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A symbolic moment, this: in Q4 2013 the number of computers* sold by Apple was larger than the number of Windows PC sold globally. If you add Windows Phone to the mix they’re more or less exactly equal.

Microsoft spent so much time laughing at Apple. Not any more.

The Loop Magazine Issue 21:

In this issue Seamus Bellamy interviews The Pogues Spider Stacy; Philip Michaels looks at the advantages of watching movies and sports at home; Kirk McElhearn wonders about an iPod pro; Darren Murph looks at how the skies have changed since in the introduction of Wi-Fi; and Chris Domico talks about console gaming and the iPhone.

A free preview is available for every article in the app.

More people should listen to Jason Fried. It’s okay to recommend people talk to someone else when they ask for advice.

MSN Autos:

There are really only a few important features in a car: brakes, drivetrain, seats, steering, suspension and wheels.

Still, there’s no better way to personalize your vehicle than to order up a few options, so let’s take a look at some of the most outrageous factory-installed options ever devised.

After I posted about the “11 features you no longer see in cars“, I got a tweet from @Jenns79 about this story. Some of these factory options, especially the idea of a record player in the car, are insane.

Microsoft Corp’s Windows 8 system has racked up more than 200 million license sales since its launch 15 months ago, according to Tami Reller, its head of marketing, lagging Windows 7 which sold 240 million within its first year.

I’m not surprised.

BuzzFeed:

Canada has a heart of gold. And also just a lot of gold.

The best story has to be #2.

Unfortunate.

Mental Floss:

If you fondly remember being surrounded by two or three tons of solid Detroit steel with a whip antenna on the front from which you could tie a raccoon tail or adorn with an orange Union 76 ball, and enough leg room that you didn’t suffer from phlebitis on long road trips, then you might also miss a few of these.

I’m not old enough to remember tail fins or suicide doors but I certainly remember vent windows and the floor mounted dimmer switch!

Don’t listen to Google’s bullshit about being open. Creepy as fuck, yes; Open, not so much.

Om Malik:

If it is allowed to gobble up its number two rival, Time Warner Cable, Philadelphia-based Comcast will become the largest broadband provider in the United States, and perhaps the largest outside China. The two companies together will control about half of what is called triple-play services — video, voice and internet — in the U.S. The two companies together would have about 33 million broadband connections that brought in about $18 billion in broadband revenue during 2013.

The numbers are almost too much to comprehend.

IDC collectively referred to iOS and Android as accounting for 93.8 percent of all smartphone shipments in 2013, describing the two platforms as pursuing opposite strategies without referencing the fact that Apple earns the majority of the world’s handset profits. “Android relied on its long list of OEM partners, a broad and deep collection of devices, and price points that appealed to nearly every market segment,” wrote IDC’s Research Manager Ramon Llamas, without providing any context on how that strategy resulted in lost profits for the majority of manufacturers who use Android, including Google’s own Motorola subsidiary. “Apple’s iOS, on the other hand,” Llamas continued, “relied on nearly the opposite approach: a limited selection of Apple-only devices, whose prices trended higher than most. Despite these differences, both platforms found a warm reception to their respective user experiences and selection of mobile applications.”

This report and comments from IDC just stink. The iPhone took over 87% of the handset profits worldwide.

Will Connors for the WSJ:

Samsung recently won an order for roughly 7,000 smartphones from the U.S. Army and is close to an order for several thousand devices from the U.S. National Security Agency, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Surely they’re aware of all the malware on Android, right?

Bruce Lee often told students that if they already thought they “knew” everything, they should leave his class.

“If your cup is full, you cannot fill it. So first, empty your cup.”

Things like this can apply in so many circumstances. People that “know” everything are a pain.

I really like Ben Bajarin’s analysis.

TechCrunch:

Former Daily Show correspondent John Oliver returned to host this year’s Crunchies, the tech industry awards show co-hosted by Gigaom, VentureBeat, and TechCrunch. And he didn’t pull any punches.

Absolutely not safe for work but funny nonetheless.

Vice:

Artist Simon Menner was recently granted permission to spend some time with the German Army and its snipers. During the two occasions he visited, he captured the soldiers’ remarkable ability to blend into their environment, producing images that appear to be simple landscape shots until you look close enough to spot the barrel of a gun.

None of these guys would get me. Mostly because I don’t go into the woods.

Peter Cohen has some interesting thoughts on what the Mac will look like in 30 years. I think technology is moving so fast, we won’t even recognize the computer industry in 30 years. Whether it’s a Mac, iPad, or some other combined post-pc device, we’ll be living in a different world with different needs.

