Amazing, beautiful, creepy and scary all at the same time.
Palau is part of the larger island group of Micronesia and Jellyfish Lake is a marine lake located on Eil Malk island. Wikipedia says, “Although both species of jellyfish living in the lake have stinging cells (nematocytes), they are not in general powerful enough to cause harm to humans.”
My thanks to Mapbox for sponsoring The Loop this week. Mapbox lets iOS developers add beautiful maps to their applications. Our building blocks make it easy to swap out Apple maps with our open source SDK. Choose the map design that fits your app and feels good in your hand.
I don’t often write about email clients, but I love this app. Spark is designed well, full-featured, and it’s easy to use. With support for Apple Watch, using Spark is a no-brainer.
Fortune:
Do you like the idea of an internet without advertising? You can join the soaring ranks of people who install ad blocking software to scrub out banners, pop-ups, and more. But not everyone will be happy about that.A report this week by media analyst Frederic Filloux warned that web publishers face a crisis as ad block rates shoot up, and consequently block an important means of revenue for online publishers. Between 15 to 17% of the U.S. population reportedly use ad blockers, and the number is double that for millennials. The numbers are even higher in Europe, and up to 80-90% in the case of specialty tech and gaming sites.
The popularity of ad blockers is understandable: For consumers they make web pages look nicer, and they can improve browser speed and screen for malware too.
Of course they should be legal. What should be illegal is poorly coded sites and ads that encourage so many people to use ad blockers.
Don’t get me wrong – as a content producer myself, I hate ad blockers. But I’ve been to countless web sites that have various forms of ads pushed at us, blocking content I came for, autoplaying ads, using Flash and other cruft that slow down and, in some cases, cause havoc with my computer, that I completely understand the people who use this software to prevent those things.
What publishers should be looking at is not trying to make ad blocking software illegal but their own practices that make such software so popular.
Nextshark:
Documentary photographer Doug Menuez was given the rare opportunity by Steve Jobs himself to document what was happening inside NeXT, the computer platform development company Jobs created after being ousted from Apple in 1985. From there, Doug spent the next three years observing Jobs build a company from the ground up.“He wasn’t a positive manager a lot of the times, but he was a great teacher.”
Leaving aside my issues with the poorly written headline, this is the guy who shot some of the most iconic images of Steve Jobs. His comments in general and on Jobs in particular are very interesting and well worth the read.
Consumer Reports:
If you want an army of geeks you can count on to tame an unruly computer, you’d better buy a Macintosh: Apple tech support is by far the most effective of any computer brand’s. With most Windows PCs, there’s only a 50-50 chance that a manufacturer’s tech support will do the trick.It’s no surprise that Apple had the highest score for overall user satisfaction. In fact, the company has been top-rated every year since we first asked consumers about tech support back in 2007—even though Apple provides just 90 days of free phone and online tech support, compared with one year for most Windows PC companies.
If you’ve been around for any length of time, it’s easy to find/tell horror stories about poor Apple tech support but, at least in the past ten years, my experience with them, whether online, on the phone or in the Apple Stores, has been uniformly positive. I used to work in tech support and it’s a thankless, hard job. But Apple doesn’t treat it as a profit centre like so many other companies do. Apple recognizes that it is an integral part of the company’s success.
ZDNet:
Apple has acknowledge the existence of a bug which can crash the Messages applications on iPhones and has issued a set of instructions as a temporary workaround.
Apple will likely have a more permanent fix for this weird issue inside five days.
From VentureBeat:
Today was a pretty big day for Google. At its annual I/O developer conference, the company unveiled Android M, Android Pay, Brillo, Google Photos, and more.
Google explains its new photos app and service. For now, I’ll stick with iCloud. It works well for me, syncs to all of my devices and optimizes the photos. I also don’t have to wonder what Google is doing with them when I’m not looking.
There are two basic ways to read this news. The first is to take Apple at its word — that this is a promotion for Ive that will let him focus more of attention on, well, design. That he’s delegating management administrivia to Dye and Howarth, not decreasing his involvement in supervising the actual design work. The second way — the cynical way — is that this is the first step to Ive easing his way out the door, and that his new title is spin to make the news sound good rather than bad.
