iTunes Match and the case for lesser storage space.

[balloonoboy]

At the WWDC in June, Apple unvelied iTunes Match. A subscription-based service that would upload and match your own music to the same music on the iTunes server (all files would be converted to 256kbps) and wirelessly deliver it to you whenever the need arose. The service is to cost $25/year.

Arguably, music files take up the most space on our iPhones, iPods, and iPads. And for years iOS device afficionados have been begging for even more memory. And they got it in subsequent iterations of said devices.

But would we really need more than the bare-minimum of storage - 16GB - if we are able to store our music in the cloud?

Would you subscribe to a service like this knowing your library isn't completely legit? Would you actually pay to listen to your own music? How much would your data plan take a hit?

Would you even need a service like this with Wireless Sync?

Are you ready to dispose of that iPod Classic and embrace the cloud?

 

[salviboy7]

Spotify

 

[balloonoboy]

Yes, but Spotify is $10/month as opposed to $25 for a whole year.

And Spotify doesn't really fit in the iOS storage space paradigm. Well it does, but it doesn't.

 

[iYen]

It seems like a good deal for people who are itching for more storage space.
Although, I don't like the notion that if I don't have access to internet, then I won't be able to listen to my music.
I'll stick to keeping my music files on my iphone storage as opposed to cloud storage.

 

[balloonoboy]

You've got a point, iYen. Local storage is definitely preferred over cloud storage.

There have been rumors that Apple is to release an iPod Touch with 3G capabilities.

 

[iYen]

Originally Posted by balloonoboy

You've got a point, iYen. Local storage is definitely preferred over cloud storage.

There have been rumors that Apple is to release an iPod Touch with 3G capabilities.

Cloud storage would be good for people that watch a lot of tv shows and movies, since they're much bigger files compared to music files.
Some people like myself like the idea of having music that's accessible 24/7 without too many hindrances.
Besides having to get on wifi or 3g just to listen to music is going to kill your battery.
What I think this boils down to is having more space vs. having more battery life.
People's iphone's 24 hour music playback is going to suffer if they embrace the cloud in order to listen to music.

I'm not too surprised, it's a great alternative to the overrated ipad imo.
Pretty soon the only thing that's going to differentiate an iphone from an ipod touch is the placing of the sim card slot.

 

[balloonoboy]

Originally Posted by iYen

Originally Posted by balloonoboy

You've got a point, iYen. Local storage is definitely preferred over cloud storage.

There have been rumors that Apple is to release an iPod Touch with 3G capabilities.

Cloud storage would be good for people that watch a lot of tv shows and movies, since they're much bigger files compared to music files.
Some people like myself like the idea of having music that's accessible 24/7 without too many hindrances.
Besides having to get on wifi or 3g just to listen to music is going to kill your battery.
What I think this boils down to is having more space vs. having more battery life.
People's iphone's 24 hour music playback is going to suffer if they embrace the cloud in order to listen to music.

I'm not too surprised, it's a great alternative to the overrated ipad imo.
Pretty soon the only thing that's going to differentiate an iphone from an ipod touch is the placing of the sim card slot.

I agree.

 

[whyhellothere]

@%%+ the cloud. @%%+ the man. #localstoragelifestyle.

 

[trasoul82]

Originally Posted by iYen

Originally Posted by balloonoboy

You've got a point, iYen. Local storage is definitely preferred over cloud storage.

There have been rumors that Apple is to release an iPod Touch with 3G capabilities.

Cloud storage would be good for people that watch a lot of tv shows and movies, since they're much bigger files compared to music files.
Some people like myself like the idea of having music that's accessible 24/7 without too many hindrances.
Besides having to get on wifi or 3g just to listen to music is going to kill your battery.
What I think this boils down to is having more space vs. having more battery life.
People's iphone's 24 hour music playback is going to suffer if they embrace the cloud in order to listen to music.

I'm not too surprised, it's a great alternative to the overrated ipad imo.
Pretty soon the only thing that's going to differentiate an iphone from an ipod touch is the placing of the sim card slot.

Seems like a trap to me, but I'm way on the outside of this convo (i.e., I don't even have a smart phone yet). My point is, they seem to try to be suckering people in for the $25/yr serivice because my boy started complaining about the bandwith reduction on his network. The first part of each billing cycle, he can put on pandora radio and only have his music interrupted by phone calls.  Around mid-billing cycle, things start to chop up. By the end, he's pretty much on FM (he does a lot of driving). 
  
