Apple channels Pandora with iTunes 8 Along with an iPod hardware refresh today, Apple's product announcement orgy unveiled an update to iTunes, some iPod software tweaks, and declared peace with NBC. For those keeping score, most of the news had already made their rounds on the web weeks earlier through various leaks, speculation, and over-enthusiastic third- …
There is now only one size of iPod Classic. "One size fits all" says Apple - and that new size is 120GB. So the message from Cupertino is if you have more than 120GB, you have too much music - get a life.
Or get onto eBay and snap up a 160GB Classic while you still can.
"Genius essentially functions like the soon-to-be-tits-up Pandora online radio service"
More substance for the apt Apple title of the Great iNOvator. Copy Steal, Copy Steal Copy Steal, Copy Steal Copy Steal, Copy Steal Copy Steal, Copy Steal Copy Steal, Copy Steal Copy Steal, Copy Steal Copy Steal, Copy Steal Copy Steal, Copy Steal Copy Steal, Copy Steal ....
Still using Apple Konfabulator ..... er Widgets?
This is from the 'learn more' page about Genius (before you turn it on):
"The information sent to Apple includes details about the media in your iTunes library such as track names, play counts, and ratings. This information will be stored with an anonymous Genius ID and not linked to your iTunes Account. When using the iTunes Store or Genius sidebar, Apple will also use your purchase history to give you better recommendations."
So, they anonymise your ID, and yet they look at your purchase history? If you're anonymous, how do they know whose purchase history to look up? Obviously Apple do link the two.
Whilst Apple know what I've purchased from them, I don't want to send them info about my other music (at least whilst they can link the two), so until there is a better understanding of what's going on with this I won't be turning it on. Tinfoil hats and all.
I dunno, provided the headphones are good enough, I'd say thats good value for money.
I've parted close to a ton for a decent pair of in ear headphones before now and noticed where the extra cash has been put into use, when compared to say a 20 quid from dixons pair.
Bit miffed that the Nike+ system will only work with the 2nd Gen iPod touches though. Why couldn't apple have developed a new dongle for the older models?
Since your local copy of iTunes knows what songs you have purchased, it is quite possible for Apple to link your Genius profile, and purchase profile without ever actually needing to see both sets of data side by side. That's the job of iTunes when it creates the anonymized data set.
Their latest iTunes software is causing many people to encounter BSOD on Vista PCs (32 & 64 bit). There's a discussion thread at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8047353, someone also stuck something up on Digg http://digg.com/software/iTunes_8_iPod_Causes_BSOD_on_Vista
I added my comments to the Apple discussion thread, including a link to the Digg article and lo-and-behold my posts were deleted and my account banned from making further posts.
Error User 'Pi55ed-off-with-apple' not allowed to post.
So beware if you install iTunes 8 !!!! and don't complain either !!!!
It's hard to claim that recommendation-based systems are new enough to be copied from anything in specific. Wasn't the originator called Firefly, run out of MIT, and rolled up into the Amazon recommendations engine (which is actually rather good)?
On the headphones front, $80 is loose change. I paid about $120 for my Shure e3cs (they're meant as stage monitors, and they're an awkward impedance for little battery powered devices, but they're fine with an iPod so long as you don't want to operate at high volumes). Recently I mislaid them and, thinking I'd lost them, bought some some Shure SE420s which were about £170 (yes, pounds this time). They're fabulous, and because of the isolation they provide you don't need high volumes to overpower background and no-one else can hear your music at all. My 3cs turned up a few months later, so now I have a spare pair...
"Everyone's music preferences are beamed to Apple to be combined and analyzed for better a recommendation engine. The company claims this data is sent secure and anonymous"
what on earth?!? since when is this OK?? it seems like every company in the world is jostiling for position in this "privacy grope" race?!?!
I don't know about you but I'm getting pretty sick of feeling like an easily led teenager that's been pumped full of apathy flavoured rohypnol as my every mental crevice is being explored by the celebratory prying fingers of big businesses.
seriously it's like they are coming at our privacy from every conceivable angle!
Come on Apple, get your finger out - at least do what google did with picasa and do a Linux version which is essentially a windows version packaged with wine, but works.
