Apple Releases iOS and iPadOS 14.6, macOS Big Sur 11.4 (macrumors.com) 26
Apple today released macOS Big Sur 11.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Big Sur, operating system that launched in November 2020. From a report: The new macOS Big Sur 11.4 update can be downloaded for free on all eligible Macs using the Software Update section of System Preferences. macOS Big Sur 11.4 lays the groundwork for two upcoming Apple Music features: Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio, both of which will be available on the Mac. It also adds support for Apple Podcasts subscriptions, and fixes a number of bugs. Apple today also released iOS and iPadOS 14.6, marking the sixth major updates to the iOS and iPadOS operating systems that initially came out in September 2020. From a report: The iOS and iPadOS 14.5 updates can be downloaded for free and the software is available on all eligible devices over-the-air in the Settings app. To access the new software, go to Settings - General - Software Update. iOS 14.6 introduces support for several previously announced features. It lays the groundwork for the Apple Music Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio functionality, but these new Apple Music capabilities aren't expected to launch until June. The update also adds support for Apple Card Family for sharing Apple Cards, it introduces new Podcast subscription options, and it adds new AirTags capabilities, in addition to addressing several bugs.
Editors, please fix (Score:2)
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Lossless audio (Score:1)
Re: Lossless audio (Score:1)
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How is lossless tied up with Millenials? You've completely lost me with that one.
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I agree, it's stupid, but Homepods WILL support lossless.
https://www.macrumors.com/2021... [macrumors.com]
Re:Lossless audio (Score:5, Informative)
Homepod, Airpods, and Airpod Max don't support [lossless audio].
What were you expecting? Bluetooth's EDR lacks the necessary bandwidth to supply a lossless audio signal under anything less than ideal conditions—EDR's 2.1 Mbps is theoretically enough for the 1.4 Mbps needed for CD quality audio, but in practice isn't attainable on a consistent enough basis—and all three of those devices stream audio via Bluetooth (well, Homepod can stream via WiFi too, so there's an argument to be made there). That's why there isn't a single device on the market that supports lossless audio over Bluetooth. Just look at the list of codecs supported over Bluetooth. SBC? Lossy. AAC? Lossy. aptX? Lossy. aptX-LL? Lossy. aptX-Adaptive? Lossy. aptX-HD? Lossy. LDAC? Lossy. And so on. Some are better than others, but none are truly lossless, nor will they ever be until we see new Bluetooth hardware or the rollout of something akin to Apple's proprietary HDR extension for Bluetooth [freepatentsonline.com].
Of course, none of this actually matters because lossless is provably indistinguishable from high-quality lossy in real-world listening, but if for some reason you insist that the science is wrong and that the snake oil audiophiles have it right, that doesn't change that what you're doing is complaining about Apple's inability to break the laws of physics/deliver a feature that isn't possible with current technology. So while I commend you for setting a high bar for them, you might want to reign it in a bit. Maybe settle for something in the realm of "things that are actually possible".
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Oh, hey, just saw the comment that immediately preceded mine [slashdot.org] (and was posted at the same time, hence why I missed it), which addressed this part of my post:
all three of those devices stream audio via Bluetooth (well, Homepod can stream via WiFi too, so there's an argument to be made there).
Sounds like Homepod will support lossless over WiFi after all, via a software update that's coming later.
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Of course, the HomePod offers low quality sound regardless if source. Anyone who thinks otherwise has never even heard and average speaker.
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"Of course, none of this actually matters because lossless is provably indistinguishable from high-quality lossy in real-world listening, but if for some reason you insist that the science is wrong and that the snake oil audiophiles have it right, that doesn't change that what you're doing is complaining about Apple's inability to break the laws of physics/deliver a feature that isn't possible with current technology."
Yes, and even more, there's absolutely no reason to believe that the existing Apple device
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Homepod, Airpods, and Airpod Max don't support [lossless audio].
What were you expecting? Bluetooth's EDR lacks the necessary bandwidth to supply a lossless audio signal under anything less than ideal conditions—EDR's 2.1 Mbps is theoretically enough for the 1.4 Mbps needed for CD quality audio, but in practice isn't attainable on a consistent enough basis—and all three of those devices stream audio via Bluetooth (well, Homepod can stream via WiFi too, so there's an argument to be made there). That's why there isn't a single device on the market that supports lossless audio over Bluetooth. Just look at the list of codecs supported over Bluetooth. SBC? Lossy. AAC? Lossy. aptX? Lossy. aptX-LL? Lossy. aptX-Adaptive? Lossy. aptX-HD? Lossy. LDAC? Lossy. And so on. Some are better than others, but none are truly lossless, nor will they ever be until we see new Bluetooth hardware or the rollout of something akin to Apple's proprietary HDR extension for Bluetooth [freepatentsonline.com].
Of course, none of this actually matters because lossless is provably indistinguishable from high-quality lossy in real-world listening, but if for some reason you insist that the science is wrong and that the snake oil audiophiles have it right, that doesn't change that what you're doing is complaining about Apple's inability to break the laws of physics/deliver a feature that isn't possible with current technology. So while I commend you for setting a high bar for them, you might want to reign it in a bit. Maybe settle for something in the realm of "things that are actually possible".
While the max bitrate for CD quality is 1411 kbps, even lossless audio is compressed and will mostly be a lot lower than that.. 6-900 kbps for ALAC, slightly less for better codecs. Ideally, you want a codec that will degrade properly if not enough bandwidth is available - not sure if any of them do that? Also, you can obviously create a buffer to minimise such issues.
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While the max bitrate for CD quality is 1411 kbps, even lossless audio is compressed and will mostly be a lot lower than that.. 6-900 kbps for ALAC, slightly less for better codecs. Ideally, you want a codec that will degrade properly if not enough bandwidth is available - not sure if any of them do that? Also, you can obviously create a buffer to minimise such issues.
That's a good thing to call out, but keep in mind that you can't say you support a lossless codec in a Bluetooth device if it only works with specific tracks. With that in mind, consider the following:
1. FLAC files can be encoded using one of nine different compression quality settings, the fastest/worst of which may result in minimal compression for acoustically complex tracks (theoretically it's even possible that it could result in a larger file, though that'd be an exceptionally unusual circumstance out
Oh fun fun another day long (Score:2)
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I was not a fan of this paradigm of updates at first, and it does have a few minuses, but all-in-all, I think it's the best. Keep your user land and your OS in perfect sync. System can be tested as a whole. Plus, it's not like Apple's public facing non-developer change logs are listing the various API changes, kernel fixes, etc.
Big Sir? (Score:1)
Let me go get my kneepads.
MacOS 11.4 Fixes SSD Issue (Score:2)
updating (Score:1)