• I think I might hate iOS even more than Windows, though.

This is why iPads frustrate me so much these days. The hardware is more than capable of running a decently powerful OS, but Apple are insistent on crippling them with a big version of iOS. iOS is fine on an iPhone where the limited screen size means I have no particular desire to do anything too complicated, but the same restrictions on an iPad feel like Apple don’t really know how to reconcile what the device can do with not wanting to pull customers away from Macs. I was unexpectedly gifted a 6th gen mini last week which is in front of me as I type and which I’m not entirely sure what to do with.

Yes, they really do. There were a few years of fuckups and questionable decisions, but by and large the devices they make are absolutely solid.

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro at home that’s running Monterey via Opencore as well as if it was still supported. Until recently I was using a 2015 MBP that was absolutely faultless. I now have an M2 Air that may have some issues down the line that haven’t come to light yet, but it seems unlikely. I have two Mac minis at work, a 2011 and a 2014 that are still absolutely capable for the level of work I ask of them. I’m typing this on one of them.

In terms of iPhones/iPads; I’ve had 7 iPhones and 5 iPads over the years, and the only hardware problems I’ve experienced with them have been of my own doing (broken screens, water damage, etc…).

So yeah, the 2016-2019 MacBooks had shitty keyboards and questionable I/O decisions, but otherwise the hardware was absolutely top tier.

And with Apple you can’t choose and pick like with PC. When they decide to try silly things like the touch bar you are stuck with them for years.

This is kind of a weird argument. You can’t choose which keyboard you get with any laptop.

All of this stuff makes me sad. As a long(ish)-time Apple user, it’s been sad to see them go full throttle into hyper-capital mode. They’re literally the wealthiest company on the planet because they’ve spent the past twenty years figuring out how to nickel and dime their customers. Hell, even when I bought my first MacBook back in '07, the guy in the Apple Store suggested getting the RAM upgrade elsewhere because Apple prices were ridiculous even then. Everyone knows they didn’t go with soldered RAM and storage for the performance gains…

But they make incredible hardware, so I tolerate all that shit, making me complicit in the fuckery.

I saw my wife playing this years ago, and always fancied having a go, but never got around to it.

So a few months back we got it going so it could stream to our Apple TV and off I went. Spent a few weeks playing it in the evenings and having a nice time.

Then Ubisoft put out an ‘update’ to it, that broke it completely. A massive update for a ten year old game. Cunts.

So I guess I’ll never finish it, because fuck Ubisoft.

In theory, any MP3 player / DAP that can have music loaded onto it by drag and drop could work with your iPad (assuming you have the means to connect it, of course).

But there are a number of things to consider.

Firstly; storage. Obviously, your iPad doesn’t have expandable storage, so depending on the size of your collection, you might run out of space. Using the same method you’ll need to connect the player to your iPad, you can hook up an external drive of some description. Files should be able to see it (as long as it’s formatted to exFAT or FAT). From there, using Files you can simply drag from one place to another.

However, this doesn’t allow you to change metadata or anything. There are apps you can download that will allow you to do it, but it can be a pain in the ass if you’ve got quite a bit of music.

Finally, there’s where you get the music from.

If you buy from somewhere like Bandcamp, then you can download directly to your iPad, though they don’t make it easy. You can’t buy from iTunes because the app won’t let you open them in Files. Torrents are obviously out, so is CD ripping, as there are no CD drivers for iPad that I’m aware of.

So while it’s entirely possible to run a DAP with just an iPad, it’s kind of a pain in the arse, unless you already have a ready supply of music and it’s either already tagged well, or you don’t really care about that sort of thing. As others have suggested, it might be just as easy for you to pick up a cheap PC. It doesn’t need to have any bells and whistles, just the ability to store music and have some way of managing the library.

But a million people haven’t done that with an iPad, because until now no iPad was able to receive video input. That’s the point of the article.

Can it run Doom?

I picked up a 13 Mini back in March, and will ride this bad boy for as long as I can, in the hope that Apple eventually release another Mini model.

So perhaps it’s true that we hold onto our little phones for longer, primarily because we’re waiting for another little phone to come along.

I guess this makes sense to some extent.

I mean, kids learn from copying their parents, so parents who distract their kids with an old iPad are less likely to spend as much time interacting with them. That’s no shade towards any parents, btw. I myself am a parent of a kid who had access to my phone from an early age to keep him quiet while I tried to get shit done. He had troubles with socialising at school, and ended up being kicked out of a couple. It’s entirely possible he has ADHD (as I do), but he’s 19 now, at university, far less likely to be spending his time looking at his phone, and is absolutely thriving.

So I guess I fucked him up for quite a bit there…

I disagree. Linus shooting from the hip and making himself look an even bigger ass is incredibly entertaining.

Perhaps, but I see it as indicative of the problem in general. A slapdash attitude where they don’t pause for a second to consider what they’re actually doing, which, you’d think they might try and do under a 20 minute video where they grovel and scrape and beg forgiveness.

Hold up…LMG has an OF? Why? Is Linus getting his dick out to show the size of their fucking screwdriver?

Big shout out to them leaving the links to LTT merch in the description. Venal fucks.

It’s not just “YouTuber drama” though; LTT have positioned themselves as The Grand Knowledge on all things tech, so a good number of people turn to them for recommendations. And their recommendations are questionable.

I quite like the 30 pin, though that may be because I coveted iPods at the time but couldn’t afford one. I had a couple of Sony hard disc Walkman, which seemed to have a different connector every damn time, meaning you couldn’t buy one dock like you could with an iPod. On top of that, it was a solid connection that clicked nicely every time. But yeah, ya boy was wiiiiiide. I have a dozen of them knocking about now, as my little collection of iPods grows…

Also, it’s hilarious that Samsung straight up copied the 30 pin for their original Tab, but flipped the pin position so the cables weren’t interchangeable.

Remember the New iPad, or the 3rd gen iPad as literally everyone called it?

Apple did try to simplify in the same way they did with Macs, but then they fragmented the iPad line so much that it was difficult to keep up, so now you have “12.9” 2022 iPad Pro" as opposed to “5th gen iPad Air”.

Still, it’s better than the abominations that Sony come out with. Looking at you, WH-1000XM4 headphones, or Bravia KD55X75WL (2023).

It’s likely more to do with the iPad Pro architecture being essentially the same as a MacBooks. Makes it easier to produce multiple devices based on the same components. But they kept Lightning on the cheaper devices because the people using them are less likely to care how they (very infrequently) plug stuff in.

Also, I feel like not enough people appreciate just how much shit Apple got for moving everything from the 30 pin to Lightning. There was a barrage of comments across the message boards from people bitching about how they’d have to replace their iPod docks and all the cables they’d amassed. There was no way Apple would have gone through that again lightly to switch to a new standard that wasn’t mature.

side-eyes the 10th gen iPad with its 1st gen Pencil and usb-c > lightning adapter…

As an iPhone user since the 3GS, I couldn’t really give a shit which port my phone has, because I almost never actually use it. Data transfer is usually via iCloud or Airdrop, and charging is almost always on my MagSafe stand.

That said, it’ll be nice for my next phone to be able to use the same USB-C adapters that I have for my MacBook for those odd occasions they’re needed.