Taylor announced the dates of its Road Show 2013 events.

Twelve South offers an insert to make the BookArc compatible with the iPad mini now. I have the BookArc for iPad and love it.

Happening in San Diego over four days this August. New conference tracks include Design and Business.

In other words, Apple sold almost twice as many iPhones last quarter as Samsung has sold Notes ever. So, who’s making the kinds of phones that consumers want again? While the category of pocket-busting phones may be growing, it’s hardly iPhone-threatening.

Every year or two there’s a new product fad that analysts say Apple absolutely must do in order to stay relevant. Netbooks. Low-cost PCs. Etc.

Sometimes Apple actually responds to market pressure, like it did with the iPad mini. It was able to engineer a product that didn’t compromise the core user experience, and it’s built a very successful product as a result.

But every time I see someone holding a Galaxy Note, I can’t help but think how ridiculous and uncomfortable it looks, and how un-Apple like it is. So I’m inclined to agree with Moltz here.

Curtis Woodhouse is an ex-pro footballer (soccer player) turned boxer who recently lost his title on a points decision. The defeat, perhaps predictably, elicited some nasty comments to Woodhouse on Twitter.

After some taunting at the hands of a Twitter user who went by the modest moniker of “the master,” Woodhouse decided to take matters into his own hands. He asked for, and got, the address of the fellow, and decided to pay him a visit, live tweeting the entire thing. What follows is priceless.

Bottom line: Think you’re anonymous? Even on the Internet, it’s wise not to let your mouth (or your keyboard) write checks that your ass can’t cash.

[Looks like the site we linked to is having some trouble. Check The Guardian if that link doesn’t work.]

New version for Pro Tools and Pro Tools HD users.

The Wirecutter:

If I wanted to spend less than $700, the Canon Rebel T4i…would be my pick — but first I’d have to decide if I’d even want a DSLR to begin with.

Here’s the rub: if you’re newly making the switch to a lens-based system, and don’t plan on going pro, it’s really debatable if you even want a DSLR. While the format has some advantages, there’s very little that an entry-level DSLR can do that a new Mirrorless camera can’t do just as well while taking up much less space.

I would agree with this reviewer. If you’re looking at a budget DSLR, make sure you take a long hard look at the crop of (very good) Mirrorless cameras on the market today.

Gadling:

If I ruled the world, I would issue a decree commanding every hotel to install minibars stocked with $2 bottles of beer. But since that’s never going to happen, you might have to go to Nicaragua to experience such an enlightened minibar alcohol policy.

Two dollars is actually a pretty high price for a beer in Nicaragua, where most places charge $1 for a 12-ounce bottle of local beer. The Hotel Plaza Colon is an outstanding hotel and room rates there hover around $100 a night.

I might look at Nicaragua for my next big boy vacation! Any Loopers ever vacationed in the country?

Tell me this – Do you want to go to a site, click on something that looks like a story and instead have an ad fed to you? Because that’s what Mashable just “invented.”

I know what I think of this.

Heads up, Windows users. Tomorrow, Microsoft will release an update for Internet Explorer 10 that enables Flash content in both Windows 8 and Windows RT.

Yet another reason to never use it.

Preschoolians is a footwear company for children birth to five years of age. Our footwear most closely resembles being barefoot. Our footwear protects the feet while being sure to stay out of the way.

Our Visu-Fit is a clear panel on the bottom of the shoe which allows parents to know for sure if our footwear fits and when it is time for a new pair. Time Magazine awarded Visu-FIt Invention of the Year.

Our recently introduced E-Photo-Fit allows you to take a photo of the bottom of your child’s foot and know for sure which size to order. We have have the largest selection of footwear in the world for pre-schoolers; in fact billions of choices.

We are the only company which even allows you to custom design the colors using our Design Your Own.

Use the code: theloop to save 20% on your first purchase.

This is cool. There are lots of products that help you find things like your iPhone, but they are already lost at that point. The purpose of Linquet Mini is to make sure you don’t lose them in the first place. Watch the video.

CBS News:

During his eight years as pope, Benedict XVI carried out thousands of official duties, but only once did he travel outside Rome to bestow the Vatican’s highest honor on a church, transforming it into a basilica — a sacred place forever.

I watched this last night and it’s a fascinating look at one of the world’s most beautiful and intricate buildings – and even after 130 years, it’s still not finished construction.

“We’re assuming that we are owed by Apple or Google the right to get our content in front of an audience. Well that’s not the case,” he said. “Apple and Google’s mission is to make the customer experience the best it can be, and to make sure that they can find games that they love. It doesn’t mean they have to make your game the one that the player finds.”

Sure, the App Store would suck if developers didn’t create products for it, but Clark makes a very good point: It’s not Apple’s (or Google’s) job to promote your product – that’s your job.

Think your graduation was cool? Maybe it was. Maybe it was totally gnarly. But, I’ll tell you what, I’m pretty damn sure Sailor Moon didn’t roll in and a red Pikmin didn’t stroll up on stage. Oh, and there probably wasn’t a large Wii Remote, nor was there a large Xperia phone. Call it a hunch.

