Photographer, Mac and iOS developer David Smith took these shots of the Space Shuttle. Incredible.

Update: Here are a few more nice pics taken by Joel Housman.

Reuters:

Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd agreed that their chief executives would participate in settlement talks to try to resolve a patent lawsuit over smartphone and tablet technology, according to a court filing.

So, there we were. Not more than 2 minutes into the trial, and Apple conceded to trying to hoodwink the judge.

Mental Floss:

Even though I’m fairly ancient, I’ve never seen a Model T outside of a classic auto show. So I realize that there are many things that have been obsolete since the elastic waistband was invented and would confound anyone under age 70. But what about some common items that have come and gone within the last 30 or so years? See how many of these you recognize, and how many of them would puzzle your kids or grandkids.

Interestingly, while I have heard about all of them, five of them I’ve never actually seen in real life (#2, 4, 6, 8, 10). How about you? And which ones would your kids not be able to recognize?

“Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life.”

NY Daily News:

This vending machine cares more about love than money.A new Coca-Cola machine at the National University of Singapore dispenses free beverages in exchange for hugs. The red-and-white machine has the word “Hug Me” written across the front in Coke’s signature font.The machine is programmed to dispense a Coke when a person wraps their arm around it.

The video accompanying the story is very sweet but it’s hard not to be cynical and think there’s no way this campaign would work in the US.

This is what a $28,000 turntable looks like

Every year, unbeknownst to most of the public, the most outrageous and amazing pieces of audio equipment are tossed (see: very carefully placed) into one hotel for The New York Audio & AV Show.This is not the kinda stuff you get at Best Buy or hook up to the turntable you bought from Urban Outfitters. This is the stuff for the hardcore audio fan who happens to have deep pockets.

“Deep pockets” and maybe a pathological need to spend insane amounts of money on audio gear. Some of it is really cool looking though.

Jack White is great.

Zee for The Next Web:

“The name represents our vision and intention: To make taking the content you discover with you as simple as putting it in your pocket.” Weiner explains.

Pocket is a complete reinvention of Read It Later – a new design and a new attitude. If you’re a fan of Read It Later, Instapaper or Readability, make sure to check it out.

Shalini Ramachandran for the Wall Street Journal:

Netflix Inc. Chief Executive Reed Hastings’ complaints about Comcast Corp.’s Web traffic policies appear to have drawn attention from the Federal Communications Commission, which says it is monitoring the situation.

Hastings accused Comcast of violating the spirit of net neutrality by exempting its users from bandwidth cap limits when using Comcast’s own Xfinity app for Xbox 360. Hastings says that Comcast should either apply caps equally, regardless of where the traffic is going, or should not apply caps at all.

The FCC’s current policies allow for service providers like Comcast to treat traffic on their networks differently than traffic originating outside their networks. So it’s unclear what FCC oversight of Comcast’s Xfinity app may ultimately prove to change.

John Paczkowski for AllThingsD:

Zane Rowe, executive VP and Chief Financial Officer for United Continental, the holding company that owns United Airlines, has a new job — at Apple. Rowe, who has served as United’s CFO since October 2010, is leaving the airline for an high-ranking sales position in Cupertino, Apple confirmed.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling confirmed for AllThingsD that Rowe has joined Apple as a VP of sales.

The London 2012 opening ceremony is going to be called Isles of Wonder, but there can be no wonderment more wonderful than the fact that Olympics organizers wanted Keith Moon to perform.Moon has been dead for 34 years.

Maybe they could get Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin to perform too.

Reuters:

Research In Motion is considering hiring a financial adviser to weigh its strategic options, Bloomberg News said on Monday, citing three sources with knowledge of the matter.

Here’s a better idea — how about hiring designers or a CEO that knows what he’s doing.

If you are lucky enough to live in the New York City area, Apple is sending out invites to their “Meet the Filmmakers” series in conjunction with the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. Filmmakers like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Brad Hall, Morgan Spurlock and Will Arnett wil be on hand, talking about their latest projects.

The 2012 Tribeca Film Festival runs from April 18th to the 29th.

