February 4, 2013

Very cool if you want to keep the menus available to your readers.

Chris Santacroce was paragliding Thursday in Draper near Lone Peak when his iPhone slipped out of his pocket and fell some 2000 feet to the ground.

He didn’t even know it. “I land and I’m checking my pockets. It’s not there,” he said.

Tough iPhone.

Wired:

If you’re not a hockey fan, you may not know the red light’s iconic flashing, spinning glow and horn sound that accompany every goal.

The Budweiser Red Light works by connecting to your Wi-Fi network. After configuring the device with an Android or iPhone app to tell it what teams you are rooting for, it sits sleeping in your rec room. When a game is on, it wakes up and starts listening over the network for a score. When the puck goes in the net, the light goes crazy.

“We are not joking: It’s real, it works and you can buy it,” says the Budweiser Canada homepage.

Yes, it’s real – and every Canadian wants one!

My latest chunk of open-source code is very simple: MGWordCounter provides live word-counting for NSTextViews on OS X and UITextViews on iOS.

Another useful bit of code from Matt Gemmell.

Tulips
Normann Szkop:

The tulip has come to be a loved symbol of the Netherlands. Many tourists visit the country just to see the bright coloured flower and the astonishing view over the bulb fields. The season begins in March with crocuses, followed by the daffodil and the yellow narcissi.

This is a great photographic example of the idea of taking something we are familiar with and looking at it from different angle.

The minimalist web store has long since expanded to include more than just cables; today, it’s best described as an accessory shop. But in January, the company announced that it was taking a broad step into a new market: It was going to start selling big-ticket electronics under the Monoprice name.

I’ve sworn by Monoprice for years and recommend them anytime anyone asks me where to get cheap cables. Happy to see them expand their product line into electronics to give other e-tailers a run for the money.

Well there’s something the iPhone doesn’t do.

Update: Apparently someone did have a problem with an iPhone 4S.

There are just so many good ones in here.

[Via DF]

Om Malik gives us some valuable lessons that he’s learned over the years.

Now apps found on Google Play can infect your computer. Brilliant strategy Google.

The BlackBerry 10 problem

I made fun of BlackBerry and its co-CEOs for quite some time. While I had good reason to do it, I wasn’t against a BlackBerry comeback. However, with the launch behind us, I don’t think they did enough to get themselves off the ropes.

As I said on Amplified last week, BlackBerry needed a stellar launch — both the software and hardware, as well as any new features, had to be blockbuster. They weren’t.

The company changed its name from RIM to BlackBerry, but so what? Its core business was always the BlackBerry, so the change doesn’t signify any major shift in thinking. When Apple changed its name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. there was a clear shift from just computers to consumer electronic devices, like the iPhone and iPad.

BlackBerry also announced that Alicia Keys would be the new Global Creative Director. A celebrity endorsement is not what people want, they want a better product.

The new BlackBerry received an average response from media, some early reviews were just bad.

BlackBerry needed to give users a reason to switch back from the iPhone or Samsung product they currently own — they didn’t do that. At most, they may have caught up to where everyone else already is, but they needed to do more if they planned to get back all of those customers.

Microsoft Corp is expected to invest around $2 billion in the deal, while private equity firm Silver Lake is expected to put in about $1 billion, the source said. Michael Dell is expected to roll over his roughly 16 percent stake and put in some of his own money so he has control of the company, the source added.

Exercise… BACON

I like this way of thinking.

Exercise

BBEdit 10.5 from Bare Bones Software — The leading professional HTML and text editor for the Mac just keeps getting better. Now with Retina support and many other improvements — download the demo and see for yourself!

I have been using BBEdit to create and maintain every site I’ve built since 1994, including The Loop.

How sad is it when a company has to review its own products on its blog?

Beginning this week, under-12s are banned from the first seven rows of economy class on AirAsia X flights to China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Australia and Nepal.

Brilliant.

Bored of getting your inbox filled with comments from your WordPress Blog? Want’s to see those comments in the Notification Center on your Mac? Wants to see how many unread (and total!) comments are on your blog at a glance? Comments.app is your new friend, it’ll let you know, and one click later, you’re approving, marking as spam or replying.

