Life & Technology – 2GB 14th June, 2015

I don't own an iPhone, an iPad or a Mac, but I'm really excited about Apple Music, Apple's newly announced streaming service. Much like Spotify, Apple Music will let you stream over 30 million songs for a low monthly fee. Pricing and launch dates are yet to be confirmed for Australia, but it will be USD$10 per month for a single account, or USD$15 per month for a family account that allows up to six users.

 

The more exciting thing about Apple Music is that it will essentially mirror your entire iTunes you library to the cloud, meaning you can stream any song you've got on your computer, anywhere you are, without actually having to put it on your phone.

 

Apple Music will work on Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad and Android. A three month free trial will be available when it launches.

 

Apple announced an upgrade to iOS – the iPhone and iPad operating system – that will be coming in the spring. Here's nine reasons you should be excited about it!

 

I also had a chat to renown Australia photographer Ken Duncan this week. If you missed the radio show, check out our podcast for his tips! If you want to know more, visit Ken's website for workshop dates – you'll definitely learn a lot.

 

In other photography news, Canon is bringing a pair of really impressive cameras to Australia this month: the 5DS and the 5DSR. What sets these apart from the rest of its line-up is a massive 50 megapixel sensor; it’s currently the highest resolution DSLR on the market.

 

The reason you’d consider this is you want to make large prints of your photos. Alternatively, it gives you a bit more freedom when cropping images; if your composition is a bit off, you reframe the image on your computer and still have a great picture you can print without losing detail. Honestly, this is probably overkill for most, but it’s really impressive technology. I’ve seen A3 prints of photos taken with these two cameras, and the level of detail is incredible.

 

Imagine waking up to the smell of coffee, croissants or even money every single morning.  One enterprising young French engineering student has envisioned just that, with SensorWake, an alarm clock that wakes you through the power of smell alone. Much like a Nespresso machine, you put in a capsule with your fragrance of choice, but you’ll get about 60 uses out of it, rather than one.

 

The project is being funded through Kickstarter – you’ll need to pledge AUD$135 for a SensorWake and two capsules. Deliveries are set to begin in November