Uncategorized

Billings Pro for Mac, iPhone and iPad

Written by

I’d like to thank Marketcircle for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed on The Loop. Send professional, detailed invoices and get paid sooner with Billings Pro for Mac, iPhone and soon iPad.

Easily capture all your billable time using the convenient time tracker on Mac and iPhone.

Organize your time, mileage, expenses and products using projects. Generate invoices for clients with multiple projects or generate invoices on a per project basis. You can also send recurring invoices, statements and estimates to your clients.

Automatically synchronize between all your Macs, iPhones and iPads as an individual user or as a team of users.

You can also get notified when Billings Pro for iPad is available.

Intermission: Pause and rewind live audio

Written by

With Intermission, you can jump back and replay something you missed, then resume live playback. Use it to pause any audio while you take a call, answer the door, or use the restroom. You can even pause streaming audio on services like Pandora, iTunes Radio, or Spotify to build a buffer, then skip right past the ads and songs you don’t want to hear!

Another great looking app from Rogue Amoeba.

Writing On The iPad: Text Automation with Editorial

Written by

An extended edition of an article originally published on MacStories.net, “Writing On The iPad: Text Automation with Editorial” contains an in-depth review and detailed guide to Editorial, a revolutionary Markdown text editor for iPad with unique automation features. After reading this book, you’ll have a new perspective on what is possible to accomplish on an iPad with Markdown and text automation.

A new book from Federico Viticci.

Google’s Motorola a convicted patent troll

Written by

A federal jury yesterday rendered a verdict that makes Google (Motorola) a convicted patent troll. It has been found to have breached the duty of good faith and fair dealing flowing from Motorola’s FRAND licensing pledges to standard-setting organizations. None of the companies typically described as trolls have actually been convicted of similarly unlawful conduct.

Ouch.

Galaxy Gear

Written by

It seems unimaginative to me. I don’t know, I just expected more.

Changing household demographics

Written by

This infographic shows households by type, 1970-2012. The most notable trend is the number of married couples with children, which dropped from 40.3% to 19.6%. Interesting.

iTunes Festival: Sigur Rós

Written by

Icelandic rock band Sigur Rós performed at the iTunes Festival in London last night to a packed house. I had an opportunity to speak with the band before the show about the festival and its importance. […]

Billings Pro for Mac, iPhone and iPad [Sponsor]

Written by

Send professional, detailed invoices and get paid sooner with Billings Pro for Mac, iPhone and soon iPad.

Easily capture all your billable time using the convenient time tracker on Mac and iPhone.

Organize your time, mileage, expenses and products using projects. Generate invoices for clients with multiple projects or generate invoices on a per project basis. You can also send recurring invoices, statements and estimates to your clients.

Automatically synchronize between all your Macs, iPhones and iPads as an individual user or as a team of users.

You can also get notified when Billings Pro for iPad is available.

Microsoft, Nokia deal is a bad idea

Written by

Om Malik:

Microsoft’s legacy as a PC monopoly holder made it incapable of handling the fast changing, rapidly shifting post-mobile world. And now for the next year Microsoft will be distracted by integrating the two companies — all at a time when Samsung will be releasing a barrage of new phones, Google will be improving on Moto X and Android and, lest anyone forget, Apple will have a trick or two up its sleeve. Oh, by the way, there is that other Seattle-based company: Amazon has been quietly working on its own phones and has plans to take on the current smartphone establishment. And they don’t even care about making a profit — they just want marketshare.

That’s probably just how the next year will play out.

Amplified live from iTunes Festival in London today

Written by

I’m in London today and will be attending the opening show at the iTunes Festival, featuring Lady Gaga. Dan Benjamin and I will be doing a special Amplified podcast at 2:00 pm ET before the concert starts. You can join us live to hear about the festival.

The Bundle of Bundles: $147 of software for $47

Written by

Many thanks to Mighty Deals for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. There are bundles and there are bundles. And then, well, then there are bundles of bundles.

In this Mighty Deal’s case, however, it feels like we have a bundle that consists of bundles of bundles! Confused yet? Don’t be. Just know that this is one of the biggest bundle deals ever! With literally thousands of high-quality elements for creative designers, this Bundle Storm pretty much has it all!

Stock photos! Vector images! Backgrounds! Patterns! Themes! Gradients! Actions! Icons! Buttons! Infographics! Why, there’s even tools to quickly create your own mascot!

You can also check out the Full Smashing Library Deal.