Personally, I think it’s both. Jony deserves a “chief” title and this is a perfect way to introduce the public to the other lead designers on Jony’s team. I don’t think Jony is going anywhere in the near future, but it’s important for Wall St. and the public to realize that he won’t leave a giant vacuum when he does leave.
It would be impossible for Apple not to have a succession plan in place for someone as important and well-known as Jony. That plan may not come into affect for years, but it’s in place nonetheless.
“Scold” is the right word. Reading the decision, I’m struck by how many ways the Court found to say that Bromwich had crossed the line.
I think the word everyone is looking for here is: “Crooked”.
Pixelmator is one of my favorite apps of all time. I started using it on the Mac, then iPad, and now it’s available for iPhone as well. The thing I truly like about the guys at Pixelmator, is that they think about each platform and figure out the best way to get things done. They think about the details that will affect the users. That’s why I love Pixelmator and why I will continue to support them.
io9:
My colleagues and I recruited actual human subjects in Germany. We ran an actual clinical trial, with subjects randomly assigned to different diet regimes. And the statistically significant benefits of chocolate that we reported are based on the actual data. It was, in fact, a fairly typical study for the field of diet research. Which is to say: It was terrible science. The results are meaningless, and the health claims that the media blasted out to millions of people around the world are utterly unfounded.Here’s how we did it.
A great dissection of how easy it is to fool the media. Keep this story in mind the next time you read breathless news about miracle cures.
The new version is out. Smile Software put together a series of videos going over all the features of this great piece of software. Take a look on their Web site.
I love this song.
Jawbone sued Fitbit in California State Court here on Wednesday, accusing its rival of “systematically plundering” confidential information by poaching employees who improperly downloaded sensitive materials shortly before leaving.
This one is going to get messy.
Techcrunch:
Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior vice president of operations, said that there are over 4,000 apps now available for Apple Watch, a number we’ve previously heard. Williams also discussed the upcoming native SDK for the Apple Watch. Williams spoke in an interview today at the Code conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.“A week from Monday at our developer conference we’ll release a preview so that developers will be able to write code natively and have access to sensors, and we’re really excited about that.”
When asked by TechCrunch about the possibility of future Apple Watches giving more transparency to overall health, Williams declined to say anything specific but did acknowledge that Apple was considering adding more sensors.
In three to six months, things are going to start getting even more interesting with the Apple Watch.
Apple:
Make the most of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference with the WWDC app. Even if you can’t join us in San Francisco, you can still follow along each day — session videos are just a tap away. And because the WWDC app experience now extends to Apple Watch, conference information is available right from your wrist.
Along with the media invites Apple sent out this morning, they have updated the official WWDC app to include the keynote session, likely emceed by CEO Tim Cook and including the usual cast of characters and announcements.
Atlas Obscura:
The hunt for treasure on Oak Island has been going on for over two hundred years.Without a single return, and conflicting theories of what hunters are actually looking for, the so-called Money Pit in Nova Scotia is one of the most incredible self-perpetuating goose chases in the world. Errol Flynn, John Wayne, and Franklin Roosevelt were at one point each involved in the hunt and held their own theories as to the pit’s contents.
Some believed pirate treasure lay just below the next layer of soil. Others believed Marie Antoinette’s lost jewels were surely buried there right after the French Revolution. Another theory even posited that Francis Bacon had stored documents in the pit proving himself as the author of Shakespeare’s plays. There are many other theories one big one is that “The Arc Of the Covenant” lies at the bottom.
Having grown up in the area, we were regaled with ghost stories about the island as kids. It’s a fascinating story, not of treasure found, but of man’s desire to find it. The best legend of the treasure is that seven men must die before it will be found. Six already have while searching for whatever is in that pit.
Re/code:
We are thrilled to announce that Re/code’s parent company, Revere Digital, is being wholly acquired by the highly respected digital-native media company Vox Media. This is the next big step in our mission to bring you quality tech journalism, because our work will now be amplified and enhanced by Vox Media’s deep and broad skill set.
This doesn’t feel like a good thing. It certainly won’t be the last merger or acquisition in the “new media journalism” space, either.
