Core77:
Linda O’Keeffe, the former Creative Director of Metropolitan Home magazine, has assembled a photo-heavy tome called BRILLIANT: White in Design that “explores the full spectrum of colors and characteristics inherent in white, exploring how it is used and viewed in art, design, architecture and nature.”
Some beautiful stuff.
Siri, the voice response system built into the iPhone 4S, has inevitably drawn comparisons to HAL, the artificial intelligence on board the spaceship in 2001: A Space Odyssey. ThinkGeek is blurring that line by introducing the Iris 9000, a remote voice control module that looks like HAL.
IRIS 9000 won’t ship until next spring, but when it does, the $59.99 gadget will let you control your iPhone 4S from across the room. A cradle holds your iPhone 4S, and a “micro remote” triggers Siri with a button press. A built-in mic picks up your voice and triggers Siri up to 50 feet away.
Yes, it’s every sci-fi fan’s dream come true. One step closer to opening the pod bay doors.
kottke.org:
In ’79, when Joan, my fiancee and I were on a holiday in the British Virgin Islands, we were trying to catch a flight to Puerto Rico; but the local Puerto Rican scheduled flight was cancelled. The airport terminal was full of stranded passengers. I made a few calls to charter companies and agreed to charter a plane for $2000 to Puerto Rico. Cheekily leaving out Joan’s and my name, I divided the price by the remaining number of passengers, borrowed a blackboard and wrote: VIRGIN AIRWAYS: $39 for a single flight to Puerto Rico.
Brilliant.
Jason Gross:
With virtually every website, good UX design can be sectioned into three parts or events: introduction, consumption and reaction. Content is at the core, the meat of what the user is looking for, and on both sides of the content are events that are driven by a well-executed design.
This is what I tried to do with The Loop’s new design. Making a simple design that highlights the content is much more difficult than what I thought it would be.
GigaOM:
Netflix’s subscriber attrition in the wake of a price hike and separation of its streaming and DVD businesses is even greater than first thought. The company ended the quarter with 23.8 million subscribers in the third quarter, which is down 810,000 from the previous quarter.
Too bad. Netflix offers a great service and I don’t disagree with splitting off the DVD business. They haven’t communicated very well in the past few months, but I still hope they can make it out of this mess.
Dave Caolo:
iCloud’s Photo Stream feature is handy, in that it pushes photos shot with a compatible iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to Apple’s servers and then back to other authorized devices. It’s a hindrance for the same reason, in that my iPhone, iPad and Mac are now cluttered with space-hogging one-offs I shot for the sake of a tweet or a Facebook update.
I haven’t noticed this myself, but perhaps I just don’t take enough pictures for it to be a problem.
AirPort Utility for iOS is the perfect tool for configuring and troubleshooting Apple’s gear without having to lug a laptop around, but it needs to improve its handling of password storage.
When it comes to networking, Glenn is the man.
Over the weekend, Blizzard Entertainment revealed details about the next major installment of its long-running World of Warcraft game – Mists of Pandaria. No release date was offered (standard operating procedure for Blizzard, which won’t ship a product before it’s ready to go).
The Pandaren – a race of bipedal panda-like creatures – have been peripheral to Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft series since Warcraft III, the final installment of the original real-time strategy game series.
Other enhancements coming in Mists of Pandaria include a higher level cap, 90; new zones to explore; the addition of “Scenarios,” a flexible new type of Player vs. Everything (PvE) challenge that lets friends join up to achieve a common goal; Five-player time trial “challenge” modes in dungeons; a new “Pet Battles” mini game; and a new talent system.
In related news, Blizzard, which held its annual BlizzCon event over the weekend, announced a deal for gamers interested in pre-ordering its forthcoming dungeon crawl action adventure game Diablo III: players who sign up for an “Annual Pass” – a 12-month pass for World of Warcraft – will be able to download Diablo III for free.
Other announcements include a teaser cinematic for the forthcoming StarCraft II expansion pack Heart of the Swarm and the first official trailer for Blizzard DOTA, a custom game for StarCraft II inspired by the Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) custom map for Warcraft III.
