It’s official. The MP3 is dead. Or, so says one of the patent holders for MP3 audio technology, the Fraunhofer Institute.

We thank all of our licensees for their great support in making mp3 the defacto audio codec in the world, during the past two decades.

The development of mp3 started in the late 80s at Fraunhofer IIS, based on previous development results at the University Erlangen-Nuremberg. Although there are more efficient audio codecs with advanced features available today, mp3 is still very popular amongst consumers. However, most state-of-the-art media services such as streaming or TV and radio broadcasting use modern ISO-MPEG codecs such as the AAC family or in the future MPEG-H. Those can deliver more features and a higher audio quality at much lower bitrates compared to mp3.

What does this mean? Is the MP3 dead? Yes. And no.

First, it means the institute that started it all recognizes that life goes on, technology improves, and that the AAC audio file format family launched a couple of decades ago is superior.

Second, not much else in audio file formats will change right away because it’s been changing for 20 years, thanks to Apple. No, Apple didn’t invent AAC, but Apple, thanks to iTunes dominance in the music industry, made it happen.

AAC was developed with the cooperation and contributions of companies including AT&T Bell Laboratories, Fraunhofer IIS, Dolby Laboratories, Sony Corporation and Nokia. It was officially declared an international standard by the Moving Picture Experts Group in April 1997.

Apple took the bold step to move the audio industry beyond MP3 in 2003, back when DRM (digital rights management) was all the rage (sarcasm intended).

In April 2003, Apple brought mainstream attention to AAC by announcing that its iTunes and iPod products would support songs in MPEG-4 AAC format (via a firmware update for older iPods). Customers could download music in a closed-source Digital Rights Management (DRM)-restricted form of AAC (see FairPlay) via the iTunes Store or create files without DRM from their own CDs using iTunes. In later years, Apple began offering music videos and movies, which also use AAC for audio encoding.

Some de facto standards take awhile to catch on, and some take awhile to be relegated to history. Regardless of the complicated origins and history, MP3 audio was the de facto standard prior to the public internet and Napster’s popularity which cemented public use of the MP3 format, AAC has moved on to claim its right as a better solution.

Thank you, Apple.

One can argue the merits of this audio codec over that audio codec (similar arguments rage in the video world, too), but few can argue that Apple did not have a hand in moving the technology forward.

That’s what Apple does.

Remember the mouse? How about USB? Apple made the mouse and graphic user interface the de fact standards. USB? Apple pushed it upon Mac users starting in 1998 and with advancements it remains the standard for peripheral connections among computers. Some Apple inspired advancements have not fared as well, including FireWire, and more recently the proprietary Lightning connector.

I see a long list of advancements Apple has made to the industry that did not come from competitors. Retina displays on Mac, iPhone, and iPad is another example. Regardless of what one thinks of Apple and innovation, the technology gadget industry seems to follow where Apple leads. Most of the time.

As is the case with most Mac users, and definitely the vast majority of iPhone and iPad users, Safari is my main browser. Or, rather, was my browser of choice. I just made a switch. This move didn’t come easy. I’ve tried many browsers, and use Google’s Chrome more than any other browser other than Safari; including Firefox, Brave, Vivaldi, and others.

I just switched to a new version of Opera.

I know what you’re thinking. “Opera is still around?” Yeah. It may not be used by more than a few percent of the browser users on planet earth, but out of more than three billion users, you’d be in good company with a few hundred million Opera users.

Opera claims this latest version is the Opera browser “reborn.” Uh, no. Most browsers these days are the same. They display webpages the same way, they’re all fast, most of extensions or add-ons, and most are free.

What makes this new Opera any different? No much.

It displays web pages accurately (as I can tell). It’s fast. It has a few clever add-ons. It’s free. What’s different is the continuation of Opera’s direction. A couple of years ago Opera added a free VPN and a built-in ad blocker. The latest version has an unobtrusive lefthand sidebar that incorporates a few of the more popular- and secure- social messenger apps. Facebook Messengers, WhatsApp, and Telegram, specifically. All available with a click.

As is often the case with Apple’s applications and products, there isn’t a single feature that seals the deal; it’s the collective, the user experience, how the whole widget works well together. That’s something of the experience in this new Opera browser. Here’s what I like.

VPN - I don’t use VPNs all the time but when I travel or go mobile, it’s a must. This is built-in and free.

