Linked List: January 10, 2020

Friday, 10 January 2020

Apple’s One Remaining Use of the Word ‘Macintosh’ ★

Adam Engst, writing at TidBITS:

Some weeks ago, I was struck by the thought that Apple had almost entirely managed to scrub its corporate communications of the word “Macintosh.” It’s not surprising, of course, but I was curious if the company had slipped up anywhere. To find out, I put together a complex Google search that focused on just Apple sites, eliminating those which host third-party content like discussions.apple.com. It also eliminates pages pointing at technical specifications for old products, a page listing obsolete products, and a spurious link to the Wikipedia page on HyperCard that somehow got an apple.com URL.

My search confirmed my initial hunch that there is only one official remaining use of the word “Macintosh” by today’s Apple.

Be sure to read the comments — there’s more than just one instance.

Quibi ★

Ashley Carman, writing for The Verge:

Katzenberg and Quibi CEO Meg Whitman, who is best known as the CEO of HP and eBay, are publicly announcing Quibi at CES — but not quite unveiling it — after having raised $1 billion on the promise of a roster of Hollywood stars and supposedly revolutionary video-streaming technology that delivers portrait and landscape video at the same time. Everything on Quibi is designed for viewing on a phone, on the go, in 10 minutes or less. These chunks of video are called “quick bites” — hence, “Quibi.”

When Quibi arrives on April 6th of this year, it’ll cost $5 a month for an ad-supported version or $8 a month for an ad-free experience. Katzenberg and Whitman formulated this idea nearly two years ago and have been relentlessly signing up the biggest names in Hollywood to be a part of it.

For me personally, the rotating thing sounds awful. Which orientation is canonical? It just sounds like a gimmick. And I know that Hulu has separate paid tiers, one with ads, one without, but man, $5/month with ads is a hard sell to me.