The bad news about the new iTunes is that it will no longer manage podcast listening and instead sends us to Apple's podcast app, which I dislike.
I've got Downcast, so I'll need to see if it has fixed the few remaining gotchas that kept me from adopting it, specifically:
1. Roll your own podcast list easily on a Mac. For reasons that defy explanation, some podcast players assume want to listen to all of the podcast from source A before turning to source B etc. There's nothing I want less to do. I want to create playlists that alternate long with short, serious with humorous, and history with technology. And I want to do it easily on a mouse-equipped Mac. Dragging stuff around with my fingers on a tiny iPhone screen is too much hassle.
2. Integration with iTunes in some way. Either let me export my podcast list and podcasts from iTunes into a separate app or let me derive the podcasts for the app from iTunes.
3. . 1.25 X speed. I can't understand why Apple thinks anyone would want to listen to anything at 2 X speed. It's too fast for content rich subjects and too fast for going with the flow of fiction books. Even 1.5 X is too fast for most podcasts. 1.25 X would be right for almost everything and give 15 minutes more listening for every hour.
For now, that's no big deal. My iPhone 3GS can't run iOS 7, so it still has a music player than can handle podcasts. My iPad is now upgraded to iOS 7, but I'm not going to carry it along on walks when I listen to podcasts.
iTunes Radio is nice idea that can generate income to Apple. Is it a reason why Apple never add FM radio HW into iPhones? In case my guess is right we can see how long in advance they do their plans.
Apple did it with iPod nano a few years ago. I have one. It works "OK" but not well.
I am not surprised that Apple doesn't have it in iPhone.
Nano 5, 6, and 7 have one, but each is reliant on the headphones as its antenna, which may be part of the quality problem. iTunes Radio is much nicer, but the FM radio abilities in the nano (rewinding, saving song names to buy in iTunes later) were wonderful in their time. iTunes Radio just builds on that.
iTunes Radio is great, but it has one major drawback: it doesn't allow offline play.
This is a deal breaker for me because I don't have an unlimited data plan for my mobile. Imagine constantly streaming iTunes Radio while at the office, every working day. I'll burn through my data quota in just a few days!
I really hope they do allow offline play in the future. This really is a limiting factor, and as such Slacker Radio still is my primary radio subscription app for now...
What’s that? An Internet radio service doesn’t let you play the Internet radio when you’re not connected to the Internet? How strange.
I'm just saying that it doesn't feature offline play compare to some of the other competitors e.g. Spotify & Slacker Radio that allows offline play.
Offline play is still Internet radio; it is just that the Internet part (i.e. downloading) is done while at home before going on the move.
I don't mind playing iTunes Radio while connected to my home Wifi connection as it is on an unlimited data plan, but I will try to stay away from it while on my mobile data plan with its limited 2 GB quota.
Then again, the other guys' offline play functionalities are all tied to paid subscription accounts, so hopefully this feature will be eventually launched by Apple for iTunes Match subscribers.
It makes a huge difference to customers. More will want to listen to iTunes Radio if they are not hampered by their limited data plans.
Well thats easy. In iTunes remove them from your iphone or iPad apps. This does not delete them from itunes and you can still update them at anytime from iTunes but it takes the useless ones off your iphone or ipad until the developer updates to a better version that doesn't cause you problems.
If the current version of an app is perfectly functional, but later versions are crap, I for one would want to keep the usable version on my phone and forego updates for that app, rather than foregoing use of the app entirely.
If, as someone says, updates can be turned on and off for individual apps, it will be useful. If it's an all or nothing thing, then it will be "nothing" for me, as there are a couple of apps I use that, while useful in earlier versions, were, in my never even close to humble opinion, generally horked in later versions.
Can anyone explain auto-updates to me? I don't understand the logic of when they happen/don't happen, across iOS, OS X, and AppleTV.
It seems a certain amount of time needs to elapse for auto-updates to go through? On both iOS and OS X I've checked the App Store and found updates that were recently pushed, but yet to auto-update. Sometimes I'll leave it alone to see what happens, and then nothing gets updated.
Other times I'll check the AppStore a good 24 hours or so since an update pushed, and find that it already updated.
And the most recent AppleTV update that came through on the same day as 7.0.4...I waited 24 hours, and even though AppleTV was on and not in use for hours at a time....no auto-update.
So...I don't really get it. If I'm going to use auto-update, I really shouldn't have to fetch updates more often then not.
Comments
I've got Downcast, so I'll need to see if it has fixed the few remaining gotchas that kept me from adopting it, specifically:
1. Roll your own podcast list easily on a Mac. For reasons that defy explanation, some podcast players assume want to listen to all of the podcast from source A before turning to source B etc. There's nothing I want less to do. I want to create playlists that alternate long with short, serious with humorous, and history with technology. And I want to do it easily on a mouse-equipped Mac. Dragging stuff around with my fingers on a tiny iPhone screen is too much hassle.
