CBC:

A five-year-old girl’s bravery in saving her mother and baby brother following a car crash last summer was recognized in a ceremony at Edmonton police headquarters Monday.

The SUV careened down a 12-metre embankment, slammed into a tree and came to rest on its roof. The Royal Canadian Humane Association described how Lexis awoke to her 10-week-old brother’s cries.

After unsuccessfully trying to wake her mother, she took things into her own hands.

What an amazing little girl.

Plex:

There truly isn’t any other platform we’ve wanted to be on for as long as we have the Apple TV. Today’s the day, and we’re celebrating. The app is free in the app store for everyone, and requires the latest media server.

The instant the fourth generation Apple TV was announced with an app store, we here at Plex pumped our fists in the air with excitement, as we raced to download the new Xcode and read the developer documentation.

I used Plex in its original iteration but not since. It’s come a long way and many readers will swear by the software and be very excited by this Apple TV version.

The Verge:

Twitter’s “favorite” button, the service’s primary way for users to signal agreement, acknowledgement, laughter, support, and occasionally (and perversely!) utter hatred, is officially dead.

The company said today that it is replacing favorites with “likes,” to be represented in its apps and on the web by red heart icons. The changes, which also apply to Twitter-owned Vine, represent the company’s latest effort to simplify the user experience as it looks to attract new users.

“We want to make Twitter easier and more rewarding to use, and we know that at times the star could be confusing, especially to newcomers,” product manager Akarshan Kumar said in a blog post. “You might like a lot of things, but not everything can be your favorite.”

I’m not sure how this change will make Twitter “easier and more rewarding” for new users. We’ll all get used to it eventually but, personally, I like the idea of “favoriting” more than using the Facebook “Like”. Probably because I’m more of a Twitter user/fan than Facebook.

Atlas Obscura:

When you travel internationally, power outlets provide a pretty good reminder that you’re not in Kansas anymore.

Outlets vary wildly depending on the part of the world, both in the shape of their sockets and the voltage with which they’re compatible. For those who travel across multiple regions, it can be frustrating. And it’s probably too late to solve this problem, because of decisions made more than a century ago.

If you don’t travel internationally, you won’t know the aggravation of the world’s power outlets. Here is an interesting video about the British outlets and why they may be the best design.

Glenn Fleishman, writing for MacWorld:

> Starting with the A7 processor, Apple’s use of a Secure Enclave chip pays dividends in resisting brute-force and other methods of cracking an iOS device’s passcode. (The A7 first appeared in the iPhone 5s, iPad mini 2, and iPad Air. All subsequent iOS devices and processors include this support.) > > With Secure Enclave, even a relatively weak passcode or passphrase is combined with enough information stored uniquely in the phone that can’t be retrieved to require an extremely long period of time to determine the correct password. As [Cryptographic expert and university professor Matthew] Green notes in his post, Secure Enclave means that every password-cracking attempt has to happen on the iOS device; the part that needs to be cracked can’t be exported and iterated against on another system, like a set of high-performance graphics cards—or an NSA supercomputer.

In addition to more technical details, Glenn digs into the political side as well. The whole piece is interesting, well written.

Reference: online-slots-real-money.com

Joshua Ho and Ryan Smith pulled together an incredibly detailed analysis of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus for AnandTech.

As always with AnandTech reviews, look for the table of contents popup menu at the bottom of the first page (above the comments). It lets you jump between the 15 pages that make up this review.

From the conclusions page:

The iPhone 6s in a lot of ways seems like it’s simple enough to review, but it turns out if you dig deep the changes have been significant. Over the course of a review, we’ve found major changes in the SoC, storage solution, camera, touch screen, fingerprint scanner, voice recognition software, cellular architecture, and WiFi chipset.

On the SoC side, it’s pretty safe to say that the A9 SoC is the best SoC in any phone today. We can talk about the TSMC and Samsung controversy, but at the end of the day regardless of which one you end up with the performance is going to be far and away better than anything else we’ve seen thus far.

