posted by petard
on Wednesday September 13, @06:08AM
In a short, to-the-point announcement, the developers of CoverFlow have announced that Apple has purchased all of their technology and intellectual property. After some of the angst about Apple developing similar applications to compete with their third party developers over the past couple of years, this seems like a nice move. The strategy of purchasing and integrating the best third-party utilities worked well back in the System 7.5 days with SuperClock, WindowShade and PasteIt Notes (Stickies). It paid off again later with SoundJam (iTunes).
Could we see more of the same going forward? If so, I'd like to nominate DragThing for the next acquisition. What would you like to see Apple buy and integrate, either with the OS or with the iApps?
If the exiting software does not implement a new idea, then there is no reason for Apple to buy the software. Cover Flow is/was unique, so Apple had little choice but to buy the IP if they wanted to include it as a feature in iTunes.
Other things, like Spaces or tabs in iChat, are either old ideas or not especially creative. Tabs in application windows have been around for years, and virtual desktops have been around since the early days of GUI's. There is no reason for Apple to involve the developers of the OSX add-on apps unless the app implements an original idea, since they can almost certainly impelemnt the features and implement them better in-house.
I am curious how much of the original CoverFlow code was used, i wouldnt be suprised if it was already implemented in-house before they even purchased the IP.
My nomination is for iVolume [www.mani.de], which works out the average volume of each track in a much more realistic way than iTunes' own quick method, which makes iTunes' Sound Check function much more useful.
Sounds like a nice easy drop-in feature to me; if necessary, a new preference for the Sound Check method: quick (existing way) or accurate (iVolume way).
(However, in case anyone hasn't heard of iVolume and is interested, I'd better point out one major irritation with the way it currently works, which is that it adds the string 'Adjusted by iVolume' and the date and time to the start of each track's Comments field. If that makes the existing comment too long to fit, then tough, it shoves that in anyway and the existing comment gets truncated. I have lots of long comments with performer information, so iVolume left me scrambling to fix well over a thousand tracks. Luckily I was able to retrieve most of the info from a backup and from my iPod before syncing, so I didn't lose much permanently, but it was a nasty surprise and took many hours to fix. Beware!)
Anyway, of course none of that would be a problem if iVolume were integrated into iTunes, so I hope Apple is listening!
by
Anonymous Coward
on Wednesday September 20, @10:25AM (#113035)
Oh, god, are you kidding? Apple took a CoverFlow and ripped it to shreds - tore out most of what made it useful, not to mention removing the nicer aspects of the graphics and animation. Apple's version of CoverFlow is absolutely worse than the stand alone app was, the difference is night-and-day -
1.) No more using cover art from your hard drive, only art from embedded mp3 tags
2.) No more full screen mode
3.) Worse animation and graphics rendering
4.) Worse handling of compilations (multiple albums shown for same compilation when in artist view)
5.) Worse handling of multiple albums with same titles (Led Zep's "BBC Sessions" and Pentangle's "BBC Sessions" display with same cover in Album view)
6.) Worse animation and graphics rendering
7.) No more automatically retrieving cover art for any albums not sold in iTunes store
8.) Worse animation and graphics rendering
...and that's not to mention all the potential features which a small developer, who listens to user feedback, might have included in the upcoming versions. That's all lost now. Third party development is often more responsive to user needs and requests, something Apple has been terrible at. Name one third party software that Apple stole or bought or otherwise acquired that Apple did anywhere near as much to improve in subsequent versions as independent software companies do. Apple adds features that sound good in ad copy, and then they all but stop developing them. Look how inflexible the Library Browser view is. Why can't I choose to browse by Grouping or Composer? Why can't I Browse individual playlists, not just the entire Library? A third party developer would have done those ages ago. 7 versions of iTunes and they haven't improved that yet.
No artwork stored outside iTunes, no covers imported except from iTunes store, reduced functionality... And did I mention that Cover Flow's animation and graphics rendering are much worse now? Do you really *want* Apple to do this to your other favorite third party apps??
When was the last time you had a problem with an apple product, and a developer at apple wrote you back personally to send you a troubleshooting tool? This happened to me yesterdat with a third-party product (MusicIP Mixer) and it's not the first time.
A million small developers with projects they focus on=good.
One corporate behemoth buying up all the software rights=bad.
by
Anonymous Coward
on Sunday October 01, @05:36AM (#113360)
Apple has blown the release of this great software by intergrating it into iTunes 7 but it may be because Coverflow on a touch screen is unreal and a new iPod is rumored.
and just one more thing...
Coverflow (from Steelskies) still rocks, latest version RC1, included some simple Applescripts to launch iTune Albums and it seem some smart intergrators had modified these to make coverflow play iTunes Visualizers. Has anyone seen an Coverflow (SC) mod site??
