January 12, 2014
Written by Dave Mark
[via AppleInsider]
The Teo padlock is different. It uses an L-shaped locking bracket (rather than the traditional U-shaped bracket everyone is used to). And it uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE) so you can unlock the padlock from your phone. An obvious idea, perhaps, but the devil is in the details, and in the software.
I’m looking forward to seeing the actual pricing. Note that a note alongside the $39 pledge says “Your investment has earned you the purchase of your first TEO at distributor pricing.” To me, that sounds like they are aiming for a retail price, upwards of $100 per lock. That’s not unreasonable, I suppose.
January 11, 2014
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Homes and Hues:
These seventeen bookcases and bookshelves can clear away the cluttery piles of books you may have laying around while adding some extra style to your home.
I’m a big fan of books and therefore, of bookshelves. Most of these designs are actually available (if expensive) and not just design concepts.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Failblog:
“Hey. Can we use your pool? There’s a moose in ours…”
Happens all the time in Canada.
For those of us who are fans of the movie, this old “behind the scenes” video is fascinating.
[NOTE: If you have not watched The Big Bang Theory episode that aired around Jan 2, 2014, you might want to skip this post, as there are spoilers within.]
I’m a big fan of The Big Bang Theory. A recent episode of the show had Penny, a wannabe actress, finally landing a small role in a big network TV show. A life-changing moment for her. Penny tells all her relatives and has a viewing party with her friends. Unfortunately, her scene is left on the cutting room floor. She is crushed.
Chuck Lorre, one of the creators of The Big Bang Theory, has a long-time habit of placing a vanity card at the end of every one of his shows. The vanity card is, essentially, a still frame containing a joke or a story. The card is only on the screen for a moment, so a DVR with a pause button is vital if you want any chance to read them.
At the end of this particular episode, Chuck put up this vanity card (click on the card for a larger, much more readable version). In a nutshell, Chuck tells the story of a young actress who landed a small role in the episode of The Big Bang Theory we just got through watching, but that her part got left on the cutting room floor. The vanity card was, in essence, a fan letter and an apology to this actress, all wrapped up in a spooky bit of self-reference. The actress’s name is Lexi Contursi.
One little tiny twist, then I’ll let you go. When I read the vanity card, I loved the message, and just had to share it. I pulled out my iPhone, took a picture of my TV screen, and tweeted the vanity card. Thought nothing of it.
A few hours later, my tweet was favorited by…you guessed it…Lexi Contursi. Now, think about that for a moment. I do not know Lexi. The title card was the first time I’d heard her name. All I did was tweet the picture, with no mention of her name. And yet, somehow my little tweet made its way across the interwebs and landed on her screen. I was tickled.
So, Lexi, if you read this, please leave a comment on this post telling us how you happened to come across the tweet. Enjoy your moment. Hopefully, it’s the first of many.
UPDATE: Here’s a link to the vanity card on the official Chuck Lorre web site.
Fancy little dog-less sled that fellow has.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Many thanks to iExplorer for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed on The Loop. Access your iPhone’s data on your computer with iExplorer. Easy to use, fully loaded and well polished—this app is a great tool for anyone upgrading to a new computer or iPhone.
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Written by Dave Mark
This seems too crazy to be true.
It all begins with an otherwise unremarkable app suddenly skyrocketing in price, oftentimes all the way to the App Store’s limit of $999.99. The developer, or whoever is orchestrating the scam, wires a massive amount of money — Grachov used $10,000 as an example — to a second party. That individual then purchases 10 copies of the app, exhausting the available funds and indirectly paying $7,000 of the original deposit back to the developer. Apple takes their 30% as usual.
The App Store sees $10,000 worth of money changing hands over the app and, as Grachov says, “like magic” the app appears on the Top Paid apps list. (Note: It’s more likely that this trick would land you on the Top Grossing list, rather than Top Paid.) How close do you get to the no. 1 spot, for what is essentially a $3,000 App Store bribe? Anywhere from no. 18 to no. 13, according to Grachov.
