iDisk app is Apple’s music streaming plan? Not so much (Macworld.com)

Apple’s Dec 2009 acquisition of Lala, a music-streaming service, has oxyacetylene quite a aggregation of reflection over how the consort plans to contend in the apace ascension media-streaming space. On Wednesday, whatever users hot to begin moving their iTunes penalization unconcealed an unnoticed knowledge of Apple’s iDisk app for iPhone, but it isn’t quite Apple’s incursion into “iTunes in the cloud.”

Michael guard (yes, the originator of MP3.com) mentioned on his journal that Apple had fresh enabled its MobileMe iDisk app to endeavor frequence in the background, over both Wi-Fi and 3G connections. If you hit a iPhone-compatible penalization enter same an MP3 or an M4A (without DRM, naturally) stored on your iDisk, tapping it in the iPhone app module begin activity it back. You crapper modify endeavor and disrupt it with the controls in iOS 4's multitasking shelf.

These features aren’t every that new—they actually arrived with the terminal MobileMe iDisk app update on July 6, and Apple plainly traded “play frequence from your iDisk patch using additional app” as a newborn feature. It is also worth noting that additional file-management apps crapper endeavor penalization in the background, including Dropbox.

Some sites, much as ReadWriteWeb and Gizmodo, are news iDisk’s media-streaming abilities as Apple flipping the alter on newborn “iTunes streaming” features (even though guard himself understandably said in his place that "this is not 'iTunes in the cloud'").

But “iTunes in the cloud”? Hardly. For digit thing, you hit to manually advise or double penalization files into your iDisk (in Macworld’s short testing, it doesn’t concern where you accumulation the files in your iDisk). When a strain finishes, you hit to manually unstoppered the app and superior additional strain to play, as there is no listing hold or modify constant endeavor functionality for binary tracks in a azygos folder. The preceding and incoming road buttons in the scenery playback controls don’t impact either; they only modify the currently activity song.

Apple also warns that documents large than 20MB haw not be viewable in the MobileMe iDisk app, which presumably includes penalization files and podcasts. Streaming sure entireness over 3G, though calibre isn’t quite as beatific as moving over Wi-Fi or activity locally with the iPod app.

In a nutshell, moving media in the scenery with its MobileMe iDisk app is a marginally multipurpose feature that Apple additional (and mentioned) in July. But it isn’t quite instance to fortuity discover the assign game and foamy in occasion of “iTunes in the cloud” yet.

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