We updated The Loop Magazine today fixing a few bugs including:
It’s available as a free update on the App Store.
Tribus is a simple and addictive game for players of all ages.
Cool, simple game for puzzle lovers
Peter Cohen for iMore:
It was a long road to OS X 10.9 Mavericks. Mac OS X was first introduced as a public beta (codenamed Kodiak) in September of 2000, and beta it was – a radical departure from Mac OS 9, both in look (introducing the “Aqua” interface) and in operation. Mac OS X was built on a UNIX foundation, and was more closely related to the NextStep operating system that had been developed by NeXT, the computing company Steve Jobs founded between stints running Apple.
This brought back some memories.
I love my Slingbox. I use it every time I travel.
Revolution 60 is a breakthrough game for iPad, using the strength of the touch interface to tell a short, intense story. It features gorgeous animations using the Unreal engine and has gameplay that is accessible to the casual iOS user. It is fully voice acted, starring anime legend Amanda Winn-Lee of Evangelion.
It’s amazing what developers are doing with games on the iPad. This doesn’t come out for a few months, but watch the video.
BlissList is an iPhone app that enables you to buy from all stores in one central place, with just one account.
While social shopping hubs such as Pinterest and Wanelo do a great job of helping you discover products from different stores, they require you to go to each store’s site to buy those products. What stands between you and the perfect pair of jeans and shoes is that you have to go through a painful, multi-step checkout process at different stores. Not to mention, the inconsistent buying process between stores and the small canvas of a mobile phone make you want to tear your hair out. BlissList eliminates all these hassles by providing a centralized and convenient way for you to buy the products you want. With BlissList you can add any product from any store and securely check out in one place, so your credit card is not all over the web. Additionally, you can connect with your friends for social funding for your products. BlissList is free and there are no service fees or price markups. Buy your shoes and keep your hair. Download BlissList on the App Store.
BlackBerry has given up trying to sell itself on the open market, instead turning to debt sale to keep the doors open.
The company said that rather than bid for the company, Fairfax Financial will lead a group of investors pouring $1 billion into the troubled handset maker with its CEO Prem Watsa, becoming lead director. Former Sybase CEO John Chen will serve as interim CEO and executive chairman once the investment is completed, which BlackBerry said should be within the next two weeks.
This is a useful starting point if your company does not yet have an anti-hacking security procedure in place. Even if you know every one of these, odds are good that there are plenty of folks you know who have never given these steps a first thought, let alone a second.
Any suggestions for additions/changes to the list?
This test used an iPad Air purely as a hotspot, no use of the display at all. More than 8GB of data was served, which is more than the standard monthly data allowance that comes with most plans. Good to know.
Lamiraux leaves behind a strong legacy.
Lamiraux first joined Apple in 1990 as a software engineer for the Mac platform, which would later be renamed OS X. In 2000, he earned a managerial position for OS X platform experience before becoming director of engineering for that department in 2004.
In 2005, he switched over to iOS under the important Apps and Frameworks section as director of software engineering, and became vice president of the department in September 2009.
Lamiraux reported directly to Craig Federighi and retired once he shipped iOS 7.0.3.
This is absolutely fantastic. Imagine the implications of teaching history with tools like this at your disposal.
In the video below, the fly-through starts at about :50.
Adam Engst walks through the Mavericks Finder’s tab interface, working through all the dragging techniques and keyboard shortcuts. Good stuff.
Kyle Richter paints a picture here, projecting Apple’s path to a seat at the console table.
Apple has sold roughly 700 Million iOS devices since the introduction of the original iPhone, in addition they have sold in excess of 13 Million Apple TVs. Compare that to the 78 Million (as of March 2013) PlayStation 3′s sold since it was released in 2006, and 78.2 Million Xbox 360′s sold from its release in 2005 through June 2013. It is no wonder that the iPod touch (and iPhone) is considered one of the world’s leading gaming platform, with roughly 9x the sales of traditional consoles. When looking at the number of available titles, Xbox 360 comes in with 958 games, PS3 with 793 available games, and iOS with an almost unbelievable 166,510 games. Yes, the average quality of an Xbox or Playstation game is higher than that of the average iOS game, but that is a trend that we as developers can change. The average Xbox game sells for $24.60, while the average Playstation 3 game sells for $28.92, once again the almost unbelievable number for average iOS game price is 76¢. So, Apple has significantly more devices, with an exponentially larger game selection, at a fraction of the cost. This is a good position to be starting from.
This is just the starting point. Read the whole thing. Agree or disagree, this is excellent food for thought.
A fascinating bit of history, nice read for a Sunday morning.
