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In anticipation of the 2018 iPhone X refresh (1 Viewer)

Ronald Epstein

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As an iPhone X owner, up until a few days ago, I was mostly set on sitting out on upgrading to this year's new iPhone X editions. While I was intrigued by the introduction of the iPhone X Plus, I was content with waiting for the introduction of 5G support which would probably be introduced in the 2019 refresh.

However, a new rumor that popped up over the past few days has me rethinking that purchase strategy.....

Apple Pencil support.

Allegedly -- and I would almost bet the farm on this --- the new iPhone X models will support Apple Pencil.

They are also rumored to having 512GB storage, which is great for my iTunes library that is taking up nearly 180GB of data and continually growing.

But back to the Apple Pencil...

As a former Galaxy Note owner, the one thing that stood out for me about that Samsung phone was its stylus. It was just heaven being able to take the stylus and write notes instead of typing them.

To see that function come to Apple -- despite Steve Jobs ridiculing it over a decade ago -- is just wonderful news!

The problem I see is that the, unlike the Galaxy Note stylus, the Apple Pencil is too damn big to carry around with the iPhone. What the iPhone needs is an internal pocket to store a small stylus. Whether that will actually come to fruition in the upcoming years is anyone's guess. An internal pocket for a stylus only compromises the size and thickness of the phone itself.

Carrying around an Apple Pencil in one's pocket is not a great idea. I can see those $100 pencils getting dropped or lost. Apple really needs to come with up with a smaller stylus. Case makers would quickly make products that hold and secure them.

I can sell my current iPhone X with Gazelle or MacBack and get up to $630 for it. That is an incentive to go for a top-of-the-line iPhone X Plus with 512GB storage that I suspect will sell for about $1,400. And, yes, I did just pull that number out of my ass.
 

Robert Crawford

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That's a lot of money for a phone that I can't justify with my life style. I don't have any use for having a phone with that many GB. I don't like watching videos on phones, I might watch one on my iPad Pro, but the phones are just too small for me to enjoy watching anything except maybe some sports highlights.
 

Ronald Epstein

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That's a lot of money for a phone that I can't justify with my life style. I don't have any use for having a phone with that many GB. I don't like watching videos on phones, I might watch one on my iPad Pro, but the phones are just too small for me to enjoy watching anything except maybe some sports highlights.

Music and movies are my passion. Now that Apple has stopped making large capacity iPods, large music collections get put on iPhones for traveling.

I do agree it's VERY expensive, but there are very limited options for high capacity drives with iTunes software embedded in them that allows for music storage.
 

DaveF

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What the iPhone needs is an internal pocket to store a small stylus. Whether that will actually come to fruition in the upcoming years is anyone's guess.
That’s anyone’s guess in the same way that it’s anyone's guess whether Apple will introduce a hardware keyboard.

Never going to happen.
 

DaveF

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I’m as interested as always about the new iPhones. I hew to the “new every two” schedule, and it’s going to be tough to not upgrade to an X this Fall. I really wanted one, but wanted to save the $200 and first-gen issues, so got the 8+ last year. It’s a great iPhone, but it’s too big. And with rumors there will be a cheaper X2 thanks to an LED screen, that’s going to be what I want.

Pencil: I don’t draw. I dabbled with sketchbook journaling on my iPad in 2012, but it didn’t stick. So I don’t care about the Pencil in a practical way.

My schedule has my next iPhone upgrade Fall of 2019. And I’m trying to save up for 4K upgrade, including projector. So...we’ll see.
 

Josh Steinberg

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After much hand-wringing and indecisiveness when the iPhone X (and 8, for that matter) came out last year, I ultimately went with the smaller and less technically up-to-date iPhone SE. I am extremely happy with that decision and very satisfied with that phone.

I'm definitely curious what the new X would bring to the table, and I'm also curious if Apple will keep the SE line around and possibly upgrade the tech specs on that device. I plan on keeping my current SE as long as it works, but I'm always interested in seeing what's out there. My wife is using a 6+ that's starting to misbehave and hoping to make it to the fall releases before having to upgrade - she's undecided as to what route she'll go but I'm guessing she'll opt for something physically larger than SE.
 

