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The Washington Post:

Lisa Jackson, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency and Apple’s top executive on environmental issues, will become the company’s lead on all policy initiatives, including the environment, education and accessibility. Her new title will be the vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives.

In a memo to employees, Apple chief executive Tim Cook said that Jackson’s new role is in line with the company’s dedication to “leaving the world better than we found it.”

Another good sign that Apple’s commitment to environment issues isn’t just lip service. Even better, they wisely see this as part of making the company better and more successful.

Rene Ritchie put together an FAQ of Apple’s new iOS.

Fast Company:

Apple’s “World Gallery” campaign, by agency TBWA\Media Arts Lab, that showcased iPhone photos taken by amateur and professional photographers around the world, has snapped the top prize in the Outdoor Lions at Cannes this year.

According to the jury president Juan Carlos Ortiz, creative chairman at DDB Americas, the judges didn’t so much choose “World Gallery,” it chose them. Praising the Grand Prix winner, Ortiz said: “It’s not just a great idea, it’s a game changer. It’s really opening a new way of doing things and changing behavior.”

Congratulations not just to Apple for the win but to all the photographers who had their work showcased. It really brought to the fore how a creative person with an iPhone can create amazing images.

Billboard:

Apple Music, the hardware giant’s soon-to-launch streaming service, has landed an eleventh-hour coup, striking deals with the independents’ digital rights organization Merlin and with Martin Mills’ indie powerhouse Beggars Group, sources tell Billboard. Label group PIAS has also announced it has signed on.

In a letter sent to Merlin members, CEO Charles Caldas writes, “I am pleased to say that Apple has made a decision to pay for all usage of Apple Music under the free trials on a per-play basis, as well as to modify a number of other terms that members had been communicating directly with Apple about. With these changes, we are happy to support the deal.”

I think independent music will be a big deal for Apple Music and, like many, am getting more and more excited to see what Apple Music will offer in terms of real world use.

This is a YouTube playlist showing how this guitar was built. Just wow.

BOOM!

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This is just fascinating. I love EVH and what he’s done for guitar players over the years. This is definitely a must read.

Bluetooth Special Interest Group:

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announced today that Apple, Inc. has become a Promoter member of the Bluetooth SIG. Promoter members are the sole voting class on Bluetooth SIG corporate matters and hold a continual seat on the SIG Board of Directors.

Current Promoter members Ericsson, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Nokia, and Toshiba unanimously welcomed Apple to the highest membership level of the organization.

As the press release states, Apple has been a member of the group for years. This new status obviously means they will have more of a say over the future of Bluetooth.

Petapixel:

While Adobe provides an excellent range of products, some photographers are looking to expand their horizon with more affordable alternatives.

Emulsion is described as a 3rd party photo cataloging software designed to replace Apple’s in-house Aperture photo editing and management program.

For $50 you can pick up Emulsion, which allows non-destructive editing, metadata manipulation, photo organization, and more. A free thirty-day trial is also available for those who would like to give the software a thorough run before purchasing. Current requirements for Emulsion include Mac OS X Yosemite and 4 GB of RAM.

As the review points out, if you’re already a Lightroom user, this app isn’t any better. But, if you don’t need all the features of Lightroom, Emulsion looks like a good alternative.

Samsung:

Have you ever found yourself driving behind a semi-trailer truck? If you’re on a single-lane highway or road, it can be a nightmare. Even though the truck is driving relatively slowly, you cannot overtake it due to its size, and because you cannot see what is happening in front of the truck.

However, Samsung has developed a solution that may make this problem a thing of the past.

This is a very clever idea but likely far too expensive for most trucking companies. There’s also likely a lot of regulations that would have to be changed as well as assurances companies won’t simply use the technology to show even more advertisements to motorists stuck behind semis.

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. takes Chinese consumer tastes into account when it designs many of its products, Chief Executive Tim Cook said, underscoring the country’s importance to the iPhone maker.

The company considers details including color palettes to suit local tastes, Cook said in an interview in the June 17 Chinese-language version of Bloomberg Businessweek, published under license by Modern Media Holdings.

The decision to offer a gold iPhone last year reflects in part the popularity of that color among Chinese users, he added. Greater China, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong, is now Apple’s second-largest market and has become a battleground for the company as it vies with Samsung Electronics Co. and Xiaomi Corp. for smartphone supremacy.

This is a statement that will surprise some but really shouldn’t. China is poised to take over as Apple and the world’s largest market for consumer goods. It makes good business sense to cater to it whenever possible.

I just love Pad & Quill’s products. The workmanship and care put into every aspect of their bags is top notch. I own one of the bags already, but that backpack is calling my name. They also have a new briefcase available.

After a lot of bad press and a letter from Taylor Swift bringing attention to the cause, Apple Senior Vice President, Eddy Cue said on Twitter that artists will be paid for streaming music, even during the three-month Apple Music trial. […]

Apple is going to offer users a three-month trial for its new Apple Music streaming service. That’s good. However, Apple will not pay the artists for any music streamed during that time. That’s not just bad, it’s downright wrong. […]

Hope you all have a fantastic Father’s Day. Some corny jokes to share.

