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Amazon Launches Cloud-Based Storage Service and Music Player

Consultant said:
And Amazon thinks crippling ioS compatibility will be good business? FAIL.
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I don't blame any company who looks at what Apple has done to people who are trying to create services for the iOS platform and decides that they don't want to go there.

They hold up Google Voice and other apps in endless app review purgatories, embarrassing the companies that spent valuable resources developing them. They look at companies that have created amazing magazine apps or streaming media apps, and now they say that they demand the opportunity to market subscriptions to those services and take a 30% cut.

Amazon looks at the situation and knows that Apple will very likely either hold up their app or demand a 30% cut of their subscription fees, and either case is unacceptable. This is especially likely to happen since this new Amazon service seems to compete directly with the cloud services that Apple is gearing up to offer.
 
spazzcat said:
There are several streaming and file store apps in app store...
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how many of those apps sell music and movies for use on portable devices?


addicted44 said:
So why is the website blocking access?

That being said, I hope Apple's preview of the future of iOS gets done with all the restrictions after all. Fighting with companies who want to build on your platform is not gonna lead them anywhere.
Click to expand...

I didnt realize the webpage was blocking access...
 
Come on Apple you can do it ..

Having bought a good chunk of my media library of iTunes I would love to back that up into the cloud .. wirelessly syncing my phone would be heaven.

Hopeing Apple has something good up their sleeves.

T.
 
tuna said:
I don't blame any company who looks at what Apple has done to people who are trying to create services for the iOS platform and decides that they don't want to go there.

They hold up Google Voice and other apps in endless app review purgatories, embarrassing the companies that spent valuable resources developing them. They look at companies that have created amazing magazine apps or streaming media apps, and now they say that they demand the opportunity to market subscriptions to those services and take a 30% cut.

Amazon looks at the situation and knows that Apple will very likely either hold up their app or demand a 30% cut of their subscription fees, and either case is unacceptable. This is especially likely to happen since this new Amazon service seems to compete directly with the cloud services that Apple is gearing up to offer.
Click to expand...

GV got held up because they broke rule number one, they used private APIs....
 
Littleodie914 said:
You can't even begin to compare this service to MobileMe's current offerings. This is just space. (And a music player.) MobileMe offers address book, calendar, photo browsing, and other features.
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Those services are readily available for free elsewhere. I used to subscribe to MobileMe back when it was the only reliable way to get push email, calendar, and contacts on my iPhone. Since then Google services have been allowed to be compatible and work about as well. I let my MobileMe subscription lapse. Towards the end, the only thing I was using my MobileMe for was the iDisk.


Littleodie914 said:
Huh? :confused: I think redundancy is the only valid argument here. What do you mean by bandwidth? Transfer speeds uploading to the cloud are hideous compared to USB 2.0. Syncing tools are also readily available for any external drive. External drives barely use any power, 20W during access. Processing power? You're not compressing or analyzing data. Just transferring and storing it. :confused:
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Those are the costs associated with the cloud. You have to send the data over the internet and you have to build servers to support the storage space. In return you get unlimited access anywhere. My dropbox folder syncs across 3 computers and is easily accessible by my iPhone, plus I have shared folders with other users that sync across all my computers plus all the computers of my friends. That is value-added over simply buying an external hard drive.
 
For $1000 you would go a long way to getting a mac mini with a 1TB drive and get it hosted at macminicolo. Send them a secod hand mini and it'd be cheaper. Not sure how nice the experience would be streaming stuff to your phone over 3G though :eek:
 
Instead of incorrectly assuming things, why don't you give it a try?

wheezy said:
It's yet another Dropbox offering that's a long ways behind awesome-integration with other products (Lots of apps sync data between devices via Dropbox). And, if I put a music file into dropbox I can play it, mobile device independent.

Also, why would I only want my music accessible when I have internet? Any road trips from where I live (Utah) generally put me in EDGE territory which won't be consistently fast enough to stream the audio at enough quality, let alone the fact that there are several dead spots along the way. I'll stick to having my music on my iPhone. No buffer, no stutter, no data usage. Oh, yeah. That. Data usage. With carriers bottlenecking you now, you think they'll favor Amazon cloud delivery for people who want to stream their music all day long? They (Amazon) will probably also do some more compression on the files so it'll sound like listening to your music in a tin can.

At first glance, being very pessimistic, I'm not really interested in this product.
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Wheezy - Instead of incorrectly assuming things, why don't you give it a try? You're in the US and it's free to set up. I've been using it all day (have uploaded 5GB of music) and it's a fantastic service. The web-based front-end if very fast, automatically updates with any new music that has been uploaded without refreshing the whole page. All music is played as it was uploaded (not recompressed).

I've uploaded only the maximum quality MP3 files (320 Kbps) and they sound great. It displays the artwork, you can create playlists, it's actually faster to use than iTunes (as my iTunes music library is so big). I have a netbook with limited storage, but now when I go to an office, or my parents place or to a coffee shop with wifi I have a big chunk of my music collection there to listen to if I wish. You can download and upload music as much as you want - there are no bandwidth limits at all. You can also upload music from Linux, OS X or Windows. It's pretty versatile and I'm sure they have more plans to improve it further. What's not to like?
 
With Pandora or just having an iPhone/iPod, I don't see a point streaming music, max 20Gb, what if there is not internet, what if you stop subscribing. Doesn't sound like a breakthrough idea to me. :cool:
 
Looks nice as a place to store off site backup type stuff, but I still don't see how all this space as a digital music locker for streaming (again the back up part is nice) is all that viable at this time (Amazon, Apple, whoever) as data is getting capped more and more, and will cost more money as more things look to help you blow past your data-cap.

iTunes on iPhone in auto = no data usage, no interruptions.
iTunes on iPhone in auto streaming = data usage, and stream issues ...3G is not everywhere yet.

It is the future, but I until the US cell company's play ball on a cost effective way to do it (the att/tmoe merger won't help) then I don't see this working so well in the US.
 
Oh well
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For U.S. Customers Only

It appears that you are attempting to use Amazon Cloud Player from outside the U.S. This service is intended for U.S. customers only.
---
 
I wonder which genius at Amazon thought it was a good idea to make their cloud service work in the US only.

If you don't have a US based IP address you are locked out of the system. Can't even sign up and see what it looks like. Also you can't purchase either mp3's or video from Amazon if you originate from a non-US IP address. Even if you have proper payment/billing information in the US.

IMO their informational video is outright lying when they say you can access your files anytime and anywhere.

Apparently in Amazonland anywhere = The US and ONLY the US.

So if you get this setup in the US and travel to a foreign country your amazing, anywhere & anytime "cloud" storage magically goes away.

Looks like Apple will have to step in and show these morons how it's done yet again.
 
andy845 said:
overall figures at http://androidandme.com/2011/03/devices/android’s-market-share-depicted-with-a-whole-lot-of-colors/

This is the US market only.

I'm no android fan but don't think apple will be market leaders (by share) because the are not, and will not be.
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1st qtr may paint a different picture, there is only a few points different in market share at the end of year. Apple added a new carrier and are selling iPads as fast as they can make them. In the end, will have more deivices most likely not, but I don't think it will be 80/20 spilt in marketshare, but more like 45/55 in a few years. They are keeping up with Google with one phone, one MP3 player and one tablet...
 
Just remember part of this is that if you buy Amazon digital products they are added to cloud service and they not counted towards the limit. That for me makes the 5gb or 20gb less to worry about. Same price itunes and amazon but free hosting in the cloud as a backup who would you choose?

This is a very exciting prospect. You want 2 dogs fighting it out to make each other better.
 
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