Linked List: January 28, 2017

Saturday, 28 January 2017

Smartling: Translate Mobile Apps in an Instant 

My thanks to Smartling for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed to promote their translation services for developers. App localization opens the door to global opportunities, but traditional techniques are failing publishers and users alike. Bound by rapid release cycles, sluggish translation turnarounds, and stubborn app store approval processes, developers have little hope of delivering a consistent user experience across multiple languages.

Smartling’s technology transforms this equation. Their Mobile Delivery Network instantly pushes your translated content to app users over-the-air. New language launches and linguistic updates can now be made independent of code releases and as frequently as you see fit. That gives users in every language access to the right content at the right time.

Check out Smartling’s website to learn more, and join companies like British Airways, Spotify, and GoPro that are already using Smartling.

Tim Cook on Immigration Executive Order: ‘It Is Not a Policy We Support’ 

Tim Cook, in a company-wide email:

I’ve heard from many of you who are deeply concerned about the executive order issued yesterday restricting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. I share your concerns. It is not a policy we support.

There are employees at Apple who are directly affected by yesterday’s immigration order. Our HR, Legal and Security teams are in contact with them, and Apple will do everything we can to support them. We’re providing resources on AppleWeb for anyone with questions or concerns about immigration policies. And we have reached out to the White House to explain the negative effect on our coworkers and our company.

Good for him for stating his opposition, but it could have been stronger, and should have mentioned Trump by name. This ban hits particularly close to Apple’s heart: Steve Jobs was the biological son of a Syrian immigrant. Tim Cook should call that out, repeatedly.

The Tech Industry’s Responses to Trump’s Immigration Executive Orders, From Strongest to Weakest 

Aaron Levie, CEO of Box:

On every level — moral, humanitarian, economic, logical, etc. — this ban is wrong and is completely antithetical to the principles of America.

That’s a proper response.

Peter Thiel Is a Fucking Fool 

Peter Thiel, back in October, asked if he supported Trump’s proposal to build a wall on the U.S./Mexican border and ban Muslims from immigrating to the U.S.:

I don’t support a religious test. I certainly don’t support the specific language Trump has used in every instance. But I think one thing that should be distinguished here is that the media is always is taking Trump literally. It never takes him seriously but it always takes him literally. I think a lot of the voters who vote for Trump take Trump seriously but not literally. So when they hear things like the Muslim comment or the wall comment, or things like that, the question is not are you going to build a wall like the Great Wall of China, or how exactly are you going to enforce these tests. What they hear is we’re going to have a saner, more sensible immigration policy. We’re going to try to figure out how do we strike the right balance between cost and benefits.

Wrong. Trump meant every fucking word of it. He literally wants to build a wall. He literally thinks he can stick Mexico with the bill for it. He literally just banned people from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the U.S., with a religious exception for Christians.

I heard this over and over during the election. Trump doesn’t really mean what he says. He meant every word of it, and everyone who thought we shouldn’t take him literally (and seriously) is a goddamn fool.