Don Melton:

I don’t recall all the names, but one that stands out is “Freedom.” Steve spent some time trying that one out on all of us. He may have liked it because it invoked positive imagery of people being set free. And, just as possible and positive, it spoke to our own freedom from Microsoft and Internet Explorer, the company and browser we depended on at the time.

I just love these types of stories.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

I use the alarm on my iPhone a lot when I travel, but I have never seen any alarm look this cool. You just move your finger up and down to change the time and swipe right to turn it on. This is the epitome of doing one thing and doing one thing right.

Sports has always played a big part in the life of many of us and Sports Illustrated captured some amazing moments in the history of sport. Here are there “Top 100”. I’ve included my favorite shot here but I bet The Loop’s Publisher would choose number 21.

Sometimes it’s just as fascinating to see what wasn’t released.

I love autocorrect.

This is an app I’ve had on my iPhone since the very first version. It was just updated a couple of days ago and is still great.

One of the things missing out of AC/DC coming to iTunes was their concert videos. They are now available.

Jim and Dan discuss the iPad and iPad Mini sales, their favorite text editors, the great London beer flood of 1814 and more.

Definitely worth a read.

This would be great to see in 2013.

Cecilia Kang, The Washington Post:

The federal government on Wednesday announced a landmark update to child online privacy laws, establishing guidelines that make it harder to track a gadget-obsessed generation with constant access to the Web.

The FTC’s announcement makes changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which was passed in 1998 and obviously needs to be radically altered to fit the generational changes that have happened with technology use since then.

According to the report, new amendments require firms to seek permission from parents to collect information about their children, including photos, videos, and geolocation info. The intent is to close loopholes that have heretofore allowed social media services to collect personal information about children without a parental notice.

James Brightman, GamesIndustry:

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) announced today that Infocom co-founders Dave Lebling and Marc Blank will be receiving the 2013 AIAS Pioneer Award, presented to them by Steve Meretzky, vice president of game design at Playdom, during the 16th DICE Awards on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013 at The Joint in the Hard Rock Resort and Casino Las Vegas.

Zork introduced adventure gaming to the first generation of personal computer owners, and Infocom, the company that published it, built a business out of the now nearly forgotten computer genre of interactive fiction: games that eschew graphics in favor of the written word.

I dearly loved Zork and the many other games Infocom published – funny, challenging and wonderfully immersive games that emphasized using your creativity, imagination and puzzle-solving skills to win. It’s great to see Lebling and Blank receive this industry honor.

By the way, if you’re a fan of interactive fiction and you haven’t already seen it, check out Get Lamp, a wonderful documentary about this very subject.

Asbury & Asbury:

But there’s a writing angle to the whole thing that needs some airing. The whole story is already being co-opted as a case study in the importance of clear communication and getting the tone right. This worries me, because that’s exactly what it isn’t, at least not in the way that’s being suggested.

A writerly breakdown of Instagram’s recent communications that should give pause to anyone watching this story.

A little history on Jenny from Wikipedia:

“867-5309/Jenny” is a song written by Alex Call and Jim Keller and performed by Tommy Tutone that was released on the album Tommy Tutone 2, on the Columbia Records label. It peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Billboard Top Tracks chart in 1982 (see 1982 in music). Co-writer Call came up with both “Jenny” and the telephone number and completed the song with Keller.

The song caused a fad of people dialing 867-5309 and asking for “Jenny”.

Now some people got the famous Jenny phone number and are recording the messages that come in.

This is an article from earlier this year, but it’s also something I’ve talked about on Amplified. The cabinet speaker is a very important part of your tone. It’s an interesting read.

Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook and Andrew Mason at Groupon almost made the list, but escaped.

GamePolitics:

Blizzard has banned “several thousand” Diablo III players for using bots, according to this Battle.net forum thread. In announcing the bans, Blizzard said that these kinds of acts (using cheats and exploits) are “undermining the spirit of fair play,” and that the company plans to release new tools in the early part of 2013 that make it easier for players to report bad player behavior and cheating to Blizzard.

Good news for Diablo III players who are frustrated by other gamers who are clearly taking advantage.

Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone didn’t violate patent rights owned by Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Motorola Mobility for a sensor that prevents accidental hang-ups, a U.S. International Trade Commission judge said today.

Faruk Ateş:

Furthermore, once you sell to a frequently-criticized juggernaut like Facebook, users’ expectations change from supportive to skeptic, and, especially because of Facebook’s long history of privacy-related mishaps, you may very well lose all benefit of the doubt amongst some of your users.

It’s amazing that Instagram would allow the language in the privacy policy to go through. That’s just plain stupid.

Kevin Systrom, the co-founder of Instagram, posted his thoughts on the recent privacy policy changes and promises the company is listening.

Nilay Patel takes a look at the privacy policies of some of our favorite online services.

The Verge:

Hollywood insider Franklin Leonard this week released his annual Black List — a collection of the year’s best unproduced screenplays. Compiled based on insights from more than 290 film executives, this year’s list includes plenty of time-bending, apocalyptic, and sci-fi scripts.

The Publisher of The Loop hates “Best of…” lists but I find this one fascinating. As the compiler of the list says, “The Black List is not a “best of ” list. It is, at best, a “most liked” list.” It will be interesting to see which of these get turned into full fledged movies.

Jordan Golson:

Brazilian electronics maker IGB Electronica SA has announced a new line of Android phones under the IPHONE brand, a trademark that was originally applied for in Brazil in 2000.

Bartley now models Amazon selling just 6 million units this quarter of the Fire, down from 8 million previously, and 10.5 million for all of 2013, down from 12.5 million previously. While his investigation of the supply chain last month suggest component orders had risen for both October and November by double digits, he now thinks total Q4 component orders fell by more than 20%.

And

Writes Bartley, “Although weak Kindle Fire de- mand is potentially positive for profitability, it does imply that Amazon is still struggling to compete against Apple (AAPL), and may even be seeing competition from Google.

Amazon is selling its products at cost or even below cost. The more products they sell, the more money they lose. I’ve said it before — I don’t believe this is a sustainable or a wise strategy.

Seriously love this piece of software. In fact, I’m writing this post using MarsEdit and I never have to look at the WordPress backend.