Many thanks to Doxie for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. Doxie Go is the tiny, rechargeable mobile paper scanner that scans anywhere with no computer required. Scan paper, receipts, and cards, then sync to Doxie’s elegant Mac software.
Doxie makes it easy to go paperless, create searchable PDFs, and send scans to your favorite Mac and cloud apps – Dropbox, Evernote, and more.
It’s time to finally go paperless. Get your new Doxie Go direct from Doxie or Amazon.com.
The iPhone has long been available in India, but only at its full, unsubsidized price.
The contract system, which is widely prevalent in other parts of the world, is a rarity in India. Telecom operators in India don’t subsidize the handset for their subscribers as the lack of a universal data base–such as the U.S.’s social security number–makes it difficult to track users and determine their credit worthiness.
Reliance Communications, then known as Reliance Infocomm Ltd., had partnered with LG Electronics Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., and Nokia Corp., to offer subscribers a handset at a huge subsidy. A Nokia handset that cost about 10,000 rupees ($161) in the retail market was given to users for an upfront payment of a mere 501 rupees. The offer drew about a million new subscriptions within 10 days of the launch, but consumers dumped the phone and switched service providers) after a few months, leaving Reliance Communications with massive losses.
This time, Reliance Communications is minimizing its risks by tying up with credit card companies, which will be responsible for the billing. People without credit cards can’t sign up for the offer.
If this succeeds, this could be a big win for Apple.
I applaud T-Mobile’s efforts to make their way into the already crowded iPhone and iPad space. But this iPad rollout just strikes me as ham-handed:
T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeted today to clarify his company’s free 200MB monthly plans for iPads on its network. He reiterated that “everyone” gets 200MB of free data with no strings attached.
Earlier today, customers trying to buy iPads on T-Mobile were told they would have to pay a $10 monthly fee to access the “free” data, contradicting an offer from last week.
That is a sure way to squander any good-will gained. If your plan is to buy your way into the market using the iPad data plan as a loss-leader, then get the word out to your staff, make sure everyone is on the same page.
I’ve mentioned the Sony QX smart lens before, but this is an actual review.
The Cyber-shot DSC-QX100 is the high-end version of Sony’s newly released iPhone-compatible wireless camera accessories, packing in a Carl Zeiss lens at an attractive price point. Like the low-end QX10, it’s a forward thinking device with a great deal of potential that remains held back by shaky software.
I hope the limitation is, indeed, software-specific and not some form of hardware/networking latency. Software problems can always be fixed.
Before, it would take 10 or more seconds for the PlayMemories application to establish a connection with a QX camera and begin shooting. Now, that connection time is closer to 5 seconds. While this is a big improvement, we don’t feel it’s enough, though Sony may be hampered by the limitations of Wi-Fi Direct.
I sure hope it’s not an inherent limitation of their networking model. I really love this concept and want it to succeed.
Blender is an open source 3D modeling program that runs on Mac OS X as well as on Linux and Windows. Blender is free to download. You can support the Blender project by making a donation on the Blender site, or by buying books and DVDs via the site.
The headline links to an excellent, free tutorial created by Vicki Wenderlich. If you’ve ever thought about designing in 3D, this is a terrific place to start.
John Gruber:
But Motorola — a wholly-owned Google subsidiary — has filed patent lawsuits against Apple all over the world. Just one month ago Apple finally put an end to an 18-month injunction that prevented iCloud users in Germany from getting push notifications for email — because of a patent lawsuit filed by Google.
I’m in total agreement with Gruber on this one. Like most people, I hate these stupid patent trolls, but too many people are trying to make Google seem like a victim here. They’re not.
Kirk McElhearn brings up some interesting points in his thoughts for Apple to bring an iPod Pro to market.
Matthew Panzarino:
Parsons confirmed the percentage, but said that the differential between the prices of the iPad and the prices of the Samsung tablets that were included in the survey was large enough to “more than offset” the score in the other four categories. Parsons says that the price category contributed to a full two-point difference between Apple and Samsung.
B U L L S H I T!
There’s no way it explains the tablet numbers.
The artwork is very impressive.
Watch the video and then go check out Keira Rathbone’s site.
Allyson Kazmucha has a look at a number of alternatives to Apple’s built-in Calendar app.
Kids around the world are signing up for the Hour of Code, an effort by code.org to demystify the art of programming, to bring more young folks into the field. Their mantra is “Every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science.”
The official video, shown below, features people like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, Jack Dorsey, Ruchi Sanghvi, and many many more. A worthy cause.
Bits of Steve woven in with an overview of the new campus. I especially like the line, “The idea is to bring California back to Cupertino.”