Why Android could hurt Itunes
Why pay for DRM?
WHEN GOOGLE LAUNCHED its Android software it was under a banner of something that could cause Apple some harm.
While most of the pundits said that it would not do much to damage the super soaraway success of the Iphone, they largely failed to notice that the Google phone had Amazon's MP3 online music and movie store built under its bonnet.
Say what you like about the wonders of the Iphone, but one of the downsides of the Apple's music empire is its clunky Itunes software which has all the user friendliness of using a piranha to shave with.
After using Sony's walkman for a while I had a play with Itunes on my girlfriend's Nano which she had given up on. After having to hand over her life story to Apple's database (don't worry we made it all up) to buy from its store I was amazed how difficult it was use in comparison to Amazon and the Sony walkman combo.
Amazon MP3 launched a year ago with an online music catalogue listing more than two million songs from more than 180,000 artists and 20,000 labels, including EMI Music and Universal.
Songs are priced from 89 cents to 99 cents and albums are priced from $1.99 dollars to $9.99.
Basically it is the best DRM-free music service out there and on a non-Apple phone it could do Jobs' Mob some damage.
At the moment Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs can smugly quote industry statistics saying that iTunes is the largest music seller in the world. However if Android gains any traction in the market then he could see iTunes losing a lot of ground too.
It is hard to find even the most ardent Apple fanboy who thinks that Itunes is any good and many ordinary people, who get bored with technology fads, would prefer something better, sleaker and more adaptable. µ
Comments
Hurt Apple, Huh!
yes your right about Apple's site, but once you have filled in the crap, you can buy with 'One Click', anyway I went to Amazon Mp3 store, found some smashing track which I wanted, 'signed in' only to be told that its only available to the US customers only.And this is going to hurt who?
The fireworks continue
"the user friendliness of using a piranha to shave with"Good God, people, what is going on at the Inq these days ?
It's an unending streak of mind-boggling puns and fantastically sly and witty remarks. I'm not sure I can take much more on a daily basis like that.
But, like a terminally-cholesterolated, deathly overweight merkin, I can't stop coming back for more quarter-pounders of neuron-tickling remarks.
Keep it up ! If I die because of it, I'll die happy !
What exactly is the problem?
I use itunes and think its fine. What exactly is the problem with it? Apart from DRM, it does everything I need from a music player well. What is it you wish to do with your music?Farrell, as usual you are being an utter plank
Firstly the iPhone and iPod Touch can bypass iTunes and download from the iTunes Store directly. Secondly iTunes it's self isn't that bad. It may have become a little porky of late, but it does a pretty reasonable job of cataloging and finding tracks (just start typing in the search box and it narrows the list of displayed tracks down nearly instantly). Finally iPhones are a small fraction of the installed base of iPods (more than 50 million iPods sold last year alone).Now we know you like announcing the immanent demise of Apple, but you've been doing it HOW long now? There's no sign yet of it happening.
Not yet
- Amazon is US only.- The current Google phone needs an addaptor just for earphones.
- Not all iTunes music is DRM'ed
You think think Apple asks for too much info? Use a google phone and they know what you search, and where you are (GPS + Google maps) and if you buy something they know who you are too (assuming they already don't know from the phone contract).
Itunes
Itunes SUCKS seriously have you guys actually used that thing? Its bloated, comes with other crap which I don't want and cant even put new song on an ipod on another computer you have to wipe the whole thing and start from scratch or pull song from the ipod and the interface!! Seriously and the same story when you reinstall. Thanks but no thanks use FloolaZealotry ahoy!
-I own an iphone.-I avoid the itunes DRM songs like the plague.
-ITunes is actually terribly slow at indexing songs.
-If you have a large library of mp3's then the Itunes interface slows to a crawl if you view it with anything other than just the text list. (i.e. album view, or the flippy thing.)
-I could keep on going with negatives for quite a while.... but I wont.
I just don't see why the zealots defend itunes. Hell the Winamp interface is superior to itunes and its still using an interface from a decade ago.
As I said, I'm an iphone user, but I make no apology for itunes crappyness. Itunes needs a re-write from the ground up in my opinion.
Andwhat?
