Okay, this doesn’t apply to just iTunes, but since it is the de facto application for downloading music, they have more of an impact on standardizing a naming convention. This would also apply to Amazon or any other digital music distributer. One of my biggest issues with finding an artist to listen to on my iPhone is the fact that many artists/labels will put the name of the guest artist in the Artist field, along with the actual artist’s name. Therefore, I will have Artist, Artist & Artist 2, Artist & Artist 2, Artist 3, etc. If I download an album by an artist but can’t remember the name of the album I will go to the artist. It makes it difficult to play the entire album because it is broken up among various artist listings (click image to see The Roots’ latest album as an example), so then, after I find out the album title, I have to go to ‘Albums’ and play the entire album from there. It shouldn’t be that difficult, especially on devices known for simplicity.
This needs to be standardized, for clean libraries, so that all featured artists will appear in the song title (again, click on the image to see the proper way on the CunninLynguists album Dirty Acres). So it would be something like Artist – Artist Song (ft. Artist 2). It really doesn’t help matters that some albums I buy feature the, in my opinion, improper naming conventions and some support the proper methods. That leave one giant clusterfuck of metadata. It needs to be standardized, and for the sake of my iPhone and iTunes library, it needs to cut guest artists from the Artist field completely. I really am surprised, with as controlling as Apple is, that this hasn’t been proposed or been standardized by now. Of course, I could go in and edit the metadata personally, but this is not something the end user should have to do.
Hulu Plus
Hulu has added a subscription service. Not sure how successful it will be at $10 a month when content is limited and it will by no means replace traditional television subscriptions. Netflix’s Watch Instantly service offers much more content than Hulu does at around the same price.
Standardizing Artist Naming in iTunes
This needs to be standardized, for clean libraries, so that all featured artists will appear in the song title (again, click on the image to see the proper way on the CunninLynguists album Dirty Acres). So it would be something like Artist – Artist Song (ft. Artist 2). It really doesn’t help matters that some albums I buy feature the, in my opinion, improper naming conventions and some support the proper methods. That leave one giant clusterfuck of metadata. It needs to be standardized, and for the sake of my iPhone and iTunes library, it needs to cut guest artists from the Artist field completely. I really am surprised, with as controlling as Apple is, that this hasn’t been proposed or been standardized by now. Of course, I could go in and edit the metadata personally, but this is not something the end user should have to do.
First Thoughts on the iPhone 4
I received my iPhone 4 today, a day earlier than expected, and wanted to give my quick thoughts. There will be plenty of tech reviews surfacing over the next week, but here is a personal perspective from someone who owned an iPhone 3g.
The first thing I noticed when handling the phone is how solid it felt. It feels like a solid slab of glass in your hand. Don’t let that confuse you though. That doesn’t mean it feels like it is fragile. On the contrary, it feels much stronger than my 3g. It just feels great in my hands. The second thing I noticed about the phone was how beautiful the screen is. Seriously, this is the best screen I’ve ever seen on such a small device. The text is extremely crisp and everything seems to just pop off the screen. It truly is magnificent. The last thing I noticed is just how fast it is. It is so much faster at launching apps, downloading data, and searching than my 3g ever was. Now that I have this and look back at the 3g I wonder how I ever managed. It seriously feels like going from dial-up to broadband. That is the best comparison for device speed I can come up with. Things are instant to load and update. Just these three updates have made this phone feel like the greatest piece of technology to fit in the palm of my hand.
Of course there are tons of new features that I have yet to get into, especially with iOS4, but I’ll let all the tech sites handle those reviews. Just know that the updates, such as multitasking and fast app switching, as well as the 512mb of RAM and 1 ghz processor make this phone a great device and Apple has made me fall in love all over again.
In the Event of My Demise
Happy Birthday, ‘Pac. Gone but never forgotten.
The Emotions of an Apple Ad
Apple is known for designing products that elicit strong emotions. They rebranded the personal computer and made it colorful and fun. Last night I began thinking about how they are playing towards your emotions with the iPhone 4 and how they do it better than anybody else, especially for a product that is essentially a cell phone.
The driving force behind me thinking about this is the video for the new iPhone 4 feature Facetime. The other night I showed my parents the video and as they watched smiles formed across their faces and stayed there through the entire video. I showed the video to my sister this evening and she felt strong emotions toward the scene where the husband/future-father was seeing a sonogram live via a cell-phone. Her reaction was of sadness. I think we could all find a situation in the video where we could replace the actors with ourselves quite easily. The music, a Louis Armstrong tune, is even perfect for the video’s theme. It does not distract you from the images that flow across the screen but greatly enhances the emotions you feel while watching them. Even when you take a look at the more technical video of the iPhone 4 you feel strong emotions. You are drawn to the beauty of the device and the excitement from the people in the video transfer to the viewer. The iPhone 4 marketing material is warm, inviting, and emotional.
This is the exact opposite of every other smartphone commercial out there. When you see the Palm Pre commercial you’re greeted with a creepy looking woman that looks like that might be a Borg Queen. When you look at any of the Droid commercials you’re presented with cold, hard, emotionless machinery. I don’t know who thought that these smartphones should only be seen as a tool and not something that should be part of our daily lives, but whoever they are, they need to be fired. Apple’s people did it right.