lorin schultz

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lorin schultz
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  • Apple HomePod coming to Canada, France & Germany on June 18, gets AirPlay 2 & stereo pairi...

    lorin schultzlorin schultz
    ericthehalfbee said:
    Lots of misconceptions about what the definition of stereo is.

    Put simply, stereo sound is an attempt to create localization using two or more speakers. The reason we have two ears isn't so we can listen to "stereo" sound coming from left & right channels. We have two ears so that our brain can determine where a sound came from (localization). Is it to our left or right, in front of us or behind us, or even above or below us. Our brain is very good at taking sound arriving at both our ears, and based on slight differences in level and phase (time) it can determine where in 3D space the sound came from.

    Early attempts at this involved using a pair of microphones (to simulate our ears) to record a live performance (like an orchestra). Then these two tracks were played back through a pair of stereo speakers with the intent of trying to recreate the original performance. There have been many other methods to try and recreate a soundstage for a listener (some involve processing to try and "trick" our ears while the most common method people are used to is a 5.1 or 7.1 sound system). Whatever the method, the end goal is the same - to try and create a 3D soundstage that approximates the original.

    The HomePod also tries to create a wider soundstage. I haven't been able to try one yet, so I don't know how it works, but reviews say it's pretty good at this. By definition, it's impossible for the HomePod to be mono, since you can't create a soundstage with a mono speaker. You need multiple sources in order to do this, which would qualify the HomePod as a stereo speaker. The people claiming it isn't stereo are those stuck with the limited definition that "stereo" means left & right channels with left & right speakers.
    The definition of stereo includes more than two discrete channels, it also specifies a spatial relationship between sources and listener. Having multiple channels emanating from the same point in space does not satisfy the definition.

    The HomePod is not mono, but neither is it stereo. Having multiple channels emanating from a single point in space defeats the comparative arrival time and level differences our ear/brain uses to distinguish origin. Bouncing the signal off of walls to crate an artificial sense of space is novel, but inherently flawed. Remember that our finely-tuned ear/brain processing distinguishes between direct and reflected sound to determine distance and environment. A broadly-spread reverberant field is not the same as distinct spaced sources.
    gatorguy

  • Apple to sell third-party streaming service subscriptions through 'TV' app, report says

    lorin schultzlorin schultz
    tallest skil said:
    lorin schultz said:
    Every aspect of the 4th gen and 4K Apple TV favours cloud-based/streaming content. I have a huge library of rips on a Mac mini dedicated to home theatre duty, and those titles don't even show up in searches on the Apple TV. It's more than a little disappointing.
    To clarify, are you using the Mac Mini to serve the content through iTunes and the “Computer” button on the Apple TV?
    Yup. The ol' standard Home Share setup.
    tallest skil

  • Sonnet ships $199 Solo 10G Thunderbolt 3 Ethernet adapter offering 10 gigabit connectivity...

    lorin schultzlorin schultz
    sflocal said:
    It will be interesting to see how well this product sells.  Obviously there is a market.  I'm just curious how big a market is there.
    At $200 per port, I suspect sales won't be great because the only buyers will be those who REALLY need the bandwidth. Those of us who would like faster access to centralized storage but don't have a pressing economic imperative may balk at the cost. The number of buyers that really need it is probably pretty small.

    Which ties in to what I think was @Soli's point. Obviously Thunderbolt and USB are not substitutes for or alternatives to ethernet, but they're examples of how some interface technologies have gotten faster over time without significant price increases. Building a machine with USB3 instead of USB2 (or Thunderbolt 3 instead of Thunderbolt 2) may cost a little more, but it certainly isn't a three-digit increase. Ethernet didn't seem to have this problem in the past -- it went from 10 to 100 to 1000, but speed increases didn't come with huge increases in cost. I think what @Soli is asking is why this particular step in the evolution of ethernet costs so much more than previous ones, and why it's possible for other technologies like USB and Thunderbolt to cost-effectively increase speed while ethernet seemingly can't.
    Soli

  • Disgruntled MacBook Pro users petition Apple to recall defective keyboards

    lorin schultzlorin schultz
    anome said:

    [...] Put simply, the number of people with genuine mechanical problems are the only thing to consider when issuing a recall.

    Apple's failure figures may not be accurate, either. The keyboard in my 2016 15" MBP TB has become unusable three times, but each time I've fixed it myself because the wait for a Genius Bar appointment is over a week around here. That means Apple doesn't know that I'm having problems. I don't know if there are many others like me, but if so, it could make the issue look less widespread than it actually is.
    muthuk_vanalingamretrogustoirelandmike54airnerdelijahgd_2dysamoriadws-2

  • Apple officially discontinues AirPort router product line, available while supplies last [...

    lorin schultzlorin schultz

    anantksundaram said:
    macxpress said:
    Apparently the AirPort Extreme is prone to fan failures...usually right around 12-16 months in. 
    Oh c'mon, you can't be serious. That's a trivial problem that can be easily fixed by a $800B company producing some of the finest, most robust hardware in the world.
    I have no idea if my experience is typical or not, but the timelines @macxpress ;describe are consistent with my personal experience. My flat Time Machine only lasted about that long. The tower Time Machine that replaced it failed in less than two years. I replaced that with a tower Extreme that lasted about a year-and-a-half. It was replaced under warranty, but the replacement also failed somewhere between one and two years old. It was also replaced under warranty so I'm not complaining, but none of them lasted more than two years in a wide-open, well-ventilated space.

    I put up with it because the two times I tried something else I couldn't figure out how to configure "side features" like Back to My Mac and the like, and because Apple's exceptional warranty coverage made the failures nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
    Rayz2016macxpress