The graduates also dressed up in costumes from their favorite video games, manga (comic books) and anime (animation). It’s like a college graduation and anime convention rolled into one! Make sure to check out the pics after the link.

Claiming SimCity fixed, by removing the server queues, random crashes, lost cities, server drops, and the artificial restrictions placed on the game just to make it run, is like claiming a broken leg fixed because you’ve mended the crutches. The game, by its very design, is hideously broken, and like Diablo III before it, it has only served to scream a complete disregard for sense and a massive disregard for customers. So what we mustn’t do now is say, “Well, teething problems.”

These aren’t teething problems. These are continuous deep-running flaws designed to cripple the game for you as a player, simply to serve some nebulous notion of protecting the game against piracy.

I certainly understand and sympathize with game developers and publishers who don’t want people to rip them off. But there’s a delicate balance between a system that prevents people from stealing a game and one that punishes legitimate users unnecessarily, and right now, SimCity seems weighted towards abusing legitimate customers.

In such hoaxes, anonymous users set up accounts with names that sound like prominent market players, issue negative commentary, and spark massive declines. The selling that follows shows how the rapid spread of information on social media can make for volatile trading, and is a warning to investors who trade on news before fully verifying the source.

Pump and dump schemes aren’t the only sort of problem afflicting social media. Fortune’s Philip Elmer Dewitt has reported about his suspicions regarding hedge fund manager Doug Kass. According to Dewitt, Kass’ tweet repeating a rumor about an Apple stock split (which didn’t happen) led to a jump in the company’s stock valuation.

Barley looks really cool with its inline editing and philosophy of having no backend admin section or plug-ins. It’s not available yet, but it will be interesting to see how it does when released.

Mozilla’s Firefox browser will have no place on Apple devices so long as Apple continues its unfriendly attitude toward third-party browsers, Jay Sullivan, vice president of product at Mozilla, said today.

Wow, I’m sure a lot of people are really disappointed.

Rosenblatt queried the audience to find out how many people were iOS users, and a majority of hands went up. By contrast, when he asked how many of them were suffering, just a few hands surfaced.

Never mind.

I was a guest on this week’s Tech Night Owl podcast with Gene Steinberg. John Martellaro from The Mac Observer was on too (different segment, though, we didn’t talk together).

Topics covered included what I think of rumors that Apple’s building an iWatch, the interesting case of Apple’s falling stock prices and more.

Using a ripped game ROM from a 2010 release of Donkey Kong, Mike started doing a midnight hackathon to complete this gift of fatherly love for his daughter. Mike took the pains taking time of redrawing the 8-bit Mario sprite frames and swapped the palettes in the ROM. And with in less time than it takes to get an Amazon Prime package ordered on a monday Mike had his “Girls Can Save The Day Too!” edition of Donkey Kong.

Really cool. Here’s the YouTube video Mika made showing off his efforts.

[Editor’s note: This article originally identified the princess in Donkey Kong as Peach – the princess in later Mario adventures, instead of Pauline.]

Google’s high-tech augmented reality “Project Glass” spectacles are still in development, and not available for purchase. But Seattle’s 5 Point Cafe is getting ahead of the game — and fueling a debate over privacy — by banning the devices from the bar in advance.

Maybe it says something about the wretched hives of scum and villany where I like to drink, but I’m no stranger to bars that have “no camera” policies, so this doesn’t surprise me in the least.

Musk, co-founder of Tesla and PayPal, recently said that Broder’s review cost Tesla $100 million.

During his SXSW talk, Musk called Broder’s review a “low-grade ethics violation” that “was not in good faith.” He added, “I don’t have a problem with critical reviews. I have a problem with false reviews.”

That’s a lot of money.

A new patent application published by the US Patent Office this week shows that Microsoft’s delusional engineers think that they’ve actually invented Pinch and Zoom as if Apple’s technology never existed.

Morons.

Apple also accused Samsung in a second lawsuit of violating a separate batch of patents, including the rights to search technology that is part of the iPhone Siri voice feature. That case is scheduled for trial in March 2014.

That’s what happens when you steal.

Thanks to MacUpdate for sponsoring The Loop this week with their Spring Bundle.

For only $49.99 you get all this:

1. Parallels Desktop 8 – $79.99 – The best way to run Windows on your Mac.
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7. PhotoStyler 6 – $29.99 – Add dazzling effects and personalize your photos.
8. DiskAid 6 – $29.90 – A must-have utility for iPhone, iPad, or iPod owners.
9. Intego Mac Internet Security 2013 (3-Pack) – $74.98 – The #1 malware solution, rebuilt for 2013.
10. MacUpdate Desktop (6 months) – $10.00 – The best way to keep all your apps up-to-date.

Don’t delay, this offer won’t last long!

Netflix just used the quiet Friday afternoon to announce that it is effectively ending its public developer program. Netflix will stop issuing API keys immediately and will not accept new API affiliates.

Until now third-party developers have been able to integrate data from Netflix into their own apps. But Netflix is closing that door. The good news is that API keys that have already been issued and used will still work, so if you’re using an app that’s dependent on Netflix connectivity, it should still work.