The entire industry appears to be shifting away from that bi-annual schedule and to a more consumer friendly seasonal emphasis. This is evidenced by the slowing growth of both smartphones and tablets on a quarter-over-quarter basis according to some of the latest device shipment data. My conviction is not that we are seeing saturation but seasonality. There are other factors at play which I will get into.

Great stuff from Ben Bajarin, who’s predicting a big uptick in PC (and therefore Mac) sales soon.

Wow, that’s huge.

I think we’ve all suspected this happens at some stores, but not doubling the price. At least I didn’t think they went that far.

You have to love these instruments. Take a look at the strat for $560—incredible.

Very cool that he still has the packing slip.

This is really sad.

Very nice looking Les Paul. I still want one of the Slash Appetite Les Pauls.

Ben Balser shows you three ways that Apple’s two professional apps work together.

These guys already got funded, but there’s still a couple of days to get in on it.

Another great story on how the iPhone and Apple developers are helping those with accessibility needs.

Holy shit, that’s just incredible. Thanks to everyone that subscribes to Amplified with me and Dan Benjamin—we appreciate it.

Ryan Gosling and director Nicolas Winding Refn (DRIVE) are back with this visionary Bangkok-set thriller. Kingpin Julian (Gosling) avenges his brother’s killer, while a mysterious, unhinged policeman follows his every move.

I love it when Apple posts exclusive content like this.

We’ve established that I’m not much of a photographer, but this seems like a good idea to me. The app is free to download on the App Store.

Fission makes audio editing easy.

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I agree with a lot of what Shaun McGill says in this article. We have come a long way from the days of Palm and using a device as a PDA. Now we have a computer in our pocket and your computer is a matter of personal choice.

Here’s what’s holding back 3D printing, the technology that’s supposed to revolutionize manufacturing and countless other industries: patents. In February 2014, key patents that currently prevent competition in the market for the most advanced and functional 3D printers will expire, says Duann Scott, design evangelist at 3D printing company Shapeways.

It will be interesting to see where this goes in the next couple of years.

Security researcher Ibrahim Balic said he meant no harm and reported the security hole to Apple. Nick Arnott also has a good story about this on iMore.

Apple Developer Website Update:

Last Thursday, an intruder attempted to secure personal information of our registered developers from our developer website. Sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed, however, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers’ names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed. In the spirit of transparency, we want to inform you of the issue. We took the site down immediately on Thursday and have been working around the clock since then.

In order to prevent a security threat like this from happening again, we’re completely overhauling our developer systems, updating our server software, and rebuilding our entire database. We apologize for the significant inconvenience that our downtime has caused you and we expect to have the developer website up again soon.

Oh shit.

Canada’s Worst Villain played the TD Garden Saturday. After the Chicago Blackhawks fiasco, the Bruins were taking no chances that he might desecrate their logo.

Congrats to Rush and The Guess Who.

Many thanks to PDFpen for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. PDFpen is the all-purpose PDF editor. Version 6 now includes Microsoft Word export, an editing bar for faster workflow, Retina graphics, and more.

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Jim’s note: PDFpen saved me in the past, so I am a loyal user.

Someday, I hope this happens to me.