Byword is one of my favorite Mac apps—I use it everyday. It was just updated with a number of improvements.

These are fascinating. Here’s the most shared ad. It’s called Dove Beauty Sketches, and it’s from ad agency Ogilvy Mather.

I’m not yet a Box user, but I can see the market niche this company serves. Clearly, they are growing, don’t see a reason this won’t continue. Unless Amazon decides to step on them.

The Safeplug from Pogoplug is a small, cheap (US$49) box you plug into your home router to create a Tor-driven instant proxy server, allowing computers on your network to act as an internet access go-between. The Safeplug also has an ad-blocker, which is disabled by default.

Safeplug is not a panacea for anonymity:

However, Mehmet Güneş, an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, who studies anonymity tools, says that users of the Safeplug will only remain truly obscure if they adjust their online behavior in other ways. “Tor provides unlinkability from source to destination, and people confuse that with anonymity,” he says. While using Tor people can easily leak identifying information via the Flash plug-in, other media add-ons, or through information they type or send, says Güneş.

And since the Safeplug uses Tor, that’ll slow down your access, too. Still, this seems like a real value to people determined to do everything they can to stay off the grid.

This evening, massive numbers of Xbox One consoles will arrive on gamers’ doorsteps. At midnight, many more gamers will queue in stores to get their hands on one. Seems an appropriate time to post this story about how Xbox Live came to be.

I will warn you. This story contains graphic Microsoftness. And it takes place, apparently, in a world where Apple does not exist. All that aside, if you are an Xbox fan, you’ll enjoy this.

Seva is a not-for-profit humanitarian foundation best known for their work restoring eyesight to over 3 million blind people suffering from cataract blindness. This is the story about how Steve helped them get their start.

Washington Post:

This has been a big week for Bitcoin. On Monday, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held the first-ever Congressional hearing on Bitcoin. Later in the day, the currency’s value reached an all-time high of more than $800.

That has left a lot of people scratching their heads. What’s Bitcoin? How do you use it? And why would anyone want to? Read on for answers.

Glad somebody asked.

In an interview with Larry King scheduled to run Thursday night, Bob Woodward talked about NSA leaker Edward Snowden. “I wish he’d come to me instead of others, particularly The Guardian, and I would have said to him ‘let’s not reveal who you are. Let’s make you a protected source and give me time with this data and let’s sort it out and present it in a coherent way,’ ” Woodward tells King.

In issue 15 of The Loop Magazine:

Matt Gemmell talks about letting go of distractions and interruptions that cause him to lose focus on what’s important; Kirk McElhearn investigates whether William Shakespeare was a real person or a name used by many different authors; Nick de Souza discusses how the iPad is helping in education in his article “Magical Lessons”; Chris Domico is reminded how a song can take you back in time in “Nostalgia”; and Jim Dalrymple reviews the iPad mini.

The Federal Communications Commission will propose allowing passengers to use their cellphones on airplanes, people familiar with the matter said.

While phone use would still be restricted during takeoff and landing, the proposal would lift an FCC ban on airborne calls and cellular data use by passengers once a flight reaches 10,000 feet, an FCC official said.

I will punch you in the face if you make a loud phone call next to me.

I like these. I use Field Notes all the time.

The $290 million verdict is nearly $100 million less than the $380 million Apple sought in the retrial, but far above the $53 million Samsung said it owed. In a series of seemingly desperate last-minute attempts to delay the verdict, Samsung first moved for a mistrial on racial grounds, and then asked Judge Koh to stay the case pending a possibly years-long reexamination of a key Apple patent.

Judge Koh denied both motions, and the new verdict brings Apple’s total award in the landmark patent dispute is $888 million.

Now just pay up scumbags.

The mission of WordPress.com is to democratize publishing. We’re inspired every day by the ways creators use our platform to bring their voices to the world. Unfortunately, we also see many cases of censorship aimed at WordPress.com authors and users.

