Apple Updates GarageBand With New Instruments and Sounds to Celebrate Chinese Music

[ChrisCW11]

Apple really pandering hard to the Chinese these days, shows you who is the new super and economic power these days.

Funny thing is, the other day I saw that a Chinese OEM Amazon reseller Blu has a phone that is only 5.1 mm thick, thinner than any Apple device ever. It's made out of machined aluminum and arguably the only complaint of BLU's phones is its software which is a glitchy implementation of Android.

However compared to the deluge of iOS updates that can brick or make your iPhone less secure I find it hard to elevate Apple above a Chinese OEM's these days. Also Blu is selling their flagship phone for $399 unlocked, and arguably its specs are comparable and in many cases surpass the iPhone 6s Plus. $399 to put up with some glitchy software is far better than $799+ for a phone full of glitching software.

I think Apple has a very tentative hold these days on dominance as a manufacture of quality consumer electronics and Apple knows that in the near future the next big hit electronics product is going to originate from China, not be sold to the Chinese.

Bottom line is I find it very hard these days to understand why people are putting up with Apple's "Tax". If China is quickly starting to make quality flagship phones for half the cost, and are getting rid of the "designed in California" crutch, then I know where my money is going to go in the future.

 

[forerunnerg34]

If they can add Chinese instruments and music to Apple Loops, then they have no excuse not to add music and instruments from other cultures as well.

Only if they represent numbers, that is Apple under Tim Cook.. number numbers numbers. There is something wrong with a company when the music player update generates more exitment than your events (watch bands)

Do you remember MS when Steve Baller was around?

 

[jdillings]

Do you remember MS when Steve Baller was around?

How could anyone forget?

 

[kyleh22]

Apple's loving the Chinese market recently.

 

[ConnorMcJeebus]

Tim only cares about human rights when it is convenient and easy to do so and won't impact the bottom line.

As per Tim Cook:
“We still live in a world where all people are not treated equally. Too many people do not feel free to practice their religion or express their opinion or love who they choose,” he said.

“A world in which that information can make a difference between life and death,” Cook said. “If those of us in positions of responsibility fail to do everything in our power to protect the right of privacy, we risk something far more valuable than money. We risk our way of life.”

The message Apple is sending by sucking up to China: "Screw ideals...let's make some more $$$"

 

[niun]

As per Tim Cook:

That was actually incorrect.
What he actually said was, "$$$$ $$ $$$$$ $$ $ $$$$$ $ $$$$ $ $$ $, excited $$ pipeline $".

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Watch Tim Cook jam with one of china’s biggest pop stars

 

[notjustjay]

What next ?
Instructions in a little red book.
Rice and noodles with every new iPlod.
This is Chairman Cook's less than honourable and totally transparent pandering to the yen for profit.
He should remember the Chinese eat sharks for breakfast. And that we are watching.
He might also consider that Chinese "music" makes strangling a pig sound like a Brahms lullaby.

THIS is what a racist comment looks like.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Apple really pandering hard to the Chinese these days, shows you who is the new super and economic power these days.

Funny thing is, the other day I saw that a Chinese OEM Amazon reseller Blu has a phone that is only 5.1 mm thick, thinner than any Apple device ever. It's made out of machined aluminum and arguably the only complaint of BLU's phones is its software which is a glitchy implementation of Android.

However compared to the deluge of iOS updates that can brick or make your iPhone less secure I find it hard to elevate Apple above a Chinese OEM's these days. Also Blu is selling their flagship phone for $399 unlocked, and arguably its specs are comparable and in many cases surpass the iPhone 6s Plus. $399 to put up with some glitchy software is far better than $799+ for a phone full of glitching software.

I think Apple has a very tentative hold these days on dominance as a manufacture of quality consumer electronics and Apple knows that in the near future the next big hit electronics product is going to originate from China, not be sold to the Chinese.

Bottom line is I find it very hard these days to understand why people are putting up with Apple's "Tax". If China is quickly starting to make quality flagship phones for half the cost, and are getting rid of the "designed in California" crutch, then I know where my money is going to go in the future.

This what the powers in the west when the gave china a choice, go along with our plan o stay in isolation. loaned china trillion in cash, moved trillion of industrial capacity from the U.S and then let them buy up what the what with money they didn't earn. Today people are to brain dead to see the real conspiracy by the west to bring itself down and bring in communism.

