Linked List: October 27, 2015

Tuesday, 27 October 2015

Elias Roman, writing for the Official Android Blog:

To that end, today we’re launching a portal for podcasters to start uploading their shows to Google Play Music before we open up the service to listeners. Along with direct searches and browsing for podcasts, the service will connect new listeners with podcasts based on what they’re doing, how they’re feeling, or what they’re interested in. Similar to our contextual playlists for music, this will give podcast fans and new listeners a way of finding and listening to content that’s unique to Google Play Music.

Marco Arment, two weeks ago:

Podcasts are hot right now. Big Money is coming.

Charting Apple’s Fourth-Quarter Results ★

Dan Frommer, at Quartz:

Apple shipped 48 million iPhones last quarter, up 22% year-over-year. iPhones represented 63% of Apple’s overall revenue, about the same as last quarter.

There’s no question that the iPhone warps Apple’s financials. But consider this: Apple’s non-iPhone business generated around $75-80 billion for the just-completed 2015 fiscal year.

Apple Reports Record Fourth Quarter Results ★

Apple press release:

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2015 fourth quarter ended September 26, 2015. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $51.5 billion and quarterly net profit of $11.1 billion, or $1.96 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $42.1 billion and net profit of $8.5 billion, or $1.42 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.9 percent compared to 38 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The growth was fueled by record fourth quarter sales of iPhone, the expanded availability of Apple Watch, and all-time records for Mac sales and revenue from services.

“Fiscal 2015 was Apple’s most successful year ever, with revenue growing 28% to nearly $234 billion. This continued success is the result of our commitment to making the best, most innovative products on earth, and it’s a testament to the tremendous execution by our teams,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

The most profitable company on the planet today, and revenue and profit are still growing at around 30 percent annually.

It’s easy to lose sight of what that sort of growth means. Here’s an example, though: five years ago, Steve Jobs was impressed that Apple had grown to become a company with $50 billion in annual revenue.

BuzzFeed to Withdraw From SXSW Over Canceled Anti-Harassment Gaming Panels ★

Tasneem Nashrulla, reporting for BuzzFeed:

BuzzFeed plans to withdraw its participation from the South by Southwest Interactive festival after organizers decided to cancel two gaming and online harassment panels after receiving “numerous threats of on-site violence.”

In a letter to the organizers of the Austin-based media festival sent Tuesday, President of BuzzFeed Motion Pictures Ze Frank, BuzzFeed Publisher Dao Nguyen, and BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith wrote, “We will feel compelled to withdraw … if the conference can’t find a way to do what those other targets of harassment do every day — to carry on important conversations in the face of harassment.”

I sympathize with SXSW — these threats have to be taken seriously. But canceling anti-harassment panels because of harassing threats — that’s just wrong.

State of Web Type ★

“Up-to-date data on support for type and typographic features on the web.” Great resource for web developers.

It’s disappointing how poorly Safari fares here. Mac OS X has had wonderful built-in typographic features for over a decade — Apple led the industry. But now, on the web, Apple trails the industry.

Greenland Is Melting Away ★

Fascinating story with excellent interactive design from The New York Times:

The midnight sun still gleamed at 1 a.m. across the brilliant expanse of the Greenland ice sheet. Brandon Overstreet, a doctoral candidate in hydrology at the University of Wyoming, picked his way across the frozen landscape, clipped his climbing harness to an anchor in the ice and crept toward the edge of a river that rushed downstream toward an enormous sinkhole.

If he fell in, “the death rate is 100 percent,” said Mr. Overstreet’s friend and fellow researcher, Lincoln Pitcher.

The video footage from their drones is simply amazing.