Apr 12, 2010

non-US iTunes

I always had this problem .. whenever i used to tap the iTunes icon on the iPhone, it would say that it is not available in my country.

Stupid. I can't imaging why a company like apple would be so short sighted about iTunes, while the appstore works ( except that the india app store does not have Civilization Revolutions). Also, after getting my new Acer netbook and installing Ubuntu on it, it becomes difficult to access the iTunesU - a great resource for any kind of knowledge seeker.

I am yet to see the apple keynote from 8th April - for the OS4.0 details. I downloaded on my PC in iTunes but forgot to sync to the iPhone. Now, I am trying to get it to download on the ubuntu netbook, but firefox crashes for any itunes link!

Finally, in frustration, i browsed to the itunes web store in safari on the iPhone ... and ... it opened the itunes app ! I was delighted. Now I can browse all the stuff - from the ringtones ($1.29 per tone - boo!) to the movies and songs downloads to the podcasts. Damn - this thing is a gold mine ... and if you have the moolah to fork over for the movies and songs - you can damn near get anything !

I dont really like the iTunes software on the PC - because I was primarily using it for my music collection. But now, browsing through the podcasts and videos - it was an enlightning moment. This , together with the appStore and now the iBook marketplace , defines why apple is getting so far ahead - and why it will remain so far ahead.

Sometimes I think that locking up to the walled garden of apple wont be too bad after all.