This Apple is Going Bad

Now Apple's done it. In an effort to shackle consumers to iTunes downloads and services (not to mention iTunes itself), Apple has rewritten the iPod database to remove compatibility with alternate players. The sentence from the ipodminusitunes article says it all:

"So, it's finally happened. Unhappy with other media players being better than iTunes, Apple have apparently decided to stop them from working with the new range of iPods."

I do not use iTunes on my computer. I use a program called Anapod Explorer, which makes the file transfer process simple and easy. Changing tags and labels of songs (for example to save all audio files to a given album) is easy and, above all, it doesn't force me to synchronize my music or download DRM copy-protected tracks (not a track on my iPod is copy-protected and I won't download from any site that puts such cuffs on their music). In short: iTunes is inconvenient to use. Not as bad as anything in Windows Vista, but far from great.

This makes me sick to my stomach. Reducing freedom and reducing compatibility is not the way to go. In a good few years, when it comes time for me to buy a new audio player, it won't be an iPod. Not a chance, unless something changes. (I'm aware that people will still reverse-engineer the code and make it possible to use other programs, but this is a matter of principle.

Sorry. No jokes today. I'm trying to earn the "Spittin' Nails" tag on this post.