Universal Audio’s Fuchs Overdrive Supreme 50 Amplifier

An homage to the lusted after, utterly mysterious Dumble Overdrive Special, the Fuchs Overdrive Supreme 50 Amplifier caught on with players nearly two decades ago, delivering smooth, complex overdrive, and deep, three-dimensional clean tones with endless headroom.

This new Brainworx amp plug-in made for Universal Audio sounds outstanding. I got it last night and will be giving it a go over the next few days. Watch the video and take a listen to the sound samples. Amazing.

Retirees knit tiny sweaters to warm backyard chickens

When a group of Boston retirees learned that their feathered next-door neighbours were too cold to lay eggs, they busted out their needles and got to work.

I had to post this, I just had to. Much respect.

Winclone 6: The best way to Migrate and Backup your Boot Camp Partition

My thanks to Twocanoes Software for sponsoring The Loop with Winclone 6 this week.

Winclone is the award-winning Mac app used to backup, clone, restore, and migrate Windows installed on your Boot Camp partition. Winclone 6 adds in a bunch of new features, including full compatibility with the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros, ability to mount your Boot Camp partition as a writable volume, a fresh new look and much more.

Get 50% off all editions of Winclone 6 this week with coupon code THELOOP

Universal Audio updates software, releases new plug-ins

Universal Audio updated its Apollo software and also released a number of new plug-ins including:

  • SSL 4000 E Channel Strip Collection
  • Moog Multimode Filter Collection
  • OTO BISCUIT 8-bit Effects
  • Fuchs Overdrive Supreme 50 Amplifier
  • Brainworx bx_subsynth Subharmonic Synth

You can download the update from their Web site.

Apple hires security expert Jonathan Zdziarski

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve accepted a position with Apple’s Security Engineering and Architecture team, and am very excited to be working with a group of like minded individuals so passionate about protecting the security and privacy of others.

This decision marks the conclusion of what I feel has been a matter of conscience for me over time. Privacy is sacred; our digital lives can reveal so much about us – our interests, our deepest thoughts, and even who we love. I am thrilled to be working with such an exceptional group of people who share a passion to protect that.

Daylite: Business Productivity App for Teams on Mac & iOS

My thanks to Marketcircle for sponsoring The Loop with Daylite this week.

Still digging through emails and passing around spreadsheets & notes? There’s a better way to manage leads & projects – with Daylite.

Daylite streamlines your lead management & project management process so you can win more business & get more done.

Integrate directly with Apple Mail to organize emails for clients, projects, and sales opportunities. Track your sales pipeline and set reminders when to follow up. Share projects, schedules, and tasks with others on your team – from your Mac or iPhone/iPad.

Whether you’re a sales team, real estate firm, or lawyer, Daylite can help you win more business and get more done.

Try Daylite free for 30 days!

The Corel Painter 2017 software bundle

It’s the Digital Artist’s Dream Bundle: Corel Painter 2017, AfterShot 3, ParticleShop, & Over 10 Hours of Corel-Approved Training.

The bundle would cost $768 is bought separately, but it’s on for $248.

Airbnb raises $1 billion in funding

Online room renting service Airbnb Inc said on Thursday it had raised $1 billion in its latest round of funding, valuing the company at $31 billion.

Investors clearly believe the company will overcome all of the issues its having with cities putting restrictions on rentals.

Head of Uber’s AI labs leaves company

Gary Marcus, a research scientist who joined Uber four months ago as director of its AI labs, is leaving the company, according to sources. Uber bought Marcus’ startup, Geometric Intelligence, in December, using its 15 employees to form a new artificial intelligence unit.

No word on where he’s going, but I wondered if he’s going to Didi with the others.

Why women in tech aren’t surprised by the Uber saga

Imagine reading a woman’s story about being denied a team reward because she’s in the female minority, or a story about a sexual harassment complaint being dismissed by an HR manager, and thinking, “That sounds about right.” Or reading a follow-up story in The New York Times about inappropriate groping at work parties and saying to yourself, “That’s not surprising.”

We have to be better than this.

Apple backed Didi has opened a self-driving lab in California

Didi, China’s largest ride-hail player, is getting serious about self-driving cars. The company, which acquired Uber’s China assets in August 2016, today is opening an artificial intelligence lab right in the backyard of many of its self-driving competitors in Mountain View, Calif.

They poached some good people from their competitors too.

Lamborghini open to all-electric supercar

Lamborghini is open to an all-electric addition to its line-up of luxury sports cars, its chief executive said on Wednesday, evidence that German parent Volkswagen’s interest in producing zero-emission vehicles could extend to the very top end of its brands.

