dangermouse2

thedba said:

Most Audiophiles who care about these things will not be listening through your common run of the mill, Airpods or Sonys or Bose headphones.

They’re more likely to go with

Focal Bathys: $799

B&W PX8: $699

Mark Levinson 5909: $999

And the above three are just the wireless “but can also do wired”, options.

When you start getting into the wired options, then all of the above prices look like bargain basement.

jdw said:

crowley said:

Apple's software, Apple's services, no breakage.

LOL.  I can't wait to hear Tim Cook quote your words on his next TV interview about how Apple is defending privacy as a right...

Interviewer: "Mr. Cook, you have long defended Privacy as a right and outlined in detail the steps Apple has taken to protect that right.  How do you harmonize your current plan to hash-scan for CSAM images on-device prior to their being uploaded to iCloud?"

Tim Cook: "Apple's software. Apple's services. No privacy broken!"

LOL.

dewme said:

The manner in which Apple is rolling out this ATT feature is very weird. I can't tell whether Apple is being a total wuss because they don't want to offend the tracking-meisters or whatever, but all this focus on "Asking for permission" kind of pisses me off. The way it's being shown in Apple's UI and the excessive verbiage behind it almost seems like Apple is trying to intentionally confuse users or avoid confrontation with the trackers.

F the "permission" or "request" crapola, just give me a switch that says "I don't want anyone tracking me" and then Apple does whatever it takes in their OS to either block all tracking attempts or to detect who is violating my "Do not track" edict so they can be punished. End of story. With this switch ON I don't care when Facebook or anyone else decides to ask my permission because I've already said "no," and don't bother asking me at all. 

Sure, I have no problem also giving users two other alternatives, "Let me decide which apps can track me" and "Let all apps track me" for people who are into that kind of thing. Party on, tracked people. This whole "permission" thing looks exactly like Apple kowtowing to the trackers by giving them a forum to try to 'splain' to their customers WHY they should allow the app to track them and collect personal information. But for those of us who don't even want to hear their lame song & dance, once I flip the "I don't want anyone tracking me" I want Apple to take down that stage because I am not going to attend any of those shows.

Okay, now that I've said how I really feel ... the truth is that Apple kind of gives those of us who want to annihilate tracking (to the extent that is possible) a way to achieve this. The problem is that they hide it behind mealy mouth doublespeak by in the form of the "Allow Apps to Request to Track" switch. Flipping that switch to OFF basically says "I don't want anyone tracking me" and "by the way, don't bother asking." For people who want to kill tracking, asking for permission, or flipping a switch that allows apps to ask for permission is totally beside the point. This kind of switch makes it sound like you have to wait for a Facebook to ask before you can tell them to go pound sand, when in reality you can send them packing and pounding sand today. 

So the real question has nothing to do with when Facebook will ask for permission. The real question is when Facebook will start to honor the tracking prohibitions that I put in place TODAY. Not trying to pick on Facebook, just trying to frame this up in the proper context, i.e., that we should not be waiting for those who track us to stop doing so. They should be on our timetable, not the other way around. The clock is ticking...