Tile Community Find Feature is Pretty Cool

For those who don’t know about it, Tile is a brand of small connected devices that can keep track of your belongings. They are thinner than cardboard and can attach to your key chain or fit in your wallet. Through a mobile app, your phone can stay connected to them over Bluetooth and help you track where they are on a map wherever they were last connected to the internet. I keep one of these in my backpack and one of them in my wallet.

I was in a coffee shop in Denver last week when I got a notification from the app telling me that my Tile had just helped someone else track their Tile. I was curious, so I Googled the notification and found out more about the feature...

Tile Community Find:

If you placed a Tile in your bag before you misplaced it, every phone in the community can help you search. Just select “Notify When Found,” and we will! As soon as someone running the Tile app comes within range of your bag, we’ll send you its location. Use your phone to guide you to the exact spot your bag ended up.

I’ve got to say, this is pretty neat. I love the idea, and its one of those things that just works. My favorite features of apps are the ones that solve a problem for me that I didn’t even know I had in the first place. It is not unlike when Google and Apple maps started telling me how far I was from my next location in my calendar, and how long it would take for me to drive there. 

Tiles are really useful, and they make great stocking stuffers around the holiday season (that is how I received my first Tile).

Music Theory Interview: Jacob Collier

Feast your eyes and ears on this awesome music theory interview with Jacob Collier (the 12 minutes go by very fast). Collier talks about microtonal voice leading, negative harmony, and how he uses the circle of fifths to lighten and darken his chord progressions. He demonstrates perfect pitch numerous times by outlining complex extended chords and scales effortlessly. And someone has actually taken the time to notate what he is describing for the viewer to see in real time, along with a piano playing everything that he describes but doesn't sing. It's just incredible. 

Don't know who Jacob Collier is? Jacob Collier is one of those freak of nature musicians who, in his late teens/early twenties, was performing multiple instruments at an insane level, and producing YouTube covers with dense modern jazz vocal harmonies, grooving percussion, .....you know what, I am not going to explain it. Just watch these videos of his:

And you can check him out with Snarky Puppy here. 

Oh, and he can perform this stuff live too... 

Quick thoughts on the new 10.5 inch iPad

I walked into an Apple Store over the weekend and had a moment to play with the new 10.5 inch iPad Pros. 

OH MY GOODNESS. The hype is real. These devices are light, gorgeous, and powerful. The 120Hz refresh speed ruined me for all other screens in just the two or three minutes I played around with it. I think Apple has hit the sweet spot in size. I can actually see myself downsizing to this model when I purchase my next iPad. I use the 12.9 for sheet music right now and it is great. I usually end up flipping my iPad in landscape mode and running a score on one half of the screen and a note taking app on the other half during rehearsal. I tried this workflow on the 10.5 and it was actually legible from far away. Maybe I have good eyes. I really miss the hold-ability of the smaller sized iPads for things like reading. I will have some tough decisions to make in a few years when I assume I will have to upgrade my 12.9. Or maybe I should embrace the multi-pad lifestyle and use the larger one for scores and the smaller one for reading. If only forScore would sync a score library over iCloud...

Robert Sheldon conducts the Regional Repertory Wind Ensemble

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of working with Robert Sheldon as he conducted the Regional Repertory Wind Ensemble. The RRWE is a Maryland based honor band that I have assisted for the past seven years. Early each summer, the organization finds a composer/clinicain/educator to come in and direct the audition based group on a concert of their own compositions. Many conductors have worked with the group over the years, all of whom are master composers, educators, AND conductors. Sam Hazo, Frank Ticheli, Richard Saucedo, and Brian Balmages have all worked with the group.  

Working with Robert Sheldon is a real treat. His music finds a way of strongly connecting to the students. It is just so fun to play! I can hear and see how naturally they gravitate towards it in performance. One of the things I really admire about Sheldon is that he is a real instructor. His years of teaching experience have crafted him into someone who is really able to rehearse an ensemble, assess where the problems are, and immediately give just the right feedback to get the musical result he wants. And he gets these results without ever once raising his voice, putting a student on the spot, or diminishing their efforts. In every interaction he was complimentary, patient, and spoke deliberately. When he needed   students to step up, he would always find a way to make them feel great as a member of the ensemble before first offering a suggestion.  His manner of offering suggestions was much like  dangling a carrot just far enough in front of them that they would want to sit up a little straighter, put their instrument in playing position sooner, reach for the peak of the phrase, etc.

