No iTunes for Windows 8 devices anytime soon

A Microsoft executive says in an interview with CNN Money that even though Microsoft would like to support an iTunes app for Windows 8, it's unlikely Apple will allow that in the near future.

Read more at source:
No iTunes for Windows 8 devices anytime soon | Microsoft - CNET News

 

[DavidY]

Microsoft kind of slapped themselves with the Zune player....

Agreed. I have a Windows Phone so I have to use Zune.

On the face of it there are cool features like the ability to synch to my phone wirelessly... but (unless they've fixed it) it doesn't work in Windows 8 and reading around the web forums, no-one else could get it to work either.

Why Microsoft can't update their own Zune player to work with Microsoft Windows 8 is beyond me.

 

[Der Snoober]

Unfortunately you need iTunes to manage an iPod for example.

Well, I'll just be thankful that iTunes isnt needed to manage my music/videos/podcasts/Internet radio on my Samsung Galaxy Note 2. lol.

Good for you :thumb:. The only problem is that there is no alternative available for me .

My demands for a musicplayer are that it can play lossless audioformats, can contain more than 130 GB data and it must have a battery that can play up to 50 hours without charging. They only product that complies to these requirements is the iPod Classic.

 

[sashlon]

ITunes is a horrible piece of software. To me its always been example number one of why Apple sucks so much. My Android phone doesn't need a proprietary program to sync my music. Fail for crApple. Epic fail actually. But the sycophants will give that company a pass no matter what it does or screws up.

The 'legacy' version works fine, so who cares?

 

[Enigma]

Apple/iTurd products are for mindless drones who are willing to accept things as they are, with no intent to change anything, and to just use the device as it was designed. With the exception of people who jailbreak their devices. And even a jailbroken device cant compare to the power and capabilities of an Android device with similar specs.

And Apple likes to use proprietary media formats that generally only work well on their devices/hardware. If I have a library with Apple then I have to convert my media files to an openly accepted/popular format like MP3, etc. I would rather just buy my media in MP3/etc formats in the first place.

They also think they're better than everyone else. Well, that's just not me. It just so happens that I consider myself a hacker of sorts (in the positive sense, not the ones we hear about everyday on the news that break laws), I like to tinker and figure out how things work and find innovative solutions to my problems. Which is my I've rooted my phone, unlocked the bootloader, and installed a custom ROM, etc. I also dualboot Linux and Windows 8/Windows Server 2012.

At its' core the OSes on Apple devices are really just Unix/Linux-based with some modifications and a prettied-up interface, designed to work on on the hardware that Apple provides. My dad also claims that Macs dont get viruses. He says it's impossible. Anyone with a background in computer security/programming/etc knows that's not true. To believe otherwise is ignorant. While it may be superior to most other OSes in terms of being malware-resistant, infections can and do happen. Linux rarely gets infected with malware either, and is a much better alternative that works on multiple hardware configurations.

Just my 2 cents..........

 

[sashlon]

^ Truth

 

[DavidY]

ITunes is a horrible piece of software. To me its always been example number one of why Apple sucks so much. My Android phone doesn't need a proprietary program to sync my music. Fail for crApple. Epic fail actually. But the sycophants will give that company a pass no matter what it does or screws up.

Meanwhile my Windows Phone requires me to use proprietary software (Zune) and Microsoft can't even be bothered to keep it updated, even on their own OS. At least Apple issue updates for iTunes in Windows, and I'd far rather use iTunes than Zune.

So while I accept what you say about Android being best in this respect, Microsoft are way worse than Apple here.

 

[Jf1450]

At its' core the OSes on Apple devices are really just Unix/Linux-based with some modifications and a prettied-up interface, designed to work on on the hardware that Apple provides.

Exactly. Where I come from that is a pretty rock solid, stable foundation. Since you like to tinker, have you ever opened up a terminal session on a Mac? The whole world of Unix is at your fingertips, a tinkerers paradise.

-jeff

 

[sashlon]

ITunes is a horrible piece of software. To me its always been example number one of why Apple sucks so much. My Android phone doesn't need a proprietary program to sync my music. Fail for crApple. Epic fail actually. But the sycophants will give that company a pass no matter what it does or screws up.

Meanwhile my Windows Phone requires me to use proprietary software (Zune) and Microsoft can't even be bothered to keep it updated, even on their own OS. At least Apple issue updates for iTunes in Windows, and I'd far rather use iTunes than Zune.

So while I accept what you say about Android being best in this respect, Microsoft are way worse than Apple here.

What phone is it? What version of Windows Phone? I'm pretty light on knowledge on Windows Phone.

 

[DavidY]

What phone is it? What version of Windows Phone? I'm pretty light on knowledge on Windows Phone.

Nokia Lumia 610, running Windows Phone 7.5.
I believe I could upgrade it to 7.8 if I could face going into Zune.

 

[Enigma]

@Jf1450: I'm well aware that opening a terminal session on a Mac will let you access many Unix utils. As I said, it's just Unix at the core with mods and a pretty interface. Beneath that fancy exterior it's still Unix, complete with a kernel, etc.

