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I love hearing and reading about other cultures’ traditions, superstitions, and customs.

Interesting review of the AirPods from “the other side of the fence” but sad that this line had to be included: “if Apple’s name wasn’t on the box it would be a must-buy for many Android users.”

I’m always interested in how others manage to use their iPad full-time. I love my iPad and use it every day but there is no way I can make it my full-time machine.

Warning: There’s quite a bit of camera porn in this video.

Thanks to Depth Effects for sponsoring The Loop this week.

Now everyone can get beautiful Portrait Mode photos with their iPhone. Depth Effects gives you the power to apply a striking depth of field to any photo. Get DLSR-quality focus and bokeh with simple controls. Also, Depth Effects is the best app for anamorphic depth of field and cinematic bokeh.

Just from the excerpt, I want to read this book.

With CES coming in a few days, there will be a tsunami of news and PR about 4K HDR Blu Ray being the “next big thing”. But, unless you are a serious cinephile (and have serious money to burn), you can probably ignore the vast majority of 4K HDR news out of the 2017 CES.

This is very difficult, a body blow. Of course I remember Princess Leia, but when I think of Carrie Fisher, I think of Wishful Drinking (book and HBO special) and her great arc on 30 Rock.

And then there’s this.

Damn.

Reznor fascinates me and I’ve always enjoyed his thoughts on just about any subject.

Back in the day, Handbrake was an indispensable tool for ripping CDs. Now, I use it regularly to re-encode videos for the Apple TV.

Snopes is my go to site for debunking general fake news.

What a great way to spend your Christmas money.

For my family, Christmas Day was always for relatives’ visits. Boxing Day was the day you went to visit friends.

Not surprising, given the court proceedings going on between the two companies.

Now everyone can get beautiful Portrait Mode photos with their iPhone. Depth Effects gives you the power to apply a striking depth of field to any photo. Get DLSR-quality focus and bokeh with simple controls. Also, Depth Effects is the best app for anamorphic depth of field and cinematic bokeh.

We often rightfully complain about Google but it does provide a lot of interesting data driven information.

Consumer Reports has a history of embarrassing itself in its recommendations. I think we all saw that something was wrong with its results and that they were published specifically to get headlines. That certainly worked for them, but it also further damaged their reputation. They should have postponed publishing the results until they were sure everything was correct. Rene Ritchie has a nice article on it.

I was never a huge Seinfeld fan but the Festivus stuff was hilarious.

One of my favorite Leonard Cohen songs sung beautifully. Merry Christmas, everyone.

Lots of us will have lots of Amazon boxes left over from this holiday season. This is a great way to give a little back.

This is an interesting article if only for the fact that every audio engineer I’ve ever known (and I’ve known quite a few), hate the way Bose devices sound. They would often say, “No highs, no lows, must be Bose”.

My thanks to MacScan for sponsoring The Loop this week. Every Mac is vulnerable to malware. Every day that passes, Malware authors introduce new targets against OS X. And yet, many users go unprotected against these threats. There are solutions available. MacScan 3 protects your Mac by scanning for and removing malware – providing much-needed security and privacy in the face of online threats.

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If you’re still in denial that your Mac is safe, we encourage you to sign up for a 30-day test drive to uncover what’s really happening.

This is unlikely to hurt Uber in the long run but the arrogance on display in California certainly won’t endear them to governments of the state.

Luckily for players who own Apple Watches, rumors the game wasn’t going to be available proved to be false.

Regardless of your opinion of Consumer Reports, this does not look good for Apple. Apple refused comment on the report but expect them to, in the New Year, address the issue.

Like a well-oiled machine.

Elf!? Wow. This is a really lame list.

It just doesn’t get much more Candian than this.

Raise your hand if you’re old enough to remember scrounging for cheat codes.

I know Sinbad and asked him about this at a Macworld Expo many years ago. He thought it was hilarious and was sure people were confusing him with the Shaquille O’Neal movie.