Sam Posten

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I'm in for whatever Apple sells this year, but as an Apple Pencil owner for iPad use, I say 'meh'. It's handy in a pinch but it won't be a primary input device for anyone. Handwritten notes? No thank you, good day sir.
 

Ronald Epstein

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I'm in for whatever Apple sells this year, but as an Apple Pencil owner for iPad use, I say 'meh'. It's handy in a pinch but it won't be a primary input device for anyone. Handwritten notes? No thank you, good day sir.


It's definitely not handy as a full-sized pencil. It's inconvenient in fact.

However, if Apple eventually releases a small stylus, you would be amazed as to how convenient it is to take out your phone and write on it as if a piece of paper and have those notes sync across all your Mac devices. That's what I loved about the Galaxy Note phones. They were like carrying pieces of paper that one could simply handwrite information or even do simple drawings.

Yes, I know it's not for everyone but it would certainly up the game for Apple.
 

Carlo_M

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ooh...a 512GB model would let me get my complete burned and volume-matched iTunes library onto my phone comfortably and still leave plenty of room for other things (currently at 192GB; 320kbps AAC; volume matched by MacMP3Gain)...
 

Ronald Epstein

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Carlo,

How do you do volume matching? I know on the iPods there was a selection you could make to match volume levels on all songs but it never worked.

I get a bit tired of playing songs off my iPhone and having to continually increase or decrease the volume level.
 

Carlo_M

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Ron I historically have used MacMP3Gain and there's a similar program called MP3Gain Express. Basically both are front-ends for aacgain, which is itself a modification of MP3Gain to run on AAC files (I assume you burned your library using the AAC codec, i.e. they're mp4 files).

This method doesn't do "peak normalization": which is an imperfect way to try and volume match. Rather, it analyzes the entire track and assigns the track an overall average volume, and then writes a metadata tag to decrease (usually the case, although it can increase when needed) the track's volume to match a target listening volume.

I have used MacMP3Gain on my entire local iTunes library to great success. I leave the target volume at the preset, and always use "Album Gain" vs. "Track Gain" and burn entire albums at a time. Why Album Gain? Because some songs are meant to be at lower volumes relative to others. Album gain analyzes an entire album's "average volume" and then assigns a uniform volume change (via a metadata tag, versus actually altering the waveform) to every track on the album. So overall the album's volume should match the target volume, and the songs will still sound relatively softer/louder to each other on the album per the original intent. A great example of what I'm talking about is Pink Floyd songs, where some tracks are meant to be way softer than others, and you don't want MP3Gain doing "track mode" and boosting all the soft songs to be as loud as the loud songs.
 

Ronald Epstein

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Carlo,

Great read. So, basically, the volume normalization has to be done during the burning of the CD or importing of the MP3.

Is that correct?

If that is the case, I am screwed. I have nearly 8,000 songs in my library already transferred and the iTunes software does a horrible job of normalizing the volume across all the songs.
 

JohnRice

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Ron, I haven't used that app, but sometimes you can assign them to re-scan your ripped music, since it doesn't actually change the raw data, just adds a volume adjustment notation in the metadata. I know iTunes can scan through previously ripped music for volume adjustments, so maybe that app can too. BTW, like Carlo suggested, you definitely make adjustments at the album level, not song level. Like he said, song level yields inconsistent results. Also, I don't know if you listen to much Classical music, but volume leveling never seems to work with it. It's too difficult to analyze.
 

Carlo_M

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Ron, the normalization can happen any time (and it can be undone at any time).

The program just needs a folder to be pointed to, so the fact that you'd have to do thousands of songs will take a long while. And I've only done one folder (aka album) at a time. I don't know if the program is "smart" enough where if you point it at your entire iTunes album, will it know each folder is an album and should be level-matched to itself (vs. against every song in your library)?
 

JQuintana

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Round all the things!
Mac Mini: Round!
Apple Watch: Round
iPads: Round
Neidermeyer: Round!

Or could be:

cqpd0khwmcf11.jpg
 

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