Jim and Dan talk about how the Apple Watch has changed Jim’s life for the better.

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Ars Technica:

IMAX’s letter is part of a disturbing trend in which some companies believe that owning a trademark actually allows them to control any speech about their product. Too many examples abound already of trademark owners that believe they’re entitled to control how movies and TV shows portray their brand.

IMAX has taken that to the next level here, believing it is entitled to literally silence someone speaking to a journalist because the name of a corporation happened to slip out of his mouth.

Good to see both Ars Technica pushing back against this kind of corporate bullying and IMAX’s apology after they realize how badly they screwed up.

As someone with an extremely complicated relationship with his three dads, this video had me in tears thinking about all the things I wish I could have said to them and all the things I wish I could have heard them say.

Don’t wait until it’s too late.

My thanks to HelloTalk for sponsoring The Loop this week. Finally, learning and practicing a new language is easier and more intuitive than ever before. Introducing HelloTalk, the language app where your teachers are native language speakers from around the world. You just pick the language you want to learn—there are over 100 from which to select—and almost instantaneously you’ll be in touch with native speakers of that language … and you’ll start learning and practicing immediately.

HelloTalk isn’t a course you strictly follow; rather, you learn and practice at your pace and in the manner that best meets the way you learn. Practice foreign languages with people around the world. Simultaneously speak and type the language you’re learning. Record your voice before speaking to your HelloTalk friends and compare your recording to standard pronunciations. Change your friends’ audio messages to text for better understanding, and receive help to improve your grammar. Easily translate whenever you don’t understand, and so much more.

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The emails and tweets about the weight loss I’ve experienced using HealthKit and Apple Watch have been heartwarming, to say the very least. It was probably the most difficult piece I’ve ever written, just because I was putting myself all out there for everyone to see. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I would even post it. Finally, I looked at the screen, hit publish, and walked away. […]

After winning the 2015 Helen Keller Achievement Award for VoiceOver, Apple has highlighted some of the popular apps using VoiceOver that are available on its App Store.

AFB is recognizing Apple for VoiceOver, a gesture-based screen reader that allows users to hear a description of everything happening on the display, and other features that make iPhone, iPad and other iOS devices accessible to people with vision loss. Apple received an AFB Access Award in 2009 for its trailblazing engineering of accessible products and continues its extraordinary efforts to make their products accessible for everyone.

Congrats to all at Apple for thinking of ever customer.

Petapixel:

If you come across any photograph published in the US before 1923, you’re free to use it for whatever purpose you’d like, with or without permission, and with or without attribution. Why? Because its copyright has expired and it’s public domain.

Strangely enough, sometimes free public domain photos get sold as stock photos, and those who don’t know any better may pay large sums to use something they could have used for free.

Don’t get conned by Corbis or anyone else trying to sell you imagery that is in the public domain.

Red Bull:

Leader Paul Bonhomme and Wingman Steve Jones have been flying together for 17 years, and needed every ounce of that experience to pull off this amazing feat of aviation.

The Red Bull Matadors pilots hurtled straight through a hangar at Llanbedr Airfield, north Wales, at a speed of 160 knots (185mph), just one metre off the ground.

Brings new meaning to the words, “sphincter tightening”. Amazing skill and courage of these two guys. “If we get it wrong, we hit a building”. Indeed.

Apple earns five stars in this year’s Who Has Your Back report. This is Apple’s fifth year in the report, and it has adopted every best practice we’ve identified as part of this report. We commend Apple for its strong stance regarding user rights, transparency, and privacy.

Congrats Apple.

EFF’s evaluation of Google (three stars):

Google should take a stronger position in providing notice to users about government data requests after an emergency has ended or a gag has been lifted. Furthermore, Google should provide transparency into its data retention policies.

Spencer Wynn

The Hello Project was born of a love of story telling and curiosity.

All too often people pass one another, head down and only interacting with their mobile devices. This is an attempt to use the power of social media to reconnect people in the oldest way possible …

by saying Hello.

This is sort of the Canadian version of the famous New York city project and it brings home a thought I’ve always had – most of us have stories to tell but no one to tell them to.

I love the idea of street photography but am often too reserved and shy (too Canadian) to approach people. I think this way of doing it will inspire me to try my own photographic experiment along these lines.

Check out the picture at the top of the post. Great!

Over 600 million Samsung mobile device users may be at risk due to a significant security threat, according to researchers at mobile security specialist NowSecure.

and

“Welton found he could hijack the process of updating one of the virtual keyboards Samsung installs on many Android smartphones. From there, he could eavesdrop on phone conversations, rummage through text messages and contacts, or turn on the microphone to capture audio,”…

Enjoy your phone Samsung people.

Jim and Merlin recap WWDC and talk rock.

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