And:

The move to a 12MP rear camera was something that I personally was at least mildly skeptical of, but after testing the camera for myself I’m firmly convinced that Apple has managed to move to 12MP without noticeable degradation. The camera may not be sharper in most scenes, but the extra pixels enable 4K video recording, and it seems that this generation the improvements to video recording quality are enormous. On both iPhone 6s’, the addition of 4K video recording without random recording limitations, loss of image stabilization, or rapid overheating is surprisingly rare given the number of phones that support 4K video recording. The addition of 1080p120 slow motion video only magnifies just how far ahead Apple is in this segment when compared to Android smartphones.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. A review well worth reading.

A while back, we showed what happens to an Apple Watch when it hits a tile floor.

Turns out, your Apple TV remote is similarly susceptible to hard surfaces.

From this Reddit thread:

Roommate had it on his lap while sitting on the couch and it dropped onto the floor (tiled) and completely shattered. I couldn’t believe it, looked like it got ran over by a car.

I really should’ve bought the Apple Care. Luckily my roommate says he’ll gladly pay for a new remote.

Here’s the shattered Apple TV remote. Crazy to think you might need a case for your remote.

MacRumors:

The new Apple TV launched on Friday with an all-new App Store, but early adopters were quick to realize that app discovery was limited to a single featured section and a manual search option — unlike the App Stores on iPhone, iPad and Mac, which have several genre-based categories and top charts for apps.

Apple has partially addressed this issue today by adding top charts to the tvOS App Store, listing the top paid apps, top free apps and top grossing apps.

More than anything else, this makes it clear that Apple is busy behind the scenes, working on updates to the Apple TV experience. Is a better keyboard experience, perhaps via a remote iOS app, possibly in the works?

Ina Fried, writing for re/code:

Monday’s event featured a number of women from Apple’s early days, several of whom didn’t appear in Sorkin’s final cut. Joining “Chief Stand-Up-to-Steve officer” Hoffman were Mac manufacturing team member Debi Coleman, Mac unit controller Susan Barnes, former Mac product marketing manager Barbara Kaolkin Barza, and PR consultant Andrea “Andy” Cunningham, who does appear in the movie.

Cunningham, who organized the panel, recalled the number of times she was fired by the late Apple chief.

“About four,” she said. “I may have the record.”

I wish there was video. I would have loved to have seen this live.

Yesterday, news broke that Activision bought King Digital Entertainment, creator of Candy Crush Saga, for $5.9 billion.

Activision has the cash. They merged with Blizzard and the merged company owns World of Warcraft and all associated properties, as well as the Call of Duty franchise.

Why would they be interested in King Digital? Short answer, mobile.

Activision’s franchises—which also include Destiny, Guitar Hero, and Skylanders—are strong. But Activision has been late to the mobile revolution and slow to embrace mobile gaming as the category has increased in size. (Mobile games, in the 12 months ending Sept. 2015, accounted for 19% of the total dollar spend on video game software, according to The NPD Group.) Rather than investing its own resources, the publisher has partnered with mobile-centric companies (including Tencent) to bring select franchises to mobile in emerging territories. In January, for instance, the two companies launched Call of Duty Online in China.

Aside from Skylanders, most of Activision’s major franchises don’t have a mobile presence in the U.S. One exception: Blizzard’s Hearthstone, a PC and mobile game that has attracted more than 25 million players. Hearthstone’s success may have been a key catalyst for Activision’s pursuit of King. Blizzard’s games appeal to a wide audience, but it’s nowhere close to the size of the Candy Crush player base. King’s games boasted 474 million monthly active users in the third quarter of 2015.

Question is, will this move help transition their existing franchises into mobile, or will they simply own a mobile franchise that supplements their existing holdings?

One side note: When King went public last year, they were valued at US$7 billion. That’s a drop of more than $1B in value in about 18 months.

Mikey Campbell, writing for Apple Insider:

As granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Apple’s U.S. Patent No. 9,178,509 for an “Ultra low travel keyboard” describes the basic operating principles behind a completely switch-less QWERTY input mechanism reminiscent of the company’s Force Touch trackpads. Removing mechanical switches from the equation cuts precious millimeters off key height, allowing for even thinner MacBook designs.

