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7Online:

A video of a bald and burly Delaware police officer enthusiastically lip-syncing to Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” is getting global attention.

The video, posted to the Dover Police Department’s Facebook page Friday, shows Master Cpl. Jeff Davis in uniform and driving a patrol car while lip-syncing to the popular pop song – sassy head rolls and finger-pointing included.

What a hilarious video. I especially love the moments like at 1:20 when he sees someone he recognizes and “becomes a cop” again. The rest of the time, he’s just an average father of four who knows “Shake it Off” because of his 10-year-old daughter.

The downside of watching the video is that I’ve now finally listened to my very first Taylor Swift song. Thanks to my friend Lesley for the link.

Academy Award nomination or not, it’s a good, fun movie.

Craig Grannell:

Within the pages of MacUser, you’d not find a great deal of templated fare, and sometimes not even a great deal of content directly about the Mac. What you would find was interesting opinion and analysis about technology, brilliant insight into design and creativity, and in-depth features on all kinds of creative fare. All this was wrapped up in stunning design and layout work that let the content breathe and positively begged you to explore every page.

I never read MacUser on a regular basis but when I did, I always enjoyed its unique sensibility and writing style. A shame it’s shuttering its doors.

I wrote this over two years ago on my personal site, but my opinion hasn’t changed.

Uber said in a statement that the South Carolina Public Service Commission’s order directed at Raiser LLC, an Uber subsidiary, was unexpected and issued despite the company’s close work with state regulators.

I wonder if Uber’s antics in other cities/states/countries weighs in on decisions like this.

Power and Precision. Speed and Aggression. Brutal and Insane. Your metal drum tracks deserve nothing less than what you bring to your music. Your music deserves the real thing – live drum brutality to take your songwriting to the next level. Your music needs Double Bass Mania VIII.

Double Bass Mania is my favorite series of drum loops ever. I’ll be getting this set to go along with all the others I have.

Very interesting wording from Philips in response to Kelly Guimont’s question regarding their support for HomeKit.

Both systems suffered long outages over Christmas after a major distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack. A hacking group calling itself Lizard Squad, which had attacked the two networks earlier last year, claimed responsibility.

I wonder what they’ll do with him? Will Microsoft and Sony get a say in the matter? This will be interesting.

I’ve always heard great things about NSNorth, so this year, I’m going to attend. I’ll be joining an amazing line-up of speakers for a few days in Canada.

A new report studying programming language rankings released yesterday by RedMonk shows that Apple’s new language, Swift, went from 68 place on the list to 22 this quarter—a jump of 46 spots.

I usually don’t link to things like this, but this one is very interesting.

Glass is moving from the Google X research lab to be a stand-alone unit led by Ivy Ross. Ms. Ross and her team will report to Tony Fadell, a former Apple executive who heads Nest Labs, the smart-home device company Google acquired for $3.2 billion in February 2014. Mr. Fadell will still run Nest, but he also will oversee Glass and provide strategic guidance to Ms. Ross.

Tony made the iPod and founded Nest after leaving Apple. I have a ton of respect for this man.

The report is “groundless,” Samsung said in an e-mail. In a separate statement, BlackBerry said it “has not engaged in discussions with Samsung with respect to any possible offer to purchase BlackBerry.” The Waterloo, Ontario-based company didn’t specify whether it had received a proposal from Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker.

Not even Samsung wants BlackBerry.

From Google’s Project Ara Web site:

The smartphone is one of the most empowering and intimate objects in our lives. Yet most of us have little say in how the device is made, what it does, and how it looks. And 5 billion of us don’t have one. What if you could make thoughtful choices about exactly what your phone does, and use it as a creative canvas to tell your own story?

Introducing Project Ara.

Designed exclusively for 6 billion people.

Jim and Shawn talk about the Mac, the iPhone in the past, the Apple Watch in the future, and how to learn to play guitar!

Sponsored by lynda.com (Start learning something new by visiting lynda.com/amplified and get a FREE 10-day trial where you can access all of their 3,000+ courses).

Riveting. Watch Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson make their final push for the summit of El Capitan in one of the hardest free climbs in the world. This is being carried live.

