iCloud

[Dejin]

Apple has now enabled re-downloading of TV Shows purchased on iTunes via iCloud.

I cannot over emphasize how happy I am about this feature. I’ve got at least 14 seasons of various TV shows purchased via iTunes along with various single episodes. That’s probably upwards of $600 and my nightmare scenario has always been what happens if something happens to my computer and my backup disk, resulting in my losing all my shows.

It’s also great, because anywhere I’ve got WiFi, I can download previously purchased episodes to my iPad, so I don’t need to manage my iPad memory storage so closely (although Apple iTunes download speeds are just about the slowest I’ve seen from a professional server).

This feature also works on my AppleTV and it looks like it’s supposed to work on iTunes on my computer, although when I click on the purchased tab in the iTunes Store (PC), I see tabs for “Music”, “TV Shows”, “Apps”, and “Books” but alas clicking on them does absolutely nothing.

Unfortunately at least for now, it looks like movie purchases are not available.

One major complaint though. At least on my AppleTV, when I first tried to use the feature, it made me enter in the security code on the credit card I used to purchase the TV episode. Are you frickin’ kidding me Apple?!? That 3 digit code that gets changed every time my credit card company sends me a new card (which with my credit card company happens pretty often – my credit card company is constantly sending me updated cards well before the old ones expire for reasons which escape me)? You expect me to know what it was when I made a purchase! I could see wanting me to remember the main 16-digit credit card number, but even that could be problematic if someone bought something a couple years ago and has since changed their credit card company.

It only made me enter it on my AppleTV. Not sure if it’s an AppleTV thing, or they just wanted me to verify it once and then activated me across the board, since downloads seem to be working properly on my iPad (which I tried after the AppleTV), without having to enter it. But now I’m nervous that I’m going to need to remember this number for every device upgrade I get or Apple device I purchase.

Anyway, overall I am very, very pleased with this feature. I hope they get permissions to get it up for Movies as well.

[Skipper]

That’s nice, but they should be doing that for all media purchased through them. I read somewhere that a not insignificant amount of iTunes spend was due to the re-purchase of media that had been lost either on a device that wasn’t synced or on a computer running iTunes that crashed. Apple will do a one time allowance for folks, but most don’t even know about that, and again, it’s one time.

It would be really nice to see them turn a corner with -all- media purchased on iTunes and allow that on iCloud. Again though, it’s good to see that’s a step in the right direction for them. Hell I probably have about 3 or 4 seasons of TV myself that I would benefit from this announcement with.

[Dejin]

That’s nice, but they should be doing that for all media purchased through them. I read somewhere that a not insignificant amount of iTunes spend was due to the re-purchase of media that had been lost either on a device that wasn’t synced or on a computer running iTunes that crashed. Apple will do a one time allowance for folks, but most don’t even know about that, and again, it’s one time.

It would be really nice to see them turn a corner with -all- media purchased on iTunes and allow that on iCloud. Again though, it’s good to see that’s a step in the right direction for them. Hell I probably have about 3 or 4 seasons of TV myself that I would benefit from this announcement with.

Agreed. It should cover everything.

I think at this point: Music, TV Shows, Books, and Apps are all covered. I had a hand full of songs I purchased on iTunes long ago, before Amazon started selling everything as DRM-free MP3s, and they are listed on my iPad as available for re-downloading. So it looks like music re-downloading now goes all the way back, or at least quite far back. (Wasn’t there an iTunes Plus for a while that allowed re-downloading? Is that still there? Anyway, my music items listed were purchased before that existed. It seems like whatever they’re doing now must supersede iTunes Plus, unless I’m missing something.)

So as far as I know that pretty much just leaves Movies as the outlier, which you can’t re-download. Anyway, it looks like everything I’ve ever purchased from Apple is there except for the movies.

My guess would be the lack of movies represents some sort of problem getting the movie studios to agree to it.

[Edit] Apparently the problem with movies is HBO lockout dates. No one is allowed to stream movies to devices during the HBO lockout period. Hmmph, it seems to me if I’ve already purchased the movie that downloading it to my device and then playing it isn’t the same as streaming for play.

[Skipper]

Great info to know, I’ll fire it up at the house and check. This will make me extremely happy if I can get everything again.

[Ephraim]

Huh. So, I remember how many of us were unimpressed by the iCloud Music Match service announced at the iOS 5 press conference, stating that it didn’t have streaming and looked to be a service meant for synchronizing devices with sufficient storage to hold everything. This meant that it wasn’t very helpful for keeping my MacBook Air’s relative small 256GB SSD clean.

