By Dan Moren

December 8, 2016 11:25 PM PT

Hulu aims to avoid mix of chocolate, peanut butter with new profiles

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

Following in the footsteps of the folks over at Netflix, Hulu is at last adding the ability to create separate profiles under a single account. So, for example, if you totally hypothetically had a girlfriend who enjoyed watching The Bachelor¹, it wouldn’t necessarily keep showing up in your queue.

Hulu will let you have up to six profiles for the same account. Unsurprisingly, the service also wants to use this as an opportunity to serve you up more programming, so when you create a new profile, it’ll ask you about the shows you like so that it can build recommendations and so on. Profiles will contain their own watchlists, viewing history, names, recommendations, and so on. Like Netflix, there’s also a Kids specific option that filters out mature content.

While Hulu users on the web can start creating profiles today (nominally, anyway–it wasn’t there when I looked), the feature will be rolling out to other devices in the coming weeks.

I’m glad to see Hulu embrace this. I share my account not only with my girlfriend, but also with my parents, and I’m sure they don’t want to be reminded that there’s a new episode of Arrow every week. I am curious to see how something like Apple’s new TV app will take this into account, though: since it doesn’t have multiple users, will it just recommend whatever the primary account holder is watching? Unlike our phones or even many people’s tablets, a TV is often a multi-person experience, and catering to each of those people can definitely be a challenge.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]

By Dan Moren

December 7, 2016 1:56 AM PT

Quick Tip: View only Downloaded Music on iOS

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

I’m in a somewhat data-constrained environment with my travels, which isn’t ideal when you also use iCloud Music Library–either via Apple Music or iTunes Match–to store all your music and want to listen to some tunes.¹ In the past you’ve been able to view only local music on your iOS device via a switch in Settings > Music; in iOS 9 it moved to one of the Music app’s many pop-up menus. Now in iOS 10, you’ll have to do some digging to find its new home.

Fire up the Music app and make sure you’re on the Library tab. Tap the Edit button in the top right corner and you’ll get some view options, the last of which is Downloaded Music. Tap that and then tap done and you’ll now have a new Downloaded Music entry at the bottom of the list.² Tapping that gives you a view of all the tracks stored on your device, which you can further view by playlist, artist, album, or song. A small banner at the top of the screen reminds you that you’re only looking at music on your device, just in case you accidentally navigate away.

Streaming’s great and all, but traveling overseas has definitely put back in perspective that you can’t yet depend on a ubiquitous and unlimited network connection. Sometimes good old fashioned downloading and local storage is still the way to go.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]

By Dan Moren

December 7, 2016 12:52 AM PT

Apple’s new Single Sign On feature needs an asterisk

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

As promised, December brings the single sign-on feature to tvOS and iOS that Apple first announced back in September. In theory, the feature sounded great: sign in once with your TV provider, and apps can simply check your credentials there, rather than having to enter your username and password for each additional app.¹

However, the closer this feature has gotten to being ready for primetime, well, the further it has been from delivering exactly what was hoped for. In its support doc about the feature, Apple lays out the restrictions.

The first, and probably most significant, is that most cable and satellite providers still haven’t–if you’ll excuse the phrase–signed on to support the feature. Right now, it’s limited to DirecTV, Dish, Sling, and a handful of smaller, regional cable companies. No Verizon, no Comcast, no Time Warner, and so on. So, at present, most Apple TV users probably can’t even take advantage of the feature.

The second limitation is perhaps even more byzantine, and thus right on par with the rest of the online video content market. Depending on which content provider you’re trying to log in with, single sign-on may not work on both tvOS and iOS. For example, single sign-on works with A&E’s app on iOS, but not on its Apple TV app; the E! Now app, on the other hand, is just the opposite.

Now, it’s possible that many of these apps simply haven’t rolled out an update for the platform in question, and all this will be smoothed over in the next few weeks. (There are also relatively few apps currently supporting single sign-on, though again, it may depend on which apps have been updated.) Given that we’re talking about an industry that has historically liked to exert strong control over where its content is consumed–c.f. content providers restricting whether you could watch a show on Hulu on your set-top box or just on your computer–it’s not out of the question that this is just another set of business bargaining chips.

