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If you’re into gaming at all, you’re going to want to take a look at this.

I’m looking forward to the launch of Beats 1 for a couple of reasons, but mostly because I have no idea what it’s supposed to be. I was at the keynote, I read the New York Times article, and I read Apple’s Web site. I still have no idea what it is.

There are a few slots on The Deck available in July and August. Need to get your product in front of millions of curious folks? Drop a line for a nice price for a new advertiser. The Deck only works with the highest quality sites, including The Loop, Daring Fireball, and many others.

My thanks to Marketcircle for sponsoring The Loop this week. Marketcircle, helping small businesses grow with amazing Mac, iPad, iPhone apps, and now Apple Watch. Marketcircle is a Mac-based software company in Toronto that develops award-winning apps to help you save time, stay organized, and work happier. Serving the Apple/Mac community for over 10 years, Marketcircle’s Daylite and Billings Pro can take your business to new heights.

Daylite is a business productivity app that brings together the benefits of a CRM, project management app, calendar app, and to-do app all in one. Daylite helps you share information, build effective processes, and increase efficiency. With Daylite to keep you and your team organized, you can accomplish more than you thought possible.

Billings Pro is a time tracking and invoicing app that helps freelancers and small businesses create beautiful and professional invoices in as little as 60 seconds. With less time managing invoices, you have more time to focus on clients and do the work you love.

Read about how small businesses have grown with the help of Daylite and Billings Pro. Get 10% off your Daylite license(s) when you use the promo code: LOOP0615 (valid until July 12th 2015).

Macworld:

Cook’s specialty is the running of the business, and at that he excels. But he also knows when to let his team do its job, and doesn’t try to replicate the way Jobs ran the company.

The more I consider it, the more I’ve begun to think that even were Jobs still around, Cook might still be the better choice for CEO in this day and age. Can you imagine Jobs being as receptive as Cook was to calls for improved diversity at Apple? Or embracing social media? Or posing for selfies? Yeah, me neither.

Any discussion that Cook isn’t a good CEO in general or “good enough for Apple” is utterly ridiculous. Cook is arguably a better CEO for Apple, at least right now, than Jobs would have been.

Techcrunch:

The key ingredient here is Google’s Speech Recognition API (though others like its translation services are also at work). The API lets the fridge recognize voice input in up to 40 different languages, with the ultimate goal of recognizing the single phrase “I am Canadian” (Molson’s longtime marketing slogan).

Molson makes some spectacularly awful beer but they do some really interesting promotions around the theme of “I am Canadian”.

The next iOSDevCamp is from July 10-12, 2015 in San Jose. I’m thinking of stopping by and saying hello.

Alright boys and girls, get ready to be schooled. A new study conducted by the University of Queensland’s School of Psychology has found that listening to extreme music like heavy metal can help people process anger and even increase their positive emotions, like inspiration.

Clearly this is me.

Jim and Dan speculate on what really happened with the Apple Music policy change, and talk about the changing music industry, Eddie Van Halen, The Terminator, and more.

Sponsored by Squarespace. Use promo code GUITARS for 10% off your first purchase.

I must have this. Much respect to this guy.

Schwarzenegger may be a real life jerk but he is a publicity machine and will do whatever it takes to promote his projects. This is a great stunt. I can’t wait to see the movie. The theme music alone gives me chills.

The new York Times:

For the last 12 years, Mr. Lowe has been a top tastemaker on the BBC’s Radio 1 by championing brand-new music, landing interviews with stars like Kanye West and running his show with a frenetic production style inspired by hip-hop itself. Now he is preparing for a much broader role as the guiding voice of Beats 1, a free Internet radio station from Apple that on Tuesday will begin broadcasting to smartphones and laptops around the world — an experiment, of sorts, to reinvent live radio.

I hope we see profiles of the other two featured DJs for Beats 1. This is an aspect of Apple Music I find especially interesting and, I think, will make or break the service.

I don’t think Beats sound particularly good, but it’s an interesting article.

Essential apps, what makes a great app, and some stuff about KISS.

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Dropbox made itself a household name by giving away cloud storage. The eight-year-old company, valued at $10 billion, had 300 million registered users a year ago; now it’s got 400 million. Its two-year-old effort to make money from business users has been less impressive. While Dropbox led the $904 million global market for business file-sharing last year with about a 24 percent share, No. 2 Box and No. 3 Microsoft each took about 21 percent and doubled their slice of the pie, growing almost twice as fast, according to researcher IDC.

Dropbox is hugely popular, but it seems clear they need to figure out this sales strategy quickly.

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!

Marketcircle, helping small businesses grow with amazing Mac, iPad, iPhone apps, and now Apple Watch. Marketcircle is a Mac-based software company in Toronto that develops award-winning apps to help you save time, stay organized, and work happier. Serving the Apple/Mac community for over 10 years, Marketcircle’s Daylite and Billings Pro can take your business to new heights.

Daylite is a business productivity app that brings together the benefits of a CRM, project management app, calendar app, and to-do app all in one. Daylite helps you share information, build effective processes, and increase efficiency. With Daylite to keep you and your team organized, you can accomplish more than you thought possible.

Billings Pro is a time tracking and invoicing app that helps freelancers and small businesses create beautiful and professional invoices in as little as 60 seconds. With less time managing invoices, you have more time to focus on clients and do the work you love.

Read about how small businesses have grown with the help of Daylite and Billings Pro. Get 10% off your Daylite license(s) when you use the promo code: LOOP0615 (valid until July 12th 2015).

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. […]