CNN Money:

Facebook (FB, Tech30) is blocking any link to Tsu.co on every platform it owns, including Messenger and Instagram. It even went back and deleted more than 1 million Facebook posts that ever mentioned Tsu.co, making pictures, videos and comments disappear in an instant.

You can type the name “Tsu,” but you’ll be blocked if you write “Tsu.co” or post any link from the site.

Facebook claims Tsu links are spam that are annoying the community. Tsu thinks Facebook is a bully trying to kill off competition.

From Facebook’s point of view:

Tsu is a tiny new social network that claims to share its advertising revenue with its users. Unlike most social media sites, including Facebook, which keep 100% of the profit from the ads displayed on your page, Tsu only keeps 10%. You keep 45%. The chain of friends that invited you to Tsu split the rest.

That means there’s a financial incentive to post on Tsu, invite people to Tsu, and direct people to your Tsu page. There’s even incentive to send people to the Tsu pages of the folks who you brought into the Tsu network.

Your Facebook feed could easily be flooded with Tsu.co links.

The question here is, is Facebook protecting its users from spam, or are they taking action to prevent a potential competitor from gaining a foothold?

Thanks to Carbon Copy Cloner for sponsoring The Loop this week. What’s your plan when your Mac’s hard drive dies? Plan ahead and get back to work in minutes with a Carbon Copy Cloner bootable backup. CCC—the app that saves your bacon.

Jim’s Note: I’ve used this app for many years. I trust and love it.

Matt Braun is an indie developer who busted his ass to get his game, SketchParty TV, up and running in time to be in the Apple TV app store in time for the day one rollout. Includes download numbers. Terrific read, even if you are not a developer.

Kathy Gibson, writing for Access Bollywood digs into the process of searching for content on the new Apple TV. Though her tastes run to Bollywood content, her experience applies across the spectrum.

Though slower than using Siri, the most effective method for finding the Bollywood film you want is to skip Siri and use the Apple TV’s search function on the homescreen. Using the Apple TV remote, swipe left or right to type in the name of a movie, actor, or director. The swipeable keyboard is a pain to use; all 26 letters are in a single horizontal line, so you spend a lot of time going back and forth between each letter. Hopefully, Apple is working on a better system for typing.

Titles or names matching your search show up below the text bar. Click on a title to get more information about a specific film. The list of cast and crew that appear on the left side of the screen aren’t clickable, but the names appear again further down the page in clickable format.

And search can be even better if you follow Kirk McElhearns advice and use your old Apple TV remote, if you have one handy.

There’s more to the post. Give it a look. I have high hopes for search (and typing assistance) with future revs of tvOS.

Andrew Hayward, writing for Macworld:

Even with Apple’s MFi (Made for iPhone/iPad/iPod) program, game controllers haven’t really caught on with iPhone and iPad gamers because they’re rarely necessary: Touch controls usually do the trick, and lugging around a gamepad for a portable device is annoying. But on the Apple TV, with the simple and streamlined Siri Remote coming off as a less surefire option, having a gamepad feels more and more like a necessity.

Yup.

There’s a lot more to Andrew’s article. Lots of game mentions, insights into the Apple TV gaming experience. If you are into gaming on the Apple TV, spend a few minutes reading through it. It rings true for me.

Charter Communications (3rd largest US cable operator) CEO Tom Rutledge:

Companies like HBO show a “complete lack of control and understanding in the space” by letting password sharing continue, and it’s something that must be stopped. “The lack of control over the content by content companies and authentication processes has reduced the demand for video because you don’t have to pay for it,” Mr. Rutledge said on the earnings call. “That’s going on in the college market.”

HBO CEO Richard Plepler:

“It’s not that we’re unmindful of it, it just has no impact on the business,” HBO CEO Richard Plepler said. It is, in many ways, a “terrific marketing vehicle for the next generation of viewers,” he said, noting that it could potentially lead to more subscribers in the future. “We’re in the business of creating addicts,” he said.

