Linked List: February 25, 2019

Monday, 25 February 2019

How Google Maps ‘Satellite’ View Was Almost Named ‘Bird Mode’ 

Bret Taylor, co-creator of Google Maps and now chief product officer at Salesforce, in a Twitter thread:

Now, these exec reviews were Larry and Sergey’s favorite place to experiment with crazy meeting ideas (kind of fun, actually). I had attended one review where one founder spent the entire meeting on an elliptical machine. Their new experiment was a huge countdown clock.

The rule was: the review had to end on time. When the clock ticked zero, the buzzer would buzz, and like an NBA game, the meeting was over and decisions final.

So here we are, throwing out names like “Airplane View,” “Superman,” “I Feel Picture-y,” and this clock is ticking down.

I think it was Sergey who spoke last. “Let’s call it Bird Mode.” Bzzzzzzzz.

I start to speak and am cut off — meeting over.

I look around, and it’s clearly evident the feature has officially been named “Bird Mode” in the most insane way possible.

I wouldn’t last more than one day working at Google. Security would be escorting me out to the parking lot by mid-afternoon.

Huawei’s Mate X Foldable Phone 

Way more compelling design than Samsung’s Galaxy Fold. Because it folds outward rather than inward, you don’t need an extra display. It sounds like a better design and it looks like a better design. But at €2,299 (that’s $2,600) it’s clearly not priced to sell in serious quantities, and the crease doesn’t seem to exactly disappear. And what about cases? Most people use a case with their phone already, and surely people will be even more apprehensive about using a phone where both the front and back are part of the main display. Plus, the Mate X (gee, wonder why they called it the “X”?) display is plastic, not glass, so it’s probably more prone to scratching than most of today’s phones.

Even ignoring the price, it seems clear to me we’re still not close to a good practical design for a foldable phone. (Or should we be thinking of them as foldable tablets?)

Jony Ive’s Domain: All Design 

Dr. Drang:

I would argue that broadening Jony Ive’s design oversight to include software in addition to hardware was a mistake as big as putting Cue in charge of the App Store. The software side of Apple’s user interfaces — especially on iOS, which isn’t as hardened by long tradition as on the Mac — has become steadily more cryptic under Ive’s control. Some of this is due to Apple’s need to squeeze more functionality into the OS, but Ive hasn’t been up to the task of melding the new functions into the UI in a consistent and discoverable way.

To me, Ahrendts’s five years in charge of Retail has been similar to Ive’s time as Chief Design Officer. The Apple Stores look better than ever, but they don’t work as well as they used to. No one I know looks forward to going to an Apple Store, even when it’s for the fun task of buying a new toy. No doubt a lot of this is due to Apple’s success and the mobs of people milling about, but Ahrendts didn’t solve the problem of efficiently handling the increased customer load.

I think the problem with the Apple Store shopping experience is primarily that, in the iPhone era, Apple’s popularity has increased far more than they’ve increased their retail footprint. Demand has outstripped supply.

But the comparison to Ive taking responsibility for software design is interesting, too, because I think he’s also taken more responsibility for the design of the stores. When they say he’s head of design, they mean he’s head of all design. Ive has taken more of an interest in architecture in the last decade, and there are a lot of similarities between Apple Park and Apple’s newer retail stores.

Barry Ritholtz on What Happened With Amazon’s HQ2 in New York 

This piece by Barry Ritholtz is the best I’ve seen, by far, on what happened — and why — with Amazon’s aborted HQ2 project in Queens:

Before we determine who killed Amazon’s HQ2, let’s note who did not: It was not the progressives or the Anti-ICE lefties. No, the Socialists have not taken over America. The biggest opponent to Amazon HQ2 in NYC was not from the new Congressional class, all they did was make some noise, and little to do with what actually mattered. It was not, to the chagrin of Fox News, AOC or Elizabeth Warren, or anyone else in Congress. All of the incentives for this were State + City, not Federal. Congress literally had no say on this.

Spoiler alert: It was Jeff Bezos. He belatedly realized the political landscape had changed, and decided he was unwilling to engage further. He did not want to deal with it or be embarrassed. Full stop. […]

Amazon began as a bold idea, deftly executed. It embraced risk, and that generated a massive return on money. But many are simply uncomfortable with the one offs for any one company to get. If you want to encourage businesses to relocate to a specific area, then come up with a series of incentives that apply to ALL businesses that will open shop in that location — not just one. Thus, the entire HQ2 competition was conceptually flawed from the start.

As a fire-breathing Wall Street working capitalist, my instinct is to say: Build your own fucking HQ on your own goddamned dime.

Must-read piece.