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- hawksfan03, on 10/07/2008, -1/+18311. Allow an update from 9.0 to 9.0.1 by downloading a 2 MB file instead of the entire iTunes installer
- mytCbumps, on 10/08/2008, -5/+46How about not including all the other crap inside the installer?! I could care less for QuickTime, AppleSoftwareUpdate, Bonjour and MobileMe. All this garbage is inside the installer archive.
- Rudegar, on 10/08/2008, -0/+22itune use quicktime for all media playback it's pretty much just a media db tool
quicktime engine does all the playing - aliguana, on 10/08/2008, -4/+9yup. iTunes needs ticky-boxes to opt in/out of installing that stuff. Why not just bundle OSX in with it while they're at it?
Reliance on Quicktime (on Windows) definately needs to go. It's pointless. Using the native audio/graphic system instead would also open up the player for Linux. It's about time Apple did a complete re-write, from scratch. Lightweight, native, optional extras (Applemobile, AppleTV, Bonjour etc) : that's what your (paying) Windows customers want. - GothAlice, on 10/08/2008, -4/+10QuickTime is the underlying media playback engine. Like, say, Windows Media codecs are for the Windows Media Player. Software update is useful, and I prefer having an application to an Active X control any day. Bonjour is used for iTunes library discovery and sharing, and, frankly, is tiny and useful. I use it daily on test rigs to visit in-development sites on my in-house server. MobileMe they've removed from the package; you now have to download it separately. Despite iTunes being the management interface for MobileMe synchronization.
Valid complaints? Not really. - fsweep, on 10/08/2008, -5/+2Does it still use "gapless playback detection" that brings the entire system to a crawl for hours?
- GothAlice, on 10/08/2008, -0/+6@fsweep: Several points.
1. Only if you enable it.
2. And only for a long time if you've never done it before. When adding new albums it's trivially quick. - vibrate, on 10/08/2008, -1/+7'couldn't care less'
*fixed* - romeyinfc, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2@GothAlice
1) How do you disable the Automatic Gapless Detection? Nothing in my preferences makes any reference to turning it off. - GothAlice, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1@romeyinfc
Select all, get info, change 'Gapless Playback' to No and press OK. It's under the options tab in the new version. - jkleinrichert, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2"How about not including all the other crap inside the installer?"
"yup. iTunes needs ticky-boxes to opt in/out of installing that stuff. Why not just bundle OSX in with it while they're at it?"
@ all you biatches-
If iTunes did have an opt-out for all the xtra tools, you be complaining how the program doesn't work right when you try to play such-and-such file. - mytCbumps, on 10/09/2008, -0/+2Ummm. I only use iTunes to sync my POS iPhone. Maybe should have made that clear in the beginning. :)
- Rudegar, on 10/08/2008, -0/+22itune use quicktime for all media playback it's pretty much just a media db tool
- GothAlice, on 10/08/2008, -1/+3I fully agree. Even distributing whole files (instead of incremental binary patches) would reduce the file size substantially.
- joshualamgroup, on 10/08/2008, -4/+2Apple: It would save your bandwidth, too.
- tdskate, on 10/08/2008, -2/+1right on !
- dagamer34, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1You realize that because a ton of ***** was leaked by Kevin Rose, it wasn't exciting. Apple needs to stop leaks in their company, it's become so horrible now that there's no point in saying "One more thing" anymore (and that's probably why Jobs doesn't bother).
- MacParrot, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1I think he didn't say "One more thing" because he didn't have anything else.
Having been to the last two Macworlds I have to say that I haven't been impressed with their latest offerings. I think Apple is trying to juggle too many balls at the same time with too few resources. - Elranzer, on 10/08/2008, -1/+1Until Kevin Rose moves out of the dumpster behind Apple HQ, the leaks will continue.
- MacParrot, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1I think he didn't say "One more thing" because he didn't have anything else.
- mytCbumps, on 10/08/2008, -5/+46How about not including all the other crap inside the installer?! I could care less for QuickTime, AppleSoftwareUpdate, Bonjour and MobileMe. All this garbage is inside the installer archive.
- Scott2, on 10/07/2008, -11/+62A reasonable article, although somewhat redundant at times, and shortsided in others. A few thoughts:
2. Don't like it? Turn it off. No one is forcing you to look at it.
3. I suspect the one size fits all approach works for 95% of people, but again, there does exist the capability for imported media to be scaled to fit different formats (Apple TV, iPod, etc).
4. Effective use of playlists, filtering, and metadata completely eliminate the need for multiple libraries.
5. Let iTunes organize your files instead of leaving them spread out all over your hard drive, where files and paths change regularly.
6. I've only ever had difficulty on a PC - the Mac iTunes Library file is XML and easily searched.
9. I suspect iTunes quality music is fine for 95% of people. Having higher quality songs would significantly decrease the already razor thin profit line by adding costs (bandwidth, storage, etc), even if there was a premium.
10. You and about 5 other people would pay for that. Besides, what would be so different between the two versions? There's a world of difference between Garageband and Logic, iMovie and Final Cut.- GothAlice, on 10/08/2008, -1/+10Hear hear.
6. The PC version, admittedly, isn't that good of a port. It's a bit too resource-heavy for my liking.
9. 256kBit iTunes+ files are fine for 98% of people. The original 128kBit would be 95%. Even I am happy for my casual musical needs with 256kBit, and I'm a quality freak (one step down from audiophile because I'm unwilling to spend ludicrous amounts of money on hardware). And besides, for things I really care about, I purchase, then download FLAC. :P I legally own a copy, don't I?
