Why I Am Buying an Apple Watch

I have spoken about the Apple Watch at length with professionals in and outside of my field who I would consider power users. These are people who own a Mac, iPad, and iPhone, and use them to their fullest potential. I am a little surprised that most are not interested the device, viewing it as a gadget and fashion accessory more than a professional tool. Now I know that Apple Watch is intended to be just as much a fashion accessory as it is a piece of technology so I will not argue against that cause. But I see a utility in this device beyond its novelty and “hot” factor.

Most of what I think about the subject has already been said better here. Still, I will have a go at explaining my enthusiasm and why I, for the first time, will be early adopting an Apple Product.

the Apple Watch will save time

Most of my app purchases and tech ventures center around saving clicks, frustration, and most importantly, time. If there’s an app that will make me do even the tiniest little task faster, I buy it, and I adopt it fast. The Apple Watch will cut corners in so many tiny little ways by allowing me to interact with my data without taking a phone out of my pocket. Answering quick phone calls from my wrist. Dictating responses to text messages. Seeing what calendar appointments are up next at a glance. Seeing my OmniFocus tasks that are due today. Taking quick notes through voice. I don’t underestimate the time I spend fiddling around with devices throughout the day just to make simple interactions with common apps like email, calendar, and reminders.

the Apple Watch will make some apps BETTER

Ever realize that certain apps seem made for the iPhone, some for the iPad, and some for the Mac? Sure, I love all three, but reading scores on my iPad is a richer experience than it is on a iPhone. Checking my Twitter feed is a more focused and mobile experience on an iPhone than it is an iPad. Creating documents and recording music is still faster and more powerful on Mac than it is an iPad. What apps will be better on a watch?

I have owned a Pebble smart watch since their launch two years ago, and aside from the notifications I get on my wrist, one of my absolute favorite apps for it is a metronome. Metronomes do not need to be too complicated. Some simple tempo and playback controls are all you need. The nature of metronomes as often being a quick reference tool really lend themselves towards a small and convenient screen that is always on you. I sincerely hope that the folks over at Frozen Ape are on top of this. Their app, Tempo, has always been my go to metronome on iOS. The Apple Watch uses haptic feedback to send signals to your wrist. Imagine a metronome app that could discretely give you the tempo without vibrating or making a sound.

Other music apps that would be great on a watch come to mind. Tuners and remote controls for audio software to name a few. The sky is the limit.

not just for business

Of course, I am leaving out the fact that the Apple Watch also comes equipped with compelling hardware and software features outside of productivity. I am looking forward to tracking my bike rides with Strava, checking my bank balance with Mint, turning off and on the lights in my house with Philips Hue, and more, all from my wrist.

somehow I become an early adopter

I have always held out for second or third generation versions of Apple hardware. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have as much disposable income when the iPod, iPhone, and iPad launched. Maybe it’s because Apple really tends to knock their products out of the park the second or third time around. I admit, the Apple Watch would be a stronger sell if it were a little slimmer, had better battery life, and a better water proof rating. Still, I think the difference this time around is in the software. The iPhone was immediately compelling when it was announced, but it wasn’t the pocket computer we see it as today until after a few years, once it had 3G, the ability to take decent photographs, and an App Store. I feel like the Apple Watch is entering into a very different software ecosystem than the iPhone. The difference being that it is already highly developed, even before launch. Though the hardware is first gen, Apple already has tons of third party apps lined up to release with the watch on day one. The watch doesn’t seem to be missing features like the first iPhone. If anything, it could be criticized for doing too much and lacking focus. I am confident that it will not disappoint me as long as it works as advertised and lasts a day without requiring a charge.

which model?

I have not decided which model I will buy. I will need to walk into the store and check them out in person. Right now I am leaning towards the cheapest model, the Apple Watch Sport, with the intention of selling it down the road if it doesn’t work out. I would probably get the 42MM model in space grey with a black sport band, adding the purchase of the blue leather loop band for more formal situations. Though pricey, the steel Apple Watch is also tempting. You can see all of the models and configurations here.

🔗 Highnote: Tempo And Key Control For Your Music

Highnote is an excellent little app for iOS that allows you to change the tempo and key of the music in your library. Like all Mac and iOS apps that require access to your device’s music library, it can only work with audio files that are locally downloaded. My iTunes Match subscription allows me to stream my iTunes library from multiple Macs and iDevices without the files occupying any space. Other apps cannot access songs in the cloud unless they are also downloaded to the device. This is a disappointment of mine that I wish Apple would address. While it is a drag to have to go into the Music app and download songs before use, Highnote is still a great little utility for slowing down, speeding up, or changing the key of the songs in your music library, tasks I typically associate with doing on a desktop computer.