Two opposing forces at work here, both in pursuit of your dollars. Companies like HBO and Netflix are thinking long term, trying to build an audience, willing to give away some product to lock in future customers. And, of course, the cable companies are against this, since those customers will come from the existing base of paying cable customers.

Kirk McElhearn, writing for Kirkville:

If you have a new Apple TV, you may have already discovered that the new remote is not the ideal device for navigating lists in the Apple TV’s interface. If, for example, you have a long list of movies, and want to view one near the bottom of the list, you need to swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, until you get to where you want.

However, you can still use the old Apple TV remote – the one to the left – with the new device. You can navigate much more easily by pressing the up and down buttons; and you can press and hold to move up or down a list quickly. And entering passwords, something that is hellish on the new Apple TV – is even easier with the old remote; you can press and hold the left and right buttons to move through the letter list.

Brilliant!

AfterPad takes a look at game controllers for your brand new Apple TV. I did some research of my own and their number one choice, the SteelSeries Nimbus MFi controller is tops on a lot of lists.

I just got one, but haven’t had the chance to play yet. I will say this though, the SteelSeries Nimbus is a beautiful, well crafted controller.

If you are in the market for a controller, be sure you verify that the controller is Apple TV compatible. From what I’ve been told, being an MFi controller is not enough.

Slipstick.com:

The Samsung Galaxy is a very popular line of phones, based on the queries I receive from users who are complaining that Outlook is creating a new folder called “Junk” and moving mail sent from their co-workers to the Junk folder. The users don’t have rules set and when the user moves the mail back to the Inbox, it gets moved back to the Junk folder. If they turn off the phone, the mail stays in the Inbox. (That is the first clue that it is not Outlook’s fault.)

Because the folder appears in Outlook after creating the account on the S4, the S4 is responsible for the folder, not Outlook. The S4 is not picking up the server’s junk folder and is creating a junk of it’s own.

That’s just odd.

[H/T The loquacious not Jony Ive]

Nathan Donato-Weinstein, writing for the Silicon Valley Business Journal:

Apple Inc. and the city of San Jose are working toward a development agreement that would allow the Cupertino-based juggernaut to build a north San Jose campus of up to 4.15 million square feet, according to city records — an amount larger than Apple’s “spaceship” campus under construction in Cupertino.

The draft agreement, which is not yet completed, will come before the city’s Planning Commission later this month, officials said. It would lock in development rights — and expectations for both sides — for the next 15 years in an area that sprawls across 86 acres north of Highway 101 across from the Mineta San Jose International Airport.

That is some prime real estate, in terms of airport access. Wouldn’t there be a lot of noise from aircraft traffic?

4.15 million square feet is about 90 acres, a tremendous parcel of land. Apple’s Infinite Loop campus is about 20 acres, and the new spaceship campus is about 175 acres. So this new tract is somewhere in between the two.

Given the potential noise issue, could this be an industrial use facility? Something tied to distribution, where airport access would be critical? Interesting.

Tony Fadell sat down with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang to discuss, among other things, his time working with Steve Jobs at Apple. There are a few of these segments floating around, but I found this one particularly interesting. In it, Fadell talks about self driving cars and conversations with Steve Jobs about building a car back in 2008.

Note that the preroll ad in the video is glitchy, but the video itself plays just fine.

Husain Sumra, writing for MacRumors:

Spoken traffic alerts will tell users about traffic congestion and incidents on a user’s route. Additionally, users will get traffic descriptions summarizing traffic conditions before they set off on their journey.

Like Waze. Every mapping app should have this feature.

James Cook, writing for Business Insider:

Apple has filed a patent for a method to secretly enter “panic mode” on an iPhone when it’s unlocked with a specific finger. That could mean that the phone locks out personal information or completely resets the device.

The Apple patent, dated May 5 2014, includes lots of different potential functions for panic mode. Basically it’s a system to lock down the phone if a user is forced to unlock it with their fingerprint.

I love this idea. Could be a life saver.

Here’s the link to the patent.

