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Viljo Marrandi:

Our owner and operator, Viljo Marrandi, has been doing handwork since childhood, growing up the son of a carpenter and wood carver. Beginning with a one week class taught by master engraver, Sam Alfano, in Antwerp, Belgium, Viljo was fascinated with the art. After practicing his craft for several years, Viljo received private lessons from Scott Pilkington, another renowned engraver and custom crafter, and honed his skills at English scroll with engraver Simon Lytton.

Viljo named his company, “Bottega Marrandi,” the word “Bottega” meaning “Workshop” in Italian. So welcome to his workshop, we think you will love it.

Check out the pictures of the Apple Watch engravings. If you’re looking to really personalize your Watch, these designs would be amazing. No idea about costs – I have neither money nor an Apple Watch. Thanks to my friend George Canellis for the link.

Copy:

We know this comes as disappointing news to our users, but rest assured that we will do everything we can to take care of each of you in the manner for which Barracuda is known. We have partnered with Mover to make migrating your data to another service as easy as possible and have created a step by step guide that walks you through the process of moving your data to a local hard drive or another cloud storage solution.

Copy was used by a lot of people when it initially came out as a back up to or replacement for Dropbox. They gave new users a lot of free data storage – I had 75GB. It goes without saying, that was unsustainable. They have included an FAQ on how to move your files but it’s easy enough to just download them to your desktop for storage elsewhere.

CNET:

At the heart of the film, acclaimed British actor Hardy plays twin brothers Reggie and Ronnie Kray, notorious real-life gangsters who ruled the London underworld in the 1960s by killing and robbing, while also rubbing shoulders with celebrities in the nightclubs they owned. Although the film’s story could be more focused, Hardy is captivating — and justly award-winning — in the twin roles.

“I read the script as if it was going to be two actors playing Reggie and Ronnie,” said Pope. “It came as a huge surprise to me that they had signed Tom Hardy up to play both roles! From being a fairly straightforward narrative, it turned into an extremely technically challenging production.”

I’ve seen this film and the performance by Hardy is made all the more incredible by the visual effects.

Another amazing mash up. The editing skills of these guys are incredible. And the addition of the “Uptown Funk” song is brilliant.

Wired:

Reese is just the sixth person to hold a solo record for the famed “Cannonball Run.” Solo, because he did it on a motorcycle, with no one to take the wheel to give him a break or relieve the physical toll of spending serious time on a bike.

No one could help him stay awake and upright on the bike, but he did have lots of help. “I don’t think one guy could throw a leg over a motorcycle and do something like this,” Reese says. A dozen groups of safety teams spread out along the route to monitor road conditions, keep him abreast of weather changes, and to look out for cops. That last point is important: Reese averaged 73 mph on the whole trip, and periodically topped 110, so getting pulled over was a constant risk with serious repercussions.

As a motorcyclist, I think this is an amazing if utterly insane thing to do. I once interviewed John Ryan, a well known long distance rider, who had ridden solo from the northwestern tip of North American down to the southeastern tip of the continent in only 86 hours and 31 minutes – that’s 5,645 miles in a little over three and a half days. The longest I’ve ever ridden in one day was 800 miles (12 hours in the saddle) and afterwards I thought I’d never want to ride a motorcycle ever again.

Vulture:

A joke, as defined by this list, is a discrete moment of comedy, whether from stand-up, a sketch, an album, a movie, or a TV show.

For clarity’s sake, we’ve established certain ground rules for inclusion. First, we decided early on that these jokes needed to be performed and recorded at some point. Second, with apologies to Monty Python, whose influence on contemporary comedy is tremendous and undeniable, we focused only on American humor. Third, we only included one joke per comedian. And fourth, the list doesn’t include comedy that we ultimately felt was bad, harmful, or retrograde.

As with most lists, there will always be disagreements and even with the caveats, this list doesn’t seem as funny as you would have hoped it would be. But there are still some great, and some even could be considered important, moments included.

Native access to cloud storage without sync?

ExpanDrive is a virtual drive that connects to cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Google, Box, OneDrive, Amazon, SFTP and more. Access and manage files within Finder or edit them using your favorite apps like Photoshop or Sublime Text.

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Jim and Merlin talk about the highlights from NAMM, Sherlocking, and the blues.

