But the kicker here is that the Fire TV actually works. My Apple TV has been plagued by poor performance and repeated crashes—sometimes right in the middle of a show. Every time that’s happened, it’s been faster to switch inputs to my Fire TV and resume the video there than it has been to wait for the Apple TV to finish its glacial restarting process.

I found this really interesting. It’s certainly not a good sign that the Apple TV has such poor performance when watching a program. If it was caused by Dan’s Internet, then the Fire TV wouldn’t work either, but it does. I don’t have many problems with my Apple TV, except when watching the NHL station—that usually sucks really bad.

My thanks to Edovia for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. Screens is a beautiful, yet powerful VNC client for iOS and Mac that lets you connect back to your computer from the comfort of your living room, the corner coffee shop or anywhere in the world.

Until the end of the month, we’re happy to offer 20% off Screens for Mac to the readers of The Loop. Simply use this link to save!

Jim’s Note: I’ve used Screens for Mac and iOS since they were first released. I love them both.

Top Hat quickly answers the one question that indie developers have every morning: How well did our apps do in the App Store yesterday?

Top Hat lives in the Yosemite menu bar and shows up-to-date daily sales figures for your apps. Revenue from In-App Purchases is aggregated to give you a single total for each app. Weekly figures can be inspected by holding ⌥ as you click the Top Hat icon.

A great new app from Oisin Prendiville, the man behind Castro podcasting app, Unread and Tokens. I’m buying this.

Use the Mac creative tools you know & love, like Photoshop, with the touch experience of your iPad.

Made by some ex-Apple engineers (of course). This is one of the most exciting things I’ve seen in a while.

Les Paul’s personal 1954 Les Paul Custom “Black Beauty” sold to Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay last night for $335,500. According to the New York Times, Irsay’s guitar curator, Christopher McKinney, placed the bid at the February 19, 2015 auction held by Guernsey’s in New York City.

I would love to have this guitar. If only I had a few hundred grand laying around.

The Loop Magazine Issue 31:

Jim Dalrymple looks at the key to Apple’s success. Is it design, software, hardware? Maybe none of those things; Matt Gemmell talks about the colors of his various computer bags—It’s okay to skip safe; Darren Murph looks at where the DSLR is now that so many people are using an iPhone; Joe Caiati has a look at the origins of his writing; Steven Aquino has a wonderful story on how music and the iPod helped people with memories; With so many recordings of the same classical piece, Kirk McElhearn is still searching for the perfect recording, but does it exist?; Darren Murph looks at mobile data and how everything is being commoditized in mobile; and Tim Schock talks about the resurgence of the cassette… really.

You can download The Loop Magazine and preview the latest issue on your iPhone and iPad for free. A subscription is only $1.99 per month and you get access to all previous issues.

The Smithsonian:

In 1959, Xerox released the “914”—the first easy-to-use photocopier. The culmination of more than 20 years of experimentation, it was a much cleaner, “dry” process. The copier created an electrostatic image of a document on a rotating metal drum, and used it to transfer toner—ink in a powdered format—to a piece of paper, which would then be sealed in place by heat. It was fast, cranking out a copy in as little as seven seconds. When the first desk-size, 648-pound machines were rolled out to corporate customers—some of whom had to remove doors to install these behemoths—the era of copying began.

Or more accurately, the explosion of copying began. Xerox expected customers would make about 2,000 copies a month—but users easily made 10,000 a month, and some as many as 100,000. Before the 914 machine, Americans made 20 million copies a year, but by 1966 Xerox had boosted the total to 14 billion.

We don’t give much thought to the copier many of us have daily access to but this article makes a good argument for the ways it changed the world and asks if 3D printing might do the same.

Medium:

As the 19th century teetered into the 20th, the clank of typewriter keys went from solo to symphony. They were the weapon of choice for professional writers, the business elite, people with things to say and the need to say them quickly. They unintentionally provided a passageway for women to tread into workplaces from which they had long been banished, and greatly expedited the rate at which human thought could be translated into ink. An 1867 issue of Scientific American marveled at the “machine by which it is assumed that man may print his thoughts twice as fast as he can write them.”

Using a typewriter at times feels more like playing piano than jotting down notes, a percussive exercise in expressing thought that is both tortuous and rewarding.

Great story about a dying technology and the men who still service it. While I am nostalgic about typewriters and love their look and feel, there’s no way I’d ever want to go back to using one on a daily basis.

1998 was still a low point for Apple. Steve Jobs had just returned, had some new plans in place, but the triumphant arc of new products that would once again change the world had not yet begun.

The Chronicle of Higher Education sent two reporters, one a seasoned reporter and one fresh out of college, to a conference for college computing administrators to grab some time with Steve Jobs.