Thinner keys, thinner MacBooks is one thing, but force touch triggered by a key press opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

Imagine Force Touch on a key used to precisely control a process. Force Touch a key to scroll up or down, move the cursor, steer a vehicle in a game, change the touch on a MIDI keyboard or drum kit as its playing in real time. So many ways this might be used.

Love this idea.

The safest way to download a Mac app is via the Mac App Store. But if you choose to download an app from outside that safe harbor, there is a way to look inside the .pkg file after you download it but before you double-click it to start the install.

Suspicious Package, from Mothers Ruin Software (got to love that name), is a QuickLook plugin. After it’s installed, you single-click on the suspicious .pkg, then hit the space bar.

To get a sense of what sorts of info Suspicious Package makes available, read the FAQ. Terrific idea.

Oh, and it’s free.

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.

Will Oremus, writing for Slate, points out the huge (read that in sarcastic tone, with air quotes) differences between the design of Microsoft’s new Manhattan flagship store and the Apple Store:

In an Apple Store, you’ll find rows of tables stocked with MacbBooks, iPads, iPhones, and related accessories. In contrast, the Microsoft Store features rows of tables stocked with Surface Books, Surface tablets, Lumia phones, and related accessories.

And:

Apple Stores are famously minimal in their interior design, with blond wood display tables set against a silver and white background. The new Microsoft Store, on the other hand, has somewhat darker wood tables, and the walls feature a lot of blue, and a few other primary colors, in addition to white. Imagine a Uniqlo, but for computers. And whereas Apple Stores often feature all-glass facades, the Microsoft Store’s facade is only mostly glass.

Somewhat darker wood tables! It’s only mostly glass! And don’t get me started on the “Answer Bar”.

[H/T the minimaluminiumalistically absurd not Jony Ive]

Joe Rossignol, writing for MacRumors, pulled together a nice list of tips and tricks for the new Apple TV. Worth reading through. It’s not long, and there are a number of immediately useful tips in this list.

If you’ve got a new Apple TV, you no doubt feel the pain of the long, linear software keyboard and recognize the value of any tip that will save you typing time (especially typing of long, arcane passwords).

If you don’t have an Apple TV but see one in your future, tuck this tip away. Either way, please do pass this along.

Josh Centers, writing for TidBITS, pulled together a well-written assemblage of frequently asked Apple TV questions.

There are some obvious questions, like whether to buy and which model to buy, but there are lots of subtle, important questions that make this well worth reading. The design is eye-scan friendly, so you’ll find it easy to skip from question to question to spot the ones that seem relevant to you.

Jean-Louis Gassée, writing for Monday Note:

Fueled by a significant number of hires from other car makers and real estate expansion beyond the upcoming hypergalactic spaceship HQ in Cupertino, rumors of an Apple Car keep percolating. I hope to drive an Apple Car someday… but does Apple’s personal computing software knowhow translate into the high-reliability real-time code required for a safe, reliable and, of course, elegant electric car?

Just one example of the incredibly complex interdependencies that make a car safe:

Consider the complicated, contradictory tasks that are controlled by the Electric Power Steering system (EPS). Sensors, electric motors, gears, and software make it easy for you to maneuver your vehicle at low effort parking speed and still maintain a straight line at highway speed with its variable return-to-center force. In a steep turn, EPS must provide sharper steering angle ratios and let you know if the car is starting to “push” (understeer) or if the back of your car is about to swing loose (oversteer).

To save your life, EPS software attempts to get between you and the front wheels, using speed and yaw information, comparing intended and real trajectories, and then applying steering and braking corrections. Take the “famous” Moose Test, an evasive left-right obstacle avoidance maneuver performed at highway speeds. Without assistance from sensors, software and electro-hydraulic actuators, most of us will either hit the obstacle or roll the the car into the ditch. At the highway speeds for which it is designed, a modern EPS, in collaboration with the braking subsystem, will not let you roll over, regardless of your steering input.

And:

I also have to consider that my current vehicle is more than five years old — and how many software or mechanical bugs in those five years? Null. Zero. Before that, I drove a car from the same series for four and a half years. Bugs? One out-of-the-box suspension problem that was fixed a few days later and that was it. No more problems.

