Interesting speculation that the NFL is considering bringing in a streaming partner such as Netflix or Google Play for a Thursday Night Football package. That would be a huge move, with lots of obstacles to overcome.

One point to note is that DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket agreement expires at the end of the 2014-2015 season, so now would be the time to reshuffle the deck. I would love to see an online component to the NFL. I wonder if anyone at Apple is pursuing a relationship with the NFL.

To me, this is another sign of the slow transition from the network television broadcasting model to the inevitable internet based model. Very interesting.

Amazing to me that journalists (take the term with a grain of salt) like this keep their jobs.

In Apple’s January quarterly earnings conference call, Cook warned analysts, “the supply chain is very complex, and we obviously have multiple sources for things. Even if a particular data point were factual, it would be impossible to interpret that data point as to what it meant for our business.”

Cook continued to recommend that analysts not base their predictions on supply chain “checks” throughout 2013. However, a series of analysts have continued to issue “supply chain check” reports that fueled headlines despite being, more often that not, completely wrong.

And yet this habit continues. Yeesh.

I’ve been living with my iPhone 5s for about a week now. I have to say, the fingerprint scanner is incredible. I have two fingers registered, my left thumb (I am left-handed) and my right index finger (for when I use a two handed approach). About 80% of the time, I press and release the home button, and my phone recognizes my touch, opens up instantly. The other 20% of the time, I have to reposition my finger once or twice, and that does the trick. Even in that worst case, I’m in quicker than if I typed in my access code. This is some really well designed technology.

As has been widely reported, Touch-ID is based on technology developed by AuthenTec, a company Apple purchased in July, 2012 for about $356 million.

AuthenTec cofounder Scott Moody gave a presentation this week on the technology behind TouchID.

“We’re looking at pores, structures of ridges and valleys, and instantaneously tell who you are,” Moody said. “Every time you use it, it learns more about you. Because it knows, ‘This is Alex,’ every time you use it gets easier and easier.”

If you’ve ever played with any other fingerprint sensors, you can really appreciate the elegance of the AuthenTec solution. There’s no swiping, no awkward angles. As with all the best tech, it just works.

Nice exploration of some of the current advances in artificial intelligence.

With some new Mac hardware on the horizon, lots of folks will be replacing their existing machines with brand new gear. And some of them will be giving their existing machines to other folks. If that’s you, take a read of the linked Apple support article. This is the officially sanctioned way to erase and reinstall OS X.

The instructions show you how to erase your hard drive using Disk Utility (you can even do the DoD-approved wipe your drive 7 times method), then use OS X’s built-in recovery disk to reinstall OS X on the wiped drive.

Needless to say, be sure to back up your hard drive before you even read the instructions.

Good. I love this design, happy to see this project approved.

The approval came after more than six hours of discussion this evening, with many statements of support and some expressions of concern from members of the community, and the approval was met with significant applause by those in attendance.

Today’s approval is final pending any petitions for reconsideration, which must be filed within ten calendar days. If no petitions are received within that period, Apple will be granted ancillary permits to begin demolition of the former HP campus currently located on the site, as well as utility relocation, tree removal, and construction of a temporary sound wall. The formal agreement between Apple and the City of Cupertino must be given a second public reading, scheduled for the council’s meeting on November 19, and Apple’s full set of permits would go into effect the following day.

Sounds like bulldozers on November 20.

Professional photographer Austin Mann took an iPhone 5s and iPhone 5 to Patagonia and put both phones through their paces. A good number of side by side shots really tell the story.

The 5S dynamic range… that is, the ability to pull detail out of the shadows & highlights in editing, is remarkably better. I’m constantly sculpting images to bring out the details I want to see… that means bringing up shadows, recovering detail in skies, sharpening where needed and more.

If the camera part of your phone is important to you, read the review, look closely at the pictures. This is a realistic review.

This is breathtaking speed, crushing the previous record of 40 gigabits per second.

To achieve such a massive data rate, researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) used a massive swath of bandwidth at around 240 GHz — close to the terahertz frequency range. To create the signal, two laser beams (carrying the data) are mixed together (using a photon mixer made by NTT Electronics). An electrical signal results, where the frequency of the signal (237.5 GHz in this case) is the difference between the two optical signals. A normal antenna is then used to beam the signal to the receiver, where a fancy chip fabricated out of fast-switching III-V transistors is required to make sense of the super-high-frequency signal.

Imagine being able to copy a Blue-ray disc (that’s about 50 Gb) in just a few seconds. 50 gigabytes is 50×8 = 400 gigabits. That’s 4 seconds to copy a feature film Blue-ray. Impressive.

Connection to the phone will be via Bluetooth, initiated via the steering wheel voice activation button.

