Filed under: Multimedia, Internet Tools, iTunes, iPhone, Music
Boo Hoo! SimplifyMedia dropping products and changing direction
The problem is, we just don't know where they're going. In a Saturday blog post, the company announced it is "...taking a new direction" and won't be offering their current apps to new users.SimplifyMedia has been offering free software for computer-to-computer and iPhone-to-computer music sharing over the internet. Using the iPhone app, you could connect to your computer at home and stream albums, playlists or songs without any complicated firewall setups. A newer version of the software also allowed remote access to your iPhoto library.
It also looks like the company is going to slowly sunset current customer accounts but will continue to keep them functioning for at least another 3 months.
The Simplify iPhone app has been removed from the App Store, and the company says new account creation will be disabled soon.
I don't have any idea where the company is headed, but the current product will be missed. SimplifyMedia was offered for Mac, PC and Ubuntu.
[Thanks to Robert for the tip]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Vaganza said 2:13PM on 3-13-2010
Uhhh, I paid for my Simplify Media iPhone app. So now in 3 months I won't be able to use it anymore?
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Greenie said 12:02AM on 3-14-2010
They're going to get hit with a lot of refund requests. I'd say it's fair unless they come up with another option.
ben said 5:22PM on 3-21-2010
I just sent in my request and it was approved in less than a day. I added the note that I am asking for a refund so as to warn the developers about taking care of their customers in their future business plans.
Steven said 2:13PM on 3-13-2010
Man, is it April first already?
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cecil said 2:25PM on 3-13-2010
I've been trying out orb.com products anyway. So far so good.
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Taylor B said 2:34PM on 3-13-2010
willing to bet they've been bought by Apple
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Dom said 3:00PM on 3-13-2010
I was just thinking the same thing reading this post. It would make sense. They could merge Lala's online implementation with SM's streaming tech.
m.p.moore said 1:03AM on 3-14-2010
smells like an apple buyout to me too.
Tired_ said 2:42PM on 3-13-2010
This really sucks for the people who bought and paid for the app. I'll be sure to keep an eye on the 'new direction' the company takes, to make sure they never get my money again.
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Bingo said 6:11PM on 3-13-2010
It must suck to be you that $4.99 would make such an impact on your life.
Average White Boy said 10:53PM on 3-13-2010
Wow! Cheated out of a whole $5. That must be a terrible blow to your savings. Time for a class action suit. I bought a yogurt shake the other day for $6 and finished it in less than an hour. I guess I was really cheated. I'm going to give that place a piece of my mind. Never again.
Just teasin'. Don't be angry.
Justin said 2:45PM on 3-13-2010
Glad I've stopped using Simplify & switched to Orb anyway, but man that sucks that they're cutting off use of an app that people have paid for.
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Bingo said 3:20PM on 3-13-2010
How much did this app cost? There are some whiners here making it sound like it cost an astronomical amount.
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Brandon said 4:21PM on 3-13-2010
$4.99, I believe
woobert said 3:21PM on 3-13-2010
as a highly biased observer, I do think it's a bit sad, but I can't say I didn't see it coming... see my take here:
http://ootunes.blogspot.com/2010/03/what-happened-to-simplify-media-for.html
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thezonie said 4:10PM on 3-13-2010
Did they really stream content from peoples' computers to a central server and then to peoples' iPhones?
If we did that with iCam we'd be going out of business too! ;)
Aaron said 6:56PM on 3-13-2010
The formatting of your blog makes it nearly unreadable.
woobert said 7:24PM on 3-13-2010
@thezonie not actually sure if ALL the traffic was through their proxies (that would be a bad design) but at least for my computer, there was never a direct tcp connection to the phone, but there were about 8 https connections to simplifymedia.com
@Aaron can you be a bit more specific? Email me or comment on the post and I'm happy to change it if it make sense.
Aaron said 3:08PM on 3-14-2010
The most important change would be that the font size is too large for the given line height and there are simply too many words per line. Adjust both of those and the readability will increase dramatically.
Jesse said 4:28PM on 3-13-2010
Good riddance. Their Mac app was total crap. It used 10% of my CPU *minimum*, when it wasn't doing *anything*. When it was rescanning my library, which it did quite often, my Macbook fans would blow louder than the music and almost as hard as the app itself.
Needless to say, I stopped using Simplify a long time ago, even though I got it when it was free. Instead, when I hanker for a song, I generally use one of several legally dubious search engines — not because I don't own the song, but because it's faster than the alternatives. (Even Here File File, which I own, and is great, but actually is a bit slower than search for most songs.)
In conclusion, I hope Simplify's exit inspires a developer to fill its shoes with feet that fit and don't stink.
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