Ondrej Holzman With the introduction of the Photos app, Apple drew a line behind its "photo" tools, whether it was the more professional Aperture or the simpler iPhoto. But now the engineers in Cupertino should be preparing the same fix for another overgrown giant among their applications - iTunes.
For many users, last year's notification did not like the end of quite popular tools for managing and editing photos. But Apple couldn't do otherwise if it wanted to introduce a brand new application that remodels the existing photo libraries on computers and offers a cloud-based experience and a familiar environment from mobile devices.
In short, Apple decided to draw a thick line and develop a photo application completely from scratch. Photos they are still in beta and the developers still have a lot of work to do before the final version reaches all users in the spring, but it is already clear where the next steps of the California company should go. There is an application in her portfolio that literally screams for her to start over.
Too many things on one piece of sand
It's none other than iTunes. Once a key application, which with its arrival on Windows opened the way for the iPod to dominate the entire music world, in its almost 15 years of existence, it has packed such a load that it is practically unable to carry it anymore.
Far from being just a music player and manager for your device, iTunes also buys music, videos, apps, and even books. You'll also find the iTunes Radio streaming service, and Apple even had one at one point plans to create a music social network. Although this attempt did not work, iTunes swelled to excessive dimensions, which discourages many users.
Last year's attempt with a graphical change in the name of iTunes 12 was nice, but it didn't bring anything new outside of the graphical cover, on the contrary, it brought even more confusion to some parts of the application. This, too, is proof that the current situation cannot be built on anymore, and the foundations must also fall.
In addition, iTunes has already lost its function as a key element in the operation of iPhones and iPads in recent years. Apple broke the once inseparable connection between iTunes and the iPhone years ago, so if you are not interested in local backup or direct synchronization of music and photos, you do not have to come across iTunes at all when using an iOS device.
Also, this is another reason why iTunes needs to be revamped when they have more or less lost their original purpose but continue to pretend they don't know about it yet. And then there's the other aspect that calls out for a new, fresh, and clearly focused successor to iTunes—Apple's new music service.
There is strength in simplicity
After the purchase of Beats Music, the Californian company has plans to enter the growing market of music streaming, and if it started grafting such a novelty, which it plans to reach the masses, into the current iTunes, it could not think of success. Apparently there will be an Apple streaming service built on the foundations of Beats Music, but the rest will already be completed in the image of his Apple engineer.
Such a project, which will attack current market leaders such as Spotify or Rdio, will at the same time need individuality and as much simplicity as possible. There's no longer any reason to build complex tools to handle everything from your music library to mobile device management to book purchasing. Today, Apple can quite easily cut itself off from iTunes, and the new Photos app is a step in that direction.
Photos and their management will already be handled by a dedicated application, the same would be the case with music if Apple brought a completely new application together with the new streaming service – simple and focused exclusively on music.
In iTunes as such, there would then be practically only stores with movies and mobile applications. It would no longer be difficult to dissect them and operate them in separate applications, just as books were separated or the Mac App Store works. There's also the question of whether it's even necessary to continue offering a catalog of mobile apps on desktop, and movies could eventually move to some larger TV-linked service that's being talked about.
With Photos, Apple took the relatively radical step of introducing a completely different philosophy for managing photos in a very straightforward way, and it will only be logical if it follows the same path with iTunes. What's more, it's downright desirable.
HOAX!
The caption informs us of Photos that aren't actually here yet. Couldn't it have been a little less tabloid?
I agree, I also opened the article with the fact that the guys in Cupertino managed to get it from beta to live over the weekend :-)
it's burt, it seems that the whole OS is behind me. Only pay for old programs. The best was Idisk and from then on it went downhill.
I completely agree with the iDisk!!! iCloud doesn't do much against that…
Apple's spokesperson blabbered PR regiments about a completely redesigned blah blah blah, remodeled library... and we're seeing it here. And the title is misleading.
Well, I totally agree with the author of the article, it's time to find a way to easily and automatically synchronize saved/streamed things between devices using the cloud and how to edit them as efficiently as possible. I really like the Photos application, but I hope that Adobe or Apple will release a plug-in that will push the level of editing in Photos further. In any case, I would welcome the music as well. Having a Music app where I would have music and playlists saved and which would sync with other devices. It would still like to complete the stream and it would be awesome. And for videos, I would also like to see a similar change to the iOS app, which is quite lagging behind and I miss the ability to add subtitles, adjust the quality, etc. As for editing music and videos, I can't imagine a solution similar to Photos, but that's where Apple comes from.
Yes, I would leave iTunes only for managing music, movies, etc., but for syncing with iOS devices I would create a separate utility that would connect to individual applications.
I agree. But redesigning iTunes will not be so simple even considering that Apple TV, for example, is 100% dependent on it.
As for music, I personally haven't turned on iTunes since spotify became available in the Czech Republic, I even removed iTunes from the dock