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Aren't you much more limited by not having access to the vast majority of apps built for Android and iOS? The limitations imposed by Apple and Google have led to thriving software systems. Being free to hack as you want on the system won't help most people if they don't have access to the software people want.

They are also made in China. There is also one American company that makes a single audio tube, the 300b. They bought the Western Electric tooling, materials, and trade dress from whoever had bought it from AT&T.

I’m not sure where non audio vacuum tubes are made. I’m sure there’s a variety of companies around the world making X-ray, transmitter, laser, etc. tubes.

I’m glad this is at the top of the comment chain. I’m also angry with myself that I kept reading other comments. As you say, the current situation makes sense. Apple made something they way they want, the EU says it doesn’t pass muster with their laws and so Apple doesn’t release it in the EU.

Siri AI is just one of many AI products that aren’t released in the EU. If people are mostly happy with that then I guess things will continue as is. I do find it a little odd that so many people are championing the DMA as a beacon of consumer choice when it seems to be limiting what consumers have access to.

That makes sense. I have always wondered how people manage to break their cables. I’ve also never had a problem with them over 16 years.

Siri AI 1 month ago

Siri AI is not just a chatbot. There are deep hooks throughout the entire OS and across third party applications. Siri AI has been given wide access to the user's semantic index which will encompass just about everything on the device. Also remember that it isn't just the Apple user's privacy at stake. Any substitute will also have access to any interaction with other people. Apple is at least claiming to not keep any data people use with Siri AI, will Google, Anthropic, Open AI, etc. pinky swear they won't build a profile on me because a friend of mine chose their AI over Apple's?

I will wait and see what people find out about it before passing judgement. It's quite possible that it isn't possible to have an API to use other companies' AI instead of Siri AI. Are there any equivalent API hooks on Android?

Dinsynch makes an “acoustic lathe” for a little less than $2k. It doesn’t look nearly as cool as the TE setup but will probably be similar in execution and quality.

https://youtu.be/udQC04YrXq0

Actual transcription lathes will be much more expensive and I think can record on better material. Those can be used for direct to disc recording production. I’m not sure if what TE and Dinsync offer can make something that can be used for production.

Yup. For many years in DC just about the only people that went to DC United games were Latinos. They are still the dominant supporters of professional US soccer I think.

I had a surreal experience one day after work. I lived on a cul de sac and it was common to have kids play baseball or kickball in the summer. There was one Indian family on the street and the eldest boy had convinced them to try cricket that day. Heard him yelling “Bowl it! Bowl it!” So yeah, immigrants add a lot to the US including sports.

Well no, an existing professional American football player has no chance of switching to being a professional soccer player. Nobody can simply switch at that level. You have to have cultivated the skills over a long period of time to ever have a chance at competing at the highest levels.

On the other hand, I can’t imagine the guys that ended up being cornerbacks, wide receivers, safeties, or even halfbacks couldn’t have become soccer professionals given the right culture, training, and desire growing up. Sure, linemen, tight ends, and fullbacks aren’t built for soccer.

There are many multi sport athletes in the high school ranks and elite athletes in college are drafted in multiple professional leagues. You can see known lists here including baseball:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multi-sport_athletes

The list for college and high school would be huge. There is such a thing as athletic skill, I’ve heard it called a kinesthetic gift. People with particularly good builds, strengths, speed, agility, etc. can train those attributes across several different disciplines. As you get higher and more elite you will eventually have to specialize. “Jocks” in high school frequently played multiple sports and many lettered in multiple as well.

Korea, Dominican Republic, Mexico all have pro leagues as well. There are more leagues growing in places like the UK and Australia as well though fully amateur at this point I think. Suffice it to say fans across all of these countries find it thrilling enough to play and watch.

I don’t understand the casual sniping against baseball. There are plenty of sports I have no interest in but I don’t call them out because nobody cares what I think of them.

Aren’t the ideal bodies pretty different for basketball and soccer? Are 6’6” guys a good size for soccer? How about taller? I’m sure European basketball players grow up playing soccer but at some point they end up playing to their strengths.

As someone whose last interaction with Windows was 98 and have been on Mac ever since I also had no idea what a super key was. Also Googled “Windows key” and realized I had seen it before in pictures but never thought about it.

I used some sort of *nix on a VAX terminal in college and ran SUSE on my machine once I realized I hated Windows 98 but all of that is ancient history at this point lol. All of that is to say that it is possible for someone to be peripherally interested in this topic and not be aware of what a super key would be even in context. Maybe someone that uses Windows could pick up on it earlier but I certainly didn’t:)

I have no idea what your argument is. Sounds like you bought the wrong device. You yourself admit it can use the same input and controllers as a regular computer but it adds a different interface and way of using it. It offers different types of programs with different kinds of interfaces than regular computers do. If the iPad were just a Mac, which if you’re being honest with yourself is what you actually want, then the current programs would not have been made for it. We would be stuck with what we already have. The MacBook Air already exists. If you want to use Bitwig get the right machine.

Again, your inability to appreciate how the iPad is different and offers a different way of working in no way invalidates what has been created. The combination of a touch first interface and console software distribution has created a unique system. Why people want the iPad to be a Mac or an Android tablet is beyond me.

The iPad excels in performance. Like I said, if you're using a DAW a regular computer is better. The fact remains that audio apps for the iPad are plentiful and cheap. The App Store only approach has made the iPad a more attractive target than Android by a mile. The iPad apps are also screaming deals.

