German PayPass Mastercard.

A big pile of steaming Nick Bilton shit

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Nick Bilton for The New York Times:

The iPad, for all its glory, suffers from one very distinct flaw: It’s very difficult to use for creation. The keyboard on the screen, although pretty to look at, is abysmal for typing anything over 140 characters. There isn’t a built-in pen for note-taking, either. Of course all of this is intentional by Apple. Although there are hundreds of third party products available, Apple doesn’t seem to want the iPad to be a creator, but more of a consumer.

Really Nick, you can’t create things on the iPad? What about the musicians who record songs and albums, the artists that make amazing digital paintings, the authors who write books, or the millions of consumers who create memories with movies and photographs.

You lost some credibility with that one Nick.

Ballmer

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Ben Brooks:

Today, Ballmer is bailing water out of the ship. I don’t know if he can bail fast enough to right the ship, but I do know that I am willing to give him a chance to do that.

AmpliTube 2.5 for iPhone and iPad

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AmpliTube 2.5 is a major update that offers the newly released AmpliTube Slash gear model integration, MIDI and digital audio support, a redesigned recorder and mixer section, audio copy/paste, Retina display graphic updates and much more.

I downloaded it, but haven’t had a chance to try it out yet.

Amplified: A kickstand on everything I own

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Jim and Dan continue their conversation about the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display. They also offer perspective on Microsoft’s Surface announcement, purchasing music, page views, proper attribution, guitars, and more.Sponsored by Harvest, and Squarespace.

RIM layoffs

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Rose Simone:

RIM spokesperson Tenille Kennedy confirmed on Tuesday that RIM has reduced some positions as part of its cutback program, “and may continue to do so as the company methodically works through a review of the business.”

I hate seeing people lose their jobs because executives mismanaged the company.

3D printed guitar bodies

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Anthony Doesburg:

Diegel is an exponent of 3D printing. His zany guitar bodies are created using computer-aided design (CAD) software, output in one piece on an EOS 3D printer. This is the new world of additive manufacturing.

Part of a guitars tone comes from the woods used in the guitar. I’m not sure how this would sound.

Educating an NPR intern about stealing music

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David Lowery at The Trichordist aims to educate Emily White, an NPR intern who admits to buying only 15 CDs in her life, but has 11,000 songs in her library. Lowery says he doesn’t want to embarrass or shame her, but I think she should be horrified at what she’s done.