On my Mac, I tolerate the occasional screen message telling me that Mail or some other service has quit.

And:

Just because the software running inside Apple’s personal computing devices is considered high quality doesn’t mean that the culture that produces it is capable of producing the high-reliability, real-time embedded software needed for an electric car.

A thoughtful column (as usual) from JLG.

To me, these issues are likely major topics of conversation within the Apple Car team. The bulletproof culture of embedded software (think about the software in your microwave oven, something that just can’t crash) is well known and, I suspect, embedded expertise is part of the talent being brought into Apple’s automobile efforts.

Ed Colligan, Palm CEO from long ago:

“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”

We shall see.

This is an incredible infographic. Be sure to click on the image to make it full-screen, then click again to zoom in.

If you see something wrong/missing, be sure to click the ADDITION/CORRECTION button on the main page.

Dave Smith, writing for Tech Insider:

In September, a new Apple Store opened in Brussels. But this is not your typical Apple Store you’d find at the mall.

Located in the heart of Belgium, this new location was designed by Sir Jony Ive, Apple’s design genius who ultimately controls how the company’s bestselling hardware and software looks and feels.

Though Apple cofounder Steve Jobs is famously known for partially designing many of the Apple Stores, including their signature glass staircases, Jony Ive has never designed an Apple Store until now, believe it or not.

It’s not the biggest Apple Store we’ve seen, but it definitely feels like Jony Ive’s work: Simple, elegant, and friendly.

Check out the images. This is an incredibly beautifully designed store. My favorite is the shot of the front corner of the outside, showing off the huge, curved glass panels.

[H/T John Kordyback]

Thanks to Marketcircle for sponsoring The Loop this week. Marketcircle, helping small businesses grow with amazing Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad apps. Marketcircle is a Mac-based software company in Toronto that develops award-winning apps to help you save time, stay organized, and work happier. Serving the Apple/Mac community for over 10 years, Marketcircle’s Daylite and Billings Pro can take your business to new heights.

Billings Pro is a time tracking and invoicing app that helps freelancers and small businesses create beautiful and professional invoices in as little as 60 seconds. With less time managing invoices, you have more time to focus on clients and do the work you love.

New in Billings Pro: support for El Capitan, and iOS 9, including multitasking support.

Read about how small businesses have grown with the help of Billings Pro.

I am a huge fan of both. Amazing how many of these shots are strikingly similar. I just can’t imagine this is coincidence.

Got an Apple TV on its way? Spend a few minutes and Christian Zibreg, writing for iDownloadBlog, will give you a tour of some of the best Apple TV apps and games you can look forward to downloading.

Serenity Caldwell, writing for iMore:

Apple’s fourth-generation Apple TV offers an App Store chock full of third-party apps for you to enjoy—including, yes, games. To expand the gaming universe further, the Apple TV is supporting Apple’s Made For iPhone (MFi) standard for third-party controllers, which means you’ll be able to game with a Siri Remote and Xbox-style controller alike.

So, how do third-party controllers work in the wide wonderful world of tvOS? We’ll walk you through it so you can start gaming in no time.

One thing that struck me in particular:

All games on the tvOS App Store offer a helpful indicator on their app pages in regards to controllers: If your game offers third-party controller support, you’ll see Game Controller Optional below the description.

I do find that wording interesting—”optional”—given that, currently, Apple prevents tvOS games from requiring a game controller. It might be worded in such a way to open up the possibility controller-required games in the future… or it just might be a random word choice on the part of tvOS App Store staff.

Great job, as usual, from Serenity.

This was just lovely. Watch the video below, then take a trip over to the home page to read through the time line. Terrific job.

Another of those tips that you should bookmark and pass along. You never know when you’ll need it.

The TL;DR version: To reset your Bluetooth, hold down shift-option, then click the Bluetooth menu in your menu bar. Surprise! There’s now a Debug menu.

Among other things, this menu lets you remove all devices (you’ll have to re-pair all your devices if you do this) and reset the Bluetooth module.

Read the article. It’s full of interesting nuggets.