Linked List: July 21, 2017

Friday, 21 July 2017

The Talk Show: ‘Actually, You Can Buy a Better Coke’ ★

Rene Ritchie returns to the show to talk about the rumors and speculation regarding this year’s upcoming new iPhones.

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In Urban China, Cash Is Rapidly Becoming Obsolete ★

Paul Mozur, writing for The New York Times:

Almost everyone in major Chinese cities is using a smartphone to pay for just about everything. At restaurants, a waiter will ask if you want to use WeChat or Alipay — the two smartphone payment options — before bringing up cash as a third, remote possibility.

Just as startling is how quickly the transition has happened. Only three years ago there would be no question at all, because everyone was still using cash.

The iPhone Paradox ★

The Macalope:

Maybe it’s just the horny one, but if you have information that shows the iPhone 8 is going to be a logical paradox — like a real life M.C. Escher painting — that is somehow simultaneously too expensive for anyone to want to buy and so wildly popular they can’t make them fast enough, you should probably lead with that. That would be big news, quantum mechanically speaking.

It’s like the Yogi-ism: “Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.”