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Apple Releases Major iTunes Update
shunnicutt writes "Apple has released iTunes 4.5 (and iPod software 2.2 and QuickTime 6.5.1) and relaxed some iTunes Music Store restrictions: now tracks you purchased can be authorized to play on up to five other computers, instead of three. However, they reduced the number of times you can burn a playlist to an audio CD from ten to seven. Another new feature is iMix, which allows you to publish playlists on iTMS, including comments on each track. The iTMS also offers a weekly free single for download."
crazney adds "This release also changes their network sharing protocol in a way that breaks the open source iTunes sharing applications that have been released (based on my work on iTunes 4.2's DRM)."
kefoo writes "Among the new features is Apple Lossless Encoding, which claims to compress losslessly to half the size of uncompressed CD quality audio." Hm, and I was about to re-rip all my CDs at 320 kbps MP3 ...
Update: 04/28 14:56 GMT by P : I just tested, and I can listen to previously de-DRM'd AAC files from playfair, but I cannot use either playfair or FairTunes any longer. The former "Couldn't get DRM key for user," and the latter produces a blank file.
so I don't care about Apple
Two icebergs, in particular:
1. stream ripping
2. cheap offshore music sites
The only consumers who will pay $.99 for a track are those who have absolutely no choice due to DRM in media players and mobile phones.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
I don't want to start a holy war here, but what is the deal with you Mac fanatics? I've been sitting here at my freelance gig in front of a Mac (a 2.0 PM G5) for about 20 minutes now while it attempts to copy a 17 Meg file from one folder on the hard drive to another folder. 20 minutes. At home, on my Pentium Pro 200 running NT 4, which by all standards should be a lot slower than this Mac, the same operation would take about 2 minutes. If that.
In addition, during this file transfer, Netscape will not work. And everything else has ground to a halt. Even BBEdit Lite is straining to keep up as I type this.
I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while working on various Macs, but suffice it to say there have been many, not the least of which is I've never seen a Mac that has run faster than its Wintel counterpart, despite the Macs' faster chip architecture. My 2.0 G5 with 512 megs of ram runs faster than this 300 mhz machine at times. From a productivity standpoint, I don't get how people can claim that the Macintosh is a superior machine.
Mac addicts, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to use a Mac over other faster, cheaper, more stable systems.
shitsack software from a shitsack company.
Because it's proprietary and not FLAC? Yet again Apple pushes its own non-standard format.
sulli
RTFJ.
Until they remove DRM. Don't let them control what you can do with your files.
all this is too complicated. the restrictions, the formats, etc. i'll stick with my mp3 downloading and occasional cd buying.
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In other news, major Internet portal Slashdot.org is pioneering innovative new forms of advertising by disguising the product as "news".
If aspiration is a virtue, achievement cannot be a vice.
And no, there's virtually no chance of me being prosecuted for my music gathering habits - MP3s are not illegal, and I wouldn't let a p2p app within 100 feet of my PC - I don't have the bandwidth to spare even if I were stupid enough to want to run that crap.
My archive is about 55GB and still growing by the week. I don't want an "archive manager" for my music - that's what file managers are for.
I bet it'll be less than a month!
Xerox PARC invented "Drag and Drop" - it was my attempt at humor, John.
Glad to know my helpful solution to your problem was seen as a 'troll'. Had you posted your real issue, (smart playlist copying) I wouldn't have said a word.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
Apple does what Apple wants. The users are second.
If a user wants something or a feature that Apple does not have, they are either considered a troll, labeld as an idiot, or given a lecture about why Apple made the decision they did and how it was for the overall "good of everyone" involved.
Look how many people in these iPod threads are actually over joyied and happy with rights limiting DRM and trying justify how great Apple is for using it and allowing you any rights at all. My god man, it is DRM we are talking about here.
Every Apple zealot always blindly defended Apples previous DRM scheme as the greatest thing since sliced bread and something everyone should look up to. Now, Apple releases a slightly less restictive version and these same zealots are over joyied saying how great it is. Funny in that it was good enough before and you frowned on people for complaining about it but your praising it now saying Apple listens to its customers.
Brainwashed..
My momma used to tell me... art is like a truck full of manure. No matter how you look at it, it's still a load of shit....
</forrest>
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
No, many artists don't want people to spend money on their albums, but get them free and support the artist at their live shows. That fact alone means iTMS won't be all-encompassing, by any standard.
Nice shot at a recovery fan boy.
companies trying to play fair, like Apple
Exactly WTF does that mean? Fair to what or who? Apple is doing exactly what the record companies dictate. See you in 5 years when your only choice is to listen to what you bought over the last few years is still limited to what only what Apple wants you to listen to it on. Sorry you can not see through that.
Oh yeah, Apple's definition of a major update is a few bug features and adding some useless features.
you were trolled and LOST.
boo ya!
your 4 digit /. ID doesn't scare me btw. but i'm thinking by now you're not really a music fan anyway.
This is my Sig, this is my Gun. One is for Slashdot and one is for Fun.