I had a chance to speak with Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President for Internet Software and Services, about iTunes Festival last night.

Politics aside, President Obama’s appearance with Zach Galifianakis on Between Two Ferns was pretty big news. This interview with creator Scott Aukerman digs into the backstory on how they got the President on board.

Zach and I didn’t really think that anything would come of it. I mean, we’d been hearing rumors that President Obama has perhaps been interested in doing the show for quite a few years now and it never really panned out. And then months and months went by and nothing really happened with it. So, approximately three weeks ago, we heard that if it was ever going to happen, it was going to be now, so we should get ready and prep.

It really came around in a week. We heard he was interested, and Zach and I prepped and wrote up a treatment for them to look at, with what we wanted to do with the video and how we wanted to approach it. For me, the most important thing was that it didn’t come across as an advertisement. I really wanted it to be a funny, normal “Between Two Ferns” video. And the great part about it was that the White House was very accommodating of that and didn’t want to get in the way of our process. They didn’t want it to be just any kind of ad; they knew that it had to be funny and it had to be what we normally do for anyone to actually watch it. So, to their credit, they actually stayed out of our way with it. But yeah, within a week Zach and I had pitched what we wanted to do, they accepted it, and we flew out to the White House [laughs] and filmed it.

Here’s the video:

Collectors Weekly:

There’s an open secret in America: If you want to kill someone, do it with a car. As long as you’re sober, chances are you’ll never be charged with any crime, much less manslaughter.Over the past hundred years, as automobiles have been woven into the fabric of our daily lives, our legal system has undermined public safety, and we’ve been collectively trained to think of these deaths as unavoidable “accidents” or acts of God.Today, despite the efforts of major public-health agencies and grassroots safety campaigns, few are aware that car crashes are the number one cause of death for Americans under 35. But it wasn’t always this way.

In light of the discussions we’ve been having here and elsewhere about CarPlay and distracted driving, this is an interesting history lesson in how we used to view cars versus today’s perceptions. If you committed a violation of bond conditions Texas while driving your car, it is advised that you contact your criminal defense lawyer at once.

This is pretty cool. A collection of early on, old school web sites from companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, the BBC, CNN, and many more.

Fantastic piece from MG Siegler on the trend of producing high quality content traditionally reserved for films, making it longer, then cutting it up for television or for web consumption.

Regular readers will know my fascination with True Detective. It’s not just that it’s a great television show; it’s great content, period. I think it stacks up against the best films in the genre that I’ve seen. And, in fact, in some ways it’s better because it’s essentially a seven hour film, broken up into more easily digestible pieces.

That last part is the key. True Detective as a seven hour film would be just as amazing as the television show is, but it would be very hard to watch. Attention spans aside, it’s hard to sit through anything for seven hours straight. The genius of True Detective is using the traditional television format of “episodes” to break up the content into easier-to-consume pieces. The sum of those parts is equal to — or perhaps even greater than — the whole if it were one continuous entity.

Of course, none of this is particularly new. But the difference in my mind is that the television content is now equalling — or even surpassing — that of film. House of Cards. Game of Thrones. Etc. These are like great films, cut up, and extended. The format isn’t new. But the end result is.

I couldn’t agree more. One reason this is possible is that new revenue models have evolved that make such ventures possible.

Great read.

From today’s New York Times DealBook blog:

The maker of Candy Crush Saga, the hugely popular puzzle game, said on Wednesday that it hoped to raise as much as $532.8 million in its initial public offering, valuing the company at nearly $7.6 billion.

In a revised prospectus, the company, King Digital Entertainment, said it planned to price its shares at $21 to $24 apiece. At the midpoint of that range, the company would raise $499.5 million and be valued at roughly $7.1 billion.

Should demand prove higher than unexpected, the game developer’s underwriters can sell additional shares in what is known as a greenshoe option, pushing the maximum size of the offering up to $612 million.

The mind reels. Analysts are troubled by Apple’s current stock price, proclaiming doom and gloom. But Candy Crush? They can’t wait to get their hands on this stock. I just don’t get it.

Nice writeup by the Andrew Cunningham at Ars Technica. This is definitely worth a read.

One thing that struck me was the big overall benefit that came from subtly speeding up various animation elements from 7.0.x to 7.1. Watch the first video to get a sense of this. iOS 7.1 is on the right side.

I do get the value of limiting further in-app purchases without reentering your password.

