Matthew Panzarino:
Following several weeks of controversy surrounding the way that applications were handling customer data, the California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced that several companies with a stake in the app game have agreed to new privacy protections for users of apps, including Apple, Microsoft, HP, Amazon, Google and RIM.
Now users will be able to view an app’s privacy policy before downloading.
I’ve been playing around with Screens 2.0 all day and I love it. The app allows you to connect your Mac or iOS device to another computer on the network, see its screen and interact with the computer. I tried it on my Mac and iPhone, but haven’t gotten around to the iPad yet, but I haven’t had a single problem. It took a couple of tries to nail the position of my finger when using the iPhone version, but that’s a minor user thing.
Brian Caulfield for Forbes:
AMD’s engineers were trying to do too much, too quickly, however, shifting to a new manufacturing process at Global Foundries for a processor with a radical new design.AMD couldn’t even get early working samples of Llano to Apple on time, one former employee says. Several former AMD employees disagree on just how close AMD came.
Reuters:
The storied Silicon Valley company, which has been trying to move past the internal upheaval that marked 2011, posted quarterly sales declines in three of its key units: personal computers, printers and enterprise equipment.
The PC market sucks for everyone but Apple.
ABC News:
Last night’s special edition of Nightline expanded upon that original report, and included footage from inside the factory, interviews with the workers, and even a visit to a local village.Since ABC News’ original report, Apple, Foxconn, and the Fair Labor Association have sent statements explaining a few sentences in the original report.
Daniel Jalkut released an update for his great blog editing software, MarsEdit. Fixes improves how the app works with Safari 5.2 and it prevents a possible hang while parsing Lightroom libraries.
Well, that was fun.
Earlier today we posted a three-minute video that depicts a supposed art photographer who uses overweight naked guys farting as his muse. On the surface it looks like a promotional video for Dell – slick enough to pass for the real thing if the subject matter weren’t so absurd. Still, folks have wondered if maybe Dell is behind it after all – maybe it’s some slick viral marketing maneuver.
Nope.
Dell says it’s not involved at all. Lionel Menchaca, Dell’s chief blogger, popped by our forums a short time ago to tell us that Dell is not involved at all. A prepared statement Menchaca posted a link to reads:
This video is in no way affiliated with Dell, but it’s great to see creative professionals get inspiration from using our products. Our dell.com/takeyourownpath program is all about celebrating people who take their own professional path. Regarding this parody, we consider imitation to be the sincerest form of flattery.
So there you have it. And if you haven’t seen the video, please check it out at the link above. It’s a gutbuster.
Gizmodo:
Jeb Corliss hit the side of Table Mountain while attempting a wingsuit jump. Now, the footage from the cameras mounted to his helmet is available—and it looks terrifying.
I love these wingsuit videos but this guy was asking for trouble “flying” so low, trying to grab the balloons!
Erica Ogg at GigaOm:
Apple is being sued by Brandywine Communications Technologies over multimedia voicemail in its iPhone and iPad products. In the complaint filed in the U.S. district court for the middle district of Florida Tuesday, Brandywine claims that Apple is infringing on two patents it owns related to mobile voicemail.
A patent holding company — I hate that.
New York Times:
Apple Inc. defended itself in a local court here Wednesday against allegations that it does not own rights to the iPad trademark in China, a challenge that threatens to prevent the company from selling one of its most popular products in one of its fastest growing markets.The heated, four-hour session at the Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court ended, though, without the local district judge issuing any ruling or giving any public indication of how the case would be resolved.
Most of the top-selling bands in the world sell their music through iTunes, but it was Adele that became the first to break the double platinum sales plateau.
Columbia Records said on Wednesday that since the singer won six Grammy Awards and performed “Rolling in the Deep,” Adele had her biggest sales week ever, selling 730,000 copies of her album.
The double platinum means that Adele sold more than 2 million copies of the album, all within a year of its initial release.
Columbia Records also noted that the album is in its 21st non-consecutive week at No. 1 on The Billboard Top 200 Album Chart, and that 21 is the longest running #1 by a woman in Billboard’s nearly 56 year history.
The album has been certified 7x Platinum in the U.S. and has sold over 18 million copies worldwide. The album has over 16 million singles sold in the US alone, including 7x Platinum certified “Rolling in the Deep,” 4x Platinum certified “Someone Like You,” 2x Platinum certified “Set Fire to the Rain” and Gold certified “Rumour Has It.”
An interesting look at scam apps by Phil Ryu.
Clayton Sotos – Visual Innovators from Visual Innovators on Vimeo.
[Editor’s note: 2/22, 4:20PM: Lots of people are asking me if this is a hoax, and I’ve suspected from the start that it is. I submitted it without comment because I want our readers to come to their own conclusion. Mat Honan from Gizmodo, a long-time friend of the Loop, has been doing some digging, so if you’re really curious about the story behind this, feel free to check in.]
