Much Ado About iDisk Streaming

[Paul Daniel Ash]

There's been a fair amount of digital ink spilled today about the "discovery" of a feature Apple openly released last month: the ability to stream your music files from your MobileMe iDisk in the background, just like Pandora and Rhapsody do. Though even Michael Robertson, the former MP3.com honcho who wrote about the feature clearly states that this is not the long-rumored "iTunes in the cloud," that hasn't stopped folks from saying it's just that.

Robertson said he found the feature "buried in the release notes of an iPhone app," though it's the 4th item in the 'What's New' list for MobileMe iDisk, so maybe the discovery is not quite the same as finding pirate treasure. However, he does clearly highlight the most significant and interesting part of this development that relates to any future cloud-based iTunes service. The world's largest music company, Universal Music Group (UMG), has been telling streaming music services that they must get a license and pay them every time the play music from any of the approximately 4,750.226,453 artists under contract to a UMG label. If Apple can get away with this, then they may be able to get away with true iTunes streaming. If not… well this is just the first shot in a long battle.

One upside of this for jailbreakers is that streaming from Dropbox also works just as well. Someone could put together a front-end app to manage music collections on Dropbox or any file sharing app, and put in support for a song browser, playlists, genres, cover art… in short, all the bells and whistles that people are used to from iTunes, and use My3G to get around the 20MB limitation. In other words: we don't need to wait for Apple.

Source: Engadget

[whereswaldo]

If only MobileMe didn't cost so fricken much, I might care

[Stealth1029]

If only MobileMe didn't cost so fricken much, I might care

Should be free, in my opinion.

[mikerlx]

Mobileme is not free?

[plumoso]

Times 2

[awesomeSlayer]

Mobileme is not free?

Nope. $99 year fee.

I would get it...if I didn't have to pay yearly.

[mustard05]

LOL. Times 3

[smr891]

I do not see the value in mobile me, I should have stuck with gmail.

[Joseph_Prophet]

i think this is it and that they're just not saying it is....

[MkUltra]

If only MobileMe didn't cost so fricken much, I might care

+1

[iLoveWindows&iPhone]

They have to make it free, just have to!! If they don't, verizon/google will come out with the same service, but theirs will be free! Stop being cheap apple!!

[Shinner23]

You can buy a MobileMe subscription via Amazon or Ebay for $45, as opposed to the $99 Apple charges. I enjoy it.

[Lolcats]

lol, look at the number of bars he has

deathgrip

[Antman217]

lol, look at the number of bars he has

deathgrip

You dont have signal on the connect to itunes screen cuz thats when you have to activate it.

[goodluck4287]

MobileMe costs money? I love having a free employee family pack that renews itself annually even though I don't work at Apple anymore.

[Antman217]

You can buy a MobileMe subscription via Amazon or Ebay for $45, as opposed to the $99 Apple charges. I enjoy it.

I didnt know that! I have amazon prime so i might get it even cheaper! Thnx

[Cer0]

I wouldn't mind mobile me but never get around to ordering it.

[kraziebone]

I got like 5 other guys together an just purchase the family MobileMe on eBay for like $75. The family one is just 5 seperate licenses. I mainly use the findmyiphone and calendars but it's defiantly not worth forking out $100+ a year. That's just a rediculous

[klouud]

I know this is semi unrelated... But is there a difference between 3Gunrestrictor and my3G? I am on 3.1.2 with 3Gunrestrictor - going to make the jump to iOS4 via iphone4 in the next couple o months. Just wanna be prepared.

[iphone565]

MobileMe costs money? I love having a free employee family pack that renews itself annually even though I don't work at Apple anymore.

I was trying to find a smiley that gave the finger but couldnt find it. I dont hate you buddy just apple sometimes.