June 2, 2013
Written by Peter Cohen
It’s one of those freak occurrences that spawns unfathomable tragedy. Andrew Scott Reisse was a VR computer graphics engineer working on the Oculus Rift, a project which he helped to co-found. He was struck and killed in a crosswalk four miles away from his office at the end of a police chase. Three suspects tried to flee on foot from their Dodge Charger after Reisse was hit, but all were captured by police.
What a tragic, stupid loss.
For the uninitiated, the Oculus Rift is a VR headset for 3D games. It’s in development and it holds a lot of promise.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
It’s not “Do it my way or else,” but more maneuvering the situation until he’s ready to close.
Written by Peter Cohen
Philip Elmer Dewitt:
Although Apple (AAPL) hasn’t released a new iPad or iPhone in seven months, and Samsung claims it shipped 10 million new Galaxy S4s in May, Android’s Web share slipped a bit month over month while Apple’s edged up, according to a NetApplications report issued Saturday.
[Editor’s note – the original version of this post said “Android market share.” Corrected to reflect web share instead.]
June 1, 2013
AT&T’s been running a hilarious string of ads over the past few months featuring an adult interviewer asking kids questions. The kids come up with hilarious responses to his question, and his earnest, deadpan response is part of the fun.
The actor who plays the interviewer is Beck Bennett, and according to this Adweek article, the kids’ responses to his questions are unscripted, which makes the ads even more charming and hilarious.
BBDO is the agency behind the “It’s Not Complicated” ad campaign.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
By non-techie, I mean she isn’t an engineer, programmer, analyst or reporter. It’s pretty clear she has a good handle on things though.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Thanks to RemObjects for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS this week. Oxygene for Cocoa is a new and modern programming language and development tool chain for creating Mac and iOS apps.
It is not a bridge or an abstraction layer, but full-featured language for the Objective-C runtime, giving you direct access to all the great APIs of the platform and letting you create truly native (in every sense of the word) apps.
The language is based on Object Pascal (but this is not your daddy’s Pascal!), it is well-rounded and provides many advanced language features that will change the way you look at writing code.
And as if that was not enough: if you are so included, the same great language also lets you natively target Android/Java and .NET development, as well – time-proven and well established on those platforms for many years.
Find out more at remobjects.com/oxygene.
It’s June 1, so we only have a month before Google Reader shuts down for good. Here are the services I’m looking at as a replacement.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Sonic Port delivers inspiring guitar tones and best-in-class audio quality on your iPod touch, iPhone and iPad. Jam with the tones of your favorite artists, connect keyboards and speakers to create your mobile recording studio, or plug into your amp and play live. Every time, Sonic Port gives you pro-quality sound with GarageBand, Line 6 Mobile POD, Jammit and other CoreAudio music apps.
This looks incredible. I’m getting one.
I guess they lied.
Update: Some people are saying that I’m wrong. It could be that I read too much into the update — I’ve been wrong before.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Guys don’t remember that stuff. He’s screwed.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
An annual gathering of technologists passionate about creating great things.
Looks like an interesting conference that includes Black Pixel founder Daniel Pasco as a speaker.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Rene Ritchie:
With these latest commercials, Microsoft shows they’re no closer to learning that lesson today than they were back with Bill Gates and the Tablet PC. They’re still mired in Windows and in Office. They’re so afraid of letting go of past success that they’ll take future failure instead. They’ll refuse to compromise on anything other than making the user experience horribly, needlessly, compromised.
That pretty much says it all.
Written by Peter Cohen
Late last night the offices of Los Angeles-based independent game studio Robotoki were stormed by the LA Police Department after a curious designer hit the building’s “panic” button, studio founder Robert Bowling told Polygon.
This could have turned out so much worse.
May 30, 2013
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Regina Dugan:
Dugan shows a pill that can be ingested and then battery-powered with stomach acid to produce an 18-bit internal signal. After that, the swallower’s whole body becomes a password.
But how does it show you ads?
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Another great reading list from Longreads.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Jordan Kahn:
After launching its new Google Play All Access music streaming service earlier this month at Google I/O, Google’s head of Android Sundar Pichai just confirmed during his interview at the D11 conference that the service will be making its way to iOS. Sundar said the service would be available on iOS in the next few weeks.
This is going to get interesting.
Apple on Thursday announced the headliners for the annual iTunes Festival. The event takes place every September in London, England.
According to Apple, Justin Timberlake, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Jack Johnson and Jessie J will be among the acts to headline the event. The event has attracted some of the world’s most popular bands over the years, as Apple noted in its announcement.
Sir Paul McCartney, Amy Winehouse and Crowded House played the first iTunes Festival at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts in 2007. Since then over 370 artists have performed in front of more than 370,000 fans and tens of millions more online and on television. Other performers have included Adele, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Alicia Keys, Paul Simon, Jack White and Oasis. Performances are available for purchase and download on the iTunes Store.
iTunes Festival runs every night in September from the Roundhouse. The event features more than 60 acts and can be watched live from your computer on iTunes, Apple TV, or using your iPod, iPhone or iPad.
As a music lover, this is something I look forward to every year. The fact that Apple makes it available on all of my devices ensures I never miss a live performance.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
It’ll probably be the best movie made all year.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
A Nova Scotia high school has created a curriculum where every subject — from physics to design technology to dance — centres on hockey.
This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. And we wonder why our kids are so far behind in the basic skills.
In addition to launching a new model of its iPod touch on Thursday, Apple told me this morning that it has sold more than 100 million units of the iPod touch since its introduction.
The iPod touch was launched in 2007 and took the design of the iPhone, minus the calling ability. It has since become one of Apple’s most popular products.
With its Retina display, the iPod touch is one of the best devices that Apple currently sells. Whether listening to music or using apps from the App Store, the iPod touch bridges the gap between the iPhone and other iPod models.
The iPod touch is also a great portable gaming machine. The new model released today will further the device’s penetration into that market, in my opinion.
Apple on Thursday quietly updated its iPod line with a new iPod touch.
The new model has a couple of changes from the existing iPods — its storage capacity is 16GB and only comes in Black. This new version is also missing the rear-facing camera. The iPod still comes with a front-facing camera.
Without the rear camera, Apple describes the new iPod as having an “ultraslim design, 4-inch Retina display, dual-core A5 chip.”
Sounds like the perfect portable game machine to me.
Written by Peter Cohen
Wherein Rene, Peter, Derek and special guest David Barnard (of App Cubby) discuss Tim Cook at D11, WWDC and more.