Among the new features of iOS 7.1 is the addition of a warning message for users concerning the 15-minute in-app purchase window. This quarter-hour window allows you to buy IAPs on an iOS device without further authorization for 15 minutes following the correct entry of a password.

But why 15 minutes?

The feature (which can be turned off in the “Settings” menu) is likely related to Apple’s settlement with the FTC, which saw the company refund $32.5 million to customers on the back of a lawsuit over IAPs. At the time Apple said that it would not only issue refunds to those affected, but also modify its in-app billing system to make the process clearer for users. These changes came with a March 31 deadline from the FTC.

Ah, makes sense. Sort of like saying, “How much trouble can someone get into in 15 minutes?”

From the New York Times:

Today, more than two people in five are connected to the web. Every minute, billions of connected people send each other hundreds of millions of messages, share 20 million photos and exchange at least $15 million in goods and services, according to the World Wide Web Foundation.

On net neutrality:

While Mr. Berners-Lee said he was incredibly grateful for what the web has done since those early days, he warned that people need to realize that a current battle around so-called network neutrality could permanently harm the future of the web.

The idea behind net neutrality is simple: The web material we see on our laptops and smartphones, whether from Google or a nondescript blog, should flow freely through the Internet, regardless of its origin or creator. No one gets special treatment. But companies like Verizon hope some people will pay more to get preferential treatment and reach customers quicker.

“The web should be a neutral medium. The openness of the web is really, really important,” Mr. Berners-Lee said. “It’s important for the open markets, for the economy and for democracy.”

He worries that people online have no idea what could be at stake if large telecommunications companies took control of the web and the type of material we now have access to without any blockades or speed barriers.

We may look back on these days as a golden age of net access. When you read the article, don’t overlook the very first screen shot. It’s a bit hard to read, but this is how it all started.

“We are thrilled that the city of San Francisco has given its final approval to begin work on our new store and public plaza, which will make a wonderful addition to Union Square and create hundreds of local jobs,” Apple spokeswoman Amy Bessette told Re/code. “Our Stockton Street store has been incredibly popular, welcoming over 13 million customers since it opened nine years ago, and we look forward to making a new home on Union Square.”

Located at the corner of Stockton and Post on Union Square, home to many of the city’s luxury retailers, the new store will tape out at around 24,819 square feet — about 45 percent larger than Apple’s current store at Stockton and Ellis. Apple expects it to require about 400 employees to run, 50 more than its predecessor. And the company expects the finished store to become “more iconic than the glass cube in New York City.”

Bessette declined to say when Apple expects to begin construction on the new store, but sources close to the company suggest it will likely be this summer.

I love the emphasis Apple puts on creating iconic structures. I think this is especially important when you take a potentially historic property and convert it to commercial use.

This is infuriating.

Tesla was dealt a crushing blow in New Jersey today after the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission passed a rule that will prevent the company from selling its electric cars directly to consumers starting in April. Unlike other automakers, Tesla sells its Model S through company-owned retail stores — a business model that cuts out the franchised auto dealerships that have ruled the market for decades. New Jersey is the third US state to ban car manufacturers from selling directly to customers, joining Texas and Arizona. But unlike those two states, New Jersey is home to a booming luxury vehicle market, making this a major loss for Tesla.

From the Tesla Motor Team’s blog post today:

Since 2013, Tesla Motors has been working constructively with the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (NJMVC) and members of Governor Christie’s administration to defend against the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers’ (NJ CAR) attacks on Tesla’s business model and the rights of New Jersey consumers. Until yesterday, we were under the impression that all parties were working in good faith.

Unfortunately, Monday we received news that Governor Christie’s administration has gone back on its word to delay a proposed anti-Tesla regulation so that the matter could be handled through a fair process in the Legislature. The Administration has decided to go outside the legislative process by expediting a rule proposal that would completely change the law in New Jersey. This new rule, if adopted, would curtail Tesla’s sales operations and jeopardize our existing retail licenses in the state. Having previously issued two dealer licenses to Tesla, this regulation would be a complete reversal to the long standing position of NJMVC on Tesla’s stores. Indeed, the Administration and the NJMVC are thwarting the Legislature and going beyond their authority to implement the state’s laws at the behest of a special interest group looking to protect its monopoly at the expense of New Jersey consumers. This is an affront to the very concept of a free market.

