thedba

crowley said:

thedba said:

elijahg said:

jeff fields said:

danox said:

Japhey said:

Mike Wuerthele said:

AppleZulu said:

It’s a typo, I’m sure, but on the linked Apple support page, under “How to listen to lossless on your Apple TV 4K,” it says you should first “update your Apple TV 4K to tvOS 11.4.”

We’ve had lossless for years and didn’t even know it!

This has just been a spectacular own-goal from Apple from the jump. The Bluetooth lack of support for Apple Music Lossless wasn't a giant surprise, but the messaging surrounding it all has been replete with holes, wrong information, and modifications for the last five days.

An “own-goal” is a great way to put it. Some of Apple’s moves the last few months have defied logic. I mean, why even announce lossless until it was supported by the audio lineup? I don’t own a HomePod, but if I did I would be pretty pissed off right now. I’m really hoping WWDC will bring some unexpected new hardware announcements that will make sense of these seemingly erratic decisions. 

The HomePod having wired in and out audio connections would have made all the difference (future proofed it), a great many more people would have bought the HomePod.

You might want to double-check your comprehension of the concept of "future-proofing". Just as a hint, it does not involve integrating more legacy support for technologies that will be used less and less in the future.

Only analog audio will never go away, because we as humans can only hear analog audio, not digital. The 3.5" jacks will always be present in the future for things like headphones, especially because they're good enough for 99% of the population to listen to music with. So yes, that would have been future proofing. Moreover, Airplay will eventually be abandoned, 802.11ac will become legacy, Apple Music will drop support for HomePods, and the Home app will no longer be able configure HomePods; much like the Airport configuration utility doesn't work for older Airport base stations. Then it won't be possible to play anything on HomePods at all. But with an analog connector, connecting to a HP would always be possible from almost any device, without having to deal with compatibility issues and the whims of Apple's software teams. 

The reason why the HomePod does not have an Aux input jack is because it would probably sound like crap. 

The power of HomePod and speakers like the more modern Sonos line, is in computational audio. Read the room and adjust accordingly. 

Why would an aux input sound like crap?  Other speaker systems manage just fine, why can't Apple's?

elijahg said:

jeff fields said:

danox said:

Japhey said:

Mike Wuerthele said:

AppleZulu said:

It’s a typo, I’m sure, but on the linked Apple support page, under “How to listen to lossless on your Apple TV 4K,” it says you should first “update your Apple TV 4K to tvOS 11.4.”

We’ve had lossless for years and didn’t even know it!

This has just been a spectacular own-goal from Apple from the jump. The Bluetooth lack of support for Apple Music Lossless wasn't a giant surprise, but the messaging surrounding it all has been replete with holes, wrong information, and modifications for the last five days.

An “own-goal” is a great way to put it. Some of Apple’s moves the last few months have defied logic. I mean, why even announce lossless until it was supported by the audio lineup? I don’t own a HomePod, but if I did I would be pretty pissed off right now. I’m really hoping WWDC will bring some unexpected new hardware announcements that will make sense of these seemingly erratic decisions. 

The HomePod having wired in and out audio connections would have made all the difference (future proofed it), a great many more people would have bought the HomePod.

You might want to double-check your comprehension of the concept of "future-proofing". Just as a hint, it does not involve integrating more legacy support for technologies that will be used less and less in the future.

Only analog audio will never go away, because we as humans can only hear analog audio, not digital. The 3.5" jacks will always be present in the future for things like headphones, especially because they're good enough for 99% of the population to listen to music with. So yes, that would have been future proofing. Moreover, Airplay will eventually be abandoned, 802.11ac will become legacy, Apple Music will drop support for HomePods, and the Home app will no longer be able configure HomePods; much like the Airport configuration utility doesn't work for older Airport base stations. Then it won't be possible to play anything on HomePods at all. But with an analog connector, connecting to a HP would always be possible from almost any device, without having to deal with compatibility issues and the whims of Apple's software teams. 

Zeebler said:

A quick refresher...

2017:  - "HomePod is going to do to audio what the iPhone did to smartphones"
           - "Audiophiles are going to dump their $50,000 systems for one of these"
           - "I was at the Apple Store and an Audiophile said it was best thing he has ever heard"
           - "Apple is going to take over home-audio with these"
           - "Apple is going to destroy Google and Amazon with the HomePod"

2021:  - "I hope my discontinued product can play cd quality music files one day..."

darkvader said:

tedz98 said:

I have a new strategy for Mac purchases: I’m buying a Mac mini M1 and a nice monitor. I’ll buy a low end Mini which makes it affordable and easy to upgrade by replacing it. This way I can have the benefits of new compute technology every 2-3 years without having to pay for the cost of the monitor.

My strategy is to pick up Intel Macs for as cheap as I can as quickly as I can.  I'm not going to M1, I've been through too many architecture changes already, and I'm not doing this one.  I've used the M1s, and contrary to the reports, they're slower than Intel in real world use.

I figure the last Mac I'll ever get will be an Intel Mac Pro in a few years.  Maybe a 16" Intel MBP.  And that'll be it for the Mac, I'm already making friends with Xubuntu.