It looks like it may finally be the end of iTunes for me – that shamble of Apple bloatware – the great mangler of files and playlists.
Let me start at the beginning with our home system and the music library, read next paragraph to skip to portable music:
A few years ago iTunes messed up our home music library for the 3rd time, so we switched to Audirvana (both Mac and Windows) which works well enough and sounds great, much better than iTunes because it supports higher resolution audio file formats. We ripped (copied) our music from CD’s at CD quality and have never looked back – even fixing the album covers that iTunes endlessly lost or mangled. All new music has been purchased at higher quality levels and on a good stereo you can hear the improvement in sound quality over various compressed MP3 type file formats. At least all of our music is in one place, consistent, uncorrupted, has consistent album covers, accessible throughout the house with a IOS remote and has consistent playlists that are mostly stable (although we have had playlists bumps along the way). Audirvana supports all common music file formats, as well as high definition listless formats (FLAC, DSD, ACC, ACCL and the greatly disputed MQA which we love). A Mac Air laptop hosts the files and software (Audirvana) and it is connected via a USB cable to a NAIM DAC (digital to analog converter) which is then connected to a top of the line NAIM Amp and finally Bowers and Wilkins 802 Dimond speakers.
So that left portable music
How to avoid IOS Apple Music which yet again had a nervous breakdown and duplicated every track – playing each track twice in a row? And then theres the dyslexic teeni-bobber user interface – best suited to ‘songs’ and keep keep an album (or multi album together).
So that brings us to VOX as a good music player for IOS and it handles all of my music formats except MQA (which I simply convert to FLAC). This then brings me back to the home system – the source of the music. I transfer my Audirvana music library directly to my phone as this is comprised of directories (either by artist or album) with associated audio files in them (ok that still takes iTunes but that just a file copy) but from there it goes directly to VOX which so far has played perfectly.
VOX also runs on Apple CarPlay so it looks like this solution will work for everything – easy to use, simple clean interface and playlists that don’t self destruct.
I included a couple of links if you are interested along with an article on replacing iTunes and high definition music.
Source Article: https://www.whathifi.com/advice/how-to-play-hi-res-music-your-iphone-0
VOX: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vox-mp3-flac-music-player/id916215494?mt=8
I hope Apple gets the hint – clean up iTunes – give me something that works and maybe I will use it. Till then I am open to other software and file formats.
I want to use a iPhone 5 as a wifi hotspot.
I turn on hotspot on the iPhone, everything works fine till the device using the hotspot stops using it (close the cover on my iPad for example). When I open the cover of the iPad again, the connection is lost and does not restart automatically.
I called Apple, they said the iPhone stops broadcasting the wifi signal after 90 seconds idle time.
To prevent this use settings General > auto lock > never.
This prevents the phone from sleeping but opens it up to security violations if I take it on the road.
Testing underway, will publish results.
Test1: let iPad with cover closed (sleeping) for 1 hour, reopen cover and after a moment, wifi connection working fine.
Test2: casual used of iPad seems to work fine so far.
Obtaining a Nano Sim for Apple iPhone with Rogers.
So, by happenstance I was one of the lucky people to successfully place an order and get the phone queued for delivery on Sept 21. Great – but wait what about the sim card?
It turns out Rogers now carry the Nano Sims for iPhone. They are $10 and can be obtained at Rogers Stores. The Nano Sim is LTE compatible and works with slower speeds as well.
Follow the progress forum post nano sim order
Update:
From RogersChris:
“If you are activating an iPhone 5 in an Apple store, a customer will be provided a nano SIM card free of charge. However, Apple does not sell nano SIM cards out right.
If you purchase an iPhone 5 on apple.ca, customers can purchase a nano SIM card on rogers.com or visit a Rogers store. At a Rogers store, if a customer activates a new postpaid plan, a nano SIM will be provided free of charge. Existing customers that require a nano SIM to replace their current SIM will be charged $9.99. Nano SIM cards purchased on rogers.com cost $9.99.
Nano SIM cards will be available on launch day. All Rogers stores will have them.”
Original posting:
original source
I have just added three new QR Codes to my web site. What are QR Codes. They look like this:
The purpose is to allow smartphone users the ability to quickly link to my web site or download my contact information quickly from these ‘bar code’ type symbols on print media. It puts a modern twist on print marketing – since displaying the code on my business card (or even price tags) allows people to quickly jump to my web site or advertising.
You will need a free application on your phone (I use Scanlife). You can download it at: http://web.scanlife.com/en/download-application
Give it a try, point your cell phone at the images with the application running on your phone.