iTunes store needs a redesign: 10 changes I want to see

Following on from my article iTunes needs a redesign: 10 changes I want to see, I wanted to look deeper at the actual iTunes store. Now being an avid user of iTunes and iTunes there are many things I want to see changed within the store, I thought I'd try to narrow it down to 10 things that I want to see.

1. Completed my Series/Show

As a person who has brought the odd episode from iTunes I often want to complete a season. I hear this is being rolled out in the US to complete a series much as I would an album but I'd like to see this taken a lot further. I'd like to get discounts for buying the next series of a show. 

2. Pricing of TV & Film

I can buy the complete DVD boxset of The Sopranos for around £50 on iTunes it would cost me £150. I can also get most old movies for £3 on DVD cheapest I can get them is £3.99 but in most cases £6.99. There are cases I can buy cheaper than DVD but I dont want to replace my DVD collection at that price I'd prefer to import my DVD's like I do with CD's. Though I have to admit I still have a large VHS collection I'm replacing with iTunes purchases. 

3. HD

HD is a big thing that needs addressing. Firstly I tend to buy SD versions of shows as the extra price of HD is ridiculous. They can range from £2 to £15 for a TV Series and £2 to £4 for a film that to me is the cost of an album or another show. At the moment these are only 720 HD not 1080. I'd like to see HD as standard price and the ability to upgrade all my shows available in HD for a small fee, like the 20p a track for music. In addition all movies should have the ability to sell at HD so why aren't they, its SD for some and both for others they should all be sold at HD. 

4. Rental

When I was young I used to regularly rent from local video stores. £1 a night rental was normal and I'd rent two or three things at a time. Then prices rose and it was £4/5 a night I could buy the move for £10 watch it twice and make my money back hence the reason I still own 200 VHS tapes I've not replaced. Today I could stream unlimited rentals to my TV for £6 a month so why does apple insist on rentals being  so 2.49 SD and 3.49 at HD. I prefer their 99p SD  or even £1.99 HD rentals. I think if they want rentals that aren't subscription based they need to drop them to 99p for SD/HD, especially when I can buy a DVD for £3. 

5. Previews

I can preview a song before buying it but when it comes to movies and TV shows apple are falling a little flat. A movie has a preview trailer option, great but alot of the time its not the theatrical or out on video trailer. I tend to get a scene from the movie and not a good one at that. I want to see the theatrical trailers not a scene from the film. As for TV i'd like to see the promo trailers or the sneak peak as a preview not given away as a freebie that leads me to my next point...

6. Free Episodes

I'm really happy apple give away a free single of the week and even more happy we get gifts during christmas period. I am however disappointed with it compared to US store where customers enjoy regular free music videos and TV episodes. In UK you may get the occasional free episode but in most cases it is a free trailer, promo or scene. I'd prefer a free pilot episode of a show then I'd probably buy the rest of the series. 

7. Movie Bundles

Ok this is kind of the same as point one but I felt it needed highlighting. Occasionally we can get movie bundles nothing like the US again but we can buy 2 and some cases 4 films that are sequels or special offers these are great and I just wish that this feature would spread further. I want to buy several films and their sequels but do I really want to buy them individually or do I want the option to buy a bundle or even having purchased the first movie get the sequel at a special price. 

8. Brought

A very simple thing but one I think should be taken from Mac App Store. When you have purchased something it says installed when you are looking around the App Store and spot something you've purchased. I think this simple feature would be great for seeing what you own and what you don't within iTunes.

9. Content
We all know content is king and as Apple plough more and more music into the store there are still some missing. As they add new TV shows there are a wealth of shows we can't get. I can't get new shows like Dexter (US store can) and there are hundreds of old shows that should be released. Not to mention films and books. There needs to be a bigger push in content and filling the gaps of those missing in store, which brings me to my next and final point.

10. iCloud/iTunes Match mark 2
iCloud is a brilliant step in the the right direction and though I'm yet to sign up to iTunes Match I'm looking forward to the freedom the service will give me. I'm just looking for the next step in its evolution. iCloud needs to start providing purchased support for Movies if it does this I'd watch them straight from my AppleTV and probably buy HD Movies. I want iTunes Match to move towards books and videos, scanning my library and giving my access to books I may have downloaded other places as well as letting me move my DVD collection onto my idevices. All this would benefit Apple as it would help them fill in their missing media by discoving what people own and want. They could merge my match info with my purchased giving me better genius results. The ability to complete albums to the deluxe version. Genrally allow me to see things I've purchased from apple and not letting me spend money on new content.

