Uncategorized

The Consumerist:

The floral wire services, FTD and Teleflora, were very relevant in 1910 and 1934 when they began, respectively. These companies, along with 1980s upstart 1-800-Flowers, now dominate the industry by advertising their national brand and squeezing local florists. While these companies, and mail-order services like Proflowers, blanket the airwaves and Web pages with ads showing off their great deals before major flower-giving holidays, they are not the best choice to get the best bloom for your buck.

We have long recommended that flower-givers follow this basic process

Definitely buy your significant other, male or female, a flower arrangement. But do your best to support your local flower merchant.

New York Times:

Apple’s record-breaking holiday quarter, which brought in $18 billion in earnings, allowed the company to capture 93 percent of the profit in the handset industry, according to a new report from Canaccord Genuity, an investment firm.

Samsung took the rest, but its share is shrinking, the report said.

Apple is doomed.

I think this will be pretty popular.

A hidden treasure trove of gear flown on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon sees the light of day after Neil Armstrong’s widow shares the find with the Smithsonian.

Wow.

Alphonse Swinehart:

In our terrestrial view of things, the speed of light seems incredibly fast. But as soon as you view it against the vast distances of the universe, it’s unfortunately very slow. This animation illustrates, in realtime, the journey of a photon of light emitted from the surface of the sun and traveling across a portion of the solar system, from a human perspective.

This visualization of the speed of light and the realization that, on a galactic scale, it’s actually really slow, is all kinds of mind boggling.

Petapixel:

Unlike other affordable photo-editing apps out there, which are usually dumbed down offerings with only a subset of Photoshop’s usefulness, Affinity Photo is trying to set itself apart by offering the power of Photoshop in a program that’s blazing fast and ridiculously affordable.

Looks very interesting and for free, there’s no harm in giving it a try.

Rolling Stone:

After three and a half hours of the Grammy telecast, you may feel like you saw everything that could possible be imagined – even Kanye West hilariously rushing the stage in defense of Beyoncé, yet again. But although the show was tailored for the home audience, those actually in attendance at Los Angeles’ Staples Center were privy to a few jokes, celebrations and candid moments that didn’t make the CBS broadcast. These were our favorites.

There were some great moments on TV but, as always, the best often happen away from the cameras.

Once a week, inside the 142-square-foot apartment he shares with his parents and two siblings in a rural California farming town, a two-year-old has a standing appointment with an iPad.

Born deaf, the toddler received cochlear implants seven months ago. He and his mother use FaceTime video chat to have hour-long sessions in Spanish with a speech therapist who is helping the boy learn how to listen and understand the new sounds.

What a truly great story.

Samsung is warning customers about discussing personal information in front of their smart television set.

The warning applies to TV viewers who control their Samsung Smart TV using its voice activation feature.

Such TV sets “listen” to some of what is said in front of them and may share details they hear with Samsung or third parties, it said.

Fuck. You.

I just can’t get over how good they are after all these years. Interesting to note that drummer Phil Rudd wasn’t with the band—try to hire one hitman and you lose your job.

Very impressive.

Many of you have noticed that The Loop Magazine hasn’t published as often since mid to late last year. I tried to make up for missing issues by publishing double issues once a month, but the schedule was still erratic. Clearly, this isn’t fair to the subscribers of the magazine.

I have been going through a personal crisis that has affected my ability and commitment to publish the magazine. I have kept the details private, but my problems are no excuse for letting a fine publication falter. I want to apologize to all those that put their faith in me to put out a quality product—I failed.

That said, I believe in The Loop Magazine. I believe the magazine app developed by Chris Harris and Mateusz Stawecki is second to none in the App Store. I believe the content we publish is engaging and different from everything else put out on Newsstand. I believe The Loop Magazine can work.

I am moving the magazine to a monthly publication that will contain double the amount of stories that the bi-weekly edition published—that’s 8-10 stories per month. I’m currently finishing up the latest issue and it should be published this week. This will be the start of a new chapter for The Loop Magazine, and I’m sure it will be a successful one.

Although I have no right to ask for it, I need your support to make the magazine successful. If you haven’t subscribed, take a look at the magazine and the content and see what you think—if you like it, subscribe. If you tried it before and were disappointed in me, try again. It’s available for both iPhone and iPad.

I have a lot to prove to you, the readers, but I believe this will work.

Thanks for your support.

Jim

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.

With HelloTalk, you’ll discover learning a new language is fun … and fast. Download your copy for iPhone or Android today.

I almost choked when he said this whole wall is full of Les Pauls.

Many thanks to Elgato for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. Elgato Thunderbolt 2 Dock enables you to connect everything to your MacBook or Ultrabook at once. With two Thunderbolt 2 and three USB 3.0 ports, simultaneously connect all of your devices with only one cable. Built-in HDMI enables you to directly connect a display of your choice up to 4K resolution, while enjoying increased network performance with built-in Gigabit Ethernet and crystal-clear conference calls through the separate microphone input and amplified audio output.

VanCityBuzz:

This time every year, the Sapporo Snow Festival draws millions of people to Sapporo to see hundreds of intricately detailed snow sculptures and to participate in snow-themed cultural festivities.

