If you plan to get one of Apple’s new products, they are available for pre-order now.

• iPhone 8/iPhone 8 Plus
• Apple TV 4K
• Apple Watch Series 3

Second, what kind of sociopaths are these people that they want to put mom-and-pop corner stores and bodegas out of business?

Yeah, “fuck these guys.”

Thanks to Hullo for sponsoring the Loop this week. Your pitiful old squishy pillow needs constant readjustment. It’s invariably too thick, too thin, sometimes just too warm. Flipping, folding and fluffing are getting in the way of your rest. You … Continued

The theory is that Siri can’t provide as much of a personal experience for its users because privacy is so important to Apple. Not so, says Apple:

“I think it is a false narrative,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s VP of product marketing. “It’s true that we like to keep the data as optimized as possible, that’s certainly something that I think a lot of users have come to expect, and they know that we’re treating their privacy maybe different than some others are.”

And

Joswiak argues that Siri can be every bit as helpful as other assistants without accumulating a lot of personal user data in the cloud, as companies like Facebook and Google are accustomed to doing. “We’re able to deliver a very personalized experience . . . without treating you as a product that keeps your information and sells it to the highest bidder. That’s just not the way we operate.”

BOOM!

More than two dozen lawsuits have been filed in the United States against Equifax Inc (EFX.N) after the credit reporting company said thieves may have stolen personal information for 143 million Americans in one of the largest hackings ever.

Equifax is in for a world of hurt.

Both Gruber and the BBC confirmed the iOS 11 GM came from an Apple employee. I don’t know how a person can accept a paycheck from a company and then turn around and screw them like this. They betrayed Apple and every single other person in the company.

Thanks to Jamf Now for sponsoring The Loop this week. Jamf Now is an on-demand mobile device management solution for the iPads, iPhones and Macs in your workplace. We make device management simple and affordable for everyone, so businesses can support their users; no IT required. Manage your first three devices for free and add more for just $2 per device per month. Get started for free today!

Authorities said Brett Kennedy gave fellow University of Washington alumnus Maziar Rezakhani nonpublic information from Amazon’s database, showing that the retailer would lose less money and report higher revenue for the first quarter of 2015 than Wall Street expected, in exchange for $10,000 cash.

Oh my.

And

Rezakhani, also 28, pleaded guilty in July 2016 to mail fraud, bank fraud and filing a false tax return after being accused of defrauding Apple Inc AAPL.O, a small bank and various shippers in connection with his iPhone resale business.

This guy is crooked in everything he does.

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) launched a search on Wednesday for asset managers to take care of the money as it is held in escrow while the Government and Apple appeal a 2016 European Commission decision that Apple received €13 billion in illegal state aid in the decade to 2014.

This is going to be an incredibly long process, so the money needs to be managed wisely.

After fears that Apple’s developer site may have been hacked earlier today, the company said tonight that there was no security breach. Apple emailed the following statement to The Loop: […]

Apple’s Developer site has been down for a couple of hours now, and while it originally seemed like the outage was related to maintenance, a few reports trickling in from developers suggests there could potentially be another cause.

Several developers are reporting that all of their developer account addresses have been updated with an address in Russia, perhaps indicating some kind of breach or serious internal error. According to multiple developer reports, their accounts list a Russian address instead of their correct address.

We’ve reached out to Apple for comment.

Jamf Now is an on-demand mobile device management solution for the iPads, iPhones and Macs in your workplace. We make device management simple and affordable for everyone, so businesses can support their users; no IT required. Manage your first three devices for free and add more for just $2 per device per month. Get started for free today!

The Yankees, who had long been suspicious of the Red Sox stealing catchers’ signs in Fenway Park, contended the video showed a member of the Red Sox training staff looking at his Apple Watch in the dugout and then relaying a message to players, who may have then been able to use the information to know the type of pitch that was going to be thrown, according to the people familiar with the case.

Stealing signs has always been a part of the game, but the Red Sox were very innovative in using technology here. Not that the Red Sox did anything wrong—all Boston teams are the greatest. I can’t wait for hockey!

I read this article this morning from The New York Times about how Apple wasn’t creating working class jobs in the U.S. Then I got to the end of the article and there was a correction:

An earlier version of this article misstated a difference between Apple today and Kodak decades ago. Apple, like Kodak, has created tens of thousands of working-class jobs; it has not failed to do so.

So they admit in the correction that Apple did create tens of thousands of working-class jobs, which fundamentally undermines what they were trying to say throughout the entire article.

Stranded outside in the rising waters of Hurricane Harvey, feverish and in great pain, 14-year-old Tyler Frank tried desperately to think of ways to get herself and her family to safety.

Calling 911 didn’t work. Begging for help on Facebook and Instagram failed, too. “I was like, ‘Siri’s smart enough! Let me ask her!’ ” Tyler said.

And indeed, Siri was smart enough. With one inquiry to the Apple personal assistant — “Siri, call the Coast Guard” — Tyler got her whole family rescued after two days out in the storm.

I don’t even know what to say. Wow.

Apple Inc has transferred responsibility for Siri, its voice assistant, from content chief Eddy Cue to operating systems chief Craig Federighi, a sign that the company is looking to embed the voice assistant more deeply into its core systems amid rising competition from Alphabet Inc’s Google and Amazon.com Inc.

