Your point doesn't make sense considering that iTunes on Mac is the same mess that it is on Windows. It's iOS sync and buy* central with the added ability of playing music or watching a video from the same app.

After the iOS5 update split the iPod app into the Music and Video apps I kind of assumed Apple planned on doing the same thing on the desktop, but so far they haven't delivered.

*iBooks not included

I'm getting the blackout page for any link to Wikipedia, except for links to the articles on SOPA and PIPA.

You have to pay $99 a year to run any of your code on an iOS device though.

Sure we can, we've just got to cut all of those pesky social programs and eliminate all of the federal agencies (except DOD, of course) and then we'll have plenty of money to defend ourselves from the terrorists that hate us for our freedoms and save the job creators. Then we can all bask in the glorious stream of money that comes trickling down upon us.

I think you mean "protecting your freedoms, fellow patriot."

Not really, although possibly, depending on the recordings. The difference between 24-bit and 16-bit audio is the dynamic range, with 24-bit having a much wider range between the quietest possible sound and the loudest possible sound. This is something that can definitely be heard, even on lower end equipment.

Today's music, however, is so compressed (as in audio-compression, not data-compression) in the quest to "make it louder" that it doesn't even get close to reaching the possible dynamic range of 16-bit, which effectively makes an upgrade to 24-bit completely worthless.

Google "Loudness Wars" if you want more information on that.

Are you seriously suggesting that most consumers shouldn't factor the possibility of fire/theft/etc. into their backup solution?

That doesn't sound like Autotune to me. It sounds like a vocoder.