Linked List: May 6, 2021

Thursday, 6 May 2021

Yours Truly on Peter Kafka’s ‘Recode Media’ Podcast, Talking Epic vs. Apple ★

Peter Kafka was kind enough to invite me on his podcast this week to talk — a little! — about the Epic-Apple lawsuit that started in court this week. I think I articulated pretty well my takes on what Apple should be allowed to do with the App Store and iOS, and what Apple should do with the App Store and iOS. I’m linking here to Kafka’s story for Recode about our discussion, but here are direct listening links for the episode. I say listen before you read, if you have time:

The Art in the Oval Office Through the Decades ★

Great visualizations from The New York Times. I like Biden’s choices.

More on Night Shift and Sleep Benefits ★

Michael Tsai, regarding that BYU study suggesting that Night Shift doesn’t really offer any sleep benefits:

Sleep benefits or not, I do find it more comfortable. Perhaps BYU’s results differ from previous studies because Night Shift shifts the colors much less than f.lux or blue light glasses.

I’ve long heard from friends and readers who enjoy Night Shift (and F.lux) simply because they feel it reduces eye strain. Comfort is comfort — if you think Night Shift feels easier on your eyes, go ahead and use it. (That’s why so many people use the feature that swaps from light mode to dark mode by time-of-day.) What I object to is the “may help you get a better night’s sleep” claim. Apple should keep the feature but change the language describing it to remove any suggestion that it’s a sleep aid, unless subsequent studies suggest otherwise. Describe it as something that “may reduce eye strain” or something.

For every person who genuinely enjoys Night Shift, I wonder how many people are using it despite thinking that it’s ugly because they believe this description from Apple that it might improve their sleep?