When a group of Boston retirees learned that their feathered next-door neighbours were too cold to lay eggs, they busted out their needles and got to work.

I had to post this, I just had to. Much respect.

My thanks to Twocanoes Software for sponsoring The Loop with Winclone 6 this week.

Winclone is the award-winning Mac app used to backup, clone, restore, and migrate Windows installed on your Boot Camp partition. Winclone 6 adds in a bunch of new features, including full compatibility with the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros, ability to mount your Boot Camp partition as a writable volume, a fresh new look and much more.

Get 50% off all editions of Winclone 6 this week with coupon code THELOOP

MacRumors:

In 1976, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak designed and built the Apple I, or Apple-1, the company’s first computer. Of the 175 sold, only 50 to 60 or so remain in existence, including just eight functioning ones, making the iconic machine a rare collector’s item worth significantly more than its original $666.66 price.

This one is coming up for auction in May. Here’s a video showing the Apple I at work:

Science Daily:

Researchers at Cleveland Clinic put five popular wrist-worn fitness trackers to the test to find out how accurately they gauge heart rate across several types of exercise and intensity levels.

And:

The devices chosen for testing (Apple Watch, Fitbit Blaze, Garmin Forerunner 235, and TomTom Spark Cardio) were based on their popularity and sales figures. Researchers then recorded volunteers’ heart rates at rest and after light, moderate and vigorous exercise across three types of activities, including the treadmill, stationary bike and elliptical (with and without hand levers). Measurements on the wearable devices were compared to readings from the chest strap and EKG.

And:

While the watch-style heart rate monitors may accurately report heart rate at rest, and most were acceptable on the treadmill, they were fairly inaccurate while bicycling or using the elliptical. Of the wrist-worn heart rate monitors, only the Apple Watch provided accurate heart rate readings when participants switched to the elliptical trainer without arm levers; none gave correct measurements when they used arm levers. The wrist and forearm monitors also became less accurate the more intense the activity levels, with the exception of the Apple Watch.

Interesting about the arm levers. Seems to me, this should be part of Apple’s Apple Watch heart rate testing. But still, a solid result.

[H/T Brandon Cosby]

Jeff Benjamin, 9to5Mac, reviews a portable Apple Watch charger stick that not only comes with a built-in magnetic Apple Watch charging bubble, it also comes with a built-in USB-A port so you can top off your iPhone charge at the same time as you charge your watch.

Great concept. Wish all chargers had this. I’d never need to travel with that single-purpose Apple Watch cable again.

Matt Birchler:

iOS 11 will all but surely be revealed at WWDC in June this year, and I would expect something to change on the lock screen there. So before Apple shows us what we’re getting in iOS 11, I decided to design my own new lock screen for iOS.

Matt has some excellent ideas here, designed to wring some usefulness from the lock screen, beyond checking the data and time and seeing notifications that have occurred since your last unlock.

I’ve long felt we should have the ability to fine tune what shows up on the lock screen and that Apple should open up the lock screen to developers. For example, I’d love to see the current temp/weather, along with my next appointment, on my lock screen.

Great writeup, worth reading.

Futuracha Pro is an Open Type Font, originally based on Futura, which includes a large set of ligatures which change dramatically depending on the letter before and after the letter you are typing. This concept is best seen in motion.

Watch the video below and jump to about 1:07 to watch the magic.

The key is the ever-expanding library of ligatures, which you can add to. Futuracha Pro is homing in on the end of its Indiegogo campaign, having long ago reached their original funding goal. This is definitely my favorite new font.

The Guardian:

Thousands of Twitter accounts, including high profile ones belonging to users such as Forbes, Amnesty International, the BBC’s North American service, and tennis star Boris Becker were compromised on Wednesday morning, resulting in them tweeting propaganda related to Turkey’s escalating diplomatic conflict with Germany and the Netherlands.

All the compromised accounts were attacked through their use of a popular third-party analytics service, Twitter Counter.

There are captured images of a few of the tweets in the Guardian article.

This does beg the question: If your account was hacked, what do you do?

Here’s a link to Twitter’s official My account has been hacked page. Tuck this one away and hope you never need it.

Universal Audio updated its Apollo software and also released a number of new plug-ins including:

• SSL 4000 E Channel Strip Collection
• Moog Multimode Filter Collection
• OTO BISCUIT 8-bit Effects
• Fuchs Overdrive Supreme 50 Amplifier
• Brainworx bx_subsynth Subharmonic Synth

You can download the update from their Web site.

The accused men live in Russia and Canada, the source said, with the Canadian far more likely to face arrest. Russia has no extradition treaty with the United States.

Yahoo was awful in disclosing these hacks.

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve accepted a position with Apple’s Security Engineering and Architecture team, and am very excited to be working with a group of like minded individuals so passionate about protecting the security and privacy of others.

