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27 votes
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TikTok reaches deal to partner with Oracle, rejects Microsoft's plan
22 votes -
Is high-fidelity audio a genuine product or unnecessary overkill?
Note: if this topic is better served in ~music than ~tech feel free to move it! If I wanted to buy Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns, I have the following options: From Amazon 256 kbps VBR MP3...
Note: if this topic is better served in ~music than ~tech feel free to move it!
If I wanted to buy Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns, I have the following options:
From Amazon
- 256 kbps VBR MP3 ($11.49)
From 7digital
- 320 kbps MP3 + 256 kbps MP3 ($12.99) (I'm assuming it's 320 CBR/256 VBR)
- 16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC ($16.49)
From HDTracks
- 24-bit/48kHz FLAC ($19.98)
From Qobuz, which appears to be a different mastering of the album:
- "CD Quality" FLAC ($14.49)
- 24-bit/48kHz FLAC ($16.49)
- 24-bit/48kHz FLAC ($10.99 with subscription to their $250/year service)
Does paying more for the higher fidelity actually matter? I suspect that this is just a form of price discrimination preying on my want to have an "objectively" better product, because I'm assuming there's a ceiling for audio quality that I can actually notice and the lowest encoding available here probably hits that. I also don't have any special listening hardware.
I understand the value of FLAC as a lossless archival encoding (I used to rip all my CDs to FLAC for this purpose, and I've been downloading my Bandcamp purchases in FLAC all the same), but for albums I can't get through that service it appears that the format has a high premium put on it. Bandcamp lets me pay the same price no matter the format, but every other store seems to stratify out their offerings based on encoding alone. A Thousand Suns costs nearly double on HDTracks what it does on Amazon's MP3 store, for example, despite the fact that I'm getting the exact same music, just compressed in a different way.
As such, is paying more for FLAC unnecessary? Is high-fidelity FLAC in particular (the 24-bit/48kHz options) snake oil?
Furthermore, Qobuz seems to offer a different mastering of the album, which seems like it actually could be significant, but it's hard to know. Is this (and the various other "remasters" out there) a valid thing, or is it just a way to try to get me to pay more unnecessarily?
(Note: I'm using this specific album simply because it was a good example I could find with lots of different stratified options -- I'm not interested in the particulars of this album specifically but more in the general idea of audio compression across all music).
21 votes -
What the internet could be
18 votes -
Why the orange sky looks gray in some photos
7 votes -
Changes to Apple's in-app purchase rules
11 votes -
Analysis of UK charity websites finds that tracking is prevalent, with almost all of the most popular charities including trackers for advertising or data brokers and failing to comply with GDPR/PECR
8 votes -
Apple has given Epic Games an indefinite extension for their use of Apple's SSO
@Epic Games Store: UPDATE: Apple previously stated they would terminate "Sign In with Apple" support for Epic Games accounts after Sept 11, 2020, but today provided an indefinite extension. We still recommend you prepare your accounts now for "Sign In with Apple" removal. https://t.co/hUDCKcajGo
10 votes -
C++20 approved, C++23 meetings and schedule update
11 votes -
Apple disabling 'Sign in with Apple' for Epic Games on September 11
18 votes -
Innovation Lab showcases the construction industry’s tech future. Or to get to the point: A robot dog
4 votes -
Human rights and "technical protection measures" (DRM) - Lessons from twenty-two years of the US DMCA
9 votes -
A robot wrote this entire article. Are you scared yet, human?
21 votes -
Sometimes, developers find it hard to work with content creators, so here are some tips to help the collaboration along
4 votes -
Masnick's Impossibility Theorem: Content moderation at scale is impossible to do well
22 votes -
Android 11 starts rolling out today with improvements to notifications, privacy, 5G, and more
9 votes -
Is there a Google-free future for Firefox?
27 votes -
Windows 10 Ameliorated review
13 votes -
Vid2Player: Controllable video sprites that behave and appear like professional tennis players
8 votes -
My startup (Buderflys) has made it to the semi-finals of Denver Startup week. Any chance you would vote for us?
8 votes -
Amazon Alexa for Residential will let the voice assistant power apartment complexes
15 votes -
Does Google know me better than I know myself?
