It's bad. I can't believe Eddy Cue signed off on it. Telling too that there was zero mention of Apple Music at Apple's last event.
Can't believe it? Eddie has been signing off on iTunes, the App Stores, and Apple TV for years. He's a deals guy. That's it. I thought they'd bring in a stronger UI person than Alan Dye, who currently heads Apple's software UI design. Jony Ive explicitly credited Dye with that dog's breakfast known as the Apple Watch user interface. How do you go from handbags to iPhone product packaging to....user interface design? There must be someone much, much better at Apple.
BTW, I think they didn't bring up Apple Music because they don't want to remind people to cancel automatic renewal. Seriously.
I, like many other readers of Appleinsider are reluctant to criticise Apple. However Apple Music is making it very difficult not to. I canceled a perfectly functioning streaming service to support a company that I have a lot of loyalty to, I've rarely been disappointed with their products or services, but this is driving me crazy. First of all it completely screwed up a library that I spent years developing, secondly, making me upload all my music just to stream it back to me is crazy. Please fix this before I cancel my $18 family membership.
The original iPod had the magic and simplicity of the scroll wheel. Suddenly I had fine grain control on one hour long dj sets from my favorite dj's. This is something that got lost with 2D touch based interfaces.
I somehow hope 3D touch paves the way for a digital scroll wheel.
Since cellular and wifi simply aren't ubiquitous (and cellular streaming will not be cheap if you do it all the time), there are plenty of reasons to want to listen to Apple Music streams offline. But if you try to download them, you are not allowed unless you turn on iCloud Music library (why? Who knows...)
Now, when you turn on iCloud music library, you can no long sync your music locally from your computer to your iPhone - so you must enable iCloud music library on your computer, upload your entire personal library to Apple, and then stream your own music back to yourself. Not only is it asinine and potentially very expensive, I'd like apple to explain how well that works when you're in a car, bus, subway, tunnel or train, or in large buildings, or in a plane, or out of country....
Just curious, what are the other options? You can't listen to offline music unless you do the iTunes Match. That's one thing Apple needs to change. You shouldn't be forced to upload your music to Apple if you want to listen to offline music. I have a huge music library. The last time I turned on iCloud music, my library was destroy. I know Apple fixed some issues, but I'm hesitant to turn on iCloud music again.
EDIT: I haven't tried this but I guess one option is turning on icloud music with my phone. I'm not sure about this, but I think if you try to download on say my iMac, it will require me to turn on icloud music there as well. That's where my whole music collection is.
Turn off iCloud Music Library on the iPhone before you sync your music locally to your iPhone via iTunes. Once it is synced then turn on iCloud Music Library on your iPhone and then merge instead of replace. Then you won't be streaming your own music to yourself.
Turn off iCloud Music Library on the iPhone before you sync your music locally to your iPhone via iTunes. Once it is synced then turn on iCloud Music Library on your iPhone and then merge instead of replace. Then you won't be streaming your own music to yourself.
But that doesn't work going forward...as I buy and rip CD's, they will not be on my iOS devices unless I upload to iCloud, and then stream back. And then manually remember which ones to make available offline. Which doesn't work reliably anyway, as the feature either stalls when downloading, or gives generic errors ("This item could not be downloaded at this time..." Which item? Why?)
So over time, your local and iOS library's are out of sync.
Apple needs to return to local syncing even with Apple Music offline listening enabled. Stop forcing cloud revenue efforts when it doesn't make sense for a lot of their customers...
But that doesn't work going forward...as I buy and rip CD's, they will not be on my iOS devices unless I upload to iCloud, and then stream back. And then manually remember which ones to make available offline. Which doesn't work reliably anyway, as the feature either stalls when downloading, or gives generic errors ("This item could not be downloaded at this time..." Which item? Why?)
So over time, your local and iOS library's are out of sync.
Apple needs to return to local syncing even with Apple Music offline listening enabled. Stop forcing cloud revenue efforts when it doesn't make sense for a lot of their customers...
It would be nice if they did allow local syncing even with iCloud Library enabled. Although a bit of a nuisance you can still just turn it off on your device, sync, re-enable, and then merge again.
Where did the buy links go in iOS 9.1 (publc beta)? The "New" video clearly shows the "Show in iTunes Store" button, but it seems to be missing in iOS 9.1, ay least for me. I hope it's a bug and not intentional.
It would be nice if they did allow local syncing even with iCloud Library enabled. Although a bit of a nuisance you can still just turn it off on your device, sync, re-enable, and then merge again.
This is completely unworkable for many people, especially the bases of non-technics who buy Apple simply because it works. This is broken
This is completely unworkable for many people, especially the bases of non-technics who buy Apple simply because it works. This is broken
I'm sure all those non-technical grandmas who can't figure out how to touch one slider on the screen in settings and then touch to slide it back on will clog up valuable resources at the Genius Bar to figure this out. It's a bit of a bother, but far from broken.
Comments
It's bad. I can't believe Eddy Cue signed off on it. Telling too that there was zero mention of Apple Music at Apple's last event.
Can't believe it? Eddie has been signing off on iTunes, the App Stores, and Apple TV for years. He's a deals guy. That's it. I thought they'd bring in a stronger UI person than Alan Dye, who currently heads Apple's software UI design. Jony Ive explicitly credited Dye with that dog's breakfast known as the Apple Watch user interface. How do you go from handbags to iPhone product packaging to....user interface design? There must be someone much, much better at Apple.
BTW, I think they didn't bring up Apple Music because they don't want to remind people to cancel automatic renewal. Seriously.
I guess that 172 IQ isn't helping him
I'd really love to see a renewed commitment from Apple to cleaning up this service/app. AFAIC, it's the least "Apple" service they've ever created.
It is not going to be an easy fix.
I'd recommend them to design ? music from the ground up and abandon the idea of having everything "in one place".
Simplify Simplify Simplify
The original iPod had the magic and simplicity of the scroll wheel. Suddenly I had fine grain control on one hour long dj sets from my favorite dj's. This is something that got lost with 2D touch based interfaces.
I somehow hope 3D touch paves the way for a digital scroll wheel.
There was zero mention of ANYTHING other than the new products released. No Apple Store, no state of sales, nothing.
Turn off iCloud Music Library on the iPhone before you sync your music locally to your iPhone via iTunes. Once it is synced then turn on iCloud Music Library on your iPhone and then merge instead of replace. Then you won't be streaming your own music to yourself.
But that doesn't work going forward...as I buy and rip CD's, they will not be on my iOS devices unless I upload to iCloud, and then stream back. And then manually remember which ones to make available offline. Which doesn't work reliably anyway, as the feature either stalls when downloading, or gives generic errors ("This item could not be downloaded at this time..." Which item? Why?)
So over time, your local and iOS library's are out of sync.
Apple needs to return to local syncing even with Apple Music offline listening enabled. Stop forcing cloud revenue efforts when it doesn't make sense for a lot of their customers...
I agree. It should be a standalone service and app, even though it should enable jumping into the iTunes Store to make music purchases.
A great UX doesn't require a "mini site" to explain how to use it. Just saying...
Oh really? You do know the first generation iPhone had guided tours don't you? I guess that was a poor UX then?
Yeah, one was a complete paradigm shift, the other was a shitty, non-intuitive UI. See if you can guess which was which... ;-P
It would be nice if they did allow local syncing even with iCloud Library enabled. Although a bit of a nuisance you can still just turn it off on your device, sync, re-enable, and then merge again.
This is completely unworkable for many people, especially the bases of non-technics who buy Apple simply because it works. This is broken