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Android M To Embrace USB Type-C and MIDI

Posted by timothy on from the loving-arms-of-a-robot dept.

jones_supa writes: USB Type-C connection is showing up in more and more devices, and Google is rolling support for the interface in its Android M operating system. The most significant additions relate to the USB Power Delivery spec. Charging will now work in both directions. That effectively means that Type-C devices can be used as external batteries for other devices. Android M is also finally introducing a feature that musicmakers have been long asking for: MIDI support. This builds on some of the audio features Google introduced in Android 5, including reduction in latency, multichannel audio stream mixing, and support for USB microphones, amplifiers, speakers, and other accessories. As others have written, music and media creation apps are much more prevalent in iOS than they are in Android, and Google hopes turning that around.

106 comments

  1. The future of MIDI by suso · · Score: 4, Informative

    One might be thinking right now: MIDI? Wasn't that what my dad used to listen to music?

    However MIDI has proven to be quite adept as a protocol and file format being now 30+ years old with only a few minor revisions. This year some major improvements are being announced with the release of MIDI HD Protocol, which will allow for more control and expressiveness as well as network connectivity and will
    be MIDI 1.0 compatible. So in the future you may be able to use your Android phone's touch screen and accelerometer as a MIDI controller.

    1. Re:The future of MIDI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      MIDI is great for rocking some Axel F!

    2. Re:The future of MIDI by Scottingham · · Score: 2

      Good to hear about MIDI HD! The link below sheds a bit more light. I'm hoping it'll eventually come in a wireless flavor. I have too many damn MIDI cables going every which way...add audio and power to that mix and it's a mess.

      http://www.synthtopia.com/cont...

    3. Re:The future of MIDI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One might be thinking right now: MIDI? Wasn't that what my dad used to listen to music?

      However MIDI has proven to be quite adept as a protocol and file format being now 30+ years old with only a few minor revisions. This year some major improvements are being announced with the release of MIDI HD Protocol, which will allow for more control and expressiveness as well as network connectivity and will
      be MIDI 1.0 compatible. So in the future you may be able to use your Android phone's touch screen and accelerometer as a MIDI controller.

      Yes, one might be thinking right now, MIDI?

      Then again, one might also be thinking who the fuck is asking for this feature on smartphones??

      Sorry, I chalk this right up there with 8K display capability and surround-sound simulation. I tire of hearing of features that seemingly no one is asking for in a smartphone being installed by default and then listen to everyone complain about battery life in every device out there.

      There is a correlation there, so how about we knock off this feature creep shit already in favor of real battery life.

    4. Re:The future of MIDI by ichthus · · Score: 1

      With that mentality, we'd all be using phones with low-rez, monochrome screens, non-touch (button) interfaces and GPRS data capability. Hell, yeah -- I want my Nokia 8290 back! Best phone ever!

      --
      sig: sauer
    5. Re:The future of MIDI by Voyager529 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      so how about we knock off this feature creep shit already in favor of real battery life.

      With that mentality, we'd all be using phones with low-rez, monochrome screens, non-touch (button) interfaces and GPRS data capability. Hell, yeah -- I want my Nokia 8290 back! Best phone ever!

      No, with that mentality, we'd have things like

      • Phones that aren't anorexic, instead being willing to be a bit thicker and sport two days' worth of battery life.
      • Phones with physical keyboards. Nothing wrong with Swype or Swiftkey, but if there's a market for pseudo surround sound in a phone, you can't tell me that having a keyboard like the Blackberry Curve or HTC Rhodium doesn't have a maket.
      • Phones with intentionally lower DPI, for people with less-than-perfect eyesight that still want to use their phone.
      • Phones with a better ability to leverage integrated storage
      • Phones with screens designed to be user-replaceable

      And that's just off the top of my head of hardware-based changes that end users would be much more likely to want, and would not negatively impact battery life.

    6. Re:The future of MIDI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How the fuck are they going to fit a DIN connector for MIDI signals onto a phone?
      While they're at it, they might as well add USB Type A, Ethernet, a PS/2 mouse port and a DVD drive.

    7. Re:The future of MIDI by Luckyo · · Score: 2

      Not to forget: phones with intentionally lower DPI for people who like to play games on their phones and understand that lower resolution means higher frames per second and more image quality improvements like better lighting and shaders with same GPU power.

    8. Re:The future of MIDI by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1

      Higher DPI means more legible fonts and image assets if the OS is implementing high DPI settings correctly. Text on a Retina MacBook Pro and on iOS devices with retina screens are a joy to read when the display is set to pixel doubled/tripled(in the case of the 6+) mode.

      I know that's a lot of Apple fangirl wank but really, don't blame high DPI for making your text harder to read, blame your OS and the shell for not taking full advantage of what high DPI screens can do for you.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    9. Re:The future of MIDI by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

      MIDI has a few surprising applications. Fireworks, for example. Running a firework show is really a matter of setting of lots of igniters with precise timing over the course of an event - and that's exactly the sort of thing MIDI does well. As far as software is concerned, it's just a strange type of music where every note gets played only once.

    10. Re:The future of MIDI by discord5 · · Score: 1

      So in the future you may be able to use your Android phone's touch screen and accelerometer as a MIDI controller.

