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Matt Drance:

What we saw at WWDC 2014 was built by thousands of people. The leadership at the top empowered those people to not only proceed, but to succeed. The attitude behind WWDC 2014 was one of increased openness and increased confidence — an attitude that managed to depart from the worst of the past while staying true to the best. Apple is undeniably the new company it deserves to be, and Tim Cook’s stewardship is on full display. I’m as excited for the future we haven’t yet seen as I am for the one we were just shown in San Francisco.

Exactly.

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LA Weekly:

The pun comeback has heightened visibility for the O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships in Austin, Texas, where last year Ziek won both major events: In Punniest of Show, judges rate a contestant’s 90-second prepared routine. In the Punslingers tournament, contestants face off one-on-one to see who can come up with the most puns on words in a given category.

I had a girlfriend in college who loved puns. I had to break up with her.

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The Verge:

Honeywell is rethinking the way it tackles home automation with Lyric. It’s a $279 Wi-Fi thermostat (available today to purchase through HVAC contractors; it’ll be available in Lowe’s stores by August) that is one of the most visually appealing products in the space, as well as an obvious response to the Nest Learning thermostat. But perhaps more importantly, Lyric is also a platform. The company’s ambition is to launch a full suite of Lyric products that can all be controlled your smartphone.

Good to see competition in the space and maybe an option for those of you who don’t like Nest’s new overlords.

Mac user Shaun McGill bought a Windows 8 laptop for his son. I laughed.

Many Tricks offers a number of apps to make using your Mac easier, more productive, and even more fun. Check out Moom, their impressive window moving and zooming tool; Name Mangler, which makes renaming tens of thousands of files a snap; Witch, a tool to let you quickly switch to any open window; or any of their other apps at Many Tricks.

Scott Hurff:

You don’t go and make drastic changes like this an app that’s responsible for billions of messages a day without good reason. This update shows that Apple is keenly aware of the changing habits of their customer base, and I think this is going to be the most important change in iOS since Apple added “swipe up” access to the Camera in iOS 6.

There were some big changes in Messages in iOS 8.

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Re/code:

Information computation and visualization from a new company called Five uses academic word lists corresponding with psychologists’ established notion of the “big five” personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness. Based on the volume of words used from the lists, each person is assigned a warped pentagon that’s shaped around their own personal leanings.

The people at Five are hoping you’ll be freaked out by how well they can describe you.

First of all, it’s based just on Facebook, not “the internet”. And the results didn’t freak me out at all. How about you?

Macworld:

Online retailer and distributor Dr. Bott, a fixture in the Apple-accessory market since the late 1990s, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in its home state of Oregon, according to public records and information provided to Macworld. The original petition was filed on May 1, with notices sent to creditors later in the month.

Founded in 1999, Dr. Bott was originally a distributor providing accessories to independent Macintosh resellers.

Many of us will hope that Dr Bott can get on the other side of this bankruptcy mostly intact. They have been a long time Mac vendor and a great friend to many in the Mac Community.

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HiddenCashYVR:

I’m hiding envelopes around town and tweeting clues about where to find them. Each envelope contains a $100 bill. It’s an opportunity to do something nice for others, and in due course encourage them to do something nice for someone else.

These twitter accounts have been popping up all over the US and Canada. There are even ones that are hiding beer and another here in Vancouver, marijuana.

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Vox:

The monarch butterflies are disappearing. Over the past 20 years, fewer and fewer butterflies have been making the long journey down to Mexico to survive the winter.

Scientists have proposed a few possible reasons for the decline, from habitat loss in Mexico to bouts of unusually severe weather. But a new paper this month in the Journal of Animal Ecology argues that the biggest culprit here is likely the decline of milkweed plants in the United States — the main food for monarch caterpillars before they turn into butterflies.

The story of how these beautiful delicate creatures make their way from as far as Canada to Mexico is amazing. It would be a tragedy to see their decline.

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The Verge:

The Gumball 3000, an annual celebration of wealth, exotic machinery, and a casual disrespect for traffic laws — think Cannonball Run, but real — and this year, participants are driving from Miami to the Mediterranean island of Ibiza, stopping briefly in New York to hop a plane across the Atlantic (yes, cars too).

The Gumball, which raises money for charitable youth organizations, has a reputation for attracting celebrities. Hip hop artist Xzibit lost his license driving it in 2007. This year, Eve is involved. So is David Hasselhoff.

Every few minutes, a participating car would arrive, each more ridiculous than the one before it: I saw a completely chromed Aston Martin, Porsches of all shapes, sizes, and colors, and a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé covered in what appeared to be velvet.

The Ferrari 458 Italia “Purrari” made me weep…

A really good article from Jonathan Hays.

This should be interesting.

It is absolutely incredible to me the quality of pictures people take with their iPhone.

I always find it a better experience to visit a Web site formatted for the screen I’m using.