10. iMovie gained much more of a difference in the '08 refresh. '06 was much, much better, IMO. Now I just use FinalCut Express, which is like iMovie '06 on crack.- MacParrot, on 10/08/2008, -0/+4I agree about iMovie 08. A definite step backwards in usability. However iMovie 08 does one thing very nicely that has earned it a spot on my hard drive. Importing some of the new digital codecs from tapeless video cameras (like my Canon FS100). iMovie 06 doesn't do it nearly as well
- GothAlice, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2Yup! AVC import is nice; even Final Cut Express is weird when dealing with it. Pity iMovie doesn't really do 1080P like my camera, though…
- domiciliphile, on 10/08/2008, -7/+4"And what about the iTunes Store arrows that sit next to every track in your library? You used to be able to turn them off. Now you can't. Grrr."
As far as I can tell, there's no way to turn these off in 9, so yeah, Apple is forcing me to look at it.- GothAlice, on 10/08/2008, -3/+7Uh… it only displays a tiny arrow on the currently selected items. So, oh my god, they go away when you deselect your selection. That's a deal-breaker for me. Can't have a tiny icon appear at any time. Like, it's a violation of my privacy or something.
Complaint fail. - domiciliphile, on 10/09/2008, -0/+1@gothalice:
if you click from song to song, the music store arrows do not go away. depending on what view options you have, there are multiple arrows. and again, you used to be able to turn this off. sorry - for someone who cares about gui, this is annoying.
complaint fail? ok, sure. but I'd rather complain than sound like a tool for apple.
- GothAlice, on 10/08/2008, -3/+7Uh… it only displays a tiny arrow on the currently selected items. So, oh my god, they go away when you deselect your selection. That's a deal-breaker for me. Can't have a tiny icon appear at any time. Like, it's a violation of my privacy or something.
- SGIsus, on 10/08/2008, -0/+3I agree with most of what you said, except number 9.
The argument was that if iTunes can provide 1GB+ movie files then it sure as hell should be able to provide 256kpbs+ MP3 files.
The point is, if you're paying for an album on iTunes, at the same price as the CD; You expect it to be at least DRM-free.
Bandwidth shouldn't be an issue for one of the biggest music apps and corporations in the business, quality should come first, not quantity. Besides, they provide the WHOLE app whenever you want to update it, instead of a 2MB file... can't they save bandwidth there?... and put it to good use?- XxtraLarGe, on 10/08/2008, -0/+3DRM is there because of the music publishers, not because Apple wants it. I only buy iTunes Plus tracks (256k AAC, better than MP3). If an artist doesn't support this format, I don't buy their stuff from iTunes. If there's a CD I really want, then I rip it to iTunes at a higher bit rate.
- Nightlurker, on 10/08/2008, -0/+68. Ipod touch and the Iphone can controll itunes libraries over wlan with the Remote app downloaded free from apple
- atgmac, on 10/08/2008, -0/+71. Meh, UI is fine for me. There's four views: List, List with artwork, Grid, Cover Flow. Just use the ones you like and ignore the ones you don't.
2. Why the ***** would apple take away a feature they just added? I happen to like the genius bar. If you don't want it, turn it off.
3. Not going to happen. It would really slow down syncing. Maybe in a few years when CPUs are more advanced.
6. It should be sqlite on both platforms. Although that would be a very big change, so not going to happen.
7. I'm not sure, but we will probably get more codecs with snow leopard and QuickTime X.
9. I don't want higher quality audio. The quality is fine at the moment, but if the file sizes doubled as the result of a bitrate increase, I'd run out of room on my iPod.
10. A branch of iTunes. What an idiotic idea. Why not just improve the consumer version? - drunknmunky1, on 10/08/2008, -0/+28. - Airfoil. Amazing program.
- macslut, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1I agree with most of what you said, except:
"4. Effective use of playlists, filtering, and metadata completely eliminate the need for multiple libraries."
For most people that's true, and that's why the way they implemented it works so well. It's an advanced feature. However, I have a laptop with a small library, a portable hard drive with a larger library, and then a desktop drive with my full library. In addition, I have multiple libraries for work related files. Having multiple libraries is also a really great way to import files and then combine the libraries through rsync or simply copying the files if there aren't duplicates. I could go on and on, but the point is that for some of us, we NEED this and don't see the problem with having to hold the option key on startup, or trying to figure out what library you're in.
- GothAlice, on 10/08/2008, -1/+10Hear hear.
- Superperson, on 10/07/2008, -14/+41Half these "problems" can be fixed by TURNING THEM OFF, jackass.
- domiciliphile, on 10/08/2008, -2/+1(see above reply to Scott2)
- bawpcwpn, on 10/07/2008, -8/+40Put it on one page idiots! Nobody likes clicking! From the article.
1. Clean up the user interface
Once upon a time iTunes UI was one of the best things about it. True, it looked a little bland, but the old List and Grid views at least made it easy to find your way around.
We still have List view, luckily, but last year's Cover Flow was always more novelty than genuinely useful addition. We can't forgive its inclusion in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard's Finder either.
The new Grid view in iTunes 8 presents you with even more ways to slice the same content, adding more layers of complication and frustration at every turn. Don't believe us?
Check out the Artists tab. Here you'll see a Grid view of the all the Artists in your library. Move the cursor over the icon and you can side-scroll through the album art, just like you can in iPhoto '08.
Not only is the whole idea of being able to do this rubbish, but clicking on a piece of album art presents you with another version of the UI, this time the old style Grid complete with track listing and album artwork. Confusing? Gimmicky? Useless. Yes, yes and yes again.
2. Bar the Genius
OK, so it's a fairly easy way to auto-generate playlists, but at the expense of what? Your musical tastes get automatically submitted to Apple, which then hits you back with money-gouging recommendations based on content found in the iTunes Store.
This is the kind of hardcore sell we expect from pile-'em-high-sell-it-cheap merchants. We thought Apple thought differently.
