Linked List: August 29, 2021

Sunday, 29 August 2021

My thanks to Stacker for sponsoring last week at DF. Build business apps without code: Stacker lets you create custom software that perfectly fits the way your business works.

Companies like Adobe, TED, Samsung, and Mozilla use Stacker to create customer portals, collaboration tools, and workflow apps. Connect your existing data, from Airtable, Google Sheets, or Salesforce, and get a working app in minutes. No coding required.

Google’s Circle Jerk ★

Keep in mind as you watch this that Jony Ive left Apple two years ago, and Apple dropped headphone jacks from new iPhones five years ago starting with the iPhones 7. Google’s own high-end Pixels dropped headphone jacks in 2017. As of next month, 40 percent of all iPhone model years will have been headphone-jack-free. This feels about as relevant as mocking the original iMac for not having a floppy drive.

TSMC to Raise Chip Prices by 10–20 Percent ★

Yang Jie, Stephanie Yang, and Yoko Kubota, reporting for The Wall Street Journal (News+):

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plans to increase the prices of its most advanced chips by roughly 10%, while less advanced chips used by customers like auto makers will cost about 20% more, these people said. The higher prices will generally take effect late this year or next year, the people said.

Apple Inc. is one of TSMC’s largest customers and its iPhones use advanced microprocessors made in TSMC foundries. It couldn’t be determined how much more Apple would pay.

Not just iPhones: TSMC manufactures all “Apple silicon”. And no one else can make them. Really, this is just Econ 101: demand for TSMC chips is high, supply is constrained, so prices are going up.

Update: Compelling alternative theory.