Linked List: November 2, 2023

Thursday, 2 November 2023

Sam Bankman-Fried Found Guilty on All Seven Criminal Fraud Counts ★

MacKenzie Sigalos, reporting for CNBC:

A jury has found Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of all seven criminal counts against him. The FTX founder faces a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison.

Bankman-Fried, the 31-year old son of two Stanford legal scholars and graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud against FTX customers and against Alameda Research lenders, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit commodities fraud against FTX investors, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Given how obvious, blatant, and large-scale his acts of fraud were, it would have been rather shocking if he hadn’t been found guilty.

Behind the Scenes of Apple’s Behind the Scenes of the ‘Scary Fast’ Keynote Film ★

YouTuber Michael Tobin dove into a slew of technical and equipment details revealed in Apple’s behind-the-scenes mini-documentary. One detail a few people have noticed: “Scary Fast” was edited in Adobe Premiere Pro, not Apple’s own Final Cut Pro. Make of that what you will, but it seems like Final Cut fans are getting the heebie-jeebies that Final Cut is going the way of Aperture, and Apple using Premiere Pro for this project isn’t allaying that fear.

Apple Q4 2023 Results ★

Apple Newsroom:

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2023 fourth quarter ended September 30, 2023. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $89.5 billion, down 1 percent year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.46, up 13 percent year over year.

“Today Apple is pleased to report a September quarter revenue record for iPhone and an all-time revenue record in Services,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

From Apple’s financial statement (PDF, figures are in millions of dollars):

Mac sales are down quite a bit year over year, both on a quarterly basis and trailing 12-month period, but I don’t think that’s a reflection on the Mac platform. Rather, it’s the whole PC market, which is now in a downswing after a huge surge during the early Covid years.

Services, at $22.3 billion, is now just over half the net sales for iPhone ($43.8 billion). And Mac + iPad + Wearables/etc. combine for $23.3 billion, so Services seems on the cusp of soon eclipsing all non-iPhone hardware combined.

Dieter Rams Pointing at Things He Doesn’t Like ★

“I like orderly confusion very much. But this is neither orderly nor properly confused.”

Three-minute clip from Gary Hustwit’s wonderful documentary Rams. If you’re a designer and haven’t seen it, watch it tonight. (If you have seen it, maybe watch it again.)

Xiaomi 14 Pro Titanium ★

I don’t know what I find more surprising: that the shameless rip-off artists at Xiaomi didn’t just skip a number and call this the “15 Pro”, or that Leica is willing to have anything to do with them. (Xiaomi’s checks cash, I guess.)