10 ms·

Little known iTunes 10 benefit

69 points by Setsuna 16y ago

swombat 16y ago
That's a pretty big feature change... is that a mistake or did they somehow slip that past the record labels?
- Setsuna 16y ago
  >"slip that past the record labels" What does this feature has to do with that? /curious
  - eli 16y ago
    There's no technical reason to prevent people from getting music back off their devices. So the assumption is it was part of the DRM requirements that Steve Jobs claims the record labels forced him to accept.
  - andreyf 16y ago
    Either (a) there were legal changes in Apple's contracts with the record labels, or (b) they might get be sued for enabling this feature.
- sprout 16y ago
  No it's not. This is only really useful if you want to use a computer's built-in speakers to play music that's located on your iPod.
  - jonknee 16y ago
    Some of us can play to remote speakers (AirPlay) which makes this more handy. I can choose what room(s) to play something in from iTunes. If someone comes over and has a new track they want to play for everyone it's now easier. Still not as easy as it should be, but nothing with the RIAA / Apple is perfect.
SandB0x 16y ago
Gee, now I feel like an idiot for buying a portable media player that just mounts as a USB drive.
- jrockway 16y ago
  Don't worry, you still can't copy music from a device back into iTunes. I mean, obviously the bits representing the music flow from the iDevice into the computer, but the computer doesn't belong to you anymore, so you don't get access to them. Silly user. USB devices fail in that they rely on the user to make his own decisions about whether or not to copy his friend's music collection. Apple devices let some music execs representing bands I've never heard of make them for you instead.
  - DougBTX 16y ago
    <responding to troll> though of course you can copy music off an ipod by copying the mp3 files off it like any other mounted disk, except that they are in a folder with its hidden attribute set.
    - StavrosK 16y ago
      And they're renamed with obscure filenames, and you can't do this with iPods touch or iPhones.
      - Terretta 16y ago
        FUD... You can. You don't have to use iTunes, or even an Apple app, to get things on and off an iDevice. For example: http://ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/ http://ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/ Blurb: Multimedia Is No Longer Trapped on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch Free your Photos and Movies -- Download camera photos and movies in just a few clicks. You can even use PhoneView to export the iPhone's synced Photo Library if you've lost the originals. Music Made Easy -- Play any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch music library through your Mac's speakers. Grab music, videos and podcasts from your device with one click.
      - 16y ago
statictype 16y ago
I'm surprised that people who wanted this feature haven't already enabled manual-sync. Is there really some benefit in having it automatically sync your device to be worth the pain of not being able to plug it in somewhere else? I went a step further and edited the iTunes DB file's device ids so that they are the same across all 3 of my systems. So my iPhone now recognizes each as the same system allowing me to sync my music with one of my laptops and my videos with my desktop.
- kylec 16y ago
  I could never get it to work with my iPhone, even with "manual sync". There is the possibility I was doing something wrong, but with iTunes 10 it doesn't matter at this point. http://superuser.com/questions/9794/play-music-on-iphone-through-computer http://superuser.com/questions/9794/play-music-on-iphone-thr...
- mitjak 16y ago
  The downsides which are quite irritating depending on your listening habits are: 1. Having to manually manage all songs, which gets tiring if you constantly add new music to the library 2. None of the listening history and ratings are synced over when connecting a manually managed device. This ties in with #1: when listening to a bunch of new albums, it's helpful to preserve the ratings to make knowing what albums and tracks to trash easier later on.
KingOfB 16y ago
Really? The feature's been in iTunes 9, and well, I'm a mac guy but #1 on HN?
- mitjak 16y ago
  No, it hasn't.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
htsh 16y ago
Is it just me, or did this used to work before? I thought you could always play the music off someone else's iPod without being able to copy it.
- kgermino 16y ago
  It worked before, the only change is that now you don't have to set the iPod to Manual Sync. It's not a huge deal but it is much more convenient because after enabling manual sync on one computer the iPod would default to manual sync on all computers and you would have to individually reset it to sync music, movies, tv shows, podcasts, and pictures. It can get to be a pain, especially if it's somthing your doing every day.
- leviathant 16y ago
  iPod yes, iPhone no. At least, not in the Windows version of iTunes. I used to do this with my iPod at work, and was pretty disappointed that I couldn't continue to do so with my iPhone. I'm glad to see the option to play is back, although I still can't sort my music by column.
mitjak 16y ago
Note: most bizarrely, it doesn't let you enable shuffling when listening to music this way. Pink Floyd and Sgt. Pepper are delighted and partying but what about all the 80s one-hit wanders?
aphistic 16y ago
Wow, I guess they listened and I need to eat my hat... Or something. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1653584 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1653584 This is good news!