This decision marks the conclusion of what I feel has been a matter of conscience for me over time. Privacy is sacred; our digital lives can reveal so much about us – our interests, our deepest thoughts, and even who we love. I am thrilled to be working with such an exceptional group of people who share a passion to protect that.

Jalopnik:

Have you ever wondered why when you drive in reverse, your car makes that strange, high-pitched whine? Of course you have; you’re a human, or at least something close enough to a human to go on the internet, drive a car, and wonder. There’s actually a simple, satisfying reason why this happens, so let’s kick some ignorance to the curb.

I am mechanically incompetent and, while I’ve noticed this sound, I had no idea what created it. The explanation is actually kind of interesting.

Kirkville:

Auto-play videos suck. They use bandwidth, and their annoying sounds get in the way when you’re listening to music and open a web page. I happen to write for a website that uses them, and it annoys me to no end. (My editors have no control over those auto-play videos, alas.)

But you can stop auto-play videos from playing on a Mac. If you use Chrome or Firefox, it’s pretty simple, and the plugins below work both on macOS and Windows; if you use Safari, it’s a bit more complex, but it’s not that hard.

The most egregious user of autoplay videos in the Mac community must be Macworld. The site has been taken over by marketing weasels and is a shadow of its (useful) former self.

The Verge:

Seventy years ago this week, the first Ferrari hit the streets of Maranello, Italy for a test drive. It was the 12-cylinder 125 S, the first to bear the name of Enzo Ferrari, and, naturally, the company wants to celebrate.

Along with a video re-creating the first time the 125 S rolled out of Ferrari’s modest garage, the company has published a website commemorating major achievements from Ferrari’s last 70 years — everything from Formula One wins and championships to the release of iconic vehicles like the 250 GTO, the F40, and the Enzo.

I’m sure we all have our favorite cars and car companies but I’ve always lusted after and drooled over Ferraris.

Mashable:

Real-life BFFs Maisie Williams (who plays Arya Stark) and Sophie Turner (who plays Sansa Stark) on Sunday teased they’re filming for Apple’s upcoming Carpool Karaoke spin-off.

I hate karaoke with a blinding passion but I love these two actresses and, if nothing else, I’ll watch this episode.

BoingBoing:

Security researchers at Stony Brook deliberately visited websites that try to trick visitors into thinking that their computers are broken, urging them to call a toll-free “tech support” number run by con artists that infect the victim’s computer with malware, lie to them about their computer’s security, and con them out of an average of $291 for “cleanup services.”

The researchers presented their findings — including recordings and transcripts of their interactions with the con artists — in a paper called Dial One for Scam: A Large-Scale Analysis of Technical Support Scams, which they presented at this year’s Network and Distributed Systems Security Symposium. Over the course of 60 calls, they found that the con artists all followed a narrow script. By backtracking the con artists’ connections to their PCs, the researchers were able to determine that the majority of the scammers (85%) are in India, with the remainder in the USA (10%) and Costa Rica (5%).

While the vast majority of us wouldn’t be scammed like this, it’s a good piece to pass along to those we know who may not be as technically proficient as we are.

TidBITS:

I still don’t enjoy airline travel, but I’ve done it enough that it no longer stresses me out to the same extent, even as dealing with invasive and unpleasant security requirements has gotten far worse. Plus, thanks to the Internet and the iPhone, the logistics have become vastly simpler. Being able to buy tickets, check in, and print boarding passes online was the first step, and the next major improvement came when Apple released the Passbook app, since renamed Wallet.

I’ve been using Passbook/Wallet as long as has been possible — it took smaller airports like Ithaca a while to get the necessary scanners — but as much as I liked eliminating the need for paper, there were many problems early on.

I don’t fly enough anymore to have been able to use the “new” Wallet (nee Passbook) but I remember when I did many years ago, it was a PITA. Has it gotten better, as Engst says in this article?

Ars Technica:

Recent films about Jim Henson’s famed Muppets have focused on single stars, including Carol “Big Bird” Spinney and Kevin “we don’t talk about him anymore” Clash, but Henson always manages to steal the story spotlight. You might think that Muppet Guys Talking, a documentary starring a whopping five Muppet-eers, might prove an exception to the rule.

Not a chance. If anything, this new film, directed by and co-starring the legendary Frank Oz, puts five times the focus on the man who made the Muppets—and may very well be the most touching and fully fledged tribute to the man since his 1990 memorial service in New York City.

I still have my child-like love of Muppets and an adoration of the work of these Muppeteers but Henson is irreplaceable and will always be missed.

This is an amazing visual catalog of the typography up and down Broadway in New York City. Each photo has a slide that reveals the font (in one direction) and the font in place on a building or sign (the other direction). Beautiful implementation.

