Linked List: January 7, 2020

Tuesday, 7 January 2020

More Revenue Than Adobe, Nvidia, or AMD — and as Much as Spotify, Twitter, Snap, and Shopify Combined ★

Kevin Rooke:

Imagine a startup with $12 billion of revenue, 125%+ YoY revenue growth (two years in a row), and Apple-esque gross margins (30-50%). Without knowing anything else about the business, what would you value it at? $50 billion? $100 billion? More?

That’s Apple’s AirPods business, the fastest-growing segment of the world’s most valuable company.

Keep in mind, though, that Apple hasn’t had a new hit product since the iPad in 2010.

Update: Important follow-up from Neil Cybart.

Progress Marches On ★

Given this week’s links, a timely question from Caity Weaver’s “Work Friend” Q&A column in The New York Times:

Q: I teach at a large university where instructors are expected to upload students’ final grades in a centralized online system at the end of each semester. I have no problem with this simple data entry task and see it as a routine part of my job. What concerns me are the instructions that accompany it: “Please note, instructors should be using IE (Internet Explorer) to avoid any potential issues.” What is “Internet Explorer”? I don’t have this on my computer. In violation of the policy, I’ve been successfully uploading grades using programs that are not “Internet Explorer” without incident. But my success makes me all the more puzzled by the instructions. Should I try to get “Internet Explorer”? Or continue on in violation of policy? — A.C.

A: Internet Explorer is a discontinued web browser introduced by Microsoft in 1995, and the best course of action would be to never think about it again for the rest of your life.

This one feels like a punch to the gut from the “Make You Feel Old” machine. (Via Glenn Fleishman.)

Samsung Ripped Off Apple’s Face ID Icon ★

They didn’t even tweak it. Just outright copy-and-paste.

Especially egregious given that Face ID’s “face” isn’t just some random smiley face — it’s clearly drawn from the Finder icon, which itself draws from Susan Kare’s brilliant original 1984 Mac startup icon.

They might as well use an apple with a bite out of it, too.

More on IE 5 for Mac’s Scrapped Media Playback Toolbar ★

Maf Vosburgh:

I devised and coded the Mac IE 5 media toolbar in the second half of 1999. The toolbar could stream music playlists or play video in a floating movie window, while you browsed the web. It had a lovely UI designed by Nikki Barton. It was cool. […]

The weird thing is that the whole feature was basically a love letter to QuickTime Streaming with open standard SHOUTcast as an after-thought. The people up in Redmond wanted us to be implementing Video for Windows support instead and we didn’t want to because we were Mac heads.

Interesting coda to Jimmy Grewal’s story on IE 5 for Mac’s origins yesterday.