ThinkGeek:

Short of whipping out a skillet and doing a quick fry-up, how can we enjoy that wonderful meaty sweet and smokey aroma without the temptation and subsequent belt-busting and heart-clogging richness of actual cured-pork ingestion? Bacon scented candles, of course!These premium scented candles are long-lasting and made from actual rendered bacon fat using a top-secret process that preserves bacon’s natural aromas and essential oils.

Mmm…Bacon. I have to imagine the only people who would buy these would be single guys. Would any woman allow you to fill up her home with the smell, however delicious, of bacon?

Hearing the commotion, Cisco came from the back yard and into the driveway, barking at the officer, as any dog would do. Mike’s hands in the air, a gun pointed at him, he was afraid for his life, and therefore could not move or attempt to quiet or restrain Cisco. He told the officer that Cisco would not bite him, to please not shoot his dog. Almost immediately, a bullet was put into Cisco’s chest, killing him instantly.

The cop was responding to a domestic dispute call, went to the wrong address and shot this poor guy’s dog.

Joshua Schnell:

Five minutes of fact checking online turned up five examples of Google abusing its power and doing things in direct contrast to a free and open web.

Bill Amend:

Announcing my simultaneous first steps into the worlds of e-books and self-publishing. I’m pretty excited. If you’re an iPad user who likes FoxTrot or who has a kid who likes FoxTrot, these are for you.I’m calling them FoxTrot Pad Packs, because I like the metaphor of collectable cards and how you build up your collection via booster packs. I made them myself using Apple’s free iBooks Author software. Each $1.99 book contains 100 strips, some old, some new, some story lines, some stand-alone jokes, some black and white dailies, some color Sundays. The idea is to create mini books that take maybe 20-30 minutes to read and which aren’t bogged down with a ton of outdated references, as happens with my older, chronologically arranged print books.

Most of us are fans of the strip and this looks like an interesting way to collect a variety of them.

Cards includes a few new categories and templates, including one for Mother’s Day.

Amazing.

Dedicated runners keep a detailed log of all of their runs. But keeping a running journal can be tedious. You have to enter data like route names and distances over and over. LogMyRun for iPhone streamlines the process and eliminates the tedium. LogMyRun also makes it easy to share your runs with your teammates and friends via email and Twitter.

Cast your vote on the most relevant Apple stories of the day. Predict how others in the community will vote. Win when you’re right. Get the free Scoople app.

I’ve been using this app for quite a while and am liking it.

Matt Peckham for TIME.com:

If you own the highway as well as several of the vehicles that use it, is it fair to tax everyone except your drivers? That’s essentially what Comcast did when it decided to exempt its TV-based Xfinity “On Demand” service for the Xbox 360 from counting against periodic data caps, effectively un-leveling the playing field. Comcast’s defense: The service is delivered over its private IP network, not the public Internet.Should that exempt Comcast? Absolutely not, according to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. “Comcast no longer following net neutrality principles,” writes Hastings on his Facebook page. “Comcast should apply caps equally, or not at all.”

I doubt Comcast is going to get a lot of complaints from its own customers that it’s offering them “favored nation” status, but Hastings is right – it’s the principle of the thing, and this is what some activists who are concerned over net neutrality feared would happen.

Larry Jordan:

Apple began providing “advanced looks” as part of the roll-out to the launch of FCP X and wanted to continue letting us know what’s coming. (I think this is a great idea, because it helps us plan.)Here are the bullet points (none of this was demoed):– Multichannel Audio Editing Tools – Dual Viewers – MXF Plug-in Support – RED camera support

Fox News:

A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) official has been charged after being accused of stealing eight iPads from luggage at Dallas/Fort Worth International airport.

Erin Griffith for PandoDaily:

But, especially with Squarespace 6, Casalena said the platform is ready for adoption from publishers of any size. Version five, while excellent, “wasn’t a developer’s dream come true because they couldn’t get into all the code,” he said. The new version is more open for developers. The company is completely capable of hosting high volume sites and is building out programs comparable to WordPress’s support staff.

I’m beta testing Squarespace 6 and I really like what I see so far. There are some functionality things that I’m not too sure about yet, but I expect this to be a really big rollout.

Many thanks to Pixelmator for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week.

Pixelmator – beautifully designed, easy-to-use, fast and powerful image editing app for Mac OS X.