October 16, 2013
Written by Dave Mark
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.
Written by Dave Mark
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.
October 15, 2013
Apple on Tuesday announced a special event for October 22. The event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco and will begin at 10:00 am PT.
It is widely expected that Apple will update its iPad and iPad mini products during the event, although we could see the introduction of OS X Mavericks and other Mac products as well.
The Hartnoll lads talk about making Chime, Orbital’s first big hit, and also discuss their career, their favorite instruments and what they’re doing now. Finally, they offer advice for new music producers.
Via Synthopia
Written by Dave Mark
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.
Written by Dave Mark
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.
Written by Dave Mark
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.
Written by Dave Mark
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.
Hey, you can understand all the words now!
October 14, 2013
Written by Jim Dalrymple
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.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
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.
It just got a lot cheaper to get a Sonos wireless hi-fi system. On Monday Sonos introduced the Play:1, a desktop speaker that you can also put on the wall. It costs $199, $100 less than the bigger Play:3.
The Play:1 stands 4.39 x 6.36 inches and sports integrated volume and track playback controls. What’s more, Sonos is including a $49 Bridge with it – that’s the device you need to connect your Sonos speakers, which create their own independent wireless network, with other services. You can control music playback – and access to other services like Pandora and Spotify – using a free app for your iPhone, iPad or Mac.
If you put two Play:1’s in a room together, they’ll create a stereo sound field. And you can also connect them with other Sonos devices like the Playbar and the Sub, to create a surround sound system for your TV. A standard 1/4-inch threaded mount is in the back if you want to stick the Play:1 on the wall. And it’s humidity-resistant, if you want to stick it in the bathroom so you can listen to tunes while you shower.
October 13, 2013
Written by Shawn King
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.
Written by Dave Mark
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.
Written by Dave Mark
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…
October 12, 2013
Written by Shawn King
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.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
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!
Written by Dave Mark
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.
Written by Dave Mark
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.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
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.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
It was mentioned in the Vanity Fair article we linked to this morning, but here are some pictures of the Ive-designed desk.
Written by Dave Mark
Luisa Pereira is a research fellow at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, a programmer, and a musician. Combining her love of programming and music, Luisa crafted a set of devices to generate music based on 300 year old composition theory.
Fantastic stuff. Follow the headline link for the details. One of her inventions, the Counterpointer, takes a melody set by the user and layers in automatically generated counter-melodies. Watch the Counterpointer video below and you’ll get the idea. Lovely.
Written by Dave Mark
Kirk McElhearn talks you through the details of your iCloud backup. Well worth a read.
Written by Dave Mark
I knew almost none of this. Fascinating.
Written by Dave Mark
In my house, we make a lot of movies. We are always on the lookout for clever techniques we can incorporate into our own projects. Here are two videos I just love and wanted to share.
This first one seems impossible and real. But it can’t be real, can it?
This second video shows you some tricks you can use to make movies like the first one (be sure to follow the headline link for a bit more background). Watching this second one inspires me, makes me think I could make the first one with some clever editing. Great stuff!
3 Tricks For Your Impossibly Small Film Crew from Vimeo Video School on Vimeo.
Written by Dave Mark
Jonathan Ive you know. One of his best friends, Marc Newson, might not be quite as familiar a name to you. Newson is also a world-class designer. The two are collaborating for the first time for an auction to benefit Bono’s Product (Red) anti-H.I.V. campaign. Vanity Fair interviewed them both.
In an effort that is part connoisseurship, part creativity, and part curatorship, the two designers have assembled a group of more than 40 objects that will be auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York on November 23 to benefit Product (Red), the eccentrically punctuated charity set up by Bono and Bobby Shriver in 2006 to support international efforts to fight the H.I.V. epidemic in Africa. Two one-of-a-kind pieces—a metal desk and a special Leica camera—were designed by Ive and Newson in collaboration, specially for the auction. Several others, like a customized Steinway grand piano and a Georg Jensen silver pitcher, are variations on existing objects that Ive and Newson both liked and got the manufacturers to agree to tweak for the sale, generally by adding something red. (The Steinway appears to be entirely white, but when you lift its lid, the underside turns out to be painted an intense, brilliant red, while the pitcher has a red enameled interior.) A few other items, such as a circa-1990 Russian cosmonaut’s space suit and a sketch for one of Elvis Presley’s stage costumes from 1970, are objects Ive and Newson found and decided that they liked well enough to include in the auction as is.
On obsession with detail and commitment to design:
“We are both fanatical in terms of care and attention to things people don’t see immediately,” Ive said. “It’s like finishing the back of a drawer. Nobody’s going to see it, but you do it anyway. Products are a form of communication—they demonstrate your value system, what you care about.”
On the one-of-a-kind Leica camera the pair designed for the auction:
The camera is based on the Leica Digital Rangefinder and was manufactured by that company as a custom item. The overall shape is similar to a conventional camera’s, but the finished object looks altogether different. It is made of brushed aluminum, and the controls are sleek and understated, as on Ive’s products for Apple. It does everything the regular Leica does, with the same lenses and the same functions, but the controls no longer seem intrusive, like silver barnacles on a black metal beast. Instead, every button and every lever is a tiny sensual moment, subsumed into the overall form of the camera. Never a thing of beauty, the Leica has become one by being boiled down to its essence.
“I found it a very odd and unusual thing to put this amount of love and energy into one thing, where you are only going to make one,” Ive said. “But isn’t it beautiful?” The camera’s dollar worth is hard to estimate, since it is an art piece as much as a functioning object, but the value of the time Ive, Newson, and Leica’s own engineers put into it probably totals well into six figures, and possibly seven. The process of designing and making the camera took more than nine months, and involved 947 different prototype parts and 561 different models before the design was completed. According to Apple, 55 engineers assisted at some part in the process, spending a collective total of 2,149 hours on the project. Final assembly of the actual camera took one engineer 50 hours, the equivalent of more than six workdays, all of which makes Ive’s comment to me that he thought the Leica might bring $6 million seem not so far-fetched.
Good read, especially if you are into design.
