Linked List: April 22, 2016

Friday, 22 April 2016

Imprint 

This week’s DF RSS feed was sponsored by Imprint, a new curated retailer and lifestyle publication offering weekly collections of exclusive products for the modern gentleman.

Put differently, rather than selling thousands of different items, Imprint sells only 10-20 core products per month, presented alongside beautiful independent photography and storytelling. And rather than selling flash-sale leftovers, Imprint works with top brands to source, produce, and sell a truly limited and exclusive selection of top notch clothing, literature, coffee, and more.

Last week, Imprint also launched on iOS — both for iPhone and iPad — allowing customers to shop internationally with Apple Pay, consult with Imprint’s on-demand stylists, and more. The website is good, but the app is really great.

Daring Fireball readers keen to try Imprint — on web or iOS — can use the promo code “BASEBALL” to save 20 percent. Shipping is free within the U.S. and a flat-rate abroad, and all returns are free.

Looking at the Future 

Craig Hockenberry, writing about the new iPad Pro display’s expanded color gamut:

After using this iPad for a couple of weeks, I’ve realized it’s like the advances of Retina in an important way: I never want to use a lesser display again. And as with higher density, I think it’s obvious that Apple will eventually update all its products to use this improved screen technology. I can’t wait!

It also wouldn’t surprise me to see these wider color gamuts coming to the cameras in our devices. All iOS devices currently create images in the sRGB gamut, while professional gear can produce images in ProPhoto or AdobeRGB. High dynamic range (HDR) photos need a wider range of color, too.

iTunes Movies and iBooks Store Shut Down By Chinese Government 

Paul Mozur and Jane Perlez, reporting for the NYT:

For years, there has been a limit to the success of American technology companies in China. Capture too much market share or wield too much influence, and Beijing will push back.

Apple has largely been an exception to that trend. Yet the Silicon Valley company is now facing a regulatory push against its services in China that could signal its good relations in the country may be turning.

Last week, Apple’s iBooks Store and iTunes Movies were shut down in China, just six months after they were started there. Initially, Apple apparently had the government’s approval to introduce the services. But then a regulator, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, asserted its authority and demanded the closings, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

China being China.

Microsoft’s Android Patent-Licensing Revenue Is Falling 

Matt Rosoff, reporting on Microsoft’s fiscal results:

In the release, Microsoft noted that its patent-licensing revenue was down 26% from a year ago. And it’s because of Android. […] Suh also noted that not every Android manufacturer has a licensing deal with Microsoft. He didn’t name names, but Chinese phone makers typically take a very loose approach toward licensing American intellectual property, and as those inexpensive phones take over the world, Microsoft doesn’t benefit as much.

At one point, Microsoft was reported to be booking $2 billion a year from licensing its patents and other intellectual property to Android handset makers like Samsung and HTC. Microsoft has never confirmed that number, but it’s probably a drop in the bucket compared to the overall Windows business, which booked revenue around $4.2 billion this quarter. (“Windows revenue decreased $292 million or 7%,” the release says.)

Still, the Android gravy train is slowing down for everybody.

Patton Oswalt’s Advice to His Fellow Bernie Sanders Supporters 

Maxwell Strachan, writing for The Huffington Post:

In anticipation of the special, The Huffington Post caught up with the comedian to discuss his stand-up tips, the state of the Internet, and, of course, the 2016 Election. Oswalt has been a supporter of Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, but made it clear in the interview that he’s not “Bernie or bust.”

“I will vote for whoever the Democrats nominate against either of those two psychopaths,” he said. “I think they’re both equally dangerous and backward-facing for this country.”

Asked what he would say to a Bernie supporter who would rather not vote than cast a ballot for Hillary Clinton in the November general election, Oswalt replied, “Well, then you’re a fucking child.”

Amen.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe Restores Voting Rights to Felons 

Sheryl Gay Stolberg, reporting for the NYT:

Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia used his executive power on Friday to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 convicted felons, circumventing his Republican-run Legislature. The action overturns a Civil War-era provision in the state’s Constitution aimed, he said, at disenfranchising African-Americans.

This passage from the end of her report floored me:

In researching the provisions, advisers to the governor turned up a 1906 report quoting Carter Glass, a Virginia state senator (and later, a member of Congress who was an author of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act that regulated banks) as saying they would “eliminate the darkey as a political factor in this State in less than five years, so that in no single county of the Commonwealth will there be the least concern felt for the complete supremacy of the white race in the affairs of government.”

Prince Composing Music on a Mac SE in 1990’s ‘Graffiti Bridge’ 

Ahead of his time, as ever.