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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.

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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.

They just can’t seem to help themselves.

Controversy erupted last week when Apple [cancelled the account of a popular developer app called Dash. Apple told the developer “they found evidence of App Store review manipulation,” an accusation the developer denied, but Apple has proof. […]

Apple cares and they show it every time they have an opportunity to help.

Be safe people.

A Yahoo Inc media executive fired from the internet company last year has filed a lawsuit claiming a job review process implemented by Chief Executive Marissa Mayer was used to cut men from executive ranks and lay them off illegally, court papers showed.

It’s not often you hear about this type of lawsuit.

After five years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Tuesday in the bitter patent dispute between the world’s two top smartphone manufacturers over the amount Samsung should pay Apple for copying the iPhone’s distinctive look.

There is absolutely no doubt that Samsung stole everything it could from the iPhone. They should pay up and stop stealing.

Really interesting article about the industry’s search for natural alternatives for the colors found in many of our favorite foods.

This is the typical long, technical and very well done review from the folks at AnandTech. Settle in for a while to read more detail on the new phones than any other publication can manage.

It’s unclear how much of this can be put down to general (possibly misguided) fear of what might happen versus there being an actual threat or possibility.

Certainly the death knell of the Galaxy Note 7. The next question is, how will it affect Samsung’s brand and sales going forward?

I miss album cover art more than I miss the sound of vinyl.

This may be unnecessarily paranoid but sometimes it’s better to be safe than sorry. Or at least in the case of this app, aware of what’s going on.