As I have mentioned elsewhere, I have an Original iPad and the third generation iPad ("iPad 3").   Believe it or not, we still use the Original iPad in the kitchen.   Even though it hasn't received updates in a long time, it still runs apps like Plex, Next Issue, Rdio, and many more apps that I still use today.    The 3rd Generation iPad came out with a retina display and I updated on the day it launched.  It has been my favorite device since I bought it.

My main issue with the iPad 3rd Generation is that I own the 32GB model and it is constantly out of memory.  Just to install iOS 8, I had to delete a bunch of apps and magazines.  This wasn't a new experience since I am constantly monitoring the amount of space I have left and periodically deleting apps like Zinio (magazine app) to get more space.

When the Original iPad Air was released last year, I was disappointed with it for one main reason....the lack of Touch ID.  I keep my devices locked with a passcode and the idea of just using a fingerprint to open it, is very enticing.  The 5S had Touch ID, but the iPad Air lacked it.   I refused to update when I knew that feature was coming and I could just get by with my iPad 3 for a while.

This year, I updated my iPhone 4S to an iPhone 6 Plus.  I LOVE the Touch ID.  It just makes the experience so much better and the way they have integrated it into Password apps, purchases from the app store, and ApplePay have been awesome.   The iPad Air 2 has Touch ID (although you can't use it for in store purchases) and it is a major reason I updated this year.  If it was missing Touch ID again this year, chances are, I would have kept the iPad 3 for another year.

When I bought the iPad Air 2, I decided to get the 64GB model.  I am guessing that doubling the memory from my last iPad will be enough?  The fact that the new iPad has Touch ID and more memory was enough to make me want to update, but the features don't stop there.

The Air 2 has a much faster processor than the iPad 3.  Unfortunately, the iPad 3's processor was always a bit underpowered.   When Apple releases the 4th gen iPad a few months after I purchased the iPad 3, and it had twice the performance capability, I can't say I was too happy.

Within seconds of using the iPad Air 2, the speed difference is obvious.   When I hear bloggers say that there is little reason to upgrade from an iPad 3, I wonder if they have ever used the two devices side by side?  Yeah, if you could care less about having  a better experience in every single way, then by all means, hold onto that iPad 3.  If you enjoy reloading tabs in Safari, don't mind waiting for articles to come into focus in magazine apps, don't mind seeing the equivalent of a bouncing ball when trying to use Lightroom's mobile app, etc.. then by all means don't update.  For me, these differences were substantial and dramatically increase my pleasure when using the new iPad (which is often).

The new iPad is also lighter and smaller than the iPad 3.   I have never had a problem handling the weight of the iPad 3, but I do find the new iPad easier to handle.  Many complain about "Apple's fetish for thinness", however, I can understand why they want thinner and lighter devices, especially with phones and tablets.   These are usually handheld devices, so any difference in weight probably means you will use it for longer periods.    

One of the possible trade offs for this lighter, thinner iPad is that it has a smaller battery that last year's iPad.  It is still over the 10 hours of normal use that Apple has advertised, so I don't see it as a real issue.  Engadget's battery tests have it worse than last year's iPad, but  better than the iPad 3 (2012).  Also, Engadget tested with a wifi+cellular iPad, which would probably provide worse results than the wifi version I purchased.

For me, I rarely need to charge my iPad 3 more than just plugging it in when I go to bed.   In fact, unless they can increase the battery to 24 hours or more, I am going to continue plugging it in at night.  While, I am sure there is a user somewhere that is pushing video for 10.5 hours without being anywhere near a charger, I just don't think many people will notice the difference between ~11.5 and ~14 hours of battery life.   When Mossberg did his tests, they were dramatically different from Engadget (he shows a 90 minute difference between the Air and Air2).   

I should also mention the resonance that you feel when using the speakers on the iPad.  Personally, my hands can handle slight vibrations.  I have lived with a powerful subwoofer for several years, so my entire house shakes when we watch certain movies.  Also, I played PS3 games using a DualShock controller and lived to tell about it.   For me, the resonance isn't an issue at all.  I mainly listen to music using Airplay (I have several blog articles about it), so I don't use the speakers in the iPad very often.  

