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[iPhone/iPod Thread] Nothing clever to say.
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They're replacing my old Apple in-ear headphones that I bought back in 2005, which are are literally falling apart after years of use.
Believe it or not, they're actually shockingly decent dual-driver earphones. They're a lot like a budget version of these, as far as sound signature and quality goes: http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Ears-Noise-Isolating-Earphones/dp/B001NTFAOS
They make a fantastic set of cheap phones to cannibalize into custom-molded IEMs, which I've done with one set, actually.
Edit: Just to be clear, I'm talking about the new design. Not the old ones. Those were terribad. The new ones, especially on sale, are an underrated steal.
I can attest to this as well. Even at the Apple markup, they're a really nice set for even the normal price. At $39.99? Oh, yeah.
I use Rdio. The UI looks good on the iPad. They recently announced they were coming to the UK in the near future but didn't give a specific date. It's something to watch for at least.
I've had it enabled on my iPhone since it became available in Canada. I really love it, honestly. Whenever I use it, I have this "holy crap, I'm living in the future!" sensation. There's an option in settings to "show your entire library" or something to that effect. So, when you go into the Music app, it'll show you a list of absolutely everything. Anything that isn't on the phone will have a cloud icon next to it. To download any of that stuff, it's just a matter tapping on that cloud icon, or scrolling to the bottom of a particular album and selecting "download all". It's been completely reliable for me. Adding new content, be it from a ripped CD or purchased from the iTunes Store has required literally zero effort on my part. I'll generally buy it/rip it onto my computer, and by the time I want to listen to it on my phone, it's there. Whenever I've felt like listening to something not on the phone, it just progressively downloaded the songs as they played. I can see it being a bit less seamless if you're relying entirely on wifi connectivity, though.
I had some problems earlier on with album artwork not syncing. But, iOS 5.1 and whatever version of iTunes coincided with it solved that for me completely.
As for playlists, I just gave it a whirl to see how they sync. It seems the "list" itself will sync almost immediately, but the songs within it won't automatically download. So, when I open the playlist on my phone, I still need to download the tracks, be it individually, or by scrolling to the bottom and selecting "download all'.
My only annoyance is that when I cross the 2GB mark with AT&T on my iPhone, I get throttled so badly that I can't even attempt to stream any music from the cloud, but that's an AT&T issue. Prior to that cap, it's great, and on wifi, it's a thing of beauty.
How do you get dust under the glass?? Is it something else?
Wii: 4521 1146 5179 1333 Pearl: 3394 4642 8367 HG: 1849 3913 3132
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You can use the iPhone app on iPad, just do the 2x zoom thing. It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing. It's what I do with Twitch/Justin.tv apps, as they are iPhone apps without iPad equivalents (yet, they are working on them I hear).
Twitch.tv got the iPad app up last week or so.
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Ohhh, guess it's time to update.
I appear to have missed this. Any other comments on these?
I have awful luck with earbuds/in-ears. I bought a pair of Sennheisers in November of last year, and they've already crapped out on the right channel. I'd quite appreciate a pair that are actually durable. A year of use would be amazing, as pathetic as that sounds. Do these Apple in-ears actually last? I have noticed that all the Apple earbuds that came with my various iPods/phones have been surprisingly durable, but the bud design just doesn't work for me. I'm not too concerned about sound quality, as long as they're reasonably balanced. Super-mega-hyper bass isn't something I want. If I want to listen to music through good headphones, I'll use my nice Audio Technicas at home.
I'll happily pay the full 80 bucks or whatever it is, if I can actually count on them to last a while.
@floobie when I had Sennheisers, all their products had an automatic 2-year replacement warranty, which I took advantage of when mine crapped out. I don't know if they still have that going, but if you have an email receipt or something then it might be looking into.
You just have to get over the hipster urge to not want to buy anything Skull Candy.
But really, Skullcandy makes some decent stuff. Nothing of theirs has ever really impressed me too much, but what I've heard has been a solid step up from the average sub$30 crap from JVC and Philips and the like. My wife loves her Aviators, and I have to admit they're pretty comfy for on-ear 'phones. I'd put Skullcandy earbuds on par with decent cheap Sony earbuds, and those Senn/Adidas sport earbuds.