I witnessed expert music teaching this weekend. And for that I thank Mr. Sheldon for his involvement with the ensemble. 

New Tech! Using Square Register with Private Lessons

I just purchased a new piece of tech I am looking forward to integrating into my private studio next school year.

I teach about 20-25 private students outside of the normal teaching day. As my number of private students increases, my ability to manage scheduling and payment is stretched. For the past ten years, I have strongly preferred checks for payment. I finally decided that I do enough transactions a year to rationalize the purchase of a Square Stand.

The Square Stand is a register that you can stick an iPad into and run Square’s Register app. I have repurposed an iPad Air to live permanently in the Stand.

Right when students walk in the from door, they are greeted with a Square Register which they can use to swipe their credit card, or touch their phone or smartwatch to it to use Apple Pay/Android Pay/Samsung Pay. The app has all of my monthly and single lesson fees preprogrammed as “items” that someone can buy. When they pay, the money automatically goes into my bank account after a few days and they get emailed or texted a receipt.

I am not using this enough yet to write at length about my experiences but I thought I would share the idea here in the meantime.

What did Apple check off on my WWDC wishlist?

A few weeks ago, I detailed my wishlist for WWDC. Below, I have reposted it with what Apple actually announced. My assessment over whether or not a feature was announced is based on whether or not the feature was announced verbally during the keynote, not on a slide or later discovered within the OS.

MACOS

-News app to mirror the one on iOS NOPE

-improvements to pro apps (Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro X) and additions to the Photos app NOPE

-splitting iTunes up into separate apps like what is on iOS: separate app for Music, TV, Podcasts, and iTunes Store NOPE

IOS

-default apps (won't happen) NOPE

-serious overhaul of iPad productivity (better file system, better home screen, drag and drop, better multitasking, more control over audio ins and outs) YESX100

TVOS

-PiP NOPE

-Ability to watch TV content from two apps at once NOPE

-ability to command with Siri without the Remote app (for example, I want to say to my phone, “hey Siri watch Game of Thrones,” and have it turn on the TV, launch the HBO app and start the most recent episode) NOPE

-ability to sync all Apple TVs in the house so that they show the same video at once (for parties...also, this won't happen) NOPE

WATCHOS

-smart contexts: ability to change Watch face, complications, and notifications based on sensitivity to time and location CHECK, Siri watchface

-better audio controls (easier to access Now Playing screen, complications to play and pause audio, ability to scroll the crown for volume and use hardware buttons for control whenever audio has recently been playing) CHECK, sort of with swipe to audio controls within Workout app

GENERAL

-Siri improvements (more reliable, faster, more open to third party apps, better integration with tvOS, local dictation and basic commands CHECK

-AirPods with always listening Siri NOPE

-improvements to iCloud Drive (shared folders, files, and URLs) CHECK definitely to shared files, but not sure about others

Here are some of my favorite features that reddit users replied with:

-Multiple iOS user logins NOPE

-Hey Siri on Mac NOPE

-custom watch faces NOPE

-open CarPlay up to more developers (pasrticular third party maps apps and messenging apps) NOPE

-iOS dark mode NOPE

-Workflow integration NOPE

-Open up NFC to third party apps CHECK

-Apple Pay your friends and family over iMessage CHECK

-Apple Music continuity NOPE

Quick and Dirty Thoughts on the WWDC Keynote

Here are some quick and dirty thoughts I have on many of the announcements at Apple’s WWDC Keynote on Monday.

Apple TV

Disappointed we didn’t get any new features in tvOS. Maybe next year with the introduction of new Apple TV hardware. YAY for the announcement of an Amazon Prime app though.

watchOS

Not really impressed here. The main things I think Apple Watch struggles with are…

1. Access to audio controls

2. A more predictive, contextual, ability to show things on the watch face

As for 1, Apple did address this by making music controls a swipe away while running a workout in the Workout app. I was hoping for something a little bit more globally accessible. They accomplished 2 by introducing the Siri watch face. But for me, the Siri watch face is too much of a compromise because it can’t show any other complications on the screen at the same time.

