Can Someone Explain ...

[jonmark]

So I've seen a few of those "what do you want next from Apple/next iOS/next iPhone, etc" posts and a lot of people seem to request iTunes cloud ... I've seen the articles that talk about how it looks as though Apple would be leaning towards that direction soon. I guess I've been seriously out of the loop, or maybe it just doesn't click with me .. but could someone explain to me what iTunes cloud is? What it would do? What are the advantages or .. why do people want it so bad? I don't think I quite understand the whole concept to be honest ...

 

[iRooney]

Moving your iTunes library to the air for the most part. Stream your music so you don't occupy your space with tunes. Although doing so would essentially eliminate the need for higher storage devices.

 

[jonmark]

If I understand that correctly, that means you wouldn't technically have your music - the actual files - you'd be streaming from an online source, right? So what about the times when you may not have signal? Or say the "online source" is down for whatever reason .. does this mean you won't have access to your music? .. I think that actually having your music files on your phone would allow you to access them any time - with or without signal or being relient on the operation of this online source. For instance, last year I took a roadtrip from Texas to California, and there were some dead spots in west Texas and New Mexico where I would get absolutely no signal at all .. but, luckily I could still use my iPod music and listen to my stuff. If this cloud were implemented, would I have not had access to my music in those dead spots?

 

[iRooney]

Hmmm. Perhaps it's for those with like 64+ gigs of music. Fill your phone and access the rest over the cloud....or it's gonna be subscription based like napster or something. Who knows. Sidenote: phone didn't recognize the word napster. Weird it's been around longer than the iPhone.

 

[webfloor]

According to the new rumors running around iTunes Cloud will be amazing, you carry only a piece of song that let you start playing immediately while the rest of the song comes from the cloud! Very cool.

 

[stkywik]

Call me old fashioned, but I want my music files with me. Just like JonMark said before, what if you're in an area that has no service? Also, the disconnect between the content providers and mobile carriers worries me.

while Apple, Google and Amazon are all moving to cloud based media storage, the mobile carriers are tightening their grip on data transfer. The providers are pushing heavier data loads while the carriers are pushing higher costs for that data transfer. This is why I hope that Sprint truly does start carrying the iPhone. They have always seemed to have the right idea of investing in their data network and offering that bandwidth as cheaply as possible whereas AT&T and Verizon have always begrudgingly updated their networks and want to make us pay out the @$& for every incremental improvement they make.

 

[iRooney]

Amen to that. I think Verizon should tier 4g but leave 3G unlimited. That makes more sense. Also won't piss off millions of people.

 

[PsYcHoNeWb]

Amen to that. I think Verizon should tier 4g but leave 3G unlimited. That makes more sense. Also won't piss off millions of people.

I spoke to a VZW manager on the phone about a month back about this because I am going to be moving off my parents family share plan soon for my own. He told me on the phone that he is 99% sure that 3G will remain unlimited. 4G however will be tiered like the data plan options for the tablets they have now. Most of the time they don't know one thing from another but this guy on the phone seemed to know his stuff. He also told me that if Verizon does plan to tier 3G plans, existing customers will be grandfathered.

 

[iRooney]

Well then thank you Verizon Wireless. I can say that when I switched from AT&T to Verizon a year ago the first thing I noticed was the customer service difference. AT&T was all about sticking it to you every way they could. Verizon seems to care (at least somewhat) about the consumer.

 

[Fausty82]

Well then thank you Verizon Wireless. I can say that when I switched from AT&T to Verizon a year ago the first thing I noticed was the customer service difference. AT&T was all about sticking it to you every way they could. Verizon seems to care (at least somewhat) about the consumer.

wow... this thread went from "what is iTunes cloud" to AT&T bashing in only 9 posts... gotta be some kind of record...

Can we get back on topic now?

 

[jonmark]

wow... this thread went from "what is iTunes cloud" to AT&T bashing in only 9 posts... gotta be some kind of record...

Can we get back on topic now?

Haha, yea my post totally got hijacked lol

 

[anon4705295]

I mean, the talk about carriers is definitely related to the topic, imo. I for one am not excited about this cloud thing at all... where I live, Verizon cuts in and out (well, the 3G does), but it's better than nothing, which is AT&T here. The cloud would be useless for me.

I think it would be super cool if it were something like Slacker... where you can stream your music, but also cache it to your device... so you could actually load music to your device if you wanted, or you can have it all cloud-based if you'd rather have that. I would TOTALLY dig that. Slacker's caching is amaaaazzzziiiingggggg.

 

[Ipheuria]

Everyone is talking carrier but missing the problem here. If the music is streamed from the cloud data plans would be smoked like immediately. How long per day do you listen to music and podcasts? If it's only on Wifi then it's half a$$ed. Also what about people who don't have a data plan? I'm in Wifi 90% of my day so I have Never had a data plan. I know I may be a minority and this probably wont be a all or nothing implimentation but an opt in thing.

 

[takeshi]

I don't see how cloud storage and local storage would be mutually exclusive -- at least initially.

 

[Lylej2k]

I too, do not want to see the cloud come to be. Ya I'd like the extra storage space on my device, however, I don't want to lose access to my tunes if I have no service. Also, without an unlimited data plan, streaming the music I already paid for could end up costing me more as I'd be using more data. Now if they didn't count the data used when streaming the music which again, I already paid for, (like that will happen) it might be a different story as far as data goes. I travel quite a bit for work so there are plenty of times I lose service. Should that be the case I'll be carrying my iPod around for the times my phone has no service and I wanna listen to some music. This whole cloud business seems like another way for them to squeeze more money out of us. As if we don't have the higher cost of gas and everything else that seems to be skyrocketing lately.

 

[john.woody]

I too like my music stored on my device, lack of signal and high data costs when travelling abroad, not to mention no music on the flight :-0 Also think about battery life, if your streaming your using wi fi or 3G and that will use more battery. I have most listened to music stored on my phone and use Audio Galaxy so I can access my complete collection streaming from my PC if I want to.