Proposal PRN 2013-138 seeks to impose stringent licensing rules that would, among other things, require all new motor vehicles to be sold through middlemen and block Tesla’s direct sales model. This move comes in spite of discussions with the Governor’s staff as recently as January, when it was agreed that Tesla and NJ CAR would address their issues in a more public forum: the New Jersey Legislature. Instead, rather than engage in an open debate on such a significant policy issue, the Administration has expedited the implementation of a new law that the Commission intends to stealthily approve at a meeting in Trenton today at 2:00 PM EDT.

We are disappointed in the actions of the NJMVC and the Christie Administration, which come on the heels of more than nine months of unexplained delays in the issuing of a new sales license for Tesla, despite our numerous requests, calls, and letters. In addition, the NJMVC has also delayed the annual renewal of Tesla’s current dealer licenses without indication of the cause of the delay. The delays have handicapped Tesla in New Jersey, where, without clear licensing procedures and fair enforcement of existing law, we have been forced to delay our growth plans. This is an issue that affects not just Tesla customers, but also New Jersey citizens at large, because Tesla would be unable to create new jobs or participate in New Jersey’s economic revival.

At the same time, neither Tesla nor the taxpayers of New Jersey have been able to participate in any of the analysis or been granted a hearing as requested last year when this was first proposed. Despite being the subject of the regulation, we were only able to obtain information about today’s meeting with less than 24 hours notice and in direct contravention of assurances by the Governor.

We strongly believe it is vital to introduce our own vehicles to the market because electric cars are still a relatively new technology. This model is not just a matter of selling more cars and providing optimum consumer choice for Americans, but it is also about educating consumers about the benefits of going electric, which is central to our mission to accelerate the shift to sustainable transportation, a new paradigm in automotive technology.

We urge the Christie administration to act in good faith and withdraw the proposed amendment, or amend it so that it reflects the true intent of the Legislature and the people of New Jersey.

Examiner:

A child was at the Barrett Pharmacy & Variety in Watford City, North Dakota this past December, and the 6-year-old informed the pharmacist that she couldn’t sleep at night. According to the little girl, she was afraid of monsters that were in her room. Pharmacist Jeff Dodds prescribed the girl a bottle of anti-monster spray to take care of the problem.

“Spray around the room at night before bed, repeat if necessary,” the instructions on the label informed the user.

What a sweet thing to do. I wonder if he’d prescribe anti-moron spray I could use on the internet?

Co.Design:

Something between a black MIDI glissando and a brown note, the THX “Deep Note” is one of the world’s most recognizable audio logos, signaling the highest quality audio standard in films. Yet despite its distinctive crescendo, the THX Deep Note wasn’t actually composed so much as it was programmed, which makes it a fascinating success story of early computer audio design.

I remember the first time I heard that sound. It gave me chills.

Learn all about the author of Ready Player One, a book published less than two years ago that has catapulted the author to stratospheric heights.

Ernest Cline was planning to drive his tricked-out DeLorean to Austin for a talk about his upcoming novel Armada, but Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin called him up and asked for it. Cline said he could borrow the car for as long as he wanted to, but asked for a dragon egg in return. Martin obliged.

You might also know him as the writer of the very awesome Fanboys. Fun, fun read.

Listastic for iOS is hands down the easiest way to create, manage and share lists of any kind!

Striking the right balance between function and simplicity, Listastic makes it a breeze to prioritize and collaborate on important ideas or tasks without the typical complexity.

Easily share a grocery list with your significant other, tasks with a team of colleagues or even gift ideas with friends & family.

Now available for iPad & iPhone, Listastic is free to download, and only $1.99 to ditch the ads and enable some great additional features!

A big thanks to readers of the Loop for checking out Listastic, available now on the App Store!.

Oh they’re coming. Slowly but surely, street lights are going to be replaced by smart LED equivalents. Massive replacement projects are underway in Los Angeles, Paris, Copenhagen and now in Miami. The technology has a relatively large upfront cost, but pays for itself quickly as the yearly power cost to drive LED lighting is significantly less than the cost of running what it replaces.

> Each networked light will serve a dual purpose for the utility, he said — first, to remotely control lighting, detect outages and diagnose what parts are needed to replace them, and second, to extend and strengthen the wireless mesh network they connect to. > > “To them, a street light is just another sensor on the network,” he said. FPL manages about 500,000 streetlights across its service territory, and they run on the same grid infrastructure that powers homes and businesses, making them useful sources of data pertaining to outages and restorations. > > Beyond that, “the lighting serves as a perfect canopy to strengthen the network,” he said. That’s an important consideration for a mesh-based wireless topology, in which each node in the system serves as a link to every other node as they move data from endpoints to the collectors that connect to utility control centers. FPL has been using its Silver Spring network to connect distribution automation systems, detect outages and analyze data streams for grid health insight, and is looking at specific network improvements to come as part of its addition of 75,000 street light nodes, Hughes said. If you are looking for business automation systems, why not visit the NetBrain Technologies homepage to learn more.