 

[jujufreeze]

Throw $1 billion at Chinese uber-competitor, add Chinese instruments to Garageband. What next, have Chairman Mao in the Apple logo?

 

[monty77]

Not sure what you tried to do there, but it comes across to me (my perception and understanding) as a bit racist.

You're getting a bit of a bashing here, and as a fellow UKer I feel compelled to help. Can you explain what you perceived/understood to be racist?

Someone suggested (faceitiously) that to gain favour Mr Cook might consider adopting an orphan from the country he is out of favour with. At least that's the way I read it.

Please respond

 

[petsounds]

A patriotic guy???...come on. Giving 1 billion dollars to a communist country?? Come on. He is a capitalistic guy, not patriotic. Investing 1 billion dollars in the U.S. would be patriotic. Has anyone done that lately...?

I think some people don't understand that China is not a monolithic entity. While some businesses in China are controlled by the government, many are just private enterprises. Didi is just another tech startup. In any case, investing $1B in a U.S. ridesharing service wouldn't do much for Apple. They want a foot in the door of that industry in China. Chinese cities are very congested, so these services will do well there. Do I personally like any American companies dealing in a country with an oppressive regime? Not really because the potential for the government exerting pressure on those companies is high, but this is the hand that U.S. politicians have dealt us. The global economy is dependent on China now.

Apple does buy American companies quite often. That creates value for the owners and puts money into the American economy.

If Apple wanted to return production of more models to the USA they could. They have enough cash to get it done within a year. They choose not to for a simple reason. Money. The half arsed gimmick of screwing together the Mac Pro in the USA was just that a gimmick.

Cook has made it very clear that the production chain to fully manufacture the iPhone in the U.S. just does not exist at the scale Apple needs. As he said in an interview, "You can fit the number of tool & die makers in the U.S. in this room. It would take a football field to fit the amount that are in China." Could Apple spend all of their cash reserves building a whole supply chain in America? Maybe..? How long would it take to build all that, and train all those workers? At the end of the day, why would they? As Apple is a public company, Cook has a fiduciary obligation to investors, and burning through all their cash in order to invest in American manufacturing would drop their stock like a rock.

If you want to change American manufacturing, vote for people who will invest and incentivize manufacturing, and for people who will oppose free trade agreements where low wages and poor environmental standards win out.

 

[mrgraff]

And we all thought that the Chinese-language vocal track on that keynote last year was a mistake.

 

[Toltepeceno]

I think North Korea takes that title.

That title could go to a lot of countries, but North Korea is way beyond here in mexico. They just happen to be one of the worse. China is more like here, ever been here or china? Much closer in how the government treats their people than North Korea. It's bad here but nowhere like N Korea, my comment still stands.

 

[Glassed Silver]

If they can add Chinese instruments and music to Apple Loops, then they have no excuse not to add music and instruments from other cultures as well.

Their excuse, which of course they won't tell is:
a) don't care, your market is already saturated.
b) don't care, your market is too small.
c) your market is neither saturated nor small, but already is drinking the Apple Kool-Aid at OD levels. Why do more?

Apple simply SUCKS at regionalizing. And it's really getting worse with their translations.

Try German OS X or iOS. Now I don't typically care a lot about German interfaces, if an app is only available in English, screw it.
Some sites and applications I even chose to use in English for no good reason, sometimes there is a reason, such as a TERRIBLE translation.

Apple's translations however are neither good nor terrible. They used to be much better, they used to try to fit longer text better or shorten it in a smart way.
They used to avoid mixing in unnecessary English words with perfectly viable and clear German replacements available that are even more commonly used. (I don't, after all, want to see the GDR approach of "let's make up a word or use a very generic one so it's German".)

Really, it's one of the things that bug me the most.
Their absolute lack of care. Google is soooo much better at adapting to other languages.

Hey, here's one more thing: It's cute that Apple included Cologne dialect as a language option in iOS and OS X, I even happily use it, because I love Cologe and generally the Rhine region.
Unfortunately it only replaces a HANDFUL of words in the OS and 99% of the time you'd not be able to tell if it's set to German or Cologne dialect.

