Apple’s iTunes 7.0: A Lesson on User Trust
Today, Apple released iTunes 7.0, among other things. In earlier versions of iTunes, Apple did its best to prevent users from being able to copy music from an iPod back to a desktop computer. Now, Apple has changed course and is marketing “Reverse Syncing” as a new feature of iTunes 7:
Buy into sync
So, you’re driving and you hear a brilliant song on the radio. You get home, log on to iTunes, and buy the song for 99¢. Then you sync it to your iPod. But what if you want to hear that song at work? Now you can, with reverse sync.
But there is one giant catch:
1. Music and media not purchased from the iTunes store only syncs one way, from your computer to your iPod.
Apple has done all the work to make it easy to copy songs from an iPod to the computer, but added a complicated scheme where only music purchased from Apple is allowed to make that trip. Perfectly legal MP3s you ripped from CDs or bought from the competition are shut out and can’t be copied from your iPod to your computer. In another confusing twist, free MP3 podcasts downloaded through iTunes seem to be able to be copied back from iPods, but podcasts downloaded with another program and added manually to iTunes do not get the same privledges.
This is uninnovation in its most frustrating form. It’s easy to spot and avoid drm-saturated junk, but these kinds of subtle limitations in an otherwise great product frustrate users and drive them to alternative applications. How about trusting the user enough to let them get at their own files without these childish restrictions?
technorati tags:apple, itunes, 7, drm, uninnovation, user, trust, reverse, sync
10 Comments so far
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Why not simply setup a playlist containing your non-DRM content, and allow iTunes to synch it using built-in functionality?
I don’t understand the comment about playlists of your own content. What does that have to do with anything? Whether you sync from your library or a playlist, the same rules apply.
iTunes syncs all music (whether from the Music Store or just your own MP3s) to your iPod. It only lets you copy back music if you bought it from the music store. Even though you added your own MP3s, you can’t get it back off the iPod. It’s a double standard that makes no sense except as some sort of psuedo-copy protection.
[…] Unninovate reports on one of the new ‘features’ of iTunes 7.0 […]
What Happened to the Apple Cell Phone?…
Of course we are all very excited about all of Apple’s announcements yesterday, like iTunes 7.0, its movie downloads and ways to get them from the computer to the TV, but where’s the Apple cell phone?If you remember "I want my……
How about trusting the user enough? Been there, done that. Don’t put up any barriers and people will just steal shit left and right.
If the users had been able to handle the trust they’d been given, we’d have no need for this crap. Blame the thieves.
Of ITunes 7, User Trust, and iTV…
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n00b September 13th, 2006 12:29 pm
What you fail to understand is that the “thieves” continue to “steal” despite the DRM. It’s the paying customers that are penalized with restrictions and inconvenience. DRM doesn’t solve the problem of people infringing copyrights.
[…] Earlier this week, Apple released iTunes 7.0. As we discussed earlier this week, iTunes added a new feature that lets you copy music from the iPod back to the computer. Unfortunately, Apple elected to only let you copy music you bought from their music store. Other music you added to your iPod remains locked away. […]
[…] Uninnovate.com has an interesting article on Apple’s new support of “Reverse syncing” of content with the iTunes 7 release yesterday: […]
great. my computer crashed and all my songs were lost. after buying a new computer, an redownloading itunes I’ve found that all my songs on my ipod will have to be erased an replaced with my new blank itunes! why?