Linked List: August 6, 2015

Thursday, 6 August 2015

New Apple.com Website Encompasses Built-In Store 

You know how Apple has a regular website (with product information and marketing material), and a separate online store site where you go to actually buy things? Well, no more. They’ve just rolled out a new, simpler, integrated site. Looks pretty good, with simpler URLs (WebObjects no more?). Feels faster, too, but maybe that’s the new-and-shiny placebo effect.

Knowing what I know about the old online store, this was a massive behind-the-scenes undertaking, but the result looks and works like what most people would have expected all along. (Someone should count the instances of “finally” in the headlines about this change.) The old two-site approach was like having separate rooms in a physical retail store — a showroom up front, and a sales room in the back. Now it’s just one room. (And in another subtle parallel to the physical Apple stores, the website now uses a shopping bag instead of a cart.)

Speaking of the Post-PC Industry 

Remember a few months ago when Microsoft announced an Objective-C bridge for porting iOS apps to Windows? Today they released it as open source on GitHub:

Windows Bridge for iOS (also referred to as WinObjC) is a Microsoft open source project that provides an Objective-C development environment for Visual Studio/Windows. In addition, WinObjC provides support for iOS API compatibility.

Defining ‘Terrorism’ Down 

Glenn Greenwald, writing for The Intercept:

The FBI on Friday announced the arrests in Oakland of two animal rights activists, Joseph Buddenberg and Nicole Kissane, and accused the pair of engaging in “domestic terrorism.” This comes less than a month after the FBI director said he does not consider Charleston Church murderer Dylann Roof a “terrorist.” The activists’ alleged crimes: “They released thousands of minks from farms around the country and vandalized various properties.” That’s it. Now they’re being prosecuted and explicitly vilified as “terrorists,” facing 10-year prison terms.

The politicization of the word terrorism is not new, but at this point, it’s devolved into a term of pure propaganda. From the FBI announcement:

“Whatever your feelings about the fur industry, there are legal ways to make your opinions known,” said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy. “The conduct alleged here, sneaking around at night, stealing property and vandalizing homes and businesses with acid, glue, and chemicals, is a form of domestic terrorism and can’t be permitted to continue.”

“Today’s indictment represents the collective efforts of several FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) around the country,” said Eric S. Birnbaum, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s San Diego Field Office. “The FBI and our JTTF partners will continue to investigate and seek the prosecution of those who engage in similar criminal conduct for the purpose of advancing their own personal agenda.”

We’ll all sleep so much better tonight knowing the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces are hard at work pursuing animal rights activists who are gluing the door locks of mink farmers.

TechCrunch Apple Reporter Darrell Etherington Hired by Apple for PR 

Mark Gurman:

TechCrunch’s lead Apple reporter Darrell Etherington quietly stopped writing for the news site at the end of June, and we’ve learned that he left to take up a job in Apple’s PR office in Toronto, Canada. […] Etherington’s move is just the latest in a string of journalists who have been hired by Apple, but none of the career changes appear to be related.