To me, the decision to make the iPad lighter and thinner makes a lot of sense.  A lighter iPad will be felt by everyone that uses it every time they use it and there is nothing you can add on later that will make it lighter.  For iPad users that are camping or doing something that keeps them away from electricity all day, you can buy a $40 portable charger that you can plug it into, if necessary.   It really makes much more sense to prioritize features by which features are noticed by the most people.   Also, if you are really put off by resonance from the speakers, you can add Airplay, Bluetooth, or just wear headphones.  Once again, nothing I can buy will make a heavy iPad feel lighter...well I could hire someone to hold it for me, but I doubt I could do that for $40 or less.

One other thing that is better this time around is the screen.  As I mentioned, I updated my Original iPad to the iPad 3 when the screen was improved.  Personally, I think the screen is one of the most important features on a tablet.  The current "retina" resolution is great.  However, according to Apple, they improved the screen without changing resolution:

"The displays on previous generations of iPad used three separate components. iPad Air 2 changes all that, combining those three layers into just one. This eliminates gaps between layers, along with the internal reflectance caused by those gaps. The result? Colors are richer, contrast is greater, and images are sharper and more vivid."

Also, Apple put an antireflective coating on the new iPad Air 2.  I have a floor lamp behind my usual position on the couch (best seat in the house) and it reflects off the screen.  However, when I compare the 3 with the Air 2, the difference is easy to see.  The iPad 3 has blown out areas caused by the brightness.  The Air 2 softens the light.  If you use Lightoom, it is like pulling back the highlights to get rid of the "blinkies".

For me, the upgrade from the 32GB iPad 3 to the 64GB iPad Air 2 was worth it.   To put it in computer terms, the difference is more noticeable that going from a spinning hard drive to SSD.   For me, the iPad Air 2 is nearly perfect.  The one thing I would add would be split screen multitasking, but I believe that is more of a firmware issue than an iPad Air 2 limitation.  

I can't say just how long I have wanted a streaming service that offered lossless audio (real CD quality).  I first started using streaming services years ago with Rhapsody.  When MOG announced 320K streaming, I switched from Rhapsody.  Then MOG was purchased by Beats and I had to find a new streaming service.  To be honest, none of the 320k streaming services completely filled the void left by MOG.  As a result, I tried Rdio, even though they were using lower bitrates.  It was, by far, the most fully realized service and if it streamed 320k, it would be the replacement.  Guess what, Rdio upped their bitrate to 320K AAC in recent weeks and I dropped Spotify (which I was carrying for sound quality).

I was really in love with all the features offered by Rdio when Tidal came out yesterday.   However, Tidal is lossless and Rdio isn't.  Is that enough to switch streaming vendors?   Well, a comparison is in order.

I have several different audio systems around my house.  As a result, I am always looking for better quality audio.  I am not so worried about sound quality that I am looking at different audio speaker wire or wondering if magic rocks and coloring my CDs will make them sound better, but I do care about sound.  On a scale of disinterested to obsessed, I would fall closer to obsessed than disinterested, but I do own receivers, so I am not a full blown audiophile (by audiophile standards).  

Even though I haven't done an ABX test, I am just going to give Tidal the edge in sound quality.  Some would say it would be a slight edge over 320K on good day.  

Coincidentally, I was comparing Norah Jones "Come Away with Me" album that I have in lossless format on my computer with Rdio over the last weekend (before Tidal was released).  To my ears, they were slightly different, but I didn't really prefer lossless over Rdio in this case.  I will say that I have always ripped my CDs in lossless because I might hear a difference on some albums and I don't have time to test every single file.

Winner: Tidal

For its part Rdio has numerous paths for curation.  When you listen to music, they automatically build a playlist/station that is made up of your favorites, they provide recommendations similar to artists you like, the list artist similar to artists you have been listening to, they have "dig deeper" recommendations of artists you have listened to, etc...  There are just a lot of ways for them to suggest music for you.    

Tidal is very weak in this area.  They have a section under an individual artist that has similar artists listed.  Rdio also has this feature, but they also have "inspired by"  and "influenced" to give more context into an artist.  Both services appear to use the incredible ALLMUSIC for their Biographies, so no one gets an edge in that area.

