lorin schultz

cgWerks said:
[...] Yeah, though I'm not sure [Monoprice's cables] are quite as good as Apple's, in my experience. But, super great for the price

It really depends. Some of their stuff is great, other stuff is pretty crappy.

I got tired of coiling up the three-foot-long cable that came with my portable drive so I turned to Monoprice for a shorter one. It works fine and will probably last forever, but the damn thing is as stiff as a coat hanger! I don't know which is more hassle to work around on the desk -- a rat's nest of excess cable, or a cable so inflexible it dictates where the drive will sit instead of letting ME decide!

As an aside, I've stopped using active HDMI cables because of the limitation of only being able to use one in any particular chain. I mess around with connections often, in dark and hard to reach places, and create signal paths circuitous enough to cause confusion. I decided to preemptively head off the inevitable "Why doesn't this work?" by just removing active cables from my collection.

cgWerks said:
That highlights another problem. There are all kinds of more speciality devices using these technologies. A great example are the FireWire audio units that cost $thousands and are still perfectly useable except for the FW port.

No problem. I just added a Firewire-to-Thunderbolt 2 adapter plugged into a Thunderbolt 2-to-Thunderbolt 3 adapter and went back to work! I just pretend that I don't have an almost foot-long garden hose sticking out the side of the computer, and that the combination of adapters didn't cost more than the video capture device they're connecting.

StrangeDays said:

It is very unlikely Apple is “mulling” over major hardware decisions for this year’s iPhone, this decisions are made far in advance in order to produce inventory needed for launch. Gruber has written about this many times.

I actually thought the same thing when I read this. As much as I'd like to see USB-C on my next iPhone, it seems a little late in the game for Apple to still be evaluating this for 2019, isn't it? Then again, production is still months away. Do we know how far in advance these decisions have to be locked down? Is it possible the window for changes is still open this early in the year?

Metriacanthosaurus said:

rogifan_new said:

aross99 said:

iPod touch makes a great "gateway" into the Apple ecosystem for children who are too young to have an iPhone. A $200 apple device with monthly payment is the ideal Christmas/Birthday gift for kids.  It allows them get hooked on the app store, and start building their music library.  iTunes cards are a given at every gift opportunity.  When they are ready, they can transition into  a "hand me down" iPhone from Mom and Dad, and away they go...

Give someone a hand me down iPhone and don’t enable the cell service.

What a stupid strategy.

Oh really? Care to explain WHY, or did you just feel an overwhelming urge to be rude and obnoxious?

We did exactly that -- just pulled the SIM card out of a retired iPhone -- and it served the same purpose as an iPod just fine. I'm curious about why you consider it stupid, though.

mac_128 said:

sflocal said:

An iPod touch still has relevance today.  There are plenty of reasons - and people - that want an iPhone sans the phone part.  For kids, homes, cars, etc... 

My nephews still use their iPod Touches constantly.  It's relevant.

While I like the durability of the Lightning connector, it was an interim technology and now that USBc is here, well... we either move on or stay still.

MplsP said:

rogifan_new said:

aross99 said:

iPod touch makes a great "gateway" into the Apple ecosystem for children who are too young to have an iPhone. A $200 apple device with monthly payment is the ideal Christmas/Birthday gift for kids.  It allows them get hooked on the app store, and start building their music library.  iTunes cards are a given at every gift opportunity.  When they are ready, they can transition into  a "hand me down" iPhone from Mom and Dad, and away they go...

Give someone a hand me down iPhone and don’t enable the cell service.

That's what we did with my daughter. An old iPhone with no SIM card was perfect for her.

In general I would welcome the switch to USB C. It would be nice to have a universal connector for all smart phones. When the lightning connector came out it was clearly superior to the mini/micro USB connector, USB C has erased most of the advantage. Apple is saying it's the future - they should put their money where their mouth is. Or at least their design. I find it more than a bit ironic that they eliminated the USB A port from their computers but stick with old connectors in their phones.

The main concerns I have with USB C are durability and the presence of a center tongue. The USB C ports in my MacBook Pro don't seem nearly as robust and solid as the lightning connector. Also, I periodically need to clean pocket lint out of the lightning port. I imagine the USB C port would suffer the same issue, but the presence of the tongue in the center would make cleaning it much more difficult. 

The future is wireless. USB-C was too late to the game, and now it’s the intermediary technology between lightning and wireless. Apple would be foolish to switch a mobile device to yet another port that isn’t necessary for the phone, requiring more water-proofing, along with a more delicate connector, and it’s customers to replace 100s of millions of cables and accessories. Those same cables can connect to Qi charging cases, pads, and stands, or customers can use the same cables they use with their MBs and iPads.

Try transferring 50-60GB of video to an iPhone or iPad over Lightning. PAINFULLY slow. Now try doing it wirelessly. Even SLOWER!

Now try the USB-C connection on an iPad Pro. Case closed.

netmage said:

applejeff said:

canukstorm said:

I'm not convinced that there's a place for an iPod Touch in today's world.

My iPod Classic 120 GB is now 10 years old and still used every day. Recently I had to put in a new battery (from eBay) but the iPod is getting old and won’t last forever. I have no need for a phone but an iPod touch, if it is available with 128 GB would be an excellent replacement.

It would be if Apple fixed the Music app to work properly over USB but my current attempts to do something similar (replace iPod Classic with used 128GB iPhone 6 and get WiFi sync to my PC’s iTunes) has resulted in the purchase of another iPod Classic upgraded to SSD. iOS still thinks it’s acceotable to play the tracks from an artist in alphabetical order instead of album date order over USB. 

The more I use the iOS Music app, the more I hate it.

In my particular case, I don't CARE what album a track came from, my focus is on singles. Since about 50% of my library came from compilation albums, I find it EXTREMELY frustrating that a search for everything by a particular artist fails to include those tracks!

Despite us coming at music management from opposite directions, Apple managed to annoy both of us. Quite an accomplishment! (I love the desktop version of iTunes, though. It's just that iOS abomination that bugs me.)