Thursday, May 29, 2003

 

So, Apple "updated" iTunes to version 4.0.1; I went ahead and took the update, and only afterwards realized that the primary "improvement" was that they had crippled the sharing functionality. I thought this was pretty underhanded and rude; my friend Patrick and I had been using the feature to listen to each others' collections (it allowed you to listen to, but not download, songs from someone else's library, with a password) and I thought that was very cool.

So I've now spent several hours (yeah, way too much time) trying to get back to where I was before. Googling and Slashdotting, perusing the Apple discussion boards, trying to figure out how to obtain an installation package for iTunes 4.0 (check!) and how to actually get it to work (eh-eh. so far.) That's how bad it is: they push the update on me, and then the software is built not to allow you to go back once you've taken an update. Fuck.

This is mildly ridiculous. I have 30 GB of music I haven't listened to since getting my laptop last October (fact thanks to iTunes excellent "playcount" feature), and ve haf odder metodes of obtaining more. I just (a) really dug being able to check out what my friends are listening to, and be exposed to new stuff that way, and (b) really hate feeling swindled or fooled in any situation, and I feel that way about this - with a company I normally have a lot of affection for (and heck, hold a "1/4 of my net worth" financial interest in.)

posted by Miles 5:55 PM