Winner:  Rdio (by a long shot)

Tidal has video available.  I found this feature less impressive than I thought it would be.  To find a video, you have to go to a specific artist and then navigate to the video link.   When I tried this, the pickings were slim.  As an example, U2 doesn't have any videos listed.   I thought I would take a look at Miles Davis.  He has videos listed, but they are a photo of Miles with audio playing in the background.  Not very useful.  Bruce Springsteen had some listed, but none of his iconic videos from the 80s.

Tidal has a landscape mode (see pic below) on the iPhone that I found useful.  It allows you to control the song/album that is playing, but it falls short in some ways, too.  You have to put the phone back in portrait mode to get off of that screen if you want to listen to something else.

Another cool feature of Tidal is that it has articles about certain albums and subjects.  For example, there is an article called "15 Ways to Nirvana: Records that shaped the band".    It is like having a subscription to an audio magazine in addition to listening to music.

Rdio has its own set of unique features.  By far the most unique is that ability to remotely control the Rdio desktop app from the iOS app.   Therefore, if you have Rdio running on a computer,  it works just like the iPad/iPhone app.   It will also let you control Rdio running on one iOS device with a separate iOS device.  This is great if you have an old iPhone docked for audio and want to use your iPad to look at the news while listening to music.

Rdio also has a Shazam plug in that helps you build playlists.  It has something called Boil The Frog that is another unique way to build playlists.

One other feature that Rdio has is the ability to set the streaming bitrate independently for cellular and wifi streaming.  I really wish Tidal had this feature.  I don't want to eat through my GBs on my wireless plan too quickly.

They both had the ability to play music based on an artist, but Rdio is more full featured in this area, as well.  With Tidal you can select an artist, or track, and it will play music similar to them.  I found the "track" selections to be less than desirable.  I was playing Joe Henderson's "Double Rainbow" album (which is Bossa Nova music) and a few songs later it picked "Precis" by Sam Rivers to play.  It is more of a "free jazz" (for lack of a better description) styled song.  Not really want I want to hear when I select tracks similar to "Felicidade".  For my tastes, Rdio did a much better job with "track radio".

Also, Rdio has a setting for artist radio that will allow you to play "Artist Only" to "Adventurous" with an option to play music in the middle of those two choices.  With Tidal, the selection is obviously steered toward adventurous.

Another incredible feature on Rdio is the choice to turn on "Autoplay".  This will allow similar music to continue to play after you finish an album.   

Rdio also has the ability to set up a station based on the record label.  A very unique, but often used feature.

Personally, I think Rdio is a better service overall.  I wouldn't mind video, but Tidal needs a better way to find it and they need a better selection.    Tidal's articles look interesting, but I need to read several of them before I decide how useful it is.   Tidal currently costs twice as much as Rdio.  If Rdio had an option to pay $10 extra for lossless, I would pay it.  However, they don't, which is going to make it hard to decide which service will eventually get my money.   Right now, I am currently leaning toward keeping Rdio, but I need to do some back to back listening of the two services over the next month to decide.  I will keep you posted.

I ordered the iPad on Sunday  night and I received it today, but before I write a thorough review, I wanted to address some of the arguments against it, against the iPad tablet segment of the industry, and the reasons I bought it anyway.

One thing I keep reading is that tablet sells are trending down.  I guess this matters to someone with stock in just this segment of the market, but it has no real meaning to me as a user.   However, I am not surprised by the trend.   I have the Original iPad and the iPad 3 ("New iPad" with Retina) and they both still work.  The Original hasn't been supported in years, but if you just use it to listen to music, check email, read Facebook, and jump on the internet on occasion, it is probably enough for a lot of people.  I updated to the iPad 3 mainly for the "Retina" screen and I have been very happy with it.  Personally, I think the trend is related to the fact that older iPads "just work" and the fact that Apple is still giving free firmware updates to everything since the second generation iPad.

The next argument is that despite the fact that it has new and better tech, it isn't worth an upgrade for iPad Air users.  Personally, I have wanted a new iPad since my iPad 3 has been up against the 32GB limit.  However, when they released the Air last year, I wasn't interest for one reason...Touch ID.  This was before I even knew about ApplePay.  The reason I wanted it was to be able to log in with very little effort.   A lot of tech writers just leave their iPads unlocked, but I don't want to risk it even though I have a monitored alarm system.  It has too much information to just leave it sitting around without a passcode. 