To get a sense of this, consider buying an LED floodlight bulb to replace an incandescent bulb in your house. One such bulb, by Philips, uses 10.5W and replaces a 65W bulb. The upfront cost is about $20. The bulb it replaces is about $2-$3. The LED bulb is said to last 20 years. So there is a cost saving there. But the power savings are better for the environment and save you even more money. No surprise that municipalities are trying to find ways to make this happen on a grand scale.

As of today, once an app is installed it will “look” for beacons even if your app is shut down or you’ve rebooted your phone.

We tested the functionality today to verify the new feature.

After opening an iBeacon app we hard closed it: not just putting it into the background tray but swiping it closed entirely. The phone still detected beacons and sent a message through the lock screen, something which in the past was reserved for apps that were at minimum running in the background tray.

The functionality even works if you reboot your device: after you power down your phone and start it up again, it will continue listening for beacons even if you don’t open up the app again.

The only concerns I’ve heard are battery impact and the ability to disable the notifications if they became an annoyance.

Given that this is Bluetooth LE, battery life should not be an issue. And you should be able to use Settings > Notification Center to tell a well behaved app to leave you be. [Via MacStories]

From Rafael’s Forbes bio:

On September 19, 2013, the Board of Directors of Autodesk, Inc. elected Betsy Rafael to the Board. Ms. Rafael, age 52, has over 30 years of executive financial experience in the technology industry. Ms. Rafael served as Principal Accounting Officer of Apple Inc. from January 2008 to October 2012, and as its Vice President and Corporate Controller from August 2007 until October 2012. From April 2002 to September 2006, Ms. Rafael served as Vice President, Corporate Controller and Principal Accounting Officer of Cisco Systems, Inc., and held the position of Vice President, Corporate Finance for Cisco Systems from September 2006 to August 2007.

Solid credentials.

Nested folders — or folders-within-folders — were a long-standing bug that Apple conveniently ignored for some time. It was a fantastic hidden feature that I’ve personally become dependent on. Having a perfectly clean home screen with a single folder used to house all my different app categories was a dream come true, but reality has now smacked me in the face.

Hold on now. If this is a bug, why complain if it gets fixed?

Thoughtful piece from the Wall Street Journal.

How are we supposed to level the playing field for girls and women if we discourage the very traits that get them there?

Social scientists have long studied how language affects society, and they find that even subtle messages can have a big impact on girls’ goals and aspirations. Calling a girl “bossy” not only undermines her ability to see herself as a leader, but it also influences how others treat her. According to data collected by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, parents of seventh-graders place more importance on leadership for their sons than for their daughters. Other studies have determined that teachers interact with and call on boys more frequently and allow them to shout out answers more than girls.

It’s no surprise that by middle school, girls are less interested in leading than boys are. Sixth- and seventh-grade girls rate being popular and well-liked as more important than being perceived as competent or independent, while boys are more likely to rate competence and independence as more important, according to a report by the American Association of University Women. A 2008 survey by the Girl Scouts of nearly 4,000 boys and girls found that girls between the ages of 8 and 17 avoid leadership roles for fear that they will be labeled “bossy” or disliked by their peers.

Ben Thompson makes the case that the Digital Hub is a moving target, starting with the TV, then moving to the iPhone, then, possibly the iWatch, presuming such a thing exists.

The post is thought provoking, absolutely worth reading, though I do disagree with a premise here or there. For example:

My question last week – How Much Will CarPlay Cost – was not an idle one. Most readers – and I include myself in this group – presume that CarPlay is, as I wrote, “a strategy that is based more on propping up the iPhone than on building a separate revenue stream.”

Time will tell, of course, but I think this is not about propping up the iPhone at all. This is about extending the reach of iOS and Apple’s ecosystem. As the reach of the internet becomes continuous rather than a choppy collection of discrete elements, the iPhone might not be needed at all. The center of Apple’s star network is the cloud, not the iPhone. That’s my 2 cents.

Good read, nonetheless. [Via The Rajam Report]

Fantastic interview.

The Apple headquarters you’ve designed for Cupertino, California, will have 12,000 employees in one building.