This makes perfect sense.

Jason Snell joins me this week to discuss the Apple event scheduled for September 12 and what could be released. 

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Thanks to Bombich Software for sponsoring The Loop this week. Bombich Software has released Carbon Copy Cloner 5, an upgrade to its bootable backup software for macOS. The upgrade features scheduled task grouping and sorting, guided setup and restore, task history trend charts, a health check for backups, advanced file filtering, and includes hundreds of improvements and fixes.

Carbon Copy Cloner 5 requires macOS 10.10 or later and will be compatible with APFS and Apple’s macOS 10.13 High Sierra release this autumn. A full-featured thirty day trial version is available.

Carbon Copy Cloner is an app that I’ve used for years, in fact, since it was first released. The new version goes a long way to make the software easier to use, while still adding more advanced features.

You can get 15% off Carbon Copy Cloner until September 3 by using the code LOOPINSIGHT at checkout.

Apple on Thursday announced an event which will be held at the Steve Jobs Theater located at the company’s new Apple Park campus. The event will take place on September 12 at 10:00 am.

The Expression Photo XP-8500 delivers sharp, professional-quality, borderless photos up to 8” x 10”, and 4″ x 6″ in as fast as 10 seconds. Leveraging six-color Claria Photo HD inks photo output features smooth gradations and accurate skin tones. As a powerful and versatile printing and scanning solution, the Expression Photo XP-8500 offers a range of productivity features, including built-in USB and memory card slots for PC-free printing, dedicated photo and CD/DVD printing trays, and a rear paper feed for specialty media.

You can also print directly from your iPhone and iPad.

Apple and Accenture are partnering to help businesses transform how their people engage with customers through innovative business solutions for iOS. The partnership will take full advantage of the power, simplicity and security of iOS, the leading enterprise mobility platform, and Accenture’s capabilities as a leader in industry and digital transformation to help companies unlock new revenue streams, increase productivity, improve customer experience and reduce costs.

For more than 30 years, the Studer A800 Multichannel Tape Recorder and Ampex ATR-102 Mastering Tape Recorder have endured as the world’s most sought-after professional tape recording machines. As two sides of a legendary mixing/mastering coin, the fabled “Studer and Ampex” combination provides the ideal qualities of warmth, presence, cohesion, and low-end punch that only genuine tape can provide.

This is a great video showing how these plug-ins can change your mix. I use these two in my mixes.

Learn Ulysses is an online course that will quickly teach you how to get up and running with Ulysses — the best writing app out there for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. (We dive into the power-user features, too.)

This course was made by Shawn Blanc for The Sweet Setup.

Bombich Software has released Carbon Copy Cloner 5, an upgrade to its bootable backup software for macOS. The upgrade features scheduled task grouping and sorting, guided setup and restore, task history trend charts, a health check for backups, advanced file filtering, and includes hundreds of improvements and fixes.

Carbon Copy Cloner 5 requires macOS 10.10 or later and will be compatible with APFS and Apple’s macOS 10.13 High Sierra release this autumn. A full-featured thirty day trial version is available.

Carbon Copy Cloner is an app that I’ve used for years, in fact, since it was first released. The new version goes a long way to make the software easier to use, while still adding more advanced features.

You can get 15% off Carbon Copy Cloner until September 3 by using the code LOOPINSIGHT at checkout.

The NYPD has to scrap the 36,000 smartphones it gave cops over the past two years because they’re already obsolete and can’t be upgraded, The Post has learned.

The city bought Microsoft-based Nokia smartphones as part of a $160 million NYPD Mobility Initiative that Mayor Bill de Blasio touted as “a huge step into the 21st century.”

But just months after the last phone was handed out, officials plan to begin replacing them all with brand-new iPhones by the end of the year, sources said.

It’s baffling that the NYPD went with the Microsoft-based phones in the first place. It was a costly mistake, but at least they’re making the right choice now.

Apple today announced plans to build a 400,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art data center in Waukee, Iowa, to better serve North American users of iMessage, Siri, the App Store and other Apple services. Like all Apple data centers, the new facility will run entirely on renewable energy from day one.

“At Apple, we’re always looking at ways to deliver even better experiences for our customers. Our new data center in Iowa will help serve millions of people across North America who use Siri, iMessage, Apple Music and other Apple services — all powered by renewable energy,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Apple is responsible for 2 million jobs in all 50 states and we’re proud today’s investment will add to the more than 10,000 jobs we already support across Iowa, providing even more economic opportunity for the community.”

Much respect, Apple.

Samsung is working on a smart speaker that will be launched “soon”, the company’s mobile chief told CNBC, which will pit it against the likes of Amazon, Apple, and Google, in the hotly-contested space.

Of course you are.

Uber Technologies Inc reported on Wednesday that its losses narrowed in the second quarter by 9 percent and ride bookings rose, but the company is still a long way from being profitable.

Damn.

Now when you search for “depression” on Google on mobile, you’ll see a Knowledge Panel that will give you the option to tap “check if you’re clinically depressed”, which will bring you to PHQ-9, a clinically validated screening questionnaire to test what your likely level of depression may be. To ensure that the information shared in the PHQ-9 questionnaire is accurate and useful, we have partnered with the National Alliance on Mental Illness on this announcement.