iOS 17.3 Is Still Buggy

It seems that iOS 17 still has some odd bugs in it and this brief post is all about iOS 17.3 and a feature which has been with us, since iOS 17.21 or 2. On Thursday, I had to purchase all 3 volumes of a Queen compilation called Deep Cuts again, because of something which had happened while I was using my iPhone and iOS 17.3.

There is an option where you can favourite a song, or an album and I had been making songs favourites and then unfavouriting them soon after. I had no problem with it until I had come across Dead On Time by Queen from the second volume of Deep Cuts. If you haven’t heard the song, it is a great banger and it has some of the fastest guitar and most ferocious drumming on it, along with Rapid Fire vocals from Freddie Mercury. Why this version? I don’t know, but it wouldn’t let me favourite it at first. However, after I had favourited the same song from Jazz, I unfavourited it as usual after not needing it anymore in my favourites, while going down to check my mail. The Jazz version went, but the Deep Cuts version came and it decided to stay and it wouldn’t leave, even by unfavouriting it a number of times.

So, I had to make the hard decision, to delete the song from my library and I did that and it was a success. Dead On Time was no longer a favourite, but now I had a song which I had deleted from my library, which I could get back quite easily. However, do I want to have it as it was, especially if I had to redo my entire phone for software bug reasons? The obvious answer, no. So, I made an even tougher decision to delete all three volumes of Deep Cuts from the music library and purchase them again, on iTunes. No problem, except for having to purchase Machines (Or Back to Humans) again and everything was all right again. So, the lesson is not to play with favourites anymore and I will no longer touch that option to favourite any song, after what I went through. I might report it to Apple, but I’m not sure and I might talk about this on a YouTube community pole for a channel I subscribe to, but I’m not sure. I might, but I don’t know yet how I’m going to approach it. I’m not going to tell the whole story chapter and verse like I am here, but I might say something about that somewhere.

iOS 17.2, Piece Of Shit

Hi folks. iOS 17.2 is out and it sucks. Like Bart Simpson once said, “this both sucks and blows”. That is how I feel about iOS 17.2, as it has progressed from iOS 17.1. I have some very good reasons for my bitching about this update and why this is potentially bad for Apple and they don’t seem to care about it.

Like I have said in past posts, the Music app is missing “Compilations” as a sorting option in plain sight. We have: playlist, artist, albums, songs, music videos, genres, composers and in between genres and composers, we should see compilations. However, it has ben hidden and frankly, this is dumb. It is dumb as there are all sorts of greatest hits albums out and they are categorized as… … you guessed it: compilations and not a studio or live album. Why is Apple doing this? Are they trying to direct us to eventually stream and forget about buying music altogether in the future? This could be one step towards this and I do not like it and I am going to complain, until people actually wake up and take a look at their music apps. Stop downloading songs and playlists and start downloading albums of all kinds. Then you will see why an album such as a greatest hits package belongs in Compilations and the same for tribute and movie soundtrack albums.

With the TV app, I guet what they are trying to do, to streamline everything and move TV shows and movies to one app. However, there is a problem with that and that is, iTunes as a link to everything from music, to books, to TV shows and movies, as well as anything we may purchase in the App Store. Putting everything in one place makes some things more difficult to find and in the case of the TV and movie app, it has eliminated compilations of TV shows and I can tell you that any of the compilations of The Simpsons I had purchased in the past, are in my library, but not in the store. The store is two messy and with the iTunes Store, everything was a lot neater and was categorized. By moving TV shows and movies to the TV app, things are harder to find and there is something not enough real estate on iPhone screens, to accommodate this change and make it as simple, as it was with the iTunes Store. I know there are people who don’t like iTunes, but it is an essential link to everything and removing TV shows and movies from there is a mistake. Retiring the iTunes Store will be a bad move, when it does happen and when it goes, there will be no iTunes anymore. Won’t be able to buy music anymore from one store which also accommodates TV shows, books, movies and apps and if it is in Apple’s plans, everything will have their own individual stores, without iTunes as a link to payment for purchases. This could possibly require us to have multiple Apple IDs and money in different accounts. I hope I’m wrong, but I have a bad feeling that this can happen if Apple gets their way and destroys the iTunes Store completely.

The bright spot with this update is the ability to change the default ringtones. Frankly, I did not like rebound because it’s too quiet and because of tradition, I went back to the old ringtone which I usedwhen I got my first iPhone back in 2012. Even when iOS 7 got new alert and ringtones, I still stuck with Marimba and Tri-tone as my default ringtone and text tone respectively. Yes, I went back to Tri-tone for my default tone and as I said, I’m all about tradition here. This goes with how I configure my screen with phone, mail, safari and music all on the bottom from left to right. I put Messages at the top left because that is how it was back then and Settings always has to be the last app before the doc and page option.

If you enjoy the new iOS update, that is fine and I will continue to piss on it because nothing has changed for the better and it has only gotten worse. I am not looking forward to the next updates and I am considering removing music and TV shows from my iPhone, thus cancelling the majority of my blogs. However, I’m not going to do that yet unless things get so bad that they are no longer tolerable to my liking. Funny, that the Books app hasn’t been all that bad with updates and such, while Music and TV has been a royal pain in the ass. If anyone who works for Apple sees this, I am sorry, but I am not happy with what has gone on with iOS 17. It has created a mess with two important apps for those of us who like to be entertained and who may also have an inclination, to play a musical instrument and or sing. I am and having my music library in pieces does not suit me fine at all. It is a mess and this must stop, or people will eventually become so frustrated that they may consider removing the Music app from their iPhones. I won’t, but this simply must not continue and I can not standby and watch the world burn. If I don’t say anything, nobody else will and frankly, nobody else has as they are too happy and frankly too stupid, to explore everything and how it works. That’s we’re having multiple devices comes in handy which may be on various software updates. For example: if you have an iPhone on iOS 16, compare that to what you have on your newer device with iOS 17 or newer. There is a difference and if you have enough music, movies and TV shows to experiment with, download a bunch of each and watch what happens with either the iTunes app, or the TV app and Books app. With the ladder, you have the babysit and with the former, you could do the downloads and close the app if you want and walk away, or do something else on your iPhone while things are being downloaded. Yes, I close my apps because I don’t leave my toys on the floor and my drawers open. I treat the apps like drawers and closing them is equivalent to either putting things away, or closing the closet door, or dresser or desk drawer. That is what Apple do not understand, when they tell you not to close apps. If by doing this the iPhone takes away 20% of battery power (even with a new battery) then I might consider keeping apps open and letting them sleep in the background. In the meantime, I put my toys away and close the drawer so I don’t walk by it and accidentally hurt myself by banging into it. Anyway, enough of my bitching and I hope you enjoy iOS 17.2, the shittiest update so far.

iPhone 15 Pro, Accentuating The Positives

Hi folks. Since I have upgraded to the iPhone 15 Pro, I thought I would talk about what I like about the new phone, after that cautionary comment on the potential danger I found. Any comments you see here are strictly my own and not end all be all for everyone.

