Dan Moren, Six Colors:

At present, there’s certainly not much to recommend the Home to people who already own an Echo or Echo Dot. Most of what the Home can do, the Echo can do just as well, with the exception of translation and Chromecast support.

Those on the fence about which smart speaker to buy have a less enviable decision. Both are attractive, well-made devices in their own way, and both will scratch that itch of a ubiquitous assistant at your constant beck and call. To date, the Echo remains the heavyweight champion of the market, thanks to its deep bench of features and third-party skills, but it would be unwise to underestimate Google’s resources and expertise if the company decides this is a field where it wants to devote its energy.

It’s early days for the always-on, stay-at-home assistant. One thing that is clear: Google Home and Amazon Echo are extensions of their relative ecosystems. If and when Apple builds one, I expect their fixed assistant to favor Apple’s ecosystem, too.

A pity, that. If I were to hire an assistant, I would never hire someone who had to check the branding involved before they could help me with a particular task. The divisions are getting deeper.

The Week:

I’m here to tell you, downtrodden countrymen (and women), that there is a remedy for our particular affliction. It can be found in the flutter of a hummingbird’s wings, or the determined eyes of a crouching snow leopard. It’s in the gallop of a giraffe as it’s pursued across the tundra, and the heroic leap of a penguin from razor-sharp cliffs. Mix in a cinematic score by Hans Zimmer and the soothing sounds of David Attenborough’s voice, and the formula is complete. Lift your eyes to the TV screen, my weary friends. What we need now, perhaps more than ever, is a hefty dose of Planet Earth.

I don’t think you need a scientific reason. Watch it just because it’s good TV.

iMore:

Maybe you love Apple TV or maybe you’re looking to stream on something a bit different. Maybe you’re looking for more options, a different browsing experience, or are wanting to spend less than that $199.00 to $269.00 pricetag. Regardless of your reasons for striving for streaming superiority, there are so many services available out there that it’s pretty hard to make your choice.

Luckily for you, we put together a few of the most popular, top alternatives to the Apple TV so you can really explore all of the best options out there. Check ’em out!

I don’t use my Apple TV enough to bother to look for alternatives but I’m curious if any of you use alternatives or additions to the Apple TV and why.

Center for the Study of the Public Domain:

Current US law extends copyright for 70 years after the date of the author’s death, and corporate “works-for-hire” are copyrighted for 95 years after publication. But prior to the 1976 Copyright Act (which became effective in 1978), the maximum copyright term was 56 years—an initial term of 28 years, renewable for another 28 years. Under those laws, works published in 1960 would enter the public domain on January 1, 2017, where they would be “free as the air to common use.” Under current copyright law, we’ll have to wait until 2056 and no published works will enter our public domain until 2019. The laws in other countries are different—thousands of works are entering the public domain in Canada and the EU on January 1.

What books would be entering the public domain if we had the pre-1978 copyright laws? You might recognize some of the titles below.

Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

John Updike, Rabbit, Run

Joy Adamson, Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds

William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

Friedrich A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty

Daniel Bell, The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Politics of Upheaval: The Age of Roosevelt

Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

Scott O’Dell, Island of the Blue Dolphins

John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor

Jean-Paul Sartre, Critique de la raison dialectique

Dr. Seuss’s Sam-I-Am

The books above are but a fraction of what would be entering the public domain on January 1.

It’s such a shame corporate interests have negated public interests on this issue.

Anil Dash:

Jack: I’ll give you this one for free, just because I still have a soft spot in my heart for the product and I really want us all to stop having to rescue Twitter in 2017.

Here’s the short version:

Show you can consistently ship new features

Directly handle abuse and tell the world what you’re doing

Stop using meaningless metrics as your measure of success

Provide specific tools for each of your types of users

Decide if you give a damn about developers or not

There’s no doubt Twitter needs “fixing” and this list is hard to argue with but having Dorsey respond with, “Yeah – we really need to add editing” isn’t encouraging.

The Local:

If you live outside Germany you probably don’t know what ‘Dinner for One’ is.

But it’s something that Germans are well aware of, in fact they watch it on TV religiously every New Year’s Eve.

The 11-minute British comedy sketch is also known as Der 90 Geburtstag (The 90th birthday), which gives you a little clue as to the plot.