With the ability to use the iPad with ApplePay for some online purchases, log into websites using Touch ID with Lastpass, and making purchases from the app store with the touch of a button, Touch ID has become even more useful.  Since I  also added an iPhone 6 plus this year, I am now in the habit of using Touch ID and I wouldn't buy an iPad without it.

Personally, I will rarely use the iPad's new and better camera.  However, it will be nice for recording videos of the dogs playing around the house.  I am still not sure how it will work with the new antiglare coating when I am outside.  The iPad 3 had too much glare to see what was happening in bright sunlight.  Any improvement in this area is welcomed.

Also, sometimes I like to lay on the couch with the iPad and when I see something happening, I might want to get a photo, but the camera on the iPad 3 isn't good enough and moving would disturb the situation.  For these moments, it will be nice to have a decent camera in the iPad.

I mainly bought the 3 for the retina screen.  For me, when we are talking about tablets, the screen is everything.  The screen has been improved.  It now has an "optically bonded" IPS display.  This gets rid of the space between the screen and the body.  Also, as I mentioned, they have added some antiglare coating to the screen.  

Processing power and wifi speed are two more improvements.  Many of the geek bench tests have put the new Air 2 in the same class as modern PCs.  While I guess some reviewers do not have a need for a faster iPad, I know that many of the apps I use will benefit.  "Next Issue" and "Lightroom" are examples of apps I use at least on a weekly basis, but they just don't work very well on the slower iPads.   Also, Adobe pops up a message that their Photoshop Mix app on my iPad 3 saying that the app was built for new iPads (or something like that).

Finally, this iPad weighs less than a pound and is the thinnest iPad yet.  For me, lighter is better if I don't have to make the trade off of a smaller screen.  While my understanding is that they used a smaller battery that hasn't tested as well as the last Air, according to Engadget, it is still an improvement on the iPad 3.  Personally, I never had an issue with running out of juice with my iPad 3, so having more battery power is just icing on the cake.  

I will try to write a full review over the weekend, if I have time.

As I mentioned in a prior post, I have finally upgraded my iPhone 4s to a new iPhone 6 plus.   The iPhone 4S has 64GBs of memory, so I have a few different options.  

My first thought was to clear off the apps and use it as a music player.  However, I don't really want to do that.  Apple will eventually stop upgrading firmware for it  and I don't want to risk losing the apps I have now and the ability to download the apps in the future.  I have a first generation touch and it can't download anything useful from the app store anymore.   Luckily, I have Plex on the iPod Touch, so it still has some usefulness.

With the 4s in hand, I started thinking about the fact that I have some older audio devices laying around and I could put them together with the iPhone 4S and make them useful again.  

Obviously, I won't be holding my new iPhone underwater like I did with the 4s in the picture above.   However, I still have the Lifeproof case and the 4s, so there is no reason I can't still use it out in the pool or out by the grill or anywhere else that I have wifi and/or my iPhone 6+ nearby.   

With iOS 8, Apple added a feature called Continuity.  While I don't have a cellular plan on the 4s, with Continuity, I can still answer calls on the 4s as long as I have the 6 plus nearby (haven't tested how close they have to be with each other, but having the 4s in the pool and the 6 plus in the kitchen would probably work).   

Also, since I can use the 6 plus as a hotspot, I also have internet access without being near wifi.  I could see this being useful for visits to the beach.  I could put the iPhone 6 plus in a zip locked bag and use the 4s on the beach.

Also, with 64GBs of space, I can put some music on it and still use it as a stand alone iPod.  

Another feature that the 4s can serve is to run Security Camera applications.  If I am waiting for visitors, I can launch the application that has my security cameras and be able to view them while I am still working on my iPhone 6 plus. Since the 4s is docked, I don't have to worry about the battery running down.

I also plan to look into apps like "Presence" that will use the actual iPhone camera as a security camera.  Right now, the app crashes with iOS 8, but I will look into it when they fix the bugs or see if I can find similar apps.  

Obviously, it can run the aquarium, photo, and clock apps that will make it easier on the eyes than a blank screen sitting on the dock.  

