Linked List: June 5, 2015

Friday, 5 June 2015

Answers 

My thanks to Answers for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed. Their landing page is just terrific — a gorgeous layout, and the inside story of how a small team went from zero to being the number two mobile analytics tools in just a few months. Check them out.

Financial Times: Apple Reconsidering 70/30 Split With Media Companies 

Tim Bradshaw and Shannon Bond, reporting for the FT:

Apple is planning a departure from the pricing formula that has defined the economics of digital media for a decade, which would cut the 30 per cent fee that media companies pay on subscriptions.

The iPhone maker is discussing new commercial terms with media companies, people familiar with the matter said, to change the 70/30 “Apple tax” pioneered by Steve Jobs when its late founder launched the iTunes music store in 2003.

Unclear what the new terms would be, but interesting still.

No Women From Original Macintosh Team in Sorkin’s Steve Jobs Movie? 

Megan Smith, chief technology officer for the United States, in an interview with Charlie Rose:

“There are these incredible photographs from the launch of the Macintosh in the 80’s, and the Rolling Stone pictures that were published. The historic record shows this group of 10 people in a pyramid — actually 11, seven men and four women. Every photograph you see with the Mac team has Joanna Hoffman, who was the product manager, a great teammate of Steve Jobs, and Susan Kare who did all the graphics and user interface on the artist side. None of them made it into the Jobs movie. They’re not even cast. And every man in the photographs is in the movie with a speaking role. It’s debilitating to our young women to have their history almost erased.”

She’s misremembering the pyramid photo, slightly. It featured eight men and three women (Susan Kare, Rony Sebok, and Patti Kenyon). Joanna Hoffman wasn’t in the photo — but Smith is exactly right that Hoffman was instrumental to the project. If it’s true that none of these women are in Sorkin’s movie, that’s just criminal.

Update: It’s widely-reported that Kate Winslet plays Hoffman in the film, and the IMDB listing claims Sebok and Kenyon were cast as well.

Via Twitter, Hal O’Brien posits that Megan Smith’s criticism was about the Ashton Kutcher movie, not the upcoming Sorkin one.

Marc Newson Interview With The London Evening Standard 

John Arlidge, interviewing Marc Newson for The London Evening Standard:

Given that this is his first print interview since he formally started his new role, let’s start with the formalities. What’s your job title? ‘I don’t really have one but I work on special projects.’ Is it full-time? ‘It’s about 60 per cent of my time.’ How long will you do it? ‘Indefinitely, I hope.’ Did you work with Steve Jobs before he died? ‘No, but I met him.’ Who earns more, you or Jonathan? ‘I think you can guess that.’ Ive is equal 637th on the latest Sunday Times Rich List, worth £150m.

Is that a British thing, asking so bluntly who earns more? Strikes me as rather uncouth, but maybe that’s my perspective as an American.

What is Newson’s next move? He’s not allowed to say, of course. But the clue is in his job title. Don’t expect a Newson iPhone or iPad: stand by for something more. He’s particularly interested in what technology can bring to fashion. ‘We will start to see more technology embedded in garments — magic woven in. There are some incredible things that are going to happen.’

Another big leap would be a car. Both he and Ive are petrolheads. Each owns several hundred thousand pounds’ worth of mainly classic Aston Martins, Lamborghinis and Bentleys. Newson has designed a concept car for Ford. Car firms are racing to make their new models so hi-tech they create the auto-motive answer to the iPhone. BMW has even set up its own hi-tech division that makes electric cars with the prefix ‘i’. Why not accelerate ahead of the pack with an iCar? Newson does little to damp down the speculation: ‘There is certainly vast opportunity in that area to be more intelligent.’