FuzzMeasure is an audio and acoustic measurement tool to produce, analyze, and publish beautiful graphs. It delivers a comprehensive suite of features for professionals in research, acoustics, live sound, room design, and pro audio. By combining sophisticated technology with an elegant user interface, FuzzMeasure offers an unparalleled experience.
I’ve talked to the developer about FuzzMeasure quite a bit over the years. Great to see this update.
There was nothing unique about these items—they were puny in size and yet they arrived in a giant box bursting with air-filled packaging material. And I looked at that box with absolute and complete disgust, wondering, Is Amazon Prime actually an EcoCrime? Others on Twitter agreed with that take, which only reaffirmed my guilt for using Prime—for being an unwitting enabler of waste.
I’m not a member of Amazon Prime, but I know a lot of people, like Om, that are. I can’t wait to hear the explanation for the oversized packaging from Amazon.
Merlin and Jim have some fun with reader questions, talk about Apple’s MacBook lineup, look at the benefits of sleep tracking, and give some advice on guitar software for beginners.
Send questions and comments via #heytdr
Download the MP3 of this episode.
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Until now, Ive’s job title has been Senior Vice President of Design. But I can reveal that he has just been promoted and is now Apple’s Chief Design Officer. It is therefore an especially exciting time for him.
Inside the fabled design studio (cloths over the long tables hiding the exciting new prototypes from prying eyes like mine) Jony has two people with him. They too have been promoted as part of Ive’s new role.
One is Richard Howarth, English as Vimto. “Richard is going to be our new head of Industrial Design,” says Jony. “And this is Alan Dye, the new head of User Interface.” Dye is a tall, amiable American.
Mapbox lets iOS developers add beautiful maps to their applications. Our building blocks make it easy to swap out Apple maps with our open source SDK. Choose the map design that fits your app and feels good in your hand.
Wired:
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, founded in 1909, is the world’s oldest permanent motorsport facility. It’s changed a lot since the early days—pavement instead of bricks for a racing surface, new stands and administration buildings—but the track is essentially the same. It still has corners banked at 9 degrees, 12 minutes, and those corners are the same radius they were a century ago.More than that, the track is still a magical, ghostly place, eerily alive with death and life. Stand on the front straight and stare into Turn 1—it looks like a tunnel, or maybe a wall of asphalt—and you feel the echo of death and time in your bones.
I’ve watched this race every year since I was eight years old and I was lucky enough to drive my motorcycle on it for a charity event. It really is a amazing place.
MY thanks to WALTR for sponsoring The Loop this week. WALTR is the first Mac app in the world to allow users transfer and playback unsupported formats such as MKV, AVI, FLAC & more – directly from the native Videos/Music app.
iTunes is the only option Apple gives us for loading media onto our iPhone, iPad or iPod touch from our Macs, and it limits the audio and video file formats we can upload. That’s a thing of the past thanks to WALTR from Softorino. This awesome Mac app lets you upload a long list of file formats — such as MKV, AVI, MP4, CUE, FLAC, APE, ALAC, OGG, AAC, AIFF and WAV — to your iOS device without ever touching iTunes. Just fire up WALTR, connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac via USB, and drag files to convert and upload them so you can watch or listen on the go. It really is drag-and-drop simple, and file transfers are surprisingly fast. No iTunes required; No jailbreak required; No need to worry about 3rd party converters;
the awesomely cool app name is inspired by Walter White from Breaking Bad.
this is the same app that discovered 4K video playback on iPhone 6
You can try out WALTR for free and a license costs US$29.95 but you can use the Loop exclusive coupon ‘HEINEKENSPECIAL’ for a 33% discount.
Weaknesses in the factory reset function within Google’s Android mobile operating system mean data from more than 500 million phones can be discovered despite being wiped, researchers have found.
And
Recovering data was even possible with full-disk encryption switched on, the researchers discovered.
Good luck Android people. Here is a sure way to fix the security issues you’re having.
In the month since the phone’s launch, however, the response has been lacklustre. The Korean news outlet Yonhap News Agency reports that the device has seen 10 million shipments so far. For comparison, Samsung’s previous model, the S5, shipped 11 million units in the same time frame a year ago — the year in which Samsung’s sales collapsed. These are shipments, not sales, so the number of devices sold could be even lower.
I guess you can’t copy and be successful forever.
I need one of these.