Linked List: January 24, 2014

Friday, 24 January 2014

Matt Drance:

But for me, it was more than games and chats and word processors and desktop pictures and custom icons. I wanted to understand why Apple thought RISC processors were better than CISC. How those menus and windows got on the screen. How I could make my own. And so I started flunking classes because I was too busy coding for no discernible reason. At that point, my father, bless him, said “I think you need to make a decision.” I went into college an aspiring veterinarian. I came out an aspiring software developer. The rest is, well, now I’m where I am.

On the WSJ’s ‘iPhones to Come Out With Bigger Screens’ Story ★

Yesterday’s top tech story was this report from Lorraine Luk, Eva Dou, and Daisuke Wakabayashi in the WSJ (paywall, alas):

Facing competition from rivals offering smartphones with bigger screens, Apple Inc. is planning larger displays on a pair of iPhones due for release this year, people familiar with the situation said.

The people said Apple plans an iPhone model with a screen larger than 4½ inches measured diagonally, and a second version with a display bigger than 5 inches. Until now, Apple’s largest phone has been the 4-inch display on the iPhone 5.

The phones, expected in the second half, won’t include a curved display, a feature recently introduced by rivals including Samsung Electronics Co., the people said. They cautioned that Apple’s plans weren’t final and that the company could change course.

Emphasis added. Translation: These are just rumors and none of this may come to pass.

The smaller of the two models is further along in development, and is being prepared for mass production, the people said. The larger-screen version is still in preliminary development, they said.

There’s so much more I could write about this, but for now, I’ll simply point out that any device “still in preliminary development” has no chance of coming out this year. The Journal’s reporters should know this. And as, always, I ask: what are the pixel dimensions of these bigger screens?

Both new models are expected to feature metal casings similar to what is used on the current iPhone 5S, with Apple expected to scrap the plastic exterior used in the iPhone 5C, these people said.

So the 5C won’t stick around for another year, moving down into the free-with-contract slot now occupied by the iPhone 4S?

iFixit: Macintosh 128K Teardown ★

Finally.

‘It Opened With a Smile’ ★

Nice piece by Steven Levy on the birth of the original Macintosh.

Business Partners Fighting Over Fonts ★

From the Department of Nothing New Under the Sun.

Apple: Thirty Years of Mac ★

Lovely, expansive, (and responsive) look at the Mac’s first 30 years, from Apple itself. When people play the “Apple wouldn’t have done this if Steve Jobs were still in charge” card, they generally do so in the sense of, Apple has done something I don’t like and/or which I perceive to be a mistake. I use this card rarely, but I’m going to play it now, but in the sense of, Steve Jobs seemed almost averse to celebrating past accomplishments, and in general that served Apple well, keeping the company’s focus always on the future, not the past, but this, this is a milestone worth celebrating. I don’t think Apple would be celebrating this milestone if Jobs were still in charge — I don’t recall much of a fuss over the 25th or 20th anniversaries — but I’m glad they are.

It’s fun to see the old hardware presented in Apple’s modern branding style. And, it’s great — no, insanely great — to see Jobs himself on Apple’s website again.

How Silicon Valley’s Most Celebrated CEOs Conspired to Drive Down Engineer Salaries ★

Mark Ames, reporting for Pando Daily:

In early 2005, as demand for Silicon Valley engineers began booming, Apple’s Steve Jobs sealed a secret and illegal pact with Google’s Eric Schmidt to artificially push their workers wages lower by agreeing not to recruit each other’s employees, sharing wage scale information, and punishing violators. On February 27, 2005, Bill Campbell, a member of Apple’s board of directors and senior advisor to Google, emailed Jobs to confirm that Eric Schmidt “got directly involved and firmly stopped all efforts to recruit anyone from Apple.”

Later that year, Schmidt instructed his Sr VP for Business Operation Shona Brown to keep the pact a secret and only share information “verbally, since I don’t want to create a paper trail over which we can be sued later?”

Amazing story.

Progress ★

Steve Cichon: “Everything From 1991 Radio Shack Ad I Now Do With My Phone”.