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Amplified: Fully Bearded Child

Jim and Dan talk about Apple’s broken promise (iCloud), Google Reader, Fever, NetNewsWire, Black Pixel, Newsfire, iTunes Purchase fraud, WifiSLAM, the value of Apple stock, guitars, and more.

Sponsored by Shutterstock (use code DANSENTME3 for 30% off), and Shopify, and Harvest (use code 5BY5 for 50% off).

Úll Conference

This is a great conference with one of the best speaker line-ups I’ve seen. Don Melton, Matt Gemmell, Matthew Panzarino and many others, including me, will be there. Go sign-up and we’ll see you there.

Bend over to get a refund

“I went into my local store to return my Astro pants and Invert crops, both purchased this month. I was asked to BEND OVER in order to determine sheerness. The sales associate then perused my butt in the dim lighting of the change room and deemed them “not sheer”.

Wow Lululemon.

Fever: A personal Google Reader replacement

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Shaun Inman’s great Fever feed reader. With all the talk about finding a replacement for Google Reader, Fever should be high on your list.

“Please do it in America”

tokyo-metro-manner-posters

RocketNews24:

Sometimes the hustle and bustle of big city life in Tokyo makes you forget your manners. With most people commuting by train and working very long hours, sometimes there’s no time to do things at home. And sometimes, you’re just so tired and stressed that you don’t care that you are behaving badly.

As a result, back in 2008, the Tokyo Metro system launched a three-year-long campaign aimed at reminding subway passengers to mind their manners while riding the trains.

Some of these are hilarious.

Forecast

A new weather service from the people behind the Dark Sky app. This is really nice.

Alien³ by William Gibson

Are you a fan of the Alien movies? Are you a fan of William Gibson, SciFi author? Then you’re in luck.

Gibson just tweeted a link to a site that has the script of his first ever screenplay – Alien 3. This version was never made but it’s an interesting look into what might have been.

Grab it before some tight-assed Hollywood type makes the script disappear.

“Ungoogleable”

In December, the council unveiled its customary annual list of new Swedish words. Among the words that Swedes had begun using in 2012 was “ogooglebar” (‘ungoogleable’).

The California-based multinational soon got into a huff, asking the council to amend its definition. But the language experts refused to bow down to the demands, instead choosing a third option – removing the term all together.

Now Google is trying to control the words a country and its population can use? Really Google.

The FedEx Panda Express ships pandas from China to Toronto

Pandaplane FedEx:

On March 25, 2013 the Toronto Zoo welcomes two giant pandas. This will be the first time since 1985 that pandas have visited the Toronto Zoo.They will spend five years in the Toronto Zoo before residing in the Calgary Zoo for an additional five years.

You really can ship anything via FedEx. And, unlike those of us forced to ride in coach on most airlines, the pandas will have In-flight catering that will include 220lbs of bamboo, 330lbs of bamboo shoots, 110lbs of apples and 33lbs of fresh water.

The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, the sequel

henrietta
New York Times:

Last week, scientists sequenced the genome of cells taken without consent from a woman named Henrietta Lacks. She was a black tobacco farmer and mother of five, and though she died in 1951, her cells, code-named HeLa, live on. They were used to help develop our most important vaccines and cancer medications, in vitro fertilization, gene mapping, cloning. Now they may finally help create laws to protect her family’s privacy — and yours.

I read the original book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” (Amazon referral) and it tells a fascinating story of medicine and ethics.

BBC Radio 4 presents Neil Gaiman’s “Neverwhere”

Neverwhere BBC Radio 4:

Every Friday we bring you a new drama from Radio 4 or Radio 3. This week begins Neil Gaiman’s classic, “Neverwhere”, voiced by X-Men’s James McAvoy, Game of Thrones’ Natalie Dormer and soon to be Star Trek bad guy and present BBC Sherlock Holmes, Benedict Cumberbatch.

