pdnoble

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pdnoble
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  • Inside Apple Music: how you can get the most out of Apple's music streaming service

    pdnoblepdnoble
    For anyone interested, there is an excellent book: ‘How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt’ that recounts the development of MP-3 and AAC audio compression at the Fraunhofer Institute in the 1980s. Turns out Philips put pressure on them to support MP-3 because it included their patents. AAC was considered a slightly more refined algorithm, which Apple adopted. 

    These ‘good enough’ standards were developed due to the need for radical file compression requirements due to storage and transmission bandwidth limitations at the time. Today we are downloading and storing hi-res lossless tracks on our iPhones so storage is not an issue and bandwidth on one’s own WiFi network for hi res streaming isn’t either. There is no cost to you (or Apple) for using more WiFi bandwidth. 

    Thus, there seems no good reason not to allow lossless audio transmission from Apple Music to personal sound systems, even if many of these systems and most of their owners couldn’t objectively differentiate. 

    Arguably some do and some can. 
    williamlondonlotonesdewmeneoncatFileMakerFeller

  • Apple's next HomePod could be a desktop or TV sound bar

    pdnoblepdnoble
    The killer product would, from my POV, be a high performance sound bar with Apple TV and FaceTime camera and microphone. 
    williamlondondewmewatto_cobraAlex1NDavidArgento

  • Apple added more than 30 million paid subscriptions in 2022

    pdnoblepdnoble
    30 million more subscribers, not subscriptions: 30 million Apple device owners buying services for the first time this quarter.

    30 million new subscriptions would be inconsequential considering there are more than 1 billion discrete Apple customers: would mean less than 3% of Apple customers purchased new services. 

    Services revenues went up 12.64%.  

    watto_cobrawilliamlondon

  • M2 MacBook Air review roundup: This is the Mac you're looking for

    pdnoblepdnoble
    On an aesthetic note: I had immediately ordered a midnight blue custom configuration, which looks terrific in marketing photos, despite warnings re fingerprints by those at the introduction. THEY WERE, OF COURSE, ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! I just went to the Apple Store and the Midnight Blue display unit, on display for just one hour, looked absolutely awful. Covered in fingerprints. By far the worst affected color. Even space gray seems unaffected. I immediately cancelled the order and reordered in the traditional Silver. The good news: my delivery is unaffected: August 1-8. The traditional silver anyhow still looks, to my eye, the best by far, putting fingerprints aside.
    williamlondonwatto_cobraAlex_V

  • What you need to know about Apple's MagSafe Battery Pack

    pdnoblepdnoble
    From the Apple support doc:

    When charging on the go, your MagSafe Battery Pack can charge your iPhone with up to 5W of power. If connected to a 20W or higher power source, it can charge with up to 15W of power. 


    So it does work as a full performance substitute to the 15w desktop MagSafe charger, but ‘on the go’ - why else would one pay $99 for a battery pack - it is rather underwhelming in both power and performance. 
    williamlondonwatto_cobra