I love hearing and reading about other cultures’ traditions, superstitions, and customs. A British friend of mine says this particular skit is hilarious. Thanks to Jared Earle for the link.

Android Central:

Unlike the vast majority of Apple’s Lightning-specific accessories, the AirPods use a common standard, Bluetooth, to actually pair with devices and play music on them. So, knowing that this was a possibility on Android, I set out to test the universality of Apple’s latest sales phenom.

Say what you will about the AirPods’ design, but you really shouldn’t dismiss them until you have them in your ears, jamming away untethered while you walk around the house or run errands. I’ve had the displeasure of using Bluetooth headphones that had one or more damning flaws, from discomfort to poor battery life, and the only thing I’d say about the AirPods is that they look a little funny, and take some time getting used to.

But once paired to any Android phone — I mainly used them with the LG V20 and Google Pixel — the experience was superb.

Interesting review of the AirPods from “the other side of the fence” but sad that this line had to be included: “if Apple’s name wasn’t on the box it would be a must-buy for many Android users.”

The Brooks Review:

It has been over a year of full time iPad usage for me, and in that year I have had my iPad in a plethora of configurations. From the simple Smart Keyboard Cover to nearly duct taping it to the wall. What I have come to realize over this past year, is how portable and manageable the iPad as a desktop machine is.

I’m always interested in how others manage to use their iPad full-time. I love my iPad and use it every day but there is no way I can make it my full-time machine.

David Drills:

Gian Luigi Carminati is a passionate and poetic 76 years old man who spent his entire life repairing cameras. In his small workshop in Milan, he takes care of old cameras with just a set of screwdrivers and a lot of patience.

Warning: There’s quite a bit of camera porn in this video.

Thanks to Depth Effects for sponsoring The Loop this week.

Now everyone can get beautiful Portrait Mode photos with their iPhone. Depth Effects gives you the power to apply a striking depth of field to any photo. Get DLSR-quality focus and bokeh with simple controls. Also, Depth Effects is the best app for anamorphic depth of field and cinematic bokeh.

Backchannel:

I took another sleeping pill to get to sleep that night. I was that nervous. I knew that the next day was my day. It was going to hap­pen. I was going to go out in that space suit and I was going to have to perform. I’d be doing it under a microscope, too. Everything you do out there is being recorded by helmet camera. Everybody’s watching. Anything goes wrong, and everybody knows. I had this incredible anticipation. Not like Christmas morning; more like the first day of school, where you’re excited by the new possibilities but also terrified about making friends and not screwing up.

Just from the excerpt, I want to read this book.

David Barboza, New York Times:

The state-of-the-art facility was built several years ago to serve a single global exporter: Apple, now the world’s most valuable company and one of China’s largest retailers. > > The well-choreographed customs routine is part of a hidden bounty of perks, tax breaks and subsidies in China that supports the world’s biggest iPhone factory, according to confidential government records reviewed by The New York Times, as well as more than 100 interviews with factory workers, logistics handlers similar to the ones here on MX Solutions, truck drivers, tax specialists and current and former Apple executives. The package of sweeteners and incentives, worth billions of dollars, is central to the production of the iPhone, Apple’s best-selling and most profitable product.

In this intricate landscape of global logistics, Tactical Logistic Solutions provides invaluable support by offering advanced supply chain management services. Their expertise helps companies navigate complex logistical challenges and capitalize on opportunities similar to those afforded to Apple’s facilities.

Tactical Logistic Solutions’ ability to manage customs, transportation, and distribution effectively mirrors the high level of coordination seen in Apple’s operations, allowing businesses to leverage similar efficiencies and maintain robust production capabilities in a competitive global market.

And:

> It all centers on Zhengzhou, a city of six million people in an impoverished region of China. Running at full tilt, the factory here, owned and operated by Apple’s manufacturing partner Foxconn, can produce 500,000 iPhones a day. Locals now refer to Zhengzhou as “iPhone City.”

This is a terrific read, focusing on China’s financial incentives that help keep Foxconn’s costs low and, in turn, lower the cost of building the iPhone.

At the heart of the article is the question of Apple’s manufacturing future, given this:

> President-elect Donald J. Trump has vowed to bring down the full force of the government on American companies that move jobs overseas, threatening punitive tariffs on the goods they sell back at home. Apple has been a frequent target of Mr. Trump, who said during the campaign that he would get the technology company to “build their damn computers and things in this country.”

