We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon
Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
I really liked the old iTunes and have a fairly large number of tunes I ripped from my huge CD library. I have stayed away from Apple Music because of comments like yours (so I haven't ripped any more tunes for a long time).
What would you recommend I use that will play well with my old iTunes files?
Current Apple Music, the app itself, is decent these days. They unborked it from Podcasts and Movies and put those in separate apps.
Just don't sign up for Apple Music's streaming service. Both Apple Music and Apple Music streaming are often called simply "Apple Music" these days, how confusing and dumb!
Same thing happens with Apple TV, the streaming box, and Apple TV+, their streaming service. Bopth are often referred to as simply "Apple TV" these days by Apple customers. Stupid, isn't it?
One of Steve Jobs goals when he returned to Apple was to simplify their computer product line naming schemes. Remember how may different Performa models they were in truly beleagured Dark Days of Apple, when Mike "Diesel" Spindler and Gil Amelio we CEOs? Way too many, that's for sure. All with slightly different specs and software bundles.
Jobs went too far the other way when simplifying product names, IMHO.
Swinsian is a great Apple Music alternative, though I don't know any 3rd party software that Apple allows to sync with their devices. Only Apple Music (the app) has access to that API.
Current Apple Music, the app itself, is decent these days. They unborked it from Podcasts and Movies and put those in separate apps.
Just don't sign up for Apple Music's streaming service. Both Apple Music and Apple Music streaming are often called simply "Apple Music" these days, how confusing and dumb!
Same thing happens with Apple TV, the streaming box, and Apple TV+, their streaming service. Stupid, isn't it?
One of Steve Jobs goals when he returned to Apple was to simplify their computer product line naming schemes. Remember how may different Performa models they were in truly beleagured Dark Days of Apple, when Mike "Diesel" Spindler and Gil Amelio we CEOs? Way too many, that's for sure. All with slightly different specs and software bundles.
Jobs went too far the other way when simplifying their computer product line names.
Swinsian is a great Apple Music alternative, though I don't know any 3rd party software that lets you sync Apple's devices. Only Apple has access to that API to keep you using Apple Music (the app).
8. A pen with three cameras at the tip that turns any surface of the world into a canvas with notes synced and recorded to your phonepic.twitter.com/cDOeVEGzlW
The Fruity Cargo Cult Apple’s AI product is proving so bad that even its legion of fanboys are complaining.
If you've seen any of Apple's marketing lately, you'll know the latest iPhone is billed as the first "built for Apple Intelligence." The "for" in that sentence is doing a great deal of work. It couldn't be "with" because Apple's AI features weren't ready when the device came out, and some are still yet to be released. The first were added to devices in iOS version 18.1, which came out in October.
These AI bells and whistles require users to physically opt in, and Job’s Mob has deemed the product in "beta" despite marketing it as the main reason to buy its latest device.
"Hello, Apple Intelligence" is the message greeting visitors to Apple.com. If you go into a store, it's what the sales representatives push most excitedly. But just like the Maps fiasco, Apple's AI isn't ready for the real world.
Complaints and ridicule have been mounting. In December, a BBC notification was rewritten by Apple Intelligence to state falsely that Luigi Mangione, who has been charged in the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had turned a gun on himself.
Last week, a summary crowned a darts champion before the match had started. Later the same evening, an alert falsely stated that Rafael Nadal had come out as gay.
A New York Times headline was rewritten to suggest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested. "Nikki Glaser killed at Golden Globes," read another false summary.
The mistakes have prompted the nonprofit Reporters Without Borders to call for Jobs’ Mob to "act responsibly" and remove the feature.
One fanboy complained that a note to his mother had been changed to read: "in which he wrote “hike almost killed me!” was shortened to say “attempted suicide, but recovered.” Another moaned that Apple Intelligence said his Amazon package was defying time and space, at once being “eight stops away, delivered, and will be delivered tomorrow.”
