Sunday, December 17, 2017

Divorcing Apple Redux


I am so disgusted with Apple I have removed every component of iTunes and iCloud from my computer. The last straw was when iOS 11 was released and I could no longer use Bluetooth with my Audioengine HD6 speakers. After countless chats and conversations with Apple Support, my issue was still not resolved.
Apple is now up to iOS 11.2.5, and my Bluetooth still does not work! I have been monitoring the Apple Forums, and there seems to be thousands of people with the same issue.

But's that's not all I have to gripe about. Before Apple Music made it's debut, I had purchased a lot of music, but somehow most of it was mysteriously usurped into the Apple Music Cloud. That just burns my butt. Another problem with iTunes is that it freezes a little too often. Also, many of my albums are mysteriously separated into two, with some songs on one album and other songs on the second. This happens just about every other day. Fixing the problem is not all that difficult, but why should I have to go through that kind of shenanigans? iCloud for Windows has destroyed my bookmarks in Chrome on more than one occasion, and in Outlook, it mysteriously creates about a dozen data files that constantly need to be deleted.

I have had it with Apple, so I bought myself a Samsung Galaxy S8+ What I like most about this phone is that is uses the aptx Bluetooth codec, which Audioengine makes perfectly clear is the preferred codec for best performance. They are almost tongue-in-cheek about supporting Apple's AAC codec.

I have a very high-end system that supports four inputs: Bluetooth, optical, the 3.1 mini jack from your computer, or a high-quality DAC that will bypass your sound card, giving you high-definition audio. There is an internal DAC in the speaker that supports Bluetooth and optical, but if you decide to use your sound card, the performance will suffer. Most sound cards were not designed to stream high-definition audio, which is why I purchased Audionengine's D1 DAC. It makes a big difference.

But with all this high-end equipment, I needed a music source substantially better than iTunes. That's when I decided to go with Tidal. Wow! The two upper levels of playback, Lossless High-Fidelity and Master, made me realize how much I was missing. Tidal is also much more fun to use, and I know that I can rebuild my library much faster with Tidal than with iTunes or Spotify.

I will never buy another Apple product again.

Love to all!

James M. Weil

P.S.
Two days after I made this post, Apple announced that they were intentionally slowing down the iPhone 6 and 7. They claim it was done to save the battery and to prevent the phone from shutting off. After upgrading to iOS 11, I noticed that my phone was A LOT slower, and the battery life took a serious dive. Now, there are a slew of law suits against Apple all across the country. This is horrible, and Apple should pay for its unethical behavior. Will anyone have faith in Apple products again?

I won't.