Your comment summarizes the people's inability to appreciate the iPad on its own terms. "You can't run Pro Tools!" is such a silly complaint. Moog, Waldorf, Arturia, Roland, Akai, Eventide, etc etc etc they are all on the App Store and work very well by touch. There are of course a ton of indie apps as well. No, they may not be as "powerful" as some of the ones you mentioned but they are designed to work in a different way than the computer plugins do. And they are priced much much cheaper. Use a computer for computer workflows, use the iPad for things that it does better.

This is the what everyone that says they want Xcode in an iPad actually means. They don’t want an iPad at all, they want a super portable Mac. Every single complaint around iPadOS is from someone trying to use it like a Mac.

I do wish Apple would make an 11” Mac just so people would stop complaining about the iPad lol.

Audio apps on the iPad show that this isn’t the case. The iPad has an incredible amount of amazing audio apps that simply don’t exist and/or are much cheaper than on other platforms. Some of that is due to the great audio performance from day one but a lot of it can be chalked up to the lack of piracy. There are a seemingly endless number of synths, effects, sequencers, etc. in the App Store. It’s a relative ghost town in the Android world. Both Mac and Windows are better environments for DAW work but the plug ins are uniformly (usually much) more expensive.

The console approach to software distribution is good for developers and in this case leads to better software for consumers.

Medical and health. Cook has said multiple times that he thinks that Apple’s greatest legacy will be “health.”

The biggest hurdle in the health hardware game is regulatory. If they can make a noninvasive blood sugar monitor and get it approved they will both print money and help a ton of people.

Aerenhart’s biggest task was combining the online store with the physical. That was my understanding of why she was hired. Before that there were many walls between the two retail arms of online and physical.

Ive was the one behind the 15k watches. He wanted the in store experience to be like a jewelry store. They also brought in his friend that had been doing hi end watches and bands to help with the watch design. Beonce got an 18kt gold link band along with her watch. You can only imagine Ive’s glee at the watches being on the cover of Vogue.

If we limit the definition of pop music to what charts I think it makes all the sense in the world that it is a young person’s game. So much of what drives chart success is what is in fashion at the time. Trend setting will always be the domain of youngsters.

If we expand the definition of pop music to all music that isn’t classical/jazz/experimental, etc. then older, more experienced musicians should be able to do quite well. Frank Sinatra honed his craft over the decades. I think the stuff he did in his 40s and 50s is probably his best.

Apple has no idea what the iPad is for but somehow they sell 20 million of them a year...

Apple has been very clear what the iPad is "supposed" to be. It is a touch screen computer. Between its form factor, touch first OS, built in camera, and possible cellular capabilities it can do a lot that a Mac can't do. Something as simple as walking around with it and handing it to someone like a clipboard opens up a million uses in the field that would be much more awkward with a traditional laptop. Artists drawing directly on the surface, musicians playing with touch controls, etc. all take advantage of how the iPad works.

If you insist on using programs and workflows designed for laptop computers the iPad will never make sense to you. I use AUM, Drambo, and a variety of other soft synths and effects on my iPad in conjunction with my analog synths. It's a very different experience than a regular computer.

No software? DaVinci Resolve? Affinity Designer? Final Cut, Procreate, AUM, Logic Pro etc etc etc. As the processors get more powerful more demanding software can be made for it. Running multiple physical modeling AUVs along with FX loops eat up clock cycles. Final Cut Camera on iPhones along with Final Cut on an iPad allow for full multi camera controls and recording from 4 different iPhones with ProRes and log shooting at the same time.

If Apple hadn't continually upgraded the processing power then none of those programs would work. It's up to Apple to make compelling hardware. Better hardware allows more advanced programs. iPads are amazing.

Music production with a DAW is better on a computer. Music performance is much better on an iPad. There is a big difference between direct touch controls and using a trackpad. Apps like AUM and AniMoog Z highlight what makes music making on an iPad amazing.

And people here don't want to hear this but the closed nature of the App Store is why audio is so strong on both ios and iPadOS. There are far more music apps for those OSes than Android. In addition to that, many VSTs made for DAWS are available on iPads as AUV at much lower prices than Mac or Windows. The lack of piracy, narrow build targets, and predictably great audio implementation makes it both easier to build and more profitable than other platforms.

If you listen to the Woodstock soundtrack it is clear that Hendrix was on a completely different musical level than anyone else in that scene. Ravi Shankar was probably the only person there above him from a chops perspective and possibly in the expressivity department as well. But when it came to sheer inventiveness no one was close to Hendrix. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to see and hear him. It must have felt like an alien was performing.

I have come around to the idea of guitars being electronic instruments. Strings are the original oscillators. Once they become electrical signals it isn't clear to me how they differ categorically from any other electric instrument. There are an almost infinite number of pedals, many of which offer things like filters, LFOs, and other synthesis stalwarts. You could even make the guitar a controller for more traditional synthesis work.

JRiver is an advanced media player that works cross platform including Linux. It isn’t the prettiest thing around and understanding everything that it can do can be frustrating but it will do just about anything you’d like a media player to do.

I rarely interact with it directly. I usually use JRemote on my iPad or iPhone to control it. There is also an incredibly fast web front end you can use in whatever device you want.

Does the old Logitech music server (or whatever it is called these days) work on Linux? There have been a bunch of front end programs to use those servers.

The problem with that is that things like remasters, special editions, etc. screw up the timeline. Those are listed when they came out but that means they are not in original releases order any longer.