Apple alternatives.....

[b0redom]

Right, I've had enough. I really like OSX, but Apple seems to be making more and more ridiculous design decisions. I really need a new laptop, but the pricing on them is pretty insane and now the final straw.... I bought a double vesa mount for my Dell 27" monitor and 27" iMac. It took less than a minute to mount the Dell monitor, but my iMac and is not VESA mountable.

WTF!?

The 'solution' is a 3rd party mount which clamps the stand and holds it floating in midair (with the stand flapping around).

Anyway, enough ranting. I really like iTunes and Photos on OSX, but they're the only apps I don't know equivalents for on Linux / Windows. What does the panel recommend?

In terms of iTunes, I want something which will allow me to load stuff onto my iPhone and that's pretty much it.
In terms of Photos, I want something which will allow me to upload and organise photos.

Cheers (and happy Christmas)....

b0redom

[peterb]

iTunes is available for windows, and you can log into iCloud from any browser, but I don't know if you can see your photo stream.

There is no alternative version for imesssge, although Telegram is pretty good, but again I don't know if there is a windows version.

[Ferral]

ITunes is ok but I prefer to be able to drag and drop stuff, it has been a learning curve using it going from Android on Win10 to the locked IOS stuff.

I was having a few issues with ITunes a few weeks back, my iPhone wasn't showing in explorer so couldn't just pull the photos out o it, found a decent free program called SyncIOS which is handy for transferring data, backups, photos and so on. Well worth checking out, if you buy it you get even more functionality.

[Flibb]

Interesting question. I Used Picasa up until I started using Lightroom, another option is FastStone. There is also a photo organiser built in to windows 10.

[Rainmaker]

There is an app for macOS and Windows called iMazing which fully replaces iTunes if that's what you want. You plug in your iDevice, and can drag and drop video, music, photos etc no problems. It allows encrypted full device backups, firmware updates, and has tons of support tools (support checker, battery health, etc). You can also manage the device's apps, contacts, messages and so on. It's a fantastic bit of kit, though it is £35 unless you get it from somewhere naughty online. I loved it so much I bought it, never had so much as a hiccup.

On Linux you can install ifuse (a filesystem driver, for want of a better term). It allows you to mount an iDevice's filesystem just by plugging it in over USB. You can also use a myriad apps like Amarok, Rhythmbox, GTKPod or even the desktop environment's file manager (Nautilus, Thunar, Dolphin, etc) to manage files. Unlike 'proper' native apps (iTunes, iMazing) it would be somewhat at your own risk however - though these days it's pretty seamless. The Arch Wiki has a ton of info on managing iOS devices, and even if you don't run Arch their wiki is always a great place to learn info about running Linux generally (in other words, you can apply their info on other distributions).

[wazzickle]

OMG I hate itunes! I'm a bit retro though and use winamp.

In terms of getting music on and off your phone, copytrans control centre is pretty good.

[walibe]

You had to select the VESA model at time of purchase unfortunately and I think it's only available from the Apple Store (I could be wrong). It has been like this for nearly 5 years though so is nothing new.

Imho I don't think desktop applications have has much relevance now days as they once did thanks to cloud services. With apples my photos are available on all my devices no matter which I take them on and my music from itunes is available on all my devices no matter which I purchase / add it on. The ability to pick up web browsing sessions/email creation or answer phone calls from any device including my Mac or MacBook is genius. Google are probably the closest outside of the Apple eco system in terms of functionality and cross platform devices.

Surely cloud based services are the way for you to go/try?

[Zak33]

itunes was developed to ruin people lives/world/happyness/mental resilience

without it.. apple would be even further up the tree to global domination

[peterb]

itunes was developed to ruin people lives/world/happyness/mental resilience

without it.. apple would be even further up the tree to global domination

Well, its certainly not as intuitive as some of Apples other software. I might give iMazing a go, (see rainmakers post above) although the full version costs around £50. Ive just downloaded the trial - same features, just limited data transfer.