Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
iPad without iTunes?
Is it possible to manage an iPad without iTunes? I know you miss out on a few things, like backups, and being able to unhide purchases you may have hidden. Also I'm not sure how you'd handle selling it if you wanted, but can you manage an iPad without connecting it to iTunes?
Reason I ask is I'm testing out a Linux desktop and am thinking of making a switch, but wanted to keep my iPad.
Comments
I'm doing the exact same thing! I'm keeping my iPhone for mobile music, and looking at using a Linux box for completing my work. Maybe we should share information here for everyone who is looking to do the same. I was looking into the exact same thing today, and there doesn't appear to be a solution native to Linux. I am now looking at using wine as a layer for running iTunes (Windows version), or some other apps such as I–funbox.
I've never tried it but this might be what you are looking for. They make a Linux version.
http://www.libimobiledevice.org
So far the only potential problems I've come up with are the ones mentioned:
Backing up your iPad- Not as big of a deal as it might seem. You'd just have to download everything again from the Appstore. As for projects potentially lost, just record them into Audacity (or whatever) and commit to that audio mixdown.
Hiding and unhiding apps- I've already gone through and unhidden all the music apps I've downloaded. This isn't a big deal though, just don't hide purchased apps and deal with having them in the "Not on this iPad" section in your Appstore account.
Selling or upgrading your iPad- Here's a potential problem, because you can't manage what devices are associated with your account from within iOS. I'm pretty sure though you can call Apple and have them remove a device.
Other things to consider:
Updates for apps and iOS- Updates have proven to not always go so smoothly, and if there is a problem then there's no way to go back.
Isolating an iOS device- I may just go this route, and just detach my iPad from the internet, etc. all together and just use it as a hardware device. No more updates, no more new apps, but also quite a bit of stuff to use and no potential problems brought on by updates.
For backups you can use iCloud. I hardly ever connect my iPad to my PC, it really isn't necessary these days when there is iCloud and Dropbox for moving files around.
Thanks for that link mkell424, will have to check it out.
As for device association with your account, turns out within the Appstore app if you go to your account settings you can remove that device from your account under the "iTunes in the Cloud" section. To associate it again I guess you can just download an app, or do one of the other simple things listed there, to basically reconnect the device to your account.
And I guess you can back up and restore using iCloud. Haven't tried it though. Also, they only offer 5gb storage for free, and you have to pay for more space: 99 cents per month for 20gb, and $4 per month for 200gb.
edit: richardyot beat me to it.
And then finally, manage your Apple ID online:
https://appleid.apple.com
For things like password, etc.
All in all looks like it's entirely possible and relatively easy to use an iOS device without iTunes, though paying for iCloud space could add up over time if you're on a tight budget.
Remember that you can link your iPad up to 5 different computers, so you can avoid to do it with your main computer and get any old one with itunes installed and your ipad linked.
There's a particular situation od hard recovery (a kind of "last chance") where is useful to have itunes installed. And to preserve a backup of installed apps as well (most importante since iFunbox+iOS8 doesn't work).
@mkell424 That's REALLY cool!! Do you know if there are any applications that are currently making use of the library? This is Exactly what we need!!!
Is iFunbox working with iOS 8.4 yet? That's been a real pain for me, and I've been waiting for a fix....
According to https://github.com/libimobiledevice/ifuse which appears to be part of the libimobiledevice library, you can mount the filesystem of your iOS device and access it through your normal file browser!!! If this is correct, there may not be any need for any extra tool. The library may be all that is needed!!! :-)
You know, I see a lot of laptops for cheap, like the Chromebooks (currently $130.00). They aren't powerhouses, but would be great for iPad management and maybe Dropbox management too. Just use that cheap laptop for backups and music file storage.
I'm skeptical. The project appears to have not been updated recently. My understanding is that Apple makes it harder with each release for people to "crack" the file system on a device that is not jailbroken.
i would say that that project is complete bs as far as iOS is concerned. Android, yes. iOS, no.
I don't use iTunes. The only time I have missed it is when migrating to a new iPad. I use Dropbox for file transfers. But at migration time, you need something.
Not a chromebook as it doesn't run iTunes, but there are cheap laptops that do. I just bought a dell netbook for $50 on Craigslist and run Linux as the main OS but also have win 7 on there for a specific need that only works on windows. 7 runs fine as long as you're not trying to multitask too much. If I upgrade the ram from 1 to 2 gb at some point then that will probably make that easier as well.
As an iTunes backup manager it would certainly more than adequate.
So apparently iCloud doesn't actually back up apps?
I just tried to back up, granted I was limited to the free 5gb, but it also let's you choose which apps you want to back up. So okay, thought I'd test it with Alchemy, an app that certainly could use backing up. I've got all the packs, go to back it up and it should be around 2gb, but no. Seems to only back up settings because the resulting back up is a very small file.
Yeah, iCloud definitely doesn't back up apps. Auria was the same thing: very small file.
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS already has the libimobiledevice installed. I searched the Ubuntu Software Center and it listed a bunch of files for libimobiledevices, and showed that two of them were already installed.
Decided then to plug in my iPad, got a prompt on my iPad whether or not to trust the computer. After that you can access things, but it doesn't appear to be everything. Can't find any apps for example. I'm running 8.4, and seem to remember app access getting shutdown by Apple when used with iFunbox, so maybe that's what happened here.
Bottom line is backing things up without iTunes appears to be a no go.
http://appleapple.top/the-developers-ifunbox-found-a-way-to-bypass-the-blocking-of-access-applications-on-ios-8-4/
I haven't tried it yet.
This is great news!! Thanks!!
Completely forgot about WINE, downloading it now. May try iFunbox on it first, before iTunes, especially if iFunbox can access applications again in 8.4.
In theory it should work, and would be cool if it did, being able to back up everything.
Got WINE installed, downloaded iFunbox, open exe with WINE, open iFunbox, iFunbox informs me I need to upgrade to Internet Explorer 9 and that features have been disabled, and my iPad does not show up in iFunbox.
Perhaps there's a way to get this going. I'm a pretty serious Linux newbie though, so I am in the dark here. May take a crack at it later.
I have had my iPad Air for a year and a half and have never connected it to a PC or used iTunes- I am convinced that all PC usage today is merely out of habit
Try applying for a job, where you have to upload your resume. Or any upload from the iPad. Doesn't happen.
Or try uploading an album to Bandcamp !
There's quite a few things I wouldn't (can't) use my iPad or iPhone for, computing wise.
use Puffin Browser for uploading music- or documents
Ha! Thanks kindly. I had tried another one this morning, that didn't work. Puffin works great. And damn, is it fast. Okay, I don't need a PC anymore.
See this thread regarding uploading to BC, has Puffin changed now ? If it can be done (and not via linking to Dropbox) that would be very cool !
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/comment/104046/#Comment_104046
Not using BC. I use SoundCloud, and Auria publishes straight to it. But if you're a website, trying to upload a file, it works. Yes, everything goes through their proxy, though they claim it's more secure because it's encrypted. But I would not be tempted to pass credentials through them.
It is possible to manage an iPad without iTunes, you may try to use some iTunes alternative to do it. like iOS Manager. Then you can transfer music, video, or other type of files from iPad to PC, and vice versa.