Until of course you open Maps and start turn-by-turn navigation, suddenly you hear an ENGLISH voice.
How on earth they chose to go with English as base language for anything as fallback for a German dialect is beyond me.
The entire system falls back to German anyways as barely anything is translated to begin with.

What gives?
Makes NO SENSE.

I'm pretty certain international teams are understaffed. They need more human resources and grant them more control to make cool things that adapt the Apple philosophy to other markets smoothly.
Where's the sense of perfection and finish?
Where's the design language when a button or other UI element shows cut off text, because oops your language needs one more word than our designer anticipated and we couldn't think of a way to rephrase this, let alone review the UI AFTER a translation is applied.

My God, I'm 26 and I've done a handful of translation jobs for programs, but even I with my little experience know that unless you view your translated text in all occurrences your work is bound to look messed up somewhere.

tl;dr: Give international Apple teams more control, more resources, more accountability and let them do more than voice-overs for the latest batch of ads that often seem US-American and are meant to mirror your world around you and how Apple's devices make sense in that world.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[Toltepeceno]

THIS is what a racist comment looks like.

How is it racist?

What next ? Not Racist.
Instructions in a little red book. Nothing Racist.
Rice and noodles with every new iPlod. Many races eat rice and noodles, not racist anyway.
This is Chairman Cook's less than honourable and totally transparent pandering to the yen for profit. Pandering to yen, not racist.
He should remember the Chinese eat sharks for breakfast. And that we are watching. Chinese do eat sharks, I have eaten shark, not racist. Not sure if they eat it for breakfast though. If I say americans eat biscuits and gravy for breakfast that is not racist nor bigoted.
He might also consider that Chinese "music" makes strangling a pig sound like a Brahms lullaby. Opinion on how the music sounds, not racist. How is that saying one race is better than another?

A segment of the people, typically young people, have been brainwashed to believe everything is racist. It's not, unless it's in the context of that race somehow being less because of their race.

This is what I disliked/dislike about the us. White people telling me what I should find offensive when I am very capable of figuring that out myself, usually to them it depends more on who said it than the context. NO, this is not a racist comment as I in no way stated that white people are more or less compared to my race. Mixed mostly indigenous/some european as are most mexicans. Just tossing this in, mexican is not a race nor is latino. Latinos and mexicans are both of different and mixed races.

webster

1. 1: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
   
   
2. 2: racial prejudice or discrimination

 

[JoEw]

If they can add Chinese instruments and music to Apple Loops, then they have no excuse not to add music and instruments from other cultures as well.

Not really, company tends to target biggest sales markets. So China instruments, popular American instruments and India/Brazil instruments will probably be their focus.

 

[notjustjay]

How is it racist?

You missed the misspelling of iPod with a "Chinese lisp", e.g. "iPlod".

And also, the Chinese don't even use yen - which I'll call ignorant, not racist.

The music and breakfast comments, if not outright racist were certainly overgeneralized insults. Obviously ALL Chinese music is not made the same. Obviously not all Chinese people eat the same things, for breakfast or otherwise. Also, the statement was made as if a fact, and not opinion.

Insulting at best. Racist undertones at worst.

 

[Shlooky]

There is nothing wrong with going after certain markets. I think it's a smart move and wish Apple the best of luck.

 

[Toltepeceno]

You missed the misspelling of iPod with a "Chinese lisp", e.g. "iPlod".

And also, the Chinese don't even use yen - which I'll call ignorant, not racist.

The music and breakfast comments, if not outright racist were certainly overgeneralized insults. Obviously ALL Chinese music is not made the same. Obviously not all Chinese people eat the same things, for breakfast or otherwise. Also, the statement was made as if a fact, and not opinion.

Insulting at best. Racist undertones at worst.

Bad taste and insulting, racist no. You have to put down a whole race to be racist. Not every insult is racist.

I did miss iplod but I still would not call it racist. Insulting yes.

Again, eating shark is not racist. If I say americans eat biscuits and gravy for breakfast it's pretty obvious not all americans do and it's not racist/bigoted. Lighten up.

How can he state that everyone thinks chinese music sounds that way? It's his opinion, people are entitled to their opinions of how music sounds.

Are you serious? Any time someone posts something it's opinion unless there are facts/statistics posted to back it up. How can you say he was remotely stating it as fact?

