This week, the USPTO issued a first Office action rejecting all 20 claims of U.S. Patent No. 7,479,949 on a “touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics”, which has been referred to by many people, including Apple’s own lawyers, as “the Steve Jobs patent”.

This isn’t a final decision, but it’s certainly an important one for Apple.

I’d like to thank Anytune for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed on The Loop. I’ve tried this app myself and really like it.

Musicians of all kinds use Anytune to learn, transcribe and practice their favorite songs!

Check out Jim’s guitar stylings in a rare solo version of a theme that fans of The Loop should recognize. Something unexpected happened when tuning the track that hints at the source of Jim’s power… You’ll have to watch the video on this page to find out what it might be.

Music Practice Perfected.

Jonathan Sutter has written up a counterpoint to Brent Caswell’s article that I linked to earlier this week.

The Verge:

Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels are a cornerstone of science fiction, but getting into a vast series about, among other things, mathematically predicting the rise and fall of entire civilizations isn’t always easy. In 1973, however, the BBC adapted Foundation into a serial radio drama, capturing the original trilogy in eight hour-long episodes. These are available on the Internet Archive, which means that you can listen to them online or download them in all their slightly scratchy glory.

I first read The Foundation Trilogy as a young teenager and loved them. I come back to re-read them about every decade. I’ve been thinking it’s about time to read them again but maybe I’ll just let the folks at the BBC entertain me this time.

Esquire:

Ever wonder what whiskey-industry insiders are drinking around the holidays? Us, too. Eat Like a Man’s 12 Days of Whiskey asks the craft’s most respected master distillers what bottles are on their holiday wish lists.

One of the great parts of the turning of summer into Fall/Winter is indulging in delicious and warming bourbons and whiskeys. They always seem perfect on a chill evening. In honor of the anniversary of the repeal of the 18th Amendment earlier this week, enjoy the “The 12 Days of Whiskey”.

Rani Molla for GigaOM:

So why haven’t wireline broadband prices budged in recent years? The high, fixed costs of broadband means that there hasn’t been a big rise in competition among providers, according to Scott Wallsten, Vice President for Research and Senior Fellow at Technology Policy Institute. Indeed, most Americans don’t have more than two options when it comes to wireline broadband providers.

So costs remain high because of scarcity of competition and an ever-increasing consumer dependence on the technology. Where I live, I have two choices for wireline broadband: my cable provider, or DSL (FIOS isn’t an option). So really, just one option. Because DSL sucks.

The potential for disruption, according to the article: the increasing deployment of LTE services. I doubt that’s realistic for quite some time: LTE service providers offer a fraction of the bandwidth caps that most wireline broadband service providers do.

James Allworth, posting to Asymco:

While there’s no doubt that Google has played a key role in Samsung’s success by handing out a free mobile operating system to pretty much anyone who wants to build one — it is actually Apple, more than any other company, that is responsible for Samsung’s present success.

How? By outsourcing as much work to Samsung as they have. And it’s impossible not to wonder whether Tim Cook’s announcement yesterday on bringing back Apple’s manufacturing to the USA is the beginnings of an attempt to rectify the problem.

Allworth provides a very thought-provoking argument to explain why Apple may have inadvertently helped to create its single biggest competitor in the phone market right now. Though the analogy isn’t perfect (and Allworth is quick to point out where it fails), he compares the situation to that which Dell created by outsourcing work to Asus, which later challenged Dell’s market position by releasing its own computers instead of just doing manufacturing for Dell.

Certainly worth a read.

A great article by Graham Spencer that looks at Apple’s retail strategy around the world.

This looks fantastic. The app replaces the deck of cards and deals to the player’s iPhones.

These will make you laugh.

Sinead Carew for Reuters:

T-Mobile USA said on Thursday it planned to stop subsidizing smartphones, the first major U.S. carrier to do so, in a move it hopes will cut costs and woo customers frustrated with restrictions on upgrades in longer-term contracts.

