uphill

Quick first impressions:

1) This app retains the utterly ignorant-of-classical-music method of assembling playlists that was so infuriating with Apple Music. One is presented with the third movement of this followed by the first movement of that, and so on. The people at Apple Music simply view each part of any complex classical composition as a separate, independent "song". It's like reading chapter 3 of one book followed by chapter 12 of another book etc. This ignores the fact that all the movements of a classical composition are actually a whole narrative that loses meaning and context when broken, separated and thrown together randomly.

Clearly, Apple has not hired anyone who actually understands classical music but just people who view it in the paradigm of pop or jazz albums that are indeed collections of "songs" that can generally stand alone as independent pieces.

2) On the positive side, if one avoids the ignorant playlists, it is quite a bit easier to find music by an actual composer or by the name of a composition. A search on "Gotterdammerung" for example yields the actual Wagner opera and not a page of miscellaneous pop recordings that have little or nothin to do with Wagner, or opera.

Don't get me wrong: I listen to and love a wide variety of pop, rock, jazz, World, etc. music. I am just dismayed that Apple, one of the richest and most innovative companies in the history of the World, can't find even one person who understands the important differences amongst various genres of music.

AirParrot has issued an update that is compatible with tvOS 10.2. It works OK for my setup.

eriamjh said:

jabohn said:

 It applies to all residents in all provinces in British Columbia, except for Quebec.

Pardon me? British Columbia IS a province.

Right.  It should say that Quebec is not part of Canada, but, rather, the world's largest theme park.

Yes! I grew up in Montreal and four years ago finally had the opportunity to "rentrer chez moi" (move back to the home I love). Especially now that I am retired, it really seems that this wonderful city and the province it is in, are indeed like a big theme park. Nowhere of course is perfect, but for me exploring and enjoying all the great places and events here is an endless source of pleasure.

Using a phone for payment is incredibly awkward and old-fashioned. Nearly as archaic as using actual cards. I don't think I have used my iPhone for payment for at least 6 or 7 years. Apple watch is for me the only way to go. Works in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and more recently in some places in the US. So let's hope Apple quickly enables receiving payment on a watch. 

On thing not clear: with this "new" method of receiving payment, must the payer revert to the hopelessly antiquated and insecure method of using an actual card, or will the cards on my watch work?

There seems to be one glaringly fatal weakness in Stolen Device Protection: The fact that apparently Apple trusts people that I have no reason to trust.

If a frequently visited location, like for example a post-secondary classroom is recognized as a significant location, then the phone is as defenceless as it would be without the protection. Do I implicitly trust everyone in my Social Studies classroom? Is everyone there even a registered student?

I don't speak for myself, but for my nephew who is in a post-secondary studies programme.

Or is it possible, for example for the metro station I use almost every day to become a significant location? I certainly don't automatically trust anyone there.

Perhaps there is a way to "turn off" some frequently visited locations, but I don't see it. The intent of Stolen Device Protection is good, but I don't think it has been appropriately thought out but has kind of been rushed to market in order for Apple to look good, but not necessarily to give truly reliable protection.

Perhaps Apple is testing out just one of the new Apple Silicon Mac Minis as the sole server to handle distribution of this update for the entire world?

Almost makes one nostalgic for the days of dial-up modems. I don't remember even them being quite so slow.

Dozens of labels other than D.G.G., thank-you. For decades to be precise. D.G.G. has some good stuff in their catalogue, but is by no means the best for all compositions. If one wants to appreciate, for example, the richness of Beethoven's symphonies, one ought to listen to numerous interpretations, which means one inevitably needs to listen to offerings from many other labels. This is true of most classical music and quite a lot of music in general. When someone claims to "Know what they like", they really mean they like what they know. Restricting oneself to just one source seems to be a pretty impoverished condition.

"Major new features in macOS Big Sur"


Many of us have discovered one of them: It's unavailable.

Spoke too soon. It's downloading now, even though delayed by over ¾ of an hour.