mike_galloway

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mike_galloway
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  • Microsoft's $68.7 billion Activision buy has been killed by UK regulators

    mike_gallowaymike_galloway
    mark fearing said:
    I don't think the UK can kill this deal. It's just an opinion (I mean one countries opinion). Since so many other territories have already said it's OK. Not sure what happens next but the EU has not weighed in yet and in the U.S. it's not clear it will be pushed against. 
    As Activision is a listed UK Company so this deal can be blocked by the UK alone.
    ronnmagman1979williamlondonchutzpahgatorguybadmonklolliverJapheywatto_cobra

  • Take-Two Interactive announces $12.7B deal to acquire Zynga

    mike_gallowaymike_galloway
    winstoner71 said:
    emig647 said:
    I really don’t understand this, especially when Bethesda was $7.5B. 

    Just going to leave this here: https://medium.com/halting-problem/zyngas-offices-now-worth-more-than-zynga-the-company-47a704d48249

    Because everyone has a phone. There isn’t one person out there who doesn’t have at least 1 game on their phone, be it if they play it or not. Mobile gaming is a huge deal, more so than any other platform. 

    I had to look on my phone to confirm but - yes I am that one person - but to be fair, I have never played any sort of game on any sort of device - ever. Just not a fun kind of guy.
    williamlondonrobin huber12Strangersapplguy

  • Alexa tells 10-year-old girl to touch live electrical socket with penny

    mike_gallowaymike_galloway
    kurtvdpoel said:
    It is physically impossible to insert a plug in a socket and touch the life metal parts, not even with a penny. Plug and socket are constructed that way.  Both have to follow strict standards. If both are constructed as imposed by those standards, nothing could happen to the girl. 
    That’s not to say Alexa should have such a challenge.  That’s not acceptable behaviour for a smart speaker. But the little girl was never in danger. Not even when she had done what Alex instructed her to do. 
    With modern plugs your probably right, but I just looked in my drawer and found an old plug (probably more than 10 years old but still in good nick) that could be shorted with a penny (need to be an old penny) new pennies are too small but a 10 pence piece would work . This is from a UK perspective - I don't know about other countries.
    lolliverwatto_cobra

  • Apple details headphone jack improvements on new MacBook Pro

    mike_gallowaymike_galloway
    randominternetperson said:
    sirdir said:
    mike1 said:
    rundhvid said:
    Apple says this supports up to 96kHz, and means users "can enjoy high-fidelity, full-resolution audio."

    —except ’s own Hi-Res Lossless in 192 kHz 👀🤭
    Soooo???? You're saying they therefore shouldn't have improved it all then?

    Probably that you can't call something 'full resolution' if you yourself deliver a much higher resolution. 
    The average human can detect sound in the 20Hz to 20 kHZ.  96kHz is way outside the range of human hearing.
    96kHz is not upper frequency response - it is the encoding bite rate - higher = better resolution but 192kHz is more than necessary to do the job but that's audiophiles for you
    netroxrandominternetpersonrundhvidmacpluspluswatto_cobra

  • Apple's Eddy Cue says Spatial Audio is a 'game-changer' for music

    mike_gallowaymike_galloway
    sevenfeet said:
    genovelle said:
    rcfa said:
    Most people never heard of lossless? Really?

    Anyone who’s ever heard of these silver discs calls “CD”s has heard of lossless.

    Only Napster, music piracy in conjunction with slow internet, metered cellular data and expensive flash memory brought us the “blessings” of lossy audio compression algorithms.

    So, no, lossless isn’t “niche”, it was and should always be the normal case, lossy compression should be the exception.
    CDs are not lossless. They are limited to 16 bits and 44.1 kHz while lossless is at least 24 bits and 96 kHz. Every record theses days is recorded well above CD quality. 
    CDs are lossless. They do not use a compression technology that throws away data like MP3 or AAC. That is the meaning of "lossless". Do not confuse that with the sampling and bit rates, which certainly do make a difference to the overall sound profile.

    As for what Eddy Cue said, yes Spatial Audio will probably make a bigger difference to most listeners than lossless.  Most people get their music from their phones now and since lossless Bluetooth isn't a thing, Spatial Audio/Dolby Atmos makes more sense because it can be implemented with what most listeners already have.

    That being said, I'm in the minority of users who does have the ability to easily show the difference between lossy AAC and lossless and especially HiRes audio. I have a dedicated 2 channel listening room, a smaller 5.1 home theater listening room and a larger 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos home theater. I spent some of today listening to the Atmos tracks in the Atmos theater and it sounded nice....not unlike the similar content on Tidal (which I also subscribe to mainly since I use the Roon player). I've been waiting for Apple to go lossless for a LONG time, and we got the added bonus of HiRes lossless which I wasn't expecting.

    The problem for me now is that Roon has made it really easy to pipe my lossless and HiRes music to wherever I am in the house at the best possible quality. Apple Music and Airplay can't do that right now which makes using it for day to day listening a lot harder. Airplay can do straight 16 bit/44.1 CD quality lossless right now (it's been part of the standard since Airplay 1 was invented two decades ago). But I usually try to listen to HiRes audio these days if I can and that's going to be hard to feed my DACs which already connected to Roon.
    If Cd's are lossless then why have 24bit 96k or higher - surely 16bit 44.1k is enough
    williamlondon