If you Option-click the Volume menu bar icon, you can see and switch among all your outputs and inputs. Here’s where Apple could do some work, since good interface design lets you work without making you think about the interface. Despite the fact that I’m not the sort who would intentionally build a complex audio setup, I’ve ended up with five choices for sound output and three for input, many of which are awkwardly named. It’s nuts! Sure, phone calls can be scratchy over a cell connection, and they lack video, an associated text chat, and file and screen sharing, but when the phone rings, you can answer and be relatively assured that you’ll be able to hear the other person.įixing the audio settings for every call isn’t just extra work it’s also confusing. If I help a friend or relative via screen sharing in Messages, that carries audio as well.Īmidst all that variability is one common factor - I have to mess with audio settings nearly every time! I’m not alone - the standard greeting for Internet-based calls isn’t “Hello,” but “Can you hear me?” Then we all scramble to fiddle the audio input and output settings in whatever app we happen to be in until everyone can hear everyone else. Podcasts like MacBreak Weekly, MacVoices, and Tech Night Owl Live all rely on Skype. Even my father has asked me to use FaceTime Audio instead of the phone because he can hear me so much better that way. Multi-person calls that Tonya and I have with Joe and Glenn and other Take Control authors take place in Skype or Google Hangouts. When I need to talk with Josh about upcoming TidBITS content, we use a Slack call. Instead, an ever-increasing amount of real-time audio (and video) communication runs through a Mac or iPhone app. #1667: OS Rapid Security Responses, 1Password and 2FA, using Siri to request musicįor many people, phone calls - at least those with real human beings, as opposed to “ Rachel from Cardholder Services” - have become a thing of the past.#1668: Updated Rapid Security Responses, OS public betas, screen saver bug fixed, “Red Team Blues” book review.#1669: OS security updates, ambiguity of emoji, small business payments with Melio, Twitter now X.#1670: Arc Web browser hits 1.0 release, “Do You Use It?” polls about Apple features.#1671: Apple Q3 2023 earnings, new Beats headphones and earbuds, Stage Manager adoption rate, do you use Spotlight?.
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