• I think I might hate iOS even more than Windows, though.

This is why iPads frustrate me so much these days. The hardware is more than capable of running a decently powerful OS, but Apple are insistent on crippling them with a big version of iOS. iOS is fine on an iPhone where the limited screen size means I have no particular desire to do anything too complicated, but the same restrictions on an iPad feel like Apple don’t really know how to reconcile what the device can do with not wanting to pull customers away from Macs. I was unexpectedly gifted a 6th gen mini last week which is in front of me as I type and which I’m not entirely sure what to do with.

Yes, they really do. There were a few years of fuckups and questionable decisions, but by and large the devices they make are absolutely solid.

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro at home that’s running Monterey via Opencore as well as if it was still supported. Until recently I was using a 2015 MBP that was absolutely faultless. I now have an M2 Air that may have some issues down the line that haven’t come to light yet, but it seems unlikely. I have two Mac minis at work, a 2011 and a 2014 that are still absolutely capable for the level of work I ask of them. I’m typing this on one of them.

In terms of iPhones/iPads; I’ve had 7 iPhones and 5 iPads over the years, and the only hardware problems I’ve experienced with them have been of my own doing (broken screens, water damage, etc…).

So yeah, the 2016-2019 MacBooks had shitty keyboards and questionable I/O decisions, but otherwise the hardware was absolutely top tier.

And with Apple you can’t choose and pick like with PC. When they decide to try silly things like the touch bar you are stuck with them for years.

This is kind of a weird argument. You can’t choose which keyboard you get with any laptop.

All of this stuff makes me sad. As a long(ish)-time Apple user, it’s been sad to see them go full throttle into hyper-capital mode. They’re literally the wealthiest company on the planet because they’ve spent the past twenty years figuring out how to nickel and dime their customers. Hell, even when I bought my first MacBook back in '07, the guy in the Apple Store suggested getting the RAM upgrade elsewhere because Apple prices were ridiculous even then. Everyone knows they didn’t go with soldered RAM and storage for the performance gains…

But they make incredible hardware, so I tolerate all that shit, making me complicit in the fuckery.

Yeah, fuck this guy. I like Anti-Flag, and Justin did some really good acoustic stuff a few years back, but I guess they’re now added to the pile of music I won’t listen to any more.

It’s a shame for the other guys, but their response was solid.

I saw my wife playing this years ago, and always fancied having a go, but never got around to it.

So a few months back we got it going so it could stream to our Apple TV and off I went. Spent a few weeks playing it in the evenings and having a nice time.

Then Ubisoft put out an ‘update’ to it, that broke it completely. A massive update for a ten year old game. Cunts.

So I guess I’ll never finish it, because fuck Ubisoft.

In theory, any MP3 player / DAP that can have music loaded onto it by drag and drop could work with your iPad (assuming you have the means to connect it, of course).

But there are a number of things to consider.

Firstly; storage. Obviously, your iPad doesn’t have expandable storage, so depending on the size of your collection, you might run out of space. Using the same method you’ll need to connect the player to your iPad, you can hook up an external drive of some description. Files should be able to see it (as long as it’s formatted to exFAT or FAT). From there, using Files you can simply drag from one place to another.

However, this doesn’t allow you to change metadata or anything. There are apps you can download that will allow you to do it, but it can be a pain in the ass if you’ve got quite a bit of music.

Finally, there’s where you get the music from.

If you buy from somewhere like Bandcamp, then you can download directly to your iPad, though they don’t make it easy. You can’t buy from iTunes because the app won’t let you open them in Files. Torrents are obviously out, so is CD ripping, as there are no CD drivers for iPad that I’m aware of.

So while it’s entirely possible to run a DAP with just an iPad, it’s kind of a pain in the arse, unless you already have a ready supply of music and it’s either already tagged well, or you don’t really care about that sort of thing. As others have suggested, it might be just as easy for you to pick up a cheap PC. It doesn’t need to have any bells and whistles, just the ability to store music and have some way of managing the library.

But a million people haven’t done that with an iPad, because until now no iPad was able to receive video input. That’s the point of the article.

Can it run Doom?

I inherited my Nan’s Dyson DC25 when she went to live in a care home. Used it a few times and it was fine, but figured I’d strip it down and give it a damn good clean out.

The fucking thing damn near sucked up my carpet.

It’s still going strong now. Had to replace the little nubbin that drives the brush bar a few weeks ago, but other than that it’s still solid. Not bad for a 15 year old vacuum cleaner made to modern standards.

I once saw the two eras of Genesis referred to as Boring Genesis and Shit Genesis, and I was never able to fully disagree.

Kinda confusing when they rebranded as The Folksmen though.

I went to a number of hardcore punk gigs in the late '90s, where there’d be 8 bands on the flyer, because they’d all take to the stage, spend 20 minutes blasting through their entire 30 song catalogue, then down tools and fuck off to the bar.

It was glorious.

This is where I am with 65daysofstatic. I’ll always have the records up to Wild Light, and I’ll always love them, and while replicr, 2019 is too ambient and experimental for my tastes, I love that they’re doing what they find interesting and fun.

Kinda the same with John K. Samson, in that as much as I want him to make more music, to reform The Weakerthans and tell more stories, I respect that he’s moved on from it for now. All of his records are still there to be heard, there just probably won’t be any new ones.

Kid A felt like Radiohead reacting to the enormity of OK Computer by shrinking into a band that no one would want listen to, but it didn’t work and they just got bigger.

For what it’s worth, I really enjoy both sides of Radiohead. The early, straightforward indie is nice for my nostalgia, to remind me how I felt when I first heard Creep and Street Spirit. Then I still have the newer stuff for when I want to get lost in sound with my good headphones. A Moon Shaped Pool is an intriguing record.

This can go a number of ways, I think.

You get bands who hold on to their original sound with a vice-like grip, and invariably get kinda stale (I’m thinking Green Day here), you get bands that adapt their sound to their current circumstances and current market trends, who end up getting kinda stale. Then you get bands who just do what they damn well please, and that one is interesting to me.

Ultimately, though, we mostly get the second of those. Bands like Coldplay, whose first few albums are interesting, in a middle-class-dinner-party kind of way, but by the fourth record had hit a point where they needed to keep making money, but maybe didn’t have the inspiration they needed to make interesting music. U2, Snow Patrol, Biffy Clyro, and sadly (from my personal view) the Foo Fighters. They churn out records, sell the merch, play the stadia around the world, but the music doesn’t move me in any way, not like their earlier stuff does.

But I don’t blame them; they’re reacting to the world we live in, making music is their career, and they’re under contract to bang out a new collection of tunes every couple of years, whether they’re inspired to or not. Having said that about the Food though, their latest album is genuinely wonderful, so it’s not all bad.

This is by far and away my favourite of The Cure’s, so I was absolutely made up when they started playing it that night.

Thanks for posting!

I picked up a 13 Mini back in March, and will ride this bad boy for as long as I can, in the hope that Apple eventually release another Mini model.

So perhaps it’s true that we hold onto our little phones for longer, primarily because we’re waiting for another little phone to come along.

“We’ve got a fucking bassoon. Do Bad Religion have a fucking bassoon‽”

God, I love Mike.

I’ve been on a Rise Against kick lately. Can’t listen to one of their songs without taking a deep breath and diving right into everything. Recently discovered their acoustic album which sounds wonderful on my Good Headphones.

Well ain’t this place a geographical oddity.