While the feature does require that users be paying subscribers, perhaps the content providers are worried about people sharing usernames and passwords (it doesn’t seem to have hurt HBO, though) or worried about lower ad revenue from streaming as opposed to the traditional broadcast. That said, single sign-on stands to make things much easier on the consumer, which is the major reason that cable companies and content providers should be jumping on this opportunity. It’s time for them to stop dragging their heels en route to the future of TV.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]

By Jason Snell

December 6, 2016 10:13 AM PT

SetApp: Another take on the Mac App Store

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

When the Mac App Store arrived, flush with the success of the iOS App Store, I thought it had the potential to transform the way Mac users use third-party software. Instead, at my most charitable I might say that the Mac App Store has supplied a limited avenue for downloads for a certain segment of the Mac audience. Lots of caveats there.

It’s time for another try at changing the relationship between Mac users and the apps they use, and Ukranian software company MacPaw (maker of a bunch of utility apps, including CleanMyMac) is taking its shot with SetApp, a subscription service for Mac apps, which enters a (limited) public beta today.

It’s easy to call this “Netflix for Mac apps,” and in fact, a variation of that phrase leads MacPaw’s press release. But Netflix’s stuff is consumable—you watch a movie or TV show and you move on. Our relationship with apps—especially the kinds of utility and productivity apps that make up most of MacPaw’s pre-launch app collection—is longer lasting, which is why SetApp seems more similar to something like Microsoft and Adobe’s subscription services. Except for a whole bunch of smaller apps, rather than a tiny number of monolithic ones.

Here’s how it works: SetApp subscribers pay $10 per month, and as long as they’re paying, they get access to a catalog of apps. Once you install SetApp, you’ll find a SetApp folder inside your Applications folder. This is the SetApp catalog. Double-click on a new app, and SetApp will display an App Store-like description of the app¹. If you click the Open button on that description, SetApp downloads and installs the app, then launches it. Once you’ve downloaded an app via SetApp, it behaves just like any other Mac app.

MacPaw says it’s compensating developers with a share of revenue based on monthly usage statistics from a sample of SetApp customers, with some extra money thrown in based on historic performance on the service. All in all, MacPaw says that developer payouts will comprise 90 percent of revenue for the service.

It’s a pretty great idea, but as with any subscription service, its success or failure will depend entirely on the contents of the catalog. The pre-release version I tested only offers 50 apps, and while their retail prices suggest this is thousands of dollars in software, that doesn’t matter if you never use any of it. (That said, I was excited to see Ulysses, TaskPaper, and Marked on the service, and the beauty of SetApp is that I can try any of the apps in the bundle for as long as I want.)

MacPaw says it expects 300 apps in the catalog “as the service gains momentum,” though it doesn’t give any specific time frame for that expectation. It could lead to some interesting competitive dynamics, if smaller competitors of more-expensive apps join the service—why buy a $30 a la carte FTP client if there’s one available to you for “free” as a part of the service?

My biggest concern with SetApp is my concern about the content on any subscription service—namely, that it can disappear at any time. If an developer removes their app from SetApp, you’ll be allowed to keep it, but you won’t receive any updates and can’t reinstall it. That doesn’t feel good, though I’m not sure it’s much different from the fact that any operating-system update can break compatibility with apps and force users to buy compatibility updates. It’s tough being a software user—nothing is forever.

In any event, I’m excited that someone is trying to find a new way forward for third-party Mac apps. If MacPaw can create a strong enough catalog for SetApp—making it worth the $120 per year the service will cost—it could be a good way to provide ongoing revenue for Mac software developers.

SetApp works as promised. MacPaw has built the scaffolding. The only remaining question is, will the apps inside the service justify the price?

