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This might just be the coolest thing you watch all day.

Diary of a Mad Man:

My close personal friend, Jim Darlymple, was down in Austin, Texas this past week attending the SXSW iTunes Music Festival. He apparently had a great time.

Except for that time when that guy stole his guitar. I watched the video, fully expecting to see Jim beat the guy to death with his own arm.

The Verge:

The software maker has been inviting members of the media to a special cloud- and mobile-focused event in San Francisco on March 27th. Nadella is expected to discuss Microsoft’s “mobile first, cloud first” strategy, and there will be some major news ahead of the company’s Build conference in early April. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the event will mark the introduction of Office for iPad.

Do you care?

The Push:

A class of apps, christened “ambient apps” by the blogosphere, are endowing mild-mannered smartphone users with what might have passed for superpowers a few years ago. They work by keeping your smartphone’s mic, GPS and even its camera listening, watching and seeking out every signal coming from your surroundings.

In many ways, ambient apps are a logical step in the evolutionary process of mobile devices. For some, however, they press too hard against our personal space, intrude upon our most precious moments and deliver marketers far more about ourselves than we care to divulge.

Some of these apps are really cool, like Flightradar24, but some are disturbing – yet seemingly inevitable.

I love a good buried treasure story. This one does not disappoint.

Sports Illustrated:

220,000 square feet of exhibition space filled to the gills with Ugly Stiks and Mr. Crappies, and an 18,000-seat arena will host the nightly weigh-in for the 44th annual Bassmaster Classic, the self-described Super Bowl of Fishing – though to the 200,000 angling enthusiasts passing through here in cardboard hats in the shape of bass and weapons of bass destruction T‑shirts, the Classic is a vast improvement on the Super Bowl.

I’m not a fisherman but it was fascinating to live in The South and see how big and important bass fishing was. I knew guys with thousands of dollars in gear and $30K+ custom painted bass boats.

Many thanks to Listastic for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. Listastic for iOS is hands down the easiest way to create, manage and share lists of any kind!

Striking the right balance between function and simplicity, Listastic makes it a breeze to prioritize and collaborate on important ideas or tasks without the typical complexity.

Easily share a grocery list with your significant other, tasks with a team of colleagues or even gift ideas with friends & family.

Now available for iPad & iPhone, Listastic is free to download, and only $1.99 to ditch the ads and enable some great additional features!

A big thanks to readers of the Loop for checking out Listastic, available now on the App Store!.

AP:

A handful of Idaho hockey fans sued a Boise arena on Tuesday, saying they were duped into thinking a $7 beer contains more brew than a $4 beer.

Don’t mess with hockey fans and their beer.

Heights can be scary. Climbing to those heights can be scarier. Free solo climbing up Yosemite’s 2,000 ft Half Dome should get you committed to an asylum for your own safety. It’s utter insanity. Even the climber himself says, “just a second. I’m freaking out actually.”

A few years ago, the New York Times ran an article explaining pi. Today being pi day (and only one year before Super Pi Day), I thought it’d be worth posting this.

True, the article is full of math, but I think it’s one of the most elegantly written explanations of the math surrounding pi you’ll ever see. And, if you make it to the very end, you’ll have a handle on the origins of calculus, which is no mean feat.

Priceonomics:

Playing with Lego bricks (can) become more than a mere hobby: the best of the best have made a career out of it. But how much can you expect to earn as a Lego maestro, and what exactly does the job entail? We’ve explored three jobs — model master builders, Lego Certified Professionals, and industry “renegades” — to answer these questions.

If LEGO ever needed someone to make walls, I’m your boy. I could build some great walls with my LEGO as a kid. Sadly – nothing else.

A new update for The Loop Magazine was released today with the following changes:

• Up to 4x faster downloads!
• Push Notifications and Background Updates – major bug fixes and improvements.
• “First launch” setup improved.
• More responsive “Manage Storage” menu.
• Other minor bug fixes.

It’s a great update and can be downloaded free on the App Store.

Ouch, it erased everything that was on it. You know LeBron, there are Apple stores everywhere—time to upgrade from the junk.

I had a chance to speak with Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President for Internet Software and Services, about iTunes Festival last night.

