“Steve Jobs zipped around the iTunes music store yesterday. He watched free music videos, played songs, and showed just how frighteningly easy it was to rack up those 79p spends with the click of a mouse,” Patrick Barkham writes for The Guardian. “iTunes is perfect for him. But Jobs is the technological visionary who founded Apple and appears to have broad, mainstream music tastes, encompassing Alicia Keys and Jamie Cullum.”
“I, on the other hand, am a technologically incompetent fan of indie music, blessed with an ageing computer. So when I try to buy and download songs from iTunes, I find it a little bit trickier. My computer’s operating system is too old to support the software. I jump on two further computers before finding one that downloads iTunes easily,” Barkham writes.
Barkham then goes on to explain that when actually using iTunes on a supported computer, “The music store looks fantastic and is easy to use.”
“Buying an iPod or working out how to play it on my computer comes next,” Barkham concludes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Idiotic article. Next, Barkham will tackle the subject of how much easier it is to mow his lawn with a self-propelled gas lawnmower after he tries to pour gasoline into/onto his 1928 push reel lawnmower and then concludes he will need to actually obtain the proper equipment for the job.
You knew some idiot would try and put holes in Apple’s rollout of iTunes for Europe. The list of things you cannot do on an aging computer is huge. Everybody knows that so if you want to ride that old horse that is fine. Just don’t expect a jockey to ride it to a win at the Kentucky Derby.
“I try to buy Hungry Like the Wolf. It seems to go smoothly”
Either it went smoothly or it didn’t?
“working out how to play it on my computer comes next.”
Huh?
Do, or do not. There is no try.
Does the DRM-laden Windows Media Player run on Win 95/98/ME? If not then Barkham is simply being a typical pseudo tech jounalist who seeks credibility by having to *absolutely* find fault with a product.
Now..*ahem* Steve, about iTMS for Canada….
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What an absolute retard!
Why is this idiot even writing a tech article if his “computer” cannot even download and run iTunes? Is he the guy who never updates Windows and spreads viruses and worms like a cheap whore….just because he is too ignorant to understand that “critical” updates are…um…in fact, critical? Is he the guy on the highway driving that old piece of crap in the fast lane wondering why everyone is honking at him? Who picked this retard to write a tech-based article anyway?
There’s nothing wrong with offering a service that prompts one to acquire the appropriate equipment in order to use it effectively. That’s part of the business. Duh! I guess this guy would complain that Internet access was slow and unsatisfying becuase he was using an analog modem and blame the computer. Or take a Ferrari off road and complain it got stuck constantly.
I thought it was a fine article. There are a lot of people that have an old computer and are wondering what the iTunes experience would be like for them. He does state that when he was able to finally donwload and install iTunes that it is easy to use.
It seems some people’s tinfoil helmets are a little too tight.
Many people do in fact have older computers that, until now, have been “good enough.” With iTunes/iPod working just fine on a pee-cee these people may upgrade to a newer windows computer. But, lets hope many decide their new computer should be a Mac!
Could he have a Classic Mac? Anyway, it’s just an article from journalist — not a geek or tech’ savvy person. The spin is positive — nothing to complain about there unless you are overly sensitive. Now here’s the point:
Buying an iPod or working out how to play it on my computer comes next. He’ll be buying an iPod AND a computer, I’ll bet. And that’s where Apple will get a return — on the iPod, at least; maybe on the comp too.
freebee: you are sounding like the retard. Not everyone is on the same level; if Apple limited its market to the tech savvy like you, it would have gone out of business long ago. Now take a deep breath and count from one to three sideways before replying.
Be Resourceful!
A resourceful individual would look at the available options for upgrading their current computer system or planning for a future purchase. It is becoming more common for a computer’s life expectancy to be in the range of 3-5 years. Is this guy using a computer from the mid 90’s?
If he really wants he could upgrade his CPU, invest in more RAM or HOPEFULLY treat himself to a nice iMac G4 or possibly future G5 model (hint, hint). He doesn’t sound like he’s a PowerMac G5 kind of guy. Then he can write a vivid, eye opening article on how gr8 Apple’s software and hardware solutions are.
