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Apple on Thursday sent out invitations to a special event being held on Sept. 9, 2014 at 10:00 am. […]

I’ve always like this app—nice interface and easy to use.

Shawn King fills in for Dan, Jim talks 13” iPads, The iTunes Festival and his favorite headphones!

Sponsored by MailChimp (use code and send 12,000 emails per month, to 2,000 subscribers, forever), Harvest (start tracking your time painlessly and if you use the code 5BY5 by October 15th you’ll receive 50% off your first month), and Iconic by Ridgewood Publishing (visit for 20% off select editions).

Hot For Teacher, I’m the One, The Full Bug, Ice Cream Man—all classics in the Van Halen catalog. Strap a jet engine to the tried-and-true blues shuffle and you get an uptempo sprint that defines the Van Halen sound. The fast and furious pace make these some of the most challenging rock songs to play on the guitar—unless you know the secrets!

Alex Vollmer is a great guitarist and I really like his lessons—they’re professional, explained clearly and very detailed. You can preview and purchase this lesson on his Web site.

REmatrix combines five individual IRs to create dense, complex and unique spaces. The reverb is then processed with an effects chain designed to add liveliness, create warmth, or even completely reshape decay and create a reverb character that cannot be obtained with any other tool.

TextExpander is a great app and the folks at Smile are among my favorite developers. If you want to help beta test the new version, you can contact them directly.

Re/code:

August Smart Lock, an electronic lock that provides keyless entry into the home, started shipping in limited quantities this week to consumers who placed orders on the company’s website.

The device…lets people unlock their doors using a smartphone app (instead of a key).

The electronic lock replaces the interior portion of an existing deadbolt lock and opens whenever you, a house guest or the cleaner approaches with the right virtual key stored in the smartphone app.

The second to last sentence in the piece might be even more important/interesting and I think it is the future of any Apple wearable.

Comics Alliance:

Ever since Bloom County became a sensation in the early ’80s, Berkeley Breathed has had an incredibly varied career. He followed Bloom County‘s initial success with two more popular comic strips, Outland and Opus; he won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning; he wrote and illustrated best-selling children’s books; he adapted his own stories into a pair of animated TV specials, and he provided art for various environmental and animal-welfare charities.

…and last month, he made a rare convention appearance, playing to a packed room at San Diego Comic-Con. ComicsAlliance spoke with Breathed about his career in cartooning, his work in other media, and his upcoming projects.

Along with Gary Larson of The Far Side, I devoured everything Breathed did and loved all of it. I miss Opus.

Hey, where did Jim go?

The Sweet Setup:

For Mac and iOS users, what are the options? We want to use free WiFi when it is available, but how do we stay secure? There are so many VPN services to help ensure your browsing is secure, but I’m going to focus on 3 for the purposes of this article.

I’ve used Cloak in the past but, for the most part, avoid doing any “serious work” on public WiFi.

The Verge:

Uber is arming teams of independent contractors with burner phones and credit cards as part of its sophisticated effort to undermine Lyft and other competitors.

Interviews with current and former contractors, along with internal documents obtained by The Verge, outline the company’s evolving methods. Using contractors it calls “brand ambassadors,” Uber requests rides from Lyft and other competitors, recruits their drivers, and takes multiple precautions to avoid detection. The effort, which Uber appears to be rolling out nationally, has already resulted in thousands of canceled Lyft rides and made it more difficult for its rival to gain a foothold in new markets.

Uber calls the program “SLOG,” and it’s a previously unreported aspect of the company’s ruthless efforts to undermine its competitors.

If true, and there’s no reason to believe it’s not given previous Uber tactics, this is, at the very least embarrassing to Uber. It’s definitely sleazy.

Columbia Journalism Review’s Chris Ip interviews John Siracusa, one of the industries most respected writers. John’s OS reviews are simply epic in length and detail, but it’s also nice to see what motivates Siracusa in his reviews.

Wired:

Using clever algorithm processing, Hyperlapse makes it easy to use your phone to create tracking shots and fast, time-lapse videos that look as if they’re shot by Scorsese or Michael Mann. What was once only possible with a Steadicam or a $15,000 tracking rig is now possible on your iPhone, for free. And that’s all thanks to some clever engineering and an elegantly pared-down interaction design.

I don’t know if Hyperlapse will encourage me to shoot more video but anything that can help the queasy-inducing shake of most handheld iPhone video is a good thing.

Re/code:

The tablet is doomed. It was a fad. Who needs one, anyway?

At least that’s the conventional wisdom forming around the iPad and other tablets in the wake of some recent negative sales news. Apple’s iPad sales have been down in the last couple of quarters. Samsung says demand for its tablets has grown “sluggish.” Microsoft’s Surface tablet line has failed to take off.

Many commentators…argue that the tablet boom is over, and that their makers are out of ideas. Others say the tablet was supposed to replace the PC, but has failed to do so.

Maybe so. The recent sales troubles for big-name tablets are undeniable. But I think the conclusions that are being drawn from them are wrong.

I think the tablet is a terrific device.

I agree with Mossberg. I use my iPad dozens of times a day, even with a Macbook Pro within reach. And, when it comes to traveling, whether on public transit or a plane, I’m more likely to pull out the iPad than the MBP or even my iPhone.