And what about the iTunes Store arrows that sit next to every track in your library? You used to be able to turn them off. Now you can't. Grrr.
3. Better file handling
Like the little plastic donkey in Buckaroo, iTunes' burden keeps getting heavier and heavier - it has to be able to handle music, movies and TV shows for enjoying on your computer; ditto for your iPod, iPod touch and iPhone; and ditto again for Apple TV. Oh, and let's not forget about HD content, audiobooks, PDFs, applications and artwork. Plus the whole shopping thing. Sheesh.
The problem is, iTunes isn't very good at handling this at all. Ideally you want lean, mean versions of your music, movies, and so on for toting around on your iPod or whatever; and then full-fat alternatives for enjoyment at home.
In a sensible world, iTunes would enable you to seamlessly convert from the full-fat version to the skinny version as needed, and not leave your hard drive or your library in a confusing jumble afterwards. iTunes isn't sensible, it's downright moronic - it either has to separate versions for every device you own in your library; or you have to plump for a one-size-fits-all file that doesn't work particularly well anywhere. This needs to change.
4. Better handling for multiple libraries
One of the biggest features of iTunes 7 was the ability to create multiple iTunes libraries - handy if you want to keep high quality Apple TV files separate from your iPod-compatible ones, and so on. Unfortunately, Apple's implementation sucks. Here's why:
a) You have to remember to hold down the Alt [Option] key every time you click on the iTunes icon;
b) It's easy to forget which library you're in and add content to wrong place;
c) It doesn't matter anyway because iTunes quickly gets its Library Preferences in a knot and files you were expecting to appear in iTunes Library A suddenly turn up in Library B, and so on.
Third-party solutions like Doug Adam's iTunes Library Manager work better.
5. Better file tracking
iTunes is rubbish at keeping track of your files. Proof comes in the form of the growing number of third-party apps that try to take the pain out of managing thousands of files on your hard drive.
iTunes music and movie files seem to go missing at a whim: sometimes they disappear from the library, but not your iTunes Music folder; sometimes they get moved to a different location - particularly if you're using multiple libraries - and sometimes they go missing completely.
The only way to discover whether or not everything in the library is as it should be is to re-scan your entire iTunes Music folder using the Add To Library command on a regular basis. iTunes doesn't keep do this automatically. It should.
6. Better database handling
A lot of the problems we've hit on so far are due to way that iTunes handles the contents of your iTunes Music library (which, confusingly, also includes Podcasts, Movies, TV Shows, and so on).
That's because iTunes stores all the information about the iTunes Music folder's content in the iTunes Library (.itl file on Windows) - an encrypted file that could be a glorified spreadsheet for all we know. It's certainly not a proper database.
Proof comes in the way iTunes works. Every time you fire it up, iTunes has to load the entire iTunes Library file into memory. Although Apple doesn't specify the maximum number of files iTunes can contain, it certainly gets slower and slower the more you stuff it with content - especially given the drawbacks we've mentioned above.
7. Better codec support
Given our concerns about iTunes' ability to handle different kind of media files, adding support for more codec sounds like a recipe for disaster. It needn't be.
iTunes currently supports Apple Lossless, AAC, AIFF, and MP3 audio, while also enabling you to convert DRM-free WMA tracks, as well as WAV. Video support is limited to H.264 and MPEG-4 video files. But what about Ogg Vorbis? True WMA and WMV support? DivX, MKV, FLV and the rest?
We suspect Apple doesn't support these - and never will - because it's not in its interest to do so. If Apple were to support protected WMA files, for example, it would not only have to pay royalties to Microsoft, but could also see iTunes Store customers leach away to online rivals. iTunes doesn't even support codecs like HD-AAC - a high definition audio codec for 24-bit recordings.
8. Multi-room for the rest of us
When Apple introduced the first AirPort Express in 2004, one if its selling points was that it enabled you to stream music to your Hi-Fi using AirTunes - a part of iTunes.
The drawback then was that Apple couldn't / wouldn't sell you a remote to help you control it without sitting in front of your laptop or desktop. Four years later, it still doesn't. We've had to rely on third-party solutions instead.
Apple TV has gone some way to address these shortcomings, but Apple could take iTunes much, much further - just look at what Sonos has done for a start. Apple could easily do for multi-room music and video what it's arguably done for the MP3 player and phone. Apple already has most of the pieces in place, now it just needs a killer solution to top it all off.
9. A better, cheaper iTunes Store
Buying online from the iTunes Store may be better than trudging down to HMV in the rain, but does that mean we should put up with sky high prices and shonky download quality? We say not.
If Apple can serve up 1GB+ movies on iTunes, there's no reason why it shouldn't also be able to sell true CD-quality audio downloads either - even if they were in Apple Lossless format instead of CDDA or AIFF.
That would finally put an end to the grumbles about sound quality / pricing, especially if we could also say goodbye to DRM too. Of course, we'd expect to pay a slight premium - we do so already with iTunes Plus.
10. iTunes Pro
And what better way to wrap all these improvements up, but to create a new version of iTunes for those of us who take our music and movies seriously. Apple already offers consumer and Pro versions of many of its apps - iPhoto versus Aperture; iMovie versus Final Cut, and so on - so why not do the same with iTunes? We're not the first people to think it, but iTunes Pro certainly sounds like a great idea and, if it was up to the standard of other Apple Pro apps, you can be sure many of us would be happy to pay for it. How about it, Apple?
------------
11. I'd like to see Album playcount for when you play an album in its entirety.
12. The Genius Bar goes where the Ministore was for those who don't have large screens, but still want to see it.
Yeah that's about all from me.- aliguana, on 10/08/2008, -0/+5I don't know about paying for an "iTunes Pro". I already paid for it when I bought my iPod, I'm not paying AGAIN. I just want iTunes to work, not some two-tier thing.