Kara Swisher:
There were several reasons for the departure, which was amicable and has been planned for a while, sources said. They included Kittlaus’s family being in Chicago, a desire to take time off and an interest in brainstorming new entrepreneurial ideas.
From what I heard, Apple moved Siri along quite a bit since acquiring the company, so I think they have a good handle on the technology.
Sascha Vongehr:
Now it is not exactly news that Apple products are overpriced and of relatively low quality…
To prove his point he shows an iPhone 4S being dropped from shoulder height. I think the writer must have been dropped on his head from shoulder height.
Talking about Siri, Vongehr again shows how moronic he can be.
Customer: “Where do babies come from?” Instead of perhaps answering “sorry, I do not understand this question”, which is likely what happened in this case, Siri suggests two JCPenny Stores. You get the gist – this is nothing but aimed advertising wherever possible.
Our state-of-the-art interactive map allows you to see which trucks are in your area RIGHT NOW. You can also search for your favorite trucks by cuisine, and hear about new trucks.
One of the best things about New York City is the food, and that rarely means fancy restaurants for me. I’ll definitely have this app to find truck food the next time I’m in the city.
Tumult Hype lets you create animated HTML5 content that will wow your website’s visitors. Its output works on all modern browsers and mobile devices like iPhones and iPads. No coding necessary.
Tumult Hype has a trial available, and can be purchased on the Mac App Store or its own Tumult Store for $29.99.
Apple on Monday updated its MacBook Pro line of notebook computers, adding faster processors and graphics cards.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro now comes with 2.4GHz and 2.8GHz processors, up from 2.3GHz and 2.7GHz in the previous models. The hard drives on these models have also been bumped from 320GB and 500GB to 500GB and 750GB, respectively.
The 15-inch models now feature 2.2GHz and 2.4GHz processors, replacing the 2.0GHz and 2.2GHz processors in the previous models. The graphics cards have also been updated in the 15-inch models — the base model now comes with an AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 512MB GDDR5, while the higher-end model has an AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 1GB GDDR5. The older models used the AMD Radeon HD 6490M and the AMD Radeon HD 6750M.
The new 17-inch MacBook Pro comes with a 2.4GHz processor and the AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 1GB GDDR5, replacing the 2.2GHz processor and AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 1GB GDDR5.
My copy of Steve Jobs biography was delivered to my iPhone and iPad a short time ago. I pre-ordered it a couple of weeks ago.
Apple made the video of its celebration for Steve Jobs available from its Web site. It’s about 80 minutes long.
My friend Anthony Stauffer is celebrating his fourth anniversary of running his blues-based guitar Web site, StevieSnacks.com.
Stauffer is one of the best blues guitar teachers I’ve come across on the Internet. He delves into the legends like B.B. King, Albert King and of course, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and teaches you everything from the basics to more advanced playing.
Stauffer has lessons available online and DVD, including a new offering called B.B.’s Influence.
Congrats Anthony!
CNN:
People describe the app using female pronouns. Her gender has even prompted some users to flood blogs and online forums with sexually suggestive questions for Siri such as “What are you wearing?” (Siri’s baffled response: “Why do people keep asking me this?”)The fuss over Siri’s sex also raises a larger question: From voice-mail systems to GPS devices to Siri and beyond, why are so many computerized voices female?
Siri isn’t universally female, either – Siri’s voice is male in its British and French implementations.
Apple, for its part, isn’t saying why Siri’s apparent gender assignment is as it is. But experts suggest that people are hard-wired to find female voices more pleasing than male voices, and many associate female voices with communication and relationships.
Walter Isaacson recounting a conversation with Steve Jobs about an Apple HDTV
“‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’”
For those that had doubts that Apple was working on an HDTV. Of course, it doesn’t mean we’ll ever see one, but they worked on it.
With SoundCloud baked into Pro Tools 10, audio producers from all fields can share their sounds privately with collaborators for feedback or share polished works to the world. Throughout the creative process, Pro Tools and SoundCloud make audio production and promotion easier.