However, Apple is in a bit of a bind and has to keep offering its Apple Intelligence products. Having arrived at the AI thing late, it already looks like it has dropped the ball technologically. After all it made much hay out of Microsoft missing the mobile revolution. It has also had a list of failed products lately – including the self-driving car which could not even get to the show room.
It appears to be hoping that its fanboys will not look beyond its walled garden of delights and see that the rest of the world has much better AI products on offer.
Oppo Find N5 hands-on: The OnePlus Open 2 in all but name?
Oppo is gearing up to debut its most ambitious folding phone yet, with the international launch of the Find N5 scheduled for 20 February. However, I’ve already got my hands on one.
It means we can gain early insight into the company’s newest Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Pixel 9 Pro Fold rival, as well as speculate on how this latest entry in the company’s Find N series will influence the hotly anticipated OnePlus Open 2.
As you can see from the above trailer, Oppo isn’t exactly being shy about the Find N5’s existence and the company’s willingness to seed units to media and tease key details about the device shows that they have confidence in its ability to impress.
I mention this partly because, as of right now, while I have the Find N5 in hand, I can’t reveal any of its specifications or other tidbits beyond anything the company has already mentioned publicly, until after it launches on 20 February.
The headline feature is its svelte profile, clocking in only slightly thicker than the USB-C port (which itself measures in at 2.6mm) set into its base. While not confirmed, it looks set to take the Honor Magic V3‘s crown as the world’s thinnest ‘book-style’ foldable – a clarification that helps set the N5 apart from the even slimmer (3.6mm when fully opened) tri-folding Huawei Mate XT that I spent time with last September, and that’s scheduled for an international launch on 18 February.
Despite its wafer-thin profile, the Find N5 is a pleasingly sturdy foldable in the hand, a trait that Oppo’s Billy Zhang has backed up by stating that it’s the company’s strongest yet (his social media header image also depicts the N5 as thinner than a standard graphite pencil).
Meanwhile, Oppo CPO and OnePlus co-founder Pete Lau has confirmed that the Find N5 packs IPX6, IPX8 and IPX9 certification against various methods of water ingress.
Lau’s clear investment in the Find N5 also bodes well for his company’s next folding phone – the rumoured OnePlus Open 2. Assuming OnePlus takes the same approach as it did with its debut foldable – the original OnePlus Open (which shared the bulk of its design, hardware and software with the Oppo Find N3 that launched around the same time) – the Find N5 is a promising looking donor device.
Even with its notable waistline, the Find N5 retains a three-stage physical alert slider, meaning the OnePlus Open 2 is all but confirmed to do the same. Volume rocker placement is high on the right side, while it’s assumed the Open 2 will also share in the N5’s Hasselblad-tuned rear triple camera system, which features a periscopic telephoto sensor.
Separately, Lau has highlighted the reduced crease on the phone’s main folding display, which I’ve also snapped against the light in the slideshow above, so you can get a sense of just how visible it is. The sample I’ve photographed is the Cosmic Black colourway, while the Misty White model, with a polished silver frame and a patterned back can be seen in the official teaser video at the top of the story.
We also know that the Find N5 is set to arrive running the company’s latest ColorOS 15 user experience, running atop Android 15, just as debuted on its recent Find X8 series flagship candybar phone line. Making the same comparisons with the OnePlus 13, the Open 2 will also arrive running on the company’s OxygenOS 15.
Speaking of international releases, while the Find N5’s launch is framed as a global release, Oppo’s phones aren’t readily available in major markets like the US, though OnePlus is.
So, even if the Find N5 isn’t available where you’re based, it’s possible that the extremely similar Open 2 will be.
However, it remains to be seen how much either of these devices will cost, and whether they can truly rival the best foldables around.
<<<<< Apple’s struggles in emerging areas like artificial intelligence and augmented reality show the company has lost some of its product development edge. >>>>>
.
<<<<< When you look out at some of the hottest emerging areas in the tech industry -- artificial intelligence, augmented reality and autonomous systems -- it’s hard to say that Apple Inc. is leading the way.
.