- Dermah, on 10/08/2008, -4/+3The article is all on one page...
- aussieNickuss, on 10/08/2008, -0/+6"Your musical tastes get automatically submitted to Apple, which then hits you back with money-gouging recommendations based on content found in the iTunes Store."
That is entirely optional. You can still use the Genius auto-playlist creation without it shoving advertising down your throat. - kinseyincanada, on 10/08/2008, -4/+2it was on one page
- TheCoreh, on 10/08/2008, -5/+5I would like my Aqua scrollbars back. Please.
Also a better system for finding/organizing music metadata.- alanr19, on 10/08/2008, -5/+3Aqua scrollbars?
Typical macslut. "ooooohhh its shiney. this software is cool."- pathy, on 10/08/2008, -1/+3***** them for having a preference in the look of their system.
- yeskia, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1I agree with you wholeheartedly. Why do we still have some other ***** scroll bars and look out of place in OS X after two or so full versions of iTunes?
- alanr19, on 10/08/2008, -5/+3Aqua scrollbars?
- ElBeh, on 10/08/2008, -3/+58How about not taking up a ***** of RAM on a Windows computer?
- aussieNickuss, on 10/08/2008, -3/+5...or even being responsive half the time on Vista.
- karel747, on 10/08/2008, -1/+5That's my biggest problem with iTunes. Often time when my PC is running at 100% CPU for no reason, sure enough, it's iTunes runnig in the background, eating up 90% for NO ***** REASON. WTF is that? iTunes isn't open... I never opened it... yet there it is!
iTunes is garbage on PC. If I'd known about this *****, I never would have bought an iPod in the first place. - rodeo40, on 10/08/2008, -6/+1Buy a Mac.
- ElBeh, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2So spend a few hundred dollars on a Mac that I don't need or use some alternative software like Songbird or Floola for free. Hmm, this is hard...
- usuallyjusta, on 10/08/2008, -4/+2811. Last.fm integration
- flickerbrain, on 10/08/2008, -3/+17Last.fm has a plugin for iTunes.
It's downloadable from Last.fm's website.- aliguana, on 10/08/2008, -2/+7yeah, and very often, you install an iTunes update and the LastFM plugin stops scrobbling, or can't find your iPod, or whatever. It's a kludge. If LastFM was integrated into iTunes, you wouldn't have this problem, plus iPod scrobbling would be more reliable (probably... although I wouldn't hold my breath lol)
- se7en11, on 10/08/2008, -0/+3Works great. I use it every day. The cool thing is that if I listen to music on my iPod, when I sync it in iTunes, it scrobbles it to last.fm. Very sweet!!
Link to download it: http://www.last.fm/download
- BrettFromTibet, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2Songbird (http://getsongbird.com) integrates beautifully with Last.FM and it has non of the corporate crap Apple lades into iTunes.
- flickerbrain, on 10/08/2008, -3/+17Last.fm has a plugin for iTunes.
- ericdano, on 10/08/2008, -4/+11TechRadar posting this is like Steve Ballmer talking about how Windows Mobile is going to kill the iPhone. Both don't have a clue.
- baldgye, on 10/08/2008, -1/+26I just want it faster on a windows machine. My friends little macbook can run itunes better than my gaming rig. That annoys me.
- gospe1337, on 10/08/2008, -2/+11HINT: Make it a real media organizer? Or, just dish out iPod/iPhone sync API to 3rd party devs like MediaMonkey. As it stands now, iTunes is just a clunky Safari layered over a crappy media library in order to have a proprietary application for the crapple store.
- Ellipsys, on 10/08/2008, -2/+6If Winamp/MediaMonkey/AmaroK and Thunderbird could sync with my iPhone 3G, I'd never use iTunes again. Ever. It is the most hated part of my "Apple Experience". Even better, they could just give us drag+drop mass storage access to the iPhone/iPodTouch. I have no desire to use iTunes. I will not buy anything from your crappy music store.
- GothAlice, on 10/08/2008, -1/+2There are many, many applications available for Mobile OSX to give it drag'n'drop access. Some of them are even free. Most of them allow you to view/play media from said storage.
You don't actually have to use iTunes unless you want to at this point. Oh, unless you like an actually good media player on the Mobile OSX device. - Ellipsys, on 10/08/2008, -1/+1@gothalice - please indicate these programs so I can see if they are to my use. Are they something you install on the iphone itself?
- GothAlice, on 10/08/2008, -1/+1@Ellipsys
You can install them directly on the device, or through iTunes. ('Cause, y'know, there's something called the App Store which is this big blue icon with a generic application icon inside a circle that does that.)
The one I use, and it works with all platforms and was free at the time I got it, allows viewing of basically everything and limited file management from the device itself is called AirSharing. It's now $6.99. Check the Productivity category for others.
- GothAlice, on 10/08/2008, -1/+2There are many, many applications available for Mobile OSX to give it drag'n'drop access. Some of them are even free. Most of them allow you to view/play media from said storage.
- Ellipsys, on 10/08/2008, -2/+6If Winamp/MediaMonkey/AmaroK and Thunderbird could sync with my iPhone 3G, I'd never use iTunes again. Ever. It is the most hated part of my "Apple Experience". Even better, they could just give us drag+drop mass storage access to the iPhone/iPodTouch. I have no desire to use iTunes. I will not buy anything from your crappy music store.
- StevenBullen, on 10/08/2008, -6/+6You must be unlucky as mine runs fine.
- killtrocity, on 10/08/2008, -2/+3Wow, I had no idea that ageing and aging were two different words. Even Firefox thought ageing was a typo.
