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Spotify Announces Major Update Focused on Entertainment and Curated Content
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Partnership with the same Sony that Apple has been working with for iTunes for 14 years?
You know where this Apple Music is going to go straight at launch? To more than a billion OS X and iOS devices around the world. Let's not kid ourselves as to who has the upper hand here. Spotify has benefitted from years of mediocre competition.
Fix your damn OS X desktop app to allow for managing the cache size and directory again... why that was removed is beyond me.
There is the kicker. I think spotify has 60-70 million users? I am one and All Apple. If apple does Apple Music well, then they not only gain a user, but spotify loses one. I think a good 10-20 percent of spotify users, if not more, I would guess have some ties to Apple and might be in the same boat. Plus, apple has hundreds of millions of users, get even one forth of all those users and you've got more subscribers than Spotify without cross platform availability, which is something I believe they really need to do.
I still prefer iTunes Radio. I get it commercial free with iTunes Match and I have unlimited skips 
This is a much better approach then what Rdio did by attempting to create essentially another video on demand service. I think bite size video clips are the way to go.
I was sold on this when i heard about broad city being part of it.
I was sold on this when i heard about broad city being part of it.
I would be surprised if 10-20 percent of spotify users were okay with only playing music using apple products, but we shall see
I used to use Spotify but the software was far too buggyespecially when doing custom streaming radio stationseven though I had a premium account. I also didn't care for the design. Since I'm an Rdio user now I'll comment on the design, which seems to have gotten a lot better and reminds me of the Rdio design language. It's also interesting that they're trying to become more of a platform for all forms of media. Lastly the green is better than the old one, but it really makes me think of Kickstarter. Although I guess you can only have so many colors before you run out and many companies just go with blue. I have way too many blue app icons!
The Missing Link
What never gets discussed regarding the streaming services is our data is capped and this ruins any positive streaming experience. Streaming services need to negotiate with the carriers so streaming data doesn't count towards caps, or people need to fight to get caps eliminated or raised.
I'm on MetroPCS who allows you to go o ver your limit for free, it just drops the speed from LTE to 3G. But I still won't stream.
What never gets discussed regarding the streaming services is our data is capped and this ruins any positive streaming experience. Streaming services need to negotiate with the carriers so streaming data doesn't count towards caps, or people need to fight to get caps eliminated or raised.
I'm on MetroPCS who allows you to go o ver your limit for free, it just drops the speed from LTE to 3G. But I still won't stream.
And how's Apple maps doing against Google maps?
Send garbage to a consumer only makes them put the garbage in the trash... or put it in a folder since Apple does not allow such deletion from it's core applications that collect data.
I think the best option in the current situation is the way many podcasts and spotify playlists are handled. You download the playlists or episodes for offline use. That does take up space, but in an example like my favorite podcast app Castro, you can have the latest video podcast or audio podcast to download on either Wi-Fi or Cellular and you can pick a data space cap for each channel. Also, you have the ability do download multiple episodes at once. I think that is the best route to go and has helped me avoid data caps for a couple years now.
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Actually, Maps is doing okay despite the misconception. But all comments are welcomed and appreciated
I don't know, I love podcasts on my runs and while you are correct that there are other options. Having an app that can handle several services is very convenient for me and would win me over. I like one app versus 3, 4, 5, etc
But I think you are on to something with Apple implementing something similar in terms of their exercise matching. Seems like a natural fit with the Apple watch and the heartbeat monitoring function.
For podcasts, get Overcast. Way better than Apple's app.
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Which Apple services do you find atrocious? For the most part, they work pretty well (iCloud drive, photos, sync, music, etc.)
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What makes you think Apple's upcoming Music service will be only for Apple users? They're going to support Android as well.
"Apple still apparently plans to offer the service across platforms, however, including on the web and on Android, 9to5Mac reports, and development on the Android side of things is one of the reasons its launching in June and not this March as earlier reports maintained."
http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/05/apples-streaming-music-service-will-debut-in-june/
I'll believe it when I see it
It will be truly shocking to see Apple's first android appI can't help but think there will be some kind of catch. Similar to how itunes on windows does not accomodate continuity / handoff
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The idea highlighted in bold above is a bad one, and is now illegal since it violates the FCC's recent net neutrality mandate. While I sympathize with those who are on limited data plans, the solution is not to allow wireless carriers to choose winners and losers by partnering with companies to provide free data access only for their particular service. This would undermine the very foundation of the internet, which would eventually be taken over by the likes of Facebook and Google.