That fresh-faced reporter was Jeffrey Young. You can read his accounting of the interview here. And listen to the interview below.

[via iHeartApple2]

Jordan Kahn, writing for 9to5mac:

Evident by this long list of automotive experts, it’s clear Apple’s ambitions go well beyond just its iOS-based CarPlay in-dash system. Well beyond software too, as many of the names below are hardware engineers coming from Tesla, Ford and other notable automotive related areas. In fact, the majority of employees on this list that are reporting to team leader Steve Zadesky come from an automotive hardware background and many only joined Apple recently or around the time Cook reportedly approved the electric car project.

Jordan did a great job pulling together the list of Apple’s recent auto-related hires, along with some background for each one.

Fortune:

Apple holds the top spot for the eighth year in a row. In February, it became the first company to hit more than $700 billion in market value. As tech devotees await the launch of the Apple Watch in April, record smartphone sales were announced in January — 74.5 million phones in final three months of 2014– proving that the iPhone is still the product to beat.

What’s not to like?

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc., which has been working secretly on a car, is pushing its team to begin production of an electric vehicle as early as 2020, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The possibility of Apple building a car just took a slight turn towards the positive with this definitive quote from Bloomberg. Obviously, this is not a quote from Apple, so it is automatically suspect.

But add this bit of kindling on the rest of the stack, including the battery poaching lawsuit, which also moves the needle towards Apple investing in automobile hardware, as opposed to some form of Car OS.

We spent a lot of time discussing this on this week’s Amplified. Take a listen.

Apple has determined that a small percentage of MacBook Pro systems may exhibit distorted video, no video, or unexpected system restarts. These MacBook Pro systems were sold between February 2011 and December 2013.

More information is available from Apple’s Web site.

A nice looking bundle of 8 apps for Mac users. The apps purchased separately would cost $469, but they are selling it for $44.99. If you use code ULTRAMAC5, you can get it for $39.99.

Wired:

The Hangzhou store’s ceilings are almost 50 feet high, with no columns to be found. The façade of glass panels reaches from floor to ceiling without interruption, meaning Foster + Partners had to push well beyond their previous feats in glass manufacturing to get 11 seamless panes.

I’ve seen a lot of pics of this new store and it is an absolutely stunning architectural achievement.

Chinese PC maker Lenovo has found itself in the middle of a public relations disaster, following revelations that it sold a number of notebook computers with pre-installed software that hijacks users’ browser sessions to inject customized advertisements and seriously degrades the security of encrypted connections.

No matter what else they may do, everyone knows that Apple would never pull shit like this.

Really nice looking game for iPhone and iPad.

Re/code:

Twenty-five years ago today, a software application called Photoshop arrived, promising photographers and graphic designers a new realm of digital possibilities. But my brother John Knoll and I didn’t realize at the time just how broadly influential our little piece of software would become.

When I began writing the code back in graduate school instead of focusing on my PhD at the University of Michigan, I had no idea what it would become or how it would be used.

Photoshop might be the most complicated software application I’ve ever used. It’s an amazing tool.

Eric Clapton has been tapped for induction into the Blues Hall of Fame for his many musical achievements as well as for his role as a popularizer of the entire genre. He brought the blues to audiences in his native Britain and throughout the world, illuminating the work of the original blues artists who inspired him.

Well deserved.

Buzzfeed:

The snow in Boston may have been bad, but wait until you see what’s going on in Canada.

The amazing amount of snow in my and The Loop’s Publisher’s home province and other areas of Eastern Canada is reminiscent of what I remember seeing frequently as a kid. When you’re young, this amount of snow is magical. Thanks to Nicole Dalrymple for the link!

Digg:

When you leave a movie theater, you’re probably not thinking, “Man, the sound in that movie was mixed perfectly.”

Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean you’re bad at watching movies. The sound mix in a movie – the combination of the dialogue, soundtrack and sound effects – is designed to be unobtrusive. As one sound mixer put it to me, as soon as the audience notices something slightly off in the mix, “you’ve lost them.”

I love this behind the scenes stuff, especially about subjects most of us have heard of but have no clue what actually happens.

The new York Times:

A month ago, I felt that I was in good health, even robust health. At 81, I still swim a mile a day. But my luck has run out — a few weeks ago I learned that I have multiple metastases in the liver. Nine years ago it was discovered that I had a rare tumor of the eye, an ocular melanoma. Although the radiation and lasering to remove the tumor ultimately left me blind in that eye, only in very rare cases do such tumors metastasize. I am among the unlucky 2 percent.

Beautifully written but no less heartbreaking.

