Linked List: October 26, 2016

Wednesday, 26 October 2016

The Talk Show: ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma Multitasking’ 

Special guest John Moltz returns to the show. Topics include what we expect from tomorrow’s Apple Event for new Mac hardware, and my impressions of the Google Pixel phone after a week using one.

This week’s show introduces chapter marks for subject matter. If you use a podcast player that supports them, such as Overcast, let me know what you think.

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Penny Arcade’s Mike Krahulik: Hands-On With the Surface Studio 

Penny Arcade illustrator Mike Krahulik:

If you have not heard already, Microsoft just announced a new device called the Surface Studio. It’s essentially a Surface computer for your desktop. From what I understand, you can go to any Microsoft store today and actually play with one. It’s a big beautiful screen on this slick armature that lets you adjust it from a normal monitor to something more like a drafting table for drawing on. I get questions about Surface devices and drawing all the time and I am sure this one will be no different. In fact I can already see tweets coming in asking what I think. So If you’re curious what I think about the Surface Studio, you are in luck, because I have been drawing on one for the last week.

In short: he loves it.

I’m not sure how useful the horizontal mode will be for people who aren’t illustrators, but for illustrators, it sure does seem like a groundbreaking form factor.

Microsoft Surface Studio 

Microsoft’s big news today: a 28-inch all-in-one iMac-like PC that folds down into a drafting-table-like mode for drawing on it like a tablet. Also, a new peripheral, the Surface Dial. Very cool looking stuff. Priced at $3000-4200, and not shipping until mid-December.

It certainly comes at an interesting time. Apple is set to release new Mac hardware tomorrow, but even so, creative professionals are feeling largely ignored by Apple. And now Microsoft is targeting them specifically.

Apple Delays AirPods Rollout Past October 

Matthew Panzarino:

“The early response to AirPods has been incredible. We don’t believe in shipping a product before it’s ready, and we need a little more time before AirPods are ready for our customers,” an Apple spokesperson said to TechCrunch.

Apple did not say whether hardware or software updates are what is at the heart of the delay so I couldn’t conjecture which. My experiences with the AirPods have been very positive this far but the pre production units that were given out to press are not without their foibles and bugs. I have seen a variety of small software/hardware interaction issues that have caused some frustration — but have taken them in stride because they are not final products.

Same experience here. The pre-production ones I have have had a few glitches, but even so, I love them.

Google Cans ‘CEO’ of Google Access, Halts Expansion of Google Fiber 

Kara Swisher, writing for Recode:

Executive changes are coming to Google Access, including the departure of CEO Craig Barratt, according to sources. The company is holding a town hall-style meeting sometime soon to announce these potential changes, these sources say.

Update: The company confirmed in a blog post Barratt is leaving, and the company will halt its rollout of Fiber to new cities. The company also plans layoffs in those areas.

Barratt will stay on as an adviser to Alphabet CEO Larry Page, but it’s clear this is a setback for its broadband ambitions. The company also did not name a new CEO to replace Barratt.

Why does Google humiliate departing executives by forcing them write upbeat blog posts telling us how great shit sandwiches taste? It’s clear that Barratt was fired and Google is stating publicly that they’re canceling previously-announced plans for expansion, but the headline on Barratt’s blog post is “Advancing Our Amazing Bet”. Barratt writes:

As for me personally, it’s been quite a journey over the past few years, taking a broad-based set of projects and initiatives and growing a focused business that is on a strong trajectory. And I’ve decided this is the right juncture to step aside from my CEO role. Larry has asked me to continue as an advisor, so I’ll still be around.

I’m sure he’ll be hanging around doing important work for Google with his fellow advisor Tony Fadell. Maybe Barratt will get Andy Rubin’s old desk in the advisor suite.

Google: ‘Our Assistant Will Trigger the Next Era of AI’ 

Steven Levy:

That process, unrolling over the next two years, is The Transition. When millions of people begin conversing with Google, through the Assistant, the seas of difficulty suddenly part. (With Google Home, conversing is the only way you will get any use out of it  —  there’s no keyboard.) “You can start doing machine learning on that,” Pereira says. “You can move much faster; you can accelerate the process of getting deeper and broader in understanding. This 2016-to-2017 Transition is going to move us from systems that are explicitly taught to ones that implicitly learn.” Think of it as a mini-Singularity.

Maybe this is exactly right. We shall see. But I am always skeptical of any technology that is promoted for how good it is going to be rather than for how good it is right now.