      Or you can just use OSC as a protocol and do that right now with a handful of DAWs and VSTs. I've been using OSC on Android for about 2 years now with TouchOSC. I use Renoise and Ableton mostly, and those work well enough with that.

      On that matter, let's be honest, a touch screen isn't the greatest replacement for buttons, sliders and knobs really. I almost always prefer using a piece of kit as compared to a touchscreen, with the exception of X/Y pads for controlling things like filters where you control cutoff frequency and resonance or bandwidth (for bandpass, etc). It's nice to be able to look at the filter graph where you're fiddling with it, instead of on screen while your poking at an x/y pad on a controller. I also often use TouchOSC when I run out of sliders or knobs while I'm testing/playing with something, but touchscreens are often too "fiddly" compared to a real controller.

      I guess that Google is hoping that Korg & co will start porting their iPad/iPhone apps to Android, but quite frankly I don't see that happening anytime soon. Korg for instance has released an iphone app for uploading samples to their volca sampler, but hasn't done so for Android (and this doesn't even use a MIDI interface, just the headphone jack to communicate with the sampler over QAM). They've put the source code for the conversion and "protocol" online on github, so you can just build it on whatever and do your thing if you know how to, but quite frankly that goes to show they're just not interested in supporting Android at all.

      There's also the fact that most people interested in this sort of thing have already gotten an iPad and have bought apps and what not, to do exactly that. After I sink money into a tool like a DAW or VST I tend to keep using it until I know it inside out, gotten out of it what I wanted to and got tired of it, which can take a very very long time. Many DAWs and VSTs come at fairly high price tags so a lot of people tend to stick to with what they've got, simply because throwing more money at the problem doesn't necessarily make better music. While this isn't the case for those iPad and iPhone apps, nobody is going to be jumping ship from a platform they've got several apps on, and the people who wanted to do this have already invested in the tablet and apps.

      Quite frankly, I'd rather invest the price of a new phone into a real piece of kit that isn't a phone. On second thought, I've got what I need right now, and I'll just work with that and not mess around with tablets and phones for anything else than TouchOSC occasionally allowing me to mess around with more parameters than I have sliders and knobs for. Plenty of sound I can squeeze out of my current setup in ways I haven't begun to try yet.

    11. Re:The future of MIDI by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      640k ought to be enough for anyone.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    12. Re:The future of MIDI by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

      One might be thinking right now: MIDI? Wasn't that what my dad used to listen to music [youtube.com]?

      Oddly, I also used to used to use a Midi of an entirely different type (*) to listen to music "back in the day" (cough). Always used to find it strange that MIDI had the same name as cheap all-in-one 80s hifi systems...

      Get off my lawn et al.

      (*) That's not actually mine- which I got rid of around a decade back- but it's the exact same model

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    13. Re:The future of MIDI by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Modern SoC GPUs have scalers, they can scale for free and look pretty good while doing it.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    14. Re:The future of MIDI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is a global market for maybe 5 midi controllers.

    15. Re: The future of MIDI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      you're mistaking it with MOD

    16. Re:The future of MIDI by ezelkow1 · · Score: 1

      There is a huge market for mobile music creation. There are some incredibly detailed and professional synths for iOS. Its also not just music creation but it allows things like bands/church groups/etc to now have a tablet or phone instead of a gigantic synth. They just need their device and a midi keyboard. This is also a huge reduction in cost. Instead of spending 5k+ on a good keyboard, you can now take that tablet you already have, a 100-200$ midi keyboard, and 100$ worth of apps and have more sounds than that 5000$ keyboard could ever provide along with more interaction, programmability, and flexibility.

      Look at things like the entire korg lineup for ios: gadget, ims-20, module, the new iM1, for ~50$ you have the software replacement for 5k+ worth of hardware. Even if you wanted the vst equivalents your looking at 100$ or more. Arturia has the sem, prophet and mini, for 30$ you get more than 100$ of equivalent software and again thousands in hardware. Theres a huge amount on the apple store

    17. Re:The future of MIDI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Phone? You might not have noticed this, but tables have existed since several years ago.

    18. Re:The future of MIDI by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      We have most of those things.

      Phones that aren't anorexic, instead being willing to be a bit thicker and sport two days' worth of battery life.

      My OnePlus One can easily go three days on a charge, even with moderate use. It's a full smart phone, high end camera, Bluetooth, NFC, wifi, 4G, sensors etc. It's pretty thin too. Most manufacturers realized that there is "thin enough", it's only really Apple that needs to be 0.01mm thinner every year.

      Phones with physical keyboards.

      Just get a case with Bluetooth keyboard built in. That's the better solution now. You can choose a keyboard you like and easily replace it when needed. It also doesn't limit your choice of phone too much, because otherwise you would be stuck with one or two models at most.

      Phones with intentionally lower DPI, for people with less-than-perfect eyesight that still want to use their phone.

      Android lets you scale the UI easily enough for that purpose. You don't need a low DPI screen, you just need to make the font size bigger and have everything scale with it.

      Phones with a better ability to leverage integrated storage

      What does that even mean?

      Phones with screens designed to be user-replaceable

      Again, with the right case it is almost impossible to break the screen. High end cutting edge phones are only about £230 now, so it's easy to get the risk down to a level where you don't need insurance. If you paid £750+ for your phone, well...

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    19. Re:The future of MIDI by Merk42 · · Score: 1

      Phones with a better ability to leverage integrated storage

      What does that even mean?