Apple is always improving its products so we may see some of these in the future we may not but its good fun to guess. 

iTunes needs a redesign: 10 changes I want to see

As a avid Apple fan and a large consumer of media, I live my life in iTunes.  Lately though I've been thinking that iTunes and for that matter, the iTunes Store need some improvements.  The more I've thought about it the more I think its time for the biggest re-design iTunes has seen in a while.


Why now? the answer is simply the release of 10.7 (lion), this release will see the end nearing for Leopard support and the introduction of some really useful features.

In this article I'm going to look at the program rather than the store.


1. 64bit Coca code
The first thing I see coming to a redesign is a total re-write of code, as were seeing with a lot of applications to bring full 64bit and using a number of OS technologies. This straight away would give a new look and feel but iTunes needs more. Rumors are the next version of iTunes is 64 bit but it won't have that wow factor it deserves.

We can assume that with Lion, iTunes would become a full screen app, taking abilities that Front Row (no longer supported in 10.7) used to give us.

2. iTunes LP and iTunes Extra

Better support for iTunes LP and iTunes Extra as these really haven't seen any development and I can't really view them on my Apple TV as they were introduced. I'd love to see content available on DVD available to my iTunes Library.

3. Ping & Genius integration
Ping & Genius recommendations need a better integrated as the more I look at that side bar the more I think it just doesn't work. I love genius for mixes and playlists but the recommendations seem bolted on as does ping, which just doesn't seem social enough for me. I use a site called SongKick that I think would benefit from a tie up with Ping and native iTunes integration. Lets be honest Ping defiantly does need to grow with Facebook and even MySpace integration. It needs to encompass all the mediums in iTunes not just music. It also needs to bring more of the 'GetGlue' approach of sharing what you watching or reading.

4. Tagging, Artwork and metadata
As our music collection grows so does the amount of metadata iTunes needs to be able to use this data better. The search function if great but I feel the tags need to develop. There are plenty of applications that update and correct dodgy artwork and tags but its more than that. Lyrics can be imported, sub genres holidays for example wont all be Christmas songs. I think its time iTunes had functionality to update tags but its also time for a new tagging standard to include more information for music or videos e.g. Director.

5. Smart playing
I love putting my on shuffle or playing a genius mix but you can guarantee in the middle of July it will play a Christmas song. By the same account I can go from Marylin Manson to B*Witched which as good as they both are they're very contrasting in taste. The one thing that annoys me is when I have 12,000 songs I cant choose to play songs that iTunes have never played before. You can guarantee there is one song you've only played once or not at all and I find it frustrating there isn't a smart way of doing that.

iTunes isn't just about Music though and that's where I think the biggest changes need to be.

6. Radio Stations
The way Radio Stations are handled are so anti-apple it does make you play your music, which is probably the thinking as apple don't make money thorough the radio. Here in the UK, radio is still a passion and the most social way to discover music you struggle to find someone who doesn't listen to the radio.  If apple revolutionized its handling of radio by looking at how the UK market handles it, I think we would all benefit.  Ping becoming a central feature, would allow for the more social music aspect especially if the radio stations were pinging the songs they were playing so you could then purchase them. Many Digital Radios here in the UK already allow music purchases or music information that means we can quickly purchase that catcy song.

7. Podcasts
Podcasts Like radio could do with being handled better they could do with a does of Ping, bringing more social aspect to finding and downloading Podcasts. Podcasts were invented because of Apple so i think the love should still be shown towards them.

8. TV & Films
The way iTunes handles video is good but I feel it needs improvement. TV shows are not handled in the best way. Unlike the other mediums TV shows are lots of episodes over several seasons but are all the same show. It's essentially taking a book and putting each page (episode) into a chapter (season) but never putting them together as a book (show). This would make my library so much better to navigate as I'm always looking for the show before either the season or the episode.

I know films with sequels could be dealt with the same way large franchises like the Bond films could ever really see the benefit but I still think it would benefit the user.