The new action button replaces the ring and silent mode switch on the Pro and Pro-Max models and I find a fun to play with sometimes. Besides it being a convenient button to toggle on and off ring and silent mode, it can be mapped to do the same with other features like: focus, shortcuts and there is an option for no action. I keep it on the traditional setting because I like to stay within tradition as much as I can, when it comes to the iPhone. This even goes down to how I configure the home screen. On a similar note, we can turn mute on and off through Control Center and scroll down to where you can toggle mute mode on and off, like you can do with the action button. Pretty cool huh?

I also discovered that VoiceOver even says that I am plugged into EARPODS, when toggling on and off SOUND CHANNELS, for both audio and phone sounds. Besides, now I know for sure how the word “EarPods” is spelled, altho in this case it is in all caps. What I am getting at is that what I like is that it is letting you know what you are listening through, as it may or may not be a third-party accessory. I expect the same thing with a Bluetooth speaker, AirPods, or any other headphones so that doesn’t bother me either way.

For those of us who care, we can also see the cycle count when it comes to battery charging and to be honest, I don’t look at the cycle count regularly and I don’t feel the need to do so. Speaking of charging, in the battery setting, there is optimized charging and there is an 80% limit setting, which I haven’t tried yet and I will do so today. I don’t expected to work right away, because the way optimized battery charging works doesn’t always work immediately anyway.

Also for those who were interested, there is always on display and because I’m blind, I don’t need that so I turned that off and all the features. I found that the phone burns through battery packs faster with it on and battery life is also affected with it on , even with screen brightness at 0% and auto brightness being turned off, as well as standby being turned off so, to make sure that this does not continue I turn everything off which has to do with display and brightness. Don’t forget, I’m totally blind so I don’t need it anyway.

Also, a faster chip helps when it comes to downloads and on the other side of that it also burns through the battery faster than my previous iPhone did so, now you understand why I turn off everything which has to do with brightness except for screen curtain. I keep that off because It’s rather redundant when keeping my iPhone in dark mode and with no screen brightness whatsoever. I take care of that when I’m show me my shopping list and that’s that, as well as turning off true tone and anything else which has to do with display and brightness.

There is also a matter of USB-C, replacing lightning for the charging port and I was at first reticent, but now I don’t mind it. I do miss lightning in a way, but not all that much. No, lightning isn’t bad, but if USB-C helps with Pushing data through faster than I have no problem with the switch. My only question is what is the use of the dynamic island? So far the only plus for me with that is with checking the timer when it comes to doing laundry, or charging my shaver every week so I can shave myself every morning when I wake up. I love having two timers on my phone so I can have one for each task With one for my shaver and one for the dryer, when doing my laundry.

So far, I love the new phone regardless of my last post and the issue I had and I hope I have it around for a couple of years and maybe even more than that with the same battery. I will be of course monitoring future iPhones and if anything stands out That I should know about in the future, I will consider upgrading in 2025 and until then, this is my new iPhone for a while and I’m loving living with it so far. I just hope that iOS 17.2 and beyond are better than iOS 17.1. If you don’t know why I say that, just scroll down through my past posts and it’s all there as to why I am going to be saying good riddance to this current update to this generation of iOS software.

iOS 17.1 And What I Like

Hi folks. Enough of my whining and now I’m going to tell you what I actually like about iOS 17.1. In my postscript to my last post I mentioned that I like the fact that you can favourite songs in your music library and recently, I started playing around with that to see what it was like. Well, I think it’s great that we can do this now and I hear that iOS 17.2 there will be an option to create a playlist called Favourites and to be honest, I think that should’ve been the plan all along for this particular aspect of the software. Besides, there should’ve been a Favourites playlist by default, instead of being an untitled playlist if one chooses not to put their own title to a list. I keep my list small, because I know that they can take up potentially megabytes and possibly gigabytes if they are large enough.

I like Favourites because I have some compilations which are actually collections of band’s albums, such as Van Halen, Deftones, Metallica and LINKIN PARK who are among those with studio album collection boxed sets on iTunes over the years. Even Disturbed and Slipknot are not immune to this trend, but I didn’t snap up studio album collections for every band because I wanted individual albums by the majority of my artists. With Van Halen, I chose them because I know the albums from the David Lee Roth era well enough, that I can listen to an individual album from it as I please. With Favourites, it is much easier to cherry pic for example: the entirety of Van Halen I, or 1984. I did both albums, during the summer on my album listening kick and it felt good, to go back to younger days.

Other things which make me happy about iOS 17.1 is that with emails, I can move messages with known email addresses right to the intended mailbox I created for example: I have one just for Alan Cross and all my emails to him, when I have a question, comment or I am giving him a link to look at, potentially for his website. With iOS 17, I had to manually go to the mailbox, but with iOS 17.1, it has the old option from the past saying “Move to” so-and-so after I decide to move the message, rather than delete it.

I am happy to have more of a choice back, when it comes to assigning ringtones and text tones to people again. With iOS 17, you could only assign ringtones as ringtones and text tones, as text tones. Thankfully, we got half of that back from how it was before in that we can assign text tones from both ringtones and text tones, but not all of the same freedom with ringtones. In a way, it makes sense because these new text tones are too short to be used as a ringtone anyway, but others may not be such as the classic ringtones from way back in the day before 2013. However, I’m not going to knock this one because I’m just happy to have that option back.