Grantland:

Go to any speedskating race and you’ll see them: the happy hordes of fans from the Netherlands who have come to support their athletes in their nation’s most dominant sport. They carry HUP HOLLAND HUP banners and bells; they have their own band, called Kleintje Pils, which means “a little bit of beer.” And at the end of the night, they flock to the Holland Heineken House — in most cases, to celebrate another win.

Much like the Brazilians at soccer events, the Dutch have more fun than anyone at speed skating events around the world. And the words “Heineken House” must bring a tear of joy to the eye of The Loop’s Publisher.

TIME.com:

Today’s Flickr has more than 10 billion photos. It hosts 1.8 million groups, which are being joined by 50,000 new members a day.

I’ve been a member since 2005 but have almost left a couple of times. Good to see it’s having a bit of a resurgence.

New York Times:

Gravity is defeated, for a beat or two, when it all works perfectly, and “it’s a great feeling because you can just float,” says Jessica Jerome of the United States, who will be competing in the first women’s ski jumping competition at an Olympics.

This is interesting not just for the information provided (ski jumping is much more technical than you would imagine) but for the way it is presented too. Make sure you check out the pages on Halfpipe, Luge and Slopestyle.

The Android ecosystem today is superficially similar to the PC ecosystem, but I’d suggest that the clarity and alignment of interests of the PC ecosystem isn’t present in anything like the same way. As an Android OEM you have very little idea what Android will be in 3 years – partly because Google itself may not have a fully-formed idea. There certainly aren’t public roadmaps stretching out years in advance.

Many great points in this article.

As I write this, my wife is sewing a skirt. Everything is laid out—the skirt itself, the fabric she cut the material from, the thread, the scissors, a measuring tape, some pins, the sewing machine, and the pattern. It’s the first piece of clothing she’s made from scratch, and she’s thoroughly enjoying the process. I find the chatter of the sewing machine very comforting. […]

The iTunes “empire” of content and services would be ranked as number 130 in the Fortune 500 ranking of companies (slightly below Alcoa and above Eli Lilly).

That’s incredible.

TicketBlast is an iPhone app that helps you relive the best live events of your life, providing a place to save your shoebox full of ticket stubs and memories and share them with the world on Facebook and Twitter, all while viewing them on your iPhone.

I really wish I had this 20 or 30 years ago. I’d love to look back at all of the concerts and games I’ve been to.

If you’re looking for some more disk space or just want a cleaner Mac, MacPaw has a fresh utility that you should check out; it’s called CleanMyMac 2.

CleanMyMac 2 helps you clean out unwanted apps, data, and gigabytes of junk on your Mac. It’s a powerful cleaning app that’s beautifully designed to make cleaning and organizing your Mac as simple as can be. With CleanMyMac 2, you can manage widgets and extensions, fix broken apps, drastically reduce your iPhoto Library, and clean out old, neglected files that waste disk space.

And, thanks to its Safety Database, you can rest easy knowing that CleanMyMac 2 is 100% safe to use. The Safety Database is a gigantic collection of rules and exceptions for cleaning up and uninstalling nearly anything on your Mac! It has over 5 years of data and is updated regularly. With CleanMyMac 2 and its Safety Database, your Mac is in good hands.

So, why put off getting yourself a faster, cleaner Mac? Download CleanMyMac 2 right now to see how easy cleaning your Mac can be!

“I’ll find you and i’ll kill you.”

“I will kill you mother fucker.”

Holy shit people, calm down.

Just a damning article from Paul Thurrott, but he makes so many valid points.

As has been widely publicized, Jimmy Fallon is moving on from his late night show to become the new host of the Tonight Show. Here’s the very last little bit of his last show. If the muppets don’t do it for you, just skip ahead to 3:40 and watch him walk off into the sunset. Watch to the end. Nice. [Embedded video]

Punch:

A white-jacketed bartender steps up to the long wooden bar at the Buena Vista Café and lines up a dozen tulip-shaped glasses. Into each go two white sugar cubes pulled from a bulk box. Then comes hot black coffee in a continuous steaming stream from a diner-style pot. Next: Irish whiskey, delivered in a dramatic long pour all along the line of waiting glassware. Last comes the cream—aged for half a week and then lightly whipped in a milkshake blender—ladled gently from a metal pint glass like a fluffy floe.

The pattern will continue all day long—filling anywhere from 2,000 to 3,500 glasses—until the bartender’s white jacket sleeves are spattered with coffee and the century-old tavern shutters at 2 a.m.

Whenever I go to San Francisco, I always stop in at the Buena Vista Café for four to seven Irish Coffees.