Linked List: September 23, 2014

Tuesday, 23 September 2014

WSJ: ‘iPhone 6 Is the Most Durable iPhone Yet’ ★

Nathan Olivarez-Giles, writing for the WSJ:

The new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus may be the largest iPhones Apple has ever made, but they’re also the toughest, according to SquareTrade, a gadget insurer that publishes a “breakability” index.

Having put the new iPhones through its gauntlet of durability tests this weekend, SquareTrade found that the iPhone 6 holds up impressively well in drops, spills and slips — despite the fact that the new, thinner iPhones are tougher to hold onto given their smooth edges and bigger screens.

The iPhone 6 Plus fared well, too, managing to beat out Samsung’s Galaxy S5 as “the most durable phone with a screen larger than five inches.”

No word on the “sat on it in my ass pocket all day” test.

Get Bent ★

I cannot believe that this “bent iPhone 6 Plus” thing is becoming a thing. Watch this jackass’s video — inexplicably promoted by Time magazine. Should not we be amazed that his phone didn’t snap in half under this pressure? That the glass didn’t fracture? Under pressure like this, bending but not breaking seems like an extraordinary feature. If you feel pressure like this on your iPhone 6 in your pocket, you need looser pants. And if you put your phone in your back pocket and sit on it, I’m not sure what to tell you.

Why SwiftKey Needs ‘Full Access’ ★

This was very confusing to me when I tried out the SwiftKey keyboard for iOS:

Full Access simply means you are giving the keyboard extension permission to interact with the app (the SwiftKey app on your homescreen). None of your language insights leave your device unless you opt in to SwiftKey Cloud, which is a backup and sync service that also lets SwiftKey learn from your writing on sites like Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Good to know that nothing at all gets sent over the network unless you opt-in.

My one-day impression: for two-thumb tap-typing, SwiftKey feels a lot like the iOS system keyboard. (That’s a compliment.) “Flow”, SwiftKey’s swipe-around-without-lifting-your-finger method, feels really slow for me. Judging from my followers on Twitter, it’s really popular with people who type one-handed on their phones, but personally I almost never do that. And when I do need to type something one-handed, I just use the speech-to-text dictate button. So SwiftKey is not for me, but I can see why one-hand phone typists love it.

‘Derek Jeter Opens the Door’ ★

Nice profile for New York Magazine by Chris Smith, with photos by Christopher Anderson.

How to Be Right a Lot of the Time ★

Jason Fried, relaying advice from Jeff Bezos:

He said people who were right a lot of the time were people who often changed their minds. He doesn’t think consistency of thought is a particularly positive trait. It’s perfectly healthy — encouraged, even — to have an idea tomorrow that contradicted your idea today.

Manual for iPhone ★

We have a winner for Best App Introduction of the Year.

Things That Were True on 8 September 2014 ★

I’m still catching up on my reading from the last two weeks. Here’s a good prelude to Apple’s event from Jon Bell:

So I’d like to write down a few things that we all know to be true on Monday, September 8, the day before Apple’s big announcement. It’s not that I think Apple’s new product will necessarily change the world, but it’d be interesting to have a way to compare the reality on the ground before and after Apple’s latest foray.

Samsung Exits Laptop Market in Europe ★

Chris Martin, PC Advisor:

“We quickly adapt to market needs and demands. In Europe, we will be discontinuing sales of laptops including Chromebooks for now. This is specific to the region – and is not necessarily reflective of conditions in other markets,” said a Samsung spokesperson.

MacRumors: ‘Some iPhone 6 Plus Owners Accidentally Bending Their iPhones in Pockets’ ★

Maybe this is why Samsung makes their big-ass phones out of plastic.