About my postscript in the last post, I had discovered that in the music app, compilations are hidden, even if they are unhidden as an option for listening and sorting, by Apple and I wonder if this may be a part of the reason I had gone through all this trouble and upset, with my music library, which is still kinda messy and looks like it had been trampled upon by software bullies. But seriously, my library is still a mess with albums still broken up and no syncing with iTunes, when it comes to downloading new music or TV show episodes as of iOS 17.1. I had reported my issues with the option for compilations being awol to Apple Support in the app and I hope that there are tech experts working on this problem. Right now, I am just happy to be able to favourite songs I want to hear if I am in the mood, even though I am an album person at heart. That is why I had been bitching about this issue, in my last two posts and I will not let go of albums that easily. I am guilty of cherry picking songs, but I’m trying to fix that in my iTunes library as much as I can. Unfortunately, I can’t do that with every single album because not all albums are available in the iTunes Store right now. For example: Flash Harry by Harry Nilsson is not available now, but it was in early 2019. I only purchased and downloaded the song Harry, because I am a Monty Python fan and because it is sung and written by Eric Idle, with help from his friend Charlie Dore. I hope that some day this will come back so I can purchase the remainder of the album, as apposed to running to Youtube to listen to the whole thing, without the option of picking songs on my own time, to listen to again and again. I used to do this as far back as CDs and favourites gives me that option again, without having to create a playlist. There are countless examples of this from back in the day, so I won’t attempt to go through them all. Anyway, I hope that you are enjoying iOS 17.1, even with its flaws I had pointed out and especially the ones in the Music app, which are no less important than anything else on our iPhones and iPads.

One thing I’ve been wishing for and which has not happened yet with iOS or iPadOS, is that we should be allowed to choose the sounds for all applications, besides Mail and Calendar. For example: I have sounds which will be great for the Weather app or any Weather app which I use which has Push notifications as a part of what they offer. The native weather app is obviously one of them, but I have others which do not have their own sound and use the default sound, chosen by Apple. The other reason I mentioned this is because I don’t like the current sound which is used for iOS 17, as it gets away from tradition as for the past 16 years, the default sound for a third-party apps and some native apps outside of Mail and Calendar has been Tri-tone and we have all grown used to it. Now, the default is Rebound, which sounds nice and is not too jarring. However, the fact that it doesn’t make you start like Tri-tone is rather counterintuitive, when it comes to alerting people to my mind, none of the new ringtones or alert tones for iOS 17 are especially outstanding and the fact that the default is changed, it’s not great. As similar sentiment with Siri and its classic tone being replaced by the quieter tune, rather than tone.

For one thing, these new alerts are hard to hear in noisy environments and the classic alerts are perfect for that, so why screw something up like this and have people miss alerts, which could be related to business or something else important, such as a Transit application Alerting one to their bus arriving, or a critical weather alert such as rain headed our way in the next 10 minutes. I mean, not everyone uses their iPhone the same way and Apple should know this, but it seems that some people who work there and who make decisions as to how the latest iOS software is constructed, have forgotten. So, my hope is that someday either with future iOS 17 or iOS 18 updates, we will get The option of assigning a sound to all applications, besides Mail, phone, messages, reminder and Calendar. I use certain sounds for certain reasons, some of which I cannot explain in this blog. Others I leave alone because they just don’t suit me and they are simply too quiet. Hopefully something will give and will be allowed this option in the future. Otherwise, besides my problems with iOS 17 I think it is pretty good so far. Let’s hope that things get patched up and fixed soon, so that future updates will be more or less like they were, before iOS 17 came along with no missing options and as little bugs as possible.

Just An Idea

Hi folks. First of all, an update on my last post and its circumstances, in that I was compensated for my inability to do laundry The previous week and I actually got help with loading the laundry card. I did it once (on the day I got help) and that was it. When will I attempt to load my card on my own? I have no idea. All I know is that I am not going to except the compensation, without movement on making machines accessible. This is especially for the ones which allow us to load our laundry cards and the washers and dryer’s aren’t that much of a problem. So, hopefully there is going to be lots of work done (even if it’s in a hurry) because there are other people who will be affected by this change in laundry contractors and Coinamatic will have to do a lot more damage control, then just compensating people with loaded laundry cards. I have had no further contact with the company since October 28th and I’m not getting my hopes up that I will either. However, I am hopeful that there will be some movement on new card loading machines, that resemble bank machines. Basically, if you have headphones with a 3.5 mm jack, you could plug them in and a voice will talk to you through how to navigate the machine, in order to complete your transaction. So, Coinamatic is not off the hook yet and won’t be, until I and others like me can operate the machines on our own, without being watched or babysat.

Today, I want to talk about something different which I haven’t touched upon in a while. In the past I’ve made comments about the iPhone and various iOS updates and I haven’t had much to say, until now. Thankfully, it’s positive in that I have a new iPhone and, it’s one of the newer iPhones with Face ID. I had reservations about getting an iPhone 13 Pro, because of face ID and the thing that pushed me the other way is the option for 1 TB storage capacity. This of course, allows me to put everything I’ve ever bought on iTunes on my iPhone and have room to spare, so I can get more for the next couple of years.

My reservations about using Face ID are not quite unfounded, because of the pandemic and the fact that we have to wear masks and, you cannot create an appearance with a mask, in order to unlock your phone with Face ID. If it was possible, sure I’d be completely at peace with Face ID. I am at peace with it, but I don’t like having to enter my code in all the time, especially when there are people watching, or who could be watching me enter my six digit passcode in order to unlock my phone. My Bluetooth keyboard does help, but I don’t like taking it out all the time. However, it’s better than nothing.

Could there be a way in which we Who have phones with Face ID (during the COVID-19 pandemic) wish to unlock iPhones in our pockets without having to take them out or enter the passcode? Maybe not, but I have an idea in which there could be a way to disable face ID and the passcode feature temporarily with an automation. I call it face ID Memory and my idea of how it works is that when you open the settings app, go into Face ID and there could be a new option for setting up an automation, similar to how focus works in iOS 15. What this could do is disable face ID and having to enter your passcode for a set time, by the user. The catch is that you won’t be able to use Apple Pay to purchase items in a store, unless there’s a way to include it in the automation. If that is possible, it will certainly make things faster, where you could just whip out your phone pay for something and go on your merry way.

