Proof? I can prove it in video, screenshots, anything. The second I plug my iPhone into my laptop, which is synced to my iTunes account, the only option I have is to erase all of my music.
I love how people on HN blatantly just say "untrue". Really? I don't recall you being present during these experiences.
> The second I plug my iPhone into my laptop, which is synced to my iTunes account, the only option I have is to erase all of my music.
There are two ways to set up an iOS device. One is to have it sync to a computer. This is what you have done. Yes, it's set to sync to a particular computer, and you can change that computer—but with this setup, the contents of the iOS device are just a copy of what's on the computer, so if you change the computer, it replaces the files on the device. Generally, it's not a great way to go, it's mostly a holdover from early iPod days. Second is to not have it sync to a computer. If you have more than one computer—or no computers with iTunes, this is a better idea. Honestly, there isn't really a good reason to plug the devices into a computer any more, except to charge.
> I love how people on HN blatantly just say "untrue". Really? I don't recall you being present during these experiences.
Why would we need to be present during for your experiences? We've all had our own experiences, where we've done what you claim is impossible.
Read above that, it is one of the probable conditions, "If you see a message that your device is synced with another library." There are 4 other probable causes for that message mentioned there.
If you set your device properly, which you are incapable of, you will not see that message and hence the cause does not apply to you.
1. I set it to "manually manage" the second I unboxed it, before ever putting a single song on it.
2. If you're going to insult me, learn to count and learn directions, The bullet points your referring to are below and there are only 3 of them
> Read above that, it is one of the probable conditions, "If you see a message that your device is synced with another library." There are 4 other probable causes for that message mentioned there.
Like I said, when it's set to sync, it will only sync with one machine—the idea is that the iOS device just contains a copy of that iTunes library. Change the library, and the music changes as well. That bullet point only applies if your iOS device is set to sync (hence the line above it). If it's not set to sync, it does not apply.
However, that's not what you claimed. What you claimed was:
> a device I can only use with music from their store from one computer
You can use music from many music stores, or none at all if you rip your own from CDs. And you can connect to many computers, if your device isn't set to sync with a particular library.
Take video or screenshots if you want. I'm not really interested in your story. I've got over 22,000 examples of why you're wrong in my library right here. They weren't purchased from Apple, and they're playable on all of my OSX and iOS devices via Apple's built-in apps with zero hassle.
Not all of them came from the same computer, either. They were added to my iTunes library over the years from several Macs and PCs. Some were ripped from CDs, some were purchased from other stores (Amazon, eMusic, Bandcamp) and some were downloaded from filesharing services.
I don't think you're lying. It seems like the root of your problem is that you selected "manually manage music and videos," but to be honest I'm not sure, because the defaults have worked well for me across quite a few computers and portable devices.
The gist of your argument seems to be that Apple makes you go through hoops to use non-iTunes music by default.
In reality, it works really well by default, and it seems like you jumped through some hoops to screw it up.
What do you expect to have happen? Sync to multiple itunes libraries? How exactly do you expect that to work?
Besides the technical issues it would be a complete user interface nightmare when dealing with storage issues on the device.
There are a lot of different streaming music services available too(not to mention you can stream your itunes purchases too.) If you are manually managing your music where you expect songs to magically move from one computer to another through an iphone you might consider finding a different solution than complaining that apple doesn't magically solve your problem.
the comment you made was "Glad I paid 930 dollars for a device I can only use with music from their store from one computer".
Maybe you want to reword that to "Glad I paid 930 dollars for a device that can only sync music from one of my computers but sync all the rest of my data across as many devices as I want".
I love how people on HN blatantly just say "untrue". Really? I don't recall you being present during these experiences.