Apple iPod touch 6th Generation: A fun and powerful work of art [Review]
When Apple unveiled the first iPod, it was a game-changing moment. While not the first portable digital music player, it was the first to nail the interface and experience. Later models would feature the legendary click wheel and expand to photos and videos too.
With the release of the iPhone, however, the death of the traditional iPod was guaranteed, but it hung around longer than most expected. It was the iPod touch that was the obvious successor, as it not only played music, but ran iPhone apps too. Apple recently released the new 6th Generation iPod touch, and I've been testing it out. Is it the best iPod touch yet?
iPhone 6 Plus balances benefits [Review]
Sometime within the next few weeks, Apple should announce successors to iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and my review of the latter device is long overdue. Let's get to it finally and present the key finding first: If size matters, as in you want a phone with larger screen but that doesn't feel humongous, the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus is a worthy choice. By measures that matter most—benefits from apps, calling, camera, data, performance, screen, and storage—the phablet is best of class.
As expressed in my iPhone 6 review, I regretted not buying the larger device after handing it. The Plus is big, but not overly large for my tastes. Hell, I bought Motorola-made and Google-branded Nexus 6 in January 2015 to replace iPhone 6; the screen is even bigger than Plus, at whopping 6 inches. I gained great value using either of the larger handsets, but gave up one for the other.
Apple Music has 11 million trial users
Apple Music's success will be determined by its number of subscribers, and, by that measure, the streaming service is heading in the right direction. Just over a month after the big launch, Apple Music has reached 11 million trial users.
Of the 11 million users who are trialling Apple Music, two million went with the family membership. It allows up to six users to share a subscription to the service, for $14.99 per month. A plain subscription costs $9.99 per month per user, which is not as attractive, cost-wise, in comparison.
Apple Music, Neil Young, and Taylor Swift will drive honest people to piracy
Nowadays, most people don't buy physical media; they pay their little $10 a month for Spotify premium, or similar service, to support the music industry. Apple's exclusivity approach, however, won't just disrupt the streaming market, it will severely harm consumers and lead to piracy. Hell, it could kill streaming music altogether.
Piracy is a really heinous crime. It causes artists to lose money, and make no mistake, it is stealing. With that said, more people will be doing it because of Apple Music. Exclusives from Dr. Dre, Pharell and Taylor Swift may lead to increased torrent downloads. Sadly, the artists have no one to blame but themselves.
Apple Music won’t work with your iPod Nano or iPod Shuffle -- not even offline
Apple has made a few big announcements lately, not least of which is the launch of its streaming service, Apple Music. Even more recently came an update to the iPod line including options at the cheaper end of the scale -- the iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle. But if you were thinking about offsetting the cost of an Apple Music subscription with a low-cost iPod, you might want to think again.
Of course the main stumbling block to lack of Apple Music support is the absence of Wi-Fi on the two devices which knocks the idea of streaming on the head. But even if you have an iOS device with an Apple Music subscription, you'll not be able to take advantage of the offline listening option on your Shuffle or Nano. What gives?
'Hey, Siri, play the sound of farts'
Apple Music can be used for more than just streaming songs to your iPhone or iPad. It can also be used to play sound effects. Who hasn’t wanted to have their endeavors greeted by a round of applause, or their jokes met with howls of hysterical laughter?
Sure, you have to summon Siri to use the trick, which reduces the spontaneity somewhat, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had.
FTC could probe Apple Music over legality of 30 percent cut from streaming rivals
The launch of Apple Music has been one of the most controversial for some time. After complaints about the free trial period not generating income for record labels -- a problem seemingly sorted out by the intervention of Taylor Swift -- attention turned to how little the music streaming service paid artists the rest of the time.
Now Apple has a new problem, bringing Apple Music into the limelight for the wrong reasons once again. The Federal Trade Commission is currently considering whether to probe the company for antitrust violations. Reuters reports that the FTC could be on the verge of launching an investigation into the legality of the 30 percent cut Apple takes from other streaming music services such as Spotify.