But honestly, I'm not willing to give Apple the time of day, I refuse to use their products, with the exception of iTunes, and grudgingly at that. Why? Well, for one thing, I dislike their business philosophy and the general superiority attitude of many if not most of their fans. They have decent hardware, sometimes great, that's not my issue.

Apple wants to keep you tied in to THEIR software, on THEIR hardware, using THEIR services..........and ONLY with them, whenever possible. That's my issue with them. I say to anyone, to each his own and use whatever works for you, and if Apple products are someone's thing, then so be it, no need in wasting time trying to change/convert them, because it's unlikely to happen.

Microsoft is also guilty of doing many of the same things that Apple does, but I still use Windows because it's the obvious OS of choice for gamers like myself and most of the software I use runs on it. I'm willing to accept its' shortcomings regardless.

 

[amoled]

VLC all the way (still keep iTunes to sync with iPod unfortunately)

 

[sygnus21]

Apple/iTurd products are for mindless drones who are willing to accept things as they are, with no intent to change anything, and to just use the device as it was designed. With the exception of people who jailbreak their devices. And even a jailbroken device cant compare to the power and capabilities of an Android device with similar specs.

The "anyone who doesn't think like I think is an idiot mentality" is rather appalling. It's one thing to disagree, it's another to call those who use certain products names because you dislike the brand.

And Apple likes to use proprietary media formats that generally only work well on their devices/hardware. If I have a library with Apple then I have to convert my media files to an openly accepted/popular format like MP3, etc. I would rather just buy my media in MP3/etc formats in the first place.

While this may be true to a certain extent, you can also choose to use a different format. Example, like most people, I have an iPod; however, I encode my music using AAC format, which can be played on a number of other media players, including... cough cough...Windows Media Player.

BTW there's this misconception that AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is an "Apple" exclusive format, but it's not.

My dad also claims that Macs dont get viruses. He says it's impossible. Anyone with a background in computer security/programming/etc knows that's not true. To believe otherwise is ignorant. While it may be superior to most other OSes in terms of being malware-resistant, infections can and do happen. Linux rarely gets infected with malware either, and is a much better alternative that works on multiple hardware configurations.

I don't think you have to be a computer programmer or security expert to understand any OS is prone to viruses. That said, I agree there is this prevalent misconception that Apple's OS can't get viruses.

I even had one of my college Professors (they taught basic computer - mainly Office) tell the class for assignment 1, we needed to make sure our AV was turned on, working, and up to date. When a student stated he had a Mac, they told the student not worry, that they didn't need to do this, and since Macs didn't get viruses, there was no AV available to them. Obviously this wasn't or isn't true... Google

Also - Hackers hitting Macs with virus: industry experts

BTW I corrected the professor privately, but they never publicly admitted the initial info given was wrong. I guess that was a hard pill to swallow.

And, yes, some Mac users do display a certain arrogance, but so do all of us in our own way.

My two cents

 

[Der Snoober]

The "anyone who doesn't think like I think is an idiot mentality" is rather appalling. It's one thing to disagree, it's another to call those who use certain products names because you dislike the brand.

Amen to that!

 

[Coke Robot]

Unfortunately you need iTunes to manage an iPod for example. So therefore iTunes is a must have on my computer. Although I always say that fruit needs to be put into the fruitbasket rather then your computer, I have no complaints about iTunes. It does for me what it needs to do.

And that there is not an iTunes app coming won't mind me. I wouldn't use it anyway. I prefer the desktop version.

If your iphone or idevice is a certain age, it can be managed via other methods and software. apple likes to screw that up with every ios update.

 

[Coke Robot]

ITunes is a horrible piece of software. To me its always been example number one of why Apple sucks so much. My Android phone doesn't need a proprietary program to sync my music. Fail for crApple. Epic fail actually. But the sycophants will give that company a pass no matter what it does or screws up.

Meanwhile my Windows Phone requires me to use proprietary software (Zune) and Microsoft can't even be bothered to keep it updated, even on their own OS. At least Apple issue updates for iTunes in Windows, and I'd far rather use iTunes than Zune.

So while I accept what you say about Android being best in this respect, Microsoft are way worse than Apple here.

That's because Microsoft kind of released Windows Phone 8 that has literally three different sync methods over 7....

They will say they are supporting Windows Phone 7.8, but in all honesty, it will just be little bits here and there on the platform versus Windows Phone 8's GRD2 release this year. But I can see why they are, because if they get caught up supporting an older platform versus a newer and DEFINTELY better platform, they will not have learned anything from their own history. Two years is decently long enough for a mobile platform.

 

[Coke Robot]

Apple/iTurd products are for mindless drones who are willing to accept things as they are, with no intent to change anything, and to just use the device as it was designed. With the exception of people who jailbreak their devices. And even a jailbroken device cant compare to the power and capabilities of an Android device with similar specs.

And Apple likes to use proprietary media formats that generally only work well on their devices/hardware. If I have a library with Apple then I have to convert my media files to an openly accepted/popular format like MP3, etc. I would rather just buy my media in MP3/etc formats in the first place.

