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Apple on Wednesday sent out an invite to press for a special event the company will hold at its Cupertino, Calif. campus on October 27. I will be at the event and will bring you all the news. […]

It’s understandable why people want to buy adapters and cables from third parties because the Apple-branded ones are ridiculously expensive. But, their quality is undoubtedly suspect which is why Apple wants them off the market.

Developer Camp is a three-day hackathon and community event, held regularly in cities all around the world. It relies on a certain pattern to create trust and foster cooperation — right up until the presentations begin. Our next event is all about bots.

This looks like a great event. The camp works with girls, boys, men, and women, so everyone has a chance to learn to code or hone your skills.

With only one touch, FabFocus uses advanced human recognition A.I. to detect people in the foreground, automatically blurring the background to create a professional-looking depth of field effect. Unique to FabFocus, the app enables multiple bokeh effects, transforming point lights into your choice of hexagons, stars, hearts and more!

Loop sponsorship special— 33% off this week only. Get FabFocus Now.

Another shootout between the three most popular camera phones. Interesting to compare the Verge’s opinions with those of the CNET article I linked to yesterday.

I love these stories if only for the arguments they generate. I think Pearl Jam and Tupac should be in the Hall but would disagree that Journey, the J. Geils Band, and Joe Tex deserve entry. What about you? Who do you think, out of the 19 nominees this round, deserves to be in or not?

I’ve seen some of this artist’s work before and it is incredible the amount of time and skill this takes.

And according to one of its customer representatives, the Swedish music streaming company is not keen on going beyond its AirPlay support for Apple TV and coming out with its own Apple TV app soon.

This certainly isn’t because of anything Apple is doing to prevent Spotify from making an app—Pandora is on Apple TV, so it’s possible. I wonder if Spotify is just being childish here.

This is an interesting comparison. The reviewer uses the phones and takes the shots that an “average” person would take. This is not a “Review by a Pro” and therefore, might be even more applicable to our readers. Given the shots the reviewer used, I really don’t have very much argument with their conclusions.

Up for bid will be a slew of speakers and speaker boxes, more than half a dozen recording and live sound consoles, various vintage effects, analog and digital tape machines, guitars, drums and more. The full auction, “Property from the Estate of Frank and Gail Zappa,” will be held by Julien’s Auctions on November 4; the company will hold a public exhibition of the items October 31 through November 3.

His house was sold to Lady Gaga. There’s a lot of history in these items.

Netflix Inc’s shares jumped as much as 20 percent on Tuesday, after the company added 50 percent more subscribers than expected in the third quarter.

I love Netflix and use it all the time. It’s original programming is among some of the best out there these days. The fact they are increasing the investment in content is a good sign for customers.

Berry is one of the founders of Rock and Roll with a tumultuous history and relationship with music. It will be really interesting to hear this album and what kind of music he has chosen to release as his last.

I’m just getting over a cold that had me laid out on my couch for a week, sniffling and whining like the giant baby I am.

Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher loved having Jobs at their conference. Not only did it goose attendance but Jobs was always a good, challenging interview for them. Great to see these interviews now available more widely.

Apple has hired a Carnegie Mellon University professor to head up a team working on artificial intelligence as tech giants increasingly place big bets on machine learning as a key part of their future.

Apple seems to be all-in with AI, which is a good sign for the future.

BFD Black Album Drums is an expansion pack for BFD3 inspired by the drum sound featured on the 1991 “Black Album” by Metallica. Produced and recorded by Chocolate Audio (the team behind Imperial and Modern Retro) and featuring the exact same 1980 Gretsch kit that was played on the album along with Zildjian cymbals, a Tama Bell Brass snare and a Ludwig snare.

I love these types of expansion kits. You can get the perfect drum sound that you’re looking for without much hassle.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Friday said it expected to take a hit to its operating profit of about $3 billion over the next two quarters due to the discontinuation of its fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 smartphone.

The outlook brings to about $5.3 billion the total losses the global smartphone leader has forecast as a result of the overheating issues, after it said on Wednesday it would suffer a $2.3 billion hit to third-quarter profit.

That’s just the hit you can see. There is no telling how much this will affect the sales of other products—if consumer confidence fades, this could get worse.

Using advanced facial recognition A.I., FabFocus detects people in the foreground and automatically blurs what it distinguishes as the background. It’s that easy to take an amazing portrait with a professional depth of field effect.

The app will be released next week. This is going to be very popular.

This is amazing. Most of us have handwriting that is barely legible yet this guy is doing beautiful calligraphy, handheld, on a large scale.

Thanks to Marketcircle, makers of Billings Pro for sponsoring The Loop this week.

Tired of manually creating invoices and keeping track of your time slips with spreadsheets? Billings Pro is a simple time-tracking and invoicing app for the Mac, iPad, iPhone & Apple Watch. It’s used by lawyers, consultants, photographers, graphic designers & more all over the world.

Track time from any Apple device – whether you’re at the office, working at a coffee shop, or tracking time for an on-site client meeting. Whip up invoices lightening fast from your Mac, iPhone, or iPad. Choose from over 30 professional templates on the Mac or customize your own. Keep track of overdue invoices, set recurring invoices, and add client payments no matter where you are.

New in Billings Pro is the Mini Timer on the iPhone. Now you can start, pause, or resume a timer from anywhere in the app just by tapping or swiping up.

While I love my Nikon D600, I also enjoy using my mirrorless Olympus M1. Mirrorless cameras have their own pros and cons but they are getting better and better and many create images to rival their similarly priced “full sized” rigs.

This is very cool.

So why does Siri seem so dumb? Why are its talents so limited? Why does it stumble so often? When was the last time Siri delighted you with a satisfying and surprising answer or action?

For me, at least, and for many people I know, it’s been years. Siri’s huge promise has been shrunk to just making voice calls and sending messages to contacts, and maybe getting the weather, using voice commands. Some users find it a reliable way to set timers, alarms, notes and reminders, or to find restaurants. But many of these tasks could be done with the crude, pre-Siri voice-command features on the iPhone and other phones, albeit in a more clumsy way.

There are many times when I disagree with Walt on his tech opinions, but I’ve had my own issues with Siri not being able to give me answers to seemingly easy questions. I’ve asked Siri about sports scores or upcoming games and, in some cases, the answers are completely off the rails. I still try once in a while, but most times, I just don’t bother.

But I suspect that people don’t ask those questions because, after trying a time or two and getting no answers or wrong answers, they just give up on Siri.

This is another good point. I can use Siri accurately to set a timer and play some music. Most other things, I just type the question into Google. Recently when I press the Siri button on my iPhone, it immediately says “Sorry, I’m not sure what you said,” while I’m still speaking. Again, I just type my question into Google.

“Likely” more accurate?

I have no idea who Danny MacAskill is but he sure as hell can ride a bike.

The article makes an interesting point that many of us, even if we do recycle, recycle too quickly.

You’ll need to open this site on your phone. Fold a plane, throw it. Don’t throw your phone!

Before the Supreme Court, the issue at stake was not whether Samsung infringed on the patents, but instead how much the Korean company should pay based on a law that allows a patent owner to receive a competitor’s “total profit.” Should that profit be for the entire value of the smartphone, as an appeals court ruled, or only for profits attributable to the copied design?

Samsung designed their phones to completely copy Apple’s iPhone, from top to bottom. They need to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.

The first Planet Earth was a incredible visual feast. The trailer for the sequel looks just as amazing.

Bogdan Popescu responded tonight after Apple went public with the reason his account was revoked.