The iPhone 4s will also be useful as a spare remote control.  When I am laying on the couch, I might not want to keep the more fragile iPhone 6 plus laying next to me with 2 terriers running around.  I plan to get a better case for the 6 plus, but that may not include protection for the display (the upcoming LIfeproof case for the 6 plus will not have screen protection and I am not sure I would want the extra bulk anyway).  However, the iPhone 4s (with the Lifeproof case) has great protection and still works great with the Roomie Remote app, Fidelia, iTunes Remote, Rowmote, etc..  

As you can see, the 4s still has a lot of usefulness left in it.  I thought about selling it, but I can get more than ~$115 of use out of it (which is about what it is worth).  I love my Airport Express units, but a new Airport Express would be a lot less useful and costs nearly as much as I would get out of the phone.  With Continuity, it is almost a non-brainer to keep it around.  

I am still looking into other uses for it as a second iOS device, but if you have any other ideas, send me an email or leave a comment with your suggestions.

I have been using the 6 plus for a week now, so I thought I would follow up my initial thoughts with my latest feelings after a week of lugging it around.

Over the weekend, I tested the iPhone 6 plus with the lightning port camera connection kit, t3hub, and Dragonfly DAC and I am happy to report that it works fine and will send out a 24/96 audio signal if you have "hi rez" files.   (Please see this blog post for more on using the Dragonfly DAC with the iPhone.)

Secondly, I found that I had no issues mounting it with the $16 temporary cup holder mount that I bought when I got a new car back in May.   It will allow the 6 plus to be mounted in landscape or portrait mode.   I thought about getting one of the air vent mounts, but I can live without one of my cup holders easier than living without a vent (especially during Memphis summers).   I will probably get a Kuda mount with a Proclip charging cradle when they are available (I have had this combo in my car in the past and it looks great and charges the phone all the time), but I am not in any hurry since this works fine.

After living with it for a week, I haven't had any issues with it fitting in pockets.  As I mentioned, I normally wear Bill's Khakis that have deep pockets and the size of the 6 plus had no impact compared to my 4s.  I did buy a new case for it and it made me feel more comfortable than the bumper case I had on it before, but I still pay closer attention when I am slipping it into a pocket.  I have dropped my 4s in the past because I wasn't paying close enough attention and I have gone out of my way to make sure it goes directly into the pocket especially when I am on concrete.

I should mention that I did kneel down to clean out our pool skimmer baskets and I noticed the phone being squeezed.  Nothing was damaged, but it was a gentle reminder that the phone is bigger than my old phones.

I brought an adapter to work so that I could plug my new phone into my old 30 pin cable.  It worked fine until I updated the case on Wednesday.  The new case doesn't work with the adapter because the case is too thick.  At home, I had the cable that came with the phone for charging, but I had to order a cable for work.   While I was waiting, I went all day without plugging it in.  I should mention that I stream Bluetooth audio all day and I still had a lot of juice left when I got home (more than 50 percent battery power).  That is an amazing increase over the 4s.

Also, the screen is a lot easier to read and it was a much better experience for quick Twitterific updates, email, and jumping onto the internet while my computer was tied up with processing.  With the extra real estate, it is just so much easier to use at my desk.  

I may be alone in my thinking, but I find one handed use overrated.   However, I am not the type of person that walks through the store with a box of cereal in one hand, while texting on my iPhone with the other.  Really, you probably shouldn't be doing that, either.   I am personally hoping this leads to a new etiquette being forced by necessity.  You want to text someone while driving?  Pull over or wait!  Obviously, there will be some idiots using it while resting it on the steering wheel, but hopefully, that will be easier for the police to notice.

Keep in mind, I am not saying it is impossible to use the 6 plus one handed, especially if you have large hands.  However, I just haven't run into a scenario where it has been necessary.  I have been using it with one hand this week, just to see if it was possible, but it isn't a natural experience (at least at this point it isn't).  

One thing I did to make it easier to use with one hand was move my favorite apps from the top of the screen to the middle and below.  Below is a pic of the apps I can reach with my thumb without doing a lot of maneuvering in the hand (inside of the green arrows).  For people with smaller hands,  you may have to take advantage of reachability more often (I often use it for the top rows inside the arrows and everything above the arrows) and change your icons to make them easier to reach....or get used to using two hands (which I prefer).  

