Linked List: March 13, 2015

Friday, 13 March 2015

My thanks to Tuft & Needle for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed. Tuft & Needle provides a new way to shop for a mattress that is honest and hassle-free. The Tuft & Needle Mattress is #1 rated on Amazon with over 600 reviews. By cutting out the middlemen, gimmicks, and sales tactics, Tuft & Needle offers an American-made mattress at a revolutionary price point. Their mattresses start at just $350, come with a 10-year warranty, and ship free directly to your door.

No confusing choices, either — their slogan is “One mattress, made perfect. Not too hard, not too soft. Just right. And don’t worry about buying a mattress without having tried it in person, either — Tuft & Needle offers a risk-free 30 night trial.

Transcript of Tim Cook’s ‘Surprise’ On-Air Phone Call to Jim Cramer ★

I don’t believe for a second this phone call was in any way a surprise to Cramer, but it’s interesting to me how well Cook does in scenarios like this. His good-bye is just perfect. His public persona is unique: hard-charging, hard-nosed, fantastically successful businessman; but humane, honest, and genuinely caring.

Add The Economist to the List of Apple Watch Doubters ★

The Economist:

Yet in spite of Mr Cook’s bouncing optimism, Apple seems unlikely to turn its watch into the next big must-have gadget. Certainly, the watch will not match the success of previous products, such as the iPod or iPhone.

It’s ignorant to lump the successes of iPod and iPhone together. iPod was indeed successful — for its time. But iPhone’s success is at least an order of magnitude — maybe several — greater. And oddly enough the “Revenues by Product” chart that The Economist uses to illustrate this very article shows just that. Compared to iPhone, iPod’s peak revenue just wasn’t that great.

If you don’t think Apple Watch can at least match the iPod’s success, I think you’re nuts. I’m going to run out of claim chowder pantry space.

Here’s their explanation for this pessimism:

This is true for two main reasons. First, Apple’s newest creation replicates many of the functions that the smartphone already makes so seamless, such as checking e-mail, receiving calendar alerts and communicating with friends. People are unlikely to want to shell out a sum between $350 (for the most basic model) and $17,000 (for the fanciest version) for something with so few extra functions. Second, the Apple Watch is dependent on a nearby smartphone, which means that users will just be adding another device to their growing menageries instead of replacing one. This is not unlike selling someone a wristwatch that requires a pocket watch to work.

The Apple Watch’s current reliance upon a tethered iPhone is much like the way early iPhones required wired syncing to a Mac or PC for everything from music to contacts to calendars. Apple Watch will be an independent cloud client device eventually.

Apple Watch may or may not be a compelling device. The fact that it requires an iPhone companion will not determine that.

Photoshop Experts Revisit Photoshop 1.0 ★

I remember all of this. Even the ancient convention of putting the app’s version number in its file name. Great nostalgia. (Via Faruk Ateş.)

The Talk Show: ‘A Tube of Lubricant for Your Life’ ★

Special guest Matthew Panzarino joins the show. After some brief chitchat on Meerkat and monocular vision, we get into the obvious topic this week: Apple’s “Spring Forward” media event in San Francisco. Sub-topics therein: ResearchKit; FaceTime and open standards; accessibility and Tim Cook’s refusal to measure the ROI of such things; Jeff Williams’s first onstage appearance at an Apple keynote; Angela Ahrendts; the new single-port MacBook; San Francisco as the new keycap font on the MacBook keyboard; the Taptic trackpad; the timing of this event; and more.

Oh, and something called “Apple Watch”.

Sponsored by:

Fracture: Your pictures, printed directly on glass. Use code “daringfireball” and save 15 percent.
Igloo: The intranet you’ll actually like. Sign up for a free trial.
Harry’s: An exceptional shave for a fraction of the price. Use coupon code “talkshow” and save $5 on your first order.
Squarespace: A better web starts with your website. Use promo code “jg” for 10% off.

Prejudice: ‘Preconceived Opinion That Is Not Based on Reason or Actual Experience’ ★

Timothy Egan, in his column for the NYT:

I hate the new Apple Watch. Hate what it will do to conversation, to the pace of the day, to my friends, to myself. I hate that it will enable the things that already make life so incremental, now-based and hyper-connected. That, and make things far worse.

He seems oddly certain for someone who’s never used one. Why form an opinion without having used it? I don’t get it.

How Apple Makes the Watch ★

Fantastic analysis from Greg Koenig of Apple’s manufacturing videos of the Apple Watch:

Jony Ive often speaks of care. It is an odd word to use as it doesn’t imply the traditional notion of “craftsmanship” in the classic, handmade sense. Nor does it imply quality or precision in the way a Japanese car manufacturer or German machine tool maker would. “Care” implies a respect for the raw materials and end result, with little concern about what it takes to link those two ends of the production chain together, and we see that highlighted with the Watch. Apple could very easily have forgone forging to create stainless steel cases, just like everyone else. Hardening gold alloy with cold working could have been eliminated, putting them on par with the rest of the industry. Nobody will see or feel the inside pocket for the microphone on the Sport, yet it has been laser finished to perfection.

I see these videos and I see a process that could only have been created by a team looking to execute on a level far beyond what was necessary or what will be noticed. This isn’t a supply chain, it is a ritual Apple is performing to bring themselves up to the standards necessary to compete against companies with centuries of experience.

Koenig has been a fantastic follow on Twitter regarding Apple Watch.

‘All the iPhone Apps You Can’t Delete Are There for Rich People’ ★

Loved this brief piece by Casey Johnston.

Mat Honan on the Whisper/Guardian Fiasco ★

Mat Honan, writing for BuzzFeed:

In the somewhat confusingly written clarification, Guardian US yesterday stated that it was “happy to clarify” that IP address data is “a very rough and unreliable indicator of location,” that Whisper had drafted changes to its terms of service before Guardian US contacted it, and that it did not share personal information with the Department of Defense.

One of its central claims that it did not walk back, however, was that Whisper was looking at location data of users who had not opted in to having it tracked. Nor did it retract a disputed quote, allegedly made by one of Whisper’s executives, claiming it would track a certain lobbyist for the rest of his life.

The bottom line is that the “clarification” did more to muddy things than it did to make them apparent. Still, for Whisper’s management, apparently this represents “good enough.”

Letters From Old Yankee Stadium Up for Auction ★

Note to my wife: no harm done buying my Father’s Day gift a few months in advance.

ResearchKit Off to a Good Start ★

Michelle Fay Cortez and Caroline Chen, reporting for Bloomberg:

Stanford University researchers were stunned when they awoke Tuesday to find that 11,000 people had signed up for a cardiovascular study using Apple Inc.’s ResearchKit, less than 24 hours after the iPhone tool was introduced.

“To get 10,000 people enrolled in a medical study normally, it would take a year and 50 medical centers around the country,” said Alan Yeung, medical director of Stanford Cardiovascular Health. “That’s the power of the phone.”