It’s an interesting move. Hot on the heels of the announcement that T-Mobile USA will begin offering its customers iPhones in 2013 comes this news.

Subsidies on phones have made it possible for American consumers to give in to their voracious appetite for shiny new hardware as it’s released, but it also provides a certain amount of vendor lock-in, as contracts require customers to endure lengthy periods without risking expensive penalties.

T-Mobile USA wants to change the game by making customers pay for the cost of their phones up front, but offering more lenient terms for phone upgrades on the back end. Of course, customers are still going to have to get over the very bleak idea of having to pay full retail price for their phones – sticker shock may overwhelm their desire to have a more fair cell service contract.

It’s something that hasn’t been done by major American phone carriers before now, and it could help T-Mobile USA differentiate itself against its three main competitors, AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.

Twitterrific developer Craig Hockenberry posted an interesting behind the scenes look at the app.

The guys at Pixelmator posted an explanation to users of Macs with NVIDIA GeForce graphics card drivers. Apparently there is a problem with the drivers that causes the application to crash.

Pixelmator is a great app run by equally great people.

Netflix Inc said securities regulators plan to take action against the company because of a Facebook post by Chief Executive Reed Hastings that violated public disclosure rules, even as Hastings dismissed the contention in a public letter to shareholders on Thursday.

Stupid of the CEO.

TSA baggage screener Sean Henry, 32, was arrested on Tuesday after a sting operation conducted jointly by the TSA and the Port Authority Police Department caught Henry leaving the airport with two iPads that had been planted as part of the sting, as well as numerous other electronics devices he had allegedly stolen from passengers. Just as in a recent ABC News investigation of thefts by TSA agents, the sting used the iPads’ own tracking capabilities to follow the stolen tablets’ movements.

I’m glad they’re getting caught.

Gannon Burgett looks at how we use gestures and how important they’ve become to us.

Want to balloon hop a motor home to clear the Grand Canyon? Use your sports car and escape Alcatraz by leaping as far as you can and landing on a barge? Speed through a roller-coaster on a New York skyscraper with a cow on your pickup? You can do all this and more in Top Gear: Stunt School Revolution.

Alastair Johnston is not happy.

Mike Williams for Gamesindustry.biz:

According to independent analyst firm Canalys, 25 developers pocketed 50 percent of US app revenue during the first 20 days of November 2012. The total revenue shared between those 25 developers amounted to $60 million in paid downloads and in-app purchases. The numbers are based on Canalys’ daily App Interrogator surveys of the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Only one of the 25 (Pandora) wasn’t a game developer, according to the report. The top earners included Angry Birds developer Rovio and social game factory Zynga.

IK Multimedia is proud to announce the release of T-RackS® Custom Shop, the updated version 4.0 of its world-class mixing and mastering suite for Mac and PC. The new T-RackS CS offers five brand-new, must-have analog-modeled and digital processors, and it integrates the Custom Shop, IK’s exclusive online gear shop, which allows users to purchase gear models à la carte from within the T-RackS software itself, and much more.

It’s good to see IK bring more of its software to the Custom Shop.

>“We are looking at doing more manufacturing in the U.S. because, in general, customers want more to be done there,” Louis Woo, a Foxconn spokesman, said in a phone interview. He declined to comment on individual clients or specific plans.

Woo explained that one of the big challenges is managing supply chain. One of the reasons Foxconn has been so successful in China is because it’s able to so effectively manage how individual components used in its manufacturing are made and delivered. He said that U.S. manufacturing would need “to leverage high-value engineering talent” compared to China. Manufacturing companies also need to invest in top quality equipment and experts to improve their calibration processes and produce finished products with accurate dimensions.

Tim Cook:

“When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years,” Cook told Williams. “It’s an area of intense interest. I can’t say more than that.”

What Tim didn’t say is that Apple would be making their own television. His comments could be directed towards the content on the TV or how we interact with the device.

Alexander Hoffmann makes an argument that it will be the Mac Pro and not the iMac that Apple will make in the US.

Bloomberg Businessweek has an exclusive interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook that published this morning.