The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (The MADE) has kicked off a fundraising campaign through Kickstarter.com. We at The Loop are bringing it to readers’ attention because The Loop’s executive editor, Peter Cohen, is on The MADE’s advisory board – this project is very close to our hearts. (more…)
Apple has posted an update to iWeb bringing the new version to 3.0.3. It’s available through the Software Update system preference or from the Web site. (more…)
Here’s an interesting tidbit of news. Joshua Schnell noticed today that if you paste an App Store link into the Twitter Web site, it will populate your tweet with information from the app on iTunes. Kind of cool that they did that because often times those links don’t mean very much.
It’s going to be super handy knowing what you’re clicking on before you click on it. My next question, how long will it be until we see Twitter doing this with RSS, and other text/web based links?
App Store apps come to Twitter’s website [Macgasm]
The first apps featuring Apple’s new subscription model are available on the App Store. (more…)
Apple recently began contacting MacBook Air owners, asking them a series of questions about syncing and 3G data usage. (more…)
Last week Apple updated its bookstore and reading app, iBooks. Among the changes is the ability to detect jailbroken iPhones. (more…)
Valve founder Gabe Newell says his company is more profitable per employee than either Apple or Google, according to a recent profile in Forbes. An analyst pegs Valve’s 2010 revenue in the “high hundreds of millions of dollars” (a privately-held company, Valve doesn’t release public financial reports).
“Valve announced last October that it was on track for its biggest year ever, with 200% year-over-year growth. Newell says that, per employee, Valve is more profitable than Google and Apple.”
Valve makes video games like Portal and Half-Life 2, but is perhaps best known to gamers for its hugely popular online game download service Steam. Valve made quite a splash with Mac gamers in 2010, finally bringing its games – and opening Steam – to Mac users. Now the company puts Mac users on equal footing with its new game releases, and encourages Steam publishing partners to do the same.
The Master of Online Mayhem [Forbes.com]
On Tuesday, Apple officially took the wraps off a new digital subscription service aimed at newspapers, magazines, video and music services that offer pay-to-play content through apps available on its popular App Store. (more…)
We’ve all seen the funny ways auto-corrected texts have played havoc with people’s conversations, but one strange text didn’t turn out so funny. (more…)
Valve Software on Monday announced that Portal 2, the sequel to its award-winning action game for Mac, PC and other platforms, is now available for pre-order. The game is expected to ship on April 18, 2011. Mac users can pre-order it through Valve’s Steam online game service for $44.99; it will also be included on the DVD version to be sold in stores. (more…)
One of the men responsible for the early successes of Facebook has returned to the company. (more…)
There has been a lot of speculation about what Apple will do with its MobileMe service and while the majority of the rumors claim it will be based on cloud storage, I don’t think anyone has quite nailed it yet. (more…)
Train on Sunday made history for Apple as the band accepted a Grammy award for “Hey, Soul Sister.” (more…)
Gamers looking for a serious smartphone may be interested in Sony Ericsson’s newly unveiled Xperia Play, a Google Android-based phone that will be hitting store shelves in the US in March, via Verizon Wireless. (more…)
AT&T is continuing to do what it can to make sure it keeps as many iPhone customers as possible. (more…)
Steve Jobs may be on medical leave but Apple’s CEO is still involved in the decision making at the company. (more…)
Wolfire Games is rejoicing at the discovery that the “counterfeit” version of its game Lugaru has disappeared from the shelves of the Mac App Store. (more…)
Feral Interactive has released a playable demo version of LEGO Harry Potter, now available for download through Feral’s Web site. (more…)
The latest Apple rumors to make the rounds suggests that the company is working on cheaper iPhone designs to compete with the wider variety of Android handsets hitting the market. (more…)
In a joint statement, Nokia and Microsoft announced Nokia will henceforth adopt Windows Phone 7 as its “primary smartphone strategy.” The two companies are seeking strategies that will keep them relevant in the smartphone market as Apple and Android continue to march towards domination. (more…)
I think we all knew that there would be some changes to the iPhone 4 CDMA model (besides the obvious chip differences). Well, it seems that technology comes at a cost. In a recent teardown and cost analysis, iSuppli says the new iPhone 4 is cheaper to manufacture than the GSM model.
The latest version of the iPhone 4 carries a BOM of $171.35, down from $187.51 for the previous model, based on a preliminary pricing estimate issued in June. When manufacturing expenses are added, the total production cost for the CDMA iPhone 4 amounts to $178.45.
Apple Reduces Build Cost of CDMA iPhone With Design Tweaks [Mac Rumors]
Marco Arment’s Instapaper is a great service. I like it so much, I pay the nominal $3 monthly subscription fee to make sure Marco has some income and can keep developing it. Not that my $3 feeds his family, but if enough of us do it… you get the picture. (more…)
It seems really crazy to be talking — or even thinking about — the iPad 3, but here we are. (more…)
iPhone cases are everywhere. You can find them in the Apple Stores, online, Walmart, Best Buy and almost every other store you can think of. Like most businesses, making cases is a hit and miss market — if you have a hit, you make up for a case that doesn’t do so well. One maker even compared it to the music industry.
Erik Attkisson, chief marketing officer for manufacturer Case-Mate compares his business to the music industry. “For us, this is a hit-driven business,” he says. “Not every one of these cases that we invest in is going to pay off for us. That means we’re going to have some significant losses at times that must be covered by successes.”
The Quest for Phone ‘It’ Look [WSJ.com]
German researchers say they have been able to reveal passwords stored in the iPhone’s Keychain while the device is still locked. (more…)
Some Silicon Valley software engineers seem to have forgotten the first rule of “Fight Club” — “you don’t talk about Fight Club.” (more…)
HP on Wednesday announced a number of new products, including a tablet to compete with Apple, but the company had one more surprise up its sleeve — a new hire. (more…)
Apple’s CEO is apparently in good spirits as he was spotted on the company’s Cupertino, Calif. campus. (more…)
Apple on Wednesday updated its book store and reading app, iBooks. (more…)
Dell is not exactly firing on all cylinders these days as it discontinues another product that was to compete with Apple. (more…)