The first episode is available for download from the iTunes Store and other episodes are streamed from the BBC’s web site.

EZ-PR [Sponsor]

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Staplers, the attachment that’s still making noise

New York Times:

Even as data moves to computers and the cloud, staplers continue to help people keep it together. On the computer, we can file copies in folders and send messages to mailboxes. We can cut, copy and paste text and files. But which computer activity is similar to stapling? Sure, there’s the paper-clip icon that attaches documents to e-mail. But nothing, really, comes close to the satisfying ka-chunk of a stapler: it’s a sound that means work is getting done.

More than you ever thought you could know about the lowly but oddly treasured office stapler.

Please stop fighting about your smartphone

Wired:

Do you like Android? You should, it’s amazing. iOS? Wow, what a great platform, no wonder it started a revolution. Windows Phone? Seriously, it’s got a remarkable and beautiful interface. BlackBerry? There are plenty of great reasons people love it. And no matter which platform you adore, it’s shockingly possible to both have a preference and respect that other people may prefer an entirely different device. I know. Totally weird. But true.

Nobody cares what kind of smartphone you believe in. It’s not a religion. It’s not your local sports team even. Stop being a soldier. You are not a soldier. You are just wrong. Shut up.

The “Smartphone Wars” reminds us “old timers” of the Mac vs PC wars. And it’s just as pointless.

“Let Me Tweet That For You” raises concerns for journalists

Poynter:

“Let Me Tweet That For You” is pretty simple — you type in a Twitter username and a message, and it generates a realistic-looking image of a tweet from that person. It even adds fake retweet and favorite counts to lend some more credibility.

That should be a bit scary for journalists and anyone else concerned about potential hoaxes. Of course, it would be pretty easy to debunk one of these fake tweets if you just visit the person’s actual Twitter profile to see if the tweet really exists.

But what if it’s passed off as screenshot evidence of an allegedly deleted tweet?

Poynter says it raises concerns for journalists but it should raise flags for all of us who use Twitter and social media. Such as this fake Tweet: FAKETWEET

Apollo 11 engines pulled from ocean floor

engines

USA Today:

Two giant rocket engines that launched U.S. astronauts to the moon four decades ago have been recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Canaveral by an expedition paid for by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

The F-1 engines, which powered the first-stage Saturn V boosters that fell back to Earth after their fuel was depleted, were found at a depth of 14,000 feet, Bezos’ expedition announced Wednesday.

Remarkable use of private funds to do public good.

Apple acquires indoor GPS-location firm

The two-year-old startup has developed ways for mobile apps to detect a phone user’s location in a building using Wi-Fi signals. It has been offering the technology to application developers for indoor mapping and new types of retail and social networking apps. The company has a handful of employees, and its co-founders include former Google software engineering intern Joseph Huang.

Squarespace

I’d like to thank Squarespace for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week.

Squarespace is a beautiful and intuitive website publishing platform that allows anyone to easily create professional web pages, blogs, and galleries all in one place.

Simply start with one of Squarespace’s award-winning designs, add images and content, connect your social accounts, and you’ll have a website that looks great on every device.

All Squarespace accounts come with award-winning 24/7 support, as well as cloud hosting, real-time analytics, and a free domain.

Whether you’re a creative professional, business owner, or blogger, Squarespace makes it easy to bring your ideas to life.

Start your website for free today at Squarespace.com.

LG is making a watch too

Korean technology giant LG Electronics is developing its own smart wristwatch, effectively joining the competition between Apple and Samsung Electronics who are making theirs as well.

Okay, so now we have LG, Samsung and Google that are making a watch to compete with a product that Apple is supposedly going to make.

Apple takes password reset offline

Earlier Friday, The Verge reported on a significant security exploit with Apple’s “reset password” functionality for Apple IDs. Armed with only your email address and date of birth, a hacker could tweak a specific URL to reset the password for your account.

Wow, that is not good. I’m glad to see they took it offline quickly.