Linked List: April 7, 2015

Tuesday, 7 April 2015

White South Carolina Police Officer Shoots Fleeing Black Man in Back ★

The NYT:

A white police officer in North Charleston, S.C., was charged with murder on Tuesday after a video surfaced showing him shooting in the back and killing an apparently unarmed black man while the man ran away.

The officer, Michael T. Slager, 33, said he had feared for his life because the man had taken his stun gun in a scuffle after a traffic stop on Saturday. A video, however, shows the officer firing eight times as the man, Walter L. Scott, 50, fled.

The Times has the video, and it is disturbing. Slager shoots Scott in the back as he’s fleeing, then plants some sort of evidence on Scott’s body — apparently his service taser, to create false evidence that they were struggling over the weapon when he shot him — in plain sight of another officer on the scene.

They even lied about performing CPR on Scott as he bled to death:

Police reports say that officers performed CPR and delivered first aid to Mr. Scott. The video shows that for several minutes after the shooting, Mr. Scott remained face down with his hands cuffed behind his back. A second officer arrives, puts on blue medical gloves and attends to Mr. Scott, but is not shown performing CPR. As sirens wail in the background, a third officer later arrives, apparently with a medical kit, but is also not seen performing CPR.

Update: Here’s how the story was being reported before the video surfaced.

‘Finally’ of the Week ★

Brian Barrett, writing for Wired, “Cheap USB-C Cables for Your MacBook Are Finally Here”:

When Apple announced its slender, pixel-packed new MacBook last month, it ushered in the era of USB-C, the next-generation port that handles all your charging and connectivity needs. The only problem? Affordable USB-C cables hadn’t yet been ushered in along with it.

I know the standards for putting finally in a headline are pretty low at most publications, but how can this warrant one when the new MacBook doesn’t ship until Friday? You can’t even pre-order one yet. Who exactly does the “your” in the headline apply to?

Duncan Robson: Supercuts ★

I love the recursive nature of his Patreon pitch video. For just $1 a pop, I’m in. Let’s pile it on. (Via Andy Baio, of course.)

TripAdvisor, Booking.com Reviews Start Appearing in Apple Maps ★

Chris Barylick, writing for O’Grady’s PowerPage:

Apple Maps is starting to get some neat stuff put in.

Since the launch of the app back in 2012, Yelp has served as the sole partner for integrating customer reviews of businesses and other points of interest. Recently, Apple’s Maps app has begun including reviews from TripAdvisor and Booking.com on select hotel listings.

A fundamental difference between Apple and Google is that Apple is willing to make partnerships for things like this. Google, like Microsoft of yore, wants to do everything itself. The question is, which leads to a better experience? Google’s approach to services — owning and controlling everything — is a lot like Apple’s approach to devices.

Controlling Notifications ★

Jeremy Keith:

The only time my phone is allowed to ask for my attention is for phone calls, SMS, or FaceTime (all rare occurrences). I initiate every other interaction — Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare, the web. My phone is a tool that I control, not the other way around.

I’m not as extreme as Keith, but this has long been my approach to notification overload: turn notifications off.

‘I Think That’s the Shit’ ★

Nicole LaPorte goes behind-the-scenes with HBO CEO Richard Plepler in a feature story for Fast Company:

By the time of Murdoch’s bid, Plepler says, he had already called up his old friend Jimmy Iovine to help him execute a pivot. Plepler had done PR for Iovine years earlier, at Warner Music. Iovine had sold Beats, the headphone business he owned with Dr. Dre, to Apple in May, for $3 billion. Plepler asked if Iovine thought Apple would be interested in being the lead distributor of HBO Now. Iovine didn’t hesitate: “I think that’s the shit,” he said.

Plepler also reached out to Time Warner board member Paul Wachter, who worked on the Apple-Beats deal in his day job as an investment banker. Wachter connected him with Apple’s digital media chief, Eddy Cue, who came to New York for a meeting in Plepler’s office. Plepler explained that he needed a distributor, and that HBO Now would be ready by the spring (when Game of Thrones’ season 5 would bow). Cue tells me that he wanted to do the deal with HBO “the next day.”

Ralph McQuarrie and James Bond ★

Holy crap: a 1986 Ralph McQuarrie rendering for a planned Universal Studios stunt show spectacular. (Thanks to Cabel Sasser.)

Highball 1.0 ★

New free iOS cocktail app from the clever fellows at Studio Neat. Their novel idea: shareable recipe cards, like this one from yours truly (riffing off Jim Coudal’s canonical Perfect Martini). They might have actually found a good use for QR codes.