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Apple Delays Simpler and Cleaner iTunes 'to Get It Right'
Hugh Pickens writes "iTunes has been criticized in the past for being slow and growing increasingly unwieldy as more and more media types have been added to what used to be simply a music player. Apple announced iTunes 11, the latest version of the program, at its iPhone 5 event in September and said the update would be released by the end of October, but Apple's deadline for the upgrade has slipped. 'The new iTunes is taking longer than expected and we wanted to take a little extra time to get it right,' Apple told technology site AllThingsD. 'We look forward to releasing this new version of iTunes with its dramatically simpler and cleaner interface and seamless integration with iCloud before the end of November.' The update is said to be the most significant upgrade to iTunes in the 11-year life of the program, which has grown from a simple music player to the most powerful retailer in the music business — and a force in the movie, television and e-books businesses — and, on Apple's PCs, the portal to its app store."
AC is correct -- music from iTunes has been DRM free for years [again]. Originally it was all MP3's -- then yes, it was DRM'd AAC files.
Today it's DRM free AAC files -- that yes, have your Apple ID embedded. So what?
Even when it was encrypted it was trivial (for a geek :) to convert them to MP3's. Originally you could use your Firewire iPod connected to decrypt the files on the fly -- then Apple blocked that. Always has been possible to use something like Audio HiJack to re-record to MP3's.
Today -- just convert to MP3 in iTunes. No issue. And I keep going back to MP3 because of legacy devices connected to stereo's that only understand MP3's [original SliMP3's :-].
What the issue? Sales are up (and my stock :)
Just re-download it from the cloud: presto! Instant DRM Free copies of your old files...