Matthew Hewlett and Caleb Turon, both Grade 9 students, found an old ATM operators manual online that showed how to get into the machine’s operator mode. On Wednesday over their lunch hour, they went to the BMO’s ATM at the Safeway on Grant Avenue to see if they could get into the system.

Smart teens, stupid banks.

In a PSA run in Hong Kong, Volkswagen sent text messages to people while they watched footage of a driver who gets in an accident while texting.

. Fast Company:

You could be forgiven for thinking that the picture of the bearded man found on all Burt’s Bees product is just that–an illustration designed to humanize the company. But Burt Shavitz is a real man, and he’s the subject of a new documentary that delves into the life of a curmudgeonly beekeeper and former photographer who improbably became the face of a global brand.

The trailer for “Burt’s Buzz” looks very interesting.

Nowadays, more and more websites are using animations, whether that be in the form of GIFs, SVGs, WebGL, background videos and so on. When used properly, animation on the web brings life and interactivity, adding an extra layer of feedback and experience for users.

With the World Cup coming in the a fews, this is a good feature.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

The National Football League had a long and expensive list of confidential requests before it awarded the 2018 Super Bowl to Minneapolis.

Free police escorts for team owners, and 35,000 free parking spaces. Presidential suites at no cost in high-end hotels. Free billboards across the Twin Cities. Guarantees to receive all revenue from the game’s ticket sales — even a requirement for NFL-preferred ATMs at the stadium.

I knew the NFL wrung concessions out of host cities but some of these are amusing.

. Digital Trends:

Instead of pushing desktop lovers away, Apple has made moves to make life easier for those who reside in the world of traditional computing, and their mobile compatriots.

The more I read from early users of Yosemite, the more I’m looking forward to it.

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The Guardian:

How does this information revolution affect us personally, socially and morally?

Fascinating not just for the content but the delivery. I especially enjoyed Canadian comedian Mary Walsh’s take on “Envy”. Love her. Thanks to Rick LePage for the link.

Dave Hamilton on whether Apple is too late to the home automation market:

Apple was not first with a smartphone, but it was the best. It was not even first with a personal computer, but it was the best. Apple was not first with a laptop, not with a tablet, not with a portable music player. But in every one of those categories Apple released a product that solved the pain points that everyone had simply accepted from other vendors and products.

I wrote something in this vein last year, so clearly I agree. It’s never too late to fix a problem, especially when other companies have become complacent.

Les was one of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. Much respect.

Disruption always rankles the incumbents. Makes sense. The incumbents are fighting for their livelihood.

Responding to Virginia’s all-out ban, Uber sent the letter in the main post out to their Virginia customers yesterday.

Many thanks to Betterment for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. Imagine if poring over your finances were as easy as using your favorite app, or smartphone. – “The Apple of finance,” Quartz.

Now it is, with Betterment.

Betterment is a groundbreaking automated investment service, with over 35,000 customers already benefiting from Betterment’s integration of technology and years of investment expertise, combined in one elegant online application.

Betterment’s UX and UI are adored by tech and design enthusiasts, without the red tape of other investment providers. Betterment is delightful on the outside, with killer technology under the hood, and our free iPhone and Android apps help you stay connected to your diversified portfolio at all times.

Betterment has eliminated the unnecessary costs and complications of investing intelligently. It’s straightforward investing for all, whether you have $10,000 or $10 million.

Ready to invest? We’re excited to offer readers of the Loop up to 6 months of Betterment automated investment management for free.

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Pixelapse:

Apple revealed a sneak peek into Mac OS X Yosemite earlier this week. Not surprisingly, Apple updated its desktop OS to match iOS 7’s design language. The new OS X now embodies a brighter and flatter styling, coupled with icon updates, font changes, and translucent materials. Here’s a quick look at the visual design changes in Yosemite and my impressions of them.

A lot of these changes will be subjective as to whether they are good or not. I’ll wait and see for myself.

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Roads and Kingdoms:

Intrigued by the enduring mystery of carnival culture, photographer Eric Kruszewski wanted not just to shoot the carnival, but to experience it from the inside. He documented life as a “carny” in off hours. His photography blends the poeticism of the lit-up carnival with the reality of the road, where hard work and family living combine.

These shows are familiar to those of us who lived in small towns in the US and Canada (are these kinds of carnivals popular/still around in Europe?) and it’s interesting to see the story from the inside out.

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Dan Frommer:

Many of the most interesting and potentially useful features unveiled this week at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference rely on the company’s iCloud service or otherwise involve network-connected devices talking to each other. The masses will be able to take advantage of these additions on their Macs, iPads, and iPhones later this year.

For Apple customers and developers, this has been a long time coming. iCloud—the last product Steve Jobs announced before he died in 2011—is an incredibly important strategic piece of Apple’s future. Yet its usefulness has always seemed underwhelming, as if cloud services were Apple’s lowest priority.

But this year’s WWDC keynote carried a different tone, with a notable uptick in useful, cloud-centered announcements and more competitive pricing.

Unlike Frommer, I’m not jumping to the headline’s conclusion until I’ve seen it in action with average users.