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links

• Best of Delta Blues
• 8 Companies Apple is Screwing Over with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite | Digital Trends
• WWDC 2014 Wrap Up, Sherlock All The Things Edition | AppleTalk
• Karelia Software – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Emulsional Rescue: Revealing ‘The Godfather’ (Video 2008) – IMDb
• Emulsional Rescue: The Godfather Restoration Documentary – YouTube
• Postmates On-Demand Delivery
• Chef Chu’s Delivery in Los Altos | Postmates
• Jeff Baxter – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Crossroads (1986) – IMDb
• Resolv | Samson Technologies
• Robert Johnson – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Master of Reality – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Macstories:

If you want to drive an average tech nerd crazy, try to talk about email clients.

Despite its archaic nature and stale protocols, email works – it’s the closest thing to a common standard for digital communication we have. Messaging services may rise and grow and fall and shut down, but email will always be there, humbly humming along, hoarding thousands of unread messages in your inbox. You have to believe that, if this planet were to end tomorrow, cockroaches and IMAP would survive it.

I’ve been trying Airmail for the past couple of months, and it brings some unique features and options to the table, but, as usual, the road ahead is going to be long.

I consider myself an email power user (I get approx 2000 emails/day) and there is no way I would try and deal with that many emails on the iPhone or even an iPad.

Time:

Following last year’s Shot on iPhone 6 campaign, Apple is bringing back the concept for the iPhone 6s.

The new ad campaign features 53 images from 41 amateurs and professional photographers from around the world.

While the previous campaign included a variety of photographic subjects – from landscapes to extreme close-ups – this time, Apple has put the focus on portraits, most of them photographed in subtle, everyday moments.

As someone who teaches beginners how to take better photographs no matter what camera they have, I love this campaign and have used past iterations to show students what kind of amazing images you can create with “just” an iPhone.

Techinsider:

On Monday, the NHL will release NHL.TV, a new app that allows hockey fans to watch live, out-of-market hockey games, keep up with their favorite teams, and more.

NHL.TV was built by MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), major league baseball’s tech division. It’s the same company that handles streaming video for HBO Now, the WWE, the MLB, and many others.

I checked out the app on Monday night. I’m not even a hockey fan, but what immediately piqued my interest was the new mosaic view, which allows you to watch as as many as six HD video feeds at a time. It only works on some games for now, but when it does work, it’s an awesome way to watch a hockey game.

I’ve seen some hockey fans complaining about this app (one of the issues is you can’t watch a replay of a game without seeing highlight descriptions first) but this is certainly the future for sports apps. And for sports information junkies, it’s going to get even better.

TidBITS:

Super Bowl 50 (yes, 50 and not L, because the NFL has switched from Roman to Arabic numerals) will take place 7 February 2016 at 6:30 PM EST. If you want to watch the showdown between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos, but don’t have traditional TV service, the good news is that CBS will be streaming the game for free to viewers in the United States.

Here’s how to stream the game on any of your Apple devices:

If for some reason you can’t be in front of a TV this coming Sunday, there are still ways for sports fans to see The Big Game.

Reuters:

The comments from Porsche Chief Executive Oliver Blume show that some car makers believe their drivers want to remain firmly in control at the wheel.

“One wants to drive a Porsche by oneself,” Blume said in an interview with regional newspaper Westfalen-Blatt published on Monday.

“An iPhone belongs in your pocket, not on the road,” Blume added, saying that Porsche did not need to team up with any big technology companies.

Even though some Porsches do come equipped with Apple’s CarPlay, it makes corporate sense to take this line. Besides, why would you buy a sports car only to let a computer have all the fun?

Outdoor Hub:

Wildlife experts advise that if you run across a moose on a trail in the winter, it may be prudent to turn around and leave. Just like you, moose would rather walk on trails than sink their legs into deep snow. Whatever else you do, don’t approach the moose or try to push it off the trail. Moose can be aggressive animals, especially when they are already tired. As you can see in the video, this moose decided to speed through a patch of snow rather than confront the skiers.

I’ve encountered a couple of moose in my life and they are gigantic, stupid and therefore terrifying animals. Never get into a confrontation with them. As this video shows, you will lose. I find it safer just to not go into the woods.

Thanks to ExpanDrive for sponsoring The Loop this week.

Native access to cloud storage without sync?

ExpanDrive is a virtual drive that connects to cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Google, Box, OneDrive, Amazon, SFTP and more. Access and manage files within Finder or edit them using your favorite apps like Photoshop or Sublime Text.

