Apple updated their iOS adoption pie chart on Monday. iOS 8 adoption is at 68%, iOS 7 is at 29%, pre-iOS 7 at 4%. Obviously, these numbers include some slight rounding up.

Beautiful Pixels posted their annual look at the best user interface animations from apps and the web. My favorite, from Lush for iPhone, is below. So very delicious.

[Hat tip, iOS Dev Weekly]

Wall Street Journal:

In a complaint filed in Superior Court in San Mateo County, Calif., Monster said Beats “fraudulently acquired” the Beats by Dr. Dre line of headphones through a “sham transaction” with HTC, which agreed to purchase a 51% stake in Beats for $300 million in 2011.

This is a complex tale. You might start by reading this article from February 2013, which lays out the history of the Beats, Monster deal.

It starts with Noel and Kevin Lee, the father and son team behind Monster. To hear the story told, the Lees were astute when it came to music, speakers, and headphones, but were in way over their head when it came to negotiating with the team of lawyers at Interscope.

There can’t be two winners. Monster solidified an agreement that got Beats Electronics alive and shipping headphones, but not without gigantic forfeit: Jimmy and Dre’s side of Beats would retain permanent ownership of everything that Monster developed. Every headphone, every headband, every cup, every driver, every remote control—if there was a piece of metal or plastic associated with Beats By Dre, Noel and Kevin Lee surrendered it to Jimmy and Dre. Monster would also be entirely responsible for manufacturing the products—a hugely expensive corner of the deal—as well as distributing them. The heavy lifting.

Back to the Wall Street Journal article:

The complaint asserts that Beats repurchased 25.5% of its own shares from HTC less than a month after the deal closed, allowing Beats to end its relationship with Monster due to a change-of-ownership clause.

Noel Lee ultimately sold his Beats shares:

In September 2013, eight months before Apple agreed to buy Beats in May 2014, Mr. Lee sold his remaining shares. In the suit, Mr. Lee alleges he sold the shares after being misled by a board member that no “liquidity event” was on the horizon for the next year or two.

But Monster’s suit said Mr. Iovine and Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue later told a technology conference that the deal was several years in the making.

The question is, does Lee have a piece of paper or an email specifically stating no “liquidity event” was on the horizon, or is this his word against someone else’s? Like it or not, this sounds more like business hardball, where the best prepared team wins.

Note that Apple was not named in the suit.

NASA:

The largest NASA Hubble Space Telescope image ever assembled, this sweeping bird’s-eye view of a portion of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) is the sharpest large composite image ever taken of our galactic next-door neighbor. Though the galaxy is over 2 million light-years away, the Hubble Space Telescope is powerful enough to resolve individual stars in a 61,000-light-year-long stretch of the galaxy’s pancake-shaped disk. It’s like photographing a beach and resolving individual grains of sand. And there are lots of stars in this sweeping view — over 100 million, with some of them in thousands of star clusters seen embedded in the disk.

This ambitious photographic cartography of the Andromeda galaxy represents a new benchmark for precision studies of large spiral galaxies that dominate the universe’s population of over 100 billion galaxies. Never before have astronomers been able to see individual stars inside an external spiral galaxy over such a large contiguous area. Most of the stars in the universe live inside such majestic star cities, and this is the first data that reveal populations of stars in context to their home galaxy.

Two million light years is a huge distance, almost unfathomably far away. If you are traveling 186,000 miles per second, think how far you could go in a year (186,000 * 60 * 60 * 24 *365 miles), then multiply that by two million. Now imagine how you’d go about taking a picture of something that far away.

Here’s a link to the picture itself.

Swiss watch makers like TAG Heuer, the biggest brand in luxury goods group LVMH’s watch portfolio, had until recently largely dismissed the threat of “smart” gadgets, but LVMH watch chief Jean-Claude Biver says he had changed his mind on the subject.

Not a big surprise.

Matt Richman’s thoughts on the news:

In order to have even a chance of being as feature-rich as Apple Watch, then, TAG’s smartwatch will have to pair with an Android phone. However, TAG wearers aren’t Android users. Rich people buy TAG watches, but rich people don’t buy Android phones.