Once the app has reached its highest point, the developer drops the price back to the one- to two-dollar range, and it gets at least a few hours of top-app sales before disappearing back into the ether. Whether the $3,000 investment is worth the eventual payoff depends on its performance during this relatively small window.
But there’s The Fleas, as promised, priced at $999.99. Who would fall for this?
(via Mac Observer)
This is just so cool. The shell of each instrument is 3D printed. I suspect a purist would have a problem with the impact the plastic material will have on the sound, but to me, music is art and the ability to embed my own personal design in an instrument I’m playing has its own artistic value.
Written by Dave Mark
I like the concept here, combining a swiping keyboard with the multi-touch tech that allows both thumbs to get involved at the same time.
January 10, 2014
Written by Jim Dalrymple
This is exactly how Canadians talk.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
I hate Google for doing this and for making users opt-out.
Written by Dave Mark
As home automation creeps into the mainstream, most products are still designed to solve individual problems, without an overarching control layer. There are lots of terrific one-off products, but they don’t play together. There’s no standard to which they all adhere.
There’s the terrific Nest thermostat and smoke detector. A number of door lock and alarm systems. Lighting systems, smart home appliances. Lots of great ideas, all paving their own, non-connected, way onto the internet of things. Appliance Hunter is the blog to check out when looking for an honest review of a major appliance you are considering to buy for your home.
Some might argue that there’s no need for a control layer or hub. Perhaps. But to me, this is one of those areas where Apple would shine, bringing something into our lives that changes our experience for the better but which we didn’t even realize could exist. Homeowners who are concerned with the security of their internet access and their online data may buy residential proxies.
> One effort comes from office supplies retailer Staples, which used CES to show a significantly expanded number of companies whose products work with the Staples Connect system for home automation, which it launched late in 2013. The system centers on a $99 “hub” that connects to a person’s Internet router and allows a Staples smartphone app to control thermostats, light bulbs, and security systems. > > At CES, Staples announced that products from an additional nine companies’ products would be compatible with the system. They include the Goji’s smart door lock and one from Withings, a company that makes Internet-connected health devices such as scales, and which at CES launched a new sleep-monitoring system called Aura.
I see this in much the same way as I saw the early MP3 players. A step in the right direction, but not quite the right solution. Interesting article, worth reading.
Written by Dave Mark
China implemented the video game ban in 2000. This, potentially, is a huge opportunity for the game industry.
China’s ruling State Council temporarily suspended the ban and may allow consoles to be made in the Shanghai free-trade zone, it said in a statement Jan. 6. Hardware manufacturers such as Nintendo Co., Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. (6758) could benefit from entering a $10 billion market dominated by online and personal computer games.
Written by Dave Mark
It’s a committee. And Disney. What could go wrong?
Before you grab your red lightsaber and misguidedly march down to Orlando to tell Disney to leave Star Wars alone, it’s worth keeping in mind that the best thing to come out of the Star Wars universe since The Empire Strikes Back is a video game from 2003. The universe could use some maintenance, and perhaps Disney could breathe some life back into it. We’re not yet sure exactly how Disney plans to tackle the canon; there are those who would prefer the entire expanded universe completely vaporized.
<sigh>.
You really need to watch the video to truly get this. This tech would replace the gorilla glass on your tablet. On demand from an app, physical, pressable buttons appear on the formerly flat surface of the tablet. Really interesting.
Written by Dave Mark
Wow. Yesterday, we posted this little doozy, Jim’s classic reaction to Google’s new default that allows people on Google+ to send you email, even if they don’t have your email address.
While digging into that story, I ran across this little gem (via FastCompany). Seems Thomas Gagnon got slapped with a restraining order by his former girlfriend. Then, a few weeks ago, she got a Google+ invite, attributed to him.
