lorin schultz

mac_128 said:
[...] if Apple makes a HP with an upfiring speaker, their AirPlay 2 solution with a multiple HP setup will be easier than ever to setup a reliable, high quality, home theater ATMOS environment. Just plug in four HPs around the room, tie them together in sync with the picture, and it should be an immersive experience.

I suppose, with the conditions you've specified, that might be possible, but I don't know that it would be a particularly desirable approach. The whole point of surround sound is to localize specific sounds. The goal is to make it obvious that a sound is coming from the front left or right rear or some point in between. The HomePod is designed to create a diffuse, radiating sound field, which obfuscates the point of origin. That's inconsistent with a good surround sound experience.

There's also the fact that AP2 only supports stereo, so it's not capable of delivering the four channels of audio that would be required for the setup you describe.

Atmos will not allow a soundbar or other simple setup to magically emulate a multi-speaker theatre array. For Atmos to provide any benefit, the playback system, including speakers, has to be configured to take advantage of it.

The benefit of Atmos is that it changes the way the filmmaker describes where sounds are supposed to be located in physical space. Instead of assigning a specific sound to a particular channel, the mix engineer simply assigns a location for each sound. Atmos then automatically scales to the system on which it's being played. If you have a stereo playback system you'll still get stereo, even with Atmos.

On a typical 5.1 speaker system, Atmos won't sound a lot different than the "traditional" 5.1 surround mix. Where it begins to shine is in setups with additional speakers for side fill, overhead and front elevation. These systems provide Atmos the flexibility to steer sounds into additional physical placements, including height. That can be a definite benefit, but only if you have speakers in places that take advantage of it.

Unless you have more speakers around your room than a standard 5.1 setup, don't expect Atmos to revolutionize your listening experience.

benjer said:

kkqd1337 said:

I’d imagine most people here like me will want the 6.5 OLED. But really it would be sensible to get the LCD.

There's the rub. While OLED would be nice (I don't know if I could do a huge phone, though, I still need to carry it in my pocket), at this point I'm not ready to pay the price difference. (That whole "sensible" thing you mentioned.) That being said, I do remember using an iPhone 4 for a day (with retina display) then thinking, "I can never go back." But I'm not sure the difference between LED and OLED is as drastic on a phone, unless you watch a lot of content on your phone.

I do. I watch a lot of content on my phone. When the X came out I gave it a really thorough look, side-by-side with the 8+. My conclusion was that the OLED in the X is better than the LCD in the 8, but not enough better to be a major influence on my decision. Whether or not the cost of an OLED is "worth it" is a value judgement, but for me it seemed like an example of diminishing returns -- the increase in cost is greater than the increase in value to the user -- but that's true of most products when you reach the top of the range.

tylersdad said:
[...] It's nice to see Apple focusing on improving performance, but this will likely do little for those of us who don't buy the latest and greatest.

I agree that it doesn't seem to improve things much, at least at this point, but it's nice to know it won't make things worse. I heard a lot of complaining about slowdowns after updating to 11. If nothing else, perhaps iOS12 will calm the fear of upgrades.

MisterKit said:

[...] pull up the simple built in Notes app running all by itself and the keyboard chokes as you type.

I wonder if this is a result of predictive text using a network connection to access its brain? It's annoying as hell, and often results in the phone missing characters I've typed.


Speaking of that, a wish for a future review: Test the time it takes between pressing an on-screen input and something actually happening.

My biggest complaint about my iPhone 6 with iOS11 is lag and response. I often have to press a button two or three times before it does anything. Sometimes it seems to just not register a touch, other times it just takes so long to DO anything that I think it missed the input. This is ironic given how one of the most common arguments in support of iPhones used to be "no lag." I'd be interested in knowing if iOS12 improves that. (I'm assuming that other people with older devices have similar issues and that it's not unique to me.)

fastasleep said:

lorin schultz said:

fastasleep said:

[...] QuickTime Player 7 was last updated like 9 years ago. Yes, it had some handy features, and maybe Apple will update the current QuickTime Player to include some of those functions at some point. Maybe they already have or will in Mojave (or the subsequent release) but I haven't seen anyone check for sure. Maybe not.

Either way, if you rely on these ancient tools for some reason, run an older macOS in a virtual machine so you can access 32bit apps. Problem solved. I'd personally just find a suitable modern replacement though.

Actually, I'll concede the dumbing down of Quicktime player as a point of disappointment for me. Moving to a "modern replacement" isn't as easy as just a trip to the app store in this case. Quicktime 7 does some useful things that are either not readily available elsewhere or require using tools that are much more involved and complicated. I can't think of another app off the top of my head that will do a quick trim without re-encoding, while also providing an easy way to add additional or alternative audio tracks, chapter markers, and captioning. I use it al the time for stuff like that. I could use Final Cut and Compressor to do those things, but doing so is comparatively slow, cumbersome, expensive, and adds an additional degradation layer.

I suppose you're right that Apple may add similar features elsewhere, but I haven't heard or read anything that gives me reason to expect they will. In fact, hearing the words "deprecate Quicktime framework" in the Keynote leads me to believe it's unlikely.

Trust me, I fully agree. I was disappointed with Quicktime Player X when it came out for these reasons, and still am annoyed with the overlaid controls, rounded corners, and lack of features in QT7. I just mean that it's out of our hands. Maybe they'll update QTP to include some or all of these features once QT7 officially dies in 10.15 or even before, maybe they won't. If they don't, we'll have to move on. For now, they still offer QT7 as a download and it still works, so I don't see the point in freaking out just yet.

Gotcha. I now understand what you meant.

Freaking out early and often is sort of standard operating procedure when it comes to long-time Apple users, so I assumed that's what we were supposed to do. Like with the routers. Apparently I must now discard my working Airport Extremes and immediately buy something else because Apple has discontinued them.