I agree.

An 86-year-old woman wrote this to her bank manager. Priceless.

Stephen Hackett has a look at a dozen RSS readers for OS X and while the winner is no surprise, it’s a great read.

Huffington Post:

From the great ancient capitals to the modern cities of Asia, the Americas, and beyond, here are the 50 cities you must see during your lifetime.

Out of the 50, I really only want to visit 23 of the listed cities. I’ve been to 11 so far.

One gripe I have about Netflix is the lack of any sort of sophisticated search mechanism. FlickSurfer is a web site that lets you search the Netflix database, guided by movie rankings on Netflix itself, IMDB, and RottenTomatoes.

You can order your results based on the date they were added to Netflix, their individual scores, or an average of the Netflix, IMDB and RT scores. You can select a combination of genres (such as Crime, Drama, Comedy, Horror) to further filter your results.

Looking for something to watch? FlickSurfer is genius.

Last May, Cabel Sasser, co-founder of Panic, announced that the team was pulling Coda, their highly regarded web development tool, from the Mac App Store, primarily due to sandboxing issues.

As we continued to work on Coda 2.5—a significant update that we’re really excited about—we continued to discover new corners of the app that presented challenges under sandboxing. Coda, to be fair, is a very complex developer tool and is something of a sandboxing worst-case scenario.

Apple, to their considerable credit, spent a lot of energy assisting us with ideas, workarounds, and temporary exemptions we might be able to use to get around some of the issues. Apple genuinely went above and beyond the call of duty, and we’re really thankful for their help. We got extremely close and jumped over a lot of tricky hurdles thanks to them.

Unfortunately, though, we’ve run out of time.

Yesterday, in a Panic state-of-the-union, Cabel published the results of this experiment.

So, how’d it go? After running the numbers, it looks like Coda’s sales have not suffered significantly since leaving the Mac App Store.

Coda was removed from the Mac App Store in mid-October, at the same time version 2.5 was released. Since new releases always generate a short-term sales spike and we wanted the numbers to be fairly representative of “typical sales”, we looked at one month on either side — September and November.

The results were interesting. We sold a couple hundred fewer units of Coda post-App Store removal, but revenue from it went up by about 44%.

Now, two explanations for that: in addition to keeping the 30% that would have normally gone to Apple, we also returned Coda from its sale price ($79) to its regular price ($99) alongside the release of 2.5. Even if those factors hadn’t been in play, though, I don’t think the decline in Coda revenue would have been as dramatic as we originally feared it might be.

Of course we have it easy — it’s an established app with a dedicated customer base. If Coda did not already exist or Panic was not well-known, ignoring the Mac App Store would’ve been a much harder decision with possibly larger ramifications.

Back in October, Rich Siegel announced that BBEdit was leaving the Mac App Store as well. BBEdit is also widely used by developers, has a strong brand and a rabid following. It would be interesting to see how BBEdit is faring.

Side note: You can release a Mac App on your own, without going through the App Store, but your options are extremely limited for iOS. You can build a web app targeted at iOS, but there’s no way to deliver something truly native without going through the iOS App Store.

There’s no technical reason for the two platforms to be treated differently. Apple could certainly tighten the screws on the Mac side to prevent unsigned apps from running natively on OS X. This is an inheritance issue. People have always had the right to self-publish on OS X. But iOS set its exclusivity rules from the get-go.

Different rules for such intimately tied platforms is a small force pushing iOS and OS X apart when Apple is trying to bring them together. A small example of dissonance.

Vox:

We’re getting closer to the point where you can cancel your cable subscription and still continue to enjoy all your favorite cable TV shows. Today at the Consumer Electronic Show, the satellite TV company Dish announced the next step in that direction. Sling TV is a service that lets you watch cable TV channels over the internet.

Crucially, the Sling TV lineup includes ESPN, the nation’s most popular cable channel and a must-have for sports fans. And unlike some other streaming services, you can sign up for it without getting a conventional cable subscription.

Is this of interest to you cordcutters?