To help further minimize distraction, Siri takes hands-free functionality even further with an Eyes Free mode which enables drivers to interact with their iPhones using nothing more than their voice while keeping the device’s screen from lighting up.

Bypassing the screen entirely. Interesting.

Tim Cook announced that Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, will be joining Apple in a newly created position, as a senior vice president and member of the executive team.

Ahrendts will have oversight of the strategic direction, expansion and operation of both Apple retail and online stores, which have redefined the shopping experience for hundreds of millions of customers around the world. Apple retail stores set the standard for customer service with innovative features like the Genius Bar®, Personal Setup and One to One personal training to help customers get the most out of their Apple products.

Ahrendts will start in the Spring. Let’s hope she can bring some stability to the position. Ron Johnson really built the retail foundation at Apple, leaving in 2011 for an ill-fated run at JC Penney. John Browett replaced Johnson, but was at Apple less than a year.

Fantastic tip.

If you love technology but you’re tired of browsing through hundreds of RSS feeds each morning, check out Techi.com.

It’s a technology blog that features only the top tech stories from around the web each day and is updated 24/7. You get a short summary of each story if you don’t want to read the whole thing and you also get access to exclusive articles.

Check it out and subscribe to their daily newsletter.

Record your best metal song with RiffWorks (Mac/Win) or FourTrack (iPhone) on your own, or with up to 4 friends worldwide using RiffLink online song collaboration. Over $4000 in prizes are up for grabs, including a Codella Stormchaser Guitar, Sonoma’s new GuitarJack 2 USB audio interface for PC, Mac and select mobile devices, and more.

Sonoma Wire Works asked me to be the judge for this year’s RiffRumble, so get your entries in.

You know you want them.

NYTimes.com:

Judge Allan H. Davis of Hancock County Probate Court, had declared Mr. Miller dead in 1994, several years after he mysteriously disappeared.

In fact, Mr. Miller, 61, had simply drifted away to work in Georgia and Florida, he told the judge on Monday in Findlay, Ohio. Now, he said, he wanted to apply for a driver’s license and needed to reactivate his Social Security number.

“I don’t know where that leaves you, but you’re still deceased as far as the law is concerned,” Judge Davis told Mr. Miller.

Funny story but you’ve got to feel a little sorry for the guy.

Dear Mr. Watterson is a documentary about one of my favorite comic strips of all time, Calvin & Hobbes. In theaters and available On Demand on November 15, 2013. Can’t wait.

Would this app be allowed if it was boys ranking girls? Aren’t there privacy issues galore here? Remember FaceMash, the ranking web site that eventually morphed into Facebook? Isn’t this the same sort of thing? Hmmm…

How may We Hate You?:

A guest calls from their room.

GUEST: Can you send someone to come get my bags?

CONCIERGE: I can’t do that, but I can connect you to the bellman.

GUEST: No, no. I need you to call them. I’ve been mean to them all week so they’re not going to help me.

This is a hilarious follow up to the “Thomas Cook dissatisfied vacationer complaints” we posted yesterday.

My thanks to AskingPoint for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed on The Loop. AskingPoint provides Mobile App Analytics, In-App Messaging (great for cross promotion), and SaaS for Mobile Apps. Push messaging and Ap Monetization tools are coming later in October and November.

AskingPoint lets you use your App Analytics to control anything in your Apps, in real-time. Check it out, and learn how to remote control your Mobile Apps!

SNL has been around for about 38 years. The video below shows an appearance Lorne and the gang made on the Tomorrow show, a late night talk show that ran from 1973 to 1982. Follow the headline link for a bit of the background story and some screen tests of the SNL cast.

Apple sent out a $20 iTunes credit to folks who bought a new iOS device after September 1st and then went on to purchase iMovie, iPhoto, Numbers, Pages, or Keynote, effectively making those purchases a true bargain.

Leaving aside the mathematics of $20 versus the regular price of those apps, I wondered if those apps are now free, did a little digging.

Interesting. I launched iTunes on my Mac, went to the App Store in iTunes, and did a search for Pages (I did not own a copy of Pages at this point). As expected, Pages showed up on the iTunes account on my Mac showing the full price of $9.99.

I pulled out my new iPhone (activated in the past week) and searched for Pages in the App Store on my phone. Huzzah! On my phone, Pages was free. Quick, before Apple could change their minds, I downloaded Pages.

Back on my Mac, in iTunes, the price of the app changed from $9.99 to “Download”, showing that I now own the app. Cool!

I repeated the process and now have all 5 of these apps on my iPhone and, soon, will have them on my iPad as well. Way to go Apple.

Photos of the model.

Karyn has brain cancer and is wondering what to leave behind to let her children know how much she loves them. If you have any experience with this, visit her site and leave a comment.

It was mentioned in the Vanity Fair article we linked to this morning, but here are some pictures of the Ive-designed desk.