Facebook is trying to do this in poor countries like India, partnering with wireless carriers to offer free data but only for a hand-picked selection of content, primarily Facebook. While they try to market this as a noble and humanitarian effort, it is anything but that. It is a bold faced attempt at monetizing the poor through advertising, while locking out competitors.
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Pretty well.
“Traffic on the new Apple Maps now represents 70% of mapping traffic on the 4G network, from 60% in the second half of 2013, taking market share from Google maps, which is down 7ppts. This difference is even more marked over 3G where Apple Maps is up 19ppts and Google Maps is down 15ppts.”
http://bgr.com/2014/08/11/apple-maps-vs-google-maps-3/
"ComScore research shows that while Apple suffered a PR disaster over maps, Google lost 23m iPhone users in the US"
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/11/apple-maps-google-iphone-users
"Throughout testing, we expected to find that Google trumped Apple in every category, as it did when we first compared the two in 2012. This isn’t entirely true though – Apple Maps has vastly improved since it was first launched and now we conclude the turn-by-turn navigation is a lot better than Google’s offering. While there are areas that both Google and Apple can improve on, we’re certain that using Apple Maps won’t direct you to drive into the Thames and that most of the initial issues have been fixed."
http://www.macworld.co.uk/review/re...googles-maps-still-better-apple-maps-3464377/
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It'll be a paid service from the same company that's been running iTunes for 14 years. Content won't be easy? Ha.
May keep YOU away but won't keep me away from Apple's offering. I have the Spotify 3 month $.99 trail and while I have tried it on my PS4 and it's a nice change from Music Unlimited there's no reason for me not to want to try out Apple's forthcoming offering.
Just because Spotify is on the PS4 doesn't mean doodly squat. It's much more of a hinderance to boot up the PS4 through the TV then launch Spotify. At the end of the day it's best to use a PS4 for gaming. Trying to watch a movie through Netflix on it with the controller staying lit up is stupid and when it shuts off it puts a notification on the screen.
I would much rather use the Apple TV to play music and movies and a standard remote than a PS4.
I am using spotify to play music while gaming , yes- that is what I thought was cool about it, the integration. I am not using it on ps4 when I want to just listen to music. And yes, I was referring to my own use case.
For around the house I usually AirPlay spotify from my iPad to kodi on raspberry Pi 2 attached to my speakers. Apple music would likely work in this scenario too
And how like Microsoft over the many years kept dumbing down Mac Office with less functions and features but cost the same street price as the Windows version?:roll eyes:
And aren't Continuity and Handoff a feature on OS X? It's not like Apple can make that function work on an OS that doesn't offer that. Oh please.
And how like Microsoft over the many years kept dumbing down Mac Office with less functions and features but cost the same street price as the Windows version?
What makes you think I would say that is a good thing? They both suck
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Pushbullet(and others) offers almost all of the same functionality on android via any desktop os. I'm sure Apple is capable of it, but It does not align with their lock in strategy.
You were suggesting that Apple might create a catch in their streaming App for Android as they do to Windows customers in regards to iTunes. My point was Microsoft does the same thing to Mac customers. You can't honestly expect Apple to take care of Windows customers as well as they do Mac customers when Microsoft is screwing Apple's customers. It's unfortunate but it's a common practice and Microsoft has been screwing Apple's customers for a long time.
I'll believe it when I see it
I can't help but think there will be some kind of catch. Similar to how itunes on windows does not accomodate continuity / handoff
Well then prepare to be shocked. Music streaming is too big a deal for Apple to limit their service to just Apple customers. Additionally, they've absorbed Beats Music which was already cross-platform, so it would be a PR fiasco for them to shut the service down on Android users. Of course, you shouldn't hold your breath for Windows Phone support, lol.
Why would you expect continuity/handoff to work on Windows? This is a classic example of the sort of feature that requires deep hardware/software integration to work well, something that's only possible when you control both the software and the hardware.
"Now, you know, one of the pioneers of our industry, Alan Kay, has had a lot of great quotes throughout the years. And I ran across one of them recently that explains how we look at this. Explains why we go about doing things the way we do, because we love software. And here’s the quote: “People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.” You know, Alan said this 30 years ago, and this is how we feel about it." -Steve Jobs
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Pushbullet does almost all of the same things (handing off calls is the only thing missing I believe) and is platform agnostic. Apple could at least show the damn notifications on PC and allow for text replies. Not having the feature at work sucks
The reason it doesn't work has more to do with lock in (and selling macs) than any technical impossibility