Reuters:

At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, mobile-marketing firm TapSense plans to release an Apple Watch ad-buying service. The service will provide a first glimpse of how businesses can serve up ads on the watch, even though the gadget will not be available until later this year.

At issue: the same qualities that render the watch exciting to Madison Avenue, such as the ability to detect customers approaching a store and to zap an ad directly to their wrists, also risk alienating those customers.

Before any one panics and screams about ads on the Apple Watch (oh, too late – they already are), keep in mind this is a “service” being offered to developers to include in their apps and there is no indication that Apple will allow such functionality. And, even if Apple does, I can promise you it will be an entirely opt-in process. Apple is not going to allow developers to push ads at you without your permission.

The history of the PBS NewsHour can be traced back to the Watergate hearings.

Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer covered the 1973 hearings for PBS. In 1975 MacNeil began anchoring The Robert MacNeil Report which soon evolved into the 30-minute MacNeil/Lehrer Report.

Om Malik:

How to find originality in a “networked society” is on my mind, because I have recently come across three individuals who have been original for such a long time. During a conversation for my new art project, Pi.co, Frank Clegg, a US-based bag maker put it best when he said, “If I make something different, then I don’t really have any competition. Either people like what I do, or they don’t like what I do.” Such a simple statement, but so hard to implement, because many find such comfort from hiding in the herd.

This is exactly how I see Apple. They make products that we don’t always know we need—people are going to like them or they won’t. Either way, it’s going to be different.

Jacob Gube covers the six ways to declare colors in CSS.

I hope everyone had a great holiday. The new year is here and it’s time to get back to work. If you would like to get your product or service in front of the good looking, intelligent readers of The Loop, now is your chance to book. I’ve opened up the first two months of 2015 on the sponsorship page. If there’s a week that you would like to book later in the year, just get in touch.

Have a question for the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX? Here’s your chance to ask Elon Musk directly.

In April of 2013, less than two years ago, Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins announced the Glass Collective, “an investment syndicate among our three firms, to provide seed funding to entrepreneurs in the Glass ecosystem to help jumpstart their ideas.”

Follow this link and take a look at the picture. Does this look like the future? Two years ago, it did, at least to some pretty smart people.

The main reason I’m running the photo is to make an actual serious point, which is that nobody in this industry ever has any idea what is going to work. Nobody. Not even these big-brained masters of the universe who are entrusted with billions of dollars. These are smart guys. The one on the left founded Netscape. The one on the right was an early investor in Google. The one in the middle was in a boy band, I think. Anyway, they’re experts. They spend their whole lives trying to spot trends and pick winners, and they are paid ungodly amounts of money because they are considered the best in the world.

And yet, back in 2013, less than two years ago, these three experts really believed Glass was going to be huge. They were very passionate about it. They got into huge arguments over it.

Point is, it’s hard to predict the future, to know what will grab hold and develop traction.

Two years ago, many people thought that the future would be viewed through Glass, that any fashion or privacy concerns would be worked through and that Glass would see widespread adoption.

Predicting the future is hard, but innovation is critical. Efforts like Glass, or Google’s self-driving car, like the SpaceX effort to launch a rocket and land it back on Earth (that attempt will take place tomorrow), like the iPod, the iPhone or any of Apple’s ventures into the unknown, are critical to moving the ball forward.

One step better than recycling is reuse. Joe Caiati, a long time IT pro, shares some tips for breathing new life into your old Mac. Note that this is not a tutorial, but more a nice collection of links worth exploring if you are considering upgrading and old machine.

Xiaomi has long been accused of copying the look and feel of the iPhone. Here are a few examples.

As Xiaomi contemplates entering western markets, it will no doubt have a strategy in hand for dealing with more stringent intellectual property protections. The question is, will it change its stripes? Here’s the latest and greatest:

Xiaomi, like Alibaba, has a pretty mixed reputation in the market. Some joked Xiaomi should be renamed xiao tou, thief in Chinese, due to its long record of copying foreign innovation and design ideas – for example, Apple’s iPhone – and then selling such clones for incredibly low prices.

The most recent controversy followed Xiaomi’s decision to move beyond its cheap smartphone business, which established its reputation, and make and sell an air purifier, priced at a few hundred yuan.