Seattle Met:

Since the pumpkin spice latte’s inception 11 years ago, customers have ordered more than 200 million, each topped with whipped cream and a parting shake of spices. It arrives while the summer sun still beats down hot over most of the country, but a combination of masterful marketing and a fan base with the kind of obsession usually reserved for pop stars has transformed this drink into a national harbinger of fall.

Like the Mcdonald’s McRib, this is another one of those things that mystify me about the foods we eat and crave. Granted, I’ve never had a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I prefer my coffee to simply be coffee flavoured. But the excitement of so many for this drink’s arrival is fascinating. Is it marketing generated though?

Beloit College:

Students heading into their first year of college this year were generally born in 1996.

Among those who have never been alive in their lifetime are Tupac Shakur, JonBenet Ramsey, Carl Sagan, and Tiny Tim.

Do not read this story unless you want to feel old.

Marco Arment:

My criteria for this review is what someone seeking good headphones today probably wants:

Semi-portable, over-ear headphones — not pocketable, but should fit comfortably in a small bag; suitable for listening at your desk and bringing on an airplane, or maybe wearing outside

Closed-back design with at least moderate isolation

A straight, short cable with a 3-button clicker

The hard price cap is $400, but ideally, these should be under $300.

I’ve been thinking about new studio headphones so Marco’s review was of interest for the variety he tested if nothing else.

The Sound Blaster Roar is the epitome of audio quality, features and great looks combined into one device. Musicality, accurate timbre, tonality, with deep, tight bass within a portable Bluetooth wireless speaker shouldn’t be a pipe dream. Creative Labs boasts … Continued

Apple on Monday announced a number of new artists that would be joining them for shows at iTunes Festival London in September, including Mary J. Blige and the legendary Tony Bennett.[…]

A California bill requiring all smartphones sold in the state to have antitheft technology installed was today signed into law by California governor Jerry Brown. Introduced in February, the SB-962 Smartphones bill, which mandates a “kill switch” for cellular devices, was initially approved by the California State Assembly in early August and passed a final vote in the California Senate shortly after.

I’m in favor of this.

Sony said on its PlayStation blog that its PlayStation network had been taken down by a denial of service-style attack, which overwhelmed the system with traffic, but did not intrude onto the network or access any of its 53 million users’ information.

The cheap worthless prizes that come with burger meals sure have changed from when I was a kid.

Unfortunately, there are designers who continue to do free work on the vague promise of “exposure,” “paying work later on,” and the client’s “rich friends” who will see your designs and “pay big fees” for your work.

The truth is, when you do free work, you have set your value and that client and his/her rich friends will also ask for free design work because you “did it for so-and-so.”

Nobody should be expected to work for free.

This is why we love Gruber. Fascinating.

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Quartz:

No one is talking about selling kittens and puppies at the meat counter, but for the group of bunny-loving pet owners protesting near the Whole Foods in Union Square, they might as well be. Fifty or so women and men of all ages carry signs, pass out flyers and pamphlets, and try to spread their message to passing Manhattanites. “Boycott Whole Foods,” they say, “because they’re killing rabbits.”

This may seem like a trivial fight involving a disproportionate amount of vitriol, but at its core it’s a debate that sheds light on the sometimes arbitrary categories we construct to make sense of the world.

I always find it fascinating what foods, meat in particular, we will and won’t eat and how dependent on our cultural constructs those decisions are. Personally, I love rabbit meat and when I was a kid in Nova Scotia, it was a staple of our diet. My Mom’s Rabbit Stew was spectacular.

Calgary Herald:

For Calgary’s husband-and-wife thespians Chris Ippolito and Karen MacKenzie, the Emmy-winning Christmas commercial for Apple is a gift that keeps on giving.

First, there was the fact that Ippolito and MacKenzie booked the high-profile, Edmonton-shot gig to begin with. It also gave 23 of their family members, including two-year-old daughter Clara-Anne, a chance to create some new yuletide memories after both clans were cast alongside them. It became an international sensation on TV and online, garnering millions of viewers. Then came the news last Sunday that the emotional ad, titled Misunderstood, had won a Creative Arts Emmy Award in Los Angeles.

I knew Apple had shot the ad in Canada but hadn’t realized it was such a “family affair”.

Apple:

Apple has determined that a very small percentage of iPhone 5 devices may suddenly experience shorter battery life or need to be charged more frequently. The affected iPhone 5 devices were sold between September 2012 and January 2013 and fall within a limited serial number range.

If your iPhone 5 is experiencing these symptoms and meets the eligibility requirements noted below, Apple will replace your iPhone 5 battery, free of charge.

I checked mine. It “passed”. How about your iPhone 5?

Macworld:

…as more and more schools are using iPads and laptops as part of the curriculum, teachers want students to be able to hear lessons and work on projects without disturbing each other. Still, it’s telling that headphones are in, and binder paper is largely out.

But after volunteering in my kids’ classrooms over the past three years, I can tell you that when it comes to children, not all headphones are created equal. The best headphones for adults are rarely the best models for kids, for a number of reasons

Not having kids, this is something I’ve never given any thought to. Good to see an article about this focused on the needs of little ones.

This guy goes off on an epic rant about how much the auto-tuned vocals and instruments are ruining today’s music.