[…]

These cases are both infuriating and increasingly common. While there are no legal consequences (like fines) under the DMCA for copyright abusers, there is a provision that allows victims of censorship (and their web hosts) to bring legal action against those who submit fraudulent DMCA notices. So today, we’ve joined with Oliver, Ivan, and Adam to take a small strike back at DMCA abuse. We’ve filed two lawsuits for damages under Section 512(f) of the DMCA, which allows for suits against those who “knowingly materially misrepresent” a case of copyright infringement.

Much respect WordPress people.

Federico Viticci wrote an in-depth article about why he left Chrome and returned to Safari on his iOS devices. One comment I’d like to add to his piece is about using Reading List. I’ve been using Safari’s built-in read later feature too and I kind of like it. I suppose it’s as much for the convenience of having my saved articles available across all devices as it is for the feature itself. I do use Instapaper and have the apps, but sometimes it’s just easier to have everything in one app.

How am I not in this?

Tim Curry is a bit of a recluse when it comes to his role in Rocky Horror. Which makes this interview all the rarer. Love this.

A public Wi-Fi access point is like a public restroom. All kinds of businesses along travel routes offer restrooms to bring in customers. They offer free Wi-Fi for the same reason. The fact is, finding Wi-Fi on the road has become a lot easier over the past ten years. You just have to know where to look for it.

It’s pretty easy to find a hotspot if you need it these days.

Fantastic pictures. Especially love that 1957 shot of Manhattan Beach. Used to live just a few blocks from there. If any of these places click for you, fun to pull up a map and compare what is to what used to be.

Walk into Macys’ Herald Square or Union Square store, a ShopKick notification arrives on your phone, and the marketing campaign kicks in.

Using technology Shopkick developed itself based on capabilities Apple built into its latest mobile software, customers with iPhones and even some Android handsets can have their Shopkick app “woken” up by a signal from Bluetooth transmitters when they enter the store, even if their phone is in sleep mode. As a customer who has opted in walks through the store, they might see special offers based on the products they are near, said Cyriac Roeding, Shopkick’s CEO.

Note the phrase “technology Shopkick developed itself”. This is iBeacon technology, but not Apple-made beacons.

Roeding said his transmitters, dubbed shopBeacons, were created based on a protocol embedded in Apple’s iOS 7 mobile operating software. Apple hasn’t broadly released the most recent version of iBeacon’s technical specifications.

There is so much to discover here. How will consumers react? Over time, will the notifications be seen as a benefit or marketing noise? Will this enhance the shopping experience? The potential is certainly there.

Know anyone with vision loss? Check out the video, perhaps this might be helpful to them. Love the advances being made in this field.

[Professional accountants: Avert your eyes; the following simplification could hurt.

Profit isn’t cash, it’s merely an increase in the value of your assets. Such increase can be illiquid. Profit is an accountant’s opinion. Cash is a fact.]

Fascinating article from Jean-Louis Gassée.

Jim and Dan talk about Sonic Port from Line 6, Mobile POD, using an iPad as a primary device, the Apple Store for iPad and the new generation of iOS 7 apps, Plex, The Bacon Method, and more.

Sponsored by Shopify (use code for % off), Squarespace (use code DANSENTME11 for 10% off), and Shutterstock (use code DANSENTME1113 for 25% off).

Studio Devil doesn’t have the glitz and glitter interface that other apps do, but when it comes to guitar tone, this app delivers. It’s one of my favorites.

Myrtle is stunning sounding and a visual treat. A perfect live mic for old-school stage vocal technique, she’s tuned to sound ideal from three inches to a foot away. She has a natural warmth of tone and crisp clarity that combine to make an extraordinarily natural sounding live mic.

This is a great looking handmade microphone. I haven’t heard it, so I don’t know about the quality.

MoneyWell for iPad is a full-featured personal finance app that gives you access to direct connect banking and the best proactive budgeting system available.

Too many changes in the new update to mention.

Dan Edwards is talking specifically about designers in his article, but his advice can be applied to all aspects of our lives.

I bet a lot of people will take advantage of this.