Apple September Media Event.

[Shorty]

You must be on a mac. It is universally accepted that iTunes on windows is a slow bloaty piece of crap

This is not accepted by me.

 

*Starts iTunes*

 

It took one and a half seconds on my i7 PC

[Jon]

Not having TV over here on Apple tv isn't a major loss at the moment. The US only have two networks on boards so it's basically Glee or Greys Anatomy for them. I'm not really a fan of renting, so I doubt i'd ever be buying it.

[Mr_Odwin]

This is not accepted by me.

 

*Starts iTunes*

 

It took one and a half seconds on my i7 PC

 

And clicking between stuff like your music and the store doesn't take forever? We must be talking about a different iTunes.

[Nintendohnut]

iTunes is stupidly slick on my iMac, but it is less than a year old. I have experienced it on a Windows machine (running vista) at length (my girlfriends laptop) and it is so frustratingly slow we usually click play and if a song comes on we don't like we just ignore it as changing the song would take longer and be more annoying than just listening to it.

 

Still, I think it's a ploy by apple to make people buy macs. They'll go into the apple store, try iTunes and say 'Oh my god, this is so fast!' etc.

 

Anyway, I have also been clicking regularly for the update. I'll be honest, it's mainly for the logo. I hate the CD icon and have for some time, so glad they changed it!

[ipaul]

Anyway, I have also been clicking regularly for the update. I'll be honest, it's mainly for the logo. I hate the CD icon and have for some time, so glad they changed it!

 

Now I think about it, a CD always seemed an odd choice considering Apple's mission was basically to destroy physical media.

 

I actually really like iTunes. I know people seem to have loads of problems with it, but I never have. I'm a bit paranoid about changing MP3 players because of this

[Wesley]

iTunes is ok...

 

It's a bit clunky at times and it's bloated in features that I don't really want...

 

But then again it does have a crazy amount of tasks and features that need fulfilling.

 

I use it for podcasts and syncing my phone.

 

When I'm done with either of those I shut it down as fast a possible and load up Spotify.

[david.dakota]

Is the iTunes store for TV shows localised?

 

If so, then most things are available there will be available via the various iPlayers in the UK, and Hulu in the US. Also, don't a lot of new DVD/Blu-Ray players have the ability to play via USB?

 

Yup, it is localised. Networks like to control who they sell their content too - and when.

 

I was incredibly excited about Apple TV earlier tonight, I genuinely thought Apple would come up with something which would really kickstart VOD but since discovering the whole service is based on entirely on rentals and streaming, I have completely lost interest.

 

Absolutely, this box needs storage. Rediculous to think it doesn't really, while individual episodes could be streamed, you should have the option of getting entire series' downloaded overnight(ish) sitting on your HDD in full 1080p. With broadband speeds so dire in major markets like the US and UK, streaming is not an optrion. And its a crazy argument to say people are not used to data managment, TIVO, Sky+ services - people do data manage (and do so without even thinking about it).

 

I'd be happy to rent TV shows, advert free. But in my opinion, 0.99p is still too steep for a rental this when you can rent entire series within 'an all you can eat' DVD postal service. 0.99C/0.99p is a perfect price for an episode to buy for keeps - not rent which should look around half that price. Perhaps if they introduce discounted season passes; (but i'd again argue that i'd rather see it in 1080p sitting on my HDD).

 

The cost of renting movies is also prohibitively high. Apple need to be targetting postal DVD services and movie channels- charge a subscription of £20 or £30 for unlimited movie rentals you'd be on a winner - crikey, if LoveFilm offer unlimited disks and streaming movies for £10.00 per month, Apple should (and people would probably pay a premium for getting the exact film they want at the exact time). I suspect Apples hands are tied with pricing though -although it would be interesting to see how Apples rental deals compare to companies like Love Film.

 

If Apple want to make their TV service a success they need to adpot a subscription model - subscribe to their film services, subscribe to a whole TV series. Subscription is the model television has adopted and Apple can't change that; PPV is solely added value its not the business model.

[Wesley]

It may be 59p... if it's anything like how the app store conversion worked.

[Rowan]

I thought the designs for the new Nano have taken it in a fresh direction. Before, the different generations of Nano only had minor changes. Though with the Nano so small now, I guess it means Apple no longer want people to watch video on it. iPod Touch looks great and I hope to purchase one in the new year. I'm still using an old Creative Zen of 4-5 years as my main music player.