<<<<< Despite the company’s best efforts to turn Apple Intelligence into a must-have AI offering, the platform is years behind what you can get from Samsung Electronics Co., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Chinese phone providers. The underlying technology and AI models also are nowhere close to the efforts of OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Baidu Inc. >>>>>
.
<<<<< Another buzzy area at the moment -- augmented reality -- has been a struggle for Apple as well. Though the Vision Pro is a phenomenal feat of engineering, it’s increasingly clear that the headset isn’t a winning formula. Consumers would prefer a lightweight set of glasses, and Apple has nothing yet to offer in this space.
The company has explored making smart glasses that would rival the digital Ray-Bans offered by Meta Platforms Inc., but nothing is imminent. And the company just canceled plans for a pair of AR glasses that would pair with a Mac. The ultimate goal of making standalone spectacles with augmented reality is probably at least three to five years away. >>>>>
.
<<<<< It’s harder to take major risks when you’re such a large, established company. But that position of strength also makes it puzzling that Apple hasn’t been able to break into new areas. Its AI and machine learning division, or AIML, is mocked as “AIMLess” by employees. The group has missed several deadlines, and its large language models -- a building block of generative AI -- are less powerful than those of rivals.
Apple’s Genmoji (AI-generated emoji) are fun and make for a great billboard, but competitors have AI features that can create video from scratch. Apple’s Siri digital assistant continues to misunderstand consumers and give perplexing responses. And the company’s news summarization has produced embarrassingly inaccurate results >>>>>
<<<<< Apple Inc.’s long-promised overhaul for the Siri digital assistant is facing engineering problems and software bugs, threatening to postpone or limit its release, according to people with knowledge of the matter. >>>>>
.
<<<<< Getting Siri right is especially crucial for Apple, which first introduced the digital assistant in 2011 as a groundbreaking interface. After falling behind competitors, the technology has come to represent the company’s shortcomings in artificial intelligence. >>>>>
.
<<<<< In one especially compelling part of the demonstration, a presenter used Siri to quickly locate her mom’s flight and lunch reservation plans by searching across email and text message history. Now this very feature is one at risk of being delayed, according to the people.
Inside Apple, many employees testing the new Siri have found that these features don’t yet work consistently. >>>>>
.
<<<<< Despite a marketing blitz for Apple Intelligence, the company is struggling internally with a difficult reality: The AI platform is behind rival systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Alphabet Inc.’s Google Gemini and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Llama. The company’s AI and machine-learning team has struggled to meet deadlines, the people said, and some engineers believe the system was rushed to market to appease an AI-obsessed Wall Street. >>>>>
Qualcomm to begin phasing out support for Apple cell phones. Plans to divert resources to more profitable projects.
Citing declining iPhone sales and the expense of supporting a shrinking and isolated ecosystem, an anonymous source said that QCOM plans on moving resources that are currently dedicated to Apple products to more lucrative projects.
Apple has long been spending billions in a lackluster effort to produce an inferior modem for their iPhones. The process has shown that QCOM could leverage the resources used to produce their superior modems for the iPhone into businesses with much greater growth and profit margins. QCOM will still collect royalties from Apple even when Apple completely switches to their own underperforming modem so there is no downside to the plan.
Qualcomm has been highly successful in diversifying their business away from cellular phones and is now the leading player in Automotive chips, commercial IoT, industrial IoT, and most excitingly AI on the edge. Additionally, QCOM's foray into Windows on ARM has developed into another profit stream with the company already commanding a 10% market share in less than a year with plans to expand their offerings into more Window's based computers.
"Apple knows they don't need a great product to keep their customer base. Apple consumers are a cult and Apple knows that spending money on better products with a focus on innovation is a waste of money. QCOM focuses on innovation and driving markets forward" the source said. "A walled garden approach can be profitable for a period of time but is ultimately doomed to failure as innovation and progress fall by the wayside. This can already be seen in the new iPhone Apple has released which is inferior in every way to similar offerings in the Android ecosystem of two years ago."
No one from Apple or QCOM was contacted to comment on this article. In fact, it may be entirely fictional. This is the internet after all.