Back in the 80s, the huge cellphone next to your head was a status symbol.  Due to the phones getting smaller and smaller, it looks more dweebish than stylish these days.   Of course, with the iPhone entering the large phone market, a lot more people will be using larger phones.  This means that it could become less weird looking when you see someone holding a phablet to their head.  

For me, it feels more natural to use a larger phone. Of course, I was raised on phones that had large receivers, in fact, I still have some of them around the house (see the red phone on the left  in the pic below), so talking on a tiny phone, even the 4s, has always felt unnatural to me.

For me, it is no different than using the 4s when I am out and about.  I have no issues mounting it in my car or putting it in a pocket.  As I mentioned before, I am not one of those people with a phone always in hand or up to my head.  Maybe that is from being involved in photography for many years (off and on), but I am always more interested in my surroundings than my phone when I am out.

At home, I am surprised by just how much I am using it when compared to the iPad 3.   For twitter, quick looks at the web, Flipboard, music, Roomie Remote, and many other apps, it is easier to use than the iPad, but not so small that it makes it an awful experience.  I still prefer video, magazines, books with artwork, safari, and a few other apps more on the iPad, but I enjoy the iPhone 6 plus for nearly everything when compared to the 4s.  I still plan on keeping my 4s for a few reasons, but I never really liked the small form factor.  I love the iOS ecosystem, but I was going to move on if Apple  didn't come out with a larger iPhone this year.  

I admit that I haven't used the iPhone 6 plus a lot for photos yet (I am sure I will post on that subject later).  However, even with the quick snapshots I have taken, it is noticeably better than the 4s.  The picture below was taken in the normally dim lighting of our living room, but the lack of noise compared to the 4s pics I have taken in the past, is extraordinary.   

While we are on the subject of photography, many experts are saying that the 6 plus is better than the 6, especially in low lighting and video, but that shouldn't influence which phone you buy.  For people that care about our photos, we want the best camera in a phone we can get.   Having a slight edge, mainly due to the optical stabilization, is an important quality to me and probably many others.  

I went into the new phone with the idea that I probably wouldn't use the video capabilities very often.  However, it is easy to use and the results are outstanding.  Below are a couple very short videos that show how much detail you can get close up and the slow motion capabilities.  Needless to say, I will use this feature more than I thought I would.

I think the choice comes down to whether you can handle the size.  However, I have seen women bloggers with small hands say that they prefer the 6 plus, so I am not sure how large of a percentage of the population would have trouble handling it on a daily basis.   However, I would think it would come down to personal preference.  My wish has been for something nice and thin, that would fit in the pocket without being noticeable while having the largest display that would still fit that criteria...and hopefully it would run iOS*.   The iPhone 6 plus fills that role perfectly.

* As a side note, I have never used another recently popular OS and I prefer not to.  Not because there is something inherently wrong with those systems, but because I have money tied up in iOS apps and I use features like Airplay on a daily basis.   

I mentioned a little while back that I was sticking with Spotify because Rdio had poor sound quality compared to Spotify.   I got to the point where I was going to cancel Rdio and just couldn't do it.  The main reason was that it works perfectly with Bluetooth Audio in my car and Spotify doesn't.  Well, Spotify will play music, but it locks the name of the first song that played on the screen.    As a result, I have been paying for both services....Spotify for sound quality at home and Rdio for the road.  I figured this would be a short lived situation since Rdio announced that they were improving sound quality several months ago.  Also, Tidal will be coming to the USA soon with lossless audio streaming and I expect that Apple will be improving Beats.

Today, I got a new download from Rdio on my iOS devices that improved their sound quality:

"Today we’re happy to announce we’ve converted our entire catalog of over 30 million songs to high-quality AAC audio. Listeners around the world now have four sound quality settings to choose from across iOS, Android, and the web. All Rdio users can choose between data-efficient 64 kbps all the way up to 192 kbps. Rdio Unlimited subscribers now also have the option of listening in pristine-quality 320 kbps. Plus individually select your audio settings for a variety of uses, whether you’re using Wi-Fi or cellular streaming or listening to offline downloads.Our commitment to sound quality also deepens today with our partnership with Bob Weir, the legendary founding member of the Grateful Dead and champion of Musicians for Audio Quality Initiative. To celebrate this milestone, we’re releasing an exclusive catalog of Bob Weir tracks recorded at the Tamalpais Research Institute (TRI Studios), his state of the art studio in Marin County, CA. The catalog features Weir as well as musicians like Dave Schools, Sammy Hagar, and many others."


