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U.S. appeals court revives app antitrust lawsuit against Apple

iPhone app purchasers may sue Apple Inc over allegations that the company monopolized the market for iPhone apps by not allowing users to purchase them outside the App Store, leading to higher prices, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday.

Wait a minute. People want to sue Apple because they feel they could buy the apps cheaper if Apple didn’t have a monopoly on the App Store? This is absolutely insane. Apps cost under $1 in a lot of cases—how much do people think developers work is worth? The clear answer is nothing—they want it all for free.

What the protections Apple provides in the App Store? Specifically apps free from malware and other malicious code. The safety and sense of security purchasing from the App Store is very important.

This is ridiculous.

A Tremolo primer from Fender

Tremolo systems first started appearing on guitars in the 1930s and have evolved multiple times in the ensuing decades.

Utilizing tremolo can be an integral aspect of your sound—see: Duane Eddy, Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck and Eddie Van Halen—or add a splash of color to your style.

But what is a tremolo system, how does it work and what are the benefits of one system over another?

Some of my favorite guitarists used a tremolo a lot, but I never really used it that much in my own playing. Using it properly is definitely an art.

Apple is losing a lot of people

A spate of top engineers have left Apple for Tesla and other companies over the last few months. What’s going on?

The moves to Tesla are certainly interesting, but I wouldn’t read too much into the overall trend. Apple gains and loses people all the time and we never hear about it. It’s always been like this.

“A Night for Sal”

I’ve known Sal for years and there is no better person in the Mac Community. I wish I could go to this event.

IK Multimedia releases Fender Collection 2

In Fender Collection 2 you’ll get all of the glorious “tweeds” from the ’57 Custom Series, a refined, player-centric take on a classic platform that includes the ’57 Deluxe, the ’57 Champ, ’57 Pro, ’57 Twin and ’57 Bandmaster.

Plus you get a spot-on model of an original 1953 Bassman and a 1965 blackface Super Reverb.

It’s hard to argue how iconic some of these amps are. IK has done a great job in the past bringing some of the most sought after amps to the public in its AmpliTube products.

A beginner’s guide to pure CSS images

We will start with an overview and work our way to create a Koala in pure CSS.

There’s also a video you can watch as well as the written instructions.

Apple’s Chris Lattner joins Tesla as Vice President of Autopilot Software

We would like to welcome Chris Lattner, who will join Tesla as our Vice President of Autopilot Software. Chris’ reputation for engineering excellence is well known. He comes to Tesla after 11 years at Apple where he was primarily responsible for creating Swift, the programming language for building apps on Apple platforms and one of the fastest growing languages for doing so on Linux.

That explains what happened.

The Fraser Canyon when things go sideways

This video, even with its annoying as hell music, shows what truckers go through trying to drive in winter conditions. I don’t envy them. This road is the Trans-Canada Highway about 30 miles east of where I live. I love riding that road in the spring in summer (it’s one of the prettiest in British Columbia) but you couldn’t pay me enough to drive it in the winter.

Apple’s Swift Project Lead is leaving the company

I’m happy to announce that Ted Kremenek will be taking over for me as “Project Lead” for the Swift project, managing the administrative and leadership responsibility for Swift.org. This recognizes the incredible effort he has already been putting into the project, and reflects a decision I’ve made to leave Apple later this month to pursue an opportunity in another space.

As Gruber says, I’d love to know what the other opportunity is.

Sonos CEO steps down amid increased competition

Over the years, Sonos has weathered competition from better known rivals like Apple and Bose to find a devoted audience among audio enthusiasts. But lately its wireless speaker has lost ground to an unexpected competitor, Amazon’s Echo.

Now it faces another challenge: a change in the corner office. After 14 years leading the company he helped found, John MacFarlane has resigned as chief executive of Sonos and has been replaced by one of his deputies, Patrick Spence.

I don’t understand the competition. To me, Sonos and Echo serve different purposes—Sonos is a wonderful wireless speaker system and Echo is more of an assistant.

China’s WeChat looks to bypass Apple’s App Store

China’s largest mobile social media network WeChat is offering its 768 million users a function which allows them to by-pass app stores such as Apple’s.

I’m not really clear on how they implemented this, but bypassing the App Store is certainly not something Apple is likely to look kindly on.

The Amish horse-drawn buggy is more tech-forward than you think

As a Nova Scotianer, I’d never seen an Amish buggy until, while riding my motorcycle through Pennsylvania, I came through a curve and saw a large pile of “dirt” in the middle of my line. Rear tire hit the dirt and squirted out from under me. Freaked me out. I looked behind me and realized it wasn’t dirt but horse manure. As I got ready for the next curve, I thought, “Where the hell did that come from?” Looking through the curve ahead, I saw the buggy in the road and literally laughed out loud. I slowed and came up behind the buggy and saw two small children in the back, facing rearward. It was a “buggy station wagon”! The kids waved to me, I waved back and then passed the buggy, still laughing inside my helmet.

Apple comments on Consumer Reports faulty MacBook Pro tests

Back in December, Consumer Reports issued a statement saying they could not recommend Apple’s new MacBook Pro because the latest batch of MacBook Pro laptops exhibited “battery life results (that) were highly inconsistent from one trial to the next.”

The Talk Show: Now banned in China

Jim Dalrymple returns to the show for the first episode of 2017. Topics include New Year’s Eve, Siri/Alexa/Google Assistant, Apple’s aging AirPort and Mac Pro lineups, the future of desktop Macs, Apple Watch battery life, and rumors of upcoming new iPads.

I always have so much fun doing Gruber’s show.

Honda “Riding Assist” self balancing motorcycle

As a motorcyclist, this is really interesting and I desperately want more information. This is not a production bike though. It’s very much just a proof of concept at this point. But, if it does come to market, it might help riders, especially beginners, deal with those low speed manoeuvres that can be so difficult.

Apple’s Carpool Karaoke to have rotating hosts

Furthermore, the series won’t have a single host in the drivers’ seat. Instead, the trio conceived of a format that is more of an interview series than longer versions of the “Late Late Show” bit, with a different “host” for every episode.

“We’re really excited about the pairings we’re putting together,” Corden said. Those pairings include more traditional musical choices like John Legend with Alicia Keys and Seth MacFarlane with Ariana Grande, but also more outside-the-box choices like Billy Eichner in the passenger seat, surrounded by the band Metallica, or former NFL star and talk show host Michael Strahan with NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon.

It will be interesting to see how this goes. One of the keys to the success of the show was Corden’s personality and comedy, so I’m not sure how it will go with a longer format and different hosts.

Daylite: Win more business & get more done [Sponsor]

Feel like there’s not enough hours in a day? Get more done with Daylite, the business productivity app for Mac, iPhone & iPad.

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Remember every detail about a client. Track projects and sales. Share tasks. Search for anything.

New in Daylite 6.1 is support for Multitasking on the iPad. Now you can work in Daylite and another app at the same time on your iPad.

Try Daylite free for 30 days

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Monday is the tenth anniversary of the iPhone launch

This video shows the announcement at the 2007 Macworld Expo. I was in the room and it was an amazing experience but, ten years ago, none of us could have predicted how the iPhone would literally change the world.

The 50 best iOS games of 2016

I’m not a big gamer but everyone should be able to find one or two games on this list they’d like to play.

Made in CNY

In honour of Chinese New Year, Apple has posted these absolutely gorgeous wallpapers for you to download.