      Using an SD card for GBs of 10-bit anime and sideloaded APKs all gotten totally legitimately

    20. Re:The future of MIDI by phorm · · Score: 1

      Phones with intentionally lower DPI, for people with less-than-perfect eyesight that still want to use their phone.

      Uhhhh, or just better "accessibility" options within the OS, and/or tuning of the resolution used by the OS/apps display. There's no need to deliberately limit the hardware in this regard (although it may also improve performance/battery-life, so could be useful in that case).

    21. Re:The future of MIDI by robsku · · Score: 1

      In fact I even believe seeing a table when I was just a wee child... My daddy told me not to touch it, fearing I would break the expensive table. Of course we never had one, but I heard that one of our richer neighbors had TWO tables! Imagine the luxury! But I guess it's like that when you get into hardcore decorating.

      --
      In capitalist USA corporations control the government.
    22. Re:The future of MIDI by iONiUM · · Score: 1

      That's what you want, and others on Slashdot. But "you" must accept you aren't the typical user.

      If these are the features that would help sell phones, then those are the features people would get. Do you seriously think Apple, Samsung, LG etc. does no market research before prepping a new release of a phone? If there was such a huge market out there demanding these phones and willing to spend money on them, of course there will be phones to buy to fill that market and get the money!

      This is the same argument about women in the workforce being "cheaper" (underpaid). We hear the (rightful) argument all the time on Slashdot that if women are so much cheaper than men, companies would just hire women and save money. It's the same thing here -- if making these phones is going to all of a sudden give a huge boost to a company's revenue, they would have already done it. Time to face reality - most users don't want these things.

    23. Re:The future of MIDI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For many people battery life is not a primary design feature -- they'd like more, but not necessarily at the cost of other features. It's arrogant to assume that everyone wants the same phone you do.

      It's also a little lazy. If battery life is a driving feature for you, and you aren't bothered by some extra size (which you claim you're not), it's straightforward to add an external battery of any capacity to the back of your phone. Anker sells a 10 Ah battery that is 16mm thick and $22. Is that really a big burden on you to tape that on your slim device to get the battery life you want?

      / If your high-DPI screen is hard to read you're using the wrong software. Having smaller pixels *allows* smaller text, but it no way requires it.

    24. Re:The future of MIDI by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      Ah yes, the infamous "pretty good" of non native scaling on LCD screens.

      No thanks. Some of us have eyes that, while not being good enough to appreciate high DPI screens, are good enough to see the smudgy crap that comes out of such scalers.

    25. Re:The future of MIDI by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Ah yes, the infamous "pretty good" of non native scaling on LCD screens.

      I would have hoped that they would have LCD-aware scalers on these chips by now, but I'm not a registered developer so I can't download docs to find out.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    26. Re:The future of MIDI by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      Do you understand that we're talking about screens where people claim being able to tell apart pixels that are so tiny, they shouldn't be able to?

      These people will most certainly be able to tell that image is smoothed out by scaler. It's far, FAR easier to see that.

    27. Re:The future of MIDI by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Do you understand that we're talking about screens where people claim being able to tell apart pixels that are so tiny, they shouldn't be able to?

      Yep.

      These people will most certainly be able to tell that image is smoothed out by scaler. It's far, FAR easier to see that.

      It's easy to see whatever you're expecting. A good LCD-aware scaler, though, can produce some really great results on an LCD.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. It can't be any worse than slashdot editors by damn_registrars · · Score: 1, Funny

    and Google hopes turning that around.

    If only google could install some competence in the people who approve the summaries here. Turning that around would be almost a miracle.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    1. Re:It can't be any worse than slashdot editors by John+Bokma · · Score: 1, Funny

      perl -e 'print reverse("that") . "\n"'

      --

      Perl Programmer for hire
    2. Re:It can't be any worse than slashdot editors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As Steve Martin has said: "Some people have a way with words, some people... not... have... way".

    3. Re:It can't be any worse than slashdot editors by suutar · · Score: 1

      don't forget the italics markers.

  3. What /. doesn't want you to see -- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/05/sourceforge-grabs-gimp-for-windows-account-wraps-installer-in-bundle-pushing-adware/

    SourceForge grabs GIMP for Windows’ account, wraps installer in bundle-pushing adware

    1. Re:What /. doesn't want you to see -- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've submitted a story. Vote it up in the Firehose before the editors delete it!

    2. Re:What /. doesn't want you to see -- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's been submitted at least three separate times that I caught before being deleted by editors. I had modded up the original post in this thread too, but for some reason, I've now lost mod points and the post is now at -1. Hmmm...

    3. Re:What /. doesn't want you to see -- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's at red now so we'll see what happens.

    4. Re:What /. doesn't want you to see -- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If GamerGate has taught me anything, a story being voted to red (or conversely being voted to black) has absolutely no bearing on whether or not it gets posted. Plenty of stories debunking myths about GamerGate got voted red only to be deleted, while SJW bullshit constantly gets posted despite being voted to black while in the Firehose. I'd be amazed if they post it without first finding some way to whitewash Slashdot Media's involvement.

    5. Re:What /. doesn't want you to see -- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh great, so /. censors anything that makes it look bad.... nice. Read the article guys, what an epic piece of douchebaggery by Slashdot Media.