As I have mentioned in another article, Rdio is a fantastic service.  I did like some of the Desktop apps for Spotify, but I mainly listen on iOS and those apps are "desktop-only".  

There is an app that I just found out about called "AirMusic Player".   I would highly recommend downloading it now because it could be gone tomorrow.  

There are two "AirMusic" apps, one is free and the other is $2.99.  I downloaded both of them, but from what I can tell, only the free version sets up as an Airplay receiver.   The paid version is supposed to play music to PS3 and other consoles (I haven't tested it).  I was hoping it was the same as the free version, but without the annoying ads, but I guess they don't have that available at this time.  (I still need to research a bit more to say for sure).

As I mentioned above, this app allows an iPhone to be setup as an Airplay receiver for Macs, AppleTVs, iPhones, and I believe other iOS devices.   This allows you to send audio from one device to another.  For example, you can start a program on your AppleTV, hold down the center button on the remote, and choose "AirMusic Player" as the speaker.  Below is a screen shot of the iPhone receiving a audio signal from the new Apple Event from the AppleTV.  If you plugged a pair of headphones into the iPhone, you could use it  in a way similar to the Roku players that have a headphone receiver in the remote.

As I mentioned in a prior post, I plan to use the iPhone 4S as an Airplay receiver for my new iPhone 6 Plus.  This way, I can dock the 4S on a Pure i20 and remotely control what is playing without loosing the use of the iPhone 6.  As you can see below, I have selected AirMusic as my Airplay device:

The receiving device shows art work and a hideous advertisement, but I won't spend a lot of time looking at the receiving device since I am controlling everything from a different device.  I still would rather have a paid version to get rid of the ads.

The reason I am emphatically saying that you should download it now is because Airfoil had this feature a couple of years ago.  Apple made them remove the feature that sent audio from iOS device to iOS device (still works for Mac to iOS).   

However, Apple did allow people that paid for the app to roll it back to retain the feature.   A lot of people wanted this feature and it was no longer available.  Of course, this is a free app, so Apple could just remove it from our devices, but I think it is worth downloading now just in case they get rid of the app, but allow people that already have it to keep it.

As I mentioned, I just learned about the app and haven't used it, other than testing it, but it fills a roll that many people need.

FINALLY!!!!  My iPhone 6 plus has arrived and I thought I would post my initial impressions and then post again in a week or so with an update of how things are going. 

Every review I have read has talked about how big this phone is compared with their old phone.  The iPhone 6 plus weighs 6.55 ounces with the cheap bumper case that I bought to hold me over.  The iPhone 4s weighs 6 ounces in the LIfeproof case.  The weight feels about the same to me.

I wear XL and sometime XXL gloves and I can just barely touch my thumb to ring finger when I wrap my hand around the iPhone 6+.   As a result, it does worry me a bit that I may end up dropping it.  To be honest, I have always been concerned with this, which is why I have always used cases.   I did buy Applecare, so I guess I am covered for a couple of mistakes.  

One other thing  I was worried about was whether it would be "pocketable" with the pants I wear.   I am about the size of your average NBA point guard, so I am not a small person.  As a result, the plus fits in Bills Khakis, normal Ralph Lauren shorts, and Old Navy jeans without any problems at all.  However, you can see a more prominent outline of the phone when compared to the 4s.  When I get a more bulky case, the outline will increase, but I am not too worried about it.  

For the times I need to reach the top of the screen while using the phone with one hand, Apple has provided their "Reachability" feature.   You double tap the home button and it pulls the top portion of the screen down.  I have heard a lot of people saying they won't use it, but I think it will come in handy for those times I am out with the pups in the backyard with a coffee cup in one hand and a phone in the other.  It is a new feature, so it is something that you have to force yourself to use for it to become more natural.

Below is another bee video with a closer look at detail.  This is the first time I have used the camera, so these videos are more for testing purposes than artistic impression.

All in all, I am really happy I went with the larger screen right now.  I will post an update in the near future to discuss whether I have changed my mind after I have had to lug it around for a while.