Thread: Apple to restrict games/apps on next OS X update "Mountain Lion"

Originally Posted by Warprosper

Because for the average user Apple will take your mp3s and make them playable only on apple devices. Its not like the average user can migrate an itunes library to another device without having some issues with it.

Then you and I have had very different experiences. I don't know what the typical experience is. I do know at least three people who used to keep their music library on an external drive and subsequently bought Macs. They were able to integrate that into iTunes on their own, and they still have an external drive filled with audio and video in the variety of formats originally there.

Some of them ran into trouble with proprietary Microsoft formats not playing. In some cases, they were able to fix that. In others, not (probably would be fixable, but didn't put in the effort). In one case, I advised VLC. This has worked out ok for that person.

I found Windows Media Player to be at least as nasty about proprietary stuff as iTunes. Can you think of another vendor who has done as much to get rid of DRM as Apple? We're not all the way there yet, but I can get unencumbered media from the ITMS.

In terms of keeping and maintaining a media library, I can think of no product which does all the things I'd want it to do, or which doesn't in some subtle way lock me in. I don't use iTunes to keep a library, and I can't speak to all the details. All the software I've tried is to some degree shitty. I know people who think that iTunes is the least shitty, and I respect their opinion.

I do know that iTunes has been the only thing that allows my mother to enjoy regular podcasts. There are many, many, free podcasts available via the ITMS. iTunes allows her to easily subscribe and listen. I have seen no other product that makes doing those things that easy.

I know lots of other people who do it that way. They're all more than smart enough to use some other solution, but any other solution pushes them past their "can't be bothered" threshold.

Originally Posted by Warprosper

Another thing is the OS. They give no freedom to install the os on any other hardware platform.. Im talking about the average user.... So in conclusion Apple has picked their target, modeled the product based on that target, and then proceeds to limit the use of "itunes" to it's own proprietary format.

iTunes plays lots of formats. Lots and lots. I don't understand your point here.

Personally, regarding formats, I have hated lossy audio compression forever. I think that we have given away a lot by worshiping at the MP3 altar, and I won't do it. Until recently, iTunes wouldn't play FLAC. That was one reason I stopped using it. It can do FLAC in an ogg container now. There is also Apple Lossless, for which Apple has released the source and is royalty-free.

As to the OS; that is, as you say, another thing and not the original issue. I don't understand why people get upset about that. The maxim "People who are serious about software make their own hardware" has been around for a while. Apple gets closer to the It Just Works result than any other producer I know of, and it's the integration that's responsible.

Apple not only lets you run other OSs on their hardware, they facilitate it. Microsoft's boot manager never allowed that. When I build my dual-boot machines I have to install Windows first and then replace their boot manager with something else. Though Apple has gone after people who have tried to start companies selling hackintoshs, they haven't gone after individuals.

Originally Posted by Warprosper

I'm curious as to which vendor your talking about and lets be realistic about it... Dont want to hear of some database vendor that has a backend that only works on their system.. I want to hear about the large multibillion dollar tech corporations that do this.

Microsoft doesnt... They dont give a shit where you get your music.... the MS os pretty much says yea if i can play it i can copy it to a device for you.

Apple says ... if it's not apple then fuck you.

I've used other audio players with a Mac. It's just a file transfer. If all you want to do is keep audio files and move them around from one device to another, a Mac lets you do that. I've done it. I've read files out of a Sansa into iTunes. I've moved audio onto the Sansa. If what you want is instant device recognition and synching with iTunes, then get an iPod.

I have an iPod classic. I reformatted it to not use HPFS. It works great. I use it like a little portable harddrive. I can interface with a Mac, and with Windows, and with Linux, and since it has an OS on it I can connect my digital camera to it and transfer all my photos. I bought some third-party A/V cables and used it to run slide shows on the big plasma screen in the bar I used to work at. It was way worth the price.

But it doesn't synch. I manage things manually.

Originally Posted by Warprosper

Then again Apple wouldn't be anywhere near it is today if it weren't for the damn hipster uprising.

Disagree. The fanboi phenomenon happens everywhere. Have you looked at Apple's sales numbers? Are you seriously saying that it's all deluded hipsters?

I build most of my computers, and I mostly run *nix (I also have an old Macbook). But I don't see why people hate Apple. They have taken a walled-garden approach. I think they're making it work pretty well. I don't like the walled garden thing, and though I personally know how to keep my stuff outside a proprietary wall I know that most people don't. But I think they make good stuff, and I think they charge reasonable prices.

Cheers,


AetheLove

Originally Posted by Warprosper

So your run of the mill mp3 player is going to play music you downloaded on Itunes?

Owning a Mac for the purposes of ease of use and familiarity is among the minor reasons for owning a Mac.. unfortunately what I have seen is that its more of a statement than anything.

Had to look this stuff up...

The first DRM-free music available for purchase in the iTunes Store was the EMI catalog in May 2007. As far as I know, everything was DRM-free in the US by mid 2009.

The files are still delivered as AAC. If you want MP3, you right-click on the file in iTunes and select "convert to MP3".

So, I guess the answer to your question is: Yes.

That answer comes with qualifications. Old stuff needs to be stripped of the FairPlay DRM, or you can pay an upgrade fee. That sort of sucks, but the only thing that allowed Apple to sell music in the first place was to promise the media companies to protect it. They have worked steadily since then to remove those protections. They have absolutely done it in a way that protected themselves, but I can't blame them for that and I don't see anyone else doing anything even close.

All that is for music purchased through Apple. Your original query was about "music you own", and iTunes has never prevented you from keeping your music in whatever format you liked.

Earlier in this thread Alundil and I talked about the importance of defaults. The nature of any system is to encourage people to live in the defaults. Because most people don't mess with them, the standard delivery system is the one that sticks around. I won't argue that. But I don't see anyone doing it better than Apple. None of us would have to look long to find examples of now-dead online stores (or dead companies) that have left users without the ability to access the content they paid for. iTunes lets you burn a standard CD - straight-up redbook audio.

Cheers,


AetheLove

In other good news:

iPad 3 Jailbroken | iFans

... that didn't take long, eh?

Cheers,


AetheLove

Originally Posted by Warprosper

wasnt stating that as a fact......humorous intentions.

Then we can at least agree on that. Anytime you want to put a boot in the ribs of wanna-be hipsters I'm there. Of any current caricature, they are certainly no less deserving to be made fun of.

Cheers,


AetheLove

From what iv seen the people who love mac will stick with mac, just how us PC players wont change. I have seen Itunes fuck people over before, guy bought an audio book AND had an Ipod but his Ipod wasnt new enough so he couldnt play the audiobook on it. Spent about an hour on google looking at programs and couldnt find anything for free that would be able to make it playable on any MP3 player other than a new Ipod. Thats just stupid, someone has bought the audiobook, you cant restrict what can play it by file type.