It's amazing what PC ness has done to some parts of the world. People looking for a reason to be offended.

If someone says mexicans eat beans for breakfast and the music sounds like a dying cow it would not be racist. Eating beans for breakfast, which some do and some don't, does not make us any more or less of a race nor is it implied. Exactly the same thing as saying chinese eat shark. Someones opinion of not liking our music reflects on their music tastes and does not imply that we are more or less than they are. How is that a reflection on us?

Understand? It's possible to criticize music or talk about what people eat without it being racist.

To me being racist is someone of one race telling people of another race what is offensive to them because they think they am not smart enough to figure that out on their own. One reason I think the us left is worse than the us right. I am not a dumb, uneducated toilet cleaner just because I have brown skin.

Sorry, wandering some to make the point. I just think people have gotten too sensative and really its creating more of a separation rather than bringing closer.

 

[M5RahuL]

WWDC 2016:

Craig Federighi walks up on stage and presents.....Mac OSX Shanghai

You'll see.

lol... I was thinking OSX Dim Sum !

 

[The Barron]

Big whup!
QUOTE="MacRumors, post: 22906748, member: 3"]


Apple today announced a major update to its GarageBand music creation software for Mac and iOS, adding a wide range of Chinese instruments that are designed to celebrate the "rich history of Chinese music." Today's update also includes "extensive Chinese language localization."

In a press release, Apple says the update adds traditional Chinese instruments like the pipa and erhu, plus Chinese percussion offerings that include drums, wood blocks, cymbals, and gongs. 300 Apple-created Chinese musical loops have also been added to the apps.

The new instruments are available on both the iOS and Mac versions of GarageBand, and each instrument includes different playing articulations like rapid picking and note bend for the pipa and trill, grace note, and glissando for the erhu.

Apple-created loops have been created from a wide variety of instruments and styles, including guzheng, dizi, yangqin and Peking Opera, which can be combined with the new instruments for a unique sound. GarageBand for iOS also includes two new Chinese templates for Live Loops and new sharing options for popular Chinese social networks.

All of the new features in today's update are automatically enabled in Greater China and for Mac users outside of Greater China. On iOS devices outside of Greater China, the features can be enabled through the advanced settings menu.

Singaporean musician JJ Lin posted a YouTube video of himself using the new GarageBand app for iOS with Tim Cook, which Tim Cook tweeted.

​

Apple has been aiming to express its support for China in recent weeks following hints of regulatory trouble in the country. Apple is reportedly being targeted for being "too deeply established" in China's core industries and recently saw iTunes Movies and iBooks Stores in the country shut down following the Hong Kong iTunes release of the controversial independent movie Ten Years, which had been banned in China.

Apple recently announced a $1 billion investment in Chinese ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing, and this morning, he visited the country to meet with Didi Chuxing president Jean Liu. Cook also met with App Store developers at an Apple Store in Beijing.

GarageBand for iOS can be downloaded from the App Store for $4.99. [Direct Link]

GarageBand for Mac can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $4.99. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Apple Updates GarageBand With New Instruments and Sounds to Celebrate Chinese Music[/QUOTE]

 

[PBRsg]

Could Tim Cook be any bigger dork?

http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/16/11688426/garageband-china-update-jj-lin-tim-cook

LOL. It could be worse, like politicians dancing.

 

[Janichsan]

Tim only cares about human rights when it is convenient and easy to do so and won't impact the bottom line.

…which makes him no worse than large parts of the allegedly civilized West. Or do you really think Apple is the only company having close business ties to China? Or – if we look at the larger picture – that no western government turns their blind eye to violations of civil rights in other nations – not only China – when it fits their interest, economic or otherwise?

(Yes, I know, I'm just getting very political.)

 

[robjulo]

The difference is that other companies do not get on the human rights and equality soap box like Cook and Apple do. When it's easy, they jump right on that soap box. But $$$ trumps all.

…which makes him no worse than large parts of the allegedly civilized West. Or do you really think Apple is the only company having close business ties to China? Or – if we look at the larger picture – that no western government turns their blind eye to violations of civil rights in other nations – not only China – when it fits their interest, economic or otherwise?

(Yes, I know, I'm just getting very political.)