Apple has acquired the Toronto-based Locationary, a small Canadian startup, backed by Extreme Venture Partners and Plazacorp Ventures. Multiple sources familiar with the deal tell AllThingsD it closed recently and includes Locationary’s technology and team, both. The price of the acquisition couldn’t immediately be learned.
Software
Apple should lead the way to DRM-free books
Kirk McElhearn makes an interesting case for Apple leading the way to DRM-free books. I especially like the part about Steve Jobs’ open letter to music companies back in the day.
Bill Gates on the patent system: It works well
“My view is it’s working very well.”
WTF?
7 Hours of Logic Pro X video training
One day after its release and MacProVideo has posted more than 7 hours of videos on Logic Pro X.
Tumblr asks iOS users to update and change their password
We have just released a very important security update for our iPhone and iPad apps addressing an issue that allowed passwords to be compromised in certain circumstances¹. Please download the update now.
If you’ve been using these apps, you should also update your password on Tumblr and anywhere else you may have been using the same password.
That doesn’t sound good.
BBEdit 10.5.5
One of my favorite apps of all time.
New digitally signed Mac malware
A new piece of digitally signed spyware for Mac OS X uses a special Unicode character in its file name to hide its real file extension from users and trick them into installing it.
There’s no indication how widespread this is, or even if anyone besides the researcher has even downloaded it.
Apple releases Logic Pro X
I posted my full review this morning.
Review: Logic Pro X
The day many professional audio engineers, musicians and music-making fans have been waiting for is here—Apple released Logic Pro X. I spent some time with the Logic Pro X team and have been using the software myself in my studio, so I’d like to give you a rundown of the important changes.
Pro Tools 11 Explained
A new set of videos from Groove3 giving you the ins and outs of Pro Tools 11.
PDFpen [Sponsor]
PDFpen is the all-purpose PDF editor. Version 6 now includes Microsoft Word export, an editing bar for faster workflow, Retina graphics, and more.
If you work with PDFs, you need PDFpen, the multi-purpose PDF editor. PDFpen can make changes, fix typos, resize images, fill and save forms. It can perform OCR (optical character recognition) to digitize scanned documents as part of a paperless workflow. It can even redact sensitive information by removing it permanently and completely from a PDF.
Jim’s note: PDFpen saved me in the past, so I am a loyal user.
Google kills Latitude
Google Latitude will be retired on August 9th, 2013. Products being retired include Google Latitude in Google Maps for Android, Latitude for iPhone, the Latitude API, the public badge, the iGoogle Gadget, and the Latitude website at maps.google.com/latitude.
Pro Tools Keyboard Shortcuts
Every shortcut you ever wanted.
What Gmail knows about you
When Google hands over e-mail records to the government, it includes basic envelope information, or metadata, that reveals the names and e-mail addresses of senders and recipients in your account. The feds can then mine that information for patterns that might be useful in a law-enforcement investigation.
There is no such thing as privacy on the Internet.
Why Google Reader was shutdown
Marco Arment:
Google Reader is just the latest casualty of the war that Facebook started, seemingly accidentally: the battle to own everything.5 While Google did technically “own” Reader and could make some use of the huge amount of news and attention data flowing through it, it conflicted with their far more important Google+ strategy: they need everyone reading and sharing everything through Google+ so they can compete with Facebook for ad-targeting data, ad dollars, growth, and relevance.
Bingo!
Skyhook: Google bad mouthed us to Apple
In its court filings, Skyhook claims that “Having apparently disparaged Skyhook’s technology to Apple, Google proceeded to then launch the same Wi-Fi based location technology by infringing Skyhook’s patents.
That can’t be true, that would be evil and Google’s not evil. Right?
1Password talks Mavericks and iOS 7
1Password’s spokesman David Chartier offers an official non-confirmation of the company’s iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks efforts.
NetNewsWire RSS beta available
You can read Black Pixel’s thoughts on the beta or just go download it.
AOL has a Google Reader alternative
The more the merrier.
Resources for Mac and iOS developers
Good list from Dave Mark. So I guess you know one article that will be in the next issue of The Loop Magazine.
TechTool Pro
This utility has been around as long as I have.
Advertisers upset with Firefox for limiting tracking of users
The maker of the popular Firefox browser is moving ahead with plans to block the most common forms of Internet tracking, allowing hundreds of millions of users to eventually limit who watches their movements across the Web, company officials said Wednesday.
Firefox’s developers made the decision despite intense resistance from advertising groups, which have argued that tracking is essential to delivering well-targeted, lucrative ads that pay for many popular Internet services.
It should be the user’s decision. If they don’t mind, fine.
Facebook has 1 million active advertisers
Facebook Inc said on Tuesday it now has 1 million active advertisers globally who used the platform in the last 28 days, a milestone for the company that is seeking to revive its revenue growth.
That is just a mind-boggling number of active advertisers.
Adobe profits rise on strong Creative Cloud
Adobe Systems Inc, which makes the Photoshop and Acrobat software, reported a higher-than-expected adjusted quarterly profit as demand rose for the subscription-based version of its flagship software package.
Great news for Adobe. It seems clear they made the right decision going with Creative Cloud, even though not all users are behind it.
Chatology
If you use Messages or iChat, you probably know that searching messages to find important info from past chats can be frustrating. Perhaps you couldn’t find what you were looking for, or your Mac slowed down so much that you gave up.
Chatology makes it easy.
I’ve been testing this for the past few weeks and it really is easy to use. Finding messages couldn’t be easier.
Adobe updates Creative Cloud with new “CC” apps
Adobe has released the major updates to Creative Cloud apps it showed off in May at its MAX conference.
Google blames mobile users for Google Reader’s death
“As a culture we have moved into a realm where the consumption of news is a near-constant process,” says Richard Gingras, Senior Director, News & Social Products at Google. “Users with smartphones and tablets are consuming news in bits and bites throughout the course of the day — replacing the old standard behaviors of news consumption over breakfast along with a leisurely read at the end of the day.”
So Google moved to the more creepy Google Now and Google Plus. No thanks.
Bare Bones updates TextWrangler and BBEdit
New versions of BBEdit and TextWrangler are afoot.
Byword for iOS and Mac adds publishing to WordPress
I’ve been testing out Byword’s new blog features on The Loop and it works like a charm. This is great update.
MindNode mind mapping app for iOS and OS X [Sponsor]
MindNode is an easy to use and elegant mind mapping app for iOS and OS X. Whether you’re brainstorming for your next project, organizing your life, or taking notes during a meeting, MindNode lets you collect, structure, and expand your ideas. And integrated iCloud sharing means you always have your mind maps with you.
You can learn more about MindNode here.