The iPod Touch (4th generation) is a nice device. What isn’t so nice is trying to load music onto it from anything other than iTunes. I work for Canonical and run Ubuntu on all our computers here at home. Even before joining Canonical I had switched over to Ubuntu. With that bias out of the way, can I ask why it requires a nuclear scientist to crack the code that is updating music on an iOS device outside of iTunes? How is it that my silly little Sansa Clip+ MP3 Player can get music from just about any software known to man, including the good old file system of the operating system you’re running, while it requires iTunes to properly add music to an iPod Touch?
OK, I get it. I’m not that naive. Apple has total control of the ecosystem. You buy one of their products, you’re locked in the trunk. In fact, you’ve bought the trunk! Most people don’t care and (for the most part) nor should they – until they do. Until one day you realize that what was once done in the name of great design and user experience crosses the line and becomes more about protecting high margins than much else. By that time it’s too late. We’re invested and the trunk has a lock not even Houdini could wiggle his way out of.
Anyway, my son’s iPod Touch looks like it’s getting new music from Banshee 2.3.6 on Ubuntu Precise Beta 1 but it appears the iTunes database is not updating properly, even though I can see the database is getting updated and the files are on the device in the same cryptic manner iTunes would do it (iTunes Control/Music/F00, F01, etc.) I’m guessing the iTunes database format changed and Banshee isn’t updating it quite right. I’m not sure. What I am sure of is that I used to LOVE Apple back in the day. Now? Not so much.
P.S. Yes, I know my son can stream music from Ubuntu One on his iPod, but he wants the tracks on the device and playable through Apple’s music app. Yet another hardening of the lock on the trunk.
