Linked List: July 15, 2016

Friday, 15 July 2016

Turkey’s President Gives an Interview via FaceTime in the Middle of a Coup 

Matt Novak, writing for Gizmodo:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan just gave an interview via FaceTime. The country is in chaos following a military coup that’s still ongoing. The military has declared martial law and is censoring the media networks but Erdogan was on CNN Turkey remotely with a broadcaster holding up her phone facing the cameras. Welcome to the 21st century.

Related: “Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube Blocked in Turkey During Reported Coup Attempt”.

Nick Heer on Apple’s Aging Mac Lineup and Slumping Sales 

Nick Heer, writing at Pixel Envy:

MacRumors’ own buyers’ guide shows a “Don’t Buy” indicator below every Mac except the MacBook. Of the current lineup, fully half of all Macs — the Mac Pro, the Retina MacBook Pro, and the MacBook Air — are the most stale that those products have ever been. […]

The Mac Pro hasn’t been substantially updated since the new cylindrical model launched in December of 2013. The pro Macintosh situation is so dire that some designers and developers, like Mike Rundle and Sebastiaan de With, have opted to deal with the moderate hassle of building a “hackintosh” in order to get the performance they need for their work. Critical products like the MacBook Air and Retina MacBook Pro are well over a year old, too.

Something unusual is certainly going on. We have to get updated MacBook Pros and Mac Pros soon (September?), right?

I don’t think, though, that the MacBook Air will ever get another update. I think it only exists to occupy the sub-$1000 price range until Apple can sell a year-old MacBook for $899. I wouldn’t be shocked if they rolled out a minor speed-bump update to the MacBook Airs, but I don’t expect them to. The future is just MacBooks and MacBook Pros.