It's not as if it is a windows software with no Mac version - surely Mac OS isn't a million miles away from Linux (they are both *nix flavours).
I know the market isn't massive, but it is a market they haven't touched on.
I really hope Apple aren't going down their usual path and ripping off a great idea, like (in this case) last.fm - it's a brilliant service (as was Pandora) and to see it suffer because iTunes copies it would be a great shame
Also, @James Dunmore: Spot on. Although I'd recommend Amarok - much, much better than iTunes. For one, it has an "enqueue" function. Surely that's pretty simple to implement, Apple? No? (don't go telling me to use the stupid party shuffle tool, people)
I've been holding on for the next round of iPod's, waiting for a bigger classic, and they go and give me 120Gb or nothing? Jesus Apple, you want people to 'carry their music collections around' but you think anyone with more than 120Gb is obviously mental? Harddrives are getting cheaper, give us more space, not less. I keep my music on an external 320Gb drive and would like it all on an iPod instead. According to Apple now, not without chucking half of it I can't. I've waiting long enough, time to go looking at other options now.
Oh yes - I use Amarok, by far the best music player on any platform (well, I think so!) and there are plenty of Linux Apps for putting content onto my iPod+connecting to iTunes for buying music.
But sometimes - mostly for updating the iPod software, and some of the functionality - I need to use iTunes - rarely, like once every couple of months - but a pain to reboot when it does occur.
(although I just got iTunes talking to my iPod, via a VMWare XP machine (with a Linux host) - quite happy with that!)
@Jared Earle okay, perhaps I wasn't quite right - buy you know what I'm getting at!
Great to see you in top form, old boy, the place needs your rational invective...
And for the rest of you, here too--it's a music player, and it does a very good job of it. There _are_ other choices, which you are welcome to use.
Please do look into how that works if it seems a bit difficult for you. Even Windows users should be able to figure it out.
Paris, because even she understands the process of choice.
Although I don't care enough about audio quality to spend that much money, I've seen lots of 3rd party headphones for iPods that cost much more than that. Please notify me when your hit piece article about their headphones is published so I can writhe in joy at your fairness and impartiality . . .
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Rik, I really suggest that you buy a decent set of earphones and try again, they really are awful earphones in every respect. Earrape was a term I heard applied to them and it's fairly appropiate.
I'm not one of these audiophiles that can gnats farting (if I was I wouldnt be using MP3s or an iPod) but even I can hear the difference, though I can still hear (at my advanced years) wether bats are in the area
Apart from poor sound quality, the dreadful fit, low volumes and the amount of sound leakage makes it a necessity to replace the iPod headphones.
Theres plenty of sub £20 headphones that are superior to the bundled ones (cept they don't have an apple logo on them). In the sub £30 range the difference is night & day. At £42 Currys will supply you with Ultimate Ears fuper.fi3 earphones which are brillient at the price.
I do hope that the dual driver earphones are good as I would like an affordable pair of dual driver phones
@Kiminao
Methinks the lady doth protest too much (about windows in your case) how about finding something better to do with your time.
Even Paris's orifices would reject apples earbuds
The Genius playlist needs a bit of work, but I'll assume it will get better. It whipped up a nice emo playlist for me so..
As far as the headphones, the original ipod headphones are crap. I've heard worse, but they are bad. You can get a set of skullcandy in ear headphones for about $30, and they work really really well. If you want really good phones, the Shure line are fantastic, but I don't like the sound isolation as I travel with my wife, and they are a bitch to get in properly, only to have to take them out to hear anything the missus has to say.
Now, if you really want good headphones - you go with Bose, the QC2 noise cancelling headphones. I wear them on the bus everyday and they still make my jaw drop.
Genius is pretty nifty - it's the first auto-playlist generator I've used that's actually generated playlists I've enjoyed. This is coming from one of the few people to ever have bought a Winamp license (apparently?!).
I've tried a few different playlist generators, the winamp ones, mp3tunes had an awful one too just before I cancelled my account... I've only been using genius over the weekend, but I've already burnt maybe 3 of the 100song lists to mp3 cd for the car.
Never used to like iTunes, was just forced on me when I jumped ship to osx as neither of my old fave's (Winamp and Amarok) have mac versions, but recently these last few updates have made me quite a fan.
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