Let's Talk Tech
It’s my birthday, but YOU get the presents! Want to win an amazing camera lens case for the iPhone 6? Of course you do! Here’s how you can enter into this contest. You can see samples from the Ztylus camera case here.
Continue reading “SomeGadgetGuy B-Day Contest 04: Ztylus Camera System for iPhone 6!”
Pretty video isn’t much fun to watch if your audio is terrible. Sennheiser has partnered with Apogee to bring their popular professional ME2 Lav Microphone to iOS devices. How does it sound? Let’s take a listen!
Shop the ClipMic on Amazon.
More info on Sennheiser products.
It’s that time folks. We’re getting close enough to the launch of a new iPhone for the rumor mill to kick into high gear. Around this time last year, many were praising the merits of sapphire for phone screens, only to have Apple omit that particular lifestyle feature.
Now with the 6S and 6S+ on the horizon, iOS fans are wondering if we’ll see improvements to storage.
This generation, Apple took a great step up for their mid-tier iPhone. Instead of spending $100 to bump up your phone to 32GB, you would receive a whopping 64GB. Unfortunately the base model iPhone remained at 16GB, which is a bit lean for a modern smartphone. Even 32GB can feel a bit cramped these days.
We’re expecting improvements to the camera, likely resulting in larger photos and video files. Phones are often a primary device for storing music, our apps are getting more demanding, and OS updates require a certain percentage of your storage to be unused and available. We ask a lot of our smartphones, and lacking the ability to upgrade the storage on an iPhone means users have to monitor their geebees very closely on that first tier iPhone. Continue reading “Will Apple Ever Kill the 16GB iPhone?”
In a Tumblr post over the weekend, Taylor Swift voiced her disapproval of Apple’s streaming music promotion. It’s a great deal for consumers, as they will receive three free months of Apple Music, Cupertino’s competitor to services like Google Play All Access and Spotify. However, the tech giant initially refused to pay out royalties to artists on the streams played during that free promo.
Apple wanted to make their new service popular on the backs of musicians, with a service which will likely cut into album sales, and for the privilege of “Apple Music Exposure” and lower album sales, they weren’t going to pay musicians a dime.
In response to this policy Swift wrote:
This is not about me. Thankfully I am on my fifth album and can support myself, my band, crew, and entire management team by playing live shows. This is about the new artist or band that has just released their first single and will not be paid for its success. This is about the young songwriter who just got his or her first cut and thought that the royalties from that would get them out of debt. This is about the producer who works tirelessly to innovate and create, just like the innovators and creators at Apple are pioneering in their field…but will not get paid for a quarter of a year’s worth of plays on his or her songs.
Thankfully she’s high enough profile, that this blog post made a lot of noise. This morning Apple Vice President of Internet Software and Services Eddie Cue posted this on Twitter:
#AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period
— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015
It was the right play on Apple’s part as they’re way late to the streaming music game, and we’ve seen how other newcomers like Tidal have fared when hit with bad press. As they’re currently sitting on a war chest of over a hundred billion dollars, there never should have been any debate as to whether they would pay artists the pittance they receive for streams. Happily they’re on the correct track now.
I can honestly say I never thought I would ever side with Taylor Swift on a technology debate, but I’m sure many artists today are happy for her involvement.
Want to develop Safari browser apps or plugins? It’s going to cost you.
As Apple rolls Safari development into their overall dev program, folks working on the Apple browser will have to pay the same fees app developers pay, namely $100 a year.
Reddit user HonestBleeps, who produces the free Reddit Enhancement Suite is detailing his experiences regarding the transition:
So it used to be free to be a part of the Safari developer program. That’s being folded into Apple’s dev program now, and I’m required to pay $100 to join if I want to continue publishing Reddit Enhancement Suite – which is free.
$100 would be several months worth of donations, on many/most months, and only to support less than 1% of RES users.
We’ll have to wait for these Apple developer programs to officially merge to see if this will throw cold water on Safari development, force formally free services to start charging, or if Apple will continue to allow developers to publish Safari plugins for free.
The iPhone camera is a mid-pack performer, but there are some great tools to improve things like macro performance and shooting wider angle shots. Ztylus has built an entire photography system into their Metal case which can really help you take your mobile photo game up to the next level!
Shop the Ztylus Case and Lens system on Amazon.
Shop the Ztylus LED Ring Flash on Amazon.
I think the iPhone’s home button is a bit over-worked. Single press, double press, long press, music functionality, and an accessibility custom triple press. At some point some other hardware control might help this poor beleaguered button.
Kickstarter project Halo Back is looking to aid the home button with a special screen protector that will add a bottom mounted back button. As the iPhone has gotten larger, reaching up to the top of the screen for those apps that have software back buttons isn’t quite as convenient as it used to be.
It would seem a number of people agree with Halo Back as the project has already raised over $100,000, over five times their initial goal, and there’s still sixteen days left to back the project.
You can watch their pitch video below, or head directly to their project page for more info.
Do you want better drop and scratch protection for your iPhone 6? Do you want some fun color accents and a fun design? Speck might have the case for you with their two piece MightyShell + FacePlate. Let’s take a look!
Shop the Speck MightyShell on Amazon.
More info on Speck Products.