iTunes Driving me Nuts!

[Markrg]

Hi, I want to sue the pants off Apple for wasting so much of my time and making it so hard to use my music on non Apple hardware! Ha - wishful thinking I know but here's the problem:

I have almost 5000 music titles on my computer around two thirds of which come from a cumbersome CD collection and rest from the iTunes store. I have 5 iPods of various types around the house so all was well until I bought an HTC phone. To play my music on that I had to export the tracks from iTunes which a) takes an enormous amount of time and effort and b) creates all sorts of cataloguing issues that I won't go into here except to say it makes the library difficult to use. It has taken many weekends of effort and I still haven't got things right.; missing album art, incorrectly labelled tracks and so on.

The crux of it is that Apple say they are protecting the rights of copyright holders by encrypting tracks and saving them in a proprietary file format but what they are really doing is locking people in to using their hardware and that can’t be right. It’s unlawful in some countries and they have been sued for it in the USA before now.

Is anyone taking action against Apple in the UK for this restrictive practice? I will add my name to the list if they are.

[SOD'EM]

I am not too up to date on HTC but my Mrs has a Blackberry. I too have an array of albums on my laptop and I also use iTunes for my sons iPod. As for the Blackberry I just bluetooth any songs she wants from my laptop straight to her phone.

 

Apple and iTunes have always been a pain in the a**e. Sorry I can't help you more. If your computer hasn't got Bluetooth capability, you can buy USB Bluetooth dongles for a couple of quid on the net. They are tiny and simply just plug in and automatically installs giving your PC/Laptop Bluetooth capabilities.

 

Another possibility would be to send the music as an email attachment to yourself, and open the email using the HTC and then open the attachment and save. I've never tried it, but I'm sure it's possible.

[locutus]

I love my HTC and I dislike most things apple. The HTC Legend that I have has a peculiar file structure for MP3's (I don't know if yours is the same) where the songs have to go into a folder, and that becomes a playlist? I just wonder if that is contributing to the frustration.

[Markrg]

Hi and thanks for your replies.

 

The HTC Desire I have is quite happy to play most things so I am cool with that. It's the difficulty that iTunes creates when you need to export music for other hardware to play. Essentially this comes down to having to burn CDs although a virtual CD player makes that task a little easier. Even so, you end up with tracks that have odd titles, missing tags and other strangeness.

 

The main frustration is that they haven't licensed their decryption and m4p file format to any third party which means you have to jump through unreasonably tight hoops to get your music away from iPods, Itunes and so on. Some people have compared it to buying bread from Tescos only to be told it can only be toasted in a device from Tesco - you get the idea.

 

I am a part time musician and fully support any efforts retaillers make to ensure artists get paid for their work. But I don't like the way Apple have used it to lock our music to their hardware.

[pin1onu]

There are programmes out there that will decrypt itunes and remove protection. I looked into it for my sister inlaw a few years ago.

 

This website has a list: Removing DRM FAQ: How to remove copy-protection from iTunes AAC files (Windows software)

 

Try googling ipod protection removal for others.

 

There are also a number of programs that will change formats from Apple's formats to others.

[qa19]

I have a HTC Desire and it's far better than the iPhone or iPod, cheaper to buy and 50% cheaper on monthly contract. I just laugh at people and what they "can't" do on an iphone. Anyway that's a bit off topic, as for itunes what they've got away with over the last 10 years is almost criminal and their excuses about protecting song writers and copyrights is simply lies. There are file formats that limit usage without having to be synced to their ridiculous itunes accounts. All they do is cash in on the Apple name as it has been the must have icon for the last 10 years.

[locutus]

Back off topic:p, the best selling app for iPhone 4... phone box locater

 

I have the HTC Legend (smaller screen, slightly less powerful than the Desire, £20 per month!) Really is a lovely phone, 1 solid piece of brushed aluminum for the case, same shape as the HTC Hero.

 

I'm surprised Apple haven't tried to sue Google slating the "Android market" as a rip off of the "Apps store" (they are trying to take HTC to court and Nokia... I hope it goes aswell as when they tried to sue Microsoft as obviously they had patented windows )

 

Apple are the evil dictators or the computer world (Microsoft are like President Bush... (powerful but a little silly sometimes) and Linux are like Che Guevara(loved by his supporters, but unheard of by the majority )

[qa19]

I think Apple have got a few counter sues (that the right word?) to contend with. They're all suing each other really and it's pathetic. The problem lies in the stupid US patenting system were it makes it almost impossible for anyone to do anything without stepping on each others toes.