July 6, 2012
Written by Jim Dalrymple
I’d like to thank Marketcircle for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week.
Marketcircle develops award winning business apps for the Mac, iPhone & iPad. Makers of Billings Pro & the totally redesigned Daylite 4.
Billings Pro is a time tracking & invoicing application for the Mac & iPhone that’s perfect for freelancers, lawyers, designers and more.
Daylite 4 is a productivity manager application designed to keep your entire business & team organized in a Mac, iPad & iPhone environment. Organize your contacts, schedule, tasks, business opportunities, projects, emails and more in a single app.
Learn more and download your free trial at Marketcircle.
July 5, 2012
Apple on Thursday responded to problems that came to light yesterday where corrupt files were downloaded from the App Store.
“We had a temporary issue that began yesterday with a server that generated DRM code for some apps being downloaded, it affected a small number of users,” an Apple representative told The Loop. “The issue has been rectified and we don’t expect it to occur again. Users who experienced an issue launching an app caused by this server bug can delete the affected app and re-download it.”
Written by Jim Dalrymple
“Our contract is such that they can’t do anything with our music without our permission, not a thing. So we just sent them a letter saying, ‘No matter what you want, you are going to get “no” as an answer, so don’t ask.’ That’s the way we’ve left it. We’ll just replace our back catalog with brand new, exact same versions of what we did.”
The band doesn’t like the way the record company is paying them (or not paying them) for digital downloads, so they will re-record and bypass the company altogether.
Written by Shawn King
Buzzfeed:
These easy and clever bookshelves look so much cooler than anything you can buy from a store. Finding creative ways to display books can be just as alluring as any kind of art.
I love books and love displaying them. Some of these designs look so simple even I could make them.
Apple on Thursday responded to complaints that an app called “Find and Call” was spamming users after it was installed.
“The Find & Call app has been removed from the App Store due to its unauthorized use of users’ Address Book data, a violation of App Store guidelines,” an Apple representative told The Loop.
The app would apparently ask the user for permission to access the contacts and then would send messages to every phone number and email address it could find.
I have mercilessly ridiculed products like the Samsung Galaxy Note and the Microsoft Surface for including a stylus. Here’s why.
When a manufacturer ships a product, they include everything they feel you absolutely need to make the device work as they intended. My belief is that by including a stylus, the company is telling you they have done something wrong and the only way to properly interact with their device is with a stylus.
It made perfect sense to include a stylus with a Palm 10 years ago, but not anymore. We have come a long way since the stylus was a necessary accessory for the Palm. We have graduated to touch-enabled devices where a stylus is no longer required.
Is there a time when an iPhone or iPad user may want to use a stylus? Absolutely. People may want to use a stylus when using games like Draw Something or artists may want to use one when drawing or painting on the iPad.
Those are individual use cases, not the majority. The way Apple ships the iPhone and iPad tells you that most people will use it out of the box with their fingers. That’s the way it’s intended to be used.
If a device comes with a stylus, ask yourself what they did wrong when designing the product.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Antivirus researchers at Kaspersky say they’ve spotted an app known as “Find and Call” in both the iPhone App Store and Google’s Play market that secretly uploads all of a user’s contacts to a remote server and then sends text message and email spam to every number and email address listed in his or her phonebook.
I hate Malware. I wonder if Apple will change the way it does app reviews now that someone found a way to get through the walled garden?
Written by Shawn King
Good Education:
Dying to become a master of Google’s search engine? If so, look no further than Power Searching with Google, a new, free class offered by the tech giant starting July 10th. The course promises to teach users “tips, tricks and tactics” that’ll help you “find exactly what you’re looking for, when you most need it.” Real talk: Even if you don’t spend your time dreaming about how to improve your searching skills, you should take Google up on their offer to teach you. Google’s education program manager Terry Ednacot writes on the Google Blog that no matter what your current searching ability may be—from those of us who have no idea you can use the search box as a calculator to folks who are already masters of Boolean logic—through the six 50-minute lessons of the class, you’ll learn how to use the search function to “solve everyday problems” and help you “find what you need faster.”
You would be surprised at how much better your search results, whether for school, work or play, will become if you know how to use and access Google more efficiently.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Reminders — when and where you want them.
The app is coming soon and I’m excited to see it.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
From my latest column on Techpinions:
By trying to combine what people do on their PC with what they want to do on a tablet, Microsoft feels it is offering the best of both worlds.The problem with that, as I’ve said before, is that people interact differently with a tablet than they do a computer. So, in reality, you don’t get the best of both worlds, but rather a mishmash of each.
Written by Shawn King
Associated Press:
Tens of thousands of Americans may lose their Internet service Monday unless they do a quick check of their computers for malware that could have taken over their machines more than a year ago. Despite repeated alerts, the number of computers that probably are infected is more than 277,000 worldwide, down from about 360,000 in April. Of those still infected, the FBI believes that about 64,000 are in the United States. Users whose computers are still infected Monday will lose their ability to go online, and they will have to call their service providers for help deleting the malware and reconnecting to the Internet.
It’s unlikely any of you are affected by this issue but it’s easy to do a quick check. Go to The DNS Changer Working Group site and click on the “Detect” button.
July 4, 2012
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Industry analyst Ben Bajarin takes a look at the fluctuations in Apple’s stock.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
An explanation from Marco Arment about what happened to his Instapaper update for iOS last night. After downloading the update, the app would just crash on launch.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Lukas Hermann has quite an in-depth piece on MacStories today about music apps for the iPad. I’ll be honest — I skipped the discovery content and moved right into what he had to say about creation. I agree with his choice of apps, although I would have added the Apogee JAM to the list of hardware devices.
Definitely a worthwhile read.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Great comic at TechHog about RIM.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
When will retailers learn that future purchases rely heavily on how we’re treated now?
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Born in 1926 near Turin in the industrial north of the country, Pininfarina worked with top carmakers during his long career, designing the Ferrari Testarossa, Fiat 124 Spider and Maserati GranTurismo, among others.
There’s a lot of design talent in one man.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Rene Ritchie:
One of the worst things a company can ever do is mistake their products for their business. Products come and go. If you mistake your product for your business, when — inevitably — that product goes, your business goes with it.
Apple evolves its products as technology allows, giving users a new way to do things. Other companies try desperately to hold on to a successful product and milk it for all its worth. Consumers are becoming more educated and see stunts like that for what they are.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Ted Landau has a nice overview on how things are going, good and bad.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
The most common request we’ve had over the years is for editable user constants, so they’re now available. Not only can you create and export your own categories of constants, but they will sync automatically to all your devices via iCloud.
Another great update from James Thomson.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Marketcircle develops award winning business apps for the Mac, iPhone & iPad. Makers of Billings Pro & the totally redesigned Daylite 4.
Billings Pro is a time tracking & invoicing application for the Mac & iPhone that’s perfect for freelancers, lawyers, designers and more.
Daylite 4 is a productivity manager application designed to keep your entire business & team organized in a Mac, iPad & iPhone environment. Organize your contacts, schedule, tasks, business opportunities, projects, emails and more in a single app.
Learn more and download your free trial at Marketcircle.
July 2, 2012
Written by Jim Dalrymple
I started using this over the weekend. It’s like amp modeling except for cabinets. I’ll let you know how I make out with it.