For $1.99, it is worth checking out. And they’ve already announced an Apple Watch app! Good for them, though I’m not sure I will be needing to use these tools on my wrist.

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🗒 Session notes for "Going Paperless with iPad." MMEA, February 20, 2015

Click here to see the live notes to my session, “Going Paperless with iPad.” This is a living document. Any updates or additions I make to the document will automatically be pushed to your device.

The notes are a a direct copy of the outline I used to create the presentation with the following additions:

• Highlights describing which apps are free, paid, and “freemium”

• Links to download and learn more about apps

• Additional comments about each section

If there is something you would like to see added to the notes, please let me know at robby@robbyburns.com

🗒 Session notes for "Going Paperless with iPad"

Click here to see the live notes to my session, “Going Paperless with iPad.”

This is a living document. Any updates or additions I make to the document will automatically be pushed to your device.

The notes are a a direct copy of the outline I used to create the presentation with the following additions:

• Highlights describing which apps are free, paid, and “freemium”

• Links to download and learn more about apps

• Additional comments about each section

If there is something you would like to see added to the notes, please let me know at robby@robbyburns.com

Avid announces a Sibelius-based cloud technology for publishers

Click here to read “Avid announces a Sibelius-based cloud technology for publishers” on the Sibelius Blog.

According to the release, the technology is called Sibelius | Cloud Publishing. Avid says that the new technology is based on Avid Everywhere and built upon the Avid MediaCentral Platform.

The service is targeted at music publishers. One of the main differences between Sibelius | Cloud Publishing and current technology based on the Scorch browser plug-in appear to be that, in fact, installation of a browser plug-in is not required in order for visitors to experience and purchase the music.

Wow! This is both deeply exciting and disappointing at the same time.

I have long awaited the time that my professional creative software begins to move to the cloud. It was a smaller but important step for productivity software like Microsoft Office, iWork, and Google Docs. And that software is still experiencing growing pains [1]. I knew it would take longer for video, audio, and photo editing software to move to the cloud given the complexity of such software, the size of the media they manage, and the fact that it would just really need to work consistently for professionals to depend on it.

My major disappointment is that all of the cloud features Avid is adding are intended for online playback and publishing, not for collaboration or storage. I can appreciate that they have a certain focus on how they see cloud technology influencing notation software, but isn’t it possible to have two or more collaborating on the same Sibelius file at the same time with the current technologies available? If Avid’s Pro Tools is gaining the ability to collaborate on the same audio project in real time with multiple people all over the world [2], how is it not possible to collaborate on a score?

It also seems that Avid doesn’t consider the ability to store scores in the cloud or edit them on tablets to be important. The latter I can appreciate. It is certainly their choice to envision what platforms the most powerful of score editing features are designated too. But I feel that the Avid Scorch app for iPad could at least allow the user to do minor editing on the go, like for example, move a few pitches around the staff. The Notion app for iPad is doing a great job fitting score editing features on the iPad's screen size while managing a pretty clean user interface in the process.

The Scorch app for iPad should at least be able to access documents from services like Dropbox and Google Drive. iOS now offers developers the ability put a document picker in their apps so that users can access files from anywhere, not just those stored in the app. See my post here for more details about how this works.

Maybe at least Scorch for iPad will get an update. It hasn’t received any new features for years and still looks like it belongs on iOS 6.

Perhaps I am short sighted because I am not actively composing and publishing my own work. These future updates could really take away the friction of sales and distribution for freelance composers. But I had hoped for a lot more.

1. I exclude Google Drive from this statement. Their software is extremely mature, particularly with regards to it’s consistently, collaborative features, and availability on all platforms. ↩

2. See it in action here --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pz_6ZIy2To ↩

Presenting "Going Paperless with iPad" at MMEA and OMEA Conferences Next Month

I will be presenting a new session of mine, Going Paperless with iPad, at the Ohio Music Educators Association conference on February 6th and at the Maryland Music Educators Association conference on February 20th.

If you will be attending either of these two conferences, I hope to see you there.

Here is a short description of the session:

Learn how to move your organization, planning, and paperwork to the digital world through the use of apps, cloud services, and connected devices. The iPad, with it’s convenient form factor and modern software, becomes the hub for consuming and interacting with all of your work.