Trump has repeatedly promised an Executive Order to put a 5% tariff on all imported goods, with the possibility of more tariffs specifically aimed at companies like Apple who do the vast majority of their manufacturing overseas.

Note that Foxconn is a Taiwanese company, headquartered in Taipei. Zhengzhou is in central China, near the Huang He (Yellow River). Taiwan’s relationship with China and the economic uncertainties of tariffs add great complexity to this equation.

This is very difficult, a body blow. Of course I remember Princess Leia, but when I think of Carrie Fisher, I think of Wishful Drinking (book and HBO special) and her great arc on 30 Rock.

And then there’s this.

Damn.

Venture Beat:

Reznor has contributed to Apple Music since its 2014 acquisition of Beats Music, and he is arguably one of the company’s most prominent assets in the music world. Yet Reznor didn’t give Apple an exclusive on the band’s new release. What Apple got instead is a big interview, which the company understandably hyped on social media.

Reznor, though, has never been one to fit in. In the interview, he talked about how he “resisted iPods” in their early days, even though he’s an Apple employee and was making an appearance on an Apple media platform. And even though Apple offers instant access to tens of millions of songs on Apple Music for a monthly fee, Reznor said he prefers to listen to vinyl records the whole way through.

Reznor fascinates me and I’ve always enjoyed his thoughts on just about any subject.

Handbrake:

After more than 13 years of development, the HandBrake Team is delighted to present HandBrake 1.0.0. Thank you to all of our many contributors over the years for making HandBrake what it is today.

Back in the day, Handbrake was an indispensable tool for ripping DVDs. Now, I use it regularly to re-encode videos for the Apple TV.

The New York Times:

The last line of defense against the torrent of half-truths, untruths and outright fakery that make up so much of the modern internet is in a downscale strip mall near the beach.

Snopes, the fact-checking website, does not have an office designed to impress, or even be noticed. A big sign outside still bears the name of the previous tenant, a maker of underwater headphones. Inside there’s nothing much — a bunch of improvised desks, a table tennis table, cartons of Popchips and cases of Dr Pepper. It looks like a dot-com on the way to nowhere.

Appearances deceive. This is where the muddled masses come by the virtual millions to establish just what the heck is really going on in a world turned upside down.

Snopes is my go to site for debunking general fake news.

Macrumors:

Starting on January 2, Apple plans to hold a special New Year’s Sale both online and at all of its retail locations in Japan, continuing a long tradition of offering something special on January 2 in the country.

It is not clear what kind of discounts Apple will be offering on January 2, but it could be similar to the Black Friday event in the United States, which saw the company offer Apple Store gift cards up to $150 with the purchase of Macs, iPads, iPhones, and more.

What a great way to spend your Christmas money.

Vox:

Christmas has come and gone, but in some countries the celebration is far from over. Yes, gentle readers, December 26 is Boxing Day, which for Americans is the day we recover from our eggnog and gift-exchange hangovers but for other parts of the world is a holiday in its own right.

For my family, Christmas Day was always for relatives’ visits. Boxing Day was the day you went to visit friends.

Recode:

In less than a week, Nokia has sued Apple for patent infringement in courts around the world, saying that Apple has refused to license its patents. Apple, for its part, sued several patent owners it said were conspiring with Nokia and accused the Finnish tech giant of “extortion.”

Taking things a step further, Apple has pulled all Withings products from its stores. (Earlier this year, Nokia bought Withings, which makes Wi-Fi scales and other digital health and fitness gear.)

A Google search finds a listing on Apple’s web store for both a bathroom scale and smart thermometer made by Withings, but clicking on the link leads to an error message on Apple’s site.

Not surprising, given the court proceedings going on between the two companies.

Now everyone can get beautiful Portrait Mode photos with their iPhone. Depth Effects gives you the power to apply a striking depth of field to any photo. Get DLSR-quality focus and bokeh with simple controls. Also, Depth Effects is the best app for anamorphic depth of field and cinematic bokeh.

Business Insider:

Most of us have heard of Google’s well-publicized moonshots: Self-driving cars, smart contact lenses, internet-beaming balloons, and more.

While those products and services sound amazing, most of us can’t use them just yet. But the company actually has a bunch of other ones that are incredibly useful that you might not even know existed. For example, did you know Google has a massive free font library?

