Linked List: February 2, 2015

Monday, 2 February 2015

Bloomberg: ‘RadioShack in Talks to Sell Half Its Stores to Sprint, Shutter the Rest’ ★

Bloomberg:

RadioShack Corp. is preparing to shut down the almost-century-old retail chain in a bankruptcy deal that would sell about half its store leases to Sprint Corp. and close the rest, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. The locations sold to Sprint would operate under the wireless carrier’s name, meaning RadioShack would cease to exist as a stand-alone retailer, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks aren’t public.

Ernest Hemingway:

“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

Super Bowl 49 Wrap-Up ★

Great analysis of yesterday’s epic Super Bowl by Bill Barnwell for Grantland. What a game.

Paying to Get Around Adblock Plus ★

Russell Brandom, writing for The Verge:

Some of the web’s biggest companies have been paying to get around Adblock Plus, according to a new report from Financial Times. Microsoft’s Bing search ads and Taboola’s “recommended links” box are among the ads that are currently slipping through Adblock Plus’s filter, and FT confirms that it’s the intentional result of a paid deal between the makers of Adblock and the owners of the ads. According to FT sources, the companies have paid Eyeo (the maker of Adblock Plus) to be added to an official whitelist, which allows them to bypass the plug-in. Google has a similar deal, as has been previously reported.

How is this different from an extortion racket?

Apple to Turn Failed Arizona Sapphire Factory Into a Data Center ★

Daisuke Wakabayashi, reporting for the WSJ:

Apple Inc. plans to invest $2 billion to build a data center in Arizona in the location where its failed sapphire manufacturing facility exists, the state announced Monday.

The company plans to employ 150 full-time Apple staff at the Mesa, Arizona, facility, which will serve as a command center for its global network of data centers. In addition to the investment for the data center, Apple plans to build a solar farm capable of producing 70-megawatts of energy to power the facility.

So does this mean we aren’t getting sapphire iPhone displays, or that Apple is going to procure them elsewhere?