Thanks to Pad & Quill for sponsoring The Loop this week. Pad & Quill is offering beautiful wood and leather accessories for iPhone, Apple Watch and more. I have one of their Backpacks and absolutely love it! They are offering Loop readers a 10% discount on any order including the new Minneapolis made Lowry Leather Cuff and Lowry Leather Band for Apple Watch. Code: LOOP15.

Lowry Leather Band Features

• USA made leather strap for Apple Watch
• Each craftsman personally signs your strap’s interior
• Full-grain vegetable-tanned leather from Horween Tannery
• Rugged Stitching that is hand tied off
• Velvet soft suede interior finish
• 3 beautiful color options
• 25 Year Leather Warranty
• 30 Day Money Back Promise

I’ve mentioned how much I love their products before—now you can get quality cases for the iPad Pro.

There’s been a lot of talk about whether or not the iPad Pro can replace your Mac as a primary device. I think the simply answer to that question is, yes, it can. However, for me, the bigger question is do I want the iPad to replace my Mac? The answer to that question is, no.

I own a lot of Toontrack products and they are all fantastic. This company gets music creation for all genres, but especially Metal.

Brilliant.

You know how when you turn your face up into the bright sunlight, even on the coldest winter day, it can totally lift your mood? Well, that’s what our latest limited-edition, seasonal release is all about.

I love Field Notes. I’ve had them with me for years for jotting notes and doing interviews.

Dan and Jim talk about the Australian Apple Store incident, a converged iPad/Mac, the iPad Pro, setting up an iMac for guitar jams, and more.

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lynda (Visit lynda.com/thebeard to get free 10-day trial access to their 3,000+ videos)

Younity (Turn your computer into your own personal media server and access all your media from your mobile devices by visiting GetYounity.com/Amplified)

A sleepy Jim talks to Merlin talk all about the iPad Pro: Jim’s review and Merlin’s impulse purchase of it.

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Links:

• Review: iPad Pro
• iPad Pro Review: A New Canvas
• Daring Fireball: The iPad Pro
• Logitech’s iPad Pro keyboard case is relatively affordable
• The Martian Audiobook | Andy Weir | Audible.com
• The Outfield – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Black Label Society – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• The Move – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• #HeyTDR – Twitter Search

Pad & Quill is offering beautiful wood and leather accessories for iPhone, Apple Watch and more. I have one of their Backpacks and absolutely love it! They are offering Loop readers a 10% discount on any order including the new Minneapolis made Lowry Leather Cuff and Lowry Leather Band for Apple Watch. Code: LOOP15.

Lowry Leather Band Features

• USA made leather strap for Apple Watch
• Each craftsman personally signs your strap’s interior
• Full-grain vegetable-tanned leather from Horween Tannery
• Rugged Stitching that is hand tied off
• Velvet soft suede interior finish
• 3 beautiful color options
• 25 Year Leather Warranty
• 30 Day Money Back Promise

Thanks to Hullo for sponsoring The Loop this week. A hot, flat pillow can wake up even the deepest sleeper. Soft traditional pillows often collapse under the weight of your head which can cause strains in your neck and shoulders. They also retain body heat, which can make sleep hot and uncomfortable.

Have You Ever Slept on a Buckwheat Pillow?

They’re totally different than the soft spongey pillows you’re used to. A buckwheat pillow is sort of like a beanbag for your head. Their unique and firm support simply can’t be matched by traditional pillows; it will perfectly conform to your head and neck. Buckwheat pillows also allow air to move freely, preventing uncomfortable heat build up. Sleep on the cool side of the pillow all night long! Give our buckwheat pillow, Hullo™, a try for 60 nights. If it’s not for you, ship it back to us it for a full refund.

I’ve been using the iPad Pro for just over a week now and I’ll tell you, I’m more impressed than what I thought I would be. The first question I set out to solve was “who is the target market for iPad Pro?” While I thought that would be a difficult question to answer, it turned out to be quite simple. More on that later. […]

• 3D Multishape technology
• Fanless air-cooled design
• Single universal zipper port
• Organic HD Twill outer shell
• Go 10 years without a battery charge
• Compatible with large variety of third-party cases
• Unlocked, contract-free
• Preinstalled w/ SleepOS
• Three sizes: 32, 64 or 128 Gigahull capacity

Upgrade Today →

Thanks to Carbon Copy Cloner for sponsoring The Loop this week. What’s your plan when your Mac’s hard drive dies? Plan ahead and get back to work in minutes with a Carbon Copy Cloner bootable backup. CCC—the app that saves your bacon.

Jim’s Note: I’ve used this app for many years. I trust and love it.

Jim and Dan talk about the latest Apple news.

Brought to you by lynda (Visit lynda.com/thebeard to get free 10-day trial access to their 3,000+ courses) and Braintree (To learn more, and for your first $50,000 in transactions fee-free, go to braintreepayments.com/amplified).