Here’s how it could work and this is my own idea and nobody else knows about it yet, except on one Youtube channel, where I had made a comment on the iPhone 14 and what they thought the potential could be for it. First of all, you go to settings as usual and then go to Face ID, tap on it and enter the pass code as prompted normally. Then at some point there could be an option where you can create an automation called Face ID Memory, which allows you to set up an automation. You can set it up to turn on at a set time and turn off at another set time, which is set by you. Or, you can have it turn on and off at a certain location, much like some automations do with focus mode. This would allow you to unlock your iPhone without using Face ID or entering in your pass code and you can unlock your phone in your pocket, or a backpack like you could with touch ID. However, when this is turned off you will probably need to enter your passcode again, in order to reactivate Face ID, much like when you restart your phone and you had to enter your passcode with either touch ID, or face ID. Maybe the same thing could be done for touch ID users to, but I think it’s more impactful for those who use face ID, because during the pandemic we are wearing masks in public and sure, we could pull them down for a moment to use Face ID in order to use Apple Pay. However, what if you were in a hurry and don’t want to do that? My idea could be your solution and like I said, this could only be temporary and not a permanent thing unless you said it to start at 12:00 AM and end at 11:59 PM the same day and you can only set it up with Face ID and not in focus. That is, unless my gnu idea could be added into focus, along with do not disturb and others which are currently options. However, I think that it should be separate from focus mode, because you may not want to be disturbed and you don’t want to go through having to look at your phone, or enter in your passcode every time you unlock it. This way, there is a better chance of using 2 automations at the same time and once again, it will make things a lot easier for everybody.

I’m sure that there are reasons for it not to work and I get it. This could be a security issue, as well as a safety issue for some and Apple might not want to touch this idea, as it could result in people stealing iPhones and finding it easy to do whatever they want to do, while the automations active. However, it could teach people to be more careful with their iPhones and not take them for granted and be aware of their surroundings. For example: in shopping malls there could be people walking around looking for things to steal and pickpocketer’s love hanging around shopping malls and especially during busy sales days and if they bump into you, you know it’s game over and you could kiss your iPhone goodbye. However, if you are very careful and keep your iPhone close to you at all times this could work for you.

The main reason for this idea to be taken seriously and for it to succeed is that some people would prefer to unlock their phones while their device is in their pockets and with touch ID or before that, you could do that. With Face ID, you can’t do that and people could potentially see your phone in your hand and those who want to steal iPhones (for whatever reason might be hung really looking at you, unlocking your iPhone and they may not pounce as yet, but when you least expect it they could perpetrate their crime, namely the theft of your device. What Apple could do (if they decide to go in this direction and add this feature to Face ID) is to put in a warning to those who use it. The warning could say something like this:

Please use this feature wisely and do not be careless with how you set up automations. People could potentially steal your iPhone if they see how easy it is for you to unlock your device.

The main message of the warning could be please use this wisely and don’t be a fool. After all, these phones are expensive, whether you are getting it through a contract from your carrier, or buying the phone out right. In other words, proceed with caution and be careful where you go, not to show off your phone like you have bling because you’re asking for trouble if you do that. Then again, if it is an option which you can set up for select locations it could be worth looking at and Apple could consider adding it to newer devices with Face ID. Again, I’m sure it can be added to touch ID devices and that argument is also a good one, because your hands may not be dry enough when you try to unlock your phone and unfortunately, the home button cannot perform this task, because you’re hands may not be totally dry, therefore it may not recognize your fingerprint temporarily and you have to enter your passcode.

So, what do you think? It’s just an idea in my head and nothing more. It may become something for a future iOS update, if Apple is unable to add both Face ID and touch ID to newer phones (which have that option) and like I said before, it could be very useful for those who are in a hurry and live lives which are Busy, with the kids or any other reason for a full schedule. It also could have been helpful during the pandemic, but nobody had even thought of this possible feature, in case of something like this and the fact that we have to wear masks in public, due to public health restrictions.

I’m not even sure that the name is correct, because when I had first thought of this idea I had both “Face ID Memory” or “Face ID Override” as possible names for this feature. However, the idea of it should at least be looked at and explored, by those who make the decisions at Apple and if this does come to fruition, I would at least want to be mentioned by somebody as the person who came up with the idea in the first place. I’d like to get payed for it, but it’s not a high hope on my list at the moment. If I do make money from it, it would certainly be a bonus and I could be remembered as the person who liberated those with face ID. I would like that, but I’m sure the chances of this happening are pretty slim to none. But, if somebody is reading this and they work for Apple I hope that they will at least take a look at the idea and maybe they can develop it further than I have here. I can always hope and dream. Can’t I?

iPod Touch Seven

Hi folks. I feel I should talk about the iPod Touch today, because I have recently learned that the iPod Touch 6th generation may be discontinued as of iOS11.3. Currently, the 32 and 128 GB models are available for purchase but the prices have dropped. So, what does this mean for the iPod Touch in the future?

When I purchased my first one back in 2014 I had a 32 GB model, which was enough for a bit. But, I realized that I needed more space and so, I had acquired bigger capacity models and I currently own two 128 GB model’s. Why two of them you may ask? Well, one is for The Simpsons and the other is for everything else in my music, movie and audiobook library. I also bought them because I don’t like to listen to music on my iPhone because I can be more easily interrupted by all manner of things: text messages, tweets, Facebook posts, phone calls, etc.

Since the iPod touch six generation might be reaching the end of its life, I am hopeful that a seventh generation will be coming down the pike soon. After all, I mentioned earlier that the six generation might be discontinued as of iOS 11.3 and I stil have more episodes of The Simpsons to purchase, before I complete my collection of purchased episodes. What does Apple have in store for the iPod Touch? Will it die like the Shuffle or the Nano? I hope not, for reasons I had mentioned earlier and that we will have news coming soon, with new products from Tim Cook and company.

If the iPod Touch is killed off it will be a real shame because you will have less options for streaming and having it around does provide you with more than one option for this purpose. Even if you streem you may be able to keep the audio on more than one device and what ever device you choose. I’ve done it with both Spotify and Apple Music and, I’ve had varying degrees of success with keeping the music I downloaded. However, I am quite aware that with any streaming service we are merely renting the music and not necessarily keeping it forever, without paying every month for it with a subscription.

