Here’s an idea for any aspiring hacker out there.
Find a way to make Android mimic an iPhone when it’s connected.
Users will gain the ability to use iTunes to sync music and podcasts (and possibly Apple Apps too if the emulation went that far).
However, more important then just leveraging a known user interface it provides an obvious migration path off of Apple’s proprietary lock-in platform.
Cool visualizations aside, the most interesting announcement of iTunes 8 (and the quick subsequent bugfix) was the new “Genius” feature.
Steve Jobs has been criticized for being out of touch before, when the iPhone came out with out any sort of social networking. I vouch that the much vaunted Apple “experience” breaks down at the usage fringes, i.e. if you’re not using it to listen to your extensive music collection it’s pretty rough around the edges.
What Genius does is mix and match music based on beats and other metrics and builds playlists. I listen to podcasts and audiobooks so I can’t speak from real experience but word is that it’s neat and amazingly successful.
However, even after all the successes of “social networking”, Genius really seems to highlight Apple’s interesting lack of desire to build collaboration in their products.
I find it shocking that there’s absolutely no “social networking” features like Last.fm. It seems Apple thinks math can be a better friend to you then your own friends (like that time when they rickrolled you).
As often as I send links to friends with delicious, or videos on YouTube, you’d think a day had come with you could nudge your friends to try out this song… well of course Zune tried that but failed.
However, one believes Apple could “do it right” and the fact that they haven’t even tried seems suspicious. It seems that until they do, whether it’s from “Top 40″ count downs or inhuman algorithms, we’ll forever be forced to take “the man’s” word for what’s cool.