Developed by Softube, the Marshall Legends Bundle gives you three iconic Marshall amps — the Plexi Super Lead 1959 and the new Bluesbreaker 1962 and Silver Jubilee 2555.

Each of these classic Marshall amplifiers feature Unison™ technology for Apollo interfaces, giving you the same distinct tone, touch, and feel of each individual amplifier.

Yes, yes!

What’s your plan when your Mac’s hard drive dies? Plan ahead and get back to work in minutes with a Carbon Copy Cloner bootable backup. CCC—the app that saves your bacon.

Jim’s Note: I’ve used this app for many years. I trust and love it.

Thanks to Marketcircle for sponsoring The Loop this week. Marketcircle, helping small businesses grow with amazing Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad apps. Marketcircle is a Mac-based software company in Toronto that develops award-winning apps to help you save time, stay organized, and work happier. Serving the Apple/Mac community for over 10 years, Marketcircle’s Daylite and Billings Pro can take your business to new heights.

Billings Pro is a time tracking and invoicing app that helps freelancers and small businesses create beautiful and professional invoices in as little as 60 seconds. With less time managing invoices, you have more time to focus on clients and do the work you love.

New in Billings Pro: support for El Capitan, and iOS 9, including multitasking support.

Read about how small businesses have grown with the help of Billings Pro.

I went to Cupertino to meet with the Apple TV team yesterday, and to pick up a unit to try out for myself. What struck me about the new model was Apple’s attention to detail—this is the most “Apple” Apple TV the company has ever released. […]

AmpliTube 4 is a guitar and bass tone studio for Mac/PC that works as a standalone application and as a plug-in for your favorite DAW. AmpliTube recreates the entire guitar/bass signal chain from instrument to recording device, and does so in a very realistic and intuitive way. But it also does it in ways you never dreamed possible.

AmpliTube has been around for years and is one of the best amp software packages on the market. I’m looking forward to trying this out.

Apple announced its fiscal fourth quarter results and the company reported quarterly revenue of $51.5 billion and quarterly net profit of $11.1 billion.

The growth was fueled by record fourth quarter sales of iPhone, the expanded availability of Apple Watch, and all-time records for Mac sales and revenue from services.

CocoaConf Yosemite is set for next spring and I’ll be there again next year. I had a lot of fun here at the last conference.

Marketcircle, helping small businesses grow with amazing Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad apps. Marketcircle is a Mac-based software company in Toronto that develops award-winning apps to help you save time, stay organized, and work happier. Serving the Apple/Mac community for over 10 years, Marketcircle’s Daylite and Billings Pro can take your business to new heights.

Billings Pro is a time tracking and invoicing app that helps freelancers and small businesses create beautiful and professional invoices in as little as 60 seconds. With less time managing invoices, you have more time to focus on clients and do the work you love.

New in Billings Pro: support for El Capitan, and iOS 9, including multitasking support.

Read about how small businesses have grown with the help of Billings Pro.

Thanks to Igloo Software for sponsoring The Loop this week.

What if you could get 5% of your day back? What would you do?

You already have enough work to do today and shouldn’t have to waste time looking for the things you need to do your job!

Igloo can’t solve the conflict in Syria but it can help with conflict with coworkers. Igloo’s not just for your traditional intranet stuff like HR policies and expense forms. It lets you work better together with your team. Stop digging through your inbox for that file from 3 months back and give yourself the tools you need to do your best work.

Send your IT guy to try Igloo Software and see for yourself why Igloo is an intranet you’ll actually like.

Jim and Dan talk about the latest Apple news.

Brought to you by lynda (Visit lynda.com/thebeard to get free 10-day trial access to their 3,000+ courses) and Braintree (To learn more, and for your first $50,000 in transactions fee-free, go to braintreepayments.com/amplified).

What if you could get 5% of your day back? What would you do?

You already have enough work to do today and shouldn’t have to waste time looking for the things you need to do your job!

Igloo can’t solve the conflict in Syria but it can help with conflict with coworkers. Igloo’s not just for your traditional intranet stuff like HR policies and expense forms. It lets you work better together with your team. Stop digging through your inbox for that file from 3 months back and give yourself the tools you need to do your best work.

Send your IT guy to try Igloo Software and see for yourself why Igloo is an intranet you’ll actually like.

Oh shit, SELL SELL SELL.

Let’s see: Trade my MacBook that comes with a new, modern operating system for a piece of shit hardware that runs an operating system nobody wants…

Fuck no!

I have 4k video turned on all the time. I figure that video, and the tools we use, are only going to improve over time, so I might as well start capturing it now.

Thanks to Carbon Copy Cloner for sponsoring The Loop this week. What’s your plan when your Mac’s hard drive dies? Plan ahead and get back to work in minutes with a Carbon Copy Cloner bootable backup. CCC—the app that saves your bacon.

Jim’s Note: I’ve used this app for many years. I trust and love it.

Apple on Thursday released substantial updates for its iWork suite of applications on all its platforms: iOS, Mac, and the Web. There are a lot of changes in these updates—here are the major ones.