Apple has climbed 50 percent from lows in the first half of last year and is up 15 percent so far in 2017. It was still short of its all-time intraday high of $134.54, set on April 28, 2015.

Impressive.

For anyone familiar with Kurstin’s track record, his hand in Adele’s repeat success was no surprise. A multi–Grammy Award nominee, Kurstin is known in the industry as an “artist whisperer” who brings out the best in performers like Sia, Beck, Katy Perry, Foster the People, and many more. He does it by bringing a unique set of producing skills to his sessions — world-class ability as an instrumentalist, deep understanding of music and song structure, and a highly effective writing and producing process that runs through Logic Pro X.

It is truly amazing what talented people can do when they get together to write music.

Thanks to Daylite for sponsoring The Loop this week. If you’re struggling to juggle business coming in while managing current projects, then Daylite is a tool you definitely want to check out.

If you need to be able to share client and project information, delegate tasks, share calendars and emails, and track projects – Daylite can help you do this all in one app.

Daylite is used by lawyers, consultants, real estate agents, photographers, designers, and other small businesses all over the world. It helps you organize and share information so you save time and get more done.

The best part about Daylite is it’s not a web app, so you can keep working even when you don’t have an Internet connection.

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Tim getting a tour by curator Chris Stephens to see a retrospective on David Hockney’s work on iPad and iPhone.

If the music industry is indeed in turnaround, that’s in no small part due to the digital disrupter at No. 1, the live titan at No. 3, Alexa’s mastermind at No. 12 and the visionary label bosses, tech gurus, artist managers and media moguls (including 41 first-timers!) who comprise Billboard’s annual ranking of executive excellence.

Apple’s Eddy Cue, Jimmy Iovine, and Robert Kondrk are all tied at No. 4, while Larry Jackson and Bozoma Saint John are tied at No. 67.

The fire broke out not on the production line itself but in a part of the facility used for waste, including faulty batteries, said Samsung SDI spokesman Shin Yong-doo. He added that most of the factory was running as normal.

A Samsung factory fire caused by faulty batteries… Priceless.

I really do like Tim.

As much as I may disagree with Apple Music’s focus, I do agree with this.

Yet despite competition from Spotify, Jay Z’s Tidal, and others, Iovine doesn’t believe that streaming has to become a winner-take-all proposition.

“Not if streaming is done right,” he says. What “right” means is that each service is culturally different, he explains, so that each has a different feel. “Yeah, they all have the same catalog, but what we’re doing is we’re just building on top of that. That’s where the personality and the feel will come from.”

I only wish that Apple’s culture included less pandering to celebrities and more focus on the user experience, as well as including a wider variety of musicians and genres they are willing to promote. I doubt that will happen, but one can hope.

If you’re struggling to juggle business coming in while managing current projects, then Daylite is a tool you definitely want to check out.

If you need to be able to share client and project information, delegate tasks, share calendars and emails, and track projects – Daylite can help you do this all in one app.

Daylite is used by lawyers, consultants, real estate agents, photographers, designers, and other small businesses all over the world. It helps you organize and share information so you save time and get more done.

The best part about Daylite is it’s not a web app, so you can keep working even when you don’t have an Internet connection.

Try Daylite free for 30 days!

Thanks to Marketcircle for sponsoring The Loop this week.

Want to make 2017 the year you get organized and more productive? Get more done with Daylite, the business productivity app for Mac, iPhone & iPad.

Daylite organizes you and your team’s contacts, tasks, calendars, emails, notes, projects, and new business opportunities – in one app.

Small businesses that use Daylite feel more organized, save time, and accomplish more. Remember every detail about a client. Track projects and sales. Share tasks. Search for anything.

Daylite also supports Multitasking on iPad so you can work in Daylite and another app at the same time.

Try Daylite free for 30 days!

Apple on Friday released a new bundle of apps specifically for education customers. The apps include Final Cut Pro X ($299.99), Logic Pro X ($199.99), Motion 5 ($49.99), Compressor 4 ($49.99), and MainStage 3 ($29.99). Apple is selling the bundle for $199, which is quite a discount when you look at the regular price for the apps if purchased individually. […]

Apple hired former Spotify VP of Content Steve Savoca in January, an Apple spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider.

He’ll be doing the same thing for Apple that he did for Spotify — heading up label relations based out of New York, focusing on relationships with smaller, independent labels, especially internationally, Business Insider has learned.

Sounds like a good choice. Clearly Spotify did well with him doing that job.

The Newseum announced today that Apple CEO Tim Cook will receive the Newseum’s 2017 Free Expression Award in the Free Speech category. Cook, who has led Apple since August 2011, will be recognized for his leadership in creating technology that has had a profound impact on how we communicate. Further, he has used his spotlight to take a public stand on major societal issues, including racial equality, privacy, protecting the environment, access to education and LGBT rights. Cook will accept the award during a special event to be held at the Newseum on April 18, 2017.