You could compare that with a typical university of the same size. Traditionally, you’re probably talking at least 16 or 17 buildings. The Apple building will occupy the site much more tightly than what was there. It was the former Hewlett-Packard site, and, just in the last month, we demolished all the buildings that were there. It was a large number of them. [The new Apple construction will cover 13 percent of the site, while the two dozen former HP buildings, in total, covered much more, according to Foster’s office.]

So what made the form of a ring the logical choice for this building?

It’s interesting how it evolved. First of all, there was a smaller site. Then, as the project developed, and the Hewlett-Packard site became available, the scale of the project changed.

Meanwhile, the reference point for Steve [Jobs] was always the large space on the Stanford campus—the Main Quad—which Steve knew intimately. Also, he would reminisce about the time when he was young, and California was still the fruit bowl of the United States. It was still orchards.

We did a continuous series of base planning studies. One idea which came out of it is that you can get high density by building around the perimeter of a site, as in the squares of London. And in the case of a London square, you create a mini-park in the center. So a series of organic segments in the early studies started to form enclosures, all of which were in turn related to the scale of the Stanford campus. These studies finally morphed into a circular building that would enclose the private space in the middle—essentially a park that would replicate the original California landscape, and parts of it would also recapture the orchards of the past. The car would visually be banished, and tarmac would be replaced by greenery, and car parks by jogging and bicycle trails.

Remember, the main building caters to 12,000 people, but the wellness center—the fitness center—is probably responding to the needs of the entire Apple community in Silicon Valley, which is 20,000-something. Also, another building on the site is the presentation center, which will allow Apple to do the kind of things like product launches that otherwise would require space in San Francisco or wherever. And, a bit like the airport, where you have one building—although it is in itself quite large—it is essentially compact.

Just cannot wait until this campus is complete.

It’s a race against time, and the Tomnod web site is pulling together a crowdsourcing effort to help comb through high resolution satellite imagery to find clues to the location of Malaysia Flight 370. The missing Boeing 777 was last seen on March 8th off the southern coast of Vietnam, near the Gulf of Thailand.

Follow the headline link to join the search effort. You can read about the missing flight here.

This might seem a small detail, but I find it fascinating that Comcast customers do not have to go through Netflix to be able to buy access to the excellent House of Cards series that Netflix brought to life.

The cable giant struck a pact with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, giving Comcast rights to sell the Emmy-winning first season of “House of Cards” through the recently launched Xfinity Store service. Netflix currently owns exclusive streaming rights to the Media Rights Capital-produced series, while Sony handles international and homevideo distribution.

This is getting complicated. The lines that distinguish streaming and home video are getting blurred. Interesting stuff.

Mac consultant Adam Rosen talks you through his approach when a client complains about a slow Mac. His list:

• Free up more disk space
• Rebuild the Disk Directory and clear caches
• Remove unnecessary startup items and internet plug-ins
• Install more RAM and manage memory better

If I had to pick one of these, I’d start by adding more RAM. But all of these are excellent suggestions. Read the article for the details.

According to the Statista chart based on data from Edison’s annual radio report, Pandora has a 31 percent share of the music streaming market. This is based on active listeners (tuning in more than once a month) rather than paid listeners, which represents a far smaller group. It is difficult to directly compare Pandora to iTunes because of the different business models: iTunes Radio offers unlimited free listening on all devices, but users can avoid ads by signing up for iTunes Match. Apple has not released any recent reports on the number of active listeners since it announced it had acquired 11 million shortly after the service went live.

Pandora’s percentage would suggest that iTunes Radio and iHeart Radio (third and second place, respectively) have around 20-21 million listeners. While users can hop between services freely (and at least one report has suggested that 92 percent of iTunes Radio listeners also find time for Pandora), that figure would suggest that iTunes Radio is growing at the fastest rate of the top three services, and is likely to overtake iHeartRadio in the next quarter or two — particularly if iTunes Radio expands to more countries (it added Australia last month, and plans to add Canada, the UK and New Zealand in the foreseeable future).

This spells trouble for Spotify, which is already an international service and well-regarded for its $10 per month “millions of songs on demand” streaming option. Nevertheless, it was rated at six percent share, followed by Google Play All Access at three percent. Rhapsody, Slacker and TuneIn Radio all took only two percent share.

First things first, I find this incredibly impressive. Remember, iTunes radio just launched last September. It does have favored nation status (an automatic place in the iTunes infrastructure), but still, well earned.

I also wonder what it is that keeps Pandora so solidly locked in first place. Is it great branding/marketing? The value of being first to market? I wonder what this list will look like in another year.