What is wrong with iTunes?

C

CoolMintListerine

Registered
I'm not able to preview songs anymore before I buy them. I browse through albums and the tracks aren't listed at the bottom.

What's going on?

I have a strange feeling that Apple might be doing this simply to get me to upgrade my os or comp.

I use OS X.1.5 g3 500mghz iMac

If this turns out to be true and Apple simply is trying to get me & others to upgrade, then I am never using a mac again. I'll have to start using a PC.

Or am I just being paranoid?
 
The only thing you would have to upgrade would be the OS. 10.1.5 isn't as supported anymore. You would be better off getting something like Panther which isn't the latest and greatest but still has lots of life in it.

You might even have to up the memory on it. If I recall, those iMacs came with 128 MB of RAM. Too little to power OS X. At LEAST 256 MB will help, and the more RAM you give Mac OS X, the snappier it will feel.

The iMac itself still has a lot of life in it. It just needs a newer OS that is better supported by developers. To be honest, 10.2 (Jaguar) was actually the first version of Mac OS X that received the best support from developers and it's gotten better since then.

And if you think things would look better in the PC world? Be ready to upgrade your computer every 2-3 years thanks to Microsoft. It's not any better in that platform, I can tell you from experience. Heck, I still have a Macintosh Quadra 650 that serves our family homepage. And it runs Mac OS 8.1. Still runs some decent programs. And this is a computer that's over a decade old. Try and do that with a PC from that same era, let alone running Windows XP with the latest apps on a 500 MHz PIII PC. :rolleyes:
 
Well thats what I figured. :mad:

They're trying to get me to upgrade. They let Windows users continue to use iTunes without any problems, but not some of their mac users. I can't believe this company. I thought all mac users would be first priority to them over Windows PC users no matter what the OS level of the mac user. But the lesson in life is 'Money'. Apple has always been notorious for doing crap like this. Constantly coming out with something new and expecting their users to buy it. I'm not going to upgrade to their new OS. For that price I can build myself a large part of a decent PC.

Well there is indeed no arguing that I will save hundreds of dollars by switching to a PC. I was actually thinking about getting a new mac too. Not anymore.

Down with Apple. :mad:
 
You need to be running the latest version of iTunes to fully use the iTunes Music Store. iTunes 6 is the latest version, and requires OS X 10.2.8 (an OS that is about 3 years old) to operate. You are currently using an operating system that is over 4 years old.

There are various technical reasons that OS X 10.2 is the minimum OS required to use a lot of Apple's stuff -- from 10.1 to 10.2 a LOT of "under the hood" changes were made, making 10.2 a lot different than 10.1. In addition to performance improvements, 10.2 was a lot more polished than 10.1 and was a drastically different operating system behind the scenes.

Mac OS X 10.2 can be had for $30:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/OSX102CD/

Mac OS X 10.3 (even better!) can be had for $65:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/OSX103CD/

With the purchase and install of Mac OS X Jaguar and the free iTunes 6 download, you're looking at a base of $30 (plus shipping) to get your operating system to the minimum required OS that Apple now supports.

Going with Panther would be even better for a price of $65.

Your computer and operating system are aging -- no doubt about that. It would cost a simple $130 (+$10 if you want CDs instead of DVDs) to upgrade your operating system to the latest and greatest, and a mere $30 to upgrade it to Apple's minimum required OS. If you think you can do better price-wise on a Windows platform, by all means, switch back to Windows.

You've spent a maximum of $130 upgrading to OS X so far (10.0 was $130, 10.1 was a free upgrade). $130 for two operating systems in 4 years ain't bad, something that would probably cost two to three times as much on the Windows platform.

The short answer is that, yes, you'll probably have to spend a little money to get back into the flow of Apple's operating systems. You will definitely need to upgrade your computer and/or operating system in the future, which is a caveat of owning a Macintosh computer: major OS upgrades are more frequent than Windows, typically, but that's something that's changing with 10.4 -- instead of yearly upgrade cycles, Apple will try to adhere to an 18-month major upgrade cycle.

I am sorry to hear you have grown frustrated enough with the Macintosh platform to want to switch back to Windows -- we here definitely don't want to see you make that change, but if your heart is deadset on using Windows as an alternative because of bad experiences with Mac OS X, there's not much we can say or do to change your mind other than to wish you a better experience on the "other side."
 
No matter what company you are talking about, remember that they are in the business of making money. This isn't to justify what Apple does. I wasn't happy when they promised to support all PPC machines with OS X before it was released and then changing their minds once the final versions came out. However, the developer community has been wonderful in regards to this thanks to XPostFacto.

Microsoft is out there to make money also. Consider the requirements for the upcoming Windows Vista. Good luck using a 500 MHz PC with that. What?? You'll use Windows 2000 or Windows XP? Well, consider that Windows 2000 is coming up close to being totally unsupported by MS and Windows XP will shortly be there once Vista has rolled out. And if they won't suport your with critical updates, where does that leave you?

And no, you won't save any more money with a PC. This is one of the biggest fallacies that PC users fall for. Most of the cheap PCs come with crappy graphics that suck the power out of the CPU, reducing performance even more. Sure you can add a video card, but add the cost of the video card as well as more RAM and you're once again looking at the price of a comparable Mac. And it will surely be obsoleted sooner than you think.

As for Windows users running iTunes, consider that it only runs on Windows 2000 and above. Sorry Windows 98 SE users....I guess you have to upgrade to Windows 2000. What?? Your computer doesn't have enough memory to run Windows 2000? Time to get RAM...ka-ching! For the record, Windows 2000 still costs more than the latest version of Mac OS X...more ka-ching. In the end, it's going to cost a pretty penny using a PC.

Unless you go with an open source solution, you're going to look at spending some money. Personally, for the prices mentioned by ElDiabloConCaca they aren't all that bad. It's better than spending the 200-300 bucks for a new system that will be underpowered, only leaving you wanting more. Don't make that monetary mistake. If you can spend the money for a PC, get the newer Mac OS X. Or get a newer Mac than that one (again, they have longer staying value hardware-wise). There are various vendorrs that sell used Macs for good prices (check http://lowendmac.com for a list of vendors). You'll be pleased.

Also I will reiterate that hardware-wise, you can only get so much out of a computer. I have an older StarMax 4000 that is running Mac OS 9.1 and Debian Linux. It's usable, but it's far from a speed demon. You can only get so much out of your hardware before it's time to upgrade, and you are looking at an old computer.

Ultimately the choice is yours, but I think you ought to think this through before you switch back.
 
CoolMintListerine said:
n I am never using a mac again. I'll have to start using a PC.

Or am I just being paranoid?
Click to expand...

good luck! be prepared for ALOT of maintenance!

I bought a PC (top fo the line AMD64 custom-built) not but a few months ago. I've used APPLE all my life. I bought it for audio and gaming purposes.


BUT, ...one HUGE difference is be prepared to upkeep it almost daily!

VIRUSs are mostly in .exe format and MACs are neutral to this.
You also gotta worry about spyware, registry cleaning, disk defraging, etc, etc.

MAC does all that for ya.

so unless you got alot of extra time to tamper with stuff, don't bother.
(although i'm still happy with my purchase, lol!)
 
Slight case of overbombing? To bury it all and switch to the dark side, only because of song previews? A problem you could solve by getting a Panther license and the latest updates to iTunes and QT? Hm...
 
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