Linked List: October 14, 2020

Wednesday, 14 October 2020

NYT: ‘As Virus Spread Early On, Reports of Trump Administration Briefings Fueled Sell-Off’ ★

Kate Kelly and Mark Mazzetti, reporting for The New York Times:

On the afternoon of Feb. 24, President Trump declared on Twitter that the coronavirus was “very much under control” in the United States, one of numerous rosy statements that he and his advisers made at the time about the worsening epidemic. He even added an observation for investors: “Stock market starting to look very good to me!” But hours earlier, senior members of the president’s economic team, privately addressing board members of the conservative Hoover Institution, were less confident. [...]

The next day, board members — many of them Republican donors — got another taste of government uncertainty from Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council. Hours after he had boasted on CNBC that the virus was contained in the United States and “it’s pretty close to airtight,” Mr. Kudlow delivered a more ambiguous private message. He asserted that the virus was “contained in the U.S., to date, but now we just don’t know,” according to a document describing the sessions obtained by The New York Times.

The document, written by a hedge fund consultant who attended the three-day gathering of Hoover’s board, was stark. “What struck me,” the consultant wrote, was that nearly every official he heard from raised the virus “as a point of concern, totally unprovoked.”

Incompetent and corrupt.

Medium Solves All Its Problems With Yet Another Altogether New Brand Identity ★

Hats off to you if you figure out what their new logo represents. My wrong guess was that it was a weird “M”. I am, for some reason, reminded of Pepsi’s ill-fated tilt-to-the-future logo redesign from a decade ago.

The multi-talented Jane Manchun Wong — before temporarily (I hope!) deactivating her Twitter account — made a nice tutorial recreating Medium’s new mark using state-of-the-art illustration software.

The iPhone 12 and 12 Mini Cost $30 More Than Apple Suggests ★

Jason Snell, writing at Six Colors:

At the event, Apple referred to these products as starting at $699 (iPhone 12 mini) and $799 (iPhone 12), but those prices are not actually accurate unless you slap a big asterisk on there. (As Apple does on its marketing pages, because it must.)

Here’s what’s actually happening, at least in the U.S.: Apple has cut deals with AT&T and Verizon that give existing customers of those carriers $30 off their purchases. The actual prices of the two models are $729 and $829, and that’s what you’ll pay if you’re a U.S. subscriber to Sprint, T-Mobile, any smaller pay-as-you-go carriers, or if you want to buy a SIM-free model with no carrier connection at all. (The 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max are the same price on all carriers.)

Outrageous? No. Unseemly? Yes.

Yours Truly on CNBC Yesterday, Before Apple’s Event ★

Look at me, on the TV. (My comments hold up pretty well post-event, I think.)

The Difference a Year Makes ★

Mark Gurman, tonight:

Testing 5G on an Android flagship in Los Angeles (a major city obviously) on T-Mobile — consistently seeing worse to equivalent on 5G versus 4G. Where’s the improvement? [...]

I was sort of surprised how much time Apple spent marketing 5G today. When 3G got improvements in 2011 with the iPhone 4s, Apple basically shrugged it off. When they added 4G, it was very much positioned as a checking a box. This year, it’s almost the whole story.

Mark Gurman, 13 months ago:

I’ve seen a short-sighted meme from the usual suspects that the iPhone 11 is fine without 5G support because the U.S. doesn’t have much 5G coverage. Remember: People now keep phones for 3 years, and 5G will be strong in key markets within 12 months, including China and the U.S.

Revolutionary, Indeed ★

This is the Revolution R180 — a $270 toaster “controlled by a touchscreen with 63 precise settings for everything from bread and bagels to English Muffins and waffles”.

This is a 25-year-old internet joke that the people who made this toaster should have read before creating it.