      You know what, fuck this site. I've been here forever, it's gone to shit. I'm done.

    6. Re:What /. doesn't want you to see -- by readingprofile · · Score: 2

      Indeed. I know Slashdot is inconsistant with regards to how old a story is before it's posted here, but this story is pretty high profile and has been shown on virtually all tech-related sites so far... except for Slashdot, who's owners also run SourceForge.

      Slashdot are acting exactly like any other commercially-run institution - pretending that bad news which affects their reputation doesn't exist.

    7. Re:What /. doesn't want you to see -- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://soylentnews.org/

    8. Re:What /. doesn't want you to see -- by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Strangely the SJW bullshit story about the IRC logs that GamerGate released, which prove beyond any doubt that it is all just manufactured outrage, astroturfing, sock puppets and misogyny was rejected too.

      GamerGate is over. Nothing they do or say can recover from having their inner discussions exposed, which they were stupid enough to do on a public IRC server.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    9. Re:What /. doesn't want you to see -- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have literally no idea what you're talking about, but I think it's the IRC screenshots that one of the LWs faked. (Sorry, I'm unclear of which LW is which at this point, they're all indistinguishable. Also LOL at faking IRC screenshots when you could have just faked a TXT file, but the anti-gamer side isn't exactly known for their tech prowess.)

      GamerGate isn't over by a long shot. As long as journalists attack gamers, gamers will be fighting back. In order for GamerGate to end, the LWs would need to fuck off forever and quite a few gaming websites would need to shut down.

    10. Re:What /. doesn't want you to see -- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In order for GamerGate to end, the LWs would need to fuck off forever and quite a few gaming websites would need to shut down.

      Actually, in order for GamerGate to end, people like AmiMojo need to stop telling us that it ended. By continuing to remind us, he's actually giving the trolls and harassers the attention they seek.

      AmiMojo's been saying GG is over for over at least half over, since the first IRC logs showed up. Those logs are to him what the original post from Zoe Quinn's ex to GGs.

      And really, it doesn't matter whether GG is over. What matters is how things changed since GG. And you know what? I think GG changed things for the better. People are more aware of both feminist issues in video games and complicated relationship between game industry and the people who write about it. GG did more to promote equality in a fraction of the time than say, Anita Sarkeesian.

    11. Re:What /. doesn't want you to see -- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So in other words, in your gatory way of course, you're saying that Gamergate has tried several times to get apologia for its campaign onto the Slashdot front-page, submitting it and then attempting to rig the vote, only to be thwarted by the fact that the editors weren't fooled by your BS.

      Sounds to me like the system works fine.

      BTW, every time you describe the "enemy" as "SJWs" you confirm your campaign has nothing to do with ethics, journalism, or indeed human decency.

  4. And all 9 Android/MIDI users were happy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Seriously, if you're doing sound work, get a workstation. Just because you have a pimp phone doesn't mean it should handle everything.

    1. Re:And all 9 Android/MIDI users were happy by allquixotic · · Score: 2

      Seriously, if you're doing office work, get a typewriter. Just because you have a pimp desktop doesn't mean it should handle everything.

      Seriously, if you're doing gaming, get an XBone. Just because you have a pimp desktop doesn't mean it should handle everything.

      Seriously, if you're listening to music, get an MP3 player. Just because you have a pimp phone doesn't mean it should handle everything.

      Do you see how ridiculous this is?

      There are serious benefits and advantages to convergence: using one device for many purposes. Unless there is some reason why the hardware is especially poorly suited to the task, there's no reason *not* to do it. Supporting needless device specialization plays straight into the hands of the consumer electronics companies, who want you to spend $300 on a music player, another $300 on a phone, another $300 on a tablet, another $300 on an eReader, another $300 on a device to visit facebook, another $300 on a device to visit Yahoo, another $300 on a device to play games, etc. etc. etc.

      A few exceptions:

      e-Ink: acknowledged that it's superior, mainly due to battery life and readability in a wide variety of light conditions, for long-term reading of plain text. However, many people read large amounts of text on LCDs/AMOLEDs with no adverse effects.

      External hardware for music production: acknowledged that skilled musicians can usually do a better job using actual instruments (whether MIDI or just a microphone attached to a conventional instrument) at music production. However, these microphones and MIDI sources can, and should, be compatible with general-purpose computing devices, including smartphones.

      Physical keyboards: if you're typing something longer than a Tweet, it's so much faster and more comfortable to use a physical keyboard, even if it's just a small one. However, Android's support for bluetooth keyboards is pretty good, so that's not to say you shouldn't support physical keyboards attached to devices that normally lack them.

      Actually, the latter two of those aren't really *exceptions* at all. They exactly prove my point. A general purpose computing device plus external accessories can be much more broadly useful in a diverse array of situations compared to a general purpose computing device that only supports phone calls and web browsing.

      So then we have the following categories of devices:

      (1) General-purpose computing devices. SHOULD have very robust support for external accessories to make it useful in a wide variety of use cases.

      (2) Specific computing devices that serve one or two purposes. These are only justifiable if the hardware feature(s) are so essential to the task being performed that it has to be built-into the device, and it doesn't make sense to make it an accessory to a general purpose computing device. For instance, it would be silly to attach an e-Ink external display to a smartphone.

      (3) Accessories. These don't have any real "smarts" to themselves, but they connect to a general-purpose computing device that provides some kind of value-added processing or data storage or streaming, etc.