I am also disappointed that they didn’t announce a Podcast app or Notes app.

macOS

No complaints here really. I wanted them to start the process of breaking iTunes down into smaller apps. Maybe at least breaking Apple Music into its own app and TV into its own app and leaving the rest of the things iTunes does inside the app known as iTunes. Really though, I am cool with Apple making slower and steadier updates to macOS. My Mac is the machine I depend on the most for work so I appreciate that Apple is focused on stability.

Hardware

The new iPads look great! I can see myself eventually buying the 10.5 size. I love my 12.9 inch for reading scores with the forScore app, but I really miss being able to hold it comfortably with one hand and also reading it in bed. Maybe the 10.5 inch will be the perfect compromise.

The iMac Pro looks fantastic. Its not a machine I am looking for right now though so I will just enjoy it from far away and appreciate that Apple still cares about the Mac and its professional users.

iOS Features for iPad

• Drag and drop: YES! Love it. Looks really well implemented too.

• Dock: YES! A great idea I did not expect.

• Files app: This is where I started to loose my mind. A native file browser with support for Google Drive and Dropbox is going to completely change the way I use my iPad! This might be my favorite announcement of the entire keynote.

• System wide markup. This is another one that is going to completely change the way I use my iPad.

• Notes app: Sooooo much good stuff here. In line drawing? AWESOME! Document scanner? AWESOME. Text searchable handwriting. YES! Bye Evernote.

… yeah. So this iPad stuff is going to be huge.

HomePod

Smart of Apple to position this device as competition against companies like Sonos instead of as competition for products like Google Home and Amazon Echo. The speaker ecosystem is something I really enjoy about having Sonos speakers but its lack of integration with my phone and music library is a constant hurdle. Something with good quality, that I can operate without using an extra app would be much more enjoyable. 

Will I buy one of these? It is really hard to see how this will play out. Amazon Echo and Sonos are working on some kind of integration. That could potentially keep me in that ecosystem, though the idea of selling the Sonos speakers and eventually replacing them with these Apple things has crossed my mind. It might be the kind of situation where I get one HomePod just to get a feel for it and then wait on additional purchases.

WWDC kicks off today!

It's WWDC keynote day. Christmas in June! (If you are a nerd like me) Tune in here  at 10 am PDT.

Travel Workflows

I recently took a trip to Rochester, NY to present at the New York State School Music Association conference. You can read more about that here.

This was a small trip, taking up only two school days in the middle of my week. My wife usually plans our family trips together and is quite good at navitating plane ticket deals, coordinating places to stay, and more. Though I have traveled solo before, this recent trip is the first time I felt like I really nailed it. This is mostly due to the organization I have been able to do through the use of software on my iPhone. This software has reduced so much time and stress that I thought it would be worth doing a post to share what I am using. Here are some of my workflows for traveling stress free...

Kayak for deals

My first step (and an important one if you want to book your flight tickets last minute like I did) is to shop for deals. For this trip I used Kayak to track down the cheapest flights but then I went to the website of the actual airline and searched for that flight number to see if I could find the tickets even cheaper. I will explain what I did with the boarding pass in a moment.

Travel apps

I keep a carefully curated homescreen of apps on my iPhone. I am always changing my layout which balances the apps I tap on to launch the most with which apps feel ergonomically correct to tap on in different places. For example, my productivity stuff is at the bottom, where I can reach it with my thumb more easily.

I keep two folders on my homescreen. One for health tracking apps and one for home automation apps since these folders have a lot of apps I am opening constantly. When I travel, I replace the home automation folder with a folder called travel. This folder contains all of the key apps I use on the go. Here are the apps that I am relying on the most.

My normal home screen.

Home screen with travel folder.

Contents of the travel folder.

Google Maps

I love Apple Maps for its deep integration with my Apple Watch and iOS. However, I do not always fully trust its data in new places. I keep Google Maps in this folder to get a second opinion when I am looking for a place I have never been before.

Find My Friends

This app is always in the travel folder, even when I am not out of town. It retains its placement of priority even when I am not at home.

Delta

Whatever airline I am flying on usually gets put here. Looking up information about my flight is much quicker this way.

Uber

I am in love with Uber. Rochester does not have Uber yet, but I usually use Uber to get around whatever city I am visiting. For this trip, I still used it to get rides to and from the airport. I never feel like I am breaking the bank to use it and the entire experience of getting a car only takes a few taps. Being able to choose my pick up location and destination, access drivers location and name, and pay all from within the same app is magical. You can even connect your Spotify account to Uber so that your own music is playing when you get picked up though I think talking to Uber drivers is way more interesting.