The festival features an International Snow Sculpting Contest with teams from 12 countries around the world. 6,500 tons of snow is transported to the three festival sites throughout the month of January from locations in and around Sapporo.

The Star Wars sculpture is epic.

So cool.

New York Times:

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College released a study on Thursday that mapped DNA found in New York’s subway system — a crowded, largely subterranean behemoth that carries 5.5 million riders on an average weekday, and is filled with hundreds of species of bacteria (mostly harmless), the occasional spot of bubonic plague, and a universe of enigmas. Almost half of the DNA found on the system’s surfaces did not match any known organism and just 0.2 percent matched the human genome.

I’m never taking the New York City subway ever again.

According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Apple has made a major push to recruit talent from the electric carmaker, offering massive bonuses and significant salary bumps for those willing to come to work in Cupertino.

Musk said Apple’s attempts have not been successful. I do have a lot of respect for Musk and the work he’s done.

LA Times:

Measles has been a scourge for centuries, afflicting millions of people. It has been blamed, in part, for decimating native populations of the Americas as Europeans explored the New World. In modern times, before a vaccine was developed, nearly every American contracted the virus, with its telltale skin blotches and fever. Measles was declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000, but has staged a comeback as the inoculation rate has dropped. Here’s a history.

Many people think of measles as an innocuous childhood disease but it’s actually incredibly dangerous and sometimes deadly.

The device will communicate via a form of technology known as NFC and won’t have to be charged, Chief Executive Officer Nick Hayek said in an interview. The Swatch smartwatch will also let consumers make mobile payments and work with Windows and Android software, he said.

I really like the not having to be charged bit.

Hayek is ready to go head-to-head with Apple Inc., which has scheduled its smartwatch introduction for April.

Nobody is truly ready to take on Apple.

Vice:

Between 1974 and 1979, the Canadian government tested the idea of a basic income guarantee (BIG) across an entire town, giving people enough money to survive in a way that no other place in North America has before or since.

For those four years—until the project was cancelled and its findings packed away—the town’s poorest residents were given monthly checks that supplemented what modest earnings they had and rewarded them for working more. And for that time, it seemed that the effects of poverty began to melt away. Doctor and hospital visits declined, mental health appeared to improve, and more teenagers completed high school.

Damn Canadian socialists.

Macworld:

Providing many of the features found in its mobile sibling, the Yosemite-only Photos for OS X offers an interface less cluttered than iPhoto, improved navigation, simpler yet more powerful editing tools, the ability to sync all your images to iCloud (though it doesn’t require you to), and new options for creating books, cards, slideshows, calendars, and prints. I’ve had the opportunity to take an early look at Photos, and this is what I’ve found.

This is the developer preview but, in my experience, it’s pretty stable with few true glitches or bugs. Keep in mind, this is not (yet at least) a professional Aperture or Lightroom level app. But, that being said, it’s still pretty good.

FiftyThree:

Beginning today, the Draw, Sketch, Outline, Write, Color, and Mixer tools in Paper are available for free for everyone.

I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler but Paper is my favourite app for doodling and showing off the iPad’s drawing capabilities to others. Go grab these apps now.

With strong growth in the fourth quarter of 2014, Apple’s iOS has overtaken Android in the US, according to sales data from market research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. […]

Set backstage at three iconic product launches and ending in 1998 with the unveiling of the iMac, “Steve Jobs” invites audiences behind the scenes of the digital revolution to witness an intimate portrait of the brilliant man at its epicenter.

Matt Gemmell:

There’s a lot of misunderstanding out there about mental health. Some people are up, some people are OK, and some people are down. Everyone gets down from time to time. Pull your socks up, and get on with it. Hold it together.

It’s reasonable advice – as long as you’re just feeling down.

For some people, though, down doesn’t cover it. They can’t just get on, because their feet can’t find the bottom.

There’s a predator down there. That’s the truth. Black as pitch, and silent in motion. It can see perfectly even where no light penetrates – in fact, especially there. It’s surprisingly warm to the touch, but it can drain all the heat out of a room in moments.

As one who suffers from depression, Matt’s piece really hit home for me.

It is a pretty damning indictment that Microsoft had to spend hundreds of millions on front end apps for its own platform –Microsoft Exchange — and it should send alarm bells ringing.

Microsoft has a long history of not getting product trends. They didn’t get the iPod, tablets, iPhone and a host of other products that it could have made a lot of money on. Microsoft is profit-focused, which means it makes shitty products. Apple is product-focused, which means people buy the quality and Apple makes a lot of money. Reading this, Microsoft will have no idea what the difference is.

Vice:

On his way to games, while his teammates on the bus would be mentally preparing to take the ice, James had to prepare for something else: the hatred that would inevitably be thrown at him due solely to the color of his skin.

I love hockey but it has a very recent and very ugly history of racism.

Jim and Shawn talk about Super Bowl ads, TUAW, music creation and good bourbon!

Sponsored by lynda.com (Start learning something new in 2015 by visiting the link to get a 10-day free trial and access their 2400+ courses) and Squarespace (use code GUITARS for a free trial and 10% off).