      Reducing the utility of general-purpose computing devices and selling more specific computing devices that are unnecessarily specific is an anti-consumer tactic.

    2. Re:And all 9 Android/MIDI users were happy by CastrTroy · · Score: 1

      I think that MIDI support in and of itself is fine, but Android has so many other things that would be useful to so many more people. How about mounting network drives so that you can access them in every application. How about integrating Google Drive so that applications can access files without the application developer having to write code specifically to handle it?

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    3. Re:And all 9 Android/MIDI users were happy by allquixotic · · Score: 2

      Or how about Bluetooth audio that actually *works*? https://code.google.com/p/andr...

      The thing to keep in mind is that Google doesn't have a one-track mind. They don't have 1 developer who can only perform feature development work on one thing at a time. MIDI support has very likely been a side project brewing for a number of years that finally now is stable enough to release. Meanwhile, they have lots of other people who have little to no clue what that guy was doing with MIDI because they spend a lot of their time looking into problems similar to the ones you've identified. But obviously those people aren't done with their work because the feature isn't in production yet.

      I consider it very unlikely that some other highly useful feature would have been worked on instead, had they opted not to add MIDI support. I'm not sure why they chose to feature it so prominently in TFS or to even mention something like that at Google I/O, but my guess is that it was a 20% project for someone who has a passion for MIDI, so it's not like Google could tell them, "stop doing this useful contribution to the Android open source project in your spare time". 20% time at Google is exactly for this type of thing.

    4. Re:And all 9 Android/MIDI users were happy by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1

      The bothersome thing here though is that MIDI support should be pretty much baked in to the base OS. Doesn't Android support ALSA? Doesn't ALSA have MIDI?

      I mean, iOS has had MIDI support since iOS 4.2.

      While a tablet isn't going to replace a full soundboard soon, for musicians on a budget or a bunch of folks getting together for a jam session it's great. Unlike a soundboard it fits easily into a bag and goes where ever there's a flat surface to put it down on.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    5. Re:And all 9 Android/MIDI users were happy by BlackHawk-666 · · Score: 1

      Not very many people have ever dropped their DAW down the toilet.

      --
      All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
  5. USB Power Delivery? by andyn · · Score: 0

    Great! Now I can drain my battery even faster!

    1. Re:USB Power Delivery? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And what kind of crazy cable do you need?

    2. Re:USB Power Delivery? by allquixotic · · Score: 2

      I think this has a very practical purpose: by allowing the charging circuit to operate at the same time as power flows out of the host, it will allow something like this:

      USB Keyboard = K
      USB Mouse = M
      Powered USB Hub (connected to wall socket) = H
      MHL adapter (USB-C to HDMI with a female USB-C socket for accepting peripherals and power) = P
      Smartphone = S

      K and M --> H --> P --> S

      USB hub provides power to K and M and provides data and charging to S

      Not sure if this is how it will actually work, but they definitely needed to do something to enable a use case like this, and it sounds like it might just do it.

    3. Re:USB Power Delivery? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      That works already. I've tried it, minus the mouse. The phone charges, the keyboard was powered from the hub, HDMI output worked.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  6. Type C or mini B by danbob999 · · Score: 1

    As long as manufacturers do not start making Apple of themselves by having their own proprietary port, that's fine.

    1. Re:Type C or mini B by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      As long as manufacturers do not start making Apple of themselves by having their own proprietary port, that's fine.

      Rumor has it that the reason we have USB C is because of Apple. Basically Apple got fed up of the USB guys for having rather annoying connectors (especially ones that only go in one way - a royal PITA for mobile devices).

      So rather than having yet another designed-by-committee connector, Apple basically gave it to the USB IF for free, with knowledge that it contains all the things Apple likes - like the ability to have A/V data sent through the connector, it fixes the nasty problem of well, having it only go one way, and it's symmetrical on both sides.

      Probably Apple looked at what they did for USB 3.0 and decided it was fairly stupid, since now a USB 3.0 cable won't fit in anything other than USB 3 ports.

    2. Re:Type C or mini B by danbob999 · · Score: 2

      Rumor has it that the reason we have USB C is because of Apple.

      Rumors are probably wrong. If Apple wanted to make their connector standard, they would have given their dock and lightning connectors. Instead, they compete against a standard connector again.

    3. Re:Type C or mini B by bhcompy · · Score: 1

      Probably Apple looked at what they did for USB 3.0 and decided it was fairly stupid, since now a USB 3.0 cable won't fit in anything other than USB 3 ports.

      When did this happen? I've got a USB 3.0 cable plugged in to a USB 2.0 slot charging my phone right now.

    4. Re:Type C or mini B by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1

      It'd be awesome if Apple got on board with USB-C.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    5. Re:Type C or mini B by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      It'd be nice if their latest ridiculously-thin laptop had more than two ports on it, and one of them for headphones.

      You get one port, and it's used for charging as well as USB. Want to plug in a USB device? You've got as long as the batteries last.

      They succeeded in making an ultra-super-thin laptop - but at the cost of expecting people to fit a USB3 hub in their bag as well.

    6. Re:Type C or mini B by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1

      Or expecting people to use dropbox, airdrop, soundcloud, etc. for file sharing and bluetooth for accessories.

