Mac Power Users 477: Mobile Music and Production with Jakob Haq

The term was a deliberate and (evidently) too-subtle referencing of Steve Jobs, who, in his ‘Thoughts On Flash’ open letter explained why Apple was not supporting mobile Flash on iOS:

> We’re trying to make great products for people, and we have
at least the courage of our convictions to say we don’t think
this is part of what makes a great product, we’re going to
leave it out.
Some people are going to not like that, they’re going to call us
names […] but we’re going to take the heat because we want to
make the best product in the world for customers. And we’re
instead going to focus our energy on these technologies which
we think are in their ascendancy and we think are going to be
the right technologies for customers.
And you know what? They’re paying us to make those choices.
That’s what a lot of customers pay us to do, is to try and make
the best products we can. And if we succeed, they’ll buy them,
and if we don’t, they won’t, and it’ll all work itself out.

I think it’s possible to express very strong frustration without so much negativity it becomes difficult to listen to. David and Stephen do this very well. And it’s probably more effective at getting the point across to boot (see the discussion in this very episode about constructive criticism).

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I will agree that constructive criticism is more effective than ranting. But, Apple has steered a course away from a more functional product. The new iPads do not have an ear phone jack. To get that functionality back, a user is forced into dongle town. This detracts from my user experience and I have to pay even more money for the same functionality I had for an already premium product.

Is Apple doing this do they create a better product ? Do most people hardly ever use their audio ports ? In the case of Flash, not supporting on iOS made absolute sense. I am more cynical when it comes to the audio port. I feel this is Apple selecting style over substance But, maybe their market research says otherwise.

The end of the quote from Steve Jobs is telling. In the end peple will either buy the products or not. The new iPad mini has an audio port, support for the Apple Pencil 1 and a lightening port - all things I love. I am not sure what this says about Apple’s future direction. I suspect they had some iPad mini 4 bodies they needed to move but still the product meets my requirements.

Given my own iOS music-making, I miss the headphone jack.

That said, this argument is what we always hear whenever Apple drops an old standard: ADB, DB-9, DIN-8/RS-422, SCSI, HDI-45, NUBUS slots, ADC connectors, Firewire, the 30-pin iPod connector… and more. In this case ‘dongle town’ is a mere inconvenience that most consumers are clearly okay with - their phones come with Lightning headphones (iPads never came with them), a dongle to use existing headphones is just $9 (and was included for free for the first year of the switchover), and Bluetooth use is rising up the hockey stick graph… showing that Apple had pretty good timing on the switch.

I have a basement full of old connectors. I was a little bit irritated, as I had to change some devices but generally not a big deal. But what irked me about losing the audio port is that it is still a good technology. It has not been replaced by anything vastly superior. Bluetooth confers a slightly thinner phone – no net increase in functionality as an audio port and bluetooth can comfortably exist together. Admittedly, most of my listening when I am walking around is actually with bluetooth headphones. But, it the car, I use an audio line in or FM transmitter(no blue tooth in the car). When I am recording sound for dictation, I use a wired microphone.

The worst part about dongles is not the cost, it is forgetting them, especially when travelling.

I think you are right in that most people have voted with their dollars and audio ports are not going to break the platform. But, what is frustrating for me is losing functionality with “progress” .

When I first read some of the comments in this thread on Monday, I wondered what all that fuss was about. Get over it! Well, that’s what I thought back then. :slight_smile:

So, yesterday I listened to 45 minutes after deleting the episode… :slight_smile: It was not for me either (although I am a hobby musician). I do not recall any episode of the MPU podcast where stuff was bleeped out. This was the first one, I guess?

To each his own. It’s fine. Just not my style. To be honest, even apart from the tone and the anger, the way some opinions were formulated almost as absolute truths was just weird. “Nobody wants…” “Musicians want…” No, sorry. There is always somebody who wants also Y or Z and not only X…I have no doubts that Jakob Haq has tremendous knowledge about Mobile Music and Production, but with a litte more modesty and positivity and a little more space for different opinions the episode might have been far more useful and even enjoyable. The YouTube style is different in comparison to the MPU style of the old days…

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I’d imagine that it’s actual usage data rather than market research, as “the public” are notoriously change adverse, and so there’s no way any research would have come back suggesting a change was wanted by the public, even though I’d bet that the usage data would show that now its been forced on them, that they’ve embraced it.

I enjoyed listening to Jakob. It is good to hear other voices and although he was critical about some aspects of Apple, he clearly is passionate. I also like his minimalist style and using what you got…

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Good episode, I liked it. @ismh I’m interested in hearing about your travel folder in notes you were talking about. I know it’s probably not a big deal but I think it would be interesting.

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The only thing I can conclude, iOS isn’t the best for audio production. I’ve never done studio work. However, spent plenty of time doing live work.

This episode had some merit. There are easier and better ways to do audio production.

There’s a note for each part of a trip. For example:

  • WWDC Flights
  • WWDC Hotel
  • WWDC Car Rental

Each note has info for that component, and a PDF of any receipts or ticket I may need.

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Great idea. I never really thought about using notes for that. I just started using notes much more. All notes have to be in a folder, you can’t just have a random note by itself?

Same here. There are a lot of podcasts that have this and I’ve stopped listening to them. The Day one episode was great. That’s the good thing about MPU’s episodes you might get one of these every once in a while and then your back to great content.

Thought it was a really interesting episode and that Jakob was a great choice of guest.

Really like his personal detailed analysis of the good and bad of the platform. Shot through with his learning about content creation and what seemed to be an underlying belief in a people driven internet.

Sure his rants were quite earnestly Nordic, but the combination of his personality and nerdism made for a great show. And David’s skilful management of the interview.

The variety of guests and approaches is a real strength of MPU for me.

Hate to be so positive, but also great to see Stephen finding his feet recently.

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Being positive is nothing to be hated. I think that it is just good that there are also listeners out there who actually enjoyed the episode. :slight_smile:

Regarding Stephen: I agree 100% :smiley:

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Also just to add that whilst we are all here because we enjoy the tech, workflows etc. I thought that Jacobs advice to ‘just do it’ in order to see if you enjoy the creative process- rather than worrying too much initially about the tech, hardware - is important and powerful advice for MPUers.

The Koala sampling/sequencing app he recommended to just get started was indeed great fun.

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The “just do it” has been the essence lately and a recurring theme. It is good advice.

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This was one of my favorite episodes! To me Jakob was very passionate and his „rant“ was just a consequence of that passion.

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