Wallet

Wallet is where I store all of my cards, passes, and tickets. Once I purchased my plane tickets from Delta, the iPhone app allowed me to clip my boarding passes into Wallet where I can see them alongside all of my other, previously paper, documents. When it is time for my flight (or when my phone detects I am at the airport) this pass stays permanently visible on my phone's lock screen. You can also double tap the home button from the lock screen to get to Wallet without even unlocking your iPhone. Now that I have an Apple Watch the boarding passes appear on my wrist where I can reference them at a glance (which I do repeatedly) and even scan to get on my plane without taking my phone out of my pocket.

The Wallet app.

A boarding pass in Wallet.

The images to the left show  what it looks like to interact with a Delta boarding pass on the Apple Watch. Access to the pass stays permanently visible by swiping down from the top of the screen when you are in the airport.

An Airbnb card in Wallet.

Airbnb

Like Uber, Airbnb has awoken me to the new shared economy. Staying in other people's homes is way cheaper, more comfortable, and interesting. The Airbnb app makes everything simple. Browsing for a place, communicating with the host, and payment all happen in the same place. Airbnb can also put a card it the Wallet app that allows you to see details about your stay at a glance.

Guidebook

Presenting at conferences that use Guidebook is a treat. Guidebook is an app that allows events like the one I recently attended to manage everything about their conferences. Maps, sessions, times, details, and member feedback all happen in this useful app. Needless to say, when I am in the convention center, this app is getting launched all the time.

Swarm

Swarm is an app by Forsquare that allows you to "check in" to places you are going so that friends can see what you are up to. Forsquare, if you don't know, is a competitor to Yelp, so it is mostly focused on entertainment and food. In short, Swarm is a gameified way of socially sharing where you are. I realize this is kind of gimmicky, but it is also a fun way to see what is around town and capture a log of the places you check in during travel. I use a nifty IFTTT recipe to take the places I check in on Swarm and append them to a note in Evernote.

Instagram

I can't say I have figured out my Instagram strategy yet, but I really enjoy using it and appreciate its professional potential. I try to post photos of what I am doing when I travel. It is a fun way to share what I am up to and promote myself publicly with engaging pictures.

Having these apps all close together in a travel folder takes so much stress out of traveling. It continues to amaze me that between Delta, Uber, and AirBnb, I can pretty much go anywhere and do anything with simplicity and peace of mind.

Using Apple Notes to plan every detail

Apple Notes has come a long way since the days where all it could accept was plain text. Apple Notes on iOS 9 is so powerful, and pretty, that I have been recently coming to choose it over Evernote more often.

Notes allows me to gather information relating to every facet of my trip and organize it contextually so that I can see it all at a glance but go deeper if I need to. Here are some of the travel related things I organized in Apple Notes for my recent trip to NYSSMA.

This trip was a speaking engagement, so the top of the note says the name of the event, the dates it lasts, what time I am speaking, and the number of the room I am speaking in.

Next you will find a rich preview of the location I am presenting at. This link was shared with this note from within Apple Maps. If I tap it, it will show me this location in Apple Maps where I can start getting walking or driving directions.

Next, I am using check lists to create todos for the paperwork I need to fill out at school, the things I need to pack, and other travel tasks. I usually organize these things in a task app like OmniFocus, but it is just so much easier to see them in the context of all my other information.

Documentation about the event, shared with me from NYSSMA, has been clipped into this note in the form of PDF. This means that I don't have to go hunting for the schedule in another app.

This next part is pretty cool. I usually create tags or folders in Gmail to store travel and presentation related email, but this time, I simply dragged the emails from the Mail app into the body of the Notes app while on a Mac. Clicking the links takes me straight into the messages no matter what device I am viewing them from.

Finally, I have clipped some more previews of locations I have searched for in Apple Maps. This way, I can remember all the places I thought about eating once I get into town.

Pro music Software compatibility with El Capitan

Click here to see a list of pro music software compatibility with Apple's new OS X update, El Capitan.

Generally, I update my MacBook Pro to new Apple software immediately given that it is mostly used for documents and email.

I usually wait 2-6 months to update my desktop Mac Pro that I use for music production just to be safe.