Turns out we were wrong. Developers who now have access to the iTunes Match beta say that it seems to support streaming to both Macs (via iTunes) and iOS devices like iPhones and iPads. This really great, and indicates Apple putting users above profitability, at least in terms of selling ever-greater storage devices. Why would you buy the 64GB iPad if the 32GB one is big enough for your apps and enough music for those times when you can’t get a 3G or WiFi Internet connection?

Of course iTunes Match is going to be US only for the foreseeable future, but if it’s anything like the other Apple rollouts, it will arrive in Canada and other markets eventually… I do think at $25/year, it’s a great deal, and certainly tempts me away from online radio services a bit.

[Lum]

Well, if it supports streaming, I’ll buy it. If it doesn’t, I won’t. Simple enough!

[antifood]

Hopefully it will be available for the Windows version of iTunes.

[Ephraim]

The latest update in this particular saga is that nope, it’s not streaming, it’s just “listen to while downloading”. With that said, this is considered an “impermanent” download (i.e., not a permanent download), so if you delete after listening, then it seems as if you are using some kind of reserved hard disk cache area that iTunes reserves for itself for these sorta-streamed tracks, and that you’re pretty much functionally streaming.

It’s getting so that the lines are pretty blurry, actually.

[StGabe]

As long as you can listen while downloading the downloading vs. streaming question really just comes down to how aggressively your device is caching your content.

[XPav]

Way to murder bandwidth on my crappy 3Mbps DSL line: Get DVD of 100 SLR pics. Put on 2 iPhoto libraries. iCloud tries to sync Photostream to 2 iPhones and 2 iPads.

PhotoStream now turned off.

[DrDel]

I don’t understand iCloud. I thought iCloud was like Box.net or Dropbox where one has their own virtual “hard drive” in the cloud where one can store files and stream them to their iPad/iDevice.

Is that not the case?

[Fugitive]

iOS doesn’t really have a ‘general’ file store, so iCloud syncs data on a per-app basis, instead of just replicating a set of directories. iDisk is what acts more like DropBox, but it will be discontinued in 2012 and there isn’t really a direct equivalent in iCloud.

[DrDel]

iOS doesn’t really have a ‘general’ file store, so iCloud syncs data on a per-app basis, instead of just replicating a set of directories. iDisk is what acts more like DropBox, but it will be discontinued in 2012 and there isn’t really a direct equivalent in iCloud.

Wow. That is horrible. Apple dictates to its customers the type of files that can and cannot be sent to ICloud. Why do Apple customers put up with this shit?

[XPav]

To spite you.

[dermot]

Wow. That is horrible. Apple dictates to its customers the type of files that can and cannot be sent to ICloud. Why do Apple customers put up with this shit?

I know you’re a raging anti-Apple gombeen but I’m going to answer anyway. iCloud is closer to, say, Valve’s Steam Cloud than it is to a service like Dropbox or Box.net.

[graller]

I love Apple… But I am holding off on iCloud in general till I can control what is up there. It has mangled my bookmarks a few times now. Until I can see what is there, and edit / clean it, and control what is sent to what devices when I will wait. You know they will get there eventually.

[DrDel]

I know you’re a raging anti-Apple gombeen but I’m going to answer anyway. iCloud is closer to, say, Valve’s Steam Cloud than it is to a service like Dropbox or Box.net.

That is a good comparison but one major difference is the philosophy behind both companies… Steam provides value with their sales… Apple on the other hand marks their products up thevwhazzooo for that Club Monaco, banana Republic, A & F -esque depiction of status.

[nlanza]

That is a good comparison but one major difference is the philosophy behind both companies… Steam provides value with their sales… Apple on the other hand marks their products up thevwhazzooo for that Club Monaco, banana Republic, A & F -esque depiction of status.

And yet you bought one anyway. What does that say about you?

(Also, are you really whining about the price of a free cloud service?)

[Hans_Lauring]

Just when you thought QT3 couldn’t get any stupidier.

More than 1700 posts… has he always been like that, and I haven’t noticed?

[mkozlows]

More than 1700 posts… has he always been like that, and I haven’t noticed?

At a quick glance at his posting history, the answer appears to be yes, but that he was mostly talking about MMORPGs, so it probably fits in more in that context.