A tour of the Fender Custom Shop

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I spent my first full day of the NAMM music show with friends from Fender at the company’s new visitor center and custom shop in California. […]

Yamaha introduces the THR compact guitar amp

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THR is designed to fit where, when, and how you play when you’re not on stage. With big amp response, incredible effects, and hi-fi stereo sound in a package that’s built to meet all of your off-stage needs, you’re about to begin a new chapter in your playing.

They demoed this for me this morning and it had a great sound. I want one of these.

AmpKit LiNK HD guitar interface for iPhone, iPad and Mac

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AmpKit LiNK HD is based on USB digital audio technology, providing high fidelity while eliminating crosstalk and feedback. It’s perfect for AmpKit’s authentic high gain amps.

Some nice features on the LiNK HD. AmpKit is my goto amp software on the iPhone and iPad, so I’ll be interested to see how this interface does. I’m expecting good things though.

Review: Apogee Duet 2

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Apogee updated its $595 Duet audio interface for the Mac, switching from FireWire to USB and updating the interface, while keeping all of the things that made the device a favorite among musicians. […]

Reflecting

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Alex Brooks:

The site I want to read doesn’t churn out the same news and rumours that thousands of other sites have, the site I want to read doesn’t post fanatical rumours from idiotic sources. To make matters worse this churn effect often comes with a form of chinese whispers, led mainly by eccentric, traffic seeking asshole bloggers who are unable to distinguish fact and fiction, unable to pick up the phone to a public relations team to check a detail or more unbelievably spend the time to produce something thoughtful.

Good luck with the changes.

BBEdit [Sponsor]

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For the third straight week, Bare Bones Software is sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed. Thanks for the support!

BBEdit 10 from Bare Bones Software — The leading professional HTML and text editor for the Mac just keeps getting better, with more than one hundred new features. Download the demo and see for yourself!

Guitar Apprentice

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The “real” Guitar Apprentice takes hit guitar songs and breaks them down into 15 different levels of playing. From the very start, the user is playing great guitar songs with a full band, supplying only a chord or two at first. The user can then work on songs at any desired speed and when it is completed will be playing 100% of the song – including solos. At every level, Guitar Apprentice shows the user visually, exactly what and when to play at the pace he or she desires. Guitar Apprentice includes such iconic songs as “Hey Jude,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Get Back,” “Sharp Dressed Man,” “You Really Got Me,” “Shine,” “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” and many others.

I suck at games like Guitar Hero because I’m always trying to play the real chords. I’m looking forward to trying this out at NAMM next week.

Camera+ tops 6 million in sales, $5.1 million revenue

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We’ve just hit our 6 millionth sale for everyone’s favorite iPhone photo app, Camera+. It’s been a while since I’ve done a sales figures post with all the number/charts/etc. But after taking a look at Camera+ sales over time, I found it interesting to see how much they’ve increased over the past several months, with the bulk of this being attributed to the success of the iPhone 4S.The app has earned us a grand total of $5,125,844 to date.

Impressive.

Google caught poaching customers

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On all calls, the same script is followed – A Google Kenya employee calls a Mocality business and tries to deceive them into signing up for their competing product, by claiming that we are working together.

Google publicly apologized to Mocality for using their data.

Velvet Revolver reunites for one-off show in LA

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A complete Velvet Revolver – Fender signature artist Duff McKagan, Slash, Scott Weiland, Matt Sorum and Dave Kushner – got back together this week for a one-off performance in support of the “Love You Madly” event, a benefit concert for the late John O’Brien, a longtime friend of Kushner.

You can read more about the show on the official Fender blog. Here’s a video of the band from last night’s show. […]

Apple’s 2012 Supplier Responsibility Report

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Apple’s Supplier Responsibility Progress Report details our efforts to improve worker protections and factory conditions. This report also includes results from our 2011 audits.

Review: GuitarJack 2 for iPhone and iPad

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One of the great things about Apple’s iOS devices for musicians is having the ability to play and record our guitar while on the go. When the hardware and software allowing us to do this was first introduced, we gave the companies a little leeway on the quality just so we could play. […]

Dating site for Apple fans gets an iPhone app

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Diehard Mac & Apple fans often have a lot in com­mon — per­son­al­i­ties, cre­ative pro­fes­sions, a sim­i­lar sense of style and aes­thet­ics, taste, and a love for tech​nol​ogy. As Apple fans we love to hang out in cafés with our Mac­books and iPhones. Cupidtino is like that neigh­bor­hood café where the peo­ple are hip, decor is classy, con­ver­sa­tion is intel­li­gent and prices are rea­son­able. But it’s open at your con­ve­nience, folks are from around the world, and it’s less awk­ward to talk to someone.

If you’re going to meet someone with common interests, why not start off with an Apple fan.

Subtle texture use in Web design

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Line25:

Textures are used in web design to avoid the cold/fake/digital appearance of flat solid colours, to instead add an element of realism and that sense of something real.

I’m a fan of subtle textures. Some people take it too far for my tastes though.

Apple suspends iPhone sales in China

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New York Times:

Apple said in a statement that it had temporarily suspended sales of all iPhones at its five mainland China stores for the safety of customers and employees. The phones will still be offered online, through Apple’s official partner, Unicom, and at authorized resellers. The statement did not say when Apple stores would resume selling the iPhone 4S.

The crowd threw eggs at the store when it didn’t open. Who goes to buy a phone with a pocket full of eggs?

Ditching Google for Bing

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Mat Honan:

I just switched the default search engine in my browser from Google to Bing. And if you care about working efficiently, or getting the right results when you search, then maybe you should too.

The fallout continues.

Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ, Second Edition

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Join iTunes expert Kirk McElhearn as he helps you think like an iTunes power user so you can get the most out of your audio, video, and book collections in iTunes 10. You’ll also learn the best ways to transfer media to your iPad, iPhone, or iPod.

Published by Adam and Tonya Engst, and written by Kirk McElhearn. Hard to go wrong with that combination for an ebook.

Stephen Hackett interviews… me

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Stephen Hackett posted an interview that he did with me this week. If you want to know the who, what, where and why, go have a read.

RIM faithful

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Alex Knight:

I have spoken friends of mine who have been long-time Blackberry fans, and they aren’t holding their breath for any miraculous event where the company will suddenly bounce back.

This is a key point. Not even RIM’s loyal followers believe there is a chance in hell the company can recover from its embarrassing missteps over the last few years. Even at its worst times, Apple’s core customers believed in the company.

Apple stores in Target

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Mac Rumors:

Target has confirmed its plans to launch “store-within-a-store” concepts for Apple products in 25 of its stores around the United States. The announcement comes alongside a broader effort called “the Shops at Target” that will offer special focuses on certain products.

Shut the fuck up Schmidt

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John Gruber discussing Google’s search and Google Plus integration and the company’s doublespeak on the issue:

The best case scenario for Google is that Eric Schmidt, in his new role as chairman, has turned into a loose cannon who should just shut the fuck up.

Not much else to be said.