Anything that uses CSS3 is good with me. Another good example here, although I’m not a big fan of the accordion effect.
Russ starts at the beginning with opening and saving a session, then goes into recording and editing audio, using virtual instruments, built-in effects and exporting your masterpiece for CD and the internet.
I really like the Pro Tools videos at Groove3. This video is a great place to start your Pro Tools training.
This app used to be called iDygest, but it was renamed and redone with a bunch of new features.
Tim Stevens for Engadget:
While we haven’t been able to confirm all the “several” supposed cases of this happening, we did hear back from Tesla issuing a statement (after the break) that more or less affirms this could happen. Tesla uses a number of so-called “countermeasures” to prevent this, up to and including calling the owner should a battery pack trail dangerously low.
To recap, a Web site called theunderstatement reports that Tesla’s all-electric roadsters can incur very expensive, out of warranty repairs if their battery cells are completely discharged – expensive to the tune of $40,000 to replace. Tesla says its vehicles have countermeasures to protect against this from happening.
I think the old adage “out of sight, out of mind” comes into play. Tesla roadsters are, by and large, the playthings of very wealthy people who don’t use them every day – and at least in some cases, don’t use them for weeks or months at a time. Enough time that the batteries can completely discharge and then run them very expensive bills.
My takeaway: If you’re going to fork out $109,000 or more for one of these things, the least you can do is take care of it according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Running a $40,000 bill just because you’re being careless with it tells me that you’re pretty stupid with your money and your toys, and you probably don’t deserve either.
Peter Ha and Matt Hickey for The Daily:
Let’s get one thing straight: We did not fabricate this story, nor did we fake the images in any way. A Microsoft employee, not a contractor, demoed a prototype of the app for us. We were repeatedly told that it wasn’t the final build and we did not report it as such, which is probably why Microsoft has said that it isn’t their software.
Microsoft says everything will be made clear in the coming weeks. We’ll find out the truth eventually, but so far, it looks like the blogosphere is leaning towards the idea that Microsoft is just stalling for time, and that some form of Office for iOS is headed to the iPad eventually.
Here is the 15 minute look inside Foxconn.
Jonathan Geller:
The phone is too big. You will look stupid talking on it, people will laugh at you, and you’ll be unhappy if you buy it. I really can’t get around this, unfortunately, because Samsung pushed things way too far this time.
But, but, it has a stylus.
The iPW (iPocketWatch) lets you wear your iPod Nano the old school way, on a chain, in the pocket.
Cool.
I have a feeling this will be popular.
Nice little tip from Melissa Holt.
Shares of Dell Inc fell more than 7 percent in premarket trading on Wednesday, after the world’s No.3 personal computer maker forecast weak sales for the current quarter.
The Verge:
Nightline has aired its report from Foxconn’s factories on ABC. In the report, host Bill Weir speaks directly to factory workers as well as their managers. You would think that this “unprecedented” look inside Apple factories would reveal much we didn’t know, but the show was relatively light on information.We’ve compiled a list of the most interesting facts in bullet points, but we’re left feeling like there wasn’t much meat on the bones of the 30-minute report.
I hope no one was expecting some kind of Mike Wallace “60 Minutes” explosive, rip-the-lid-off-the-industry kind of exposé.
Betabeat:
Markus Spiering, senior product manager for Flickr, is very happy to be making extensive changes to the Flickr interface, the first of which will roll out next week, as he explained in a meeting with Betabeat, Yahoo’s Jason Khoury, and Flickr.com, looking pretty on Mr. Spiering’s Macbook Air.The new photo view will hit on Feb. 28, Mr. Spiering said, and with it comes a new upload interface. Flickr’s uploading page now looks more like an app than a website. Goodbye, retro blue links. Hello, swoopy drag-and-drop.
I’ve used Flickr for years and am looking forward to the revamp. The interface is definitely long in the tooth.
Mashable:
A new kind of outdoor advertisement is being tested on Oxford Street in London’s West End. The interactive advertisement uses a high-definition camera to scan pedestrians and identify their gender before showing a specific ad. The built-in system has a 90% accuracy rate in analyzing a person’s facial features and determining if they’re male or female.Males won’t be able to see the full ad and will be directed to Plan UK’s website instead. The purpose of this was to show men “a glimpse of what it’s like to have basic choices taken away.”
This is the tip of the focused advertisement iceberg.
Twitter added swipe shortcut, copy and paste, link love and some other things.
PandoDaily:
Apple has a serious problem on their hands, and it is one they need to fix it as soon as possible. This is an issue that Apple’s biggest ally – iOS developers – are complaining about, one that hurts the user, and one that could end up damaging the iOS ecosystem more than any set of labor issues ever could.The issue we are facing, is the proliferation of scamming apps. Apple needs to take better care of its walled garden.