69 points by Setsuna 16y ago

swombat 16y ago

That's a pretty big feature change... is that a mistake or did they somehow slip that past the record labels?

Setsuna 16y ago
>"slip that past the record labels" What does this feature has to do with that? /curious
- eli 16y ago
  There's no technical reason to prevent people from getting music back off their devices. So the assumption is it was part of the DRM requirements that Steve Jobs claims the record labels forced him to accept.
- andreyf 16y ago
  Either (a) there were legal changes in Apple's contracts with the record labels, or (b) they might get be sued for enabling this feature.
sprout 16y ago
No it's not. This is only really useful if you want to use a computer's built-in speakers to play music that's located on your iPod.
- jonknee 16y ago
  Some of us can play to remote speakers (AirPlay) which makes this more handy. I can choose what room(s) to play something in from iTunes. If someone comes over and has a new track they want to play for everyone it's now easier. Still not as easy as it should be, but nothing with the RIAA / Apple is perfect.

SandB0x 16y ago

Gee, now I feel like an idiot for buying a portable media player that just mounts as a USB drive.

jrockway 16y ago
Don't worry, you still can't copy music from a device back into iTunes. I mean, obviously the bits representing the music flow from the iDevice into the computer, but the computer doesn't belong to you anymore, so you don't get access to them. Silly user. USB devices fail in that they rely on the user to make his own decisions about whether or not to copy his friend's music collection. Apple devices let some music execs representing bands I've never heard of make them for you instead.
- DougBTX 16y ago
  <responding to troll> though of course you can copy music off an ipod by copying the mp3 files off it like any other mounted disk, except that they are in a folder with its hidden attribute set.
  - StavrosK 16y ago
    And they're renamed with obscure filenames, and you can't do this with iPods touch or iPhones.
    - Terretta 16y ago
      FUD... You can. You don't have to use iTunes, or even an Apple app, to get things on and off an iDevice. For example: http://ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/ http://ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/ Blurb: Multimedia Is No Longer Trapped on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch Free your Photos and Movies -- Download camera photos and movies in just a few clicks. You can even use PhoneView to export the iPhone's synced Photo Library if you've lost the originals. Music Made Easy -- Play any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch music library through your Mac's speakers. Grab music, videos and podcasts from your device with one click.
    - 16y ago

statictype 16y ago

I'm surprised that people who wanted this feature haven't already enabled manual-sync. Is there really some benefit in having it automatically sync your device to be worth the pain of not being able to plug it in somewhere else? I went a step further and edited the iTunes DB file's device ids so that they are the same across all 3 of my systems. So my iPhone now recognizes each as the same system allowing me to sync my music with one of my laptops and my videos with my desktop.

kylec 16y ago
I could never get it to work with my iPhone, even with "manual sync". There is the possibility I was doing something wrong, but with iTunes 10 it doesn't matter at this point. http://superuser.com/questions/9794/play-music-on-iphone-through-computer http://superuser.com/questions/9794/play-music-on-iphone-thr...
mitjak 16y ago
The downsides which are quite irritating depending on your listening habits are: 1. Having to manually manage all songs, which gets tiring if you constantly add new music to the library 2. None of the listening history and ratings are synced over when connecting a manually managed device. This ties in with #1: when listening to a bunch of new albums, it's helpful to preserve the ratings to make knowing what albums and tracks to trash easier later on.

KingOfB 16y ago

Really? The feature's been in iTunes 9, and well, I'm a mac guy but #1 on HN?

mitjak 16y ago
No, it hasn't.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]

htsh 16y ago

Is it just me, or did this used to work before? I thought you could always play the music off someone else's iPod without being able to copy it.

kgermino 16y ago
It worked before, the only change is that now you don't have to set the iPod to Manual Sync. It's not a huge deal but it is much more convenient because after enabling manual sync on one computer the iPod would default to manual sync on all computers and you would have to individually reset it to sync music, movies, tv shows, podcasts, and pictures. It can get to be a pain, especially if it's somthing your doing every day.
leviathant 16y ago
iPod yes, iPhone no. At least, not in the Windows version of iTunes. I used to do this with my iPod at work, and was pretty disappointed that I couldn't continue to do so with my iPhone. I'm glad to see the option to play is back, although I still can't sort my music by column.

mitjak 16y ago

Note: most bizarrely, it doesn't let you enable shuffling when listening to music this way. Pink Floyd and Sgt. Pepper are delighted and partying but what about all the 80s one-hit wanders?

aphistic 16y ago

Wow, I guess they listened and I need to eat my hat... Or something. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1653584 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1653584 This is good news!