Linked List: February 11, 2019

Monday, 11 February 2019

Burying the Lede 

Reuters headline: “Vimeo Revenue Jumps 54 Percent in 2018, Paying Subscribers Near 1 Million”.

Sounds good, but five paragraphs down we get this:

Although Vimeo’s revenue is expected to rise “20 to 30 percent in the near-term,” according to its Chief Executive Anjali Sud, the video service is far from making a profit as it burns cash on product development and aggressive marketing to popularize its brand.

Vimeo started 15 years ago and still aren’t close to running in the black.

Amazon to Acquire Eero 

Amazon Press Center:

Amazon and eero today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Amazon will acquire eero. eero’s home mesh WiFi systems set up in minutes and blanket every room of a customer’s home in high-performing, reliable WiFi. eero is already delighting Amazon customers with its products and services, as indicated by eero’s 4.6-star product rating on Amazon.com.

The natural and obvious plan would be to integrate Eero base stations with Echo speaker units — one set of small things to plug in around your home, rather than two. Which of course, while convenient, would be a no-go for anyone who wants to use Eero for Wi-Fi without having listening devices in their house. (I hope Amazon supports existing no-microphone Eero hardware for years to come, and see no reason why they wouldn’t.)

I liked it when Eero was an independent company, but I always suspected an acquisition was inevitable. I was kind of hoping it would be Apple, if anyone, if only for privacy reasons.

(Disclosure: Eero is a long-time sponsor of Daring Fireball, particularly The Talk Show.)

John Dingell’s Last Words for America 

John Dingell, the longest-serving member of Congress, one day before he died last week:

One of the advantages to knowing that your demise is imminent, and that reports of it will not be greatly exaggerated, is that you have a few moments to compose some parting thoughts. […]

My personal and political character was formed in a different era that was kinder, if not necessarily gentler. We observed modicums of respect even as we fought, often bitterly and savagely, over issues that were literally life and death to a degree that — fortunately — we see much less of today.

Think about it:

Impoverishment of the elderly because of medical expenses was a common and often accepted occurrence. Opponents of the Medicare program that saved the elderly from that cruel fate called it “socialized medicine.” Remember that slander if there’s a sustained revival of silly red-baiting today.

AirPods: From Mockery to Status Symbol 

Elena Cresci, writing for The Guardian:

Of all the widely ridiculed tech products, Apple’s AirPods have experienced an extraordinary turnaround. Back in 2016, they were roundly mocked by the tech industry. Tiny wireless earbuds? It seemed like a recipe for disaster — streets would be littered with these lost headphones, which would clutter up city pavements like discarded gloves and babies’ socks.

“If only there were an invention that could keep those AirPods tethered together, like a string,” wrote Ashley Esqueda from the tech website CNET on Twitter. “The beauty of the headphone cable is just like the beauty of a tampon string: it is there to help you keep track of a very important item,” wrote Julia Carrie Wong in the Guardian.

I never understood the notion that AirPods look weird. They look exactly like wired earbuds, without the wires. I do get the initial skepticism that they’d fall out and get lost frequently, but somehow Apple designed them not to, and it’s worked.

Turns out they’re one of the best products Apple has ever made. Almost everyone I know who has them loves them.