This is a collection of photos that take you from the birth of Apple, through their early successes, then through the dark days leading to the return of Steve Jobs in 1997. Nice little one page walk through history.

One side bit of trivia: Gil Amelio, the CEO who brought Jobs back, was on the team that first demonstrated the charge-coupled-device, the hardware that made digital cameras possible.

David Pogue:

A few years ago, backstage at a conference, I spotted a blind woman using her phone. The phone was speaking everything her finger touched on the screen, allowing her to tear through her apps. My jaw hit the floor. After years of practice, she had cranked the voice’s speed so high, I couldn’t understand a word it was saying.

And here’s the kicker: She could do all of this with the screen turned off. Her phone’s battery lasted forever.

Ever since that day, I’ve been like a kid at a magic show. I’ve wanted to know how it’s done. I’ve wanted an inside look at how the blind could navigate a phone that’s basically a slab of featureless glass.

This week, I got my chance. Joseph Danowsky offered to spend a morning with me, showing me the ropes.

Fascinating video, terrific article. A nice, detailed day in the life with VoiceOver. [Via DF]

Zac Hall, 9to5Mac:

Earlier this year we reported issues with using the LG UltraFine 5K Display with new MacBook Pros near wireless access points including Apple wireless routers. LG acknowledged issues caused by poor shielding, inventory was pulled from Apple Stores, and revised hardware with proper shielding is now shipping and should be in Apple Stores soon. This week we got our hands on one of the new models with shielding improvements to put to the test and see if the issues have really been resolved.

A rare third party product that has become critical path for Apple. An important problem to fix.

Laptop Magazine:

Not every company offers first-class tech support for its laptops. With confusing web resources, unhelpful social media accounts and clueless phone reps, many brands put a lot of unnecessary obstacles between consumers and the help they need.

That’s why, for over 10 years, Laptop Mag has published its annual Tech Support Showdown, in which we go undercover to test and grade the most popular laptop brands.

Apple has Apple Stores combined with excellent phone support. Over the last year, they’ve supplemented this approach with the excellent @AppleSupport Twitter account. Sure, there are stumbles, but Apple remains strong in this area, even as they grow in size and in product lines they have to support.

Macworld:

Apple owns all the oxygen in several territories across its ecosystems, like music-library management and photo management, competing only with giants such as Amazon and Google that can offer similar features. But in the arena of podcast apps, the decentralized distribution of audio episodes has left what seems like just enough room for independent developers.

Over the years, three companies have released version after version of the most popular non-Apple podcast apps: Pocket Casts from Shiftyjelly, Supertop’s Castro, and Overcast from Marco Arment’s Overcast Radio.

Fleishman has a good overview of what are likely the three most popular podcast listening apps.

The Guardian:

Today marks 28 years since I submitted my original proposal for the worldwide web. I imagined the web as an open platform that would allow everyone, everywhere to share information, access opportunities, and collaborate across geographic and cultural boundaries. In many ways, the web has lived up to this vision, though it has been a recurring battle to keep it open. But over the past 12 months, I’ve become increasingly worried about three new trends, which I believe we must tackle in order for the web to fulfill its true potential as a tool that serves all of humanity.

Interesting and well thought out description of the problems Berners-Lee sees with today’s internet along with possible solutions. Sadly, it’s unlikely there’s going to be any effort to address the issues he describes.

War is Boring:

USS Missouri, the third laid down but last completed of the Iowa class, carried a slightly heavier main armament than the South Dakotas and could make five extra knots. The Iowas were the first U.S. Navy battleships to make speed a primary value, and achieved the speed through a longer hull and more powerful machinery.

Indeed, the Iowas are the fastest battleships ever built, outpacing even the Italian Littorios by a knot or two. While no Iowa ever recorded a speed higher than 31 knots, rumors over the years suggested that the battleships might be able to make 35 knots over short distances.

Read this story if only for the amazing photos. I’ve always had a soft spot for these magnificent ships. Aircraft carriers are bigger, can project force further and are (arguably) better but the brutality of a battleship, and the images firing those guns creates, has always fascinated me.

NPR:

When you step outside after a big rainstorm and take a deep whiff of that fresh, earthy smell, you’re mostly smelling a chemical called geosmin.

It’s a byproduct of bacteria and fungi. And something about rain lofts the chemical — and sometimes the organisms themselves — into the air, a process that not only helps release that earthy smell but may, in very rare conditions, spread diseases.

Somehow raindrops launch tiny living things off the ground.

This is a lot more interesting than it had any right to be.

io9:

We all have them. Our guilty pleasure movies. Movies we like that we don’t like to tell other people. Films that bring us unbridled joy while making others cringe in pain. Films so many people hate but you just, somehow, for whatever reason, love. This is my list.

I agree with about a quarter of this list. Some of them are really bad films that I love anyway. No, I won’t tell you which ones they are.