Apple is bringing the iTunes Store to music fans in Brunei, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
Hilarious letters from kids
The one to Uncle Bryan is funny.
Heineken’s New York offices
Where the hell is the beer?
Preparing to relearn Megadeth songs
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
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
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
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.
Apple’s magic dust
Dilbert.
Woz defends MegaUpload’s Kim DotCom
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.”
San Diego school district buys 26,000 iPads
I love seeing schools using the latest technology to teach students.
Apple store boosts sales of surrounding businesses
Sales at restaurants, stores and other outfits rose 7.5 % between December and March compared to the same time frame ending in March 2011, Nancy Marshall, director of Grand Central development at the MTA, said.
The place where apps go to be forgotten
I agree with Gruber on this.
Google tries to ban U.S. imports of iPhone, iPad
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]
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
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
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.
A little Microsoft Surface humor
I’ll admit it, I laughed.
Digitally sign documents in Preview
I’ll be honest, I had no idea you could do this.
[Via DF]
Jackson King V
I’ve never owned a V, but that looks really nice.
Glenn Fleishman reviews the new AirPort Express
Sounds to me like this is a no-brainer purchase.
Gmail on iOS Notification Center support
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
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
A good bit of humor on a Monday. I especially like the “Find My Socks” feature.
RIM as two companies
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
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.
A Parent on the iPad as a learning tool
Renena Joy talked to iPhone in Canada about how she uses the iPad as a learning tool for her daughter.
Ethically challenged
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
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
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
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. […]