9. Music Videos

Music videos however I think need to be handled in a similar way to TV & Films in that they should be found easier. I have to search long and hard to find music videos. They can still live within music icon but sometimes I just want to see my music videos so a drop down would benefit me.

10. eBooks
iBooks could also do with the ability to open our ebooks, even if it is with another application like preview. I just find it frustrating that I want to open a book to check its the right one before i transfer it to my ios device.

Will any of this happen, maybe some of it over time. People keep asking for an iTunes server for the home and we may see that or a version of it some day but its more likely we would see iCloud develop a better iTunes server substitute before that. If we saw that iTunes would definatly begin to look and act a lot different than I've mentioned here.

One thing that's almost a certainty, that when there is a new iTunes, it'll turn up in the App Store.

UK copyright law digital makeover -benifit or curse

UK copyright law is about to get a digital makeover as number of reforms have been put forward by The Hargreaves Report.

The report requested by British Prime minister David Cameron looks at reforming many of the UK's copyright laws that are outdated in the Internet age.

The report doesn't do recommend anything particularly  groundbreaking or as radical as some people asked for. What it does do is brink the UK more in line with Europe, US and the Internet age. Though in some instances it doesn't go as far as the US as the rest of Europe would need to come into line first.

The report goes through several things but there are two pieces of change that I think will change the digital landscape in a significant way but more for the consumer than possibly the industry.

First is what is known as the legalization of format shifting for personal use. We all do this, its when copy a CD to our computer to put on our MP3 Players. So for all the years the UK has been doing this its been technically illegally.

The change though makes an interesting new loop whole that allows you to copy your DVD's legally to your computer too. Now this has always been a fuzzy area of law as the movie industry fight losing money in the way the music industry did. I have to say though the Music industry is now stronger creatively for the digital downloads and part of the benifit has been the ability to continue growing music collections rather than re-purchasing. I deliberately look out for DVD's with a digital download included but very few have this in UK but Blue-ray does. I'd be happy to bay £1 to get a digital version of my DVD but I wouldn't want to re-buy my full 100 plus DVD's at £7-15 each, if i did I'd never buy new films again. So the change in law would benifit the consumer but what about the industry, only time will tell.

The second intriguing part of the Hargreaves Report is the proposal of a formation of a Digital Copyright Exchange to act as a "one-stop shop" to make it easier to get clearance for the use of copyrighted content. This is a big change it'll allow more of the back catalog of media onto television and internet. Like the MCPRS pays artists and performers for their work the Digital Copyright Exchange will do the same for those pieces of work where the owners can't be found straight away.

I look forward  to seeing what develops form this report and I think the UK and eventually hopefully the world will become better for it.

Why can't Apple get a clock right?

With the clocks about to change again I thought I'd look at a problem every Apple user has an issue with, the clocks.

As a user of a lot of different Mac products, I find one problem amongst all of them.

When the clocks change in my time zone my alarms don't follow.  This goes for scheduled tasks as well. Eventually once the whole world has changed their clocks the majority of these problems fix but not all.

So I ask why can't Apple get clocks right?

I think the answer lies in its global ambition, as clocks around the world don't follow British Summer Times changes of Greenwich Mean Times Apple struggles to find a middle ground. But is that the real reason I don't know.

Personally I think they need to get their act together and find a solution quickly, I can't keep my changing scheduled tasks in Apple Remote Desktop or wake up late for work.

So here and now I ask Apple the simple task of getting their clocks right.

Music Social Media - The beginning of MySpace takeover.

In August 2003 a revolution was born on the internet, the real start of 'Social Networking' as Myspace was born. We all used to use Myspace until we fell out of love and moved to Facebook. I myself even still have an active Myspace account and over the last few months have found myself logging into it again and this week NewsCorp (owner of Myspace) started the work to sell off the flagging social network.

My personal love of Myspace was lost by its lack of development, we all moan and hate our favorite sites changing but if they don't we find ourselves moving away to more revolutionary sites. Which was the case with MySpace, as people started tagging friends in photos on Facebook, Myspace lost out.

MySpace has always been good for creative people with its Music section or Filmmaker section. This though is seeing more and more rivals against it, and less and less change to the site. Though it seems that is changing as slowly Myspace is bringing some new features and concentrating more on Music.