- ThePenrod, on 10/08/2008, -1/+12Getting upset about Apple making suggestions to you based the Genius information you send is ridiculous when it can be turned off without having to open up any menus.
- metalgel, on 10/08/2008, -1/+3can i have hotkeys yet?
- justinviger, on 10/08/2008, -1/+1I can haz hotkeys yet?
- justinviger, on 10/08/2008, -1/+1I can haz hotkeys yet?
- paulney, on 10/08/2008, -3/+35Wow.
I love genius. With 6000 songs (all *cough* purchased, of course) it regularly comes up with amazing playlists of songs I've never even heard before! (What happens when you get an entire CD just for one song..)
Also, like everyone else commenting (on a Mac at least), it runs great!
And you honestly expect it to stream HD to iPhone or iPod sizes on the fly? But not create a new file. But have that resolution available for you whenever you want? OK... I'd like iTunes to do my laundry and clean my dishes too, but...
I'm one of them, but I still recognize that the demographic that requires "multi-room music" isn't even comparable to the market for iPod and cell-phone users! What a ridiculous comparison to make! Get an iPod touch or an iPhone, the remote app is amazing!
Anyways. This is a very poorly written article. Definite bury.- GothAlice, on 10/08/2008, -0/+7I love Genius, probably because I'm in a very similar boat. I have 12,103 songs in my library, and Genius does a remarkable job of catering to my moods. "Okay, iTunes. A little Rammstein and suggest some other angry music for me to listen to… cool."
And with AirPort Express tiny laptop-transformer-sized wireless stations, I already use my iTunes in multiple rooms. Optical out, even, which is awesome. - alanr19, on 10/08/2008, -7/+1Genius can never be wrong, you have those songs in your library because you like them in the first place. A chimp could generate a good playlist.
Its just bpm matching. Hardly "genius"- glenSM, on 10/08/2008, -1/+5well when you have 12000 songs i dont think you listened to them all, and since most albums have one or three hits on them and all the rest are ***** i think it does a pretty good job.
- GothAlice, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1BPM matching? Have you actually looked into it /at all/? It matches based on customer similarity matching, highlighting songs that people like you have purchased who also purchased the song you're 'geniusing'.
It's a glorified purchase recommendation engine for songs you already have. And it works.
- GothAlice, on 10/08/2008, -0/+7I love Genius, probably because I'm in a very similar boat. I have 12,103 songs in my library, and Genius does a remarkable job of catering to my moods. "Okay, iTunes. A little Rammstein and suggest some other angry music for me to listen to… cool."
- Heavy, on 10/08/2008, -6/+511. Make it possible for iPod Touch users to managed there device using human sacrifices to the nine headed daemon gods of the underworld, this is coincidently a more pleasant way then using iTunes,
- ColinZeal, on 10/08/2008, -4/+61) Hot Keys.
Please!
But I guess it will be announced around 2010 by Jobs with the words:
"Isn´t this great?"
And he will of course make it sound like Apple invented that feature.- GothAlice, on 10/08/2008, -1/+3Uh… I have hotkeys that work… FF, play/pause, RW, and volume. Not to mention Remote on Mobile OSX…
- mludd, on 10/08/2008, -1/+3By default all new Apple keyboards have a set of buttons that are used for iTunes (although you obviously use them for controlling other software if you don't feel like you need iTunes hotkeys).
- ColinZeal, on 10/08/2008, -1/+2Well, there are more iTunes users on the Windows side than on the mac side.. i´m on the winning/bigger side so Apple should really please the bigger group of their users. Not the elitist small group ;-)
- glenSM, on 10/08/2008, -1/+1Use for windows, iTunes global hotkeys, its great i use it when i play a game and cant get out of it to change from a crappy song. Its fully customisable oh and with the apple keyboard (slim) on a windows pc the keys dont like to work in game, sorry :P
- ColinZeal, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2I tried some global itunes hotkey-plugin half a year ago but it was very buggy. And.. the sound output from iTunes was lover than winamp for some reason so that sucked even more. (No, I don´t wanna use an equalizer)
- DigxDug, on 10/08/2008, -2/+3I'd like to be able to put my ***** ripped MP4s on my touch.
It plays them in iTunes, they are under "TV" and I have the option of syncing them in the iPod menu, but they never sync the the ipod.
Is there a way I can bypass iTunes and just drag and drop the files?- Kelmon, on 10/08/2008, -0/+4Silly question, but are they in a format that the iPod Touch can play? I don't mean the file format itself but rather things like the video size and bit rate. You might want to look for an application that specifically converts video files into a format acceptable to the Touch. I seem to recall having the same problem with my iPod.
- BeowulfGrimbly, on 10/08/2008, -0/+3If they're encoded correctly - ie. compatible with tPod Touch - they will sync. It's not so hard to do. If they're not encoded correctly, they won't play anyway, so what's the point in syncing them?
You can always convert them through iTunes if you don't have another transcoding app.- DigxDug, on 10/09/2008, -0/+1They are compatible with the touch, they are all .mp4 with appropriate size/bitrate etc. Some shows worked in sync, some wont sync to ipod at all even though I can mark them to be synced and play them in itunes.
Thanks for your and everyone else s help, I'll google how to convert them through itunes.
- DigxDug, on 10/09/2008, -0/+1They are compatible with the touch, they are all .mp4 with appropriate size/bitrate etc. Some shows worked in sync, some wont sync to ipod at all even though I can mark them to be synced and play them in itunes.
- vik0612, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1bunch of programs that does that (on a mac atleast) - Visualhub / MPEG Streamclip. Easiest way is quicktime pro. File -> Export and use one of the presets. ipod or iphone.