Also, what about the compact disk and its slow death? Yes, vinyl has made a resurgence but it’s not quite as portable as the CD or an iPod touch. With 12 inch records you can cary them around but only when you aren’t listening to them. Also, they and the CD can skip and scratch, if you are careless with them.

With an iPad you can use it as you could use a laptop in that, you can put your music on it, TV shows, audiobooks, at Cetera and of course, do all your work on social media and answering emails, for business or pleasure. Yes, an iPad is portable but not quite so durable in that, you can’t put it in your pocket and that is why an iPod touch is the most convenient and ideal device to cary with you. After all, it is light and not in any way, cumbersome.

Getting back to how we consume our music, I prefer buying mine through iTunes because with a few taps the song I want is mine, provided I have enough credit for my iTunes balance. Also, keeping music is ideal so you don’t have to connect to wifi and search for songs, for a specific purpose and then throw them out when you are done with them. This devalues the music and the work the artist has done with long hours and sweat in the studio. So, I will still purchase digital downloads because I want to keep what I listen to and not just have it temporarily or thrown away, because of a lack of space.

Also, with only an iPhone you have other things to contend with, for space. Think of the contacts and apps which you have purchased from The App Store and the software updates. Also, don’t forget about those who may have more than 128 GB of music, movies, TV shows, books, audiobooks, etc, they may have accumulated over a number of years. The Simpsons alone, would require almost 256 GB which (at this time) you would need 2 iPod touches or one iPhone 8 or iPhone X, with that much capacity. Get my drift?

As for the forthcoming HomePod, I’m not quite so sure how it will work or how accessible is to not just people could see but also others who can’t. Using Siri to do things for you is one thing but using VoiceOver allows you to do a lot more and without use of data.

If there is to be a new iPod touch I hope that it will expand to 256 GB to allow for even more memory or maybe even 512 GB on one device. Yes, it’s a tall order but this would surely be a good thing for me, so I can store everything on one audio playing device and not worry about running out of space.

Before I forget, I should mention that I had read about the possible discontinuation on Wikipedia. I don’t know if it is correct but there are times when it is right on the money. If this is true then I will be happy to have told those who may not have time to read about their iOS device.

In closing, my request to Apple is to please, please, please consider giving us another iPod touch model. If you have decided to kill it off, please, please, PLEASE, PLEASE reconsider, for reasons I have stated above. After all, the sixth generation came out around the time Apple Music was launched in July 2015. Why not the seventh generation coming out this year too? After all, iOS11.3 is roomered to have changes to Apple Music in it so, why not? If you want to surprise us a new iPod touch seventh generation would be a pleasant one, even if it is bewildering to some. It would be a bold move, with The proliferation of streaming services, including Apple Music it’s self and Apple could add a few new goodies to the device. How about touch ID? I certainly hope that Apple is thinking about everything and not just the next iPhone or just how to further innovate. If that isn’t in the cards, I might as well contemplate getting an iPad Pro, with the capacity of 512 GB. After all, it would be my first ever iPadin my possession. Come to think of it, maybe the next iPad or iMac might have a capacity as large as 1024 gigabytes. Maybe I’m wishing for something really grand bud, I can dream. Can’t I?

iOS11 So Far

Hi folks. Here is my first post on how iOS11 is doing so far, since it was released on September 19th. There really isn’t much that I have noticed that is worthy of disgussion here, except for a few things.

First, the new Siri voices sound better and in particular, the American female Siri sounds rather hot. I loved the female Austrailian Siri but the new American Siri is just so good. Oh, the male Siri voice hasn’t changed all that much, much like the male and female Austrailian Siri voices. It’s just that the sound quality and some inflections have been tweaked. Other than that, the files are bigger and you have to be carefull which voice you want, so you don’t run out of space.

Speaking of which, I like the new offloading feature, for apps what you don’t use anymore. Although, I try not to use it because I just might want to use one of my apps which I have accidentally gotten rid of and by the way, if you want to re-download the app you should go straight to the App Store to do that. For some odd reason when you download the app using the app it’s self, it only downloads as much as 1% of the app. I have no idea why this is but that has been my experience so far.

Something else which I should talk about and nobody has mentioned to me is the peculiarity of the Apostrophe punctuation being replaced with a quotation mark in its place. Perhaps I should explain! If you type in an apostrophe using a Bluetooth keyboard or the screen keyboard it gives you a quotation mark of some sort and not an apostrophe as it should. However, if you touch the icon where this punctuation mark is and you hold your finger on it for the alternative characters, it shows up as an alternate character. My question is why? This is stupid and should be fixed immediately because this makes myself and others who are using this to compose emails, text messages, blog posts, etc, look like we can’t type properly. This also is the case with dictation, where the punctuation mark replaced by a quotation mark of some sort. Again, this should be fixed as soon as possible because more and more of us these days use our iOS devices as our main computer, while mobile. Am I right on this? However, there is a way to stop this and that is to go to Settings, go to General and go to Keyboard. Then look for Smart Punctuation and if it is on, turn it off. Now you can type ‘ to your hearts content. However, this should have been told to us that if we use the Smart Punctuation it will mistake an quotation mark of some sort for an Apostrophe.

There was also the issue of battery drainage but, I didn’t notice it that much. In fact, I never even knew about it until it was mentioned on the Internet. I find my battery in my iOS devices work just fine, despite the rather large iOS 11 and it’s updates so far, with the exception of iOS 11.1.1.

One thing I really do like is that there is no longer limit of how much you can download without Wi-Fi, in most cases. If you want to download apps which are over 100 MB, go right ahead because you can do that now. This is because some apps get rather bloated because of how much you have on them or how long they’ve been around. For example: Facebook is rather large and the updates are equally as Mammoth with as much is 200 MB per update. Of course, you should be careful with how much you update using data because going over your data will cost money. Right?

One more thing I should mention, if you like moving apps or folders around. For some strange reason you can’t move apps or folders from the bottom row, just above where you go from page to page. However, if you want to do that and if you need to do as such, you just move an app down from the second highest row and keep doing that until you have the apps in place the way you want them. Just be carefull that you don’t approach the border or it will move to the next page. So, you have to be slow and methodicle about how and where you move the icon. It has frustrated me but I think I have a handle on how to do it, somewhat but, this should be fixed and I hope that when iOS11.2 rolls around this will be taken care of.

