Linked List: October 28, 2019

Monday, 28 October 2019

Read the Letter Facebook Employees Sent to Mark Zuckerberg About Political Ads ★

From a letter signed by 250 employees, obtained by The New York Times:

We’re reaching out to you, the leaders of this company, because we’re worried we’re on track to undo the great strides our product teams have made in integrity over the last two years. We work here because we care, because we know that even our smallest choices impact communities at an astounding scale. We want to raise our concerns before it’s too late.

Free speech and paid speech are not the same thing.

Many are noting, correctly, that Facebook has 35,000 employees (which sounds like too many to me), so 250 signatures is a small percentage. But if this accurately reflects a large number of employees’ thoughts, it could be trouble for Facebook.

Facebook Allows Prominent Right-Wing Website to Break the Rules ★

Judd Legum, writing for Popular Info:

The Daily Wire, the right-wing website founded by pundit Ben Shapiro, is a cesspool of misogyny, bigotry, and misinformation. Its toxic content is also fantastically successful on Facebook, with each story reaching more people than any other major media outlet. A Popular Information investigation reveals some of this success is attributable to a clandestine network of 14 large Facebook pages that purport to be independent but exclusively promote content from The Daily Wire in a coordinated fashion.

This kind of “inauthentic coordinated behavior” violates Facebook’s rules. Facebook has taken down smaller and less coordinated networks that promoted liberal content. But Facebook told Popular Information that it will continue to allow this network to operate and amplify The Daily Wire’s content.

As a complete sidenote to the main point of this — that Facebook is a right-wing company — notice how nice and clean and fast the Popular Info website is. The best websites these days aren’t from web publishers — they’re from mailing list publishers with websites.

This Rumor Didn’t Last Long ★

MacRumors, two days ago:

“AirPods Pro” will come in as many as eight colors, including White, Black, and a new Midnight Green finish to match iPhone 11 Pro models, according to a Chinese-language report from the Economic Daily News.

Turns out you can get AirPods Pro in any color you want, so long as it’s white.

I’m genuinely curious why Apple doesn’t offer AirPods in more colors. Seems like something people would enjoy, especially black. My best guess is that Apple considers white earbuds to be iconic and part of the Apple brand.

AirPods Pro Feature ‘Ear Tip Fit Test’ ★

Dan Moren, writing at Six Colors:

As someone who hasn’t invested into AirPods because of concerns about fit, I’m most interested in the “Ear Tip Fit Test” that Apple says uses an algorithm to figure out whether the ear tip you’re using is the right fit for your ear, based on the sound level in your ear versus what the drivers are actually outputting.

I’ve had a few earbuds before that came with multiple tips, and I’ve never felt certain whether I chose the best ones for me. Some people might prefer a different size than the one recommended by this algorithm, but it’s a welcome feature for someone like me, who’s often paralyzed by a choice like this.

Apple’s AirPods Pro Web Page: Scrolljacking Hell ★

The AirPods Pro “overview” web page is a strange beast. It pegs my 2015 MacBook Pro’s CPU — even when I’m not scrolling. I closed the tab a few minutes ago and my fan is still running. The animation is very jerky and scrolling feels so slow. There’s so much scrolljacking that you have to scroll or page down several times just to go to the next section of the page. The animation is at least smooth on my iPad and iPhone, but even there, it feels like a thousand swipes to get to the bottom of the page. It’s a design that makes it feel like they don’t want you to keep reading.

Disable JavaScript (easily toggled if you enable Safari’s Develop menu) and the page is easy to read and looks great. I can’t recall an example where scrolljacking makes a website so much worse.

Update: Nick Heer (of Pixel Envy fame) messaged me to point out that the iPad Pro product page gives the AirPods Pro page a run for its money for top spot in the Scrolljacking Hall of Shame. The iPad Pro page doesn’t peg my MacBook Pro’s CPU, but it scrolls the view horizontally while you scroll vertically.

Apple Reveals AirPods Pro, Available Wednesday for $250 ★

Apple Newsroom:

Transparency mode provides users with the option to simultaneously listen to music while still hearing the environment around them, whether that’s to hear traffic while out for a run or an important train announcement during the morning commute. Using the pressure-equalizing vent system and advanced software that leaves just the right amount of noise cancellation active, Transparency mode ensures that a user’s own voice sounds natural while audio continues to play perfectly.

Switching between Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency modes is simple and can be done directly on AirPods Pro using a new, innovative force sensor on the stem. The force sensor also makes it easy to play, pause or skip tracks, and answer or hang up phone calls. Users can also press on the volume slider in Control Center on iPhone and iPad to control settings, or on Apple Watch by tapping on the AirPlay icon while music is playing.

Transparency mode seems like a very cool feature.
The “force sensor” seems like a cool feature too. Not sure how many times Apple has to learn this, but one button is better than zero buttons.
The Pro earbuds have stems that are quite a bit smaller than regular AirPods, but the Pro case is about 15 percent larger by volume.
I wonder why Apple didn’t announce these last month at the iPhone event? I suppose the AirPower debacle has made them gun-shy about pre-announcing anything that isn’t ready to ship, but these were clearly very close to ready a month ago.