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Apple Adds Support For FLAC Lossless Audio In iOS 11 (thenextweb.com)
Reddit users who have installed copies of the developer beta of iOS 11 are reporting that Apple has finally added support for lossless FLAC audio files in their new mobile operating system. The Next Web reports: The functionality was first spotted on an iPhone 6S Plus running iOS 11 Beta 1 and is reportedly available as part of the newly announced file-management app, Files. Up until now, Apple had deliberately opted to ignore offering playback support for FLAC files in both iTunes and iOS -- though there are numerous third-party apps to do the trick. But it appears things are finally about to change.
The marketing department finally realized flac support would be a great way to sell larger phone storage.
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Apple, surfing the first waves of innovation.
Not only does Apple offer their own, inferior, incompatible format in preference to the industry standard, they also pretend the latter doesn't exist. Apple Lossless has St. Jobs' magical pee all over.
Because airplanes can't cope with flak.
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audio through the lightning port to your car for example or the lightning port headphones that come with the phone
oh theres always the lighting to headphone jack adapter that comes with the phone as well...
whats the point eh?
When connected to an appropriate DAC or headphone connector, the lightning connector delivers raw uncompressed digital audio. You're not just limited to Bluetooth. Also, IIRC, airplay will generally deliver the audio in its native format over wireless, so there's that as well.
...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
All new iPhones will have to deal bluetooth compression anyway. Maybe I am simply ignorant
You're simply ignorant ;)
The (included) headphone dongle moved the DAC and amplifier outside of the phone case - but it's still there (and necessary). So you can still get uncompressed audio that way.
You can also connect the phone via USB to most DAC devices and play the raw bitstream directly. I do that in both of my cars, and have something similar for my HiFi system at home.
-- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
Cant wait, Fuck what the Tards haters think.
Digital output via the Lightning port (presumably there will be Lightning->USB-C audio out adapters)?
Streaming audio to Homepod or other network devices?
Lossless audio is a pretty niche thing to start with... Hell, having actual audio files on your device (instead of spotify / apple music cloud / pandora / whatever) is becoming a niche activity.
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There is a teeny (yet startlingly high-quality) DAC in the adapter. The lightning port is digital-only. (Source)
Unlike porn, which yada yada rimshot hey-ooh!
The bigger story is iOS 11 will only take pictures and video in the patented crap format, no more mp4 or jpeg.
Apple. Designed in Cupertino by H1B Slaves. Built in China by slaves.
Apple devices are notoriously anaemic in the storage capability area anyway. Why would you want to have FLAC support? I Can just see the advertizing:
Our newest most wonderfullest iPod -- holds 4 HiRes FLAC tracks
Our new Sooperstorage iPod -- holds 7 FLAC HiRes tracks
iThings are designed only to contain LR-CATRS format files. They do not have the (a) storage or (b) capability to support anything else.
*LR-CATRS == LoRes Compressed All To Rat Shit
Pffft!
I am not sure what the point of this is. There is no headphone jack to deliver analog audio. All new iPhones will have to deal bluetooth compression anyway. Maybe I am simply ignorant, but this seems like a "innovation" without a point.
AirPods, when paired to a device capable of AAC, use AAC, not that horrid CODEC that "Bluetooth Audio" uses.
Not quite lossless; but a damn sight better than what you are alleging.
It only took 7 years over Android, not bad.
If this only works for bare FLAC, then this is still kinda nice.
But if it works for Ogg FLAC, then this is a watershed moment, because Apple has been dragging their feet on everything related to the Ogg container etc ever since iTunes and the iPod appeared, and even though Microsoft is adding VP9 etc support they too are still dragging their feet on Ogg.
Support for the Ogg container could signal willingness to start supporting other open formats. If Safari added Opus support it would be a real boon.
It does measure worse than previous generations: https://www.heise.de/ct/artikel/iPhone-7-nachgemessen-Audio-Adapter-liefert-schlechteren-Sound-3325932.html
"Lossless audio is a pretty niche thing to start with... Hell, having actual audio files on your device (instead of spotify / apple music cloud / pandora / whatever) is becoming a niche activity."
Apple bought Beats right? In comparison this actually makes sense. Me? I'll keep using crummy MP3s.
Using AAC over Bluetooth is a capability of the Bluetooth Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) and not just limited to Apple devices.
Of course it's not well publicised so good luck telling which codec your Bluetooth devices are actually using.
I am not sure what the point of this is.
A lot of the replies here spectacularly miss the point. All this talk about technical benefits and capabilities of attaching DACs to iDevices to bypass bluetooth compression is completely irrelevant to why you would want to add FLAC support to the phone. It's simple:
I don't want to have to transcode formats to take them on the go. I have FLACs somewhere in my house, I want to be able to copy them to my phone and go. I don't want to guess or pick a suitable format. Just copy and play. Quality is irrelevant to the ability to play back a file at all.
This is the reason I stopped supporting mini-discs. Even in the USB audio player days they still insisted on transcoding which meant that not only was the copy to the disc slow, but my entire computer was too for the duration of the copy.
Using AAC over Bluetooth is a capability of the Bluetooth Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) and not just limited to Apple devices.
Of course it's not well publicised so good luck telling which codec your Bluetooth devices are actually using.
I know it isn't "Just Apple". I don't think I ever said it was.
The teensy dongle Apple is definitely worse than when the DAC/AMP was built-in -- The SNR is about 5 dB worse for both 16 and 24-bit recordings, and the THD is doubled.
Since loudness (dB) is a log scale -- it works out to 0.05% more noise, and THD moves from 0.001% to 0.002%.
To put that in perspective, you'd be getting noise that's even quieter than breathing, while the signal is as loud as a jackhammer.
And that's assuming you're in a silent, anechoic room. A quiet room in a house will be at least twice as loud as the noise from the dongle...
-- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
The purpose of FLAC isn't audiophilism. The purpose is archival. With FLAC, you archvie your cd collection once, and then you have a master copy forever. From that permanent archive, you can make as many different lossy copies as you need, whenever you want, to any format you want, while leaving the originals untouched.
THAT is the purpose of FLAC: to put an exact original copy of your cd collection on your computer. Lossy compression formats simply can't do that -- their purpose is portability.