Apple recently launched iTunes Ping to bring a social aspect to buying and listening to Music. People have complained of its lack of Facebook integration but I ask what about Myspace. It seems some of Myspaces best features are migrating to Facebook and Myspace is now developing a closer affiliation with the 'Social Networking King'. 

NewsCorp has already said it is looking for either a merger or a sale of MySpace. I see both happening, if Facebook and Myspace merge users and Apple taking a financial stake to bring its Music Social Media functionality to the site, we could se a new revolution with MySpace.

I think MySpace could go even further and tap into the fan market in a way that saw thousands of Bootlegs sold in the 60's. Myspace is trying but I honestly think that it needs to embrace music in and entertainment from a fans point of view, something I believe Apple is trying to do with Ping.

If Myspace developed artist pages that are populated by content from fans as well as artists, it would improve on the traffic for advertisers. We could see interviews and performances from TV and Concert appearances posted from video channels. We could even see  some of these bootleg recordings posted, which could see these rare recordings re-mastered and released by record companies. You never know some unknown tracks could be found with posthumous releases as we have seen with Micheal Jackson. It could just see new exciting ways of exploring music that we would later buy from iTunes.

People could post memories of concerts (the biggest music payday currently) with fans tagging concert photos or videos. This would show tours over time and location as the fans bring back the memories for others. There could be chance meetings with artists, stories shared making it a real fan genrated appreciation of artisits.

Of course these can always lead to sales, with links to merchandise, downloads, adverts around posted video content. You can see this becoming a real money maker for these companies but also give fans a proper fan site for the 21st century. I'd rather explore musical tastes with friends and fans rather than go to a artists website that never gets updated.

This idea could go a step further and be extended to Films, Artwork, TV shows, and all the people involved. Add integration to sites such as IMDB and you can start to see endless possibilities. If Apple were to take Ping to the same level as Get Glue, you'll soon find your exploring more and more entertainment.

I for one love the idea of going to my next concert and posting pictures, reviews or even just sharing other peoples memories of the concerts I couldn't make. I love the idea of watching a TV show and recommending it to friends. I remember getting friends into '24', ten years later and my fondest memories are based around watching or talking about that show. In fact watching series chronicles a particular time in my life.

So I look forward to the next twelve months of MySpace, I really want to see it merge with Facebook in an original way. If this happens I believe we shall see Apple investing in MySpace and its vision for iTunes Ping taking leaps forward.

Final Cut Studio - Where Next?

It's been over a year since the last update to Final Cut Studio, and rumors have been flying around for months the update could be January. I personally think its more likely to be a summer release given the current twenty-four month cycle of the software and the release of new operating system Lion. Though there are changes to this cycle on occasion and the release of Lion could affect a cycle change.

What I thought I'd look at is what we could or should expect from a new release.

Final Cut Pro
The heart of the studio, Final Cut Pro is the industry standard edit program that is beginning to loose it's share to other systems such as Adobe's Premier Pro. Final Cut has been very popular but the code is written in several languages as apple has bolted on features to the original. Rumor is this is where the majority of work will have to take place. The software will need to be re-written entirely in Cocoa, this is a lot of work to keep the same functionality Final Cut users are used to, this though should make it a even stronger and more reliable product. The main benefit of this is the 64bit support many editors want and is already available in Adobe Premier.  It will also give the application a  fresh new look and feel.

One of the most requested features is native support of camera codecs, as more tape-less cameras come to the market, so do more format specific codecs. Its more than overdue that Apple provide these codecs as native way for Final Cut to edit. I personally think that if they can use Camera Raw for Photo editing its the same concept for video. I think in the long run it will allow less problems due to multiple conversions.

Once that's all been dealt with there may be little time to actually build new features, but I think that Final Cut needs to build this release as more than a interface refresh. Considering how little went into the last release.

It should defiantly look at supporting stereoscope editing (editing 3D movies) as this is becoming increasingly popular the need for the right tools is only going to grow so Final Cut should be the first at the table.

I'd like to see some additions to 'Scratch Disks', as someone who deals with tape-less filming amongst multiple users I find the need to set my scratch disks to a local external hard drive for editing but at the same time a duplicate to be sent to the shared storage. This is a big thing duplicating media in an age where tape is being used less and less, you find people get more paranoid about loosing data. Dual copying of media is a must for any professional.