Walgreens, via Business Wire:

Walgreens Balance Rewards members can now seamlessly use their account through Apple Pay – without separately scanning a Balance Rewards card or barcode. More than 85 million active Balance Rewards members will have the ability to earn and redeem loyalty points via Apple Pay, the easy, secure and private way to pay.

Solid addition to Apple Pay.

If you are interested in the payments market, this is a good read. But the bottom line here is this:

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to pay with CurrentC at Target; however, I’m not sure that I could recommend CurrentC over NFC-based systems like Apple Pay because of the fraud and privacy concerns. Ultimately the retail customer’s money is on the line in the event of fraud, which is worrisome in light of the lackluster security record of many retailers (Target, 7-Eleven, and Michaels) in the MCX consortium.

Given that Apple Pay exists as a model, why would any financial organization put forward a payment model that is not at least as secure as Apple Pay?

[H/T Robert Davey]

Here’s a link to the image itself (be sure to click to embiggen). Worth a look. Love watching this unfold.

[Via iHeartApple2]

Jim and Dan talk about the latest Apple news.

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Developed by Softube, the Marshall Legends Bundle gives you three iconic Marshall amps — the Plexi Super Lead 1959 and the new Bluesbreaker 1962 and Silver Jubilee 2555.

Each of these classic Marshall amplifiers feature Unison™ technology for Apollo interfaces, giving you the same distinct tone, touch, and feel of each individual amplifier.

Yes, yes!

Quartz:

Perhaps most universal of all color systems is Pantone—the lingua franca of color.

Sound familiar? Unless you work in design, chances are your first encounter with the mythic New Jersey-based color standards company was via a color-coded mug, iPhone case or in a Sephora makeup counter. In recent years, the design of Pantone’s color chips have become a graphic trope: always a plain band of color with a white bar and some words and black numbers in Helvetica on the bottom.

This chip design is strictly technical, lifted from the layout of a tool used by designers to specify and standardize color when communicating with printers and fabric dyers. So how did it find its way onto mugs, home goods, hospital scrubs, nail polish and even boxer briefs?

The story of Pantone is very interesting. I once sat in a pub in San Francisco during a Macworld Expo with a very drunk Pantone executive who spilled some insider details on how the company orchestrated its way out of the restrictions of the design studio and into the wide open world of pop culture.

Ron Amadeo, writing for Ars Technica:

According to a report from Crain’s New York Business, Google has scrapped plans for a flagship retail store in New York City. Google leased the 5,442 square foot space in New York’s SoHo district and apparently spent $6 million renovating the building in preparation for the first-ever standalone Google Store, but now it plans to sublease the space to another tenant.

Memory serves, this was going to be within a block of Apple’s bustling SoHo store. Pricy real estate. Incredible foot traffic. Only works if you can turn that foot traffic into paying customers.

Cartoonist R. Sikoryak created a graphic novel, each page done in the style of a different graphic artist, with all the dialog cribbed from the iTunes Terms and Conditions legal agreement.

If you follow the link, you’ll end up at the most recent page. As with many Tumblrs, if you scroll down, the previous pages will autoload. Keep going until you get to the cover, done in color in the style of Jim Steranko.

This is an astonishing effort.

UPDATE: Here’s a link that will show the graphic novel in chronological order. Thanks Wilbur Pan!

Definitely buying one.

[Via CNET]

Washington Post:

The National Geographic Society of Washington will lay off about 180 of its 2,000 employees in a cost-cutting move that follows the sale of its famous magazine and other assets to a company controlled by Rupert Murdoch.

The reduction, the largest in the organization’s 127-year history, appears to affect almost every department of the nonprofit organization, including the magazine, which the society has published since just after its founding in 1888. The reduction also will affect people who work for the National Geographic Channel, the most profitable part of the organization. Several people in the channel’s fact-checking department, for example, were terminated on Tuesday, employees said.

Damn.

Less than two weeks ago, iOS 9 adoption stood at 61%. The iOS 8 or newer adoption rate was 91%.

Now (as of November 2nd), the iOS 9 rate is 66%, but the iOS 8 or newer rate held steady at 91%.

