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iPad Pro Why do we still need iTunes for the iPad Pro ?

T

TheRealAlex

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Sep 2, 2015
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Curious I was reading an article and someone had a very good Point. Especially since the Next IPhone and next iPads will be more Poiwerfull than a lot of PCs in use today. Why do we still need to Sync with iTunes just build the full featured program right into iOS.

I'm kinda curious (non-engineer here)… the next iPhone/ iPad will probably be 2-5x more powerful than the last one… it will be as powerful as many tablets/laptops… so why can't they build the full iTunes app right into the phone? Yes, we can download apps right into the phone right now but we still have to transfer our own songs/recordings (that aren't purchased from the iTunes Store) into the desktop iTunes program and then sync it with the iPhone, right? (I have a iPhone 5, and yeah it needs to be upgraded but the point is I believe the higher models still can't bypass the desktop iTunes program) After all these years we still can't upload our own songs/recordings/videos directly into the phone like the drag/drop function of Windows.

Also I Remeber buying my First Apple product the iPad Nano Color ( September 2005) and iTunes laughably has not changed in functionality heck since even before then.
 
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I use iTunes every time I buy music because the iPad is bad at organizing and can't be used to edit ID3 tags; no Apple, neither Simple Minds nor Leatherstrip are rock bands. I also use star ratings to further organize and not being able to see the stars for all the songs in an album is a pain.

Being able to edit tags on my iPad would reduce my reliance on iTunes significantly.
 
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Well, you don't have to sync with iTunes at all – you can put your own music files in iCloud Drive and play them from there, or use something like GoodReader and transfer them directly there using AirDrop or a few other ways.

But I think I get what you mean – you can't, like, drag the 12 ripped tracks from an album you own and have them form a new logical album in the Music app. They do think about that sort of thing (Steve's last time on stage at WWDC 2011 evinced that), but they probably think of it as an edge case, and they tend to think of "80% of their users" when prioritizing.
 
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Wonderful bait as usual, with statements as absolutes it's always entertaining. So who claims a 5x performance improvement? Who claims we still need to use iTunes and who in the world would think of replacing it with the exact same thing?
 
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As others have said, you don't need iTunes, but I certainly understand the feeling that iOS devices are still somewhat tied to it, especially for convenient drag and drop file management. iOS has a lot of points in its favour, but it's still a somewhat restrictive mobile OS.
 
Badrottie said:
ITunes music - iPad Pro have a better stereo 4 of them. And awesome library of blockbuster movies. :)
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I'm not sure what you are going on about. ITunes Music has nothing to do with the OP's question, more speakers don't necessarily improve syncing and last I checked there were no blockbusters on Apple Music (and surely not on whatever you refer to as iTunes Music).
 
ericwn said:
I'm not sure what you are going on about. ITunes Music has nothing to do with the OP's question, more speakers don't necessarily improve syncing and last I checked there were no blockbusters on Apple Music (and surely not on whatever you refer to as iTunes Music).
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Never mind
 
And also in the jailbreak community, often there is a need to do a fresh restore of iOS on the ipad. There is still that reliance on a pc. The macs have a recovery mode where it can download the latest OSX and install it. Apple should consider making a wireless recovery mode an option for iOS devices especially if they are trying to claim it as a standalone computer.

But to the point of iTunes, I as well need it for music syncing as well. I listen to a lot of foreign music that is not available to Apple Music. My only option is getting the song elsewhere and loading it onto my iPad via itunes. Even apple making the music app being able to import mp3 files from iCloud or dropbox would be a useful feature to put in.
 
I still use iTunes to edit the tags and to sync music to, and backup my iPhones and iPads. I trued backing up to the cloud and once I tried to restore that backup and it failed so I've never trusted iCloud backups since then.
 
sonicrobby said:
And also in the jailbreak community, often there is a need to do a fresh restore of iOS on the ipad. There is still that reliance on a pc. The macs have a recovery mode where it can download the latest OSX and install it. Apple should consider making a wireless recovery mode an option for iOS devices especially if they are trying to claim it as a standalone computer.

But to the point of iTunes, I as well need it for music syncing as well. I listen to a lot of foreign music that is not available to Apple Music. My only option is getting the song elsewhere and loading it onto my iPad via itunes. Even apple making the music app being able to import mp3 files from iCloud or dropbox would be a useful feature to put in.
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I'd definitely agree with that - the only time I've connected any of my devices to iTunes in the last few years is when they've needed a clean restore: If Apple had a recovery mode baked into the devices like they do with Macs it would eliminate that requirement
 
Channan said:
Or paid space. sjleworthy didn't say anything about free options. And even then, while iTunes is free software, a computer is not free.
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Free space, as in available, whether it is what your account starts with or with a paid upgrade.
[doublepost=1487348493][/doublepost]
Phil A. said:
I'd definitely agree with that - the only time I've connected any of my devices to iTunes in the last few years is when they've needed a clean restore: If Apple had a recovery mode baked into the devices like they do with Macs it would eliminate that requirement
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Then you'd have even less available space on your device.
[doublepost=1487350575][/doublepost]Heck, lets talk about a simple thing. I need iTunes if I want to gift a single song instead of an album. LOL
 
Channan said:
Or, assuming someone already had a computer in the first place, you sell your computer and use the money to pay for iCloud storage.
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Your computer probably serves more purposes than just being an iPad backup machine, so I think you know that you are making silly rebuttals. I, for one, am not going to pay for additional iCloud storage just to backup my iPad/iPhone when I can do it for free on my PC. Yes, free, since I would have bought the PC anyway, and using it for backups doesn't make it cost any more.

Not saying there's anything wrong no with going the iCloud route though.
 
Channan said:
Or, assuming someone already had a computer in the first place, you sell your computer and use the money to pay for iCloud storage.
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The post is whether you need iTunes, not whether you need a computer at all. However, if you never use yiour computer for anything other than backing up your iPad then by all means sell it.
 
joeblow7777 said:
Your computer probably serves more purposes than just being an iPad backup machine, so I think you know that you are making silly rebuttals. I, for one, am not going to pay for additional iCloud storage just to backup my iPad/iPhone when I can do it for free on my PC. Yes, free, since I would have bought the PC anyway, and using it for backups doesn't make it cost any more.

Not saying there's anything wrong no with going the iCloud route though.
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The only purpose my computer serves right now is note taking and online assignments for one class that still uses Flash. I could take my notes on my iPad, but it's a little more convenient on my MacBook, so I use that since I already have it. I wouldn't go out and buy another laptop if mine broke.

As far as the assignments go, I could use the computers at school if I had to. A computer is not required for me, so no, these are not silly rebuttals.

darngooddesign said:
The post is whether you need iTunes, not whether you need a computer at all. However, if you never use yiour computer for anything other than backing up your iPad then by all means sell it.
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And you don't need iTunes. That's my entire point.
 
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