One thing I’ve learned over the last 20 years of writing about Apple is that there’s no shortage of naysayers, ready to declare certain failure of the companies newest product—whatever that product happens to be. The Apple Watch is the latest in a long list of products, that includes the iPod, iPhone, iPad and Macs, that critics says will fail. […]

Smartphone company Samsung has recently approached BlackBerry Ltd to buy the company for as much as $7.5 billion, looking to gain access to its patent portfolio, according to a person familiar with the matter and documents seen by Reuters.

Patents is about all BlackBerry has left.

Matt Gemmell:

Rumours abound at the moment about an upcoming new 12” MacBook Air, with a Retina display, further-reduced thickness and weight, and of course a slightly larger screen. I’m intrigued, and all other things being more or less equal, I’ll certainly buy one.

It’s tough to see what the next step will be, though. My wish list has been exhausted. Every checkbox is checked.

But what more is there to really do?

Matt makes a good point that, for the vast majority of us, Apple’s present laptops do more than we actually need them to do. I know my next laptop will likely be an Air if only because I no longer need the power of a full desktop CPU.

Google:

We’re taking it to the next level and letting you instantly translate text using your camera—so it’s way easier to navigate street signs in the Italian countryside or decide what to order off a Barcelona menu. While using the Translate app, just point your camera at a sign or text and you’ll see the translated text overlaid on your screen—even if you don’t have an Internet or data connection.

This looks really cool. I remember traveling in Italy and not being able to understand the signs at the train station. This would have come in very handy.

Musicians and songwriters often have trouble with EQing drums so they fit in a track. A lot of that comes from over-EQings already good sounding samples, or having to deal with poorly recorded drums to begin with, but even so, the basic technique isn’t that difficult if you know the basics.

If you are just learning how to EQ drums, bookmark this page and use the recommended frequencies.

Apple Inc sued Ericsson alleging that the Swedish company’s LTE wireless technology patents are not essential to industry cellular standards and that it is demanding excessive royalties for these patents.

These types of “essential” patent lawsuits are always interesting to watch—you never know which way the court will rule.

The Verge:

Set out in a series of detailed renders, the conceptual iMac combines the internal components of an 11.6-inch MacBook Air with the addition of a touchscreen and the new reversible USB connector. Its shape echoes that of the original Mac…There’s nothing particularly practical or realistic about this iMac, which is probably why it feels so sublimely desirable.

Utterly ridiculous. Utterly impractical. Utterly unbuildable. But I still want one.

RazorianFly:

While some are shocked at the sudden demise of Apple’s popular free giveaway promotions, such as 12 Days and the just axed “Single of the Week,” others are seemingly less shocked at the ending of these ‘FREE’ iTunes promotions.

We think MacRumors forum user, fluchtpunkt, nails it:

“I think that entitlement mentality is what has killed these promotions. Getting free stuff is no longer enough. It must be exactly what you want.”

As the piece says, we may never know why Apple has discontinued these giveaways but I would have no problem believing it is, in part, due to the epic amounts of whining from a segment of users.

Shifts is a brand new productivity app for shift workers, designed to help you manage your work schedules and lives more efficiently.

This is a unique take on using a calendar—the first I’ve seen in a while.

John Moltz:

A newsroom can be an environment that benefits from an open floor plan, but this level of exacting control over it is exactly what’s wrong with corporate America. If you’re so concerned about coffee stains, hire someone to clean things up. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper and it sends a better message than spending $3 million to make a 2001: A Space Odyssey set for your employees to spend their days maintaining.

The memo from Wired’s editor-in-chief Scott Dadich has been making the rounds and Moltz, as usual, has a funny and accurate takedown of the attitude and tone of his attempt at controlling the workplace environment.

Bushel is a cloud-based solution designed from the ground up to make it easy for regular people to setup, manage and protect their Apple devices anytime from anywhere.

This looks really nice. You can manage three devices for free, so that’s a bonus.

Positive Grid, makers of BIAS for iOS and Mac, have started a new beta program targeted to guitar players that want to help shape the future of the company’s hardware products. I love the products this company puts out.

While his treatment for dementia would ultimately pull him from the band he started, AC/DC guitarist Malcolm Young was also treated for cancer and a heart condition after than band’s last tour. So sad.

Mark Gurman has certainly been on a roll lately. If true, this is an incredible amount of integration between the Apple Watch and the iPhone.