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I had such a great time chatting with John Gruber on his latest episode of The Talk Show.

This is the biggest thing that we’ve ever done. The most innovative, beautiful and powerful thing that we’ve ever done. And it’s also the most Mac thing that we’ve ever done! This is what the legendary Pixelmator Team has been secretly and incredibly passionately working on for 5 whole years.

This totally caught my attention today. I love the folks at Pixelmator and the great apps they make, so if they’ve been working on something this long, you know it’s going to be big.

As a Canadian, I feel it is my duty and obligation to post this for our American readers. You’re welcome.

The Essential Phone, brought to us by the person who created Android, is finally ready for the spotlight. It’s an incredibly audacious and ambitious project, with an outlandish screen and the beginnings of a modular ecosystem.

Rubin has been trying to one-up Apple for years but could never quite pull it off. We’ll see how this works out, but I suspect once Apple outlines its next iOS and iPhone hardware later this year, interest in Rubin’s “Essential Phone” will wane.

Apple is making moves. We’ll see the results of this hire in six months to a year.

The Kentucky Kid of the title is Nicky Hayden who tragically lost his life last week after being struck by a car while out training on a bicycle. The movie is quite dated but does give a good sense of what professional motorcycle racing is all about.

I don’t mind app tracking per se but I want to know which apps are doing it and be able to revoke that permission if I so choose.

A lot of the things we use today came from the Newton.

This is really geeky and really cool.

I would love to read this not just for the story telling style of a graphic novel but because, even in middle age, I have a soft spot for D&D and would play it again this weekend if I could.

Some very interesting and very geeky comparisons between the two mapping services. I can confirm what he says about TomTom. My motorcycle GPS is a TomTom and frankly, it’s often not very good.

To say the very least, this is incredibly creepy.

This broadening and focusing the scope of Apple News will be interesting to watch.

Much respect for your environmental efforts, Apple.

It always amazes me when I see artists using the iPad and Apple Pencil to make illustrations like this. There is a video on the page showing how the cover was made.

Thanks to Letter Opener for sponsoring The Loop this week.

Letter Opener for macOS

Working together with Windows users shouldn’t be problematic at all. Still, some email messages can not be natively read by the Mac and are packed into Winmail.dat or MSG files that have to be extracted and displayed somehow. Letter Opener for macOS does that with a simple double-click!

Letter Opener for macOS Mail

The plugin to stop the Winmail.dat file flood for good.

If Winmail.dat files are a reoccurring problem, Letter Opener for macOS Mail is the solution. Installed into Mail it opens and displays the files directly inside Apples Mail application, so the user can forget about Winmail.dat files entirely.

Use coupon code ROCKET88 for 30% off Letter Opener for macOS Mail.

Expect big things.

This is my last weekly column for The Verge and Recode — the last weekly column I plan to write anywhere. I’ve been doing these almost every week since 1991, starting at The Wall Street Journal, and during that time, I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know the makers of the tech revolution, and to ruminate — and sometimes to fulminate — about their creations.

Cheers, Walt!

I’m very happy to announce that free tickets for my WWDC party are now available. With the generous help of our sponsors iMore, PleyMart.com, MacPaw, and Pixelmator, this year’s party is going to be bigger than ever!

Sir Jony succeeds Sir James Dyson OM, Provost of the College (2011–17), as this key honorary role is renamed. The Chancellor is head of the College, presiding over meetings of the Court, a member of its governing body, Council, and conferring degrees at Convocation. Baroness Gail Rebuck remains Chair of Council and becomes Pro-Chancellor of the university. The posts of Chancellor and Pro-Chancellor are non-salaried.

Congrats, Jony.

Nearly a quarter of American adults sold or traded in a vehicle in the last 12 months, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll published on Thursday, with most getting another car. But 9 percent of that group turned to ride services like Lyft Inc and Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] as their main way to get around.

About the same percentages said they planned to dispose of cars and turn to ride services in the upcoming 12 months.

This makes a lot of sense in urban areas and for people that don’t like to drive. I enjoy driving, so I wouldn’t do that, but it seems to be a growing trend.

If these numbers are important to you (and they are for a lot of people), it’s good to know the Apple Watch comes out ahead.

I don’t use either to manage my photos. Any Loopers want to weigh in on their particular pros and cons?

My life is an open book so I don’t care about the GPS data on my photos but many people do have legitimate concerns. These are easy steps to take.

James Dempsey joins me this week to talk about his event happening during the week of WWDC. James shares some stories about his time attending WWDC, from singing his first song on stage during the conference, to what it’s like … Continued

I don’t know that I have a use for this app but it’s a very clever implementation.

You start off thinking, “Well, this is stupid. It’s just an hourglass.” You read more and think, “Kinda cool design though.” Then you get to the price and think, “There are 100 people out there with more money than sense….”

I think we’ll see more companies implement these kinds of security features in their apps.

I have a couple of Anker cables and battery packs. I think they are very good quality and certainly cheaper than the ones I’ve bought from Apple.

Apple has settled a patent dispute with Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia and agreed to buy more of its network products and services, sending Nokia shares up 7 percent.

I’m surprised this was settled so quickly.