Linked List: December 11, 2020

Friday, 11 December 2020

Supreme Court Rejects Texas Lawsuit Challenging Biden’s Victory 

The New York Times:

In a series of briefs filed Thursday, the four states that Texas sought to sue condemned the effort. “The court should not abide this seditious abuse of the judicial process, and should send a clear and unmistakable signal that such abuse must never be replicated,” a brief for Pennsylvania said.

On Friday morning, Texas’ attorney general, Ken Paxton, responded with his own brief. “Whatever Pennsylvania’s definition of sedition,” he wrote, “moving this court to cure grave threats to Texas’ right of suffrage in the Senate and its citizens’ rights of suffrage in presidential elections upholds the Constitution, which is the very opposite of sedition.”

If it’s not according-to-Hoyle sedition, it sure as shit is close enough to smell like it, you deliciously stupid but frighteningly anti-democratic traitor tots. The whole thing is utterly shameful, and would be nothing but comical if it weren’t making a hash of our nation’s most sacred tenet.

Somebody Tell This Guy He Can Just Buy a Cup to Keep Upstairs 

From the NYT, “How John Foley, Peloton Co-Founder, Spends His Sundays”:

Twenty years ago a colleague told me the key to your day is to hydrate at much as you can, so the first thing I do is drink 40 sips of water from my hand at the upstairs bathroom sink. It’s efficient. I drink until I feel like I’m going to throw up water. Every day.

Cydia Sues Apple on Antitrust Grounds 

Reed Albergotti, reporting for The Washington Post:

A new lawsuit brought by one of Apple’s oldest foes seeks to force the iPhone maker to allow alternatives to the App Store, the latest in a growing number of cases that aim to curb the tech giant’s power.

The lawsuit was filed on Thursday by the maker of Cydia, a once-popular app store for the iPhone that launched in 2007, before Apple created its own version. The lawsuit alleges that Apple used anti-competitive means to nearly destroy Cydia, clearing the way for the App Store, which Cydia’s attorneys say has a monopoly over software distribution on iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system.

What a hacky way to describe Cydia. The whole opening presents Cydia as straight up legit, as though being an “app store” on iPhone in 2007 had any means of working other than exploiting security vulnerabilities. And describing Cydia as “one of Apple’s oldest foes” is a deep shade of purple prose to say the least. Regarding “oldest”, it’s not like Apple was a new company in 2007. Regarding describing Cydia as Apple’s “foe”, well, I’m reminded of that scene in Mad Men. You know the one.

‘This Case Is Weird’ 

Marques Brownlee’s unboxing and first impressions of AirPods Max. Pretty solid consensus among those of us with review units that the headphones are really good — both build and audio quality — and the “Smart Case” pouch is bafflingly inadequate.

Like Matthew Panzarino, Nilay Patel draws a comparison between cheap feel of the AirPods Max case and the $130 MagSafe Duo charger (which requires a $20 20W adapter).

iJustine makes the point that for $550, Apple should include a color-matched USB-C to Lightning cable.

Matthew Panzarino’s ‘Not a Review’ First Look at AirPods Max 

Matthew Panzarino, writing at TechCrunch:

The lack of real folding options on these, the material in the netting and the pretty definitive “one way” these are meant to articulate means that I do not see these being a regular travel companion for me, on initial pass. Oh, and the case is just as ridiculous as it looks. Sorry. The construction here is just as dodgy as the MagSafe Duo. It feels cheap, and like it will dirty easily, not exactly what you want from a “travel case”. And it looks like a butt.

The sound is impressive. Don’t worry about this being in the Beats region of a bass-heavy crowd pleaser. Though there is plenty of low end, this is a more nuanced affair, with crisp delivery across the spectrum.

I can’t tell if the case looks more like a butt or a bikini top. But it really does seem like material that will stain easily, especially the colors other than Space Gray.

The Beats comparison brings up a point I’ve been meaning to mention — the Beats hardware teams still seems to operate as an independent subsidiary within Apple. It’s not just a name Apple puts on certain Apple-designed headphones. It’s a company that still makes Beats-designed headphones. And I get the distinct impression that Apple’s own audio engineering team doesn’t think much of the Beats products.