The battery issue doesn't seem like that big of an issue, as I've seen people simply live off of Pandora on their phones with complaining about battery life (plus I'm sure there are long-life battery packs, car chargers, and USB chargers available). Point is the bandwith has to be paid for somehow. This is where I think the trap comes in. People are going to pay (beyond that $25). And I think Apple (among others) will be getting a cut. We're on the verge of terabyte thumbdrives drives. Online stogare should be mainly a backup option, IMHO. 

[side rant] And as a side rant, I'm sick of everything I do on a device being thown across "the cloud." I logged into google on a computer I had never been on and the toolbar apparently saved URLs from the last computer I used and loaded them into the web browser I was on for the first time. Some people might find that amazing. I find it creepy and intrusive. [/side rant]

 

[nycposite]

iYen wrote:

---

Originally Posted by balloonoboy

You've got a point, iYen. Local storage is definitely preferred over cloud storage.

There have been rumors that Apple is to release an iPod Touch with 3G capabilities.

Cloud storage would be good for people that watch a lot of tv shows and movies, since they're much bigger files compared to music files.
Some people like myself like the idea of having music that's accessible 24/7 without too many hindrances.
Besides having to get on wifi or 3g just to listen to music is going to kill your battery.
What I think this boils down to is having more space vs. having more battery life.
People's iphone's 24 hour music playback is going to suffer if they embrace the cloud in order to listen to music.

I'm not too surprised, it's a great alternative to the overrated ipad imo.
Pretty soon the only thing that's going to differentiate an iphone from an ipod touch is the placing of the sim card slot.




Yea sounds good for movies and tv shows but thats about it.
Living in ny and taking the train a few days out of the week it no bueno. No music because I have no service. Ill stick to the internal memory on the iPhone
24 hour playback-

 I most need a new battery because this phone dies all the time

iPod = iPhone- Funny thing was I went out to eat the other night and a few of us were talking about this.
All you need is a ZTE Peel 3200 + iPod + Text Now App + Headphones with a mic = iPhone with a $30 yearly plan

 

[whyhellothere]

What is this $30 yearly plan you are talking about. i thought it was $20 for 500mb a
Month on virgin mobile/sprint with the peel, no?

 

[nycposite]

^^^ I meant on the Text Now App its $30 for the year unlimited calls. I believe the Peel plan is $20 a month

 

[iYen]

Originally Posted by NycPosite

iYen wrote:

---

Originally Posted by balloonoboy

You've got a point, iYen. Local storage is definitely preferred over cloud storage.

There have been rumors that Apple is to release an iPod Touch with 3G capabilities.

Cloud storage would be good for people that watch a lot of tv shows and movies, since they're much bigger files compared to music files.
Some people like myself like the idea of having music that's accessible 24/7 without too many hindrances.
Besides having to get on wifi or 3g just to listen to music is going to kill your battery.
What I think this boils down to is having more space vs. having more battery life.
People's iphone's 24 hour music playback is going to suffer if they embrace the cloud in order to listen to music.

I'm not too surprised, it's a great alternative to the overrated ipad imo.
Pretty soon the only thing that's going to differentiate an iphone from an ipod touch is the placing of the sim card slot.

Yea sounds good for movies and tv shows but thats about it.
Living in ny and taking the train a few days out of the week it no bueno. No music because I have no service. Ill stick to the internal memory on the iPhone
24 hour playback-

 I most need a new battery because this phone dies all the time

iPod = iPhone- Funny thing was I went out to eat the other night and a few of us were talking about this.
All you need is a ZTE Peel 3200 + iPod + Text Now App + Headphones with a mic = iPhone with a $30 yearly plan
Which iphone do you have?
You try out a battery charging case.
I'm going to buy one of these in the near future.
http://www.amazon.com/s/r...ie+Juice+Pack+Air+iphone
I just double checked with apple.com and the claimed music playback is 40 hours for the iPhone 4 and 30 hours for the iPhone 3GS.

 

[cobra kai]

256kbps?

I don't want to listen to that trash of a quality.

 

[thegoat121886]

Local storage>>>>Cloud storage. It's not like there are not flash drives large enough to increase storage space while keeping the same or similar form factors either. Cloud storage just isn't always as practical, especially for people with large libraries, limited data plans and low connectivity. Battery technlogy would have to be drastically improved in order to make up for the drain that constant streaming would account for as well (the iPod application is like, the least resource hog on the entire phone). THis cloud push all but confirms that we will be stuck at the same 16GB/32GB price points for the last three years, and that the iPod classic has one foot out the door off a cliff

  

 

[nycposite]

Originally Posted by iYen

Originally Posted by NycPosite

iYen wrote:

---

Which iphone do you have?
You try out a battery charging case.
I'm going to buy one of these in the near future.
http://www.amazon.com/s/r...ie+Juice+Pack+Air+iphone
I just double checked with apple.com and the claimed music playback is 40 hours for the iPhone 4 and 30 hours for the iPhone 3GS.