Anyway, if you are enjoying iOS 11, that’s wonderful and if you’re not, I understand. This is rather a large update and it will take time for it to fully settle in.

10 Years Of The iPhone Influencing Our Lives

Hi folks. Yesterday was the release of iOS 11 and this year is also the 10th anniversary of the iPhone itself. I found a post a couple of days ago on Twitter which lists five ways the iPhone has influenced the world around us. As a companion piece to this article, I thought I would mention how the iPhone has enhanced our lives in general. Although, there will be some overlap in this list between this and the other article but, there are things which has made the lives of a certain portion of the population (with disabilities) easier in reading, writing and communicating with others.
Apple Pay
Apple Pay is something that took a long time for me to grasp because, I didn’t have an iPhone which was compatible with this feature until late last year. Also, I didn’t feel comfortable with the concept at the time until this summer. I guess it was the safety which I was concerned about! Now, I use it as regularly as I can and can do it with ease. Although, I do need guidance as to where the sensor is so I can put the iPhone on it and bingo, I’ve paid for my item. I hope that one day everything can be paid for using both Apple Pay and other companies equivalents to it, so there will be no need to carry cash.
Social Media
The use of social media has also been a great benefit to myself and I guess everybody who uses Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat these days. Even doing this blog wouldn’t be possible without my iPhone in 2013 and I’m very thankful for the use of social media because, it has help me stay in touch with old friends and make some new ones in the process. Even getting a chance to communicate with my favourite musicians and actors has been possible with the iPhone. For example: I follow five of the six main voice actors on The Simpsons and have communicated with a few people associated with The series on Twitter. Also on Facebook I have had the opportunity to meet and disguss topics which I have an interst in with a group and I have even become an Administrator of one or two of them.
Safari
The use of Safari also has enhanst my ability to go on the web and search for things on Google. I even bookmark things which I want to read again later on because, they May change as time goes on. I do this with my favourite bands, TV shows, etc and that is how I follow some of my favourite famous people outside of social media. Even YouTube has been possible to use with an iPhone because at first, when I had the iPhone 4s in 2012 there was the YouTube app. However, when iOS 6 came along that app was taken off and I had to find YouTube videos using Safari. fortunately, I was able to do that quite easily and I have tried the free YouTube app on the App Store but, I didn’t like it because I didn’t have as much control as I do when using Safari.
Apps
The use of applications in general has made my life a lot easier and much less reliant on The media and other people at times. For example: I use a few applications for getting the weather in my local area and some of them also have weather warnings, which are sent out via push notifications. This has not only helped myself but other people around me, when severe weather or nice weather is on the way. I even use applications for getting around using local transit and this has also made life a lot easier. The only thing is that you need to have more than one transit app, in order to find the best one for you and I use 2 of them, depending on the situation at the time. As far as I’m concerned, any app which helps me get around is alright with me.
Voices
Not only do I get voice interaction from Siri, but I also get to hear voices on my iPhone with the use of VoiceOver. In case you don’t know what that is, it is a screen reading software which operates using gestures and double or two finger tapping on icons on the screen, in order to activate an app or to type out a letter or punctuation mark. With VoiceOver, I can do this either on the screen, use dictation or use a Bluetooth keyboard to help me type out: emails, text messages, posts on Twitter or Facebook, composing blog posts, etc. It is not only useful to the blind but also people with learning disabilities such as dyslexia. In my case, I’ve been blind since birth and this feature of the iPhone is what I use most of all, out of any feature on this device. Even the voices have expanded to many different languages and are both male and female sounds. I’ve talked about the voices themselves in past posts here but I will say that I am quite impressed with how many voices in different dialects there are, in Apple’s speech library. With iOS11 the new Siri voices sound even better than I thought. This is especially true of the new female Siri, who sounds quite nice, in what ever dialect you select. The American female Siri souds younger than the other voices in the past and both male and female voices, are available for download. But, they are bigger files than ever before and take up more space. As for the other voices, not much has changed, with the exception of promoting Nikki from being the American female voice of Siri, to being a standalone voice for download in VoiceOver.
iTunes and Apple Music
With the iPhone we were all able to listen to music digitally, through iTunes as well as streaming services like Spotify and various applications, which allow us to listen live to individual songs and albums and radio stations. We also were given the chance to buy our music on the iTunes Store for a cheaper price, than a compact disk would cell at a record store these days. Altho, in my last years of buying CD’s, they have come down in price to about $10.00 or so. However, some albums on the iTunes Stor have sold for as low as $4.99. The real plus with the iTunes store is that in some cases, you could buy albums you could no longer find on CD, because they are out of print or no longer sold where you live. Sometimes it goes the other way, in that the album you want is not available in your country’s iTunes Store. I had run into that a numbr of times!
I have had a lot of joy browsing and purchasing music, TV shows and some movies from the iTunes Store in the past years and that is how I have managed to come up with posts for this blog and my other blogs, related to The Simpsons and even Weather Radio.
With Apple Music, I can now listen to and download (for free) albums by bands which I can’t afford to spend money on at the moment. I can even do that with songs which are only available as an “album only” track on some albums, instead of having to buy the whole album. This has made my listening experience even more enjoyable and has been a big help, with having to learn songs to sing for people in my apartment. I wish that was around back when I went to school because, that would have been a great help in learning songs for my school ensemble.
Text Messaging
I have been able to text since 2011 but this has greatly improved since I have migrated to the iPhone in 2012. Even iMessaging has been a real plus for me, when people can’t simply text me and I don’t mind that. The only thing I don’t think is necessary is adding affects to a message but, I wil add emoji’s to some text messages.
Hearing The Real Voice On The Phone
With iPhones and some other smart phones we get to hear a persons actual voice and not just the phone quallity voice on the other end of the line. I notice this the most with the iPhone and I love it when I hear the actuall sound of a voice so I know what to listen for, when I meet them in person later. Some other phones also allow this and I think it’s great, that we get to hear the voice as it was meant to be heard. We can leave the phone quality voice to walky talky radios and landline phones, thank you very much.