Further to this and I've mentioned it in previous blogs, I'd like to see more integration with Final Cut Server as I can see this benefiting the shared storage environments and the idea of edit in place editing that most larger post houses are looking at.


All this is under the hood stuff, you expect final cut to do anyway. So what about the bells and whistles.
I think for that we need to look at other applications made by Apple. As with anything Apple does, if the consumer app does it well, the pro apps will do it better. So I see more integration with pro apps such as Aperture and Logic. I see features from the other final cut applications shared more, as some of the advanced abilities are made available in a limited way within Final Cut. I'm always looking for a way to blur out peoples faces or non broadcastable material such as adverts or car number plates. I want to able to do this in final cut in as few buttons clicks as possible but find motion having the better tools.

The biggest features though will come from iMove, I think the majority of their new features will make its way into some of the Final Cut pro suite. Personally I think Face detection will be good for metadata or for blurring out faces.  One step effects would be welcome to most editors especially if there are some extra parameters for them to tweak.

I think the share function will grow with the ability to create custom compressor droplets that will publish to youtube from with in Final Cut, meaning video producers can automate more of their process. We may even see integration with Vimeo, which is becoming the favorite video site for filmmakers to post on if they want to be taken seriously.

One feature i really want to see is the ability to bring master templates in with audio. There are some I've created in Motion that when I'm using in Final Cut require the audio as well as video.  Having to add the audio separate seems pointless when I've used it to create the graphics in the first place.

All in all I think the next Final Cut Pro could be the best but I have a feeling Apple will again hold back on major features in a bid to get the under the bonnet stuff working correct.


Motion
Motion is a program I have love, hate relationship with but its becoming increasingly powerful with each release and I think the next one may see the biggest changes.
Again iMovie features should be making it into Motion. I think the news and sport templates will make it across with the focus on providing real time graphics. Real time graphic support would bring a lot more power to the already bulging application but I think Motion will look to take on traditional news graphic systems with some new tools.

I also think iMovies unique way of creating trailer credits will filter across and extend to creating end credits. I think we will start seeing this auto filling from meta data available more often. Taking a long task of creating credits into a few easy steps.

If Apple were to make Final Cut Pro cope with 3D surely Motion would see stereoscope graphic capability.

I do think though that we will see many of Shakes capabilities filter into Motion. We could see better integration with CGI programs to embed 3D objects or environments. Who knows maybe Shake will become part of Final Cut Studio or at least a major part of Motions capabilities.

Soundtrack Pro
Sound track has a lot of work to do, its a wonderful program when it works. That's the problem it's not the most stable program in the suite, in fact I find freeware like Audacity more stable. Which is a real shame for a program with such potential.

So first thing I want to see in the next version is better stability, I want to have to try and break the program not see it quit of it's own accord.

Again I think we'll see some of iMovies new audio features being used as well as Logic and Garage Band bringing features to the table.

My biggest wish is for Soundtrack to get 64bit compatibility and really take on Adobe Audition as an audio editing program. I'm a big fan of Audition and love the fact there is a Mac version coming soon. Having tested the beta version of Adobe's software it seems to be beating Soundtrack Pro as an audio editor.

I'm a person who takes my videos and quiet often have to edit an audio only version for radio, Soundtrack pro would go a long way if it could export Wav files and give me the flexibility and reliability I get from Audition.

Apple take my advise pull your finger out and produce a program that fulfills the same level of functionality as Audition, then push it to match pro tools as your currently not able to match freeware  like Audacity in its current state.

Color
As someone who's only ever briefly used color all I can mainly say is it seems to have some stability issues, that desperately need addressing. On another note there are features I feel are missing or restricted that need to be expanded on.

At the end of the day you need to be a colorist to fully appreciate color and though I enjoy dabbling in the program, I am not a colorist and don't see me having the skill to do so. However I can see the benefits of the program and that Apple will bring some amazing features and development in the future.

Compressor
The most important asset in the suite, as it becomes a fully fledged outputting suite for digital production. Compressor defiantly needs to move to 64 bit support as well as the ability to support 3D conversion/output.