They also think they're better than everyone else. Well, that's just not me. It just so happens that I consider myself a hacker of sorts (in the positive sense, not the ones we hear about everyday on the news that break laws), I like to tinker and figure out how things work and find innovative solutions to my problems. Which is my I've rooted my phone, unlocked the bootloader, and installed a custom ROM, etc. I also dualboot Linux and Windows 8/Windows Server 2012.

At its' core the OSes on Apple devices are really just Unix/Linux-based with some modifications and a prettied-up interface, designed to work on on the hardware that Apple provides. My dad also claims that Macs dont get viruses. He says it's impossible. Anyone with a background in computer security/programming/etc knows that's not true. To believe otherwise is ignorant. While it may be superior to most other OSes in terms of being malware-resistant, infections can and do happen. Linux rarely gets infected with malware either, and is a much better alternative that works on multiple hardware configurations.

Just my 2 cents..........

Your two cents are of LOTS of value! :thumb:

Ugh!! I always convert FLAC audio files to WMA lossless as that format has more universal support than FLAC, and it keeps a lot of FLAC's properties. So I gave a whole WMA based discography to a friend so she could put it on her iphone, dragged it over into the iTunes window (pisses me off that you have to do that to update the iTunes library whereas Zune did that automatically as it wasn't deranged and used the Music library index) and guess what? Took about an hour to convert from WMA lossless to aac, apple's audio codec. Or actually, advanced audio coding.

I've always believed a jailbroken ios device is just akin to an android device.

And that's really stupid to believe macs don't get viruses, even apple had to change their wording saying macs don't get the same viruses as Windows, because the ones macs get can LITERALLY cripple the whole OS. They're right, Windows doesn't get those viruses unless if you use xp pre service packs. Even Kaspersky Labs has claimed a similar thing to mac os's security being such as Windows xp SP1.

 

[XweAponX]

itunes sucks, it sucks so hard that I want to go take a poop on apple's headquarters building and I don't even use it even remotely regularly. iTunes 11 is nothing more than a VERY poor Zune client ripoff mixed with itunes from the ipad..

I think it is the other way around, Zune has always been an iTunes ripoff client from the start, I know several people who have bought Zune players, they realise now that they need to toss them into the same recycle pile as Microsoft HD-DVDs.

Regardless of how hard iTunes 11 sucks various bodily parts which resemble sacks, it is still the only way to manipulate an apple device. I never have any problems with it really except that I can no longer DRAG content into it like I used to be able to do, I can however, click on a file and tell it to OPEN with iTunes, then it gets added.

The trick with apple has always been, find out what they changed, then find a new way to do what you used to be able to do easy. I't not really iTunes which sucks, it is the gorram APT crapola and App and OS Signing - So I always install AppSync, which allows the apps to go in even without proper signing.

 

[DavidY]

That's because Microsoft kind of released Windows Phone 8 that has literally three different sync methods over 7....

They will say they are supporting Windows Phone 7.8, but in all honesty, it will just be little bits here and there on the platform versus Windows Phone 8's GRD2 release this year. But I can see why they are, because if they get caught up supporting an older platform versus a newer and DEFINTELY better platform, they will not have learned anything from their own history. Two years is decently long enough for a mobile platform.

Yes but it was less than 6 months ago when I bought mine; the Windows Phone 8 equivalent hadn't arrived in the shops here by then (and I'd killed my last phone so needed one quickly). So I'd still expect some decent support for a while yet.

 

[Coke Robot]

That's because Microsoft kind of released Windows Phone 8 that has literally three different sync methods over 7....

They will say they are supporting Windows Phone 7.8, but in all honesty, it will just be little bits here and there on the platform versus Windows Phone 8's GRD2 release this year. But I can see why they are, because if they get caught up supporting an older platform versus a newer and DEFINTELY better platform, they will not have learned anything from their own history. Two years is decently long enough for a mobile platform.

Yes but it was less than 6 months ago when I bought mine; the Windows Phone 8 equivalent hadn't arrived in the shops here by then (and I'd killed my last phone so needed one quickly). So I'd still expect some decent support for a while yet.

That's the same thing that happens to people when they buy an iphone and the next one comes out in three months....or a month later...

Decent support is there for Windows Phone 7, it's just that it comes after 8. The new facebook app is to be released soon for 7, Temple Run can't run on 7 because it needs a gig of RAM for some odd reason. As long as it's Nokia, THEY will be supporting it. Microsoft is expecting OEMs to support their Windows Phones as well, Nokia does that.

But as for the Zune client and such, that's pretty much dead. That's that. It's been "replaced" by Xbox Music and Video apps on Windows 8, which are quite awful compared to Zune. For a company that's trying to pick up mobile share with Windows Phone 8, 7 has to get out of the way or otherwise they will get caught up supporting an older platform for a small user base. Yes, it sucks, but that's life. You wouldn't be expecting apple to release siri on the iphone 4 even though the 4s came out. You sure as hell wouldn't be expecting google to have mid range android 2 handsets run android 3 or 4. But yet, Windows Phone 7 HAS to be supported like no other?

 

[Brooklyn567]

We dont want iTunes hanging around when were done with it anyway.. We just want to use it, leave money on the table, and be gone..