For months, streaming from iTunes has been a major rumor. Today, the rumor was finally confirmed. Sort of. In a sudden and quiet move, Apple rolled out the new version of iDisk, which now includes the ability to stream music from iTunes directly to iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads. This includes the ability to stream in the background on multitask-enabled devices.
This news almost, almost, brings iTunes into the cloud. However, a number of limitations hold iTunes back from being a full cloud service. Most importantly, iDisk can only hold 20GB of music. Although this is better than nothing, it still won’t comfortably house every library. In fact, my library floats just above the limit, at 23GB. There’s also no support for playlist or cover art (yet).
Then there’s the question of legality on Apple’s part. For users, the service is completely kosher. For Apple, however, things aren’t so clean and clear. Late last year, Apple acquired the music streaming service LaLa, which sparked a number of rumors concerning an iTunes cloud service, but Apple hesitated to release any sort of streaming service with iTunes, possibly due to lack of licensing and support from major labels.
And, perhaps, most importantly, is the cost; although the iDisk app is available from the App Store for free, it also requires a subscription to Apple’s MobileMe, a service which costs users $100 per year. 50
(via Gizmodo)
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