Dennis Fahringer's blog http://fotofah.posterous.com Most recent posts at Dennis Fahringer's blog posterous.com Thu, 04 Aug 2011 00:05:37 -0700 Apple Could Be Launching iTunes Streaming Service Very Soon http://fotofah.posterous.com/apple-could-be-launching-itunes-streaming-ser http://fotofah.posterous.com/apple-could-be-launching-itunes-streaming-ser
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http://www.maclife.com/article/news/apple_could_be_launching_itunes_streaming...

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Fri, 01 Jul 2011 14:56:00 -0700 Sounds like an amazing value for $25 with iTunes Match (replacing with higher quality recordings) http://fotofah.posterous.com/sounds-like-an-amazing-value-for-25-with-itun http://fotofah.posterous.com/sounds-like-an-amazing-value-for-25-with-itun

Apple has a way with ambiguity and false starts lately, such as announcing the end of MobileMe nearly two weeks before it had a document ready to explain the nuance (see “Apple Details Transition from MobileMe to iCloud,” 24 June 2011), and shipping Final Cut Pro X days before it had the answers published to obvious questions from professional customers.

The same is true with iTunes Match, a new subscription service that’s part of iTunes in the Cloud (see “iCloud Rolls In, Extended Forecast Calls for Disruption,” 6 June 2011). With iTunes Match, Apple said, you’ll be able to pay $25 a year to sync all the music you didn’t purchase from the iTunes Store through iCloud to your various computers and iOS devices. Instead of uploading 100 percent of your own music, however, Apple would use a variety of metadata and audio-matching algorithms to check whether a song you owned was the same as one in its 18-million item catalog.

What will happen after the match occurs has been rather confusing, and Apple provided mixed guidance. On its marketing Web site for iCloud, Apple continues to state:

All you have to upload is what iTunes can’t match. Which is much faster than starting from scratch. And all the music iTunes matches plays back at 256-Kbps iTunes Plus quality — even if your original copy was of lower quality

We wondered if Apple was applying digital rights management (DRM) encryption to matched files, since what would otherwise stop someone from paying $25 for one year, matching all their songs, and walking away with higher quality files forever? This information has been available, though, in a place I should have looked: a press release that came out on 6 June 2011 but which I just found out about after Apple changed links to existing releases on the press relations portion of its Web site.

In the press release, Apple makes crystal clear what’s going to happen, something that was missed by many, thanks to the vast amount of news that came out that day. The relevant sentence:

In addition, music not purchased from iTunes can gain the same benefits by using iTunes Match, a service that replaces your music with a 256 kbps AAC DRM-free version if we can match it to the over 18 million songs in the iTunes Store, it makes the matched music available in minutes (instead of weeks to upload your entire music library), and uploads only the small percentage of unmatched music.

There you have it. You’ll be able to upgrade all your ripped files that aren’t up to snuff — avoiding replacing, say, your lossless FLAC versions — with the best Apple and the labels have to offer, for what is essentially a one-time $25 fee. This is the right way to do, but it seems like an awfully nice gift for those of us, like yours truly, who ripped their CDs at lower quality many years ago.

[Note: The first version of this story was written under the assumption that the press release wasn’t posted until 30 June 2011. It has been updated to reflect that the press release was moved to a new URL, which made it appear newly posted. -Glenn]

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Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:29:00 -0700 See the comments on this page for the disadvantages of streaming music to cellphones http://fotofah.posterous.com/see-the-comments-on-this-page-for-the-disadva http://fotofah.posterous.com/see-the-comments-on-this-page-for-the-disadva
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Compare with the content and tone of the article itself ;-) The actual user experience (and monthly cost)?

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Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:53:00 -0700 Curtains Lifting on MobileMe Transition to iCloud [Updated] http://fotofah.posterous.com/curtains-lifting-on-mobileme-transition-to-ic http://fotofah.posterous.com/curtains-lifting-on-mobileme-transition-to-ic
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Wed, 22 Jun 2011 18:10:00 -0700 Demystifying cloud computing for consumers (final sentence: "...Apple's iCloud "takes the lead.") http://fotofah.posterous.com/demystifying-cloud-computing-for-consumers-fi http://fotofah.posterous.com/demystifying-cloud-computing-for-consumers-fi
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Sun, 19 Jun 2011 16:47:04 -0700 Valuable tip about iTunes (even before iCloud becomes available this Fall) http://fotofah.posterous.com/valuable-tip-about-itunes-even-before-icloud http://fotofah.posterous.com/valuable-tip-about-itunes-even-before-icloud from: http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/

Beta. Available now.
Your past purchases. Available on all your devices.
Now you can download music you’ve previously purchased to all your
devices. When you buy music from iTunes, iCloud stores your purchase
history. So you can see the music you’ve bought — no matter which
device you bought it on. You can access your purchase history from the
iTunes Store on your Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. And since
you already own that music, you can tap to download your songs or
albums to any of your devices.

