Linked List: August 19, 2023

Saturday, 19 August 2023

Changing Its Name Tanked X’s Downloads in App Store and Play Store 

Speaking of Twitter/X, Eric Seufert, writing on Threads:

Twitter has seen a dramatic decrease in its Top Downloaded chart position across both platforms since the app was renamed to X. Why? The situation presents a fascinating case study at the intersection of brand equity and mobile platform dynamics.

The case is somewhat unprecedented: Twitter built a ubiquitous, household-name brand over the course of nearly 2 decades and then simply abandoned it, leaving it to be exploited by competitors, unopposed, through the mobile platforms’ branded search ads. [...]

My hypothesis is that, while the terminally-online are entirely aware of Twitter’s rebrand to X, most consumers aren’t, and their searches for “Twitter” on platform stores surface ads and genuine search results that are in no way redolent of Twitter.

So if you don’t know that Twitter changed its name to X, and search for “Twitter”, the top result is a paid ad from a competitor (Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, etc.), and the result for X doesn’t look anything like Twitter. It doesn’t have the name, doesn’t say “formerly Twitter”, and isn’t even blue. It’s just the ugly X icon and the insipid slogan “Blaze your glory!”

At this moment, Threads is #2 on the App Store’s top free downloads list, and X is #51. On the Play Store, Threads is #6 and X is (scroll, scroll, scroll...) #66. This rebranding would be a firing offense if the mastermind behind it didn’t own the company. (So much for Threads being the one that’s supposedly gasping for air.)

Amazon Pulls the Rug on ‘The Peripheral’ Season 2 

Joe Otterson, reporting for Variety with the shittiest news of the day:

“The Peripheral” has been canceled at Amazon’s Prime Video, Variety has learned. The news comes despite the fact that Amazon renewed the show for a second season back in February. The series, based on the William Gibson novel of the same name, debuted on Amazon on Oct. 21, 2022.

It starred Chloë Grace Moretz and hailed from executive producers Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan under their rich overall deal with Amazon. According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, the decision to not move forward with the second season was heavily influenced by the ongoing writers and actors strikes. In essence, even if the show was to go back into production soon, Season 2 would not be available until close to if not into 2025. [...]

“The Peripheral” was the first series to debut under Nolan and Joy’s deal with Amazon, which is reportedly worth $150 million. The duo are also prepping a series based on the video game franchise “Fallout,” though that project does not yet have a premiere date. Production was reportedly finished on the series earlier this year.

This sucks. The Peripheral season 1 was really good: smart, entertaining, surprising, great characters and cast. It looked good too. Nolan and Joy were the team behind HBO’s Westworld, and The Peripheral was both stylistically and thematically similar — but just better. It’s like Nolan and Joy took another crack at the same thing. It’s so good I suggest watching it even knowing that there’s no future, and thus it ends very unsatisfyingly.

I’m pissed that Netflix dropped 1899 after just one season, but knowing that 1899 has no future, I’m a bit more reluctant to suggest watching it — it wasn’t nearly as good as The Peripheral. But we’re all used to this from Netflix. Sad to see Amazon go that route.

And I don’t get how the writer and actor strikes justifies this decision at all — everything is going to be delayed by these strikes. This just seems like Amazon getting cheap after they blew billions on a shitty Lord of the Rings show and the big expensive letdown Citadel. A company that isn’t committed to an exceptional show like The Peripheral should get the fuck out of the business.

Little Musk Who Cries ‘Wolf’ Daily Claims X Will ‘Delete’ the Block Feature, But No One Knows What That Even Means 

Adi Robertson, reporting for The Verge:

Elon Musk says X’s — formerly Twitter’s — block feature is on the chopping block, repeating his long-standing gripe against the basic social networking feature. “Block is going to be deleted as a ‘feature’, except for DMs,” Musk said in an X reply on Friday. He followed up with another post: “It makes no sense.”

Twitter founder and multi-time former CEO Jack Dorsey (capitalization sic): “💯. mute only.”

Apple’s App Store Guidelines:

1.2 User-Generated Content

Apps with user-generated content present particular challenges, ranging from intellectual property infringement to anonymous bullying. To prevent abuse, apps with user-generated content or social networking services must include:

  • A method for filtering objectionable material from being posted to the app
  • A mechanism to report offensive content and timely responses to concerns
  • The ability to block abusive users from the service

Excerpted from Google’s Play Store Policy Center on “User Generated Content”:

Apps that contain or feature UGC, including apps which are specialized browsers or clients to direct users to a UGC platform, must implement robust, effective, and ongoing UGC moderation that:

  • Conducts UGC moderation, as is reasonable and consistent with the type of UGC hosted by the app; [...]
  • Provides an in-app system for reporting objectionable UGC and users, and takes action against that UGC and/or user where appropriate;
  • Provides an in-app system for blocking UGC and users;

Both platforms thus require social media apps to support users being able to block other users. Google’s language is unambiguous. The rub is how “blocking” is defined. If all Musk wants to do is changing blocking to mean that blocked users can still see tweets from users who blocked them, but can’t interact (reply, quote, retweet) with them, I think that’s fine. Blocked users can see those tweets by just opening a private/incognito browser tab as it stands. But if Musk wants to truly “delete” the block feature, he’s going to run right into Apple and Google’s app store rules. Google is arguably stricter than Apple about enforcing UGC rules, having kept Donald Trump’s Truth Social app out of the Play Store for months (after it was available in Apple’s App Store) citing insufficient content moderation.