Much respect, Tim.

The fees come into play if you continue to use the Roku in addition to your Comcast set-top box after the beta trial wraps. At that point, Comcast will treat the Roku device like any other “additional outlet.” That additional outlet incurs a $9.95 fee, minus the bring-your-own-device credit of $2.50 for using a Roku, instead of Comcast’s box. This is also how a secondary outlet that connects to Comcast’s network via a TiVo would be charged and credited.

Basically business as usual.

A U.S. jury in Texas on Wednesday ordered Facebook Inc, its virtual reality unit Oculus, and other defendants to pay a combined $500 million to ZeniMax Media Inc, a video game publisher that says Oculus stole its technology.

Ouch.

Inspired by a typewriter—I think this will certainly have its fans when released.

I had no idea there was a firmware update available for the AirPods, but I followed the instructions on TidBITS and sure enough it updated. To be clear, the way the update is done, you’ll eventually get the update, but I did it manually anyway.

Tesla Motors Inc changed its name to “Tesla Inc” as Chief Executive Elon Musk looks to transform the Silicon Valley firm from an electric car maker to a diversified energy products company.

It’s weird, I never really considered Tesla as just an automobile company. I always just referred to it as Tesla, knowing that the company had its fingers in a lot of different tech.

Apple on Tuesday reported results for its fiscal first quarter and they were really good. The company posted all-time record quarterly revenue of $78.4 billion and all-time record quarterly earnings per diluted share of $3.36. These results compare to revenue of $75.9 billion and earnings per diluted share of $3.28 in the year-ago quarter. […]

All of us know that animals respond to music (my cats Roger and Chloe love to hang with me when I mix), but are there certain genres that they like better? A new study by the University of Glasgow in conjunction with the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals found out that shelter dogs definitely had some music preferences.

My dogs loved Ozzy.

A group of technology companies plans to meet on Tuesday to discuss filing an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit challenging U.S. President Donald Trump’s order restricting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, said a spokesperson for a company organizing the gathering.

That’s some talent.

Vance Powell is a friend and an amazing audio engineer. He’s worked with some of the best artists in the music industry over the years and at NAMM, he gave a session on how he recorded a project. He goes over the mic choice and even placement of the amps. This is well worth watching.

As the Super Bowl countdown begins, Siri is gearing up for the Big Game. For the first time, Apple TV users can now ask Siri to tune in live to the Super Bowl just by saying, “Watch the Super Bowl.” Whether you’re at home, at a local sports bar or at a friend’s party, Siri is available everywhere you are and provides even more football insights including team rosters, player comparisons, historical stats, season records and more.

What a great idea by Britain’s Royal Mail.

An Argentine prosecutor asked a judge on Monday to jail local executives of ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc and a court ordered the company’s mobile application to be shut down following protests from taxi drivers’ unions.

On one night — November 5, 2016 — iPhone photographers canvassed the globe, from Arctic ice caves and Indonesian volcanoes, to the clubs of Johannesburg and rooftops of Shanghai. For the latest “Shot on iPhone” campaign, Apple enlisted a group of photographers to capture life from dusk to dawn using the low-light camera on iPhone 7. The people, sights and scenes they encountered over the course of the night resulted in a spectacular display of nighttime photography, which will be displayed in 25 countries beginning today.

Very impressive.

Want to make 2017 the year you get organized and more productive? Get more done with Daylite, the business productivity app for Mac, iPhone & iPad.

Daylite organizes you and your team’s contacts, tasks, calendars, emails, notes, projects, and new business opportunities – in one app.

Small businesses that use Daylite feel more organized, save time, and accomplish more. Remember every detail about a client. Track projects and sales. Share tasks. Search for anything.

Daylite also supports Multitasking on iPad so you can work in Daylite and another app at the same time.

Try Daylite free for 30 days!

Apple has joined the Partnership on AI as a founding member. The company has been involved and collaborating with the Partnership since before it was first announced and is thrilled to formalize its membership alongside Amazon, Facebook, Google/DeepMind, IBM, and Microsoft.

Thanks to Ingage for sponsoring The Loop this week.

A new iPad app called Ingage hit the App Store this week that lets anyone easily create and share interactive presentations, portfolios, real estate listings, product catalogs and more, without needing a designer or developer.

Simply drag and drop photos and videos into Ingage’s interactive page templates to bring your content to life. Videos become touchable product 360s, virtual walkthroughs or time lapse demonstrations. Images are layered with pop-up hotspots or scrubbable before and afters.

While you build on an iPad, the software automatically creates a responsive HTML webpage of your interactive presentation that can be viewed by anyone, on any device. Sharing is done with just a tap with an instantly formatted text message, email or social media post. Any changes to your content are instantly reflected anywhere it’s been shared.

The app is free to download from the App Store, where you can currently find it featured on the homepage under “New Apps We Love.”

Click here to download Ingage.