By Jason Snell

December 2, 2016 10:05 AM PT

Transferring audio files from an SD card to an iOS device with FlashAir

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

There were some podcasters at the Úll conference in Ireland last month, and at one point when we were talking shop I complained again about how iOS doesn’t support files on external storage devices that aren’t photos or videos.

This means that if I travel to record a live podcast using a multi-track recorder like the Zoom H6, I have to bring a Mac with me to offload the files. Oh, sure, I can edit a podcast on iOS with ease, but how to get the files over there?

One of the people at Úll—I believe it was Elias—suggested I try the Toshiba FlashAir Wi-Fi SD card. There have been many Wi-Fi-enabled SD cards—I used an Eye-Fi for years—but this one has an iOS app that actually lets you select any file on the card and open it in any app.

There are a bunch of caveats, as you might expect. The FlashAir app isn’t particularly elegant, but it’s functional. The functionality to open a file in another app via the share sheet is off by default, so you have to turn it on. Wi-Fi cards can suck battery, though the FlashAir turns off its Wi-Fi functions after a few minutes if they’re not being used.

But the upside is tremendous! With this approach I can travel somewhere with only an iOS device and my portable recording set-up, record a live audio session, import those files to my iOS device, and then edit and post that audio session, all from iOS.

Now, this doesn’t get Apple off the hook—its card-reader accessory should really be able to read other file types, and more generally iOS should be able to connect to storage devices and let you see the files, whether they’re photos or Word documents. But it closes another gap for my own iOS-based podcast workflow, and so I’m excited about that.

By Jason Snell

December 2, 2016 9:32 AM PT

Recording a podcast locally on iOS without a Mac

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

One of my recent tech quests has been to find a way to record and edit podcasts when traveling with an iOS device and no Mac. The best approach I’ve found so far—and I’ve used it a few times—is to talk on Skype on an iPhone with a pair of earbuds while simultaneously recording myself on a good microphone on an iPad.

Look, I didn’t say it was a good approach. Just that it was the best one I’d found so far. Though I never travel without my iPhone and iPad, the two-device approach to recording is inelegant to say the least. In addition, the person I’m talking to on Skype hears me through a lousy microphone, and I can’t hear my own voice being returned to my ears. (That’s important, because if you can hear your own voice you can tell when you’re not talking into the microphone, and it makes your own impression of your voice sound less like you’re talking with your ears full of water.)

In testing the Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB for my story about the sub-$100 podcast studio, I realized that I had a better option for iOS-only recording. It’s still clunky, but the person on the other end of the Skype call can hear me clearly, and I can hear my own voice in my ears.

Here’s the trick: The ATR2100-USB is a rarity, a microphone that offers both a USB port, for direct connection to a digital device, and an XLR port, for an analog connection to a mixing board or other audio interface. And you can use both connections simultaneously.

So I attach the ATR2100-USB to my iPad or iPhone with Apple’s Lighting-USB Adapter — the old model will work, my iPhone 7 was able to power the microphone itself, though it’s possible that some models might require a power assist from the newer Lightning-USB Camera Adapter. Once the microphone is attached to the iOS device, it becomes the audio input and output for all apps, including Skype.

I plug my headphones into the headphone jack on the microphone, so I’m getting zero-latency feedback from my own voice as well as hearing the audio from Skype, channeled back from my iOS device.

Then I attach an XLR cable to the microphone and to a portable audio recorder. I use the Zoom H6, but you might have the Tascam DR-40 or the Zoom H4N.

Once that’s hooked up, all I need to do is record my microphone audio on the recorder while conducting my podcast via Skype. In the end, I’ve had a clear conversation and been able to hear my own voice, and my recorder has a pristine copy of my microphone audio.

There’s one final step—transferring the audio file from my recorder back to the iOS device—which requires more hardware. And this setup still doesn’t let me walk away with a recording of the other side of the Skype conversation, which is useful as an insurance policy in case someone else’s recording fails.

If you don’t already have an ATR2100-USB and a portable recorder with XLR plugs, I don’t think I can recommend that you spend money on this option. But if you happen to have the component parts, like I do, you have a single-iOS-device podcast studio ready to go.