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Jim Cramer tweeted today that Tim will join him on the show tonight. It’s always good hearing from Tim.

I have no interest in actually doing it but watching glass being blown has always fascinated me.

I remember being in Akihabara during the last Macworld Expo Toyko. Utterly mind blowing space. At 6’3″ tall, I felt like Godzilla wandering through the cramped electronics aisle and being overwhelmed by the amazing variety of everything electronic you could imagine. If you’re an electronics or gadget fan, you owe it to yourself to visit.

Jason Snell:

In any event, I don’t recommend that podcasters use SoundCloud. There are better options, including Libsyn and Podbean, that do the job much better than the podcasting features that are grafted onto SoundCloud.

That’s just awful. I use Libsyn for The Dalrymple Report and have never had a problem.

Below are some of the webspam insights we gathered in 2015, including trends we’ve seen, what we’re doing to fight spam and protect against those trends, and how we’re working with you to make the web better.

Some interesting information in here.

“Our goal has always been to try to create objects as beautiful as they are functional,” Ive told a group of assembled journalists. Ive is one of the Apple-sponsored fundraiser’s four hosts, along with Vogue’s Anna Wintour, pop megastar Taylor Swift, and actor Idris Elba.

This is why Apple designs are so good—beauty and function take equal parts in their products.

A Brazilian judge ordered wireless phone carriers to block access to Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp for 72 hours throughout Latin America’s largest country starting Monday afternoon, the second such incident against the popular messaging application in five months.

The decision by the judge in the northeastern state of Sergipe applies to the five main wireless operators in Brazil. The reason for the order is not known due to legal secrecy in an ongoing case in the Sergipe state court.

We have sponsorships available in May on The Loop. If you want to get your product or service in front of the fine readers of The Loop, get in touch and let’s work it out.

Innovative solution, but it must freak you out when you’re driving.

I haven’t tried this yet, but it sure sounds cool.

Love you, Mom.

A well done new support site from Apple for its products.

Oh man. Now I want an RC helicopter.

Many of us have a soft spot for Dungeons and Dragons, even if we don’t play it anymore and I always like reading stories about how it came to be. FYI, I was a 200lbs Dwarven Fighter-Thief with a drinking problem and a hatred of any humans over 6ft tall. Caused all kinds of problems. I still have my D&D dice.

Guy Martin races his Superbike against David Coulthard’s Red Bull F1 car on the track in Silverstone in the UK.

“The next claim we hear is that we underpay compared to subscription services such as Spotify. But that argument confuses two different services: music subscriptions that cost £10 a month versus ad-supported music videos. It’s like comparing what a black cab driver earns from fares to what they earn showing ads in their taxi.”

This is a very interesting battle.

Being on the App Store is a tough business, I know from experience. Apple can’t possibly feature all the apps that are in the store, that’s obvious, but it pisses me off when I see Apple being so self-serving to put a big banner for Drake’s new album on the App Store. He doesn’t have an app! […]

Some of these are very clever, indeed.

Rovi Corp, a provider of digital television guides, said on Friday it would buy video recorder pioneer TiVo Inc in a $1.1 billion deal that brings together two video software players with deep patent portfolios.

I could never figure out why TiVo, a company that everyone seems to love, could never do better in the market.

As some of we lonely voices in the wilderness keep trying to point out, Apple is a remarkably successful company even without huge iPhone sales numbers (and keep in mind, last quarter’s iPhone numbers, while lower than what Wall St wanted, are still on par with Apple’s most successful ones) and in particular when you keep in mind where Apple has come from. It really brings to the fore the fact that Apple Inc is completely different from AAPL.

But Icahn, who owned 45.8 million Apple shares at the end of last year, said China’s economic slowdown and worries about how China could become more prohibitive in doing business triggered his decision to exit his position entirely.

“We no longer have a position in Apple. Tim Cook did a great job. I called him this morning to tell him that and he was a little sorry, obviously. But I told him it’s a great company,” Icahn said. “In Apple today as opposed to six months or a year ago, in this one, there’s no need for activism because I think they have a great management. But you worry a little bit, maybe more than a little, about China’s attitude.”

Probably the best news Apple has had in a while.

Recorded live at Rasputin Music, Berkeley, CA on Record Store Day, April 16, 2016.

Ten years ago, we launched Google Translate. Our goal was to break language barriers and to make the world more accessible. Since then we’ve grown from supporting two languages to 103, and from hundreds of users to hundreds of millions. And just like anyone’s first 10 years, we’ve learned to see and understand, talk, listen, have a conversation, write, and lean on friends for help.

I think we’ve all used Google Translate over the years.

“We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of a young and talented coworker. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies go out to his family and friends, including the many people he worked with here at Apple.”

Interesting video showing several tests of the various iPad iterations.

The FBI informed Apple Inc of a vulnerability in its iPhone and Mac software on April 14, the first time it had told the company about a flaw in Apple products under a controversial White House process for sharing such information, the company told Reuters on Tuesday.

And

Though he declined to provide technical details, the executive said the problem had been fixed by the company nine months ago, with the release of iOS9 for phones and Mac OS C El Capitan.

Apple doesn’t plan to release an update for older operating systems.

The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday began investigating a body found at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters.

Damn.

Jim and Merlin… wait, no, Gruber. Jim and John Gruber talk about the iPhone SE, iPad Pro, and Apple Watch.

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Rene Ritchie and Jason Snell put together a transcript of Apple’s earnings call today.

Apple on Tuesday reported revenue of $50.6 billion and quarterly net income of $10.5 billion. These results are down from revenue of $58 billion and net income of $13.6 billion, or $2.33 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. […]