Linked List: March 22, 2018

Thursday, 22 March 2018

Behind the Scenes of Spike Jonze’s ‘Welcome Home’ HomePod Music Video ★

Tim Nudd, writing for AdWeek:

Apple’s short film “Welcome Home,” directed by Spike Jonze and starring FKA twigs as a beleaguered city dweller whose drab apartment becomes a colorful, shape-shifting oasis thanks to her HomePod device, is easily one of 2018’s most captivating ads so far.

Now, we get a behind-the-scenes look at the film, which not only answers all of our questions about how it was made — it might just be the most engaging, comprehensive and flat-out best BTS video we’ve seen for an advertisement.

“It’s like a magic trick.”

China’s Face-Scanning Craze ★

Rene Chun, writing for The Atlantic:

Dystopia starts with 23.6 inches of toilet paper. That’s how much the dispensers at the entrance of the public restrooms at Beijing’s Temple of Heaven dole out in a program involving facial-recognition scanners — part of the president’s “Toilet Revolution,” which seeks to modernize public toilets. Want more? Forget it. If you go back to the scanner before nine minutes are up, it will recognize you and issue this terse refusal: “Please try again later.”

This sounds like something out of Brazil.

Apple Redoubling Efforts on E-Books ★

Mark Gurman, writing for Bloomberg:

Apple is working on a redesigned version of its iBooks e-book reading application for iPhones and iPads and has hired an executive from Amazon to help.

The new app, due to be released in coming months, will include a simpler interface that better highlights books currently being read and a redesigned digital book store that looks more like the new App Store launched last year, according to people familiar with its development. The revamped app in testing includes a new section called Reading Now and a dedicated tab for audio books, the people said.

Sounds like something they might talk about Tuesday in Chicago. Apple’s last education-focused event, held at the Guggenheim in New York in January 2012, was mostly focused on iBooks and the then-new iBooks Author. (A major update to iBooks Author next week would be very welcome too.)

John Dowd Resigns as Trump’s Lead Lawyer in Special Counsel Inquiry ★

Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman, reporting for The New York Times:

President Trump’s lead lawyer for the special counsel investigation, John Dowd, resigned on Thursday as his strategy for cooperating with the inquiry grew increasingly at odds with Mr. Trump’s desire for a more aggressive posture.

Mr. Dowd, who took over the president’s legal team last summer and considered leaving several times, ultimately concluded that Mr. Trump was ignoring his advice, a person briefed on the matter said.

This is the sort of thing that happens all the time in a well-run legal defense of an innocent client.

Instagram Takes a Step Back Towards Timeline Sanity ★

Instagram:

We’ve heard it can feel unexpected when your feed refreshes and automatically bumps you to the top. So today we’re testing a “New Posts” button that lets you choose when you want to refresh, rather than it happening automatically. Tap the button and you’ll be taken to new posts at the top of feed — don’t tap, and you’ll stay where you are. We hope this makes browsing Instagram much more enjoyable.

Based on your feedback, we’re also making changes to ensure that newer posts are more likely to appear first in feed. With these changes, your feed will feel more fresh, and you won’t miss the moments you care about. So if your best friend shares a selfie from her vacation in Australia, it will be waiting for you when you wake up.

This isn’t a complete reversion to a chronological timeline (which I really wish Instagram would offer as a setting), but hopefully it’s better than the ever-more-disorienting algorithmic mush they’ve been serving in recent months.

Update: So much for my optimism about the algorithmic feed two years ago.