There are more features I want to see though, as mentioned earlier I want to be able to set me publishing output such as YouTube in compressor so that it becomes a simple share option in Final Cut Pro. I want to be able to publish to Vimeo. Audio conversion I think needs better support in compressor with publishing for not only podcast producer but for websites (HTML5) and to audio hosting sites such as ONM Voice or Mix Cloud. I dearly miss Visual Hub and Audio Hub for file conversion and feel Compressor just needs to meet this amazing program.

I love the fact I can add water marks to my video during compression but I want to take this a step forward and bring in a feature mostly found when printing to tape. That is the idea of slates or bumpers. As I export videos sometimes you want to put bars, slates or countdowns at the beginning as its going into a tape-less playout system. In my case videos I produce always need to be top and tailed with a short video bumper, this is normally a short motion video of the companies logo. Now I'm fine doing that in Final Cut but most of the time its a hassle to add to something just for a web output.

I think compressor is soon to become more important, as we move away from physical media into the digital world. We've already seen Apple introduce iTunes LP and iTunes Extra but there isn't a program that helps create that. Maybe this is what we shall see in future versions of compressor.

DVD Studio Pro
Lets be honest, DVD Studio Pro hasn't been updated in years and it probably won't be this time. With dwindling sales of DVD and no advancement in the technology the program is just waiting to die. I hear people shouting what about Blue-ray. Why its true that Apple could create more support for Blue-ray, in this version it's doubtful. Blue-ray has only been taken up as well as it has due to PS3 and the gaming market. I do see the advantage of having a disk that holds so much content and in my opinion its more to archive your material on a physical format rather than for watching it.

Apple feels the same way as they are pushing digital downloads, for me Blue-ray is the modern day Mini-Disk. A great technology but it came a little too late as digital downloads are already available. I feel we shall see a lot of the features reserved for DVD going to compressor for digital download creation. The only other option is for the whole program to get a radical overhaul and become a a one stop shop for creating menu based content for DVD, Blue-ray and digital media. Though again I doubt Apple would even waist the time unless they wanted to do a similar thing for a future version of iLife.

Anything Else
With Final Cut Studio Apple always try to bring something new, this normally means buying some existing technology and repacking it. The last time they did that they brought Color into the suite, which is now two versions ago. I think that the next thing will follow in Adobe's foot steps and copy Adobe On Location. This application is all about transferring your footage on location and meta-data. Now I think Apple will just start with the meta-data side seen as a lot of the functionality and future I've mentioned has meta-data underlining. I honestly see Apple using an iPad app to access and update meta-data on location and sync with files via something like Final Cut Server.

I doubt Apple would ever go down the script writing route unless they acquired a program like Final Draft. I think for now Apple would rather work with the company to create better integration.

As I've mentioned the big things for the next update is 64 bit and stereoscope support. This is Final Cut Studios big chance to fight critics and Adobe's closing market dominance. I guess we will have to wait and see what is the next big step for this Pro Apps Suite.

Is Apple going to cut loose Final Cut Server?

I recently wrote an article on 'Whats wrong with Final Cut Server' in the hope the great apple techs came across it and took some of my points on board for the next version.

Then disaster struck, the internet was awash with concerning rumors on the next OSX code named Lion. Little to nothing is known about this operating system until its release in summer 2011. That hasn't stopped Apple confirming that Flash will no longer be supported within the operating system. A positive in many peoples eyes, including Adobe who have complained about apples slowness to release flash security updates.

My concerns have come from two very separate rumors but ultimately ones that have a major impact on Final Cut Servers future.

First is Lion will also not include Java support, it's been confirmed that version 6 (the current version) will continue to be supported but version 7 will not  be distributed as part of Lion instead it will have to be downloaded. This is very odd considering Final cut server is actually built on Java.

The second announcement is the fact the Xserve will no longer be produced and there is no replacement planed. Now final cut server does work on Mac mini's and Mac pro's but I find for the scale of most education facilities (one of the reasons apple produce Final cut server) need more power as they have to contend with hundreds of users who need large amounts of storage.

I'm left wondering is Final Cut Server getting a major overhaul, maybe based through web pages or better Final Cut pro integration or is Apple about to pull the plug on this software before it fulfills its potential.