Home in the Clouds

There hasn't been much talk about it, but my favorite feature in the new iTunes is Home Sharing. Home Sharing lets you authorize up to 5 computers so they are connected in iTunes, letting you transfer songs between one computer and another. That's right - it lets you drag-and-drop songs between computers! A year ago, that would sound crazy. But the reality is, it's the same as authorizing one iPod for several systems, except now the street goes both ways. It's the same as Apple letting you burn up to 5 CDs of iTunes music (I use DRM-free Amazon MP3s myself).

This is a big deal for me because we have a Mac at home and I use a PC. Because my iPod is formatted to the PC, I often delay song downloads until I'm on my PC, so I can transfer them to my iPod. The Mac has very little music on it (Pandora instead), because I knew that if I wanted to transfer any music, I'd have to burn a CD, rip the CD onto my PC, then transfer those songs to my iPod. In one stroke, Apple has effectively put my music on a mini-cloud, my home cloud.

Now, if only my iPod would sync automatically, from my car, without having to be plugged in. If only all my music were on a cloud, that I never had to download...

- Sansserif