Android is an also ran praying it can make some cash off the Google brand. It brings nothing to the table that isn't already done on Palm, Symbian, and other mobile products.What's really pathetic is how all the Apple fans whine about Windows/MS locking things while sucking down the most DRM'd crippled POS devices on the planet like candy. App Store has turned into just the lame barf that anyone who's paid any attention to Apple for the last 20+ years though it would. Building anything for an Apple device is not worth the time, effort, or licensing fees, for most companies or even small developers. The recent Podcast app circus is one example of hundreds where apple has gone out of its way to shaft its largest supporters.
My pirahna experience.
Browse, click "buy song", click play. OMFG!!! You are freaking right!!!! That was soooooooo hard. I could have been killed or something.Hilarious!!!!
And the apple fanboys come out of the woodworks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Are you real
How many feet can you stick in that big mouth of yours. When are you going to start writing the facts, instead of your Apple bashing?No problem for me
... as I have used the multiple delivery address feature in Amazon to enter a U.S. address. When ever I buy mp3's from Amazon.com, it thinks i'm a US resident and lets me buy them. i get charged for the price of the tracks + the card issuers currecy coversion charge, but its worth it.Amazon even has a little program that automates the address verification and allows you to download albums quicker. All in DRM-free mp3 format.
BTW, I found that trick out courtesy of the INQ.
Itunes_ It depends on the meaning of _pro
I love ITunes. It_ s the best truncatIf you need more than_ 30 you can_
And slow XML_, stupid XML tric
_Crashes_ And __ one _ needs_ to sort anyw
Name that tune
I hardly know what constitutes a good sound system, perhaps an oxymoron these days. My nephew said his Apple Ipod Nano was the best purchase he'd ever made. God knows what passes for knowledge at the law schools today. I won't even discuss politics with the lad, and would music, save your mortal soul. Where did I put my RollingStone?iTunes does suck indeed
I agree, iTunes sucks big time. I hate that POS. Loved the iPod though, but the fact that I have to use iTunes to manage it was infuriating. I abandoned my iPod because of this. Love the amazon store (use it from my PC).History Repeats itself
Android vs. Ipod.One is tied to hardware. One is hardware agnostic.
One is expensive. One is variable depending on the SKU.
One gives hardware makers/carriers leeway as purely a platform with multiple partners. One is very tight with its partnerships.
One has a somewhat open platform. One has a very tightly closed system.
Does anyone sense that Apple is committing the exact same mistake it did in the OS wars?
Remember Microsoft, Apple? Remember how you Apple once had 70 ~ 80 % of the pc market? remember how that dwindled to uh 5%?
We are seeing history repeat itself.
*sniff*
Come back allofmp3.com - all is forgiven.I miss it so much, it blew all else out of the water in terms of speed, ease of use, and size of catalogue.
Oh well. I'll wait for the next one.
Liberate yourself
www.rockbox.org <- rockbox your ipod (and several other pmps) and forget about itunes.Itunes is pants
Itunes is a load of crap, and does make it difficult for people to just chuck on tunes to their thingy. My girlfriend had also nearly given up on the bloody thing, and has actually gone back to using the cheapo chinese USB MP3 player, as you just plugin then drag and drop.A fool and his money...
Itunes is made for one purpose and one purpose only: to take your money (hence the 1 click). It sells you a very shoddy product (compressed music that sounds like s**t) and Apple fanbois eat it like candy.A fool (Apple fanboi) and his money..., you know the rest.
How hard of thinking are some of these commenters?
Close to 1000 albums loaded and it's near as damn it instant (in ANY of the 3 view modes) to find a song by name, album or artist. If it's not fast on your machine then you have to ask if it's got enough RAM, CPU or GPU power for most modern software (if the latter, just stop using the pretty modes, tricky yes?)Difficult to synch an iPod? Create a play list. Tell iTunes ONLY to synch songs in the playlist with your iPod. Add or delete songs to/from the playlist to specify the tracks you want. Plug the iPod in and wait whenever you want it synching. How hard is that?
You have to use DRM? Ignoring for a moment the DRM free iTunes+ option, you can use it to rip CDs or you can buy and add unprotected MP3s/AACs from any other store you can find (like Amazon, providing they will sell to you).
use songbird it's in beta 0.7 but at least it supports iPod and is easy to use
I use Songbird. It's a wonderful opensource program though still in beta. Not all the bugs have been hammered out. Needs input but sure is better than iTunes.