In hindsight, I now see why Microsoft did not want me to review the Surface. That was probably the right call from a PR perspective. It’s simply not a good product.

After using it for over a week now, it’s hard to come up with a lot of nice things to say about the Surface. Don’t get me wrong, there are some solid things here. But by and large, it’s a strange, buggy, and clunky product that I simply can’t imagine many people buying after the initial hype wears off.

That’s near the beginning of the review. It gets worse.

Hmmm, something big seems to have happened around 2007. Wonder what that could have been?

Kaleidoscope is one of the world’s best tools for spotting differences in images and text, and now it supports merging of files and folders, too. Kaleidoscope integrates directly with Git, Subversion, Mercurial, and Bazaar to fit perfectly in your workflow.

Go get it.

The more products Apple releases, the more widespread Retina displays become. So far we have Retina capable iPhones, iPods, iPads and MacBooks of various sizes, which together make up a pretty substantial audience. Let’s take a look at how you can create special retina graphics for your website so your design looks crisp, sharp and clear on those powerful screens.

This is something we’re working on too.

Timeline 3D for iOS. The most simple way to make beautiful multimedia timelines.

Here’s a new Mac app bundle that went on sale today — $549 worth of software for $49.99. If you use this link, I’ll get a little kickback from the people, which will help The Loop. Thanks people.

iOS developer Justin Williams is not happy with iCloud and the services Apple offers that rely on it. While I’ve heard other people pick iCloud apart, I haven’t had any problems. iTunes Match is fantastic, downloading apps works great and syncing is very fast.

Harry Marks outlines a problem that we see far too often in Web publishing these days. It drives me crazy as a reader.

Six of 10 Americans believe news reporting is biased, according to Gallup. Still, we trust the media more than any other source of information. Skewed News Tutor helps news consumers learn to pinpoint exactly why a report might feel one-sided, or skewed.

Great idea.

He discovered that a significant portion of the 32 GB storage space was being used by the operating system and pre-installed apps such as Word and Excel. Only 16 GB was available for him to use.

Seriously, 16GB for the operating system and apps is a bit much.

A petition on The White House Web site. It has 64 signatures.

Philip Elmer-DeWitt:

The FBI was reportedly led to Richardson after co-workers told Port Authority detectives that he had made suspicious inquiries about when the iPads were due to arrive and where a forklift might be found.

What a genius.

Jean-Louis Gassée:

So whether it was divine inspiration or simply a bowing to necessity, Apple shunned the temptation to make a PC-only-smaller, and created a whole new genre of personal computers. Microsoft couldn’t resist and gave us Windows Mobile with a Start button.

Gassée compares Apple’s efforts to create the iPad with Microsoft’s creation of Surface, and finds Surface wanting. He has some criticisms of iOS too, but he sees them as opportunities for Apple to improve the iPad’s usability for business.

Snopes:

Claim – Hostess Twinkies have an indefinite shelf life.

Fact – Twinkies have a shelf life of twenty-five days, not seven years, and certainly not fifty years. Even so, twenty-five days is an unusually long time for a baked product to stay fresh. The secret to Twinkies’ longevity is their lack of dairy ingredients: because dairy products are not part of the formula, Twinkies spoil much more slowly than other bakery items.

After the news of the shuttering of the company, this urban legend quickly made its way around Twitter. Like most urban legends, it turns out to have no basis in facts.

Mashable:

We take for granted how easy it is to get around these days. A decade ago, when my friends and I were turning 16 and getting our driver’s licenses, a big, fat Thomas Guide was the gift of choice — I mean, how else would you find your way around the city? Then TomTom, Magellan and Garmin came around. And now, with the proliferation of smartphones, maps of the entire world are in the palm of our hands.

But even when maps go awry, we tend to take the technology for granted. Here’s an explanation of how GPS navigation works — so you can appreciate it a little more the next time it gets you where you need to be.

It really is a wondrous and remarkable piece of technology.

Amir Mizroch for Wired:

People in the army describe him variously as a geek and an ace. But the geek who grew up playing Warcraft is now a highly prized soldier on the cutting edge of real war craft. He’s the Israeli army’s top rocket interceptor.

Interesting story about one of the soldiers behind Israel’s “Iron Dome,” its anti-rocket and missile defense system.

Dark Roasted Blend:

Chuck Palahniuk once said: “People used what they called a telephone because they hated being close together and they were scared of being alone”.

It won’t be very long before children will not be able to recognize any of these as telephones. I remember we had the above pictured one as a kid (we lived on a farm for a time and actually even had a Party Line – ask your parents) and we hated it when a phone number had too many zeros or nines in it.

Many thanks to Igloo Software for sponsoring this week’s feed on The Loop.

Q brings over 25 new features ­installed, tested and managed ­as a free platform update to all Igloo customers.

Igloo users can now post blogs, wiki articles, documents and status updates right from their email. Igloo has also developed a brand-new calendar that integrates with your intranet and your desktop calendar applications. Q also adds a smart search that finds relevant content and displays it instantly and inline. Igloo has also introduced the ability to find and @mention users from any content entry field.

Igloo is trying to make work a better place. A recent IDC report states “… Igloo had the best overall solution capability rating from respondents.” IDC placed Igloo in the Major Players category for enterprise social software. You can download a complimentary copy of the report from Igloo.

Get an intranet you’ll actually like. Try Igloo.

John Callahan for Neowin (via Engadget):

As documented on the Microsoft Store Facebook page, the company has now opened a store in Canada. Specifically, the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto is the new place where people can go to check out the latest Microsoft related products.

I think they’re doing it just to piss off Jim.

The Wirecutter:

To make my picks, I spoke with experts who have been through every razor fad and tried every setup, including beard-trimmers. I then personally tested widely available non-disposable razors on the market. I asked several women test out “women’s” razors and cartridge men’s razors on their legs, bikini lines, and underarms, then got their takes.

I wish I had the skill (read “courage”) to try and use a straight razor.

Matt Buchanan:

The message from Twitter over the last year has been consistent about one thing: Change is coming. It’s building a new Twitter. We sort of joked it would look like this — essentially, more like Facebook — but the new features Twitter rolled out last night show just how true that will be.

The other consistent message is that they’ll screw their developers.

Horace Dediu:

The bottom line is that an individual click is not as valuable as it used to be. Would a larger volume of mobile usage be a reason? Google won’t say.

With operating margins falling, Google must be very concerned.

Pretty much anything having to do with Steve Wozniak.

Great list, but I can see lots of additions. Financial analysts for one.

Bart Eppenauer, Microsoft’s chief patent counsel:

“There are a lot headlines about the patent system being out of control and major changes being needed,” Eppenauer says. “While certainly there are areas for improvement in the patent system — in terms of what the U.S. Patent [& Trademark] Office can do and what the courts can do and what companies can do — this doesn’t mean you need, at least from our point of view, some sort of radical overhaul of the system or a complete change in the approach to certain technologies.”

Why am I not surprised.

The latest “Call of Duty” videogame had worldwide sales of more than $500 million in the first 24 hours of its release, a new record, game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc said on Friday.

People said the pressure was on Call of Duty after Halo 4 saw $220 million in sales on launch day. I guess Activision responded.

TechCrunch’s Drew Olanoff recently celebrated his 33rd birthday (Happy Birthday brother), but instead of getting gifts, he asked people to donate to help fund research on children’s cancer. In exchange, he did something unique — I’ll let you read for yourself.

Much respect Drew.