Other Miscellaneous Things
I like being able to create reminders for myself, to let me know about up coming appointments and engagements. For those who like to play games on their phones, there are plenty of them out there. The news app is a good thing to have so you can keep tabs on what is going on in the world. The callender is another good thing to have, so you can plan events throughout the year without having to put down the phone. Taking photos is another thing which is good and the quality of the picture is even better now than it was with other phones and, with iOS11 there are even more improvements to photos. For those who are hearing impaired, there are options for hearing aids and such to compliment the iPhone. Watching TV is now possible with your iPhone and even your iPod Touch and iPad, with the new Apple TV app. If you are recording a voice memo it comes out in your actual voice, much like on the phone.
Those are just some of the things thatthe the iPhone has given us to improve our daly lives and make the world easier to live in. You could say that your iPhone is your: Computer, note taker, calendar, phone, radio, two way radio, virtual girlfriend or a boyfriend, Road map, GPS, etc. in your hand and there is no telling, what Apple will do in the future to improve the iPhone or discontinue it in the coming years. I guess 10 more years as possible but it won’t be the same into thousand 27. You can be sure that the iPhone you’re holding in your hand now will not be around 10 years from now and you will look back and wonder where you would be without this device.

Late Night

Hi folks. I came across an article on the web through Twitter, about a feature which makes music louder on an iOS device. This was quite recent and in fact, I found it a couple of days ago. This feature is called Late Night and is in the EQ section of the settings app for the music app, on your iOS device. To get to it you can go to settings, go to Music and look for EQ. Go to Late Night, tap on that and it’s ready to be used.
The article said that with your iPhone (or whatever iOS device you have) the setting makes the music louder from the speaker. It’s true but the real fun is when you hear the music with this feature on, using your earbuds, headphones, EarPods and maybe even The new AirPods. What this does is take all the dynamics out of music and with the loss of the dynamics it makes you able to hear quieter parts equal to the loudest parts of a song. For example: the song Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen is a perfect song to try this with because, there are so many parts to it. If you know the song well, there are three sections: the ballad section, the operatic section and the rock section. Obviously, the ballad and opera sections have the most shifts in dynamics and gives this feature a real work out. If you have a song in your library or can stream it, just take a listen and you’ll here what I mean. In fact, it will sound like the song is being played on the radio and that is why I purchased the song in the first place because, I like hearing songs on the radio like that with many shifts in dynamics. It’s a real shame that today’s music has none of that because of the compression and every song having the same loudness and in general, sounding the same.
Another band who has songs with shifts in loud quiet dynamics is The Smashing Pumpkins and especially the albums Siamese Dream and melancholy And The Infinite Sadness. I will give you an example from both albums, where you can use this feature.
Siamese Dream has many examples of this loud quiet dynamic but the best one is in the track Silverfuck, which has many shifts in loud and quiet. For example there is the traditional drum bass and twin guitar attack from Billy Corgan and James Iha. In the first verse there is the bass, vocals and tribal drumming from Jimmy Chamberlain, with the chorus going back to the guitar bass and drums, with Billy’s shrieking vocals. The next verse is where we see Late Night at work. In this verse there is a haunting bass line with some equally haunting vocals and carefully placed guitar feedback. Well this is going on, the drums are plotting away quietly. After a few minutes of this, the instruments cease and we hear Billy singing the line repeatedly four times (By himself with echo delay) “bang bang you’re dead… Hole in your head”. After this the band finally kicks back in, with backwards echo on the first word Billy sings.
The next example is from the album Melancholy And The Infinite Sadness and it is the track 1979. It’s not the best example but it’s a classic. What really makes this song stand out as an example is that the song fades in, with electronic beats. If you have the song in your collection you know that but if you’ve only heard it on the radio you know the song starts immediately. To make Late Night work for this song, put the song in a playlist where the previous song has a fade out which is Close enough to make the transition as seamless as possible. If you do that you will hear the electronic beats at nearly the same volume as the song, as they fade in to start the song itself.
For TV shows I have one example I can give you right off hand. If you’ve watched the episode Waldorf Salad from the British TV show Fawlty Towers, you know that there is a part where the guests are complaining to basil about the myriad of mess ups which occurred throughout the episode, including the loud American guest. Near the end of the complaints the American guest says “satisfied customers. Huh? Hot dog!” and laughs in triumph. Meanwhile we see basil getting angrier and saying quietly at first “this is typical… Absolutely typical… The kind of arse I had to put up with from you people.” during the quiet part when basil says “this is typical… Absolutely typical… The kind of…” you hear more of a hiss from the audio and the voice at normal loudness as if he was speaking at a normal volume. When basil screams the word “arse” The audio reverts back to normal loudness without the hiss. If you heard it normally without late night that part would be quieter until the word arse was spoken.
I was one of the first people I know of, to put The word out about this feature on the web three years ago. However, I’m glad that somebody else discovered it along with myself and hopefully others use this feature before it changes or is killed off. I have a lot of fun with music with dynamical shifts and unfortunately with today’s compressed loud music of any type, the days of dynamics are pretty much gone. As much as I love some sub genres of heavy metal, I find them boring because there is no real switch in volume in some cases. However, with a band like Slipknot there are some songs which have such a range to them such as The Shape. However, the best examples are mostly in classic rock and all of its genres within such as: Art rock and progressive rock. Check out the progressive rock. Of Genesis and you will hear some very interesting music.
It’s very sad that today’s music is so boring, bland and loud and lacks interest. Yes, I’m old but I like music which has something to keep me interested, while listening and not just to make me dance and jump around. Even recent jazz records are sounding more compressed and they too, are lacking in dynamics which is very wrong. Well, I guess that is the way music is going these days so I guess I will have to get used to it. One of these days musical sound so compressed and squished together it will be unintelligible. I’m kidding about that but you know what I mean, when I say that eventually the musical become so compressed it will sound very different from what it was meant to sound like. The instrument which is most affected is the drums, because they keep the beat and in jazz they provide the most interesting parts when the drummer takes a solo. Now they sound more clattering and dare I say, harsher. Anyway, I digress.
I hope that someday music will get back to its dynamics again, so we can use Late Night as it should be used through our speakers or headsets. In the meantime, let’s enjoy the original albums of the classic songs and listen to them, to hear them louder and to hear the dynamics taken out by choice.