This is a great move for both companies.
With the iPhone 3GS now available for free with new cell phone contracts, are people still interested in the aging device? After all, the 3GS has been on the market for more than two years, eclipsed by the iPhone 4 and, most recently, the 4S. Turns out the answer is an emphatic yes, according to AT&T.
AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega said in a statement that the iPhone 4S is selling like hotcakes. But in a discussion with analysts to talk about AT&T’s most recent financial report, de la Vega is also very positive about the contributions Apple’s iPhone 3GS continues to make to his company’s bottom line.
In a Q&A with analysts, de la Vega said:
I also mentioned in my notes that we have another device that I think is going to dramatically change those people that are on smartphones and quick messaging devices, the 3GS, which is free with a 2-year contract. We’ve seen a tremendous, tremendous demand for that device even though it’s a generation old. And actually, we’re getting more new subscribers coming on the 3GS on the average than other devices. So we also have an inventory sold out on that device. So I’m very, very optimistic on what the fourth quarter is going to look like in terms of smartphone growth.
Nielsen’s infographic of the most valuable digital consumers.
Jeff Sonderman for Poynter:
Since Apple launched it last week in the latest version of its iOS operating system, its impact has been immediate and significant. Many Newsstand apps now rank among the top free apps overall, and magazine and newspaper apps are benefiting from a surge of downloads and subscribers.
And some people said the App Store wouldn’t impact magazine and newspaper subscriptions at all.
MacProVideo:
The Clip-Based Gain feature in Pro Tools 10 provides a much quicker and visually appealing solution. Using the clip gain line you’re able to adjust the gain for individual clips and match their relative levels. You’ll notice right away how the waveform view updates in real-time to reflect the clip gain changes. Very impressive!
There are some great looking features in Pro Tools 10 — this is just one of them.
A fun read for a Friday.
I’d like to thank Smile and PDFpen for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed on The Loop.
PDFpen is a great application for editing your PDFs. You can add signatures to PDFs and email them back, instead of resorting to printing and faxing. You can even make corrections and edit images. There’s also OCR for scanned documents — essential for those going paperless.
Download a fully-functional demo of PDFpen. At $59.95, it’s the affordable alternative to Acrobat.
An excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s book looking at a meeting between Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt:
“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” Jobs said. “I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”“I don’t want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won’t want it. I’ve got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want.”
Avid on Thursday unveiled the next major version of its digital audio workstation, Pro Tools.
The company updated its Web site tonight with all of the information on Pro Tools 10, and there certainly looks like there’s a lot to be excited about.
Some of the new features are:
I’ll post a more detailed look at Pro Tools 10 when I’ve had a chance to use it myself.
I’m asked to test quite a bit of software and give feedback to the developers. Sometimes that goes well, others times, not so well.
To me, making an app simple to use — whether on the iPhone, iPad or Mac — doesn’t mean stripping out all of the features. All that does is make the app less useful for the user.
Rather, making an app simple to use is about hiding all of the complicated pieces of the app in a way that the user can get things done easily and quickly. That way features, and the end result of those features, seem almost magical.
Of course, apps like Photoshop and Pro Tools can’t do this for everything because we want that control, but in recent years, even these apps are including some of these types of features.
Consumerist:
Reader Matt tells the story of how an Apple store manager broke a little rule so as not to dash the hopes of his 10-year-old daughter, and, in the process, made a little bit of retail magic happen.
A really sweet story about a girl who wanted an iPod when the Apple Store was closed, and the Apple Store manager who helped make it happen.
(Hat tip: Curious Rat)
2011 marks the 30th anniversary of Blizzard Of Ozz (U.S. release) and Diary Of A Madman. Both landmark albums took metal in a new direction in the early 1980’s, inspiring new generations of rock bands and fans. Both of these Hard Rock Masterpieces showcase Ozzy’s musical collaborations with late guitar hero Randy Rhoads. These Limited Edition Picture Disc LPs have been restored and remastered from the original source tapes and feature the original cover artwork printed on the LP itself.
Two classic albums with Randy Rhoads on guitar.