I’m using a close to 5 year old Mac G4 Tower (Sawtooth MB) with a stock 500 Mhz CPU with 1GIG of RAM on a cable internet connection and the iTMS runs smoothly for me (Music and videos) as well as the heavyweight design apps like PS, AI,Golive, etc….
okay.. to the ITMS+ Canada morons…
I LIVE IN CANADA.. we have about 30 million people..
Not a big priority..
Oh yeah.. I can freely share music, movies and files with Acquisition up here…
STFU ITMS for Canada pricks..
now about that headless iMac…
I found that iTunes also will not work on my Tandy, So I tried it on my Commodore 64 and no success either. So my neighbor has a PII 300 with windows 2000 and it worked slow but he suggested that I try his new emac and wow it moves very fast. I wonder why my computers wouldn’t work hopefully I can get my iPod to work on that Tandy.
Thanks for the LOL take on this story, MDN – loved the mental visual picture that wordplay produced. Or maybe it’s my bedtime and I’m just loopy.
BTW – got my new 17″ iMac in the office today – the peecee is no more – and I’m happy camper!!!! Can’t wait to dump my iTunes collection from my home iBook into it – I’d sync the 15Gb iPod, but alas it doesn’t have everything on it – just might have to get me one of the new 60Gb ‘pods when SJ announces ’em at WWDC – oops, hope he doesn’t come after me for spilling the beans… any rate, I’ll just do a Firewire target disk startup and suck ’em all over that way.
I have a nice Cinema Screen and a G4 running OS 9 smooth and speedy, but iTMS doesn’t run on it. Went to my neighbor’s and checked it out on his HP and wow … it moves very fast. Maybe I should get VPC and run it in emulation mode. Naah… WGAF?
do you think he was surprised that the first CD he bought wouldn’t play on his pre-war gramophone?
classy,
Upgrade to Panther, I guarantee you won’t regret it
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I’ve just upgraded to Panther.
The Panther in question is a cylinder hand mower. Or ‘pushreel lawnmower’ as MDN calls it.
It’s definitely easier to cut my lawn with that than it was with the modern electrickery one.
RE: Mike
Before you demand others to stfu before spouting utter nonsense, get some facts straight. For someone who claims to live in Canada you seem to know fuck all about the legality of p2p. What you are doing ie. sharing music via Acquisition is and will remain ILLEGAL in Canada. Downloading music is legal,uploading (a form of sharing) is not.
Now to use your term: Hey “moron”, I bet a Wilfrid Laorier that if a headless iMac is intro’d you still not purchase one.
I found the article to be toungue in cheek. ie he’s having a laugh.
I found it hard to get iTunes UK up and running. First I tried using the music store from iTunes 4.6 that was already on my machine, prior to the launch -no joy, the account signup page kept telling me iTunes was not available in my country (UK) yet, despite there being a UK pulldown tab for choosing the new UK store.
I then re-downloaded itunes, clicking the UK version from the Apple website, and this time did manage to get it up and running, but there was no obvious way of doing this – the initial music store screen still said ITMS was not available in my country (UK) and that I could browse only. It is only when you then go into the account creation routine that you are finally allowed access.
Very un Apple like.
Finally…iTMS came to Germany! OK Steve, let’s start thze ralley….I’m going to purchase a couple of albums I had on my list during the last few weeks!
ops..what’s that? I can’t register? my credit card information stored with my .Mac account information is invalid? why that?
oh…so Apple decided that iTMS Germany doesn’t work with Amex!? you’d better fix that quickly, because I am not going to get a new credit card just for your iMTS, Steve!!!
johhn
did you try to get into the UK store by clicking on the Union jack flag in the centre of the screen? (or french, german or US flags if you live there)?
worked OK for me
With numerous “Home pages” from various countries, especially those with the same language (USA/England), it would be nice to see a flag symbol somewhere at the top of the window, perhaps along with the Home symbol.
It will not be long before we see USA-Spanish and Mexico iTMS home pages.
Obviously, there have been a few bugs, particularly in credit card acceptance. These will be fixed in due course. The article in question is fine. A ‘”human interest” one. Lighten up people. I’m concerned that so-called Mac fans are 16 year old curmudgeons’ unable to laugh at others or themselves. No sense of humour I’m afraid.