Save $3 on Spotify Premium account by ditching Apple's App Store, company urges
As the music streaming space intensifies, participants are becoming increasingly aggressive to rope in users. In the latest episode, Spotify has started to notify its iPhone customers about a workaround to save money.
The company is emailing its customers who use an iPhone to let them know about the 30 percent cut Apple takes on all the payments made through the App Store. The result of which, as Spotify notes, is that users have to pay $12.99 per month instead of Spotify's official $9.99 per month charge.
DJs and music fans warned iTunes 12.2 could corrupt music libraries and add DRM
With the launch of Apple Music came a new version of iTunes. Apple's new streaming music service initially hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons thanks to Taylor Swift, and now it is the turn of iTunes. It's an app that many love to hate, and now there is another reason to dislike the music management tool.
It's not just runners with iPhone and iPod users looking for a musical accompaniment to their daily exercise who use iTunes to organize their music collection, it is also used by professionals. The software is used by DJs to keep their music collections in check, but anyone who relies on their music library might want to heed the warning of website Digital DJ Tips -- "Warning to DJs: Do not upgrade to iTunes 12.2!"
Prince pulling music from popular streaming services
One of the most prominent skeptics of digital music, Prince has surprisingly been off the radar on the whole music streaming debate, until now.
The Minneapolis sound pioneer removed all of his songs from Deezer, Spotify, Rdio and Apple Music earlier this week, while keeping music on Google Play and Tidal.
Battery drain on iOS 8.4? Blame Apple Music
The latest update to Apple’s operating system may have only been available to the public for a couple of days, but complaints are already starting to emerge.
Reports are circulating that iOS 8.4 is a huge drain on the user’s battery life and apparently Apple Music is to blame.
How to turn off Apple Music's automatic subscription renewal
Apple Music comes with a free three-month trial which, according to some people who haven't been paying proper attention, is something Taylor Swift arranged with Apple. Thanks Taylor. Three months is a good amount of time to try out the service, but Apple automatically signs you up for an auto-renewal payment option. So when the trial comes to an end, you’ll start paying for the service, regardless of whether you're still using it or not.
If you’d rather decide for yourself when (or not) to join up as a paying member, rather than being forced into it, it’s easy enough to turn off the auto renewal, although the process is far from obvious.
Twitter says Apple Music is more hit than miss, but there's a lot to hate
Apple Music launched yesterday and Oxford University's TheySay sentiment analysis company monitored Twitter to work out the overall feeling towards the new service. When the firm monitored the sentiment towards Apple’s WWDC keynote three weeks ago, the announcement of Apple Music received an overall 85 percent approval rating from tweeters, but now that it’s here, the actual service is proving far less popular.
Dr Karo Moilanen, Oxford University professor and co-founder of TheySay, observed: "Compared to the sky-high positive sentiment ratings that Apple products and announcements typically reach on Twitter, this time Apple Music invoked a healthy dose of strong negative sentiment (ca. 24 percent) amongst tweeters".
Apple Music, Beats 1, iOS 8.4 to launch June 30
After months of testing, Apple revealed earlier this month, at WWDC 2015, that iOS 8.4 will be officially available in late-June, bringing us the new Apple Music streaming service and Beats 1 radio station. While those are the biggest changes, the new version of the popular mobile operating system will also feature a number of under-the-hood tweaks to improve the user experience, as we have come to expect from the most-recent iOS releases.
Quite a few of us expected Apple to launch iOS 8.4 way before the end of the month, but it looks like the company has other plans in mind, as iOS 8.4 is officially set to launch on the very last day of June.
Apple Music to quadruple iTunes Match limit to 100,000 songs
Apple Music has managed to cause quite a storm before it even launches, and Eddy Cue has revealed something that will be music to the ears of subscribers. Writing on Twitter he confirmed that Apple Music subscribers will be able to take advantage of an iTunes Match-like feature that allows tracks to be stored in the cloud.
This in itself is nothing new, but the Apple executive also talked numbers. He explained that while Apple Music would have the same 25,000 as iTunes Match to start with, there are plans to increase this fourfold. The jump to 100,000 songs is penciled in as a feature for iOS 9.
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