Also, Best Buy currently has Etymotics on clearance. I grabbed an extra pair of HF5s for $60, which is an absolute steal. They're easily worth the $120 retail price, and at 50% off, there's no better pair of earphones on the market.
Do Skullcandy actually design their own headphones? As I understood it, they were effectively a re-branding company. You know, a company that goes to trade shows in China, finds a random manufacturer that will stick the Skullcandy logo on their headphones, and resells them. If my impression is incorrect, I'd be more inclined to revisit them. I've had a few pairs of their in-ears over the years, but they were generally as durable as most other in-ears I've tried, and the sound was alright at best.
Unfortunatly, Best Buy Canada doesn't seem to have the Etymotics you speak of.
Another beef I've noticed: Many of these in-ear headphones have very microphonic cables. I'd think that getting the material right could minimize that substantially...
Upon further experimentation, list management seems to be rather nonexistent in the official client. If Tweetbot could adopt the official clients browser functionality I'd never look back.
EDIT: Nevermind, realized you're not referring to the "read later" functionality of said services. It's nice having the option of full and simplified views, but on the iPad I always opt for the full experience when possible. I wish more apps gave you the choice as opposed to shoehorning you into simplified (Flipboard) or full (official twitter), or at least opted for full on the iPad.
EDIT 2: Wrong again. Read It Later (now Pocket) is also supported.
That's exactly what Skullcandy does, actually. Of course, these Chinese OEMs do an OK job of making headphones, but like I said, nothing overly impressive.
That's too bad about BBCanada. I also love Ultimate Ears for sub-$100 headphones. Even after being bought by Logitech, they make fantastic earphones. I think the 350s are roughly $50, and they sound great. Far better than Skullcandy.
What is the browser functionality that you mean, specifically? Is there a certain feature in the built-in browser that you're missing in Tweetbot?
Official client opens a resizable half page within the app while still displaying your feed, and allows for swiping between "pages" (for lack of a better term). It's fast, slick, really attractive, and more usable than Tweetbot's full display pop-up browser as you can still read your feed while waiting for a page to load. If Tweetbot is capable of this then I haven't found the setting to enable it.
Yeah, they aren't stellar, just good at the price point. Certainly better than a shit pair of JVC's are Phillips and not that much more expensive. I think they fill a decent niche between tinny horrible crap and really expensive setups. I just refuse to pay a ton for ear buds, because I am not careful with them. I will destroy them somehow, or my kid will, or I'll lose them.
Flipboard also locks you into the full page, by the way. It's only the RSS feed that is simplified. I stopped using it in favor of Mr Reader which is more flexible.
Ah, gotcha. I didn't realize that we were talking about the iPad clients. I thought you meant the iPhone version, where Twitter and Tweetbot are all but identical in their browser functionality. But yeah, Tweetbot doesn't do this on the iPad. It is kind of a nice feature. A little cluttered for my taste, but super handy when you want to multi-task.
I've been fairly happy with Readability but a revised/reimagined/redesigned version of Read it Later, now called Pocket, came out today and it's pretty slick. Pocket actually displays videos within articles which is something Readability does not do, and the layout on the iPad of articles is visually much nicer. However I miss the gesture control of Readability, and how quickly the navigation and options buttons hide away once I'm reading an article. For now, I think I'll stick with Readability on my iPhone but Pocket may have won me over on my iPad.
Steam: Gridlynk SWTOR: Cento/Darson
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Thankfully my favorite casters are in my Followed list, but still.
I use Splashtop personally, and it works really well for me for remote connections to my iMac at home. Can't speak much for how it works with Windows or how it compares to other similar apps, but so far I haven't found any reason to switch. I can't remember if it supports the Retina Display or not yet, I'll have to check on that one.
WiiU NNID: BigDookie
Anyone used both that and Splashtop? I'm curious if it'd be worth switching
http://www.dodocase.com/products/bookback-for-ipad2
It goes great in combination with a smart cover.