Downloaded.

A reader emailed me about these this morning — the workmanship in these handmade guitars looks incredible. I also watched the video clip on Bill Wise, the guy who makes them — definitely worthwhile if you have a few minutes.

Surrounded by overly excited family and friends might be great for watching football, but it’s not the best way to study Super Bowl ads. Did you really like — or hate — that one spot? How does it hold up in the glaring light of day? How do the ads stack up against one another? Here’s your chance to scrutinize all of them. Or just watch them a few more times.

AdAge has collected them all on one page. You’ll need Flash Player installed.

While European politicians continue to debate and scrutinize ever-amending drafts of the new EU Data Protection Regulation—which seeks to replace an outdated and flaw-ridden 1995 directive—they noted that Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) reported that U.S. policymakers are “mounting an unprecedented lobbying campaign to limit the protections that European law would provide.”

While the EU is trying to put in place uniform legislation to protect consumer data privacy, US legislation like the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act undermine those efforts, according to the report.

Austin Meyer, creator of the popular and ultra-realistic flight sim X-Plane is facing a potentially destructive lawsuit by an East Texas patent troll, Uniloc. Meyer, who has worked on the simulator since 1995, isn’t dealing with a claim against his simulator or the game mechanics within. Instead, he’s being sued for using a simple copy-protection system found in almost all Android programs.

X-Plane has been around for Mac and Windows for years, and Mayer wasted little time adapting the detailed flight sim for iPhone, later bringing it to Android. He’s petitioned the White House for tort reform associated with patent lawsuits (he’s a long way off from getting the signatures needed, though) and he’s also looking for donations to help cover his own court costs.

February 3, 2013

Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer:

The goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us.

What a great mission.

Many thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week.

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February 2, 2013

Sketch MSN News:

The Etch A Sketch is one of the best known toys of the Baby Boom generation. French inventor André Cassagnes stumbled upon the idea in the 1950s and the core technology of the toy remains today. Cassagnes died Jan. 16 at the age of 86.

The origins of Etch A Sketch go back to the late 1950s, when Cassagnes was installing a factory light switch plate covered with a translucent decal.

Along with the Lite-Brite, the Etch A Sketch was one of the first “fancy” toys we got as kids. I never could draw anything other than a few straight lines on it though.

CNET:

Citing CNET’s disqualification of the Dish product for the Best of Show competition, CEA is seeking a new partner to run its Best of CES awards program.

Karen Chupka, senior vice president, events and conferences for CEA said, “We are concerned the new review policy will have a negative impact on our brand should we continue the awards relationship as currently constructed.”

This move by the organizer of CES is unsurprising and further confirms that CBS’ decisions continue to hurt CNET’s journalistic integrity.

GrandCentral Mashable:

One of America’s busiest railroad stations, Grand Central Terminal in New York, turns 100 years old. The iconic structure, located in the heart of Manhattan, serves thousands of passengers every day and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world.

With sites like YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook, it’s possibly to take a tour through the last century at Grand Central.

When I lived in Connecticut, I always loved going through Grand Central – the architecture, the art and the people watching were always a highlight of every visit.

Slotz Racer 2 debuts in App Store

Strange Flavour has announced the release of Slotz Racer 2, a new version of their slot car racing game for iOS devices. It’s a free download (in-app purchases unlock new car models and a car editor for fine-tuning performance).

The game includes 25 different bike and car models and 31 different tracks, a built in track editor, Game Center achievements and leaderboards, multiplayer support on the same device, and a kids mode for beginners.

Stephen talks about iPhone, Android, Samsung, BlackBerry 10 and Windows. It’s a great article.

Three billion years after inanimate chemistry first became animate life, a newly synthesized laboratory compound is behaving in uncannily lifelike ways.

The particles aren’t truly alive — but they’re not far off, either. Exposed to light and fed by chemicals, they form crystals that move, break apart and form again.

It makes me think of this:

February 1, 2013

Seriously, CBS is just getting crazy.