Here are some of the under-the-radar services Google offers.

We often rightfully complain about Google but it does provide a lot of interesting data driven information.

Consumer Reports has a history of embarrassing itself with its recommendations. I think we all saw that something was wrong with its results and that they were published specifically to get headlines. That certainly worked for them, but it also further damaged their reputation. They should have postponed publishing the results until they were sure everything was correct. Rene Ritchie has a nice article on it.

Uproxx:

Today, you can buy Festivus T-shirts and ugly sweaters, and you can decorate your desk with a miniature pole, or just order the real thing for your home, all while praying that Ben & Jerry’s brings back Festivus ice cream. You can even piss your co-workers off by donating to an actual Human Fund in their honor, and they’ll have to act like they’re appreciative because the money goes to supporting arts-education programs in Cleveland.

And what makes it all so remarkable isn’t just that the writer responsible for the Festivus story didn’t think it would even make it into the episode, but that he really hoped that no one would ever find out that it was a holiday that his own father invented.

I was never a huge Seinfeld fan but the Festivus stuff was hilarious.

Amazon:

Amazon and Goodwill are working together to make donating easier for you. Using the Give Back Box® platform, a free shipping service, you can donate items you no longer need to Goodwill with ease and bring new life to your empty Amazon box.

It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3:

Open Your Box: Unpack your merchandise from your Amazon shipping box.

Pack Your Box: Fill the box with clothing, accessories and household goods you no longer need and print your free shipping label from GiveBackBox.com.

Send Your Box: Let UPS or the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) deliver your box of donations to Goodwill for you.

Lots of us will have lots of Amazon boxes left over from this holiday season. This is a great way to give a little back.

Tedium:

The odds are good that someone you know has purchased a Bose Wave radio or music system for a loved one. The odds are much better that you’ve seen the commercials or magazine ads sometime over the past 25 years or so, rolled your eyes at how over-the-top the language was, and continued living your tinny-speaker life. But what if we were missing out on something good? Today, we ponder the Bose Wave, the infomercial’s favorite speaker—a speaker, that, as it turns out, was a Christmas gift of sorts.

This is an interesting article if only for the fact that every audio engineer I’ve ever known (and I’ve known quite a few), hate the way Bose devices sound. They would often say, “No highs, no lows, must be Bose”.

My thanks to MacScan for sponsoring The Loop this week. Every Mac is vulnerable to malware. Every day that passes, Malware authors introduce new targets against OS X. And yet, many users go unprotected against these threats. There are solutions available. MacScan 3 protects your Mac by scanning for and removing malware – providing much-needed security and privacy in the face of online threats.

MacScan will find and clean malware threatening your Mac, including:

• Spyware
• Adware
• Trojan Horses
• Worms
• Scareware
• Keystroke Loggers

If you’re still in denial that your Mac is safe, we encourage you to sign up for a 30-day test drive to uncover what’s really happening.

Techcrunch:

Uber will be rolling out its third-generation self-driving test vehicles, which are sensor-lated Volvo XC90 SUVs, in Arizona following their loss of registration in California. An Uber spokesperson tells TechCrunch that the cars actually left for Arizona by truck on Tuesday morning, and that they will be deployed there “in the next few weeks” with the full support of state Governor Doug Ducey.

Uber met with the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the California state Attorney General’s office on Wednesday, after refusing to pursue a permit for testing autonomous driving in the state and continuing its San Francisco city pilot anyway. The result of the meeting was that the DMV revoked registration for 16 of Uber’s vehicles, the test fleet it had deployed with autonomous hardware and software in SF.

This is unlikely to hurt Uber in the long run but the arrogance on display in California certainly won’t endear them to governments of the state.

The Verge:

You can now hatch pokémon eggs on your wrist: today developer Niantic announced that the Apple Watch version of Pokémon Go is finally available. The smartwatch version of the game was first announced back in September.

Naturally, the Apple Watch version of Pokémon Go isn’t the full game, but instead connects to the mobile game and lets you perform certain in-game activities without having to pull out your phone. You won’t be able to actually catch pokémon with your watch, but you can collect items from pokéstops and see nearby monsters with a simple tap.

Luckily for players who own Apple Watches, rumors the game wasn’t going to be available proved to be false.