Apple turns iTunes up to 11: Software at a crossroads
Twelve years ago Apple was lagging. Consumers with PCs were ripping music to their hard drives and creating mixes. They were even taking those mixes and burning them onto CDs for listening to in the car, or on the go. The same experience could not be had easily on a Mac.Apple's solution was iTunes. A piece of software that promised to do all those things, but with more simplicity than rivals, and only on a Mac.iTunes quickly became a case study in the benefits of tightly integrated hardware and software. You had to own a Mac to use it, a tie that became even stronger with the addition of the iPod. The slick MP3 player, which would rocket Apple into incredible growth and popularity as a consumer brand, relied on iTunes to bring it to life out of the box, and keep it alive with content. Today things could not be more different. The CD is nearly dead. Instead people get their music whenever they want, and wherever they are. This happens on paid streaming services from rivals, as well as through Apple's own paid Match service, which stores copies in the cloud, and lets users re-download them any time.What's more, Apple's portable devices, which have since stretched from the iPod to the iPhone and iPad, can all be set up and used without even touching iTunes the desktop software. As a result, iTunes is no longer the hub, something that's given the software a bit of an identity crisis.The next version of iTunes, which Apple says will be out by the end of the month for both Mac and Windows, represents the latest step to address some of these changes in the way people store and use their content on computers. It's more deeply tied into Apple's media store, as well as a user's music collection that can now be backed up and stored indefinitely in Apple's cloud as part of a paid subscription service. Apple's even redesigned its player to put many of the commonly used features in a widget that can be used even when you're doing something outside of iTunes.iTunes 11's new mini player lets you access numerous iTunes features without keeping the full app open.AppleAll these things are likely to be welcome additions for longtime users, but the fact remains that the software now plays a less important role in the way people are finding, purchasing, and ingesting content. Consumers have bought more than 20 billion songs from Apple during the past nine years, but where that's happening has changed dramatically. According to Apple, two-thirds of iTunes downloads now come from iOS devices, as opposed to desktops. That statistic, mentioned by the company at the unveiling of iTunes 11 in September, is more impressive when you consider that iOS devices have only been in existence since the iPhone in mid-2007, a little more than four years after Apple added its store to the desktop software in early 2003.For its part, the experience of iTunes on the desktop versus mobile devices is a tale of two ideologies. On the desktop everything goes through iTunes. If you want to find and download an app, audiobook, podcast, music album, TV show, movie, or even to rearrange your app icons on an attached iOS device -- you can do it through the software. On the iOS device itself, many of those same things are siloed into their own apps. iTunes there is just a store, which puts the content you buy into different app buckets. Apple has shown little interest in attempting to consolidate all this, and has instead proceeded to break out things like finding, downloading, and listening to podcasts into its own app -- something that used to work from right within iTunes on iOS. But that's not the real issue.Even with a redesign there looms a threat at the business behind the software. iTunes faces fiercer competition from upstarts that have focused squarely on music on demand. Services like Spotify and RDIO aim to tempt users away from maintaining and storing a library of their own music, instead offering a way to stream anything and everything both on the computer and through apps for portable devices. There's also Google's YouTube, which might sound a bit funny in the same breath as music streaming services, but it's filled to the brim with music tracks that many in the record industry say are cannibalizing demand for Apple's downloads.Related storiesiTunes 11 (CNET first take)Web radio growing faster than on-demand services (study)Apple's proposed Web radio service is no certaintyAdding to that are streaming radio services like Pandora, which recently pulled in a reported 27 percent year-over-year increase in audience,according to a study by the NPD Group. That same report suggested that listeners were tuning into products like Pandora and other streamers, leading to a 21-point year-over-year drop in playing music files off portable devices.While the jury remains out on whether such businesses cannot just exist but also thrive in the long term, they're proof that the way people find and discover music continues to change. Apple has fought back by pursuing exclusivity. You can now buy specially mastered music collections and extra content that comes bundled into music albums. Apple has even dabbled in offering previews of entire albums that can be streamed through the software. The next step is a much-rumored streaming radio product that will rival Pandora and other such services, however it's not a part of iTunes 11 just yet. What's clear is that even when it arrives, you have to believe that there will be few advantages to using it on a computer versus mobile, once again leaving Apple's desktop music product in a lurch.