Here is a longer description of the session:

Most teachers feel overwhelmed by organization, planning, and paperwork to the point that actual classroom instruction seems a tiny part of the job. In this session, I will detail my strategies for achieving a paperless workflow, where work is digitized, easily accessible, and manipulated through an iPad. The session will primarily focus on capturing, organizing, and consuming. More specific points of discussion will include: transforming physical documents to digital, PDF management, file organization, searching, cloud drive organization, tagging best practices, file backup, grading, automating, task management, calendar tips, iPad as a creation vs. consumption device, iPad as computer replacement, working with the limitations of file management on iOS, and more.

The session will emphasize how a desktop plays a unique role in the capturing and organization of data. Some software specific to the Mac will be referenced, but a Windows PC is completely suitable for taking advantage of the major points in the session.

To ensure that the session details the most powerful tools available, the session will include discussion of paid software and hardware, particularly premium apps and scanners.

Audio Hijack 3

Click here to learn more about Audio Hijack 3 I have only spent a little bit of time with this app and I already know it is going to solve countless tiny little problems with managing audio on my Mac. Audio Hijack lets you create custom “sessions” for performing what seems like an infinite number of possible actions for managing audio. In the picture below, you can see a few of these quickly accessible presets. One of them is set up to record the audio of my web browser, another to give the volume of my laptop speakers a boost, and the final one to record my microphone input and the other end of a Skype conversation (perfect for podcasting).

Save quickly accessible presets audio recording and management.

Audio Hijack in action, recording the audio of a video I am watching on the web.

Audio Hijack makes it easy to manage the audio you record from these sessions by organizing them in one, easy to find, place.

Audio Hijack Recordings.

You can even set timers for Audio Hijack to turn on and carry out operations by itself. Perfect for recording live screencasts while you are away from your computer.

Audio Hijack Schedule.

It is clear to me that this will prove an instantly useful utility for managing multiple inputs and outputs on my computer in a simple and hassle free way. These are just the features that are a click away. Check out the link above to see more of what it can do.

🔗 Paul Lansky's Three Moves performed by Jonny Allen

Never seen anyone make this piece look so easy before. http://youtu.be/DTliXQ0GxB0

🔗 Marco Arment sums up my largest concerns about Apple

Marco Arment sums up my largest concerns about Apple in his recent post, Apple has lost the functional high ground.

Below I have quoted a few highlights (but read the whole thing yourself, it is very short).

Apple’s hardware today is amazing — it has never been better. But the software quality has taken such a nosedive in the last few years that I’m deeply concerned for its future. I’m typing this on a computer whose existence I didn’t even think would be possible yet, but it runs an OS riddled with embarrassing bugs and fundamental regressions. Just a few years ago, we would have relentlessly made fun of Windows users for these same bugs on their inferior OS, but we can’t talk anymore.

And also…

I suspect the rapid decline of Apple’s software is a sign that marketing is too high a priority at Apple today: having major new releases every year is clearly impossible for the engineering teams to keep up with while maintaining quality. Maybe it’s an engineering problem, but I suspect not — I doubt that any cohesive engineering team could keep up with these demands and maintain significantly higher quality.

I could not agree more.

In-App Audio Apps (Part II)

iOS 7’s new Inter-App Audio introduces universal audio routing between apps | 9to5Mac

Following WWDC this week Apple’s redesign of iOS 7 and Mavericks have been getting the majority of attention, and rightfully so, but there are a few new big features coming in iOS 7 that haven’t been discussed. This morning we told you about the new MFi Game Controller framework that will make using hardware game controllers a lot smoother in iOS 7, but another important new feature in the update is inter-app audio.

I found this after publishing my post on the subject yesterday. I am surprised to learn Inter-App Audio has been a feature on iOS since version 7. While this disrupts the context in which I set up the feature in my post yesterday (by explaining iOS 8 extensions), it confirms how quietly Apple added it. Judging from the picture in the linked article, it was announced at WWDC in 2013, but only in small text on a single slide of the presentation.

Apparently the feature was possible to achieve even earlier than 2013 using the app Audiobus.

I mistakenly attributed this feature to iOS 8 extensions yesterday due to “Inter-App Audio Apps” bearing a similar language to Apple’s documentation on the subject. They have certainly been quiet about the feature. I found a list of supported apps here. Given the size of this list, I stand by my statement that it is a shame we haven’t seen a truly great audio editor for iPad yet. Clearly the big players like Avid see software like Pro Tools as unsuitable for mobile devices. Apple’s own pro audio editor, Logic, has an iPad app, but it is just a remote for controlling elements of the Mac version.