One Prediction for Apple’s Keynote at the WWDC Today
Predictions abound for Apple’s keynote address at today’s WWDC. They discuss syncing, as in this article by my Macworld colleague Lex Friedman, and streaming, as colleague Chris Breen wrote. But I have a prediction that doesn’t seem to have made the cut.
With iCloud, and new ways of syncing and streaming, I forecast that Apple will split iTunes into two programs: one that will handle media (music, videos, podcasts, etc.), and that will also house the iTunes Store. The second program will manage other information, such as contacts, calendars, and photos, all of which is not stored in the iTunes library. I think that a new syncing system – potentially wireless syncing – will allow Apple to separate these two aspects of iTunes, which often confuse people.
In addition, syncing between Macs that is currently managed by the MobileMe preferences (contacts, keychains, bookmarks, etc.) could be done by this new application, allowing you to choose from a single program what you sync to a Mac or to an iOS device. The two syncing systems were created independently, and it would make a lot of sense to merge them into a single interface.
In the meantime, if you need to learn about managing your media in iTunes, check out my ebook Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ, where I give a full range of explanations and tips for novices and for power users.
Posted: 6/6/2011 by kirk | Filed under: Apple & Mac OS X, iPod & iTunes | Tags: Apple | 2 Comments »
Well, I guess you were wrong, although it does look like Lion will have a new version of iTunes. It was listed among the applications that have full screen support, so to me that indicates a new version, and also that it will probably be Cocoa, since full screen will be a Cocoa API.
Well, I don’t know that I’m entirely wrong. They’ve removed syncing for the non-media content from iTunes. I just thought there would be another app, not that each app would manage it via a system framework. I guess their choice makes more sense; it’s just that we’ve been used to using a centralized syncing interface (both MobileMe and iTunes).