Microsoft's mobile news- Facebook, refunds, Mizrahi
Microsoft's mobile news: Facebook, refunds, Mizrahi
Windows Live, Hotmail, FacebookFor more than a year, we've been wondering when Facebook and Microsoft were going to grace Windows Mobile phones with an official and native Facebook app like its free, downloadable applications for BlackBerry, iPhone, and Palm. While we weren't able to get anything out of Facebook back then, on Tuesday, Microsoft made Facebook's presence official. Microsoft's Facebook application is due in April, followed by a native MySpace application set to descend sometime "in summer."For those who live in the moment, Microsoft has already made Windows Live for Windows Mobile available to download on platforms running version 6 of the operating system or higher. The Windows Live services suite installs mobile versions of Hotmail, Messenger, Live Contacts, Spaces, and Live Search on the phone. Those with older phones can still access Hotmail with a new beta version optimized for the Web, accessible at m.mail.live.com. Windows Marketplace: Apps and refundsNot to be outdone by Apple and BlackBerry, Microsoft is readying its own application storefront, dubbed Windows Marketplace for Mobile. The few details released in advance of Microsoft's Thursday keynote showcase application developers whose apps will be featured in the mobile Marketplace. EA Mobile, Gameloft, and Hands-On Mobile are well-known game makers. AP Mobile, Accuweather, and Pandora also stand out in an otherwise obscure lineup.Also Marketplace related, Microsoft says it will let customers buy applications two ways--through a credit card, or as an add-on to the monthly cellular bill. In addition, Microsoft will let remorseful users return unwanted applications within 24 hours of purchasing, a refund service that neither Apple nor RIM has offered so far for the iTunes App Store or forthcoming BlackBerry App World.Inspiration for a Windows theme?Isaacmizrahiny.comHaute interface themesMicrosoft hasn't traditionally been hailed as computing's graphical genius, but its recent efforts at interesting design haven't gone unnoticed. Microsoft is taking that a step further with designer themes it's offering through luminaries of the likes of haute couture icon Isaac Mizrahi, among others that will be later announced. In addition, Microsoft's partnerships with Design Museum London and the Council of Fashion Designers of America will churn out additional themes. An online Theme Generator, set to release later in the year, will let you match the navigation and scroll bar colors to your select photo.There's little doubt that Microsoft has more to share of its plans once CTIA gets officially underway--particularly details related to the Windows Marketplace for Mobile. We'll keep you posted.
Windows Live, Hotmail, FacebookFor more than a year, we've been wondering when Facebook and Microsoft were going to grace Windows Mobile phones with an official and native Facebook app like its free, downloadable applications for BlackBerry, iPhone, and Palm. While we weren't able to get anything out of Facebook back then, on Tuesday, Microsoft made Facebook's presence official. Microsoft's Facebook application is due in April, followed by a native MySpace application set to descend sometime "in summer."For those who live in the moment, Microsoft has already made Windows Live for Windows Mobile available to download on platforms running version 6 of the operating system or higher. The Windows Live services suite installs mobile versions of Hotmail, Messenger, Live Contacts, Spaces, and Live Search on the phone. Those with older phones can still access Hotmail with a new beta version optimized for the Web, accessible at m.mail.live.com. Windows Marketplace: Apps and refundsNot to be outdone by Apple and BlackBerry, Microsoft is readying its own application storefront, dubbed Windows Marketplace for Mobile. The few details released in advance of Microsoft's Thursday keynote showcase application developers whose apps will be featured in the mobile Marketplace. EA Mobile, Gameloft, and Hands-On Mobile are well-known game makers. AP Mobile, Accuweather, and Pandora also stand out in an otherwise obscure lineup.Also Marketplace related, Microsoft says it will let customers buy applications two ways--through a credit card, or as an add-on to the monthly cellular bill. In addition, Microsoft will let remorseful users return unwanted applications within 24 hours of purchasing, a refund service that neither Apple nor RIM has offered so far for the iTunes App Store or forthcoming BlackBerry App World.Inspiration for a Windows theme?Isaacmizrahiny.comHaute interface themesMicrosoft hasn't traditionally been hailed as computing's graphical genius, but its recent efforts at interesting design haven't gone unnoticed. Microsoft is taking that a step further with designer themes it's offering through luminaries of the likes of haute couture icon Isaac Mizrahi, among others that will be later announced. In addition, Microsoft's partnerships with Design Museum London and the Council of Fashion Designers of America will churn out additional themes. An online Theme Generator, set to release later in the year, will let you match the navigation and scroll bar colors to your select photo.There's little doubt that Microsoft has more to share of its plans once CTIA gets officially underway--particularly details related to the Windows Marketplace for Mobile. We'll keep you posted.
