Aha, it finally showed up - took a while after I uninstalled the beta. I assume this is the same version as the previous TestFlight version? Looks to be about 3 months since the last update - I’m trying it now - sadly had to start from scratch.

I had one of the old black plastic Walkman cassette players and what a P.O.S. that was. Amazing how far we’ve come 😊

Great points and I agree. I use the original Samsung Buds Pro and those sound fantastic using LDAC with my S21.

We live in a great time for portable audio to be able to get this kind of sound and performance out of something we can carry with us everywhere we go. I really only listen to my full size non-bluetooth headphones at home, and usually I am using my SMSL desktop headphone amp for that.

Yes, the SW on the HiBy devices can require careful handling to get around issues. I mainly use USB Audio Player Pro and it seems to work fairly reliably on my R5. I also often use Plexamp for playing my Plex stored FLACs and that also works well most of the time.

My worry with these devices is how long HiBy will continue to support it with OS updates and security patches, not that I use the device for anything sensitive, but it does use my Google account for the app store.

For Bluetooth, I have the original Samsung Buds Pro and the SONY WH900N’s, which I love and using LDAC for the connection, the sound quality is very good. I also just got the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC as my daily use buds for music and Teams calls and I am very impressed with them for the price. They multi-point connect to my phone and my iPad.

It’s probably worthwhile to differentiate between “MP3 Players” and DAPs (Digital Audio Players) that are designed to play high resolution music (mainly FLAC files) through high-end wired headphones. Companies like FiiO and HiBy make these and they sell for $500 and up. I have a HiBy R5 Sabre that has a balanced output for driving my decent Dan Clark Aeon headphones. This all sounds spectacularly good playing high res files or a service like Tidal. It runs on a special version of Android, so you can install apps, etc.

Having said all of that, I do 90% of my portable music listening through bluetooth earbuds driven from my Samsung phone, so not sure the money I invested in my DAP setup has been worth it, and I probably wouldn’t do it again.

Great, as always - thank you for all you do!

Yes, I could see that happening for broad topics. Most of the hashtags I follow are less broad, like #cityname, #backpacking and things like that. Most of my feed is follows of users I have interest in and it took a lot of effort to find those accounts.

I have not noticed hashtags I follow changing much at all. Can you give an example of this?

Yes, late 50’s US and I drive a 6 speed Jeep daily. Taught my 23 year old son to drive a stick and he just bought a Tacoma stick shift.

I learned on my grandfather’s 3 on the tree 1968 Dodge camper van. If you can drive a 3 on the tree, you can drive anything.

Memmy is working really well on the iPad as well and the enhancements you mention make a lot of sense. I use an Android phone and am switching between Liftoff and Sync at the moment.

How would Biden “change the courts?” (I presume you mean Supreme Court)

He has already nominated a liberal justice, which was about the only thing he had the power to do. With a minority in the house and the ever slimmest majority in the senate, expanding the court or taking down one of them for corruption is not going to happen.

If you want to change the courts, it has to be done by voting blue in state and local elections.

All of these providers need to cease operating in the UK - it makes no sense to compromise security for the rest of the world just because one country wants to make it easier to spy on citizens.

How about a partner and a local - Belts and Suspenders, and you only get one two-week shot at this.

I’m absolutely loving Memmy and impressed how far it has come in just a few weeks. Same for Liftoff which I use on my Android phone.

Liftoff is pretty good. I use Memmy on my iPad and Liftoff on my Android phone and it’s a pretty good match.

Oh, I don’t think they are leftist at all. My point was that Russia dominated the Soviet Union (do you agree with that?) and the fall of communism has resulted in what we see now, and it is not pretty, with business, money and politics very much intertwined.

Agree totally. Communism is one of those things that cannot work in the real world. Someone above said it well - you go so far left that you end devolving into fascism and that is apparent with what is going on in Russia right now. Money begets power begets more money and on and on…

“Tankies” is slang for communists who align with the philosophy of authoritarian rule, like the Soviet Union who used violence to keep countries under their control in check.

Sealioning is something I saw a lot on Reddit, but not so much here - it is when someone responds continuously asking questions, trying to seem like they are engaged, but in reality they are trolling you. Like when you say something like “The sky is so blue today” and the come back with “That is interesting, do you have a link to some information that I can learn more about that?”

Yes, I am not sure who this is targeted to exactly - there are so many better ways to consume podcasts and the other content they mention, for less money, or free in many cases. I had purchased Pocket Casts years ago before they went free, then sold out to PBS, was still free, and now this - seems like just dying to piece together a business model that’s is doomed to fail (again).

No thank you. I’m perfectly happy with Podcast Addict.