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.

Tired of the bold, yet unsubstantiated claims of financial analysts, the L.A. Times turns to a bastion of data analysis for its latest story… CouponCodes4u.com.

On Thursday, the folks behind CouponCodes4u.com made a bold prediction: They say the Kindle Fire HD will outsell the iPad mini by 2 to 1.

To back up that claim, the coupon clearing house website cited data collected from its website that shows nearly twice as many searches for the words “Kindle Fire HD” compared with “iPad mini” in the last three weeks.

Pathetic.

Here’s an analogy I posted on Twitter:

Equivalent of @latimes iPad mini/Kindle story is asking Ferrari club how many will buy a Corolla, then concluding Ferrari will outsell them.

Very sad that it had to come to this.

Okay, that’s impressive.

Dish has been in talks with several companies, including Google. While everything is in the early stages, it would be very interesting if Google did move ahead with this plan given its relationship with existing carriers.

Here is a Google Cache link of the WSJ article.

MusicFIRST, an organization that represents musicians and their rights, in collaboration with SoundExchange on Wednesday announced that 125 artists, 40 of which are Grammy award winners, have opposed the bill. Artists include Common, Dead Kennedys, Missy Elliot, Vince Gill, Don Henley, Billy Joel, Maroon 5, Martha Reeves, David Sanborn, Michael W. Smith and Roger Waters, among others.

I always believed musicians should be paid for their music. Perhaps it’s because I know so many of them that rely on it for their livelihood, but whatever the reason, if you want to use their material, they need to get paid.

Jacob Ward for Popular Science:

Voice interfaces like Siri seem outdated by comparison. With Google Now, you don’t pull the phone out when an idea occurs to you. You pull it out when an idea occurs to it.

Shawn Blanc on his new Hidden Radio:

The device is little more than a giant volume knob with a speaker inside, and yet, ironically, it’s the most difficult-to-use volume knob in my home.

Great review of a kickstarter project he backed last year. Reading the review, I felt bad for Shawn because he didn’t seem to have any unreasonable expectations for the device, but yet it still failed.

vjay transforms your iPhone or iPod touch into a cutting-edge mashup machine, directly integrated with the media libraries on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Another great looking app from Algoriddim. They have an iPad version too.

Charlie Demerjian:

In the end, the death spiral for Microsoft is in full effect, and management is expending a lot of effort to speed it up. Anyone who dares point out that the entire system is collapsing, or worse yet suggests an alternative, gets Sinofsky’d. Or was it Guggenheimer’d? In any case, Microsoft is unwilling to change, and that is very clear. Even if they wanted to, they are culturally far beyond the point of being able to. What was a slow bleed of marketshare is now gushing, and management is clueless, intransigent, and myopic. Game over, the thrashing will continue for a bit, but it won’t change the outcome.

You may think that this is kind of harsh or maybe even an improbable outcome, but as you read through the story, you see that he is exactly right.

I laughed repeatedly when reading this comic. The part about the guy and his pants reminded me so much of Peter Cohen. Kind of frightening really.

While there’s still no substitute for a great mix or good microphone technique, the Precision K-Stereo Plug-In is a simple yet powerful new ambience recovery tool that can actually enhance the depth and imaging of a recording during mastering without adding artificial reverberation or changing the ratio of center elements to side elements.

This is Universal Audio’s latest plug-in and as you can see from the description, it can really help with the subtle characteristics of your song. The tips come straight from the company and is well worth the read.