Federicco Viticci, writing for MacStories:

All About Apple, an Italian non-profit organization that’s been operating for over a decade, has launched a crowdfunding campaign for All About Apple Museum, the “most comprehensive” exhibition of Apple and Apple-related products with over 9,000 pieces in its collection. The organization has assembled a team of volunteers and has been granted permission to use a new location in Savona, Italy, and they’re seeking funds to finish the project.

The museum has reached its first funding goal (no doubt in part, at least, thanks to Federicco’s publicity) and is now pushing towards its first stretch goal. Looking forward to a visit once the museum is up and running. In case you are interested in making the trek out there, Savona is in the northwest of Italy, on the Ligurian Sea, to the west of Genoa.

Here’s a link to the English-language museum page.

Wall Street Journal:

LoopPay’s technology, however, purports to sidestep one obstacle that has so far hindered the wide adoption of mobile-payment services: the need for merchants to have to upgrade their checkout devices. Instead, LoopPay says its magnetic induction technology allows a smartphone to be tapped against the magnetic-stripe-reader machine that is already found in Samsung’s service, which is expected to be launched when Samsung unveils its Galaxy S6 smartphone in Barcelona in about a week’s time, would allow a consumer to register credit, debit, gift and loyalty cards onto a Samsung smartphone, and use the handset to make purchases, instead of carrying the cards in a physical wallet.

First things first, this time Samsung has gone too far. Jim put so much effort into his Heineken based mobile payment service which (I have this under the highest authority) he was going to call LoopPay.

Kidding aside, LoopPay uses a magnetic field to interface with existing magnetic strip readers. In effect, it allows a phone to mimic an actual credit card and is said to work with most existing card readers, meaning merchants won’t have to make any changes to accept LoopPay.

From a WSJ blog post that lays out the mechanics:

To use LoopPay, first you register your existing credit cards in its app (as many cards as you like). Once you’ve done that, you can pay by opening the app, tapping in your LoopPay-specific PIN, selecting your card and then holding your phone close to the merchant’s card swipe slot. When you do, most machines will recognize LoopPay’s magnetic signal as a swipe, and the transaction will proceed.

You can also remove your LoopPay fob from the phone if it’s easier to just hand it to the merchant—the cashier just needs to press a physical button on the dongle. The signal emits from the dongle, so it can even work when your phone’s battery has died. Of course, Samsung hasn’t said much yet about how it might implement LoopPay in its phones, but I could imagine there will be differences with the software and hardware.

Though I do like the fact that the technology can work with existing card readers, this seems like a short sighted system to me. It does not solve the security problem and it is far less convenient to use. You have to open an app and type in a pin.

With Apple Pay, you hold your finger on the Touch ID sensor, tap the merchant terminal, wait for the confirmation beep (which happens almost instantaneously) and boom, you’re done. And, unless I’ve missing something here, Apple Pay offers security that is head and shoulders beyond that of LoopPay.

Short term, LoopPay is an interesting alternative to pulling your credit card out of your wallet, if you have the right piece of hardware. Samsung is betting that LoopPay is enough of a draw to get you to invest in the next generation Samsung phone. Obviously, Apple is doing the same. It’s a horse race, of a sorts. But in this race, time favors Apple. Once Apple Pay acceptance hits a critical mass, compatibility with legacy merchant terminals will be less of an issue and ease of use and security will become the driving factors. And Apple Pay wins that one, hands down.

New York Times:

Electric-car battery maker A123 Systems has sued Apple Inc for poaching top engineers to build a large-scale battery division, according to a court filing that offered further evidence that the iPhone maker may be developing a car.

Apple has been poaching engineers with deep expertise in car systems, including from Tesla Inc, and talking with industry experts and automakers with the ultimate aim of learning how to make its own electric car, an auto industry source said last week.

The lawsuit is interesting, but more notable is the evidence this lends to the possibility of an Apple car of some sort. If Apple is building an automotive software platform, a Car OS, why would they need battery expertise?

The Guardian:

John Browett, the former Dixons boss who was ousted from Apple after six months, is stepping down from Monsoon, the fashion chain he joined two years ago.

Browett replaced Ron Johnson at Apple and was replaced by Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Sales. Browett’s run at Apple was short:

Browett was a high flyer at Tesco before leaving to head up Dixons where he is credited with kicking off a turnaround at the PC World and Currys chains. He was poached to head up Apple’s retail division in 2012 but only six months later he was ousted by the technology group’s boss Tim Cook. Staff apparently disliked his efforts to make them more profit-driven rather than simply focusing on customer service.

[Hat tip to Loop reader David Leech]

That may be why I’ve been getting a lot of questions from developers and designers regarding what I’d like to see from Apple Watch apps. After thinking about it for a good long while, the list turns out to be pretty straightforward.

Rene Ritchie has a good list of things to look out for when designing for the wrist. Like Rene, I’ve been getting a lot of questions on this too. We’re in for some interesting times.