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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.

Looks like fun.

The usual caveats apply: Only for US-based customers and only for those who have never signed up before.

Apple Music has some great built-in stations, but one of my favorites is the Rock Workout station. It’s all upbeat music across many generations of rock, which means you can listen without losing that high-tempo groove. I use it on my walk and when I’m driving and just need some great punchy Rock.

This is a really good page. It’s not a lot of specs and things people don’t necessarily care about, just some good fun.

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.

A small Boston company, founded by the inventor of a popular corporate encryption technology called RSA SecurID, sued Apple and Visa on Sunday, arguing that the Apple Pay digital payment technology violates its patents.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday tightened rules for where patent lawsuits can be filed in a decision that may make it harder for so-called patent “trolls” to launch sometimes dodgy patent cases in friendly courts, a major irritant for high-tech giants like Apple and Alphabet Inc’s Google.

Anything that gets rid of patent trolls is a good thing, but I’m sure the trolls will try to incorporate in East Texas, where many of the patent cases currently take place.

Update: I misread the ruling. Lawsuits will have to be filed in the jurisdiction of the defendant, which should definitely deal a huge blow to patent trolls.

As with most Apple retail locations, this is just beautiful.

If I had the money, I’d buy one of these coffee tables in a heartbeat.

The mashup you never thought could happen.

These are shot in a style I couldn’t accomplish but I love the look and feel of them.

You’ve got to admire the efficiency and speed if nothing else.

I’ve always been a big fan of Olympus’ “Tough” line and recommend it particularly for those who are hard on their gear, want to shoot in “adverse” conditions or want a good camera to give to a child. I’ve used my old Tough point and shoot mounted to my motorcycle, in the snow, underwater – places I’d never take my DSLR or iPhone.

Levy is understandably a little miffed at the attention the box is getting but it’s weirdly interesting and another testament to Apple’s attention to details.

As always, never click on links you weren’t expecting.

Put me in the “extremely likely” camp.

Can you imagine sitting on a plane and hearing the pilot over the intercom, “Welcome to the flight, ladies and gentlemen…” And thinking to yourself, “Huh – that sounds like….naw…couldn’t be!”

Graham Cochrane has some nice tips for Mastering a song you’ve recorded. I especially liked his comments on the loudness wars and how streaming services are making that less of an issue these days.

Great story. Much respect to Google CEO Sundar Pichai for encouraging the girl.

This video puts the “hyper” in hyperlapse but it certainly captures the energy of New York City.

Using the Have I Been Pwned site, I found a number of places where my main email address has been compromised in a data breach.

I fondly remember seeing a circus as a ten-year-old in the Halifax Forum. It was the first time I’d ever seen “wild” animals and it was a magical experience.

My thanks to Jamf Now for sponsoring The Loop this week. Jamf Now is an on-demand mobile device management solution for the iPads, iPhones and Macs in your workplace. We make device management simple and affordable for everyone, so businesses can support their users; no IT required. Manage your first three devices for free and add more for just $2 per device per month. Get started for free today!

Chris Cornell, the powerful, dynamic singer whose band Soundgarden was one of the architects of grunge music, has died at 52.

So incredibly sad.

In a case of extraordinarily bad luck, even for a guy that has a lot of bad computer luck, I happened to download HandBrake in that three day window, and my work Mac got pwned.

Long story short, somebody, somewhere, now has quite a bit of source code to several of our apps.

Okay, that’s bad, but there is some good news:

• There’s no indication any customer information was obtained by the attacker.
• Furthermore, there’s no indication Panic Sync data was accessed.
• Finally, our web server was not compromised.

[Via John Gruber]

At its I/O 2017 developer conference today, Google announced Google Assistant is coming to iOS as a standalone app, rolling out to the U.S. first. Until now, the only way iPhone users could access Google Assistant was through Allo, the Google messaging app nobody uses.

It’s great that Google Assistant is coming, but the lack of integration with iOS will certainly hurt its chances of being used as much as Siri.