edit: Those downvoting seem to be seriously hostile towards consumers. If people are giving you 700 dollar profits per sale, I think you should be a lot more upfront about your limitations. Hiding a disclaimer in fine print on a support page is just plain wrong.
Secondly, yah, that's true, if you only use one computer. If you're like any one of the millions of people who use more than one computer, the second you plug your iPhone/iTouch into a different computer, the only options you're given are to 1) Eject or 2) Erase.
Considering what I spent on the iPhone, I should be able to do whatever I please, but that's clearly not the case.
While I'm sure a small portion of the population has more than computer, I don't see why you'd need to sync your music on more than one. All the other data can be sync'd through iCloud (contacts, etc).
Do you also see why that restriction might be in place? They don't want to let people plug it into anyone's computer and "share" all that music.
I suppose with iCloud Drive now part of OSX you can just sync keep your music or iTunes folder in there and sync that.
I didn't pay for a license, I paid for the device itself, far more than it costs them to Manufacture. BTW, the FTC and FCC stand by that fact every time they issue an injunction forcing carriers to unlock out of contract.
Small portion? Seriously? in 2013 there were more than 500 MILLION internet connected devices in the US alone[1], spread out among 117 million households[2], but that's a small portion?
[1]https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e...
[2]http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/03/18/npd-us-homes-now-ho...
You have the means to sync and copy your music yourself around your own devices, there's nothing preventing you from doing that and as I mentioned it's getting easier with things like iCloud Drive now.
I'm honestly curious as to why you feel the need to treat consumers/customers like trash? I'm supposed to pay extra for iCloud drive because...reasons?
Why is your opinion that anyone who does things differently than you wrong? Because that's what you and everyone else here has said.
Apple is not a SaaS, IaaS, or PaaS. They produce tangible goods that consumers own. Outside of violating state or federal laws, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, you are legally entitled to do whatever you so choose with your property.
Why is everyone okay with Apple dictating what you can or can't do with your property? You paid for it, and not just for a license. It is YOURS, why are you giving up your rights?
If Microsoft only allowed you to sync one Email account in Windows, would you still go "well, I don't know why you'd need multiple accounts, you're stupid if you do".
Does everyone here tell their customers "tough luck, I guess try to get around that "feature"'?
The only reason apple does this is because they sell music. If they didn't, there would be absolutely no incentive to put these types of constraint on a consumer device.
At least, that's how I think we slouch.
It is (very marginally) more hassle to buy them from Amazon and then drag them into iTunes, but hey, it feels good to fight The Man. (Plus, albums are often $2 or $3 cheaper on Amazon than in the Apple music store.)
EDIT: history of the DRM-free Amazon Music store: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Music
I love how people on HN blatantly just say "untrue". Really? I don't recall you being present during these experiences.
Maybe you want to reword that to "Glad I paid 930 dollars for a device that can only sync music from one of my computers but sync all the rest of my data across as many devices as I want".
Maybe I should reword my comment to be "Glad I paid 930 dollars for a device that can only do what Apple's Business Analysts think is acceptable."
There are two ways to set up an iOS device. One is to have it sync to a computer. This is what you have done. Yes, it's set to sync to a particular computer, and you can change that computer—but with this setup, the contents of the iOS device are just a copy of what's on the computer, so if you change the computer, it replaces the files on the device. Generally, it's not a great way to go, it's mostly a holdover from early iPod days. Second is to not have it sync to a computer. If you have more than one computer—or no computers with iTunes, this is a better idea. Honestly, there isn't really a good reason to plug the devices into a computer any more, except to charge.
> I love how people on HN blatantly just say "untrue". Really? I don't recall you being present during these experiences.
Why would we need to be present during for your experiences? We've all had our own experiences, where we've done what you claim is impossible.
iPhone can only add music or video from a single iTunes Library.
If you set your device properly, which you are incapable of, you will not see that message and hence the cause does not apply to you.
2. If you're going to insult me, learn to count and learn directions, The bullet points your referring to are below and there are only 3 of them
> Read above that, it is one of the probable conditions, "If you see a message that your device is synced with another library." There are 4 other probable causes for that message mentioned there.
However, that's not what you claimed. What you claimed was:
> a device I can only use with music from their store from one computer
You can use music from many music stores, or none at all if you rip your own from CDs. And you can connect to many computers, if your device isn't set to sync with a particular library.
Besides the technical issues it would be a complete user interface nightmare when dealing with storage issues on the device.
There are a lot of different streaming music services available too(not to mention you can stream your itunes purchases too.) If you are manually managing your music where you expect songs to magically move from one computer to another through an iphone you might consider finding a different solution than complaining that apple doesn't magically solve your problem.
Not all of them came from the same computer, either. They were added to my iTunes library over the years from several Macs and PCs. Some were ripped from CDs, some were purchased from other stores (Amazon, eMusic, Bandcamp) and some were downloaded from filesharing services.
I don't think you're lying. It seems like the root of your problem is that you selected "manually manage music and videos," but to be honest I'm not sure, because the defaults have worked well for me across quite a few computers and portable devices.
The gist of your argument seems to be that Apple makes you go through hoops to use non-iTunes music by default.
In reality, it works really well by default, and it seems like you jumped through some hoops to screw it up.
There are just lots of Apple fanbois on HN, nothing more than that.