I have the iPhone 4 but I believe there is something wrong with the battery. I have to charge it 2-3 daily and I mostly use it as a regular phone (calls,text and emails)

  

 

[iYen]

Originally Posted by Cobra Kai

256kbps?

I don't want to listen to that trash of a quality.

Do you really notice a difference as opposed to listening to a track that's in 320kbps?
Do you use high quality headphones?
What do you notice more in the track, distinguishability or loudness?

Also take this test if you or anyone else is interested.
http://www.noiseaddicts.c...nd-quality-test-128-320/
I could not notice a difference between the two tracks, so I guessed.

Originally Posted by NycPosite

Originally Posted by iYen

Originally Posted by NycPosite

Which iphone do you have?
You try out a battery charging case.
I'm going to buy one of these in the near future.
http://www.amazon.com/s/r...ie+Juice+Pack+Air+iphone
I just double checked with apple.com and the claimed music playback is 40 hours for the iPhone 4 and 30 hours for the iPhone 3GS.

I have the iPhone 4 but I believe there is something wrong with the battery. I have to charge it 2-3 daily and I mostly use it as a regular phone (calls,text and emails)

  

If you have applecare or if your phone is still under warranty, then apple should fix it for you for free.

 

[whyhellothere]

Originally Posted by NycPosite

^^^ I meant on the Text Now App its $30 for the year unlimited calls. I believe the Peel plan is $20 a month

$30 for that?
meh, Whistle + google voice= unlimited calls for free*

*they play a little 5-10 second ad before each call, aint even mad.
500MB for $20 is

tho.

 

[balloonoboy]

Forgot to add that you'll be able to upload 25,000 song to the cloud.

It's interesting hearing different viewpoints on the matter. Local storage will reign because of the inherent issues with cloud storage.

But what hasn't been discussed is the usefulness of Wireless Sync coming to iOS 5. Normally, we have to go through a tedious, painstaking process to sync our media to our iOS device, but now we can do it all wirelessly.

I'm more prone to spend the minute or so it takes to sync wirelessly than give Apple another $25.

But having all of one's music at the touch of a finger is very convenient. But I guess that's why there's the iPod Classics of the world. Hopefully Apple doesn't phase out the iPod Classic line.

Some of us just want our music without all the bells and whistles.

 

[cobra kai]

Originally Posted by iYen

Originally Posted by Cobra Kai

256kbps?

I don't want to listen to that trash of a quality.

Do you really notice a difference as opposed to listening to a track that's in 320kbps?
Do you use high quality headphones?
What do you notice more in the track, distinguishability or loudness?

Also take this test if you or anyone else is interested.
http://www.noiseaddicts.c...nd-quality-test-128-320/
I could not notice a difference between the two tracks, so I guessed.

Originally Posted by NycPosite

Originally Posted by iYen

Which iphone do you have?
You try out a battery charging case.
I'm going to buy one of these in the near future.
http://www.amazon.com/s/r...ie+Juice+Pack+Air+iphone
I just double checked with apple.com and the claimed music playback is 40 hours for the iPhone 4 and 30 hours for the iPhone 3GS.

I have the iPhone 4 but I believe there is something wrong with the battery. I have to charge it 2-3 daily and I mostly use it as a regular phone (calls,text and emails)

  

If you have applecare or if your phone is still under warranty, then apple should fix it for you for free.

took the test.
Thanks for submitting your answer. The correct answer is Clip #1.

You selected Clip# 1 …Congratulations!

• Clip #1 is encoded at 320kbps (31914 votes)
  Clip #2 is encoded at 128kbps (35442 votes)

 

[voidemperor]

Originally Posted by Cobra Kai

256kbps?

I don't want to listen to that trash of a quality.

I hope your files are all encoded on wma or Lossless audio that you can't put on any apple product

 

[welcometothetonezone]

I personally like the idea and will go for it once it officially releases.

Spotify is cool but they still have a lot of kinks to work out, plus you have to pay premium to stream their music

I'll have a mixture of songs I listen to all the time kept on my iPhone, and other random songs that I normally don't listen to, on the cloud.

 

[aztec06jr]

Google Music...

 

[cobra kai]

Originally Posted by VoidEmperor

Originally Posted by Cobra Kai

256kbps?

I don't want to listen to that trash of a quality.

I hope your files are all encoded on wma or Lossless audio that you can't put on any apple product

apple lossless son. 

 

[Brownstone]

My question is, so it really syncs every song in your library? Like it gives you album art, and is backed by itunes? As in for life even after unsubscribing? Can someone please give me a concrete answer.