Gagnon, of 10 Wilson St., Beverly, was arrested Thursday evening at his home, 90 minutes after his former girlfriend went to the police station with a printed copy of the Google Plus invitation and the restraining order. Police agreed that the invitation violated the order, and obtained an arrest warrant.
Yikes! Gagnon claims he didn’t send the invite. Is it possible Google sent it on his behalf?
A status hearing in the case is set for Feb. 6.
Here’s hoping he’s got an attorney who knows his way around Google+.
January 9, 2014
Written by Jim Dalrymple
U.S. Mac sales spiked 28.5 percent year over year in the just-concluded fourth quarter of calendar 2013, according to the latest figures from Gartner, giving Apple a 13.7 percent share of its home market while the rest of the industry continues to struggle.
I guess it’s a good time to own a Mac… and iPhone… and iPad.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Yes, I will take one of those.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Dante D’Orazio for The Verge:
Once the service goes live over the next few days, a new setting will appear in Gmail called “Email via Google+.” If you don’t want everyone on Google+ to be able to send you an email, you’ll have to opt out by selecting “no one” or choosing another option to limit the feature to people in certain circles.
Stop it!
Don Lehman is the Founder and Designer of More/Real. You can follow him on Twitter.
Today is the seventh anniversary of the iPhone. It’s one of those anniversaries that feels both shockingly long ago and not that long ago, but what it’s providing for me today is perspective.
The perspective comes from Las Vegas, where today also happens to be the second to last day of CES. This year’s show is notable for the amount of wearable tech that has been demonstrated and almost universally dismissed as “not ready”. It reminds me of exactly where we were in the years leading up to the iPhone, when the only thing that was working for smartphones was the idea.
In retrospect the iPhone is obvious, but from our current vantage point, wearable tech is anything but. We like the idea, but no one has nailed it yet. It sure isn’t for lack of effort, as this CES has demonstrated, but it shows the chasm between idea and execution and how hard it is to marry the two.
It also gives context to the Apple vs. Samsung fight and why Apple is so mad about having their “obvious” ideas used by a competitor. Apple bet the company on making a great smartphone. The issues they had to solve: Underpowered OSes, a new interface, battery life, what does the thing look like, what features should it have… Does this sound familiar? These are the exact—and I mean literally, the Exact. Same. Issues. that companies trying to make wearable devices are facing.
When Apple did nail it, their competition couldn’t believe they had actually done it. RIM’s executives ripped open an iPhone on launch day and were shocked at what they had found. Their solution to battery efficiency had been to use a small, low res screen (by today’s standards) with an OS designed to minimize battery usage. It was an elegant solution for the time and everyone else was copying their lead. Apple’s solution? Use a really big battery. Obvious. In retrospect.
What I’m saying is this: Let’s appreciate what these companies who are trying their hand at wearable tech are trying to do. This is really hard stuff. But let’s also appreciate that no one has figured it out yet. When someone does figure it out, it will feel obvious. And everyone else will quickly copy them, forgetting how hard it was to do in the first place.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Wall Street Journal:
TV is stuck in an innovation cul-de-sac. There are no new ideas in TV hardware that are worth paying for, so, thanks to competition and production efficiencies, good TVs keep getting cheaper. The cheaper they get, the more desperate TV makers become, filling their sets with more and more useless piffle. From 3D to 4K to curved screens to Sony’s strange “wedge-shaped” sets (don’t ask), we are witnessing an industry out of ideas, a business desperately casting about in the dark for something—anything—that might persuade us to part with our money.
For most of us, the TV we already have in our living rooms is perfectly good for what we watch. There’s little compelling in the offerings at this year’s CES.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Expect to see a host of new wearables from Samsung this year, including some that were designed, in part, in San Francisco.
Allow me to translate: We expect Apple to release wearables sometime this year. As soon as they do we will copy them in an undisclosed location in San Francisco.