5 votes -
Auto industry TV ads claim right-to-repair laws would benefit "sexual predators"
18 votes -
Digital pregnancy tests just contain a regular paper strip test and the battery, microcontroller, LEDs, photodiodes, screen, etc. are all to read whether it shows one line or two
16 votes -
Unstaffed, digital supermarkets transform rural Sweden – Lifvs start-up has opened nineteen stores across the country, choosing remote places that have lost their local shops
15 votes -
Inside Amazon’s secret program to spy on workers’ private Facebook groups
7 votes -
RIP Jack Rickard, founder of Boardwatch magazine
6 votes -
Online voting is much more difficult to do securely, and a fundamental problem with the concept is that most voters won't be able to understand whether it's secure or not
21 votes -
The use of Snap packages in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is hurting usability and user-friendliness
9 votes -
Amazon deletes 20,000 product reviews written by seven of its top ten UK reviewers after a Financial Times investigation found they were written for profit
18 votes -
ThinkPad X1 Carbon with Fedora preloaded available for purchase
22 votes -
A secure operating system
11 votes -
Malware in the wild using DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) to pull payload
8 votes -
Winamp in 2020 (Webamp Electron app)
13 votes -
Apple delays "asking permission to track" privacy feature in iOS 14, releases more information about upcoming privacy updates
12 votes -
Telegrass and the next generation of digital black markets - Telegram-based services are facilitating much of the drug sales in Ukraine, Israel, and other countries
13 votes -
US indictments and raids of piracy group members in "The Scene" throw top-tier piracy world into chaos
28 votes -
The pandemic is no excuse to surveil students
9 votes -
Community contributions such as user made subtitles will be deactivated
11 votes -
4K screen on 15" laptop - worth it?
Pricing up my next Thinkpad (I'm a lifer for Thinkpads I think now) and I keep hovering over the 4K screen option. I'm looking at a 15.6" screen. The FHD 14" screen I currently have is lovely and...
Pricing up my next Thinkpad (I'm a lifer for Thinkpads I think now) and I keep hovering over the 4K screen option. I'm looking at a 15.6" screen. The FHD 14" screen I currently have is lovely and sharp with a decent colour gamut, and I don't think I can see pixels, even now when the machine is literally on my lap. I'd guess the screen is maybe 35cm from my eyes at the moment.
I don't really game, I do edit photos, video (HD, not 4K) and do a little 3D work with Blender/FreeCAD/etc. I usually run Debian/Gnome, occasionally dropping into Windows because my 3D printer's preferred slicing software is Windows only (grrrr).
The other bonus to 4K is HDR400 and twice as many nits of brightness but again, I'm not sure that's worth an extra £250. I'd probably turn the brightness down anyway. The HDR is potentially interesting but as I don't watch TV/movies on this machine and my camera doesn't output HDR, that's likely not very useful despite sounding good. I could buy quite a lot more compute power and ram with that money instead..
I would go and look at one in person but I have no idea where the nearest 4K Thinkpad is, in person, and even if I did, I don't really want to go into shops right now.
Any thoughts, experiences, advice, etc would be much appreciated.
9 votes -
Japanese convenience store chain begins testing remote controlled robot staff in Tokyo
6 votes -
Apple showing signs it may soon launch a search engine to compete against Google Search
26 votes -
Ceasefire, the site started last year by /r/ChangeMyView moderators, will shut down in a few months unless it reaches at least $1500/month on Patreon
22 votes -
Technology has been promising the dream of a cocooned future, and our pandemic isolation is giving us the rare opportunity to see where this road leads
12 votes -
India bans PUBG, Baidu, WeChat, Alipay, and 114 Chinese apps in the third ban wave
20 votes -
NVIDIA announces Ampere-based RTX 30 series GPUs
19 votes -
Content moderation best practices for startups
3 votes -
Leaked salary spreadsheet reveals Microsoft employee earnings for a second year
10 votes -
Google proposes new village next to Mountain View tech hubs
5 votes -
Facebook announces that if Australia's proposed News Media Bargaining Code becomes law, they will no longer allow Australians to share any news on Facebook or Instagram
21 votes