Web Finds – January 26, 2023

iPhone Shipments Suffered Double-Digit Drop Over Holiday Quarter, Says IDC

“The research firm estimates that Apple shipped 72.3 million iPhones in the December quarter, down year-on-year from 85 million units, representing a 14.9% drop in shipments compared to the same quarter a year ago.” Part of the down turn could because people are hanging on to their iPhones longer than in the past. I'm still using an iPhone 11 and haven't seen a compelling reason to upgrade to the latest and supposedly greatest for several years.

The absolute audacity of Apple Podcasts

“They tell you your show won’t have an RSS feed, but they don’t tell you what you’re giving up by not having one. This is predatory. Apple is letting people pay $20/year for the privilege of being locked into an ecosystem run by people who think that they’re the best thing since the transistor radio. They make it virtually impossible to leave, even when they offer no meaningful value-add to folks who have outgrown their meager offering. Apple: y’all need to offer a way to leave. Trapping your customers is an incredibly shitty thing to do”

Meta says it will restore Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts

“Facebook-parent Meta said on Wednesday that it will restore former President Donald Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram in the coming weeks, just over two years after suspending him in the wake of the January 6 Capitol attack. “Our determination is that the risk [to public safety] has sufficiently receded,” Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg said in a blog post. “As such, we will be reinstating Mr. Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks. However, we are doing so with new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses.” Trump could be suspended for as much as two years at a time for violating platform policies in the future, Clegg said.” They'll fucking regret this sooner rather than later.

Pickup trucks, from workhorse to joyride

“America has a love affair with pickup trucks. In 2022, the top three best-selling vehicles in America were pickup trucks, and among them, the Ford F-series reigns supreme. The Ford F-150 has been the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for more than 40 years, and for that reason, it’s a useful proxy for pickups overall. But during those 40 years, pickups have changed significantly. They’ve become bigger, heavier and more tricked out, and they’ve transformed from workhorse vehicles to family cruisers.” I have one of these big trucks. A 2019 Toyota Tundra. Where we live in New Jersey there are a lot of trucks and I would say that the majority are used for there designed purpose and not joyriding. We live on 20 wooded acres of land and have lots of animals. We are hauling something in our truck several times a week. Trips for feed and hay, trips to Home Depot, Tractor Supply, firewood, plants, and more.

Crowdfunded DNA test identifies woman found dead in the desert in 1971

“Fingerprint tests from that period were inconclusive. Miller tried running them in a modern database, to no avail. “We struck out there,” Miller said. “We struck out with dental records. And so last resort was to try to ID her through her DNA.””

The one change that didn’t work: I deleted all my social media apps and found myself bored

“I also realised how much I had missed social media’s capacity to inspire. Since people are unpredictable, so is the content they throw up online. Any given scroll might uncover the genius of Takuya Nakamura playing trumpet over drum’n’bass, the writing of Chinelo Okparanta, or a Sylvanian Family drama. It turns out that a bit of time-wasting can lead you down unexpected and delightful paths.”

Has the Silicon Valley Bubble Burst? A Conversation w Jessica Lessin & William Cohan – On with Kara Swisher

“Rapid-fire layoffs, activist investors at the gate and tumbling stock prices — tech has had a bad year. But Kara tells Nayeema she’s seen it all before and that the industry, if not all its captains, will survive this shake-up, too. In the panel interview, Kara is joined by two other journalists: Jessica Lessin, founder and CEO of The Information, a scoop-laden tech news platform covering Silicon Valley, and William Cohan, a former M&A banker and a founding partner at Puck, another excellent source for scoops.”

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