The Loop Magazine Issue 9: Chasing Eddie Van Halen’s “Brown Sound”

Written by

In this issue, Alex Vollmer describes his 20 year obsession with Eddie Van Halen’s famous “Brown Sound” guitar tone; Matt Gemmell reminds us that everything we do online can affect our reputation; Peter Cohen talks about how he got started with the Mac 27 years ago; Steven Aquino is a sports fanatic and technology has made his hobby better; and Dr. Robert Carter tells us how Apple’s commitment to accessibility has changed his life.

You can download The Loop Magazine free on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. You also get a free 7-day trial when you subscribe.

The Loop issue 9 grey gradient

Wall calendar that never needs replacing

Written by

This is clever, though imperfect. The calendar frame slides to properly portray the current month. There are no labels for days of the week (like a watch with no numbers), and every month has 31 days, so you have to say the little rhyme (30 days hath September…) to remind yourself when the next month starts.

Still, very clever.

Amplified: Giant Hand

Written by

Jim and Dan discuss the Chromecast app being blocked by Google, the New York Times getting hacked, and Apple TVs getting more and more channels.

Sponsored by Mailchimp and Shutterstock (use code DANSENTME8 for 25% off).

How to make your own slow jams

Written by

Over the past week or so, we’ve posted links to slowed down versions of songs by Frank Zappa and Dolly Parton that have been making their way around the net. This post on kottke.org walks you through the process of slowing down your own music.

Here’s the formula for slowing or speeding up a recording to shift the pitch but generally stay in tune:

(2 ^ (semitones change/12) – 1) *100 = Percent Change

If you want to drop two semitones, you shift the speed down by 12.2462 percent; drop three, you shift by 18.9207 percent, which significantly changes the track. To imitate a 45 RPM record played at 33 1/3, that’s about 25.926, but very few records still sound like something a person actually made at this speed.

There are a series of examples that show off the results. All the examples were created using Audacity. Well done.

The Onion on why Miley Cyrus was the top story on CNN

Written by

It’s a good question. And the answer is pretty simple. It was an attempt to get you to click on CNN.com so that we could drive up our web traffic, which in turn would allow us to increase our advertising revenue.

Great answer. It also explains the shitty tech stories we read everyday.

NASA remembers Neil Armstrong

Written by

Famed Apollo 11 moonwalker Neil Armstrong died one year ago today and NASA is remembering the iconic astronaut with a touching music video tribute.

He truly inspired a generation.

Oscar Wilde on Art

Written by

A true artist takes no notice whatever of the public. The public are to him non-existent. He has no poppied or honeyed cakes through which to give the monster sleep or sustenance. He leaves that to the popular novelist.

I’m speaking at FutureStack; get 50% off registration

Written by

In the future, nothing is impossible. FutureStack 2013 is an opportunity for disruptive Developers, innovative Technologists and world-changing Creatives to imagine, build and help craft the future of Modern Software. Big ideas aren’t just welcome — they’re required.

I’ll be speaking at the FutureStack conference, which will be held in San Francisco in October. There are a lot of very smart people on the speakers list and some great sessions. If you’re interested in going to the conference, you can get 50% off the registration fee because you know me.

Infinite State

Written by

First, it takes three months to understand a new job. Until those 90 days are over, you don’t really know what hand you’ve been dealt. Second, it takes approximately three years before you’ll become bored with your current gig. While I can’t point you to the definitive research paper that confirms this hypothesis, I have been stumbling around Silicon Valley for a couple of decades and my advice hasn’t changed: 90 days to understand the new gig, three years before you’re bored with it.

Interesting article from Michael Lopp. I never really thought about it like that before, but maybe that’s because I’ve been doing the same job for 20 years.

The Bundle of Bundles: $147 of software for $47 [Sponsor]

Written by

There are bundles and there are bundles. And then, well, then there are bundles of bundles.

In this Mighty Deal’s case, however, it feels like we have a bundle that consists of bundles of bundles! Confused yet? Don’t be. Just know that this is one of the biggest bundle deals ever! With literally thousands of high-quality elements for creative designers, this Bundle Storm pretty much has it all!

Stock photos! Vector images! Backgrounds! Patterns! Themes! Gradients! Actions! Icons! Buttons! Infographics! Why, there’s even tools to quickly create your own mascot!

You can also check out the Full Smashing Library Deal.

Elementary OS

Written by

elementary OS is a free replacement for Windows on the PC and OS X on the Mac. It comes with what you’d expect, like a fast web browser and an app store with thousands of apps. Plus some things you may not expect, like free updates and no known viruses.

I don’t know a lot about it, but it looks like OS X. I’m also not sure where the “thousands of apps” came from.