New iPhones. Who got what?

[Aaron Gonzalez]

Hola.

Did anyone here pick up a shiny new 6 or 6+?

I'll be getting a 6+ to dev in from the job and I think I'm getting myself a 6 for a backup device and to do my own personal iOS projects on.

I'm still not an ios guy as my daily driver phone os, but I do enjoy developing for it. I'm also just glad they finally made an iPhone at a size that's comfortable for my hands.

4.7" is the same size as my Nexus 4 was. I thought that size was great. I'm fine with 4.7"-5" screens. Anything smaller I get hand cramps and can't type well. Anything larger and I can't comfortably use it one handed or put it in a coat pocket without it being awkwardly held.

I'm curious to see how iPhone users adapt to the larger size. I know the small iPhone screens were something ios users used to love. I was pretty surprised that Apple just abandoned the 4" screens entirely.

I would have put money down that they were going to have 3 phone sizes.

[Buzz]

Hey

Long time, no chat.

I'm not on a iPhone as I have a work-supplied HTC Windows 8 phone and a Galaxy S5 gifted to me by a friend (who won two!).  Neither are perfect for my hands - HTC a little small and the S5 a tiny bit big and I find it a little clumsy to use the default position of things and frequently mis-hit keys - but suspect the problem is the user!

Cheers

Buzz
www.hillsidebandb.co.nz
A rural retreat just 40 minutes from the city

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[Aaron Gonzalez]

Hey Buzz,

I had no idea you were in New Zealand. Thought Brenda was the only one. 

Your b&b looks great! The location looks amazing. I've bookmarked it for the "one day" NZ trip I plan on taking.

-Aaron

[Bert Latamore]

Hi Buzz.Glad to here things are going well in NZed!

I am still using my Galaxy 2. It does everything I need from a smartphone. In March I got a Microsoft Surface Pro II with Windows 8.1 which I love and use as my laptop and tablet in one device. Between them I now FINALLY have all the core functionality I had on my Palm. Of course I have other things as well, and my cell phone is more of a connectivity device, for instance for my podcasts (which I moved off iTunes) as well. So I am satisfied with what I have. I am very busy at work.

I am actually moving off my iPOD, which was my one Apple device. A few months ago all my music, more than 180 GB mostly ripped off my growing CD collection, suddenly disappeared. I finally figured out that apparently a master security file was corrupted. Apple has a strange way to secure music. It actually divides each music file up into two or more pieces that it stores in different logical locations. It tracks the addresses of these pieces in a master file. The problem with that is that if that master file becomes corrupted you lose everything. Apparently the file was corrupted in the backup in the Apple cloud and that spread to my local copy on my laptop. So now my only cope of most of my music is on an old iPod that I hadn't updated for some time. 

I tried to contact Apple to find out if they could fix it, but because I haven't bought any Apple hardware lately I have to pay $50 minimum to talk to them. Because I had outgrown the largest iPod Classic and was looking for a new solutions anyway, I elected instead to rip all my CDs into MP3 format in the highest available quality and got a Sony digital Walkman. I back up my music into the Microsoft OneDrive and access the music through Windows Media Player. Now I simply load what I want to hear into the Walkman from one of my computers. I am still in process of ripping the CDs, and I do have some music I bought from Apple that I can still access on the used iPod Touch I bought as an experiment last year. When that dies I will probably buy CDs of the music I want to keep from the Apple music rather than maintain an extra device just for the small amount of music I have from Apple. 

Warning for those with music libraries in iTunes: I am told that you can make a local MP3 copy of that music. Do that soon as a backup so that if your security file becomes corrupted you don't lose your library,. Wish I had known that a year ago.

All the best, Bert

Bert Latamore

(703) 340-8396
Freelance Writer covering the intersection between IT and business

I dream of a better world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.

[Buzz]

Hey

Yup, we emigrated nine years ago last week. It's been a roller coaster ride but we are blessed to live here. I have only caught up with Brenda twice in that time as we live at opposite ends of the North Island.

Buzz
www.hillsidebandb.co.nz
A rural retreat just 40 minutes from the city

[Buzz]

Hi Bert and all

Spring is sprung here in NZ and we have been working around the smallholding[1] in lovely sunshine, ahead of predicted spring showers.

Thanks for the iTunes warning - while I have backups, I will look into making sure I don't fall into the same trap of thinking all is safe. Having enjoyed my click-wheel Classic and been well served my by 16GB Touch, now I have a smartphone, I have been wondering about what I would replace the touch with as and when it expires. 

My Touch is almost full and my weekly syncs usually require some juggling and even deletions to retain all my favourites (on device - all files retained on MBP) and upload my weekly podcast choices for my commute. On a recent road trip, I used the S5, trialling PowerAmp ($) and VLC (beta) as podcast and audiobook players. Both were a little fiddly (especially when driving - not good) but some of that was the way the files were sorted. 

My current thinking is to try and find an MP3 player with bigger capacity for my main music/podcast device and retain the S5 as a smartphone and occasional audiobook/podcast player when I don't want to carry the player. If anyone has any ideas or recommendations for non-Apple digital audio players, I'd love to hear them.

Cheers

Buzz

[1] Have a look at https://www.facebook.com/hillsidebandb so you can check out the tiny bit of Aotearoa we are blessed to steward!

www.hillsidebandb.co.nz
A rural retreat just 40 minutes from the city

[Bert Latamore]

Nice looking place.