Spotify Announces Major Update Focused on Entertainment and Curated Content

[thekeyring]

I wonder if Apple's service will be superior.

I miss the days of Leopard vs Vista when Apple was clearly superior. Not sure if Apple is slowing down or the competition is catching up.

Or whether it's purely marketing. No more 'Our product rules and the competition sucks' ads from Apple.

 

[HenryDJP]

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

Said wholeheartedly from a Windows user. Pushbullet is an application. iTunes is an application. You expect Apple to implement an app within an app just to satisfy Windows users? Yeah right. Step into a reality. It has nothing to do with lock-in. At least iTunes is free and you're trippin'. I'm still wrapping my head around why Microsoft charges the same price to Mac users for Office but the Windows customers get a full fledged version? Hmm. But by all means keep slamming Apple for they don't do for Windows users.

 

[freediverx]

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

Lock in is a benefit, to be sure, but it's not the only driving factor here. These features don't even work on all Macs, only on newer ones that support Bluetooth LE. One way that other companies sometimes offer snazzy features is by ignoring considerations like dependability, energy efficiency, and user experience. Apple will not offer a feature that looks good on a spec sheet but sucks in real life, which puts them in stark contrast to their competitors who often do the exact opposite.

Having said that, though, why should Apple make a huge investment of time, money, and effort to get a feature like this to work on a competing platform that's declining everywhere but in the enterprise?

The music service will work for Android and the web because those platforms are still dominant in the market and their inclusion is necessary for a successful music streaming product. Windows support? Not so much.

 

[ghettochris]

Saw this posted on 9to5mac earlier...

Unless it's cheaper or offers more, Apple will have a hard time to sell their streaming version.

I doubt it. Preinstalled on iPhones is a huge deal. iTunes radio showed me that with Pandora. One time I open Pandora and it wanted me to sign in with my email and stuff and I said **** it and opened iTunes Radio and never went back. Being able to just pay a couple more dollars on my iTunes account is way easier than downloading an app and pay them separately having to enter my credit card info and make an account and all that hassle.

 

[freediverx]

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.

it's May 2015 and the latest version of Microsoft Office for Mac is from 2011.

 

[DriedTurnip]

Anyone else trying to enter the streaming music market is like someone trying to outcoke coke. Spotify is now ubiquitous and provides a service that users are happy with and have no reason to move from.

 

[GhostRaider]

I also believe that Apple's attempt at music streaming will end up having the same fate as Ping lol. Spotify is everywhere, and I'm happy with their service and I get a premium discount. I wish Apple would put more resources into OS X and their apps. Their software is lacking nowadays.

 

[gri]

Just give me a way to tell you more what I like so that you don't suggest to me all this crap. Any suggestions welcome.

 

[stuffradio]

It was their last push to woo customers before Apple takes the stage to announce 'Apple Music' and it turned out to be pretty mediocre.

Videos and podcasting? We already have YouTube and iTunes for that. They needed to focus more on the music side of things. What they are doing with exercise seems pretty interesting though. I can see Apple implementing something similar that would take advantage of the Watch.

Apple is extremely late to the party. They missed the boat in places outside of the US and Australia. I have no excitement for Apple's streaming when I have Spotify for free or I can pay for Spotify if I want. They promised we would get iTunes radio last year, they failed to launch. Their problem, not mine.

 

[MacLawyer]

I wonder

How many competing music streaming services are going to be out there? And more are scrambling to jump in all the time.

What happened to "people want to own their music"?

 

[stuffradio]

it's May 2015 and the latest version of Microsoft Office for Mac is from 2011.

2016, but let's not let facts get in the way of Microsoft hate.

 

[freediverx]

2016, but let's not let facts get in the way of Microsoft hate.

That's not out officially yet. Even if it were, the fact remains that Microsoft delivered a crappy version of Office for Mac users, at full price, and then let it languish for five years before updating it.

 

[gotluck]

Said wholeheartedly from a Windows user. Pushbullet is an application. iTunes is an application. You expect Apple to implement an app within an app just to satisfy Windows users? Yeah right. Step into a reality. It has nothing to do with lock-in. At least iTunes is free and you're trippin'. I'm still wrapping my head around why Microsoft charges the same price to Mac users for Office but the Windows customers get a full fledged version? Hmm. But by all means keep slamming Apple for they don't do for Windows users.

Pushbullet works also as a browser extension on the desktop side. This is not rocket science

Apple could at least allow Apis that let pushbullet do it on iOS.

Im not a windows user by choice, most people that work in enterprise miss out on these features. I hardly use my PC at home anymore

 

[HenryDJP]

Pushbullet works also as a browser extension on the desktop side. This is not rocket science

Apple could at least allow Apis that let pushbullet do it on iOS.

As someone else mentioned but you conveniently ignored, not all Macs can take advantage of Continuity even with Yosemite installed. I have a 2011 i7 QuadCore iMac with 2GB of video ram and 16GB of system ram. Nicely spec'd machine but because I don't have Bluetooth 4.0 I am limited to Continuity only offering me the ability to have my iPhone pass the calls and SMS messages to my iMac. Sure, both my iPad and my iPhone have full Continuity but my iMac doesn't. Depends on the age of the machine. So if a limited amount of Macs have full Continuity or Continuity at all then you should understand that Apple is not going to waste resources getting it work on Windows. To understand that is not rocket science.