AppleTV update adds TV show buying, Vimeo
AppleTV update adds TV show buying, Vimeo
A new software update for Apple's Apple TV streaming box has added a feature that makes up for the lack of built-in storage by making purchased video content available whenever viewers want to watch it. The company's $99 box can now stream purchased TV shows on demand directly from Apple's servers, and also lets users buy content directly from the box.The move to serve up purchased videos is no minor addition. One the Apple TV's biggest losses in the move to a rental-only model (besides no longer storing content locally) was that you ended up with a more limited selection of video content, since only a handful of TV networks were offering rentals. One workaround was to use another device with that purchased content stored on it, be it a computer or an iOS device like the iPhone or iPad. Now Apple's taken on that responsibility by storing the content on its own servers and making it available whenever it's needed.Adding on-demand streaming for video also suggests that the feature is on its way to other devices and software, including iTunes itself, which is expected to receive its annual update next month. When debuting iCloud back in June, notably missing was a video component, though this update would suggest it's set to be added. Along with the TV show tweaks, today's update brings Web videos from Vimeo, which joins Google's YouTube and Yahoo's Flickr as popular Web properties in app form. In CNET's hands-on time with the update, my colleague John Falcone noted that streaming a standard definition version of a TV show directly from Apple required waiting for the box to buffer for a full six minutes on a speedy network through a controlled 802.11n network. During this time users can go about using other Apple TV features. The official version number change in the update goes from 4.2.2 to 4.3. Apple is planning to bring the box up to a full new version number with iOS 5, which will bring the streaming of iOS applications to the Apple TV using Apple's AirPlay technology. During the last fiscal quarter earnings call, Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook once again referred to the Apple TV as a "hobby" device, and noted that the company doesn't position it with the same profile as some of its other devices since it's not "another leg of the stool." John Gruber at Daring Fireball picked up on the software update earlier today.Updated at 10:45 a.m. PT with additional photos and observations about the new features.Update at 11:51 a.m. PT: MacRumors notes that the purchased TV show download feature has come to the company's iTunes software, as well as iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad, letting users on those devices re-download previously purchased content.Vimeo's Web video player app looks just like the one for YouTube.Sarah Tew/CNET
A new software update for Apple's Apple TV streaming box has added a feature that makes up for the lack of built-in storage by making purchased video content available whenever viewers want to watch it. The company's $99 box can now stream purchased TV shows on demand directly from Apple's servers, and also lets users buy content directly from the box.The move to serve up purchased videos is no minor addition. One the Apple TV's biggest losses in the move to a rental-only model (besides no longer storing content locally) was that you ended up with a more limited selection of video content, since only a handful of TV networks were offering rentals. One workaround was to use another device with that purchased content stored on it, be it a computer or an iOS device like the iPhone or iPad. Now Apple's taken on that responsibility by storing the content on its own servers and making it available whenever it's needed.Adding on-demand streaming for video also suggests that the feature is on its way to other devices and software, including iTunes itself, which is expected to receive its annual update next month. When debuting iCloud back in June, notably missing was a video component, though this update would suggest it's set to be added. Along with the TV show tweaks, today's update brings Web videos from Vimeo, which joins Google's YouTube and Yahoo's Flickr as popular Web properties in app form. In CNET's hands-on time with the update, my colleague John Falcone noted that streaming a standard definition version of a TV show directly from Apple required waiting for the box to buffer for a full six minutes on a speedy network through a controlled 802.11n network. During this time users can go about using other Apple TV features. The official version number change in the update goes from 4.2.2 to 4.3. Apple is planning to bring the box up to a full new version number with iOS 5, which will bring the streaming of iOS applications to the Apple TV using Apple's AirPlay technology. During the last fiscal quarter earnings call, Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook once again referred to the Apple TV as a "hobby" device, and noted that the company doesn't position it with the same profile as some of its other devices since it's not "another leg of the stool." John Gruber at Daring Fireball picked up on the software update earlier today.Updated at 10:45 a.m. PT with additional photos and observations about the new features.Update at 11:51 a.m. PT: MacRumors notes that the purchased TV show download feature has come to the company's iTunes software, as well as iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad, letting users on those devices re-download previously purchased content.Vimeo's Web video player app looks just like the one for YouTube.Sarah Tew/CNET
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