I think it’s safe to say that all manufacturers are working on electric models, especially those owned by Volkswagen.

Amazon drops case for Alexa’s First Amendment rights

Amazon has abandoned its legal battle to protect its Alexa assistant with First Amendment rights — for now at least. The company filed a motion against a police search warrant in an Arkansas murder case earlier this month, but has now dropped the case after the defendant agreed to hand over the data contained on his Echo speaker to police.

Clearly, this will come up again.

eMate 300 turns 20

Stephen Hackett put together some links celebrating the eMate’s birthday. I’ll be honest, I forgot all about this product.

Porsche looks at all-electric SUV, hybrid 911

Porsche may offer an all-electric version of its Macan compact SUV and could turn models such as the iconic 911 into hybrids, its sales chief said on Tuesday, amid a push by parent company Volkswagen to move on from dieselgate.

I understand this is where the industry is going, but there’s just something about the roar of a Porsche engine that gets my heart pumping.

Self-driving bus being tested in San Francisco

A pair of $250,000 autonomous buses began driving around an empty San Francisco Bay Area parking lot on Monday, preparing to move onto a local public road in California’s first pilot program for a self-driving vehicle without steering wheel or human operator.

I’m not convinced the technology is ready yet, but okay.

Daylite: Business Productivity App for Teams on Mac & iOS [Sponsor]

Still digging through emails and passing around spreadsheets & notes? There’s a better way to manage leads & projects – with Daylite.

Daylite streamlines your lead management & project management process so you can win more business & get more done.

Integrate directly with Apple Mail to organize emails for clients, projects, and sales opportunities. Track your sales pipeline and set reminders when to follow up. Share projects, schedules, and tasks with others on your team – from your Mac or iPhone/iPad.

Whether you’re a sales team, real estate firm, or lawyer, Daylite can help you win more business and get more done.

Try Daylite free for 30 days!

Apple will begin accepting WWDC scholarship applications on March 27

WWDC Scholarships reward talented students and STEM organization members with the opportunity to attend this year’s conference. Developers selected for a scholarship will receive a WWDC17 ticket and lodging free of charge.

Instructions for submitting your application are on Apple’s Web site.

My favorite guitar pick

The guitar, strings, amp, and even the picks all have a part to play in how comfortable you feel playing guitar. I’ve used these picks for over a decade now. They are strong enough to do pinch harmonics and I can get a good grip on them. I bet I have hundreds of them in my guitar room.

Transform your acoustic’s piezo pickup into a multi-miked acoustic

The Wood Works plug-in for UAD-2 and Apollo interfaces gives you exceptional studio microphone sound from any piezo-equipped acoustic guitar. Now you can easily track multi-dimensional acoustic tones in real time — even in situations that would challenge physical microphones.

Oh my, this looks incredible.

Trying out the Google Wifi Mesh network

Like many people I’m using Apple’s Airport base stations (I’m running two of them) in my home to provide wireless coverage. Again, like many people covering all the areas that I need a signal has proven to be difficult, so I started looking for solutions—the one I’m considering strongly is Google Wifi. […]

Spotify reaches 50 million paid subscribers

Spotify this afternoon announced that it has hit a new milestone, reaching a total of 50 million paying subscribers. That’s up from 40 million in September, suggesting Spotify is growing at a rapid pace despite the surging popularity of Apple Music.

I wonder where all of these people are coming from. Are the Tidal and Pandora users or are they new users that have never used streaming services before? Clearly, there’s still a lot of growth in the streaming business.

Spotify testing lossless audio versions for some users

Spotify is preparing to launch a lossless audio version of its streaming service, according to multiple sources. The offering, which is currently called Spotify Hi-Fi, will offer lossless CD-quality audio to users — similar to what Tidal offers in its Hi-Fi service.

I’m interested to see what the response will be to this service. Lossless isn’t something Apple ever seemed to be keen to offer users, but they may be forced into it if Spotify’s becomes popular.

Amazon S3 disruption was caused by human error

The Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) team was debugging an issue causing the S3 billing system to progress more slowly than expected. At 9:37AM PST, an authorized S3 team member using an established playbook executed a command which was intended to remove a small number of servers for one of the S3 subsystems that is used by the S3 billing process. Unfortunately, one of the inputs to the command was entered incorrectly and a larger set of servers was removed than intended. The servers that were inadvertently removed supported two other S3 subsystems.

It’s good that Amazon got to the bottom of this and let all of its customers know exactly what happened.