Save 20% today using the coupon LOOP20.

iMore:

Tim Cook recently said that 60 percent of customers on an iPhone 5s or earlier have not yet upgraded to an iPhone 6 or later. When we polled our readership late last year, a majority of our readers told us they were happy with the current sizes — almost 58%.

Whether Apple does this in the spring or not, it certainly makes sense for the company to serve the end of the market that doesn’t need or want one of the ginormous iPhone 6 variations.

Bloomberg:

It’s a way of creating a connection, even if it’s superficial. If users click like on a post about the Red Cross’s disaster relief efforts, they feel as if they’ve done something to help. (In January, Sandberg went so far as to suggest that likes could help defeat Islamic State: By posting positive messages on the terror group’s Facebook pages, users could somehow drown out the hate.) Liking someone’s photo is an awkwardness-free way to make contact with someone you haven’t seen in years. Alternatives to like will let Facebook users be a little more thoughtful, or at least seem to be, without having to try very hard.

I think that “without trying too hard” is the sad key to the Like button. Regardless, the article is an interesting look behind the scenes at Facebook and the massive amount of discussion and thought that goes into something seemingly so simple and obvious.

Popular Mechanics:

It was supposed to be one of the greatest achievements in the history of the United States space program.

A civilian—a schoolteacher, an emissary of the hope for tomorrow—was going to space. Christa McAuliffe, a thirty-seven-year-old mother of two from Concord, New Hampshire, had been selected from eleven thousand entrants to NASA’s Teacher in Space contest. She became a symbol of optimism and progress amid Cold War tension. And the rest of the shuttle crew was itself a representation of the strength of American society: Gregory Jarvis, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Michael Smith, and Commander Dick Scobee. Two women, one of them Jewish. An African- American. An Asian-American. They were the most diverse group of astronauts NASA ever assembled.

On the morning of January 28, 1986, despite concerns within NASA and among others working on the launch that the weather was too cold, the shuttle Challenger blasted off. Seventy-three seconds later, it broke apart in long, grotesque fingers of white smoke in the sky above Cape Canaveral, Florida.

While it was thirty years ago today, I still remember it vividly. I had turned the TV on specifically to watch the launch. I never missed one. I loved watching any kind of NASA launch and had since I was a kid. After Challenger, I never watched another one.

The Atlantic:

“It’s really strange that only humans have chins,” says James Pampush from Duke University. “When we’re looking at things that are uniquely human, we can’t look to big brains or bipedalism because our extinct relatives had those. But they didn’t have chins. That makes this immediately relevant to everyone.”

Indeed, except in rare cases involving birth defects, everyone has chins. Sure, some people have less pronounced ones than others, perhaps because their lower jaws are small or they have more flesh around the area. But if you peeled back that flesh and exposed their jawbones—and maybe don’t do that—you’d still see a chin.

So, why do chins exist?

In the category of “things I wasn’t expecting to think about today”, I would put high on the list, “Why do human beings have chins?” It’s actually a very interesting article and, spoiler alert, scientists really don’t know why.

CNBC:

Cramer thinks the brand loyalty for Apple is so great customers won’t switch to another company. So maybe Apple doesn’t need to worry about peaking phone sales. Maybe it just needs to keep selling more devices, and let the service stream do the talking.

“By this time next year, it wouldn’t shock me if that service revenue number becomes the key metric, especially with the iPhone 7 right around the corner,” Cramer said.

I find Cramer physically hard to listen to (his voice is like finger nails on a blackboard to me) and I’m not going to give him a pass on his late realization of the importance of brand loyalty when it comes to Apple, but the piece and the video have some interesting thoughts as to why analysts can’t seem to get their heads around Apple and why they seemingly treat Apple so harshly. I don’t know if his conclusion that service revenue will be a key metric in the future is correct but it’s something to keep an eye on.

