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New iPad Pro ad hammers home Apple's ongoing laptop replacement theme
I think they should market it towards digital artists, that is the safe choice. Because artists will surely be happy with the Apple Pencil and the ability to draw on the screen. Marketing it to everyday people looking to replace their ageing laptop is a riskier proposition because it might not do everything they want, creating ill-will towards Apple.And before people say "But for most people an iPad will be enough," I would say you're right but you're not going far enough! For most people a phone is enough. Therefore people who are looking for a laptop probably have some specific requirement that their phone is not meeting. And since an iPad is quite similar to a phone in many ways, the odds it will not work for them is quite high. Market the iPad to artists and otherwise suggest the Mac.
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Apple confirms pedestrian-level Maps data collection, initially limited to California
Yes, good idea, they should prioritise tourist attractions for the walking directions.
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Apple should keep Lightning for now, but USB-A has to die
lorin schultz said:
I don't disagree with most of what you wrote, and applaud both you taking the time to explain and your visionary view of how things could be.ascii said:
Because with digital transmission you don't just have a raw signal being sent but can have an entire protocol defined.
It's not really a visionary view, its just how other digital ports already work, but it probably came across a bit too advocate-like.lorin schultz said:
That's true, but can you think of any examples of how auto-configured multichannel playback would benefit a user holding an iPad? Are you going to watch a Dolby Atmos movie on an iPad? Does the potential for inter-device operability outweigh the benefits and convenience of a quick and easy analog audio connection?It's a false alternative though, because a digital connection can be both powerful and easy to use. Powerful because auto-negotition allows the iPad to discover the best output available to it, and easy to use because auto-negotiaton means the user doesn't have to configure connection parameters at each end.Of course in the real world its not always like that because different companies define different standards and then refuse to interoperate with each other, and that's where I think you analog argument is strongest. But that situation is not the fault of digital technology per se, and therefore it doesn't automatically follow that analog is the answer. It does follow that *some* kind of fallback mode is needed, however that could be a digitial fallback mode, such as an open source coded (MP3?) that all devices must support by legislation, meaning you know when it plug it in it will always work no matter what, even if only at the fallback level (and hopefully better than that).And regarding analog connectors, are they really so simple and issue free? Don't you sometimes have a problem with low volume/signal level, or electrical interference from other devices? A couple of times I have bought laptops and when the drive spins up there's noise over the headphones and I've thought, "Oh no, I'm stuck with this for years now."lorin schultz said:1. I'm not convinced that digital offers enough additional resistance to transmission errors over analog to make it universally preferred. If it were as bulletproof as pundits claim, I wouldn't have skips, pops, or bursts of digital noise in some of the songs I've ripped from CD. It doesn't take much to break cross-checking.
2. Real-time error correction requires buffering, and therefore throughput delay (or what is commonly mislabelled "latency"). Unless the audio output somehow communicates that delay time to the video system, and the video system is capable of compensating for that delay, audio and video will go out of sync. There may also be ramifications for real-time audio production, like in the cases of iPhones or iPads being used as instruments or personal monitor mixers for performers.1. CD was invented in 1982 though and has very basic error correction, a lot of rippers even ignore the error correction bits by default. In the modern age with all the experience we have from streaming we can do much better.2. Buffering is one way to do it but not the only way, redundancy is another, i.e. if your cable has more bandwidth than you need (as you said below), why not just transmit 5 copies of the data at all times, in parallel. When you have a proper protocol defined you have that flexibility.lorin schultz said:What level of detail can not be accurately transmitted over two or three feet of wire? The sound of atoms banging into each other? Ultrasonics? Is it worth trading the benefits of the headphone jack for the ability to transmit sounds no one can hear? Even the crappiest wire on the planet exceeds the capability of the best transducers.
Ok, I guess compression is one thing you might not need, but it was just one example of flexibility really.
I'm not someone who likes complicated designs, like you (I suspect) I think simple/just-works is better. I just think that "digital everywhere" makes for a simpler world overall even if there's some short term pain. And I'm not saying existing digital standards are perfect and could not do with some intelligent fallback modes or other changes.lorin schultz said:No argument that what you describe is theoretically superior. The question for me is whether the ACTUAL BENEFITS outweigh the inconvenience, cost, and complication imposed by that approach. There are many, many, many more cases of a headphone jack being not only better-than-adequate but also much more cost-effective and convenient than there are examples of how the user will genuinely benefit from moving digital conversion and amplification out of the iDevice. And, more specifically, the Apple-supplied dongle doesn't achieve those objectives anyway. And it adds another layer of power consumption.
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Apple should keep Lightning for now, but USB-A has to die
lorin schultz said:
I'm curious why you want the headphone jack removed? What advantage do you perceive from that?ascii said:I think we should focus on getting rid of analog ports (the headphone jack being the only remaining one) and going all digital.
Headphones are analog. They have transducers in them. At some point before the speaker, the signal MUST be converted to analog and amplified.
The phone or tablet already has a digital-to-analog converter and an amplifier. Removing the headphone jack doesn't mean they can be removed too, because they're required for the speaker(s) on the device itself. By removing the headphone jack, those parts of the chain have to be duplicated in the form of a dongle hanging inelegantly on the outside of the device, instead of just using the parts that already exist, tucked neatly inside the device.
On devices with only one "digital" port like a phone or tablet, removing the headphone jack means that any wired audio connection ties up the port so it can't be used for anything else. That complicates some really common uses cases, like using the device in the car. With only a Lightning port on the phone I can either charge or listen to it, not both, unless I add a dongle that does nothing more than duplicate parts that are already inside the phone!
None of this is insurmountable. Adapters and wireless alternatives exist. I just don't see how they offer any ADVANTAGE. They add cost, require charging additional devices, and are less convenient. How is this BETTER than just leaving the headphone jack where it is/was?Because with digital transmission you don't just have a raw signal being sent but can have an entire protocol defined.The computers in the phone and speaker can talk to each other and describe each others capabilities, so that the phone knows how many speakers there and their configuration and what the best quality signal they can handle is. And there can be security, the phone can refuse to send audio information (such as phone call audio) to a speaker you have not explictly paired with. And once the transmission starts there can be error correction and retransmission, errors are very easy to detect in digital data. There could also be digital compression to a higher quality signal than could otherwise we sent over a thin wire.Yes, a signal must ultimately be converted to analog to be heard, but digital transmission is so much more powerful/flexible than a raw analog signal that this conversion should be pushed as far downstream as possible. Ideally right at the speaker, but at least after any kind of transmission through wires or air. -
How to work with, edit, and share HEIC images without data loss
Windows 10 also supports it, so Apple isn't the only one. It's not installed by default though, you have to go to the Microsoft App Store and buy the app called HEIF Image Extensions.
