Linked List: August 3, 2015

Monday, 3 August 2015

Inside the Sad, Expensive Failure of Google Plus ★

Remember Google Plus? Seth Fiegerman goes behind the scenes on its creation for Mashable:

For those elsewhere in the company, Google’s approach to Plus represented a radical departure. Most Google projects started small and grew organically in scale and importance. Buzz, the immediate predecessor to Plus, had barely a dozen people on staff. Plus, by comparison, had upwards of 1,000, sucked up from divisions across the company. One employee on a different team recalled thinking at this time, “Where have our engineers gone?”

That’s no way to make a successful product. Google Plus was never anything more than chasing Facebook.

Update: Tony Fadell on Apple Watch ★

A few weeks ago I linked to a BBC interview with Tony Fadell, in which I thought Fadell took a backhanded shot at the software design of Apple Watch. The BBC’s Leo Kelion kindly emailed me with a full transcript of Fadell’s remarks, which makes clear that my original interpretation was flat-out wrong. I’ve updated the post accordingly.

The Declining Marginal Value of Crazy ★

Josh Marshall:

In a crowded field, for almost everyone but Bush, it’s critical to grab hold of the mantle of anger and grievance. But the Huckabees and Cruzes simply cannot compete with Trump, who is not only willing to say truly anything but also has — whatever else you can say about his nonsense — a talent for drama and garnering press attention honed over decades. With a mix of aggression, boffo self-assertion and nonsense, Trump has managed to boil modern Republicanism down to a hard precipitate form, shorn of the final vestiges of interest in actual governing.

Rob Rhinehart: ‘How I Gave Up Alternating Current’ ★

I read this like eight or nine hours ago, and I still don’t know what to think of it. It’s worth knowing going in that Rhinehart is the creator of Soylent, and Soylent 2.0 launched today. So I think Andy Baio is right that this post was purposefully written to go viral.

The thing is, I can’t tell whether this is parody or not. Seems like certain aspects have to be a joke (e.g., his wardrobe: once-worn clothing custom-made in China), but I thought Soylent was a joke when I first heard about it. Even if it is a PR ploy, it’s a damn clever one — at once both deeply thought-provoking and enragingly obnoxious.

Samsung Computer Display With Built-In Wireless Phone Charger ★

Clever new product from Samsung. Filed under “Words I didn’t expect to write today”. (Via Chandana Kulatunga.)

Update: Of course, since it’s Samsung, they ripped off the old iOS 6 battery image.

Control ★

Dan Moren, speculating back in May on Apple launching its own cell service:

I can think of a few reasons that Apple would be tempted to launch its own mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), but the overriding one is philosophical. Apple’s a company that notoriously likes to control everything related to its business. In its earliest days, that meant creating both hardware and software to form an integrated whole, but in recent years, that’s increasingly meant the whole shebang. A to Z. Soup to nuts. I mean, this is a company that hired metallurgists for the Apple Watch, invested heavily in a (now mostly defunct) firm to make sapphire glass, and, of course, launched its own hugely successful retail stores in an era when that seemed like pure folly.

Business Insider: ‘Apple in Talks to Launch an MVNO in the US and Europe’ ★

James Cook, reporting for Business Insider:

Apple is in talks to launch a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service in the US and Europe, Business Insider has learned.

Sources close to Apple say the company is privately trialling an MVNO service in the US but is also in talks with telecoms companies in Europe about bringing the service there too. […]

There is no guarantee Apple’s service will launch beyond a test phase, and if it does, it will not roll out anytime soon. Telecoms sources say Apple is looking long-term with its MVNO and could take at least five years to fully launch the service. Apple has been in talks with telecoms companies for years over its MVNO plans, those sources say, adding that it’s an “open secret” among carriers that a virtual Apple network is on the way.

Dave Wiskus asks:

If Apple becomes a wireless carrier, what would the phone say for carrier in the status bar?

The Mullet Watch ★

Like a $10,000 harness to connect your automobile to your horse.