- HolyChimp, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1RIP VisualHub :'(
- BrettFromTibet, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1no real way to bypass iTunes that Apple won't disable.. it's locked to your device and the worst software ever foisted on humanity
- MrJagil, on 10/08/2008, -1/+14I tunes is so freaking heavy. Can't wait for Snow Leopard to slim it down...
- LambZero, on 10/08/2008, -0/+4itunes does what it does for me, 3% cpu usage as a background player and i like the list view. Why don't we change the view of text in books to so we have to read downwards and then in circles.
- Rudegar, on 10/08/2008, -6/+112. make it possible to sync with non ipod's too
- MacParrot, on 10/08/2008, -0/+3If iTunes was a paid app, they might have some incentive to do that. Since it's there to help sell iPods, no that won't happen. At least until the iPod isn't the dominant player and Apple starts making more off iTunes downloads.
- CyrusG, on 10/08/2008, -0/+5This is less of a problem with iTunes and more of a problem with ID3 tags, but support for timestamped play counts and labels would be great.
I'd love to create an auto playlist of my top 10 most played songs in the last 30 days or a playlist with every song produced by a certain record label.- znicket, on 10/08/2008, -2/+2What do you mean? I do this right now on my iTunes. I have my "most played songs in the last 4 weeks" playlist, updated automatically.
Is this a mac only feature?- Willnz0, on 10/08/2008, -1/+2I doubt that what you have is a "most played song in the last 4 weeks" playlist - more likely it is a "most played songs which were added in the last 4 weeks playlist". But I am on Windows, so am prepared to be proven wrong.
- znicket, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2Willnz0 -- you are absolutely right. My mistake.
- DougieD, on 10/08/2008, -1/+1You can make a playlist with those parameters by clicking on the little smart playlist button above playlist. It updates automatically. (on windows)
- joshuawilde, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1Yes, the label thing would be really great. I'd also love a reseller field so I can track where I bought some music from, e.g. iTunes/Amazon/Amie Street/eMusic/NetLabels/CD etc.
- znicket, on 10/08/2008, -2/+2What do you mean? I do this right now on my iTunes. I have my "most played songs in the last 4 weeks" playlist, updated automatically.
- mcrules, on 10/08/2008, -1/+3How about making it cross-platform, like java (or do a Java lite version), so the minority OS users, like me, can continue using iTunes even if we are in Linux. We can buy music too,
- Kelmon, on 10/08/2008, -0/+4No, we don't want a cross platform version, thank you very much. However, I don't see a reason why Apple wouldn't make a version for Linux if there was enough demand for it. Unfortunately, the level of demand for such a product is probably what is holding it back because, as you say, you are a minority and therefore unlikely to generate much of a return on the investment.
- eruin, on 10/08/2008, -0/+4Java? No, just no.
- HolyChimp, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2I'm sure there's some kind of open source player that works infinitely 'better' on Linux.
- tdogzthmn, on 10/08/2008, -4/+2I agree largely with the article. I think apple should cut up itunes into multiple programs. Its called itunes so let it handle only your audio files. Apple should make a similar program that deals only with your video files. This could remove some of the congestion.
- mapfelzweig, on 10/08/2008, -0/+3I disagree. Having multiple programs may reduce the congestion in each program but it also means...you gotta open more programs. The whole point of a jukebox program like iTunes or Windows Media Player is to organize all your media files in one application. But I guess the name iTunes is a little outdated now that it supports video playback and the current iPods play video.
- mapfelzweig, on 10/08/2008, -1/+0Dammit I want my media keys to work when iTunes is minimized again! I think before iTunes 7 came out I could be out of focus and they'd work. Sure it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but it's also not a big deal to stick a stupid option into the preferences to allow me to skip tracks, play and pause without having to return to focus or right click on the tray icon.
Oh and searching my library has gotten slower than ever, and I only have maybe 2600 songs in my library. I've had times where it seems like my computer hangs for half a minute while iTunes processes each letter I typed, 3 seconds at a time. It's getting ridiculous. Trim the fat Apple!
Oh and this is on XP. - Speed, on 10/08/2008, -2/+16No more asking me to install Safari when I update iTunes.
- SifuMoKung, on 10/08/2008, -2/+3Yeah, Safari and the ***** Yahoo toolbar are constantly trying to integrate themselves into a PC where they ARE NOT WANTED! I have a configuration I like, now GTFO!
- Brichardson5, on 10/08/2008, -5/+2Think Itunes 8.0 sucks? Take one look at the new music visualizer and you might just change your mind.....
- glenSM, on 10/08/2008, -2/+3Seriously who uses the visualizer? No one when i listen to music I surf the net at the same time or i go through my itunes, visualizer is a waste of time imo. Get yourself a screensaver if you want good lookin stuff
- mdude85, on 10/08/2008, -0/+0Apple can't live off neat visualization tricks forever. Eventually this novelty of glossiness and form-over-function will wear thin and Apple will need to do some serious thinking about where it wants to shift its development focus toward in the next generation of iTunes.
- MacParrot, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1I NEVER use the visualizer. You do a point upgrade for that kind of thing, not a version upgrade. There were some additional features put in for the iPod Touch/ iPhone and the Genius playlists. If this was a paid app, I would have called it wait for the next version, but it was free so meh
- wewa, on 10/08/2008, -3/+1A list like this is a waste of time.
Apple does what THEY want, they are not concerned with what the USER wants/needs.
Their name is Apple, not Netflix. - schnurr, on 10/08/2008, -5/+2It's ITUNES 9,000!
- mkpaa, on 10/08/2008, -7/+11,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 Open source it.
- alanr19, on 10/08/2008, -1/+4iTunes uses licensed 3rd party software components. They couldn't open source it if they wanted to.