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Im not a windows user by choice, most people that work in enterprise miss out on these features. I hardly use my PC at home anymore

But you go out of your way to list in your signature that you use a Windows 7 PC even though this is an Apple Enthusiast board called MACrumors?

 

[droidgod]

Streaming is a PITA for artists, whether its Spotify or the labels that are scamming the artists. Its sad but its part of the times we are living in.

Unless a completely new business model or innovative new method of selling music is discovered, we are stuck with streaming for the time being.

I would suggest that those concerned with streaming ripping off artists, support their favourite artists, buy their albums, attend their concerts etc.

Spotify i think does a fantastic job at promoting new music content and really i just dont get the hate towards it, especially considering the artist can always pull out of having their songs on Spotify.

(small side note): Piracy never hurt music sales or the music industry. Before the digital age there was bootleg tapes and people used to record songs of radio on tapes. A person who valued music and bought albums legitimately never went one fine day and stopped buying stuff due to piracy. People who want stuff for free will always find way to get it,cause they have no intention of ever paying for stuff.

 

[bawbac]

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/

More traffic does NOT equate to a better product.
More like people searching repeatedly for the same thing because the Apple maps lack accuracy.

 

[gotluck]

As someone else mentioned but you conveniently ignored, not all Macs can take advantage of Continuity even with Yosemite installed. I have a 2011 i7 QuadCore iMac with 2GB of video ram and 16GB of system ram. Nicely spec'd machine but because I don't have Bluetooth 4.0 I am limited to Continuity only offering me the ability to have my iPhone pass the calls and SMS messages to my iMac. Sure, both my iPad and my iPhone have full Continuity but my iMac doesn't. Depends on the age of the machine. So if a limited amount of Macs have full Continuity or Continuity at all then you should understand that Apple is not going to waste resources getting it work on Windows. To understand that is not rocket science.

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But you go out of your way to list in your signature that you use a Windows 7 PC even though this is an Apple Enthusiast board called MACrumors?

I can't believe that you don't think that it is huge bs that you can't just install a bt4.0 dongle and get full compatibility. I would be extremely pissed in that scenario.

Yes I list windows in my sig because I am usually in the iOS hacks and the alternatives sections, where it may be useful to know that when discussing. Perhaps I should stay there.

 

[Sandstorm]

I love to run using RunKeeper. I also run using Spotify. I have yet to mix the to together, rather they are used simultaneously, yet exclusively. Not sure these features will change my run or how I use RunKeeper/Spotify.

I'm in exactly the same boat. I use both RunKeeper and Spotify. And I love both.

 

[winston1236]

The kerning on that video still is horrendous.

 

[stuffradio]

That's not out officially yet. Even if it were, the fact remains that Microsoft delivered a crappy version of Office for Mac users, at full price, and then let it languish for five years before updating it.

It's publicly available to anyone with an Office 365 subscription. So it is out in a way, but it is in beta.

 

[thekeyring]

Doing that won't beat Spotify. It'll make them another wannabe. Spotify's partnership with Sony on the PS4 alone will make it hard for Apple. It also helps that Spotify is available on pretty much everything whereas Apple is stupidly tying their service to iTunes/iOS

I believe the service will be on Android, too. Thought not confirmed yet, obviously.

Secondly, Spotify being on PS4 is nothing to Apple Music being on every iPhone that's capable of getting the update.

 

[smorrissey]

God Bless Spotify! already renewd for 6 months

 

[thekeyring]

I'll believe it when I see it It will be truly shocking to see Apple's first android app

I can't help but think there will be some kind of catch. Similar to how itunes on windows does not accomodate continuity / handoff

That's less of a catch or a crippled feature and more a Windows vs OS X problem. When iTunes for Windows was launched, Apple said it wanted to make a really good Windows program. Same store. Same UI, etc.

What I'm interested in is how Apple will tel us about the app at WWDC. Considering an app submission was blocked for having 'Android' mentioned in the screenshot, how will they make us swallow a shiny new Apple Thing that's on Android, too?

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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.

Actually, on iPhone Apple Maps has been eating into Google's market share. Simply by being default. It's not as good, but it's not so bad that everyone downloads Google Maps straight away - though some do, obviously.

 

[HenryDJP]

I can't believe that you don't think that it is huge bs that you can't just install a bt4.0 dongle and get full compatibility. I would be extremely pissed in that scenario.

What the heck are you talking about? I never said any of the such. I simply said my iMac doesn't have Bluetooth 4.0. Why are you adding all this extra nonsense about what I believe and don't believe? I am very aware of dongles. My point is if Apple is not going to design their software to run on any Mac running Yosemite then you're asking way way way too much for them to add additional functionality to iTunes to mimic the Continuity function for Windows machines.

Yes I list windows in my sig because I am usually in the iOS hacks and the alternatives sections, where it may be useful to know that when discussing. Perhaps I should stay there.

I promise I won't put up an argument against it.

 

[Jamessmooth]

I just want Apple Watch support I wish we could sync playlists for offline use on the Watch.

YES! Same here. Would love Spotify support for Apple Watch. For the time being, I do really enjoy being able to switch tracks from it