      I think we might see another USB port on the next version, but I think that's missing the point.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    7. Re:Type C or mini B by willy_me · · Score: 1

      It is more likely that Apple designed USB-C at the same time they designed the Lightning connector. They opted for the Lightning connector and decided to gift USB-C. It is in Apple's best interest for USB to have a good connector.

      Looking at how horrible the USB3 connectors are, it all makes sense. USB 3.1 was announced far to quickly for it to have been planned at the time USB 3.0 was being specified. And there was no design debate - the new connector was basically just announced. Looks like someone delivered a fully developed USB-C connector to the USB standard committee and it was enough of an improvement to warrant a new version.

    8. Re:Type C or mini B by Guspaz · · Score: 1

      No, you don't. Micro USB 3 connectors are stupid wide (we're talking as wide as a full-sized USB connector), and are not compatible with micro USB 2 ports.

      The reverse is sort of true (you can plug a micro 2 cable into a micro 3 port), but since the ports are such different sizes, many consumers probably wouldn't figure that out.

    9. Re:Type C or mini B by Guspaz · · Score: 1

      It's possible that the only reason that Lightning made it into phones was because they wanted to get rid of the 30-pin connector, but USB-C was still a few years away. Or that USB-C was too big, since USB-C sockets are a bunch thicker than Lightning sockets and when Lightning was introduced, Apple probably had a decent idea how thick their upcoming iPhone and iPad products were going to be.

    10. Re:Type C or mini B by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      They want a standard but good USB connector for the laptop and a proprietary port they control for the phone.

      That's why they gave USB-C away for nothing.

      It's the same reason they gave away the mini-displayport connector for free too - they want it to be a standard.

      The phone port though, they want to control because they want to control the peripheral market for the iPhone and iPad. The peripheral market for computers they don't care about, but they would rather that the connector of choice be a good one.

    11. Re:Type C or mini B by danbob999 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, one device out ot how many? 20? 19 more to go.

    12. Re:Type C or mini B by bhcompy · · Score: 1

      He didn't say mini

    13. Re:Type C or mini B by Guspaz · · Score: 1

      There are not any phones on the market that have full-sized USB sockets, so a "USB 3.0 cable" that connects to a phone must be using a micro connector (there is no mini variant of USB 3).

    14. Re:Type C or mini B by willy_me · · Score: 1

      Or the Lightning connector was selected because it was superior (it really is nice) and allows Apple to limit what accessories are made for iOS devices. Apple are control freaks - the Lightning connector gives them more control.

    15. Re:Type C or mini B by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      Mac Pro, Macbook, Macbook Pro, Mac Mini, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch

      That's 7 products. I don't expect the Apple Watch to ever get a USB port.

    16. Re:Type C or mini B by bhcompy · · Score: 1

      ? USB cables typically have A connectors on one end and another on the other end(in this case, micro B). USB 3.0 A works in standard USB 2 or USB 3 ports.

    17. Re:Type C or mini B by danbob999 · · Score: 1

      You are forgetting the Apple TV and the iMac.

    18. Re:Type C or mini B by Guspaz · · Score: 1

      So your phone has a micro USB 3 connector on it, not a USB 2.0 port as your original post stated.

      This doesn't change the fact that a micro USB 3 cable will not fit into a micro USB 2 port.

    19. Re:Type C or mini B by bhcompy · · Score: 1

      I didn't say it did.

      OP said: Probably Apple looked at what they did for USB 3.0 and decided it was fairly stupid, since now a USB 3.0 cable won't fit in anything other than USB 3 ports.

      I said since when since my USB 3.0 cable works just fine in USB 2.0 ports. No one said anything about micro or mini.

    20. Re:Type C or mini B by Guspaz · · Score: 1

      You said "plugged in to a USB 2.0 slot charging my phone", and since there aren't any phones with full-sized USB ports, that means the phone's USB 2.0 slot must be micro, and a USB 3.0 micro cable can't be used on a phone with a USB 2.0 micro port.

    21. Re:Type C or mini B by bhcompy · · Score: 1

      Yes, plugged in to a USB 2.0 slot on my computer charging my phone. I never stated overtly or insinuated that I had a type A slot on my phone. That's stupid and ridiculous. Again, OP said USB 3.0 cables don't work on USB 2.0 slots. The default cable type is type A, with special non-standard connectors on the other end for nearly every major manufacturer. Without specifying a specific type, the only assumption to be made is type A, and type A is backward compatible.

    22. Re:Type C or mini B by Guspaz · · Score: 1

      OP could have worded it more clearly, but was correct in that USB 3.0 cables do not work on USB 2.0 phones. They are not backwards compatible. You're using a USB 3.0 cable with a USB 3.0 phone.

  7. Feature Request by koan · · Score: 2

    manually set app permissions please.

    I think it's odd that the "flashlight" app wants to get into my contacts,and even stranger that Google lets them.

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    1. Re:Feature Request by RandomAdam · · Score: 1

      AppOps - yes it requires root but it is very useful for turning off permissions that apps shouldn't need.

      --
      @Random_Adam

      Sometimes a sig doesn't have to be funny!!
    2. Re:Feature Request by mlts · · Score: 2

      I wouldn't mind something along the lines of XPrivacy (or on iOS, Protect My Privacy) being integrated into Android where if a legacy app wants data, instead of getting an error, it gets bogus information. That way, some generic fleshlight app that asks for everything under the sun including root will be able to fetch data... but it will be all bogus. The ad ID, IMEI, location, username, accounts, list of stashed music, and pictures? Sure, it is valid data, but useless.

