Is it just me or doesn't it seem like there should be a MobileMe for iTunes?
It seems ridiculous to have all these downloads in various places that come from iTunes and/or other places and not have them automatically backed up and available from anywhere. If a system is authorized, I should be able to play back my iTunes songs and other material from anywhere.
I thought of this today as I was monkeying with the new iTunes U and some podcasts on my laptop. I later was sitting at my desktop PC and I wanted to look at something and guess what, it isn't on my PC, it's on my laptop in iTunes. Now granted, it probably wouldn't have been backed up by now but I should have a mirror image of my iTunes data available from all my PC's.
The best part is that since iTunes already has a great deal of the data stored on their servers that you probably have in your personal iTunes database, it doesn't technically need to be backed up. It should just be there. Of course, they already have this ability but don't allow you to use it. If you download a DRM'd piece of music from iTunes and lose it, you can't download it again for free. This never made sense to me.
Here is how I think the MobileMe for iTunes should work:
- Each PC, every day during the day has its iTunes data sync'd with a database on the Internet. This includes all files and all playlists. Since a lot a data exists on Apple's servers already in the same form it is on your PC (they already have a lot of the songs you have and so do other customers), it takes no time to do the backup.
- When you select a file to playback, it'll check your system, if it isn't there, it verifies the account is authorized and then downloads the file in the background perhaps streaming it while playback begins.
- This data is sync'd with your other devices too such as your Apply TV, iPhone, iPod Touch, etc. Perhaps you have the option to designate some playlists as priorities.
Personally, I'm tired of having iTunes stuff spread all over. I don't have a centrally located shared disk that is on all the time right now. I want access to this stuff I've put into iTunes and/or bought through iTunes available everywhere I am even if I'm not home. I wan't the "internet cloud" to serve me.
I'm sure this is a pie-in-the-sky dream since the DRM issues and studios probably won't allow it. If that's the case, it is one more ding against the ridiculous copy protection that is DRM.
Hopefully, one day this dream of mine will become a reality.
2 comments:
Absolutely great idea.
As you well know, sometimes Apple has a weird intellectual block when it comes to these things.
Two things that drive me nuts that they could fix tomorrow:
1. All purchases should be re-downloadable. No excuse for this. Nintendo does it with the Wii and Apple itself does it with iPhone apps!
2. You should be able to enable/disable any of your five computers from anywhere at anytime. Why must I be physically sitting in front of a machine to disable it? What if I forget to do it before I sell or donate a Mac (which I have done several times)?
No excuse for that crap.
The inability to redownload purchased music really makes no sense and never has. I'm not sure why it is not available. Of course, I don't understand why iTunes rentals only give you 24 hrs to watch once started either.
As for the enable/disable function. Yes, you should be able to do that too. However, I do think you can deauthorize all your computers and then reauthorize them one at a time. I had to do this myself once. Granted, it would be better to do just one but this at least gets around the "sold the mac" problem.
Another "intellectual block" is the iPhone tethering issue with AT&T on the iPhone. I'd love to know why Apple let AT&T get away with the "no tethering" rule on the iPhone from AT&T in the US. Every AT&T phone allows this but the iPhone. Why is that?
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