Go look at the about box. - mdude85, on 10/08/2008, -1/+2Songbird = iTunes open source, and we all know what a SUCCESS that has been!! :(
- alanr19, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1Songbird > iTunes
The reason its not widely known about is because they don't have the advertising budget of apple.
You should really think before posting.
- alanr19, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1Songbird > iTunes
- alanr19, on 10/08/2008, -1/+4iTunes uses licensed 3rd party software components. They couldn't open source it if they wanted to.
- peterredding, on 10/08/2008, -2/+6How about not forcing Windows users to use the Apple Grey theme and let it use the current Windows theme?
Or fix the problem where I select a file, hold down shift and press the down arrow to select more, go one too far and press the up arrow and it starts selecting files above where I started!!!- dnachev, on 10/08/2008, -1/+4This is insane. I hate it. 99% of the time I have selected one more file below and 1% of time I remember that I want the file before the first selected one. I think that Apple designers were high when they design this behavior.
- joshuawilde, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2Yeah that annoys the hell out of me. I've wondered for a long time if there's some way to get it to behave properly.
- metavoy, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2rubbish..., I'll tell you what's rubbish; this article. It's clear by the second page that this derelict is just looking for things to bitch about. I'm sure that Steve and Co. are already working on a bloat-free version of iTunes likely version 10 or X. Until then, I'm quite happy using iTunes to index my 70gb music collection
- kevyn, on 10/08/2008, -1/+1itunes used to be an easy to use basic media player, now it does too much, is too bloated, and has the usual apple price tag and user probing
- davidswan89, on 10/08/2008, -0/+4yeah itunes is pretty expensive, at $0
- kevyn, on 10/13/2008, -0/+1my bad - I was referring to the apple stores price tags
- davidswan89, on 10/08/2008, -0/+4yeah itunes is pretty expensive, at $0
- jameswelch, on 10/08/2008, -1/+2what i want is genre tagging, so songs can fall under multiple genres.
But I think that might be an issue with the ID3 taging standard rather than iTunes,
also,either cheaper tracks on the store, or higher quality at the same price, the competition is hotting up apple- sensualnapes, on 10/08/2008, -0/+0you can do that now, just sepate them with commas.
- rhinofinger, on 10/08/2008, -1/+10Just... make it faster.
- reformation, on 10/08/2008, -0/+3I bet you are using an external drive for your library
- HolyChimp, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2Or he's using the same OS as 80% of the population that gets a substandard port.
/ Loves iTunes on my MacBook, tolerates it on my Vista PC.
- HolyChimp, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2Or he's using the same OS as 80% of the population that gets a substandard port.
- mrraven200, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1Itunes 4.0 + itouch support would be nice.
- reformation, on 10/08/2008, -0/+3I bet you are using an external drive for your library
- wilhel1812, on 10/08/2008, -1/+2cocoa
- Kelmon, on 10/08/2008, -0/+10Rather pathetic whining that missed an obvious update that Apple should consider adding in the future. With media libraries ever increasing in size it seems unlikely that anyone will have a single hard drive to hold it all. Given that other media management applications allow the library to contain media stored in multiple locations (Apple supports this in Aperture, for example, which is my primary source of comparison) I think iTunes needs to start doing this as well.
Cover Flow may be a novelty in iTunes but it's damned useful in the Finder. Leave it alone and don't use it if you really don't like it.- MtheoryX, on 10/08/2008, -0/+5YES!!!
Drive spanning, please!
And I'm not talking about multiple libraries...I want a single library over multiple drives! - digitalpencil, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2agreed.. other than iTunes being bloated in Windows all of these problems are options, you just switch them off.. proposing that they get cut them out is ***** stupid given lots of people use them.
- HolyChimp, on 10/08/2008, -0/+3Go to Preferences > Advanced.
Untick 'Keep iTunes Music Folder Organised'
Untick 'Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library'
iTunes will leave your music where it was when adding it to the library, meaning you can have it stored anywhere you want.- Kelmon, on 10/09/2008, -0/+2That's going in the right direction, certainly, but needs enhancing further. I want the option of importing into my "managed" library (rather than all automated or all DIY) and iTunes also needs to be able to keep track of files if they move. As I noted, my model for this is Aperture and its management of photographs is excellent.
Still, that was a helpful comment. Thanks.
- Kelmon, on 10/09/2008, -0/+2That's going in the right direction, certainly, but needs enhancing further. I want the option of importing into my "managed" library (rather than all automated or all DIY) and iTunes also needs to be able to keep track of files if they move. As I noted, my model for this is Aperture and its management of photographs is excellent.
- MtheoryX, on 10/08/2008, -0/+5YES!!!
- moisie, on 10/08/2008, -0/+3How exactly would it do different versions of files for different devices without keeping multiple versions of them? My Mac is nearly a year old, but I don't think that even the best of machines available now can transcode h.264 video files on the fly while you sync.
- RobOviatt, on 10/08/2008, -0/+0I have couple of suggestions...
1. How about giving equal treatment to audio podcasts as given to music files. Why is it that when you (on an iTouch) go from portrait to landscape view when listening to podcasts you end up with your music covers being displayed. Wouldn't it make more sense to display the artwork for the other podcasts on the device?
2. How about a cover flow viewing mode for videos? (again on an ITouch) - BeowulfGrimbly, on 10/08/2008, -1/+2You know, all I really wanted in iTunes 8 was a bigger window for the iPod sync list. What's with the tiny, non-resizable square in the middle of the screen?
- Darrelc, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2Don't have iTunes on me at the moment so can't test this but try making a smart playlist with 'Last Played' < 30 days and sorted by amount played, or is that not what you're after?
- MtheoryX, on 10/08/2008, -1/+2Misplaced reply is misplaced.