Apple today announced a voluntary recall of AC wall plug adapters designed for use in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Continental Europe, New Zealand and South Korea. In very rare cases, affected Apple two-prong wall plug adapters may break and create a risk of electrical shock if touched. These wall plug adapters shipped with Mac® and certain iOS devices between 2003 and 2015 and were also included in the Apple World Travel Adapter Kit. Apple is aware of 12 incidents worldwide. […]

Talon Torres:

…(it) had been launched at six times Earth’s escape velocity. That’s one hundred fifty thousand miles per hour. Forty-five miles per second. Nine times faster than the Space Shuttle, six times faster than the fastest moon rockets. Faster than the Voyager spacecraft, which, having reached over 35000 miles per hour, are now leaving the solar system and have for years been claimed to be the fastest man-made objects ever. To which I now say: Pshaw and poppycock…

So somewhere in the New Mexico desert, unknown and unmourned, lies an American relic, a piece of history like no other: the fastest man-made object ever.

I have no idea who the writer is but it’s a great story and the answer will surprise you. The amount of energey required is mindboggling. Thanks to John Molloy for the link.

John Gruber captures perfectly the problem with comparing Twitter to Facebook

Kerris is well known in Silicon Valley for her job as one of the top public relations and communications staffers at Apple. She was in the running for the top job at the tech giant, which went to Steve Dowling, after the departure of Katie Cotton.

Kerris retired from Apple, but she would be a great addition to Twitter if they can get her.

The New York Times:

Let’s get this out of the way first: Despite what you may have heard, the iPhone is not dying. Neither, by extension, is Apple.

It’s true that in an earnings report on Tuesday, after weeks of speculation by Wall Street that iPhone sales would finally hit a peak, Apple confirmed the news: IPhone sales grew at their lowest-ever rate in the last quarter. And the company projected total sales of as much as $53 billion in the current quarter that ends in March, which would be a decline of 8.6 percent from last year and Apple’s first revenue drop in more than a decade.

But if Apple is now hitting a plateau, it’s important to remember that it’s one of the loftiest plateaus in the history of business. The $18.4 billion profit that Apple reported on Tuesday is the most ever earned by any company in a single quarter.

It’s necessary to start with these caveats because people have a tendency to react strongly, almost apoplectically, to any suggestion of weakness on Apple’s part.

Yesterday’s earnings report followed the usual script – Apple announces amazing numbers and everyone says, “Yeah, but what’s next!?” I think Apple Executives and The Board of Directors look past the stock price at a much longer time frame. This allows them to, if not ignore the rending of garments, at least keep it in perspective. Apple is still, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, a very succesful company.

The Wirecutter with an up-to-date survey of AA rechargeables. Good info.

iMore transcribed the call, along with all the analyst questions, and answers from Tim Cook and Luca Maestri.

Apple on Tuesday announced record quarterly revenue of $75.9 billion and record quarterly net income of $18.4 billion.

“Our team delivered Apple’s biggest quarter ever, thanks to the world’s most innovative products and all-time record sales of iPhone, Apple Watch and Apple TV,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The growth of our Services business accelerated during the quarter to produce record results, and our installed base recently crossed a major milestone of one billion active devices.”

Blair Bunting:

There was once a time when men flew a jet that tore the air apart, nearly revealing the physics that had served only to hold it together. It was an aircraft that screamed as quietly as the night, flying for almost ten years before it was even known to exist. To many, it is considered the greatest aircraft innovation ever gave us; it is the SR-71 Blackbird.

I was not among those fortunate to see it fly, my viewership of this spectical (sic) is, and will always be, limited to History Channel documentaries with the sound cranked to 11. However, I could not help but feel the sense of awe when stepping out of the van at Beal Air Force Base and the PA officer saying, “here is your SR-71, Mr. Bunting.”

Even after all of these years, it is still the most magnificent airplane I’ve ever seen. I remember the day it buzzed the city of Vancouver to promote the local airshow. I was literally standing in awe, mouth agape, as it flew by.

Wired:

It’s odd when you think about it. Records are archaic technology, a format that is not at all portable and subject to all manner of degradation, from scratches and skips to pops and clicks, if it isn’t properly and lovingly cared for. But audiophiles insist vinyl offers superior sound. We’ll stay out of that debate, but you have to admit it is pretty cool how vinyl works.

There’s a process to it that borders on artistry, something Wiper—who loves records—discovered during a visit to Record Industry, a pressing plant in the in the Dutch city of Haarlem. The British photographer followed every step in the process, from making the master to pressing the wax to shrink-wrapping the finished product. “Seeing how it’s done really makes you realize how amazingly clever this old-fashioned technology is,” he says.

The process of creating the actual vinyl record is fascinating. The slide show included with the story makes me wish for a video of the incredibly detailed process. Almost makes me want to buy vinyl again. Almost.