Linked List: September 22, 2017

Friday, 22 September 2017

DXO Ratings Are Horseshit 

DXO has released its review of the iPhone 8 Plus camera, and it got their “highest scores” ever. No one should give a shit. They assign precise numbers like 96 for “photos”, 89 for “video”, and 55 for “bokeh” — but these numbers just give a false illusion of scientific rigor, as though they’re like CPU or GPU benchmark scores. (And CPU/GPU benchmark scores have their own problems.)

They’re not. There are certain aspects of a camera that you can measure objectively, but the overall quality of a camera is utterly subjective. Go read John Paczkowski’s interview with Phil Schiller and Apple designer Johnnie Manzari that I linked to an hour ago — they talk about how Apple sees cameras as being about art, history, and people. Go read Austin Mann’s review of the iPhone 8 Plus camera (also linked to here at DF earlier today) — that’s how you review and measure the quality of a camera.

Particularly with their “overall” score, DXO is pretending to assign an objective scientific-looking measurement to something that is inherently subjective. It’s horseshit, but everyone in the media falls for it. I said it was horseshit last year when they named a Pixel their “highest rated ever”, and I say it’s bullshit now when they said that about an iPhone.

London Won’t Renew Uber’s License 

CNN:

London’s transport authority announced Friday that it will not renew Uber’s license, saying the company is not “fit and proper” to operate in the city.

The move, if upheld after an appeal, could deal a serious blow to Uber’s business.

Transport for London cited the company’s approach to reporting serious criminal offenses, and the way it explained its use of software that prevents regulators and law enforcement from monitoring the app.

Actions have consequences. As new Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi wrote in a company-wide memo responding to this: “The truth is that there is a high cost to a bad reputation.”

Polling Experts Cast Doubt on Widely Cited College Free Speech Survey 

Lois Beckett, reporting for The Guardian:

Polling experts are raising concerns about a new survey thatfound nearly 20% of American college students believe it’s appropriate to use violence to silence offensive speech. […]

However, his survey was not administered to a randomly selected group of college students nationwide, what statisticians call a “probability sample”. Instead, it was given to an opt-in online panel of people who identified as current college students.

“If it’s not a probability sample, it’s not a sample of anyone, it’s just 1,500 college students who happen to respond,” Zukin said, calling it “junk science”.

“It’s an interesting piece of data,” Michael Traugott, a polling expert at the University of Michigan’s Center for Political Studies, said. “Whether it represents the proportion of all college students who believe this is unknown.”

Important follow-up to this piece I posted earlier in the week.

Behind the iPhone 8 and iPhone X Cameras 

Speaking of the new iPhone cameras, John Paczkowski goes behind the scenes on the development of Portrait Lighting mode with Phil Schiller and designer Johnnie Manzari:

And to get it right, Apple relied on what it does best: enthusiastic study and deconstruction of the art form it wishes to mimic and advance. In the case of the iPhones 8 Plus and X, this meant pouring over the way others have used lighting throughout history — Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, Vermeer.

“If you look at the Dutch Masters and compare them to the paintings that were being done in Asia, stylistically they’re different,” Johnnie Manzari, a designer on Apple’s Human Interface Team, says. “So we asked why are they different? And what elements of those styles can we recreate with software?”

And then Apple went into the studio and attempted to do just that. “We spent a lot of time shining light on people and moving them around — a lot of time,” Manzari says. “We had some engineers trying to understand the contours of a face and how we could apply lighting to them through software, and we had other silicon engineers just working to make the process super-fast. We really did a lot of work.”

Portrait Lighting mode is a practical meaningful effect of the A11 Bionic chip’s astounding performance. Even if Android software engineers at Google or Samsung or wherever reproduced the work Apple has put into this, they don’t have the hardware to perform it on in real time.

As I wrote in my iPhone 8 review, in the old days, if you wanted better photos, you made better lenses and better film/sensors. With cameras small enough to fit in a phone, you need better software and better silicon.

Austin Mann’s iPhone 8 Plus Camera Review From India 

I look forward to Mann’s iPhone reviews more than any other each year. My lord what a remarkable camera these devices are. Mann:

I’m writing to you from a small hotel room in India having just experienced a magical adventure in western India orchestrated by friends at Ker & Downey. I’ve shot thousands of images and countless portraits with the iPhone 8 Plus and I’m excited to share what I’ve learned.

While the iPhone 8 Plus looks essentially the same as the phone we’ve had since the 6 Plus, there are some new features in the 8 Plus which really impact creative pros across the board — most notably Portrait Lighting, along with a few other hidden gems. […]

After shooting 100 portraits or so, I can easily say Studio Light is my favorite of the effects. It emulates a gold bounce card as if it is just outside of the frame, bouncing nice warm light into the face and eyes of the subject. It does a nice job of making the face subtly pop from the rest of the background without doing anything too dramatic.

I’ve found Studio Light to be my favorite too. I’m pretty sure that’s why Apple put it first in the list.

Do yourself a favor and take your time reading Mann’s review, and really look at these photos. They’re simply amazing. (He’s got a great video too, with his tips for getting the most out of the new Portrait mode lighting effects.)

‘Truffle Oil’ Without Any Actual Truffles 

Eugenia Bone, writing for The New York Times:

Ever since Jeffrey Steingarten broke the story in Vogue in 2003, it has been common knowledge among aficionados that truffle oil is typically synthetically flavored. But dubious truffle oil products have proliferated. For instance, Walmart now sells Roland Extra Virgin Olive Oil With White Truffle. Its 1.86 ounces, about the equivalent volume of an egg, cost $18. On its ingredient list: “truffle aroma.”

My cousin Maria, the truffle hunter’s wife, used to make truffle oil with the broken bits of truffle she couldn’t serve, but not to preserve the flavor — the oil was flavorful for only as long as a fresh truffle. Much as we may want to capture truffles in a jar, the biology isn’t accommodating.

I forget where I first read about this, but once you know it, you can’t untaste that “truffle oil” just tastes like an oily chemical coating.

Apple:

You must separate the Link Bracelet into two pieces before removing the band from your Apple Watch. While removing the band, don’t force the band or twist it. Use the steps below to avoid damaging the band or clasp.

My Series 0 Apple Watch was the space black steel model with the link bracelet. When swapping bands, it’s a little tricky to get it on and off if you keep it in one piece. At some point a few years ago, someone told me the right way to take it on or off: separate into to two pieces first. It’s a cinch once you know this trick.