Linked List: April 15, 2021

Thursday, 15 April 2021

Jackie Robinson on Where to Buy Gasoline ★

Today is Jackie Robinson Day in MLB. To celebrate, here’s the great Buck O’Neil sharing a Jackie Robinson story with David Letterman. Quite a few lessons here that are as apt today as they were then.

Ming-Chi Kuo Says No iPhone Mini in 2022 ★

GSMArena on a new report from Ming-Chi Kuo:

Starting with next year’s iPhone 14 lineup — it will consist of two 6.1-inch iPhones and two 6.7-inch iPhones. That means that Apple will stop making the 5.4-inch iPhone mini starting from next year — there will still be an iPhone 13 mini in 2021, but it’s expected to be made in lower quantities.

Say it ain’t so — I love the Mini.

Update: Here are some not-so-good usage numbers from David Smith. But I’ll offer one reason to hold out hope. I think you need to see and feel the iPhone 12 Mini to truly grok just how much smaller and lighter it is, while still having the same A14 chip and same camera system as the regular iPhone 12. Yet almost no one has been able or willing to go to stores to play with phones since it’s been out because of the pandemic. You tell people it’s 5.4 inches diagonal instead of 6.1 and sure, that sounds smaller. But you pick it up and hold it and use it and it’s like, Holy shit, this is so nice and small.

University of Oxford: Risk of Rare Blood Clotting Higher for COVID-19 Than for Vaccines ★

The University of Oxford:

COVID-19 leads to a several-times higher risk of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) blood clots than current COVID-19 vaccines.

Researchers at the University of Oxford have today reported that the risk of the rare blood clotting known as cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) following COVID-19 infection is around 100 times greater than normal, several times higher than it is post-vaccination or following influenza.

The FDA and CDC better put an emergency pause on people getting infected with COVID.

You’ll Never Guess the Source of the Top Facebook Post About the J&J Vaccine (Narrator: You’ll Guess It) ★

Miles Parks, reporting for NPR:

CNN. ABC News. The New York Times. Fox News.

Those are the publishers of four of the five most popular Facebook posts of articles about the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine this week. They’re ranked 2 to 5 in total interactions, according to data from the tracking tool CrowdTangle. The No. 1 posting, however, isn’t from a news organization. Or a government official. Or a public health expert.

The most popular link on Facebook about the Johnson & Johnson news was shared by a conspiracy theorist and self-described “news analyst & hip-hop artist” named An0maly who thinks the pandemic is a cover for government control.

It’s a stark example of what experts warn could be a coming deluge of false or misleading information related to the one-shot vaccine.

The problem isn’t that the FDA and CDC want to look into this possible blood clotting issue. The problem is the way they announced it. What these ass-covering bureaucrats don’t get is that the messaging — marketing, really — around these vaccines is just as important as the science. And the way they messaged this “pause” — that a one-in-a-million side effect is worth immediately hitting the panic button over — is right out of the Anti-Vax 101 textbook.

Also: fuck Facebook.

Decision to ‘Pause’ Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Causes Public Confidence in Vaccine to Sink ★

YouGov:

Fieldwork for the latest Economist/YouGov poll on vaccine safety perceptions was in the midst of being conducted when the Centers for Disease Control made the decision to suspend the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The CDC has recommended a pause on administering doses of the vaccine while it completes an investigation of the six cases of blood clots discovered in women who had been vaccinated with it.

Comparing the results from those who took the survey before the announcement with those who took the survey afterward shows the huge impact the CDC’s decision has had on the perceived safety of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Among those who started the survey before the announcement about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine pause, about half (52%) considered the shot “very safe” or “somewhat safe” - twice the number who believed it “very unsafe” or “somewhat unsafe.” After the announcement was made, these figures had converged — just 37% called the vaccine safe, and 39% feeling it unsafe.

Good job maligning an excellent vaccine — the only one approved in the U.S. that requires only one dose and does not require extreme refrigeration.

Kosta Eleftheriou’s App Store Scam of the Day: ‘Jungle Runner 2k21’ ★

Kosta Eleftheriou on Twitter:

This @AppStore app pretends to be a silly platformer game for children 4+, but if I set my VPN to Turkey and relaunch it becomes an online casino that doesn’t even use Apple’s IAP.

In other countries, the same app shows different local casinos — Kazakhstan and Italy, for example. The developer isn’t running the online casinos. He’s just showing the casino websites in a web view, and collecting new user bonuses when people sign up through his embedded affiliate code.

Countdown until this app is removed from the App Store in 3… 2… 1… [Update: One day later and poof, it’s gone.]

(Pedantic note, but no real-money casino could ever use Apple’s in-app purchases. App Store developers get paid by Apple monthly (a whole nother issue — Stripe can pay out weekly or even daily). Real-money online casinos only accept instant irrevocable transfers.)

‘Apple vs. Facebook: Why iOS 14.5 Started a Big Tech Fight’ ★

Fun, fair, and informative video from Joanna Stern at the Wall Street Journal on the showdown between Apple and Facebook (and war of words between Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg) over iOS 14.5’s imminent crackdown on surveillance advertising. Or as Nicole Nguyen summarizes the video: “featuring abs and ads”. (I’d buy one of those Tim Cook ~~dolls~~ action figures. The Zuck figure isn’t as good a likeness, but it’s hard to make a doll from a person who already looks like a mannequin.)

MKBHD on the OnePlus 9 Pro ★

Great review from Marques Brownlee — as ever — of one of the most interesting Android phones on the market.

But what struck me was OnePlus’s custom interface for zooming the camera. You can see it in action starting around the 14:27 mark of the video. Instead of pinching-to-zoom in the viewfinder, like every other touchscreen phone, you can instead tap-and-hold on the zoom factor button and you get a flywheel interface you can rotate to choose a precise level of zoom. OnePlus’s clever UI designers were even thoughtful enough to make sure the flywheel’s diameter is exactly the right size so that the circle intersects precisely at the corners of the UI. Chef’s kiss.

They must be very proud over there at OnePlus for their ingenuity in designing this interface.

Reuters Is Putting Its Website Behind a Paywall and Its Head Up Its Ass ★

Katie Robertson, reporting for The New York Times:

The company, one of the largest news organizations in the world, announced the new paywall on Thursday, as well as a redesigned website aimed at a “professional” audience wanting business, financial and general news.

After registration and a free preview period, a subscription to Reuters.com will cost $34.99 a month, the same as Bloomberg’s digital subscription. The Wall Street Journal’s digital subscription costs $38.99 a month, while The New York Times costs $18.42 monthly.

Reuters is to news as a few slices of Velveeta on Wonder Bread is to sandwiches: the blandest of the bland. This seems nutty to me, bang-for-the-buck-wise.

Republicans, Dark Money, and Corporate America’s Role in Politics ★

Congratulations to everyone who ran Al Franken — clearly the best and most engaging communicator the Democrats have had since Bill Clinton — out of the Senate over a bunch of bullshit that everyone now regrets. But, on the other hand, if he were still in the Senate, we probably wouldn’t get to hear his hilarious Mitch McConnell impression.