2. Integration with iTunes in some way. Either let me export my podcast list and podcasts from iTunes into a separate app or let me derive the podcasts for the app from iTunes.
3. . 1.25 X speed. I can't understand why Apple thinks anyone would want to listen to anything at 2 X speed. It's too fast for content rich subjects and too fast for going with the flow of fiction books. Even 1.5 X is too fast for most podcasts. 1.25 X would be right for almost everything and give 15 minutes more listening for every hour.
For now, that's no big deal. My iPhone 3GS can't run iOS 7, so it still has a music player than can handle podcasts. My iPad is now upgraded to iOS 7, but I'm not going to carry it along on walks when I listen to podcasts.
iTunes Radio is nice idea that can generate income to Apple. Is it a reason why Apple never add FM radio HW into iPhones? In case my guess is right we can see how long in advance they do their plans.
doubleplusungood Newspeak.
Re: FM tuner
Apple did it with iPod nano a few years ago. I have one. It works "OK" but not well.
I am not surprised that Apple doesn't have it in iPhone.
I've been listening to iTunes Radio on my Mac and the stations don't keep working. They stop or stall a lot.
It's not network-related as the connection is 25Mb/s FiOS, hard-wired.
This feature still needs work.
Apple did it with iPod nano a few years ago. I have one. It works "OK" but not well.
I am not surprised that Apple doesn't have it in iPhone.
Nano 5, 6, and 7 have one, but each is reliant on the headphones as its antenna, which may be part of the quality problem. iTunes Radio is much nicer, but the FM radio abilities in the nano (rewinding, saving song names to buy in iTunes later) were wonderful in their time. iTunes Radio just builds on that.
This is a deal breaker for me because I don't have an unlimited data plan for my mobile. Imagine constantly streaming iTunes Radio while at the office, every working day. I'll burn through my data quota in just a few days!
I really hope they do allow offline play in the future. This really is a limiting factor, and as such Slacker Radio still is my primary radio subscription app for now...
What’s that? An Internet radio service doesn’t let you play the Internet radio when you’re not connected to the Internet? How strange.
I'm just saying that it doesn't feature offline play compare to some of the other competitors e.g. Spotify & Slacker Radio that allows offline play.
Offline play is still Internet radio; it is just that the Internet part (i.e. downloading) is done while at home before going on the move.
I don't mind playing iTunes Radio while connected to my home Wifi connection as it is on an unlimited data plan, but I will try to stay away from it while on my mobile data plan with its limited 2 GB quota.
Then again, the other guys' offline play functionalities are all tied to paid subscription accounts, so hopefully this feature will be eventually launched by Apple for iTunes Match subscribers.
It makes a huge difference to customers. More will want to listen to iTunes Radio if they are not hampered by their limited data plans.
Well thats easy. In iTunes remove them from your iphone or iPad apps. This does not delete them from itunes and you can still update them at anytime from iTunes but it takes the useless ones off your iphone or ipad until the developer updates to a better version that doesn't cause you problems.
If the current version of an app is perfectly functional, but later versions are crap, I for one would want to keep the usable version on my phone and forego updates for that app, rather than foregoing use of the app entirely.If, as someone says, updates can be turned on and off for individual apps, it will be useful. If it's an all or nothing thing, then it will be "nothing" for me, as there are a couple of apps I use that, while useful in earlier versions, were, in my never even close to humble opinion, generally horked in later versions.
Am I the only one who finds this useful?
You can individually activate auto upates for each app in the settings.
Thanks for the tip.
However, can you tell me where these settings are?
I can see per app settings whether the app is running its contents updates in the background, but that is not what I mean.
I mean not updating the app itself via auto-update.
You would have been, had Apple claimed at any point that you were going to get it right now.
A few months, I believe.
Can anyone explain auto-updates to me? I don't understand the logic of when they happen/don't happen, across iOS, OS X, and AppleTV.
It seems a certain amount of time needs to elapse for auto-updates to go through? On both iOS and OS X I've checked the App Store and found updates that were recently pushed, but yet to auto-update. Sometimes I'll leave it alone to see what happens, and then nothing gets updated.
Other times I'll check the AppStore a good 24 hours or so since an update pushed, and find that it already updated.
And the most recent AppleTV update that came through on the same day as 7.0.4...I waited 24 hours, and even though AppleTV was on and not in use for hours at a time....no auto-update.
So...I don't really get it. If I'm going to use auto-update, I really shouldn't have to fetch updates more often then not.