Ideas for iOS 11

Hi folks. This is yet another post on iOS but this time it’s all about iOS 11. I have some ideas of what I would like to see when iOS 11 rolls around in September.
To start off with, I like iOS 10 so far and thankfully with the latest updates, some problems have been fixed. For example, when I’m reading an article on Wikipedia when I select a section it reads it twice and says “edit”. For example: when I’m looking at a band or a person and the section is “History” it says history twice then it says edit and goes on to read all about the history section of the article. Another thing which I am very happy about is that finally The Simpson’s is acknowledged on my iPod touch. Ever since I had one of them, when it reads the TV show titles it has always left it blank or it says “in iCloud.” Thankfully with the last two iOS 10 updates this has been fixed.
Now we’re going to start talking about iOS 11th and what I would like to see. Before we do that, let’s talk about what we know so far. First of all, we know that the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c are no longer a part of the future iOS updates as of the end of iOS 10.  We also now know that Siri will be revamped with a more human sounding voice and I wonder if since new voices have been added to VoiceOver, will Ava and Tom Be the new Siri voices for North American English speakers? it would make sense because those two voices are used for GPS and telephone IVR systems, as I have mentioned in past posts. The same could be true for other voices and dialects around the world, which were added on for iOS 10.
Also, the App Store will get a redesign and I wonder what that will be like. I hope that it will be just as simple for people like myself who are blind to get around, as well as those who can see their devices.
Anyway, those are just two things that jumped out at me when I First read about iOS 11 on Wikipedia. now let’s talk about what I would like to see in the update for iOS, which is not been spoken about and yes, I will mention voices which I and others would like to see added on in September. 
First of all, I have an issue with the alarm clock in that it does not play the full song anymore, unless it’s under 15 minutes. I specifically but one of my songs in my music library as and alarm to wake me up. Unfortunately the song is about 22 minutes long but as of iOS 10 it only plays 15 minutes of it then it shuts off. I hope that with iOS 11 goes back to iOS 8 and how the alarms used to Play an entire song, no matter how long it is whether it is two or 20 minutes long without repeating it.
As for the voices I would like to see in Voice Over, I hope they all stay because all the voices are good in their own right. I especially appreciate the fact that we can download the Siri voices as I mentioned in the past and I’m not going to get into it any further. However, I want to see some new voices added, particularly for North America. Some of the names I like to see added are: Paul, Mike, Jennifer, Donna and or Crystal in iOS 11, along with everything else. I like Donna because much like Alex, she actually breeds but she does sound a little more robotic then most of the voices we have here. However, she does have a human intonation to her voice.
This brings me to changing the internation of a voice, which you can currently do on the computer but not on an iPhone or an iPod. I would love to change The internation of some voices, to make them higher and maybe even deepen one or two of them slightly. For example: I would love to make Ava’s voice just a bit higher and she’ll sound even better to me. I think this could be done with the option of changing the pitch. Simply, they can add the option to change the pitch not by toggling anything on or off but by creating a new option to change the pitch or intonation of the voice, as well as maybe the inflections of the selected voice. In some cases some voices don’t speak properly in that they don’t acknowledge questions by the voice going up at the end. Karen is a prime example of this and I would like to change that if it is possible with iOS 11. Also, I would Play with other voices to either make them lower or higher, just so I can hear what they sound like. Now that we have Fred, you could do the same thing with my proposal of adding on the pitch change option. Imagine me Fred sound more robotic?
As for other things I would like to see in iOS11 and later, iTunes should have a section where if you can’t find the album in your country store you should be able to get it from another store around the world. We could do that and record stores where they sell imported copies of albums at a higher price. Why not with iTunes? Obviously the price will be higher because it’s an import but, at least we would all get what we want without having to get another iTunes Account in another country or address. It would certainly save a lot of headaches when looking for an album on iTunes using Google and finding out it’s available in another country, other than where you live. I’ve been burned by that many times and I had discussed that here and in other blogs.
The same could go for apps on the App Store, where if you can’t find what you want and it’s available somewhere else, you could get it at a higher price. Once again, this would save a lot of headaches when searching for something on Google. Although in the case of apps, I can understand why some aren’t available everywhere because not all apps apply to everywhere around the world. However, in the case of iTunes, music does apply to everywhere around the world and everyone should have the same access to the same music, where ever you live. The same with audiobooks because I’ve done the same thing on Google and as I mentioned earlier with music, I’ve been burned by finding out an audiobook is available somewhere else and the same thing with movies and TV shows.
To end off this post I have some other ideas: I would still like to see video playlists being added to the videos app because I would love to watch episodes of some TV shows in a certain order. Also for the Maps app, I think that the iPhone should speak with all options while going somewhere. I find that it doesn’t say anything when using Transit options. Yes there are transit apps but the maps app does have The options for driving, walking and transit directions. It talks while driving or walking but why not for Transit?
For the notes app I think that you should be able to move attachments from not just iCloud and the “My iPhone” folders but two other folders throughout the app, encompassing your email or (email addresses) if you have more than one. Also I think that for iBooks and the audiobooks portion, not just the title and author should be shown but who also narrates the book. For example: I have a copy of A Christmas Carol which is narrated by Patrick Stewart. It does not say that on the outside but if you open the book, the voiceover says it before the story starts.
If we have apps with sounds Or voices attached to them they should be automatically a part of the suite of ring tones, voices and alert tones. For example: One of my weather apps has its own sounds for when an alert is issued. I would like to have that as an alert tone for my phone, for whatever I would like it to be for email or otherwise. further to that, I hope that in the future we can select a voice for voice alerts for apps which allow for it. For example, all the apps so far whitch have a voice alert option use the compact voice as opposed to the enhanced voice. I think we should at least be given the option, as to which voice we would like to use for the particular app and it’s voice alert. Also, since some people like to switch voices on the fly, why not allow for the option for each app to use a different voice if we desire. For example, I would use Tom for my weather apps and as my default voice I would use either Ava or Samantha and for Safari, I would use a different voice. This could be done in either the speak screen or voice over speech setting options and at first, I admit it would look confusing but it would give us what we really want, which is variety without having to change things manually on the fly.
Finally, I hope that all of the upgrades which have been made in iOS 10 continue in iOS 11. I like the text selection, which is great for copying and pasting text from emails and websites, for example. I have also gotten used to the new email format and well, I hope both examples I have mentioned here stay in iOS 11 and future upgrades.