[Debug Mode]

Was hoping to see some awesome new Nano's so I could upgrade my 4th gen one..

 

No thank you! It looks awful.

[Shorty]

And clicking between stuff like your music and the store doesn't take forever? We must be talking about a different iTunes.

 

My home PC is a beast, so it's not surprising that everything is instant, running off a fast SSD on a powerful processor with 6GB DDR3 :3

 

But even at work tbh... it's not slow. Loading would take about 10 seconds and everything after that was pretty much instant, that's on a mid range phenom, both machines on Win 7.

 

If iTunes is sluggish on your system, may be time to upgrade your RAM or tidy up your background services.

 

Can't properly test it here as I've uninstalled it at work, foobar is fine for my needs at the office.

[Mr_Odwin]

My computer is fine. It's not the monster that yours is, but a dual core system with 3GB of RAM shouldn't have such issues with a media program.

[Ashley]

My home PC is a beast, so it's not surprising that everything is instant, running off a fast SSD on a powerful processor with 6GB DDR3 :3

 

But even at work tbh... it's not slow. Loading would take about 10 seconds and everything after that was pretty much instant, that's on a mid range phenom, both machines on Win 7.

 

If iTunes is sluggish on your system, may be time to upgrade your RAM or tidy up your background services.

 

Can't properly test it here as I've uninstalled it at work, foobar is fine for my needs at the office.

 

Why go through all the effort of upgrading or tidying up when you can just use another program? :p

 

Can I have your computer though? Would help with modelling.

[Eddage]

I just tried loading up iTunes on my computer and it took 2 seconds, but then like Shorty I have 6GB DDR3 ram and an SSD.

 

I love my computer

[Daft]

On my netbook, Spotify took less than 5 seconds to open and get a song playing. iTunes took 57 seconds.

[flameboy]

On my netbook, Spotify took less than 5 seconds to open and get a song playing. iTunes took 57 seconds.

 

yeah similar numbers here...I love the looks of the new ipod..considering one. I use my blackberry for music at the mo which is ok but y'know it ain't got the wealth of games the ipod touch does.

[Ronnie]

Shuffle, decent backtracking to a better design

 

Nano, ugly, crippled, sums up Apple's form over function philosphy quite beautifully. The old nano's were gorgeous, especially with all the colours they came in, and the click wheel is iconic. The new design is just stupid and pointless. Seems to be getting slated by most online it seems.

 

touch, good upgrade but more expensive so it should be. So it can record HD video but only 640x480ish pics, laughable.

[Daft]

Only 640x480 pics?! Really?

 

That is lame. I just assumed it was the same as the iPhone camera.

[Mr_Odwin]

It's 960x720.

[Daft]

That's...still awful.

[Mr_Odwin]

Yeah. I quite often defend low megapixel cameras by saying that most ways of viewing images won't show you their full resolution so why sweat over 3/5/7/12 MP. But this is pretty small - smaller than most monitors.

If it takes good images that's cool I guess. Low res + crap images would be ultimate naffpants.

[Rowan]

I guess Apple's reasoning for the low resolution camera is that people with an iPod touch will still carry round their phone with them. And most phones have atleast 3 Megapixel camera on them. But really, its one of the ways to increase the gap between iPod touch and iPhone so that the Touch isnt a complete iPhone just without the phone capabilities.

[Ronnie]

Indeed it is, just seems a bit rubbish to remove video recording/playback from the nano all because of 'form', and limit the camera in the touch to taking terrible quality stills.

[MindFreak]

I soon need a new iPod I think. I have the second or third generation of Nano, the one with the wheel and it's a bit thick (four years old), and the wheel is not good anymore. The play-button feels pressed constantly so it's hard to turn it off. It still works though, but I'm concerned about everything being touch screen nowadays. I only use my iPod while training, i.e. I am sweating and have sweaty fingers, and I just think that my sweat will make the screen rather disgusting. Is that a valid concern?

[Daft]

Not really. It's easy to wipe clean. Easier than buttons, I think. Obviously the only problem is you can't feel the screen like you can the buttons so you have to take the iDevice out of your pocket to see what you're selecting.