Open Letter to Apple

[Tog]

Yep Songbird has potential and the way itunes handles multiple libraries can be a pain but it does so much more very well. i love my ipod touch remote, the way itunes handles video (not the way it catalogues it at the moment) the simplicity of syncing my ipod and the sound it makes through my dac.

 

There may be better playback systems on a pc but I use my macs for other things as well as music and the though of having to use Window is unthinkable now.

 

I would like a server module for itunes - what do you think?

 

yours, frightened of doze, tog

 

[BEEMB]

 

Could we add "Apple to produce an Airport Express which works" to this letter?

So many many users with many problems.

 

 

[wappinghigh]

High everyone. Been absent awhile.

 

What a great forum. All the high res stuff is icing on the cake IMHO. What is really needed is an Apple designed and tested NAS that WORKS with itunes.

 

Yeh I know of the "automount" work arounds, endless tutorials about how to move itunes library's and so called "itunes" compatible drives - fact is they are all compromises. Been there done that. In the end you'll wind up with a scrambled itunes library and a NAS situation that doesn't ALWAYS mount and is frustratingly difficult to update.

 

What I would like is an Apple NAS (with a choice of 1 or 2T discs and choice of raid) that is as easy to network as a time capsule, and that syncs 2 way seemlessly with an itunes library stored on a mac.

 

That way the primary "master" itunes library (file) is easily updated/added to/synced with a multiple of other ipods etc via your mac, with the actual music files (as the folder grows in size with the addition of high res downloads etc) remaining on a memory capable NAS device.

 

I've gone the full circle with my itunes library/music storage. imac->NAS-> now back to imac (with firewire raided backup)

 

Itunes is now back to how it should really work!

 

Catch ya...

 

[Wavelength]

Gang,

 

I downloaded the latest XCode last week as I need something else to look at in my spare time (yea right). I was shocked at how many example programs had FLAC support. So maybe this will come into iTunes soon.

 

But there is no reason for Apple to really look at FLAC. Look at it this way... they make money on the hardware and allow people to rip music and download in AAC. Anything else is taking money out of the bottom line. I think anyone here who has been in serious software development like I have will tell you that the amount of people supporting iTunes right now would be equivalent to some medium sized companies.

 

What do I want... I want a net book... an Air that's a little more reasonable in price.

 

Thanks

Gordon

 

[MahlerFreak]

To be fair to the iTunes team, they simply have a different kind of problem than almost all the other library developers out there. The installed base of iTunes is almost surely in the 10s of millions, perhaps 100s, with a global geographic distribution. When you have an installed base that big, most of whom are "casual users", just writing the code for a feature is only the very tip of the iceberg. Testing every possible configuration and interaction, documenting the feature, translating into a couple of dozen languages or more, generating the marketing collateral, training support personnel, exposing the functionality through your API, etc, etc. When you consider that only a very small percentage of that customer base is likely to have even heard of FLAC, and add in the fact that, as Gordon says, it generates no revenue - you get the picture.

 

OTOH, if FLAC eventually gets enough traction that even a small percentage (low single digit percentage) of iTunes customers consider switching away from iTunes because of missing FLAC support, then that represents a significant negative revenue opportunity, and the iTunes team will have to be all over it.

 

Smaller companies that cater more to an "enthusiast" audience can afford to move much faster on leading edge developments, counting on their customer base to be more tolerant of occasional problems, missing documentation, etc, in order to get the extra functionality.