Sunday, November 20, 2011

Why on Earth did I use Amazon to pre-order The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword?

ROMEO
'Tis torture and not mercy. Heaven is here,
Where Skyward Sword lives, and every cat and dog
And little mouse, every unworthy thing,
Live here in heaven and may look on it,
But Toby may not. More validity,
More honorable state, more courtship lives
In carrion flies than Toby. They may seize
On the golden wonder of dear Skyward Sword's Wiimote
And steal immortal blessing from its buttons,
Who even in pure and vestal modesty,
Still blush, as thinking their own buttons sin.
But Toby may not. He is waiting on Amazon.
Flies may do this, but I from this must fly.
They are free men, but I am waiting on Amazon.
And sayst thou yet that waiting is not death?
Hadst thou no poison mixed, no sharp-ground knife,
No sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean,
But “not yet shippèd” to kill me?—“NOT YET SHIPPÈD”!
O Internet, the damnèd use that word in hell.
Howling attends it. How hast thou the heart,
Being a divine, a ghostly confessor,
A sin-absolver, and my friend professed,
To mangle me with that word “NOT YET SHIPPÈD”?

Thursday, November 17, 2011

I Own It and This Is What I Think: iTunes Match

I have spent a lot of money the last week or so, mainly on myself because it was my birthday.  One of the things I spent money on was an iTunes Match subscription.  For those not in the know; iTunes Match is a new service from Apple that lets you download music you have in your iTunes library onto a Mac, PC, or iOS device that,  for one reason or another, doesn't have that song already.  When Steve Jobs gave his last keynote address over the summer, iTunes Match was probably the thing I was most excited about (and probably the thing everyone else on watching was least excited about).

First, let's go over some of the free features that have been rolled out already via iTunes in the Cloud.  Back in the dark ages if you bought a workout song on your computer, but forgot to sync your iPhone before you hit the gym, you were out of luck and would have to excercise while listening to whatever sad selection of two-week-old AT40 hits you had, like a square, or pay for the song again on your phone, like a double-square.  However, in this wonderful new utopia that iTunes Match brings us, you can buy a song on one device and then download it for free on your other Apple ID linked devices.  Right now, if you are self-aware, you are probably asking, "Why is this a NEW feature of iTunes 10.5.1 and not a feature built in to iTunes 1.0."   My answer to that is, "Beats me."

So what am I getting for the $25 I spent on iTunes Match?  After letting iTunes Match scan my music library, it has matched songs in my library with songs sold on iTunes.  So, after I ripped the track "Two More Lonely People" from the CD I bought from Target of the album "Can't Be Tamed" by Destiny Hope Cyrus, I can now have iTunes Match see that I own that song.  So, if, by some horrific oversight, I have failed to sync Cyrus' pop love ballad to my iPod, I can connect to my nearest WiFi network and put the song closest to my heart back in my pocket.  The advertised kicker is even if iTunes doesn't sell this masterpiece of a song, iTunes Match allows me to upload it to Apple's servers, and download it onto another device.

My computer savvy friends are probably saying, "Toby, why are you going to a store and buying a CD?  Don't you know only cave men are still using physical media?  All of the cool kids are staying in the comfort of their mom's basement and illegally downloading music at no monetary cost without even needing to put on pants."  To those friends, and the rest of my audience, not only must I admit that I am part of the generation that fully expects to be able to download music for free, but I have, without remorse, done so for years.

This is where I answer the question everyone without 25 bucks to burn is asking:  CAN I USE ITUNES MATCH TO AUTOMAGICALLY TRANSFORM MY ILLEGALLY TORRENTED/BEARSHARED/LIMEWIRED/OLD-SCHOOL-NAPSTERED BASTARD MUSIC INTO LEGIT SONGS?

The answer:
Yes.  I am doing it right now.

After running iTunes Match:
IF I have a song in my library that I downloaded off of the internet
AND
IF iTunes sells that song in its catalogue
THEN
I can delete it from my library/harddrive and download it as a fully legit song from iTunes.

The part that has made me feel that my $25 was well spent is that if I delete a 128 or 96 kbps matched song from my library, when I download it, it is now a higher quality 256 kbps file.  Nice.

There is, however, the great unknown: if I cancel or don't renew my iTunes Match subscription will my music disappear or become unplayable?  I don't know.  My educated guess and hope is no.  Only time will tell.

I Own It and This Is What I Think is a series of reviews published by Tobias Turner via TrashGoblin's Emporium covering personal opinions of physical products and subscription based services available to the general public.  No endorsement or guarantee of any physical product or service is implied or given in this publication.  All terms, products, and characters have been used under Fair Use.