Linked List: September 16, 2024

Monday, 16 September 2024

Ten Years of Six Colors 

Jason Snell:

Ten years sure seems like a long time.

Ten years ago the iPhone got physically big for the first time. (In the ensuing decade, iPhone revenue has doubled.) Ten years ago Apple announced the Apple Watch.

Ten years ago I found myself without a job for the first time.

I ran into Snell before (and again after) Apple’s event last week, and he mentioned that it marked Six Colors’s 10th anniversary. My reaction: I somehow simultaneously think of Six Colors as still kinda new and a bedrock, irreplaceable part of the Apple media firmament.

On days like today, it’s the first site I visit, because of pieces like these:

And, nearest and dearest to my heart, Snell’s review of MacOS 15 Sequoia. All of that, just today.

Apple Watch’s Sleep Apnea Detection Feature Now Available in More Than 150 Countries 

Joe Rossignol, reporting for MacRumors:

Apple released watchOS 11 today following months of beta testing. A key new health-related feature included in the software update is sleep apnea detection, which is available starting today on the Apple Watch Series 10, Apple Watch Series 9, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in more than 150 countries and regions, according to Apple.

The list of countries includes the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and many others, with a full list available on Apple’s website. A few English-speaking countries where the feature is not yet available are Australia and Canada, as Apple is still seeking regulatory clearance for the feature in some regions.

Apple has also published the clinical validation summary for the sleep apnea notification feature.

Thierry Breton Resigns, Forced Out by the European Commission President 

Thierry Breton, in a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission:

On 24 July, you wrote to Member States asking them to nominate candidates for the 2024-2029 College of Commissioner, specifying that Member States that intend to suggest the incumbent Member of the Commission were not required to suggest two candidates. On 25 July, President Emmanuel Macron designated me as France’s official candidate for a second mandate in the College of Commissioners — as he had already publicly announced on the margins of the European Council on 28 June. A few days ago, in the very final stretch of negotiations on the composition of the future College, you asked France to withdraw my name — for personal reasons that in no instance you have discussed directly with me — and offered, as a political trade-off, an allegedly more influential portfolio for France in the future College. You will now be proposed a different candidate.

Over the past five years, I have relentlessly striven to uphold and advance the common European good, above national and party interests. It has been an honour.

However, in light of these latest developments — further testimony to questionable governance — I have to conclude that I can no longer exercise my duties in the College.

I am therefore resigning from my position as European Commissioner, effective immediately.

Translation from bureaucratese to English: “Faced with being fired for being a jackass or resigning, I resign.”

I’m starting to get the feeling that the EC’s regulatory arm is not, in fact, politically popular in the EU.