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See the things you’ve searched for, visited, and watched on Google services

This link will take you to a page that shows you the Google services that are tracking you, along with a history for each of those services.

It would be interesting to see a list of all the data Google has harvested from me. I’d also like to see the same thing from Facebook and Apple.

Pinterest’s shot at camera search

Taking advantage of the rise in mobile photography, Pinterest says its image-discovery app in coming months will let users point their smartphone cameras at something, and the app instantly will search within its vast online showroom of 75 billion images for a visually similar match of the items in the photo.

This idea has been around for a long time, but the technology has never really been there to allow it to succeed. Honestly, I’m still not sure it’s there, completely. It’ll be interesting to see how Pinterest tackles all of the little problems involved in making this work.

Man who attacked Google buildings said the company was watching him

Diaz said his motivation for attacking Google was that the company was watching him, according to an affidavit filed in a U.S. District Court. He told police he kept journals detailing the times he thought the company was watching him, the affidavit said. He also mentioned Facebook and Google CEO Larry Page during the interview.

Somehow, I don’t think we’re talking about your typical privacy complaint here.

Car thieves go high tech

The discovery follows a recent incident in Houston in which a pair of car thieves were caught on camera using a laptop to start a 2010 Jeep Wrangler and steal it from the owner’s driveway. Police say the same method may have been used in the theft of four other late-model Wranglers and Cherokees in the city. None of the vehicles has been recovered.

This problem is only going to get worse from here.

Verizon raises rates, but offers more data

Verizon is hiking rates and increasing data across all its plans. For instance, the basic “S” plan will cost $35, a $5 rise, and offer double the data at 2 gigabytes and the high-end “XXL” plan will cost $10 more at $110 and offer 24 gigabytes as opposed to the previous 16 gigabyte limit.

I’ll be honest, that sounds reasonable to me.

Metrics vs. experience

Julie Zhuo, Product design VP at Facebook:

Being able to measure stuff gives you insight into what people are doing within your product. Unless you like living under a rock, having more information is a good thing. Sure, you need to be able to sort through what information is important and what isn’t, but arguing that the whole concept of having more information is bad is not really a defensible position. Metrics is not the villain.

Information is good, it’s what you do with it.

Companies intentionally slow down load times

So companies introduce what Kowitz calls an “artificial waiting” pattern into their interfaces. These are status bars, maybe a few update messages, to construct a facade of slow, hard, thoughtful work, even though the computer is done calculating your query.

It is absolutely fascinating how the mind works and how designers have to slow things down in order for us to believe them.

Snapchat memories

Memories is a new way to save Snaps and Stories on Snapchat. It’s a personal collection of your favorite moments that lives below the Camera screen. Just swipe up from the Camera to open Memories!

Summer sponsorships available on The Loop

We have some sponsorship weeks available in July and August on The Loop. If you want to get your product or service in front of The Loop readers, this is the only way to do it. Sponsors are exclusive for the week, so it will just be you, me, and the great people who read this site.

If you’re interested, get in touch and let’s hammer something out.

Building a CSS 3D cube

I want to share my experience of using CSS 3D effects for the first time in a real project and to inspire you to take on challenges.

That’s quite a challenge.

Securing a travel iPhone

I hope to start travelling in Europe again early next year and am interested in how to secure my iPhone. I don’t think I would go to all the trouble detailed in this post but there are definitely tips and tricks galore many of us can use to be even a bit more secure when we travel.

Comcast adding Netflix to X1

Said the pair in a statement: “Comcast and Netflix have reached an agreement to incorporate Netflix into X1, providing seamless access to the great content offered by both companies. We have much work to do before the service will be available to consumers later this year. We’ll provide more details at that time.”

Smart move from Comcast.

PBS and lies about fireworks coverage

A Monday night production, “A Capitol Fourth” was not live as-advertised, as it was “spliced in with video from previous years’ spectacles.”

Lying on air doesn’t seem like a PBS thing to do.

BlackBerry will stop making its Classic smartphone

BlackBerry Ltd will stop making its Classic smartphone, 18 months after launching it in an effort to entice users who prefer physical, rather than touch, keyboards, the Canadian technology company said on Tuesday.

Who?

Spin Studio: Great Marketing at a Great Price [Sponsor]

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Street art optical illusions

Astro‘s street art style is easy to recognize in the streets. He creates giant murals with complex patterns and optical illusions that make it look like the building is empty on the inside.

I find optical illusions fascinating.

Mission driven founders

Fred Wilson:

I’ve written many times about how I/we prefer to invest in mission driven founders vs mercenary founders. The former starts a company because they see a problem they feel compelled to fix. The latter starts a company because they see an opportunity to make money.

I love mission driven companies. Those are the ones that solve problems we have as users.

Apple sued in China over showing of war film from the 1990s

Apple is being sued by a subsidiary of China’s broadcasting regulator over a propaganda film more than 20 years old, in the latest legal wrangling for the tech giant in China in recent weeks.

A Beijing court says the case has been brought by a production center that alleges that Apple has infringed its exclusive online rights to broadcast a film that depicts Chinese fighting against Japanese soldiers in northern China in the early 1930s.

Searching for a good reason to remove the headphone jack

As Snell says, “This is a tech unicorn, an unannounced feature on a nonexistent product, and it’s important to keep that in mind.” But it’s also helpful to remember, Apple has done this kind of thing many times in the past and it’s always (generally) worked out – after a period of time when tech pundits bitch, moan and complain about it.