This is a great piece from Adam Lashinsky. Take a minute and read it.

Being in San Francisco for WWDC is getting expensive. Really expensive. For many people airfare + hotel in 2016 will cost twice as much as it did in 2014: upwards of $2,000 USD. That’s more than the price of getting into the event itself (assuming you’re lucky enough to win a ticket)! Already tons of our friends have said they have to skip this year and might not be back.

But it’s OK: the iOS and Mac community isn’t limited to San Francisco once a year.

The high cost of hotels, etc. certainly isn’t Apple’s fault, but it’s nice to see some of the independent conferences come together and offer users an alternative.

You can see Apple’s full list of supported banks and countries. I love Apple Pay.

Europe’s antitrust chief is expected to hit Google on Wednesday with anti-competitive charges concerning its Android mobile phone operating system, two people familiar with the matter said.

Google is already in a battle with the EU over promoting its shopping service in search results.

The 100th annual Pulitzer Prizes were handed out on Monday, bringing honors to the AP for a series that freed thousands of slaves, a Washington Post database that tracked the number of deadly police shootings in the U.S., and a hip hop Broadway musical about Alexander Hamilton.

In addition to launching its WWDC Web site on Monday, Apple also launched a new part of its site dedicated to helping developers get on the App Store.

The App Store makes it simple for users around the world to discover, download and enjoy your apps. Grow your business with resources designed to help you create great apps and reach more users.

There is just so much I could say about the App Store, but I won’t right now. Another time.

The opportunity to buy tickets to this year’s conference will be offered by random selection. Register now through Friday, April 22 at 10:00 a.m. PDT for your chance to attend. We will let you know your status by Monday, April 25, 5:00 p.m. PDT.

Go!

Whether true or not, this is a fascinating read. I’m convinced that it’s something Apple is at least looking into.

Nothing official from Apple, but this is what Siri says. [Via 9to5Mac]

Bill Campbell — who garnered the name “The Coach” for the sage advice and counsel he gave numerous tech leaders from Apple’s Steve Jobs to Google’s Larry Page to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — has died.

My condolences to his family and friends.

Angus Young joined Guns N’ Roses on stage for a couple of songs over the weekend.

“The government has utterly failed to demonstrate that the requested order is necessary to effectuate the search warrant, including that it exhausted all other avenues for recovering the information it seeks,’’ Apple argued in the new filing to U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie. “Before the government demands that Apple do the work of law enforcement, the government must offer evidence that it has performed an ‘exhaustive search’ and that it remains unable to obtain the data it seeks without Apple’s assistance.”

I used the hell out of iTunes allowances, but Family Sharing is a great way to share content.

My thanks to MacScan for sponsoring The Loop this week.

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MacGameStore.com today announced the release of an exciting “Pay What You Want” bundle to celebrate great Indie games. We’re also thrilled to announce that 10% of the proceeds from the sale of the bundle will go to “Stand Up To Cancer”, a groundbreaking initiative created to accelerate innovative cancer research that will get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives now.

If you beat the average price, you get even more games. The average price right now is just over $5.00.

The company that helped the FBI unlock a San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone to get data has sole legal ownership of the method, making it highly unlikely the technique will be disclosed by the government to Apple or any other entity, Obama administration sources said this week.

Not a big surprise. The government doesn’t want Apple to fix the exploit, but there is no doubt Apple is working very hard to close it.

Apple Inc. has constructed a secret team to explore changes to the App Store, including a new strategy for charging developers to have their apps more prominently displayed, according to people familiar with the plans.

Among the ideas being pursued, Apple is considering paid search, a Google-like model in which companies would pay to have their app shown at the top of search results based on what a customer is seeking. For instance, a game developer could pay to have its program shown when somebody looks for “football game,” “word puzzle” or “blackjack.”

I’ll be honest, this seems like a very un-Apple thing to do. This will only widen the gap of small developers having any chance of being fairly featured on the App Store, and that gap is pretty large already.

U.S. federal, state and local government agencies rank in last place in cyber security when compared against 17 major private industries, including transportation, retail and healthcare, according to a new report released Thursday.

No reason to be concerned, right?

Apple Inc and the FBI will return to Congress next week to testify before lawmakers about their heated disagreement over law enforcement access to encrypted devices, a congressional committee announced on Thursday.

We knew it wasn’t over.

Apple teamed up with 25 developers to donate the profits of their apps to WWF until April 24.

Sure, your browser can download. But does it let you easily accelerate downloads, limit bandwidth, download on a schedule, or execute rules to sort incoming downloaded files? Doubt it. And clearly, you’re not going to be able to quit that RAM-consuming monster of a browser until all your downloads are done.

I like the folks at Many Tricks. I think they make good software.

A core member of Apple’s elite industrial design team for more than 20 years, Mr. Coster is credited for his contributions to a wide range of now iconic consumer electronics ranging from the iPhone 4 to the iPad wireless keyboard. He holds more than 500 design patents and several utility patents, and has been recognized by several international design organizations for his work.

I’m always interested to see how Apple designers do outside the Apple ecosystem.

Amazon says it’s the thinnest and lightest Kindle ever. They also say it has the longest Kindle battery life–the included leather charging cover boosts battery to last months.

Cellebrite Mobile Synchronization Ltd., the forensics unit of a little-known Japanese pinball company, is fast becoming the go-to guys when law enforcement needs to unlock smartphones. Its group chief executive officer has plans to keep the firm on the frontlines against terrorism.

Not a big surprise they have some of the world’s biggest law enforcement agencies as clients.

Interesting move for Logitech.

I really dislike Yngwie. Probably why I love this video so much.

Juli Clover:

Teen interest in Apple’s iPhone continues to grow, according to data gathered by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster in the latest semiannual teen survey. 69 percent of teens surveyed own iPhones, up from 67 percent in the Fall 2015 survey. 75 percent of teens queried expect their next device to be an iPhone, up one percent from the previous survey.

This is very important. These are the people that Apple is relying on to purchase the iPhones of the future.

I’m always impressed with the things people can do with CSS.

110 years ago next week, on April 18, 1906, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake centered near the city of San Francisco struck at 5:15 AM. The intense shaking toppled hundreds of buildings, but the resulting out-of-control fires were even more destructive.

Devastating.

[Via Kottke]

Smile made some adjustments to its upgrade plans and pricing.