- joshuawilde, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2That's pretty close but it's not actually what he asked for. He asked for the most played songs in the last 30 days -- what you're suggesting is the most played songs _ever_ that have also been listened to within 30 days.
In other words, he wants the songs that he listened to 10 times in the last week, _not_ songs that he listened to 10 times a year ago and once in the last week. - Darrelc, on 10/09/2008, -0/+1Fair point, That makes more sense now. and MtheoryX, Don't hate me because the digg comment system sucks, I did "Reply" (And I use that word as a loose approximation) and it created an entirely new thread.
- PrincePickle, on 10/08/2008, -0/+9How about better/easier external hard drive support....
- MacParrot, on 10/08/2008, -0/+21. Copy your library to an external drive
2. Select that library from iTunes preference.
3. Quit iTunes and on restart, iTunes will use that library
Unless you mean a networked drive. I haven't tried that (or needed to) so I couldn't say how well that works- HolyChimp, on 10/08/2008, -0/+3Both work well, but if your drive is disconnected then iTunes complains the library doesn't exist rather than asking you to reconnect your drive. Simple fixes for simple problems.
- MacParrot, on 10/08/2008, -0/+21. Copy your library to an external drive
- kreatre2007, on 10/08/2008, -1/+3Eh... None of these suggestions are any good. The "problems" described in this story aren't really problems at all. They're just things that the author does not like. I love iTunes the way it is. I let iTunes be iTunes. I don't screw around with multiple libraries and try to get content that is not compatible to work. Why would anyone want Windows Media in iTunes??? It sucks ass! I suppose if you have been downloading from all of the file sharing sites and you're too dumb to understand that you're getting crappy downloads then you want something to play them in. Well, that's not iTunes then. I'm glad Apple hasn't allowed Windows Media in iTunes.
- spiffyfitz, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1Why don't they open up the iphone/ipod sync interface a little more so i can stop using their ridiculous itunes in the first place?
- rdas7, on 10/08/2008, -0/+6Buried for the author of the article being a jackass. Seriously. Suggesting that iTunes should magically transcode on the fly for mobile devices. Yeah, great idea genius.
- kaiquan, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1i suspect the review's based on itunes on windows.
i'll just like faster load speeds and stop the hangs... - eruin, on 10/08/2008, -1/+2Let's see:
1: Although iTunes is far from the worst as far as interface goes, I agree here - mostly because I love the linux player Banshee to bits and really miss it now that I've mostly ditched linux.
2: Genius serves its purpose, and as far as I can tell actually does become better at what it does every day. I'd rather see tight last.fm integration however.
3: I don't get the problem here. I really, really don't see the point in keeping one version of a song for my iPhone, one for laptop-only play and one for airtunes/stereo.
4: I wouldn't mind an easy way to keep some of my less-listened music on a usb-drive while retaining the tracks I most often listen to on my computer. The actual point in article just reeks of incompetence though.
5: I've never had any issues with missing files, and my library is probaby as huge as any. iTunes definately should use something like inotify to keep track of music manually thrown into its folder though. Don't know much about its avilability on the mac/windows platforms, but I definately don't want iTunes to keep scanning the folder. The point in article is probably just yet another display of the author's incompetence via #4, I guess.
6: Anything gets slower the more content you add.
7: I have tons of ogg tracks in my iTunes library. Yet more incompetence on part of the author. Just add the damn quicktime component, already...
8: Ever heard of the iPhone? The iPod touch? Add the free Remote app and you're set. Probably too complicated for the articles author though.
9: They're already selling lossless tracks. Not that I care, but they are.
10: Reading the knowledge base should take care of this issue.- geekmansworld, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1The Remote app is indeed a painfully obvious solution. But also, If you own a Mac, I've found that the included Apple IR remote works well into other rooms if you have line of sight to your computer.
I can't see what the author has to complain about in that regard
- geekmansworld, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1The Remote app is indeed a painfully obvious solution. But also, If you own a Mac, I've found that the included Apple IR remote works well into other rooms if you have line of sight to your computer.
- eruin, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1Oh, and yeah. Encrypted wma not playing in iTunes isn't something they'd be able to sort without Microsoft on board. The question remains, though: why the hell would you want that crap to play in iTunes? As if Apple's drm-encumbered crap isn't bad enough?
- MacParrot, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1I agree. Apple has shown no interest in subscription music services (so far) and even if they did, why would they arrange it through iTunes?
If you want to use a subscription service, don't buy an iPod. It isn't like there aren't other choices for digital music players.
- MacParrot, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1I agree. Apple has shown no interest in subscription music services (so far) and even if they did, why would they arrange it through iTunes?
- 2Bnor2B, on 10/08/2008, -0/+6It would be nice to see iTunes support FLAC files.
- rhythmicdevil, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1This is more related to the iPod but as I use iTunes to manage it it counts.
I want the folders that I place my play lists in to translate to the iPod
I want to be able to edit and create play lists on the iPod. The on-the-go play list is lame. I listen to music on the iPod 98% of the time which means that if I hear a song I want to add to a play list I have to remember it until I get home.
Itunes should be able to sort by the check box column.
I want the text that I type in for the filter to remain when I switch play lists.
Store all the images for a particular album in the folder where the audio resides.
I make these suggestions to Apple every few months but I doubt they will ever get around to it.- MacParrot, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1With the iPod Touch or iPhone, they may actually allow this kind of interoperability eventually, but it wouldn't be a very user-friendly experience on a regualr iPod.
- moisie, on 10/09/2008, -0/+1It would just add one more level to the menu structure - which would be down to user preference since they made the folders in the first place.
- MacParrot, on 10/08/2008, -0/+1With the iPod Touch or iPhone, they may actually allow this kind of interoperability eventually, but it wouldn't be a very user-friendly experience on a regualr iPod.
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