    3. Re:Feature Request by koan · · Score: 1

      I'm aware of that, it should be stock.

      It's kind of a "fuck you" to the user that it is not standard.

      --
      "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    4. Re:Feature Request by koan · · Score: 1

      But then devs would reject that sort of thing, after all we are the product, which is why they took it out of our hands.
      But it's wrong, and one of the things I hate most about a tablet or "smart" phone, the inability to get things done under the hood without some questionable app that roots the device.

      --
      "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    5. Re:Feature Request by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are multiple reasons why iOS locks out users, and it takes some gymnastics to get root on some Android devices.

      One of them is that we are an object for data mining. However, there are others:

      1: One of the biggest complaints about Android is malware. Apple disallows sideloading altogether, so an app has to go through their store (and where their say is final), via a mechanism for enterprises to add in-house apps, and through the iOS developer program. Because Apple does this, the Dancing Bunnies attack (where a user installs a "pr0n viewer because a site demands it) isn't one that works on iOS, other than jailbroken devices. Is this a good thing for users? Debatable. However, it does keep the clueless from infecting their devices... and it works. Ever heard of malware in the wild with a non-jailbroken iOS device? So far, none exists.

      2: Most smartphone users would stare at a root prompt and have zero clue what to do. They might just allow any app that asks for root have it, because they have zero clue about how UNIX, Linux, and Android work.

      3: Smartphone makers want to sell phones. Stop upgrading the OS, and people will toss their phones on the spot and run to the nearest store, line up, and pay for new ones, no questions asked. By blocking unofficial updates, it ensures that once updates stop, customers come back to buy new devices.

      I personally am tired of it myself. This is why I wind up buying either HTC phones (because they have the ability to use a SD card, and a bootloader unlock), or Google Nexus line phones. This way, even when official updates stop, I can always use a custom ROM, or a CM nightly.

      It sucks, but with smartphones, it has always been like this. I had to SIM and CID unlock my HTC Wizard back in 2006 so I could install a more recent WM rev that supported encryption.

    6. Re:Feature Request by Chalnoth · · Score: 1

      Yes, per-permission settings are the new way to do app permissions in M. They prompt for the permission when the app needs it, so it's much more clear what the permission is used for. In settings, you can view all of the permissions for an app, or all of the apps that have requested a specific permission.

      I'm not sure how well this feature will work with current apps. It will be interesting to see. But it sounds to me like a really positive development.

    7. Re:Feature Request by Chalnoth · · Score: 1

      Huh? Apple doesn't disable sideloading. If they did, it would be impossible for anybody to develop mobile iOS apps, or test apps for other developers. I have a few sideloaded apps on my iPhone right now.

      I think you're fundamentally misunderstanding the malware problem with iOS/Android. It really isn't an issue with sideloading, as far too few people take the time to do that sort of thing. What it is is a problem with apps in the official stores that do things the user doesn't expect, such as record and report their personal information. The improved permission scheme in Android M should make this a bit harder, as most malware will have to have a reason the user understands for a specific permission.

      I think the bigger reason that iOS has less of a problem here is that Apple has a much more stringent system for getting apps onto the app store than Google does.

    8. Re:Feature Request by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's kind of a "fuck you" to the user that it is not standard.

      That it is.

    9. Re:Feature Request by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      iOS also places many more limits on data available to apps. For example, apps on iOS cannot read text messages. On Android, apps can, and I know of apps that send verification codes via SMS that read incoming texts and automatically verify the user.

    10. Re:Feature Request by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      That way, some generic fleshlight app that asks for everything under the sun including root will be able to fetch data

      There's an app for that now?

      A) Where do I download it?

      B) Does it need any, er, "peripherals"?

      C) What's the best way to clean cum off a phone?

      Or was it just a Freudian slip?

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  8. App permissions by hankwang · · Score: 1

    "Feature request: manually set app permissions please."

    From TFA: "You don't have to agree to permission that don't make sense to you. Now, apps will ask when you first start them which device functions they want access to. You can pick and choose on a per-app basis what is permissible."

    It's about time...

    --
    Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
    1. Re:App permissions by hankwang · · Score: 1

      Oh wait, it was TFA of the next article on the front page... My bad.

      --
      Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
  9. Operating system feature by MobyDisk · · Score: 1

    Why does stuff like this require an operating system update? It seems like that is the case for everything in Android: Bluetooth low-energy, usb on-the-go, MIDI, ...

    1. Re:Operating system feature by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      Funny that. Updating stuff that the OS does requires updating the OS. Who knew?

    2. Re:Operating system feature by MobyDisk · · Score: 1

      Other OS's have a concept of "drivers" that allow you to support new devices without the OS manufacturer updating the OS. With Android, it seems like every little feature requires a new kernel.

  10. It is also still what computer music uses by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 1

    If you compose music on a computer, you almost certainly still do it with MIDI. All the new highly advanced synths and samplers still use MIDI as their input for data. Everything from big dollar stuff like Native Instruments Komplete down to freeware. MIDI goes in, sound comes out.

