sevenfeet

DougE said:

WTF is Apple doing? This new phone lineup makes absolutely no sense to me at all.  Dropped the SE (now there is no small option), kept the 7/7+, kept the 8/8+, new Xr, then Xs and Xs Max.  

First - Why bother keeping the 7 Series? Just for the low price point? People that buy the lower price point usually also want a smaller phone.

Second - Why introduce the Xr at all when they are still keeping both the 8 Series and the 7 Series?   

Third - The Xs and Xs Max are the only ones that actually make sense.  

Apple's new lineup is just ridiculous now with way too many options.  They should have reduced it to: Xs/Xs Max, 8/8+, and SE-style size with updated internals.  

I think I'm just going to hold on to my 7 until it dies; I'm not interested in any of these new phones.

This product strategy isn't much different than what Apple has done over the past several years.  Introduce a new iPhone, usually in two sizes (last year was an exception), then keep two (or even three) previous years of product in the choice for customers.  Why?  Well, not everyone wants to pay $1000 for a phone.  Not everyone wants all the new features, they just want a solid new phone.  Many of us with kids who need/want phones don't want to pay for a top-of-the-line phone for them.  And finally, for many emerging markets, $1000 USD phones are just not going to sell, but a new phone at half that price might be competitive against some mid-level Android phones.

The one new thing for this year is the iPhone Xr, which takes a direct page out of the iPhone 5c product.  That product had a cheaper body (plastic) which allowed Apple to make different colors for personalization.  But you gave up a better camera for that product.  The Xr swaps for a lesser LCD screen and a simpler camera but adds colored bodies like the 5c had.  Apple is putting their best CPU in new products regardless (the iPhone 8/8s also had the A11 Bionic like the iPhone X, and past years had a similar strategy).

One more thing...I'm not sure who really needs a 512GB phone other than for bragging rights, though usually I'm that guy who pulls the trigger for that (and I'm carrying a 256GB iPhone X).  It'll be a high profit model that will keep the average sale price numbers up with the Xr being in the lineup at $749.

The A12 Bionic's new neural engine is a BIG DEAL.  The fact that you can do a lot of this computational stuff in real time (and as fraction of the battery life!) opens the door to a lot of applications that weren't possible before.  But I'm thinking that whenever we see an A-processor powering a Mac, that neural engine will be a big product differentiator between Apple and their competitors, especially in some specific markets.

jeromec said:

Looks like there are different levels of AirPlay 2 compatibility.

While HomePods and Apple TV (4 or 4K) appear in the "Sound devices" menu as independent devices, my updated Airport Express did not. ..and therefore it could not play Apple Music without the help of iTunes or an iOS/Apple TV device.
And I could not allocate the Airport Express to a room in the Home app either.

But what is new is that it can now be used to play music simultaneously to other AirPlay 2 devices like a HomePod pair.

I do not really need just that, so for now, my old AirPort Express is back to a drawer...

Not surprising.  HomePods and Apple TVs are full fledged tvOS devices that can operate independently from other devices.  The Airport Express is not and was designed primarily as a router.  I would imagine that other Airplay 2 devices like a stereo receiver would act in a similar fashion.

sflocal said:

It breaks my heart that Apple discontinued their Airport products.  They are by far the best built, most reliable units I've ever owned.  Sure, others like DLink, NetGer, Linksys, etc.. may have more features for tech-savvy people, but their quality is crap, are unstable, and always require a restart.

What a shame.

This is true.  My airports have been far more reliable than anything else from other vendors in my house.  A Netgear R8000 I have still needs weekly reboots on the current firmware.

The bigger shame is that Apple literally invented the Wifi base station market using co-developed technology manufactured by Lucent.  For a while, Apple was the only or best base station you could buy for Macs or PCs, period.

libertyforall said:

Does it apply to the 2009-2012 sold 802.11n Airport Express  (Gen 1)?

Apple's website is ambiguous:

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1975?locale=en_US


Now, what about adding APFS support to Time Capsules?!

Keep dreaming.

Jus upgraded my two AEs.  It works!  At this point, the only Airplay 1 device that will be left in my house is an old Denon X2000 receiver that isn't on Denon/Marantz's upgrade list.

midwestapplefan said:

Here's the issue for real audiophiles:

Airplay is a badly compromised system for hifi audio. First, it is limited to 16bit 44kHz. Even Chromecast Audio goes up 24bit 96kHz. If you're happy with CD quality audio then Airplay is....OK, but audio has come a long way in the past 10 years so let me ask you are you happy with your 1080p TV or do you want 4K? Why then would you compromise on audio?

Second issue is Airplay wants to control the clocking of the musical stream. Taking control of the clocking away from the end devise is a compromise. This gets complicated so Google the term, "RAAT and clock ownership" to read some discussions about why Airplay's scheme for managing clocking is not ideal.

When you start to go over $1,000 for audio components, you're near the price range where quality should really matter. A much better way to go about this is to buy devises that are roon ready. NAD is doing this as well as ELAC, Bluesound, Creek, Naim, Krell, PS Audio, and many more. What a roon ready device does is integrate with the roon player (kicks iTunes in the butt) and allows for all audio formats including FLAC up to 32bit 384kHz, DSD up to 512, and Master Quality Authentication MQA files), It allows for the endpoint to own its own clock, allows for multi room audio. It is a far better system if you really care about music.

It seems Denon and Merantz could easily updated their devices to be roon ready if they go through the process. At that point their receivers could be considered by more serious audiophiles.

Gee, I'm as big a Roon fan as the next audiophile.  I've only recently come into the Roon fold since I stayed away due to the cost (I've since put Roon everywhere in my house).  But knocking Airplay as inadequate is missing the big picture.  The user should get the opportunity to choose whatever streaming format he/she wants to use and hopefully, our main receivers and processors will embrace the gamut of popular formats.  I love listening to MQA recordings on Tidal (listening to the "new" John Coltrane album right now).  But Tidal doesn't carry everything and every now and then it's convenient to use Airplay and/or Apple Music.  Would I like to see Denon/Marantz pick up Roon as an endpoint?  Sure.  But Denon/Marantz and Roon have to get together on that for it to happen.

As for Airplay, specifically the original Airplay 1, keep in mind that it was pretty much the OG of home streaming.  It was 16bit/44khz from the beginning which was kind of a problem.  Early on, it wasn't unusual for people to have drop out problems trying to play music through Airplay to Airport Expresses.  The problem was that the AEs only knew out to handle 16/44 PCM information even though the original content was likely MP3 or AAC.  iTunes converted the music on the fly and sent it...which was fine except this was in the days of 802.11b networking where even a CD quality music stream could choke on a lousy wifi connection.

Airplay 2 is not bound by those restrictions.  It can handle any number of bit depths and sample rates, as well as PCM and encoded formats.  This was explained in the original WWDC lecture about this last year.  It's up to the client machine to implement 24 bit and whatever sample rate it can stand.  With Denon/Marantz rolling out support widely this week, we'll see just what they can do, at least with this brand.