- Posts tagged iTunes
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HP's TouchPad media player, HP Play, is in beta
Based on the open source Songbird software, it has more than a passing resemblance to iTunes. Still, why not use a successful layout, and I like the look.
The article's headline is way too ambitious, though. "Who Needs iTunes?" Well, anyone who wants a store, or movies, or TV shows, or AirPlay, or books, or apps, or Genius…
Steve Jobs reveals some of iCloud to a D8 conference attendee a year ago
In light of the recent iCloud announcement, it's especially interesting to review this exchange between Steve Jobs and a D8 conference attendee during the Q&A session at the end of Jobs' interview.
What's surprising is how candid Jobs was about a future offering. Not only was he specific about what the problem was, he even tipped his hand at iTunes Match scanning non-iTunes content by using the phrase "or somehow otherwise acquired", which neither McAskill or Mossberg mentioned. He then states that they're working on it.
In retrospect it was an unusual reveal for Jobs to make, given his standard response of not talking about future products
The exchange begins at 1:20:45 in the video here, and I've transcribed it below (emphasis is Jobs'):
Don McAskill: Hey, Steve, Don McAskill from SmugMug. You may remember a couple years ago we talked about this, but I think it's even more pressing. I love my iPad, my two year old daughter loves my iPad, and I buy the truck vs. car analogy, but it seems like there's a sort of a gaping hole in that analogy right now. You have great syncing of contacts and mail and calendar. I can buy my apps and update them over the air, but I still have to tether to get what is arguably the birth of this platform, which is music and videos on my devices…
Steve Jobs (interrupting): That's not exactly true. You can buy music and get it on your device over the air and you can buy video and get it on your device over the air. iTunes store is on all those devices and it does flow over the air.
McAskill: But I have a large iTunes library that I've built up thanks to you over the last eight years…
Jobs (interrupting): No what you'd like to do is share your library of media amongst your various devices. It's not buying it…
Walt Mossberg (interrupting): Without a wire.
Jobs: Yeah, without a wire. It's not buying it on that device, because you could buy it all on that device.
McAskill: It's the tethering…
Mossberg: Syncing.
Jobs: It's the sharing. You want to share your content that you've bought or somehow otherwise acquired amongst you're various devices.
McAskill: Yeah.
Mossberg: And you can't do that today, right, with iTunes?
Jobs: You can do that today with a wire, you cannot do that today without a wire. We need to work harder on that.
Mossberg: You do.
Jobs: We do.
(audience laughing)
McAskill: Thank you.
Mossberg: You really can't even do it with a wire because it'll blow away, it'll say if you're gonna sync with this PC or this Mac…
Jobs (interrupting): No no but if it's your content you can do it all real easy, it just takes a wire.
Mossberg: So you're gonna do better?
Jobs: We need to do better.
Mossberg: OK, any time soon?
Jobs: We're working on it.
Apple to Provide Live Video Streaming of September 1 Event
Apple® will broadcast its September 1 event online using Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10.6 Snow Leopard®, an iPhone® or iPod touch® running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad™. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on September 1, 2010 at www.apple.com.
Limiting the stream to Apple devices is a nice touch.
I doubt Apple's decision to live stream this particular event means it's extra special. I doubt this specific event had anything to do with the decision at all. Rather, I tend to think Apple was going to do this whenever they felt they were ready, or got over whatever objections they've had to it in the past. I guess that time's come.
On the other hand, if video streaming to a new Apple TV (both rumored) is announced tomorrow, then the event streaming—using, I presume, the same technology—could serve as a "live demo" of that technology. Nice marketing.
Unless it fails, my expectation is that Apple will live stream events from now on.
iPad Rollout In Education Encounters DRM Hell
This is a hole in Apple's App Store infrastructure that the massive interest in iPads for education is exposing, in a way that the iPhone and iPod touch never did.
Good article on a major obstacle for rolling out iPads in the education market.
Slow, bloated, crashing...
…iTunes is in desperate need of an overhaul… and the iTunes platform itself is derided by many as slow and prone to crashes.
If that's all it took to require an overhaul, Microsoft Office would be on its fifth overhaul right now.
Why is it when people deride software as "slow", "bloated", "crashes", etc., their complaints always come with a raft of feature requests, as if the latter don't contribute heavily to the former?
Video of Green Day on the iPad: Everything worthwhile has already been invented
for a guy like Steve Jobs, when is enough, enough.
They sum up at the end by saying "In short, the iPad is stupid".
I don't care if they like the device, and their concerns on what Apple has "done" to the music industry are shared by many "old style" artists (i.e., those that started when physical media still ruled). I disagree, and think things would be much worse had Apple and others not provided a legal alternative for what was going to happen anyway, but I respect their opinion on it.
I also disagree that people are buying an iPad to figure out WTF it is. On the contrary, I believe people are buying an iPad because, once they actually use one, it's immediately obvious what it is.
What I most take exception to is the "when is enough, enough" question. To me, there's a massive shortsightedness in your views on technology when the crux of your argument is that somehow we've gone far enough with it, and apparently we can just stop now. Do these guys feel the same way about music?
Why I, and so many others, love Apple customer service