I must admit, I didn’t know what to expect when I sat down to speak with Imagine dragons. Here’s a band that has taken the world by storm in the last year or so and have every right to be riding high on that wave. What I found was a group of humble musicians that are truly thankful for everything they have.

Collectors Weekly:

There’s an open secret in America: If you want to kill someone, do it with a car. As long as you’re sober, chances are you’ll never be charged with any crime, much less manslaughter.

Over the past hundred years, as automobiles have been woven into the fabric of our daily lives, our legal system has undermined public safety, and we’ve been collectively trained to think of these deaths as unavoidable “accidents” or acts of God.

Today, despite the efforts of major public-health agencies and grassroots safety campaigns, few are aware that car crashes are the number one cause of death for Americans under 35. But it wasn’t always this way.

In light of the discussions we’ve been having here and elsewhere about CarPlay and distracted driving, this is an interesting history lesson in how we used to view cars versus today’s perceptions.

Examiner:

A child was at the Barrett Pharmacy & Variety in Watford City, North Dakota this past December, and the 6-year-old informed the pharmacist that she couldn’t sleep at night. According to the little girl, she was afraid of monsters that were in her room. Pharmacist Jeff Dodds prescribed the girl a bottle of anti-monster spray to take care of the problem.

“Spray around the room at night before bed, repeat if necessary,” the instructions on the label informed the user.

What a sweet thing to do. I wonder if he’d prescribe anti-moron spray I could use on the internet?

Co.Design:

Something between a black MIDI glissando and a brown note, the THX “Deep Note” is one of the world’s most recognizable audio logos, signaling the highest quality audio standard in films. Yet despite its distinctive crescendo, the THX Deep Note wasn’t actually composed so much as it was programmed, which makes it a fascinating success story of early computer audio design.

I remember the first time I heard that sound. It gave me chills.

Listastic for iOS is hands down the easiest way to create, manage and share lists of any kind!

Striking the right balance between function and simplicity, Listastic makes it a breeze to prioritize and collaborate on important ideas or tasks without the typical complexity.

Easily share a grocery list with your significant other, tasks with a team of colleagues or even gift ideas with friends & family.

Now available for iPad & iPhone, Listastic is free to download, and only $1.99 to ditch the ads and enable some great additional features!

A big thanks to readers of the Loop for checking out Listastic, available now on the App Store!.

Slowly but surely, street lights are going to be replaced by smart LED equivalents. Massive replacement projects are underway in Los Angeles, Paris, Copenhagen and now in Miami. The technology has a relatively large upfront cost, but pays for itself quickly as the yearly power cost to drive LED lighting is significantly less than the cost of running what it replaces.

Google executive Sundar Pichai told the South by Southwest conference Sunday that the company plans to release in two weeks a software development kit based on Android for makers of wearable devices, such as smartwatches.

I wonder what the tagline will be for this? “Viruses on your wrist” or “Android: Fucking up every part of your life.”

I would like to have seen Assange. On another note, Skype sucks balls.

Instagram has inked its first major ad deal with an agency, and it’s big.

The photo- and video-sharing site is rolling out a paid advertising program with a year-long commitment from Omnicom to spend up to $100 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

You knew it was coming. If you didn’t, you should have.

Ars Technica:

The Mophie Space Pack does three things, but it doesn’t do them equally well.

This is an accessory that will appeal mostly to Apple die-hards who use their phones all the time and want to carry as much of their stuff with them as possible.

I’ve always been a fan of Mophie products but this one seems to be too much for me. Is it a product you’d be interested in?

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Many thanks to CocoaConf for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed on The Loop. What do you get when you take some of the best Apple dev authors, trainers, and speakers and combine them with the most passionate, engaged developers in a region? You get a learning and networking experience that will not soon be forgotten! You get CocoaConf!

CocoaConf is back this Spring and better than ever! We’ll be bringing the newest and best iOS and Mac developer technology training to five U.S. cities over the next few months:

Since readers of The Loop are just the kind of attendees we’re looking for, we’re offering you a special discount. Register for any CocoaConf event and use the promotional code LOOP to save 20% on your ticket!

Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity—tickets are going fast!