Ad Blockers - Advertising can be annoying and the various trackers and analytics scripts slow down webpage load times and increase bandwidth usage. The ad blocker is built into Opera and is easy to allow exceptions.

Speed - Try it. It’s fast without the ad blocker and much faster when the ad blocker is turned on. Impressive enough to be a notable change to the Mac browser experience.

Memory & Battery - Google’s Chrome is known to be a battery hog. All those spawned Chrome helpers don’t help your Mac’s battery life. Opera spawns them, too, but they use far less CPU, and less battery than Chrome or Safari, which seems odd since Opera’s reborn browser is based upon Chromium.

User Interface - One reason I can’t use Firefox for more than an hour at a time is the user interface clutter. Chrome comes across as spartan. Safari is friendly but becoming more cluttered. Opera is in between; similar to Chrome, for obvious reasons, but clean and uncluttered, even with the sidebar.

Opera asks to save passwords entered manually so they can be re-entered during another visit. Apple’s macOS Sierra Sharing Pane is built in, too. The ad blocker can have blocked lists, and insecure forms or logins are identified.

All in all, this new version of Opera is enough to get me to switch on the Mac. For awhile. Most browser tests last for an hour, a few for half the day, but this one surprised me with how fast and elegant it works. Try it for the speed and ad blocker alone. I would like to see the sidebar expanded beyond settings, bookmarks, secure messenger accounts, but this is a good start.

To hear technology pundits tell it, Amazon’s Echo with Alexa is the future of internet personal assistants and the best artificial intelligent device available for average citizens. The narrative tells us that Apple is doomed because Google Assistant and Google Home and Amazon’s various Echo devices are the future but here now. Many of those same members of the technorati elite would lead you to believe that Apple is doomed and Apple Watch was a huge failure.

You would think math would rule, but Amazon, Google, and Apple won’t tell anyone how many of their devices have been sold to date, so we’re, 1) left to guess, or, 2) left to read someone else’s guesses.

As to the latter, Apple’s Watch is a highly profitable multi-billion dollar business while Home and Echo are not. To hear the negative narrative, Apple’s own artificial intelligence, Siri, the personal digital assistant available on over 1-billion iPhones, iPads, and Macs, is a failure and will never improve sufficiently to catch up.

Yet, here we are with yet another Apple rumor, this one called the Siri Speaker, a device that Apple will introduce soon, a personal digital assistant that should work much like Echo and Alexa and Google Home. An always-on listening device that can take commands, play music, perform various actions in the home and control a few gadgets here and there.

Let’s assume for the moment that such home-based devices- Amazon Echo, Google Home- are the future and Apple, as usual, is late to the party. As usual? Historically, Apple is late to nearly every party. It’s modus operandi.

• Mac - Lisa came before, but inspired by Xerox PARC devices with a GUI
• iPod - many portable music players came before iPod and iTunes
• iPhone - many smartphones existed before the iconic iPhone debuted
• iPad - tablet PCs were around for a decade before the iPad
• Watch - Apple didn’t invent the smartwatch, but owns competitors

That should suffice, there are other products and innovations, too (including iTunes, iTunes Music Store, Apple Stores, et al), but you get the idea. The fact that Apple does not invent a new technology category should not be cause for concern.

A so-called Siri Speaker and SiriKit could debut at June’s WWDC 2017 event. My concern for such a device is what I call device fatigue. Maybe it’s a thing, maybe it’s not, but I suspect there is something of a limit to how many internet connected devices most people want or need.

Device fatigue might help to explain why iPad’s sales have declined drastically the past three years. It’s just another device to manage, another device to upgrade, another device on the charge card, and another device to learn, although in the case of Siri Speaker, it might become a device to teach.

Look at how many devices Apple has on the market already. Mac, iPhone, iPad, Watch, Apple TV- all of which have Siri already built in- plus, the iPod line and wearables (Beats headphones and AirPods). That’s a long list of products that can be used but must be purchased and managed.

A so-called Siri Speaker only adds to the list, adds to a growing device fatigue, and likely does about the same as Siri on all of Apple’s major devices. The key to success here will be what Siri Speaker does, and how it differs from Siri on the iPhone (and other devices).

I have yet to read or hear a good argument as to why we need to buy another box that ostensibly does what our devices do now.