Coming This Fall
iTunes Match

If you want all the benefits of iTunes in the Cloud for music you
haven’t purchased from iTunes, iTunes Match is the perfect solution.
It lets you store your entire collection, including music you’ve
ripped from CDs or purchased somewhere other than iTunes. For just
$24.99 a year.2

Here’s how it works: iTunes determines which songs in your collection
are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is
automatically added to your iCloud library for you to listen to
anytime, on any device. Since there are more than 18 million songs in
the iTunes Store, most of your music is probably already in iCloud.
All you have to upload is what iTunes can’t match. Which is much
faster than starting from scratch. And all the music iTunes matches
plays back at 256-Kbps iTunes Plus quality — even if your original
copy was of lower quality.

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Sun, 19 Jun 2011 16:18:25 -0700 Best short article I've read about what's coming for Apple users with the new Mac OX Lion, iOS and iCloud http://fotofah.posterous.com/best-short-article-ive-read-about-whats-comin http://fotofah.posterous.com/best-short-article-ive-read-about-whats-comin http://www.islandpacket.com/2011/06/19/1694809/the-it-guy-blue-skies-ahead-fo...

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Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:00:07 -0700 iCloud vs. MobileMe: What We Might Lose and What We Might Gain http://fotofah.posterous.com/icloud-vs-mobileme-what-we-might-lose-and-wha http://fotofah.posterous.com/icloud-vs-mobileme-what-we-might-lose-and-wha http://www.maclife.com/article/features/icloud_vs_mobileme_what_we_might_lose_and_what_we_might_gain

Very good comparison via a 2 column table

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Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:26:00 -0700 RIP iWeb (on the death of MobileMe and probable orphaning or dying of Apple iWeb) :-( http://fotofah.posterous.com/rip-iweb-on-the-death-of-mobileme-and-probabl http://fotofah.posterous.com/rip-iweb-on-the-death-of-mobileme-and-probabl
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Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:54:00 -0700 Half the users of Apple mobile devices have never backed up to iTunes? (Yikes!) You will with iCloud http://fotofah.posterous.com/half-the-users-of-apple-mobile-devices-have-n http://fotofah.posterous.com/half-the-users-of-apple-mobile-devices-have-n
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Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:29:27 -0700 How will iTunes work with iCloud (a very good article from MacWorld) http://fotofah.posterous.com/how-will-itunes-work-with-icloud-a-very-good http://fotofah.posterous.com/how-will-itunes-work-with-icloud-a-very-good http://www.macworld.com/article/160339/2011/06/itunesncloud.html

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Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:10:00 -0700 iCloud: What you need to know (plus info on what happens for MobileMe users--an excellent article) http://fotofah.posterous.com/icloud-what-you-need-to-know-plus-info-on-wha http://fotofah.posterous.com/icloud-what-you-need-to-know-plus-info-on-wha
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Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:21:00 -0700 5 Great New Features in iTunes 10.3 http://fotofah.posterous.com/5-great-new-features-in-itunes-103 http://fotofah.posterous.com/5-great-new-features-in-itunes-103
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Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:15:00 -0700 Apple WWDC keynote video stream condensed into 2 minutes (from 2 hrs.! :-) http://fotofah.posterous.com/apple-wwdc-keynote-video-stream-condensed-int http://fotofah.posterous.com/apple-wwdc-keynote-video-stream-condensed-int

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Wed, 08 Jun 2011 15:51:00 -0700 very good info here for MobileMe users about the switch to iCloud http://fotofah.posterous.com/very-good-info-here-for-mobileme-users-about http://fotofah.posterous.com/very-good-info-here-for-mobileme-users-about

 

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Wed, 08 Jun 2011 15:14:00 -0700 good article about why Apple developed iCloud http://fotofah.posterous.com/good-article-about-why-apple-developed-icloud http://fotofah.posterous.com/good-article-about-why-apple-developed-icloud

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217443/Apple_plays_customer_loyalty_a...

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Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:31:00 -0700 some advantages of SugarSync rather than Amazon, Google or iCloud http://fotofah.posterous.com/some-advantages-of-sugarsync-rather-than-amaz http://fotofah.posterous.com/some-advantages-of-sugarsync-rather-than-amaz

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Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:33:00 -0700 more on the Photo Stream feature of iCloud http://fotofah.posterous.com/more-on-the-photo-stream-feature-of-icloud http://fotofah.posterous.com/more-on-the-photo-stream-feature-of-icloud
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Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:30:00 -0700 very good article on iCloud and its features http://fotofah.posterous.com/very-good-article-on-icloud-and-its-features http://fotofah.posterous.com/very-good-article-on-icloud-and-its-features

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2386438,00.asp#

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Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:12:00 -0700 iCloud for Apple mobile devices :-) very good short explanation, nearly all will be free http://fotofah.posterous.com/icloud-for-apple-mobile-devices-very-good-sho http://fotofah.posterous.com/icloud-for-apple-mobile-devices-very-good-sho
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