I expect a lot of chafing. The prospect of carrying two devices on me, one for phone stuff, and the other for music, feels like such a disturbance to a totally solved element of my life. A revelatory event! I didn’t even think that I would need to use iTunes to get music on my phone…
100%, i would not recommend iOS if you want to continue this practice specifically. it is very, very obnoxious. you’d be better off with a second device specifically for this
i recently messed with Plex some and now i have my local media streaming so i can listen to all of my music library on my iPhone. only set up it relatively recently so i can’t really vouch – seems to work in a pinch
but yeah, if you want to control your own music library as well as use an iPhone as your daily driver, you’ll probably want a separate device for local music playback. my 2c
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apple music is probably the best of the big streaming services for integrating personal libraries - and having access to them for streaming or downloading locally. maybe lands a mid point between having access to your library without having it all downloaded at once.
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itunes match is still around for $25/year too fwiw — scan your library and upload what it doesn’t match
plex is a neat idea provided you can run a server somewhere but if you were previously carrying around 50k flac files yeah beware
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that’s not to say you have to use itunes to sync or have to use the built-in music app just that it’s esoteric
here’s something that seems to just play local files in all the codecs you’d sync a folder with
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yeah definitely don’t get an iPhone if you’re fussy about your local music library
I didn’t switch to iOS until I was basically all in on music streaming because this one part of their platform basically went nowhere for a decade while the rest of it got better and better
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i know this isn’t Helpful but i eventually came to the conclusion that the headphones i leave the house with aren’t good enough for me to notice the difference and use streaming for on-the-go music needs
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I realized that youtube premium just comes with youtube music so I use that
I’m old and scared of putting too many songs on my phone though, but I basically had 6+ year old phones or like super cheap phones that barely worked. it’s weird being able to actually use the storage. it took me forever to get out of the habit of immediately deleting pictures as soon I uploaded them anywhere too! like on my phones I’d have to juggle apps and uninstall shit as soon as I used it cuz id hit the storage limit for downloading five things hahah. cheap smart phones are the worst
I had one that only I could use because three parts of the touchscreen registered as different places on the screen so like if I wanted to type v or b or part of my PIN id have to touch a completely different part of the screen near the top left, so even if I told people my password they couldn’t unlock my phone
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I never touch iTunes and just use iOS foobar to both stream music over my local network (maybe there’s a way to do it over the internet if you’re not at home) or to copy a day’s worth of folders from my network over to its own internal storage folder for when I’m out and about.
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possibly worth a look:
yeah there are lots and lots of alternatives in practice to “use iTunes” and iOS hasn’t been as restrictive in practice as that implies in years now, but in principle I think the experience of trying to keep 40G of flac or something on an iPhone will still be extremely bad. I wouldn’t advise most people against an iPhone on this basis, and @physical is right that iCloud is super painless for photos (except syncing to a windows machine, it’s horrible at that), but if you’re liable to get annoyed about it, switching ecosystems is no fun anyway
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oh yeah my photos advice was based on @vodselbt already having a mac, apple seems incapable of writing good windows software
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I think I could adapt to an iOS environment, cope with the frustrating changes if there are solutions in place and the other conveniences are really nice. Think I’ll wait for the usb c models to come out. My Pixel is relatively too new for me to replace, but the charging port on it is inexplicably damaged and cables wiggle out of it all the time, which is an unreliability I cannot endure.
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Proprietary connectors suck and on the whole moving to usb-c is the right move but this is the one way lightning is a much better connector for mobile devices - the port and the cables can be much more robust and you can clean a dirty port easily
The design that lets it be physically robust is also the reason it could never ever support usb 3 speeds, where the heck are you going to put another zillion fragile pins?
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I just use wireless chargers for my pixel because I have found no rhyme or reason to which chargers work and which don’t so I gave up and stick it on a stand. they all say they don’t work with a phone case on but I have a big chunky phone case and they all charge my phone just fine
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I’m always so intrigued by the “next one” in this category.
What I hve to say re: this wrt my ~1mo experience with a ROG Ally
- Trackpad is exciting for Windows computing. Switching the gamepad between controller and faux-mouse mode is not a great experience for Windows 11, and Windows computing on a handheld is the biggest (minor) painpoint.
- Four backbuttons is nice and doesn’t seem to detract from the experience, but most traditional hardcore gaming that benefit from extra buttons don’t seem to run in a way that (I imagine) hardcore gamers would want. Could be good for getting KBM games to work for tweakers
- Even if the controllers are Switch level of functionality, I still don’t think this’ll really make it “like a Switch” in terms of convenience or selling-to-families-with-kids. What I do think is that it’ll be a neat differentiator to help sell these Ryzen APU systems AND it’ll look pretty cool docked without controllers. Honestly that second part would sell me on this if I was in the market.
It’s pretty exciting seeing companies jumping on this thing. Hoping this is an indication that this form factor isn’t a fad, and this’ll push development of OSes and things-in-general to enable this ecosystem.
Mildly related, kinda getting PSPGo vibes from this one. I guess I really like the part where the controls can be “hidden”.
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I start thinking about folding phones and like, what if instead of a second screen it was just a pretty legit mini controller. Slidy sticks ala the 3DS, etc.
Probably an inherently compromised design
There’s one of those retro handheld devices that’s pretty much a 3DS without a second screen. That middle area would be great for a keyboard.
Edit: Retroid Pocket Flip
Now I can’t stop thinking about a phone case that’s like… a battery, controller, keyboard, and screen protector all in one.
Is there a cheap headset/mic combo that is recommended? I’d prefer if it were wired (especially w/ detachable wires). I’m looking at
But I have no idea how to pick this stuff.