Just weeks after Xiaomi launched its cheap air purifier, a Japanese electric fan maker claimed the design closely resembled its own product, according to Japanese media. Xiaomi denied the allegations, just as it did when challenged by fans of Apple about why its smartphone looked so similar to an iPhone.

The lifespan of electronics is shrinking and their number is increasing. Most electronics end up in the trash, doing terrible, toxic damage to the environment.

Fortunately, there are a number of efforts to make responsible recycling of your electronics much more possible, if not easier.

> Stores like Best Buy and Staples now offer programs to take back old gadgets and recycle them. Churches and schools commonly hold e-waste collection drives, and you can even occasionally find bins for dropping off old tech on the street, this is one of the many reasons why services like the Commercial waste for UK business disposal are becoming so demanded. > > The solution is not just recycling. It’s to be sure that you’re recycling with a responsible processor. Some programs do little more than pass the load to unverified operators that then toss loads of e-waste into increasingly toxic dumps around the world.

There are two standards bodies, eStewards and Sustainable Electronics Recycling International, monitoring recyclers for responsible practices. Their goal is to not just to recycle, but to reuse old electronics, either in whole or as parts.

> While recycling electronics is crucial, protecting your confidential information through proper data destruction is equally important. Many recycling programs focus on the environmental aspect but may overlook the security of your data. > > To ensure your personal or business data is safely destroyed, consider utilizing specialized services like data destruction atlanta. These experts offer secure methods for wiping or shredding hard drives and other storage media, preventing any potential data breaches. By prioritizing responsible recycling and thorough data destruction, you can safeguard both the environment and your privacy effectively.

> So it is worth doing a little work to look up a trustworthy source. Patty Osterberg, director of education and outreach at S.E.R.I., said she estimated that only about 25 percent of recyclers in the United States were certified by one of the two standards organizations. > > Ms. Osterberg said the process of getting certified from S.E.R.I. was “arduous,” and Mr. Kao said eStewards certification was even tougher. So a Best Buy drop-off might be more convenient than finding a certified recycler in some parts of the country.

Certainly, any effort at recycling is better than throwing old electronics in the trash.

Marco Arment:

Apple has completely lost the functional high ground. “It just works” was never completely true, but I don’t think the list of qualifiers and asterisks has ever been longer. We now need to treat Apple’s OS and application releases with the same extreme skepticism and trepidation that conservative Windows IT departments employ.

I hate agreeing with Arment but sometimes, he’s bang on. I believe in this case he is. From embarrassing software updates to apps that simply don’t work properly or well – Apple’s poor quality and functionality of the Mail.app being just one of many examples – the assessment that “We don’t need major OS releases every year” is something many of us hope Apple listens and pays attention to.

Bloomberg:

CES, the world’s largest trade show, is far from a hit-making machine. While the technology show is a leading indicator of trends and attracted 160,000 attendees last year, many products debuting at the event take years to get into consumers’ living rooms — if at all. The last time the event had a true stand-alone sensation was when Microsoft debuted the Xbox game console at CES in 2001.

I’ve been to several CES shows and they are a huge, hectic mess. Everyone in the tech media knows “the real show” is the behind the scenes deals made largely in private and in secret. But that isn’t sexy so the media hypes ridiculous products and their own presence at the show as if it actually means something to average consumers. It’s a shame to the show and a disservice to their readers when the media won’t be honest and objective in their assessment of what CES offers.

Thanks to my friend Greg for the link.

Dan Frommer:

From Apple’s financial followers to the culture pages, expect few technology topics to garner as much attention in 2015 as the Apple Watch, which is set to launch “early” in the year.

Why? Because it’s not just a new gadget. Several people, companies, and entire industries are counting on it to be a hit. Without hyperbole, the Apple Watch has the potential to create new billionaires and to change the way people live.

Here are a few reasons—from micro to macro—the Apple Watch is shaping up to be the launch of 2015.

I don’t know about “Year of the Apple Watch” but I do believe it will eventually be a hugely successful category for Apple, much like the “slow burn” of the iPod.