    In some ways it surprises me since you'd think they would get around to improving it (there are some things MIDI leaves to be desired) but on the other hand it does work well for nearly everything and there's something to be said about keeping things standard. You can literally take one of those old General MIDI songs and feed the data in to a modern sampler. I do just that all the time to remake old game soundtracks because I enjoy it.

  11. MIDI? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My only experience with MIDI is playing .mid files in Windows 3.1 and Windows 95.

  12. 10 millisecond problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "music and media creation apps are much more prevalent in iOS than they are in Android"

    The issue is that Android is not fast enough for live audio, the latency is too high. It is not that developers don't want to support Android, to date they simply can't. Perhaps this is finally a fix. Here is more info on the issue.

    https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3434

    1. Re:10 millisecond problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thats from 09, supposedly in the lollipop update they made huge steps forward in reducing latency

  13. Technology by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

    I'm waiting for something to come out that supports 'cassette'.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
  14. So will Android M... by unixisc · · Score: 1

    ... enable my car stereo system to control the songs that are played from my Android M device? Just like it can play any iPod/iPhone/iPad? That would be the only selling point for me as far as music goes. Right now, while driving, I can skip songs just from the button on my steering wheel (it's a Subaru Crosstrek) while playing songs from my iPad. I can't do that for my Android devices even if they're connected to the stereo system via Bluetooth.

    1. Re:So will Android M... by virtual_mps · · Score: 1

      That's your car's fault, not your phone's. The manufacturers lock into a particular proprietary technology and then you're stuck. FWIW, you'd be stuck with a idevice also as apple updates their interface spec.

      What cars really need is a more abstract vendor-neutral interface. (Like a universally implemented USB HID class coupled with a video interface.) Then we wouldn't be stuck with whatever the manufacturer thought was neat 5 years ago.

    2. Re:So will Android M... by jrumney · · Score: 1

      I don't think Android M is going to fix your car stereo. It's not Google's fault that Subaru chose to support Apple's proprietary protocol and ignore the relatively open MTP, or Bluetooth AVRCP, either of which can control most Android phones.

  15. Masse Storage Device still not back. by jcdr · · Score: 1

    This was the most simple and useful USB function and there removed it. It allowed to play with any computers, TVs, or printers with high speed. Compared to MSD, the "new" protocols are slow and poorly supported.

    There removed MSD for the wrong reasons as there is technical solution to provides a snapshot of the internal filesystem as a external view to avoid corruption.The btrfs filesystem support snapshot for example and a gateway could translate the resulting snapshot view in a other filesystem format like FAT32.

  16. Xenharmonism by xororand · · Score: 1

    The most urgent deficiency in most music software and the MIDI protocol itself is the fixation on the 12-TET scale.
    The new MIDI HD protocol fixes this issue with its "Direct Pitch" feature that lets you define arbitrary notes.
    However most composing software still offers no practical way to edit music in other scales.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    It's time for music to evolve. The grim reality however is that popular music has been getting more bland for the last 50 years:
    http://www.nature.com/srep/201...

  17. MIDI is alive and well and hiding in plain sight. by jazzdude00021 · · Score: 1

    Yes, I've read the comments that say "MIDI, what is this 1980-something?" But as a Music Teacher/ Musician that also does theater sound and lights MIDI still has many currently used applications. Sure, MIDI began as a way to listen to music on a computer, back when a few KB was a lot of memory. However, MIDI also has the ability to clock-sync devices for synchronous playback. So if you are at your favorite band's show and the music and the lights just seem to time out perfectly, they probably do because somewhere a MIDI device (or long chain thereof) is keeping the lights and sound in synch. And this is a complex example. Even cheap DJ equipment can use MIDI singals to control lighting.

    The second major area MIDI is used is in Sheet Music Creation and Playback Software. MIDI provides a background framework for playback of files in software like Finale, Sibelius, MuseScore, etc. MIDI defines the duration, volume and pitch of a note and the software uses high quality sound samples for playback. Furthermore, in the educational sphere, a teacher can write out an exercise for the student to play. The software records the student playing and sends it back to the teacher. But if the student wants to listen to the exercise played by the software, it's going to need a MIDI capable audio system to do so.

    tl;dr: MIDI was once used for consumer audio distribution, however the protocol evolved in several important ways making it the backbone of virtually all comupter audio creation systems in use today. The cheesy synth sounds are (mostly) gone, but the protocol lives on behind the scenes. If you've ever been to a live musical event where computers were used in some way, odds are MIDI was the protocol keeping it together.

  18. There are reasons for 12-TET by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 1

    It is a good balance between getting a good 3rd, 4th and 5th and not getting too complex. You have to go to 29-TET before you get a better perfect 5th and 41-TET to get a better major 3rd. Gets a little complex musically to represent and deal with all that, not to mention design instruments that can play it back.

    So remember that ultimately music is all math, and as such some things do end up being "better" than others musically. I'm not saying we shouldn't have the capabilities to use other scales, I mean computers are more or less unbounded in their capabilities and samplers can microtune to any required setup, but 12-TET has a reason for its prevalence.

  19. Android audio apps by cleepa · · Score: 1

    The problem for android audio is not the lack of MIDI. It is the horrendous latency problem Android devices often have. To feel responsive when being used for live performance, the delay between user input and audio output should be less than 20ms. But as you can see here http://superpowered.com/latenc... a lot of Android devices don't meet that.