Apple has made some strides lately in getting us closer to what home media pervasion needs to be.  But they still have a little ways to go.

The evils of DRM are obvious and it is a great thing that Apple is dropping it from all of their audio tracks.  They still need to work on the videos, however, but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

One side-benefit of the DRM that Apple has enjoyed has been locking users into their products.  If you bought it on iTunes, then you are pretty much stuck playing it on Apple hardware.  All in all, that’s not so entirely horrible since Apple does a pretty decent job at making the act of devouring media content relatively painless and even somewhat joyous.

But here are a few nits and suggestions of how I would love to see things come to pass.

One of the best things about Apple’s system (which I mean to include iTunes, iPods, iPhones, and AppleTVs) is that they all interact relatively well.  Which is to say, they all work together and sync pertinent information across themselves.  So if the play count is 10 on a song you like and you play it on your iPod and then sync, the play count will then be 11 on all platforms.  I can’t stress how important this kind of thing is when you have a relatively complex system of media, coming in via multiple avenues, and in a variety of forms.  There are movies, TV shows, podcasts, songs, ebooks, and others.  And someone like myself can spend a few hours a week just figuring out what’s already been watched.

This is where a system such as iTunes comes in handy.  iTunes manages all sorts of information about many types of media: play count, whether the track is new, artist, genre, etc.  And iTunes also allows savvy users to get into “Smart Playlists” which is a pretty good way to organize content.  It could be better, but it’s better than nothing.

Let’s take myself as an example.  I have many GB of media, about 21GB of music and other audio, and pushing 400GB of movies and TV shows.  My iPod holds 80GB, my iPhone 16GB (I upgraded over the weekend!), and my AppleTV 160GB.  So obviously I cannot sync and have complete copies of all of my media on every platform.  Enter the Smart Playlists, where I set up various playlists of what I want on each platform.  That way, what gets copied to the other platforms is only what I want to have there at the time, and it’s easily changeable and manageable.  And when I watch or listen to a podcast, once the next sync occurs, all of the sync’ed platforms know that I have consumed that media and can react accordingly.  And if I delete something from the main source of my media (Mac Mini) then the next sync removes it from the other platforms as well.

Which brings me to nit #1.  Why can I only delete content from the main source of my media?  I can delete media from my iPhone, but it remains on the Mac Mini even after a sync.  This should be a staple in any sync situation.  After all, if I delete a calendar entry on my iPhone, a sync removes it from iCal as well.  Ditto contacts.  In the end, this system seems to enslave us to iTunes and disallows us from having alternative platforms that could stand on their own.  Now, Apple has put some of the pieces in place.  iPhones can purchase from iTunes (only music and only if wifi is connected, however) as can an AppleTV, and the purchased content syncs back to the iTunes platform as though it was purchased there.  But there are still some parts left out.

Nit #2, why can’t we purchase video from the ITMS to iPods and iPhones?  And why can’t we download songs and such over EDGE or 3G; we can do so with podcasts up to 10MB, why not other content?

And my final nit, #3, has to do with FrontRow.  For those that aren’t in the Cult of Mac, FrontRow is Apple’s UI for accessing media on Macs.  It’s a media center application which uses large fonts so that you can hook up your Mac to a TV and navigate your content from your couch with a remote, which Apple bundles with every computer.  AppleTV’s UI is similar to FrontRow, with some notable differences.  My nit has to do with the fact that other Macs are not alternative platforms for iTunes media.  So, whereas I can sync content to my iPhone and iPod and AppleTV, I can’t do so with my Macbook Pro.  That just makes no sense to me.

Okay, so here’s how it goes.  I can connect to my complete library with my Macbook while I am on my home LAN and stream all of the content to the laptop.  But anything I do doesn’t update the main library.  So,if I watch an episode of a TV show, it still appears unwatched on the Mac Mini.  Some may say, “well, just duplicate your library on the Macbook.”  Or even, “just place the media on a common server and access it from the Macbook and the Mini.”  Well, here’s the problem with that.  The Macbook doesn’t have a huge drive.  It’s only 160GB, so I can’t duplicate my entire library if I want to take it with me on a trip or something.  And if I use a server, then, again, the media stays home and the Macbook has nothing on it for when I’m away from home.

The whole media milieu really shouldn’t be that difficult for Apple to make (nearly) perfect.  Here’s what I would suggest.

First, allow a system to stream content to other platforms from the main iTunes platform whereby whatever was done will affect the main library.  Deletions, updates of data (play counts, etc.) should all affect the main library as though it were local.  Of course, this should be tempered.  Some people share their libraries with dorm mates and roommates and we wouldn’t want them to be able to delete our stuff.  But as an extension of the main library, this should be possible.  This should be pretty easy… just make FrontRow the same as the AppleTV (which runs a form of OSX, after all) UI.  Then the main iTunes hub can “sense” a platform running FrontRow and sync accordingly.

Second, LAN streaming should be possible to any wifi-connected platform.  So if I am at home, I should be able to stream video to my iPhone just as I can to my AppleTV.  And while we’re at it, why not allow wifi syncing across the board?  Why should I have to plug my iPhone in to sync it?

Third, FrontRow and OSX need to have a built-in recording/DVR feature.  After all, Windows has it in its media center UI.  Not all computers have media input hardware, but for those that do, Windows Media Center can schedule recordings from it.  Why doesn’t Apple do the same thing?  AppleTVs have a USB port too, so this should be built into that platform as well.  Imagine the potential!

Fourth, untether all of the platforms.  Since my Macbook cannot be the nexus of my media (the drive is too small), I cannot take my media and iTunes hub with me easily.  When I travel, I take my Macbook Pro, iPod, and iPhone with me.  This is great since I can load up a bunch of content to keep me entertained.  But it is nearly impossible to get new media in a good fashion while not at home.  And it is also nearly impossible to consume the media how I wish.  Like, say I have a movie on my iPod and I want to watch it on my Macbook, not very easy to do unless that movie is ALSO on my Macbook.  Apple recently added the ability to get new podcast episodes straight to an iPhone, but it isn’t like having a subscription on iTunes where new content appears immediately.  Nope, you have to choose the episode to download.  And if you’re not intimately familiar with what you have and haven’t seen, you may waste bandwidth downloading something you’ve already seen.

Fifth, kick DRM to the curb for all purchased content (it should obviously remain for rented content, however).  If Apple did away with DRM on their purchased movies, I would dump Netflix and go solely to iTunes (I don’t consume very many DVDs in that manner anyway).  And I wouldn’t feel like I was locked into Apple’s way of life forever.  After all, we want to use a complete system only if it works for us, not because we’re locked into it.  Build a better mousetrap, as it were.

So there it is.  With the above suggestions in place, Apple and the iTunes way of handling media could be near perfect.  And then they can add in even greater control for power users, like allowing small Applescripts to be the guts of any Smart Playlist.

So let me know what you think.  Do you use iTunes and/or other Apple media products?  What do you like and loathe about them?  What other systems are better?  Any suggestions for putting a subset of content on my Macbook that can then sync back to the mothership later?  Weigh in in the comments below.