Slashdot Mirror
Apple Delays Simpler and Cleaner iTunes 'to Get It Right'
Hugh Pickens writes "iTunes has been criticized in the past for being slow and growing increasingly unwieldy as more and more media types have been added to what used to be simply a music player. Apple announced iTunes 11, the latest version of the program, at its iPhone 5 event in September and said the update would be released by the end of October, but Apple's deadline for the upgrade has slipped. 'The new iTunes is taking longer than expected and we wanted to take a little extra time to get it right,' Apple told technology site AllThingsD. 'We look forward to releasing this new version of iTunes with its dramatically simpler and cleaner interface and seamless integration with iCloud before the end of November.' The update is said to be the most significant upgrade to iTunes in the 11-year life of the program, which has grown from a simple music player to the most powerful retailer in the music business — and a force in the movie, television and e-books businesses — and, on Apple's PCs, the portal to its app store."
As much as I dislike Apple, kudos to them for admitting the new iTunes isn't ready and postponing the release rather than pushing out potentially buggy and incomplete software. Too many software companies will just shove whatever they have finished out the door, whether it works or not.
(Although it is possible to err on the opposite side. See Duke Nukem Forever)
Even when I had a Mac Mini and a MacBook, every upgrade to iTunes would have video playback issues until the library was deleted and re-created (backing up all your content before-hand of course). The same thing happened with the last 2 updates that were released 10.6.x and 10.7. The last 10.6.x update caused a slight drop in framerate and 10.7 caused a massive drop in frame rate on high end systems and crashed iTunes on low-end systems. It took a deleteion of the library file to get it working again. Given they're past failure to fix this issue over the last 6 years, I have no hopes of them fixing it with 11.
-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
He very clearly wants to purchase DRM from the Apple store with no monetary cost. How it boosts sales is anyone's guess.
Support the EFF and Creative Commons. The war is coming, and they're supporting you...
My issue with iTunes was never the interface. It was usually pretty intuitive. My problem was the lag - the program was always clunky and slow to respond, and on my laptop would sometimes lock up completely. The stability issues didn't seem to affect my workstation, but it was still rather laggy. I don't ask for much out of my software, but a quick response from the program interface is one thing. That's why I've stuck with Winamp over the years and just manually managed my music collection.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
It is said to be the most significant upgrade to iTunes in the 11-year life of the program, which has grown from a simple music player to the most unnecessary bloated piece of sh!t in history.
You should be lucky to get itunes11 in November, it takes Apple 2 weeks to update one webpage.
Not trying to flame you, but to what features do you refer? The Visualizer? iTunes DJ Shuffle? Ping? I would really love it if iTunes were streamlined for PC so I could quickly plug in my iPhone and sync, not much else. I like the iStore, so please keep that? I could kind of do without 30 modal popup window clicks every time an iPod is plugged in and not recognized. Or maybe, my iPod would always be recognized, like I ran on a Mac. That would be cool.
AC is correct -- music from iTunes has been DRM free for years [again]. Originally it was all MP3's -- then yes, it was DRM'd AAC files.
Today it's DRM free AAC files -- that yes, have your