Gruber vs. Lyons

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Really? This is where Dan Lyons wants to go? That Samsung doesn’t copy Apple? That “Apple fanboys” simply claim that they do as a knee-jerk response to Samsung’s undeniable success in the smartphone market?

It’s not even a fair fight.

Kodak sues Apple, HTC

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Kodak claims Apple’s iPhones, iPads, and iPods, and some of HTC’s smartphones and tablets use Kodak patents for transmitting images. Kodak is seeking to prevent further patent infringement from Apple and HTC as well as compensation.

Kodak is on its last leg.

Ferraris and Fords

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The consumer electronics market in 2012 can be easily summed up as Ferraris and Fords. Apple, of course, is the Ferrari of the tech market, while the competition is the Ford.

I’m not talking about speed, but rather the outlook on similar markets. […]

Charvel introduces the Desolation Series

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Charvel is proud to announce the return of two classic body shapes, both in sleekly modern Desolation series form. New Desolation DST and DX guitars offer a variety of features and finishes prized by discerning players everywhere, and both deadly models deliver the devastating tone, killer looks and high-performance playability that separate the Desolation series from all others.

I have 16 guitars, but sadly not one of them are a Charvel. I’ve always wanted one of these.

Market share and developers

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There’s no question in my mind that the most appealing thing about Android as a platform is its overall market share. The more Android devices that are out there, in use, the more appealing the platform is for developers. But to think that market share alone is a primary motivation for all or even most of the developers who’ve turned the iOS App Store into a phenomenon is to miss the forest for the trees.

Bingo!

BBEdit 10.1.1

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The BBEdit 10.1.1 update includes improvements to the recently introduced Open File By Name feature, enhancements to projects, and contains fixes for reported issues in this award-winning HTML and text editor.

I’ve been using BBEdit since about 1996. Love it.

Google’s nuclear bullshit

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MG Siegler on what he hates about Android:

But I cannot respect their decision to continue to work on this platform that perpetuates our imprisonment. I have to believe most simply chose not to think about these things. But they should. They really should.

MG goes through some of the history of Android and why he really dislikes some of the things that Google does.

CES is a parade of Apple ripoffs

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Daniel Ionescu:

Apple is not taking part in the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas but is present at the trade show through rip-offs of its products. From MacBook Air-inspired ultrabooks, to iPad-like tablets, smart TVs, and cloud computing technology, you will find clones of Apple’s product lineup at CES 2012—and this is just a taste of what’s coming up at the show this week.

If there is any doubt about how much influence Apple has in the industry, this should put it to rest.

Definition of a tech migraine

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That pain execs at HTC, Samsung, Google and RIM get when Apple announces a new product or initiative.

These are things they don’t want to blatantly copy, but because they want to keep up with Apple, they blatantly copy them anyway.

52Tiger.net membership

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Dave Caolo over at 52Tiger.net opened up memberships on his site today. I really like Dave’s writing and already signed up for my membership.

Apple didn’t invent ______, but Apple made it better

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Every time you mention the fact that another loser competitor copied Apple, you always get the argument that “Apple didn’t invent that.” That may be true, but let’s look at some of the things that Apple didn’t invent, but made better. […]

Fender Squier Vintage Modified Series

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New to the series is the Vintage Modified ’70s Stratocaster, a sweet-looking model that delivers the distinctive look of the 1970s workhorse Fender guitars. Available in all-Black maple-fingerboard and Vintage White rosewood-fingerboard, both models feature a large headstock, vintage-tint gloss neck and black plastic parts typical of that era.

The Squier line of guitars are typically less expensive than the Fender guitars, but I’ve had a Squier Strat since 1985 and love it. Being less expensive doesn’t mean it’s cheap.

Acer commits most blatant ripoff of Apple yet

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Acer came up with a good idea. Let’s put pics, documents and media in the cloud and make them available to all of your devices… oh wait, that’s called iCloud. No matter, we’ll just steal the idea and call it AcerCloud. Oh and to save time, we might as well steal Apple’s presentation slide too […]

BBEdit 10

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Thanks to Bare Bones Software and BBEdit 10 for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed on The Loop.

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!

Apple Asia’s Lunar New Year sales

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Apple Asia’s one-day Lunar New Year sales event has begun in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and Thailand. According to YJ, who sent me the info from Singapore, this sale is like the annual Thanksgiving sale in the U.S.

Avast!

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Joshua Schnell:

In an article about Apple’s attempts to thwart piracy on the internet, Grant apparently made the mistake of starting his post off with, “Avast! Apptrackr, a repository for cracked iOS apps, is under attack from Apple’s legal team.” For those not schooled in grammar-fu, the word literally means stop, cease. Apparently our usage of the word avast has incensed the Avast AntiVirus team so much that they’ve taken to tracking down our writer and tossing obscenities at him on his personal blog, as well as badgering him in his email inbox.

Wow, that’s pathetic.

RIM may license BlackBerry software to Samsung, HTC

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Research In Motion is reportedly working toward a major transition that will see the company begin licensing its BlackBerry software to third-party vendors including Samsung and HTC.

Great, now nobody but iPhone users will be able to send email.

If Apple Made An iBeard…

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Build-A-Beard:

… it would look like Jim Dalrymple’s. The editor-in-chief of The Loop has been writing about Apple for more than 17 years, but growing his 15″ beard since 2007. You must be somebody pretty special if Steve Jobs once recognized you (with or without facial hair). BaB had the esteemed privilege to speak with Jim about how his beard “kind of snuck up on him and took over his life,” the craziest moment he’s had playing with another serious bearded professional, what his beard likes to drink, and the best conference to attend for true facial hair scouting.

I had a lot of fun doing this interview.

Moron Kanye West says he’s the next Steve Jobs

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Donda will “pick up where Steve Jobs left off,” West said of the late, visionary Apple founder. With 22 divisions of writers, DJs, publicists, designers, musicians, scientists and much more, the company will strive to “make products and experiences that people want and can afford,” West said, “to help simplify and aesthetically improve everything we see hear, touch, taste and feel,” and “dream of, create, advertise and produce products driven equally by emotional want and utilitarian need.. To marry our wants and needs.”

Kayne West is a moron if he thinks that he is anything like Steve Jobs. His name shouldn’t even be used in the same sentence as Steve Jobs. Idiot.

[Via Macgasm]

Build your own Canadian stereotype

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Canada has long enjoyed its reputation of being one of the friendliest and drunkest of nations on earth. However, somewhere in between the gestures of kindness and brewing the best known beer to mankind, we’ve managed to do some great things.

I laughed out loud.

Letterpress business cards

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Just before the holidays I decided to order new business cards, but instead of the traditional type of cards, I went for something a little different. I wanted letterpress business cards. I contacted Evan Calkins at Hoban Press and he did them for me. I’m really impressed with the quality of the work, the price and how fast Evan was able to get them to me.

If you need some letterpress work done, I highly recommend contacting Evan.

Comments and MacStories

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In consideration of the reader, how we want the site to look, and due to the amount of time we can spend keeping an eye of this stuff, we will be removing comments from the next iteration of MacStories. And yes, it’s the nuclear option for keeping the site clean. Removing comments also means that we’re doing an incredible disservice for the readers who’ve already left great comments, and we hate having to remove those from the discussion. Decisions like this are tough because we have to do what’s best for us while minding our reader’s thoughts.

Not a surprise really. This seems to be the way more sites are moving these days. I’ve said before that I find more people communicate using Twitter than comments these days.