Linked List: March 29, 2021

Monday, 29 March 2021

Ming-Chi Kuo Says Apple’s AR/VR Headset Will Weigh Less Than 150 Grams ★

Filipe Espósito, writing for 9to5Mac:

As mentioned by Kuo, current virtual reality headsets typically weigh over 300 grams and have a bulky form factor, which is something Apple wants to solve for its own headset. Apple’s VR device is expected to adopt Fresnel’s hybrid ultra-short focal length lens that have improved field of view, as well as reduced weight and thickness.

The analyst believes that the new Apple-built headset will weigh less than 150 grams, which will be a big advantage when compared to similar devices that currently exist. The device will be equipped with lenses made of plastic instead of glass, which are lighter — but details about the durability of the material are unknown.

Of course an Apple headset would be much lighter than the hardware currently on the market. That’s exactly the sort of thing Apple excels at. No flagship Android phone even approaches the size and weight of the iPhone 12 Mini. And there still aren’t any serious rivals to Apple Watch that are anywhere near as small as the larger 44mm models, let alone the 40mm ones. (It’s debatable whether there are any serious rivals to Apple Watch, period, but that’s another topic.)

Update: Paraphrased question from a few readers: “But what about AirPods Max, they’re heavier than most noise-cancelling headphones?” That is a good counterexample, but it’s not like AirPods Max are the only AirPods, or even the mainstream AirPods. “Max”, in Apple parlance, is an excuse to be heavy: The Pro Max iPhone models are heavy phones.

China Boycotts Western Clothes Brands Over Xinjiang Cotton ★

The Economist:

For more than a year some big foreign apparel and technology companies have been walking a fine line on the human-rights abuses committed by China against Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority in the north-western region of Xinjiang. These firms have been working to clear their supply chains of the forced labour of Uyghurs, hundreds of thousands of whom pick cotton under apparently coercive conditions. What they have not done is boast about these efforts, fearful of angering the Communist Party and 1.4bn Chinese consumers. “Usually in our work it’s easier to get companies to say they’re doing the right thing than to actually do it,” says Scott Nova of the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), a labour-monitoring organisation, and the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region. “On this issue, with limited exceptions, the opposite is true.”

An online furore stoked by Chinese authorities this week suggests that Beijing may be tiring of this double game. China’s government, increasingly keen to punish critics of their Xinjiang policies, is forcing foreign companies to make a choice they have been studiously trying to avoid: support China or get out of the Chinese market.

You play with fire, you eventually get burned. It seems inevitable that more and more companies doing business in China are going to run into conflict between western cultural values and CCP demands that run contrary to them.

CDC: Moderna and Pfizer Vaccines Are Highly Effective in Real-World Conditions ★

Gina Kolata, reporting for The New York Times:

The coronavirus vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are proving highly effective at preventing symptomatic and asymptomatic infections under real-world conditions, federal health researchers reported on Monday.

Consistent with clinical trial data, a two-dose regimen prevented 90 percent of infections by two weeks after the second shot. One dose prevented 80 percent of infections by two weeks after vaccination. […]

Scientists have debated whether vaccinated people may still get asymptomatic infections and transmit the virus to others. The new study, by researchers at the C.D.C., suggested that since infections were so rare, transmission is likely rare, too.

There also has been concern that variants may render the vaccines less effective. The study’s results do not confirm that fear. Troubling variants were circulating during the time of the study — from December 14, 2020 to March 13, 2021 — yet the vaccines still provided powerful protection.

This is just amazingly good news all around. The vaccines don’t just prevent the vaccinated from getting sick, but they almost certainly stop asymptomatic spread, too. And the 4,000 people chosen for the CDC study were at high risk, because they’re front-line health care workers and first responders. For those of us at lower risk, the results should be even better.