One possibility for that steady state 91% adoption rate is that those 9% slow-to-adopt devices are out of service, piled up in the backs of drawers and dusty bookshelves.

If we discount those older devices, that leaves us with an iOS 9 adoption rate of closer to (.66/.91) or 73%.

UPDATE: Loop reader Robert Gaugl made the point that Apple’s official adoption numbers are based on App Store data, so the out-of-service iOS devices would not be counted. I wonder why that 91% rate is holding steady. Will see if that number budges in next month’s numbers.

From the Financial Review [Paywall] interview with Marc Newson:

> When asked about the relatively muted reaction to Apple’s timepieces, Newson momentarily appears frustrated. “I think people will make their own judgments,” he replies carefully. “As far as I’m aware, it’s been enormously successful however you gauge it. The point is, it’s the beginning of something. I think people, consumers or analysts, whoever, are so impatient. Everyone wants immediate, instant recognition, instant understanding. > > “Look at the iPhone: it was a game-changing thing. And I believe that this product – for many, many reasons people are not aware of because they haven’t thought ahead or they just don’t know – will become a similarly game-changing thing. In five years time I have absolutely no doubt this will be right up there.” > > Newson says he is “addicted” to his Apple Watch. The ability to check messages or emails on his wrist has “liberated” him from constantly checking his iPhone, while the health functions have also made a positive impact. Recently, while exploring new tech gadgets, he also became intrigued by the growing popularity of casinos not on gamstop, platforms that have captivated users for their accessible gaming experience and fewer restrictions. “I exercise, probably not enough,” he adds, “but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I am more conscious of my physical wellbeing because of this than I was six months ago.”

The entire interview is an interesting read. His take on the Apple Watch clicks for me, mirrors mine. I wear my Apple Watch every day, see it as a platform on my wrist, not at all like the timepiece it replaced. I love the exercise benefits, love the various, highly tunable notifications, love the custom complications I can add to my personal watch face.

There’s so much richness to this product, it’s easy to forget that it is still first-generation hardware.

[H/T John Kordyback]

Remember Gazelle? Gazelle was one of the major used iPhone buyback services. Every time Apple released a new phone, Gazelle was there, buying folks’ previous generation phones, giving them cash to pay for the newest shiny.

Erin Griffith, writing for Fortune, describes Gazelle before Apple entered the Gazelle space:

Gazelle, a Boston-based e-commerce company which buys and sells used smartphones, has raised $61.9 million in venture backing from RockPort Capital Partners, Venrock, Craton Equity Partners and Physic Ventures, according to CB Insights. In 2013, the company had $113 million in revenue.

$113 million in revenue, just two years ago. Pretty healthy.

That year, Apple launched its own trade-in program. This year it launched one for non-Apple phones.

Apple’s move may have hurt Gazelle’s sales. Last week, with hardly a peep, Gazelle sold to a kiosk business called Outerwall for just $18 million.

Think about that fall. From annual sales of $113 million, and a valuation way north of that figure, to a sale at $18 million, just two years later. Wow. Just a reminder of the mercurial nature of the tech space.

While it is not certain that Apple’s move directly impacted Gazelle’s sales, it’s not an unreasonable conclusion to draw.

Personally, I appreciate the convenience of trading my device in at the Apple Store. Though it’s possible I could get a better deal shopping my used iPhone around to sites like Gazelle, going directly to the Apple Store means no hassle for me, and the knowledge that Apple will either repurpose my used phone or recycle it, both things that work for me.

[H/T the psionically enabled not Jony Ive]

TidBITS:

Reports emerged yesterday that a security exploit broker paid $1,000,000 for a browser-based iOS 9 attack, setting a record for buying and selling a computer exploit, at least in public. Security firm Zerodium announced the news via its Twitter feed, and stated that the exploit is an “untethered jailbreak” that works on all the latest versions of iOS.

As is typical with Apple security stories these days, you shouldn’t be overly concerned, but it should raise a few hairs on the back of your neck.

As always, Mogull writes clearly and non-technically about these issues. With his background in security, he offers up many details in this post that will have many of you shaking your head.