Trump Thinks Fox News Makes Him Look Fat and Orange 

Alternative headline: “Trump Faults Fox News for Accurate Photography”.

‘All His Life Has He Looked Away, to the Future, to the Horizon. Never His Mind on Where He Was. What He Was Doing. What’s Coming Out Just Next Month.’ 

Mark Gurman, in his Power On column for Bloomberg last week:

Because of the Apple Watch’s slow evolution over the years, the design has remained largely the same since the Series 4 launched in 2018 — aside from the Ultra model.

The cause and effect is backwards here: Apple Watch has evolved slowly because the original design nailed it so well. There was a gentle form-factor change with Series 4, but at a glance, today’s Series 8 (and, almost certainly, next month’s Series 9) looks nearly identical to the original “Series 0” models. It’s almost criminally under-remarked-upon just how good the original Apple Watch design was. 1993 Macs didn’t look like the 1984 original Macintosh, except for the gimmicky Color Classic that almost no one bought then and even fewer remember now. The iPhone underwent multiple major form factor revisions in its first decade: iPhone 4, 5, 6, and X. Yet here we are on the cusp of the 9th generation Apple Watch and the original design still looks fresh and remains band-compatible with the original models. But, says Gurman:

But that’s poised to change. Apple is planning a “Watch X” model to mark the device’s 10-year anniversary, and it promises to be the biggest overhaul yet. (The category was unveiled in 2014 and released the following year, so Apple is planning to launch Watch X either in 2024 or 2025.) With the X model, Apple designers are working on a thinner watch case and have explored changing the way bands are attached to the device.

Starting with the original Apple Watch, bands have slid into the sides of the chassis and attached with a locking mechanism. Keeping that design the same let the bands stay compatible with old and new models, but it has downsides. People involved in the development of new Apple Watches say the system takes up a considerable amount of space that could be better filled with a bigger battery or other components.

To that end, the company has explored a new magnetic band attachment system, though it’s unclear if it will be ready or used in the Watch X revamp. Even bigger changes are coming as well: a microLED display that tops the color and clarity of the current OLED screens, as well as a technology for monitoring blood pressure.

Surely the band connectors will break backwards compatibility eventually, but it’s worth noting that even the Apple Watch Ultra is band-compatible with the regular “large” Apple Watches.

If Apple goes with “X” in lieu of “10”, a la iPhone X, I’d still bet on “Series X”, not just “X”. And we can take it to the bank that all this will happen, just like we could when Gurman reported, two weeks before it was announced in 2021, that Series 7 would have both a flat display and flat-sided case. (Series 7 watches in fact had rounder displays and the curvature of the cases didn’t change a whit.)

Watch Bands Get Dirty, Headlines Get Clickbaity 

From a report published in Advances in Infectious Diseases by researchers at Florida Atlantic University, “Prevalence and Disinfection of Bacteria Associated with Various Types of Wristbands”:

Wristbands, often worn daily without routine cleaning, may accumulate potentially pathogenic bacteria. However, the quantity and taxonomy of bacteria found on the wristbands in this experiment show that there is a need for regular and popular sanitation of these surfaces. Generally, it was found that rubber and plastic wristbands had higher bacterial counts, while metal ones, especially gold and silver, had little to no bacteria. Bacteria found were common skin residents, of the genera Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas, and intestinal symbionts, like of the genera Escherichia. The ability of many of these bacteria to significantly affect the health of immunocompromised hosts indicates a special need for healthcare workers and others in hospital environments to regularly sanitize these surfaces. Common household disinfectants, such as Lysol Disinfectant Spray, 70% Ethanol, and Heinz Apple Cider Vinegar all proved at least somewhat effective on all materials (rubber, plastic, cloth, and metal), although antibacterial efficacy was significantly increased at two minutes compared to thirty seconds.

“Apple” appears 14 times in the report; all 14 are references to using apple cider vinegar as a cleanser. Yet here’s how the New York Post ran with it: “Apple Watch, Fitbit Wristbands Carry Shocking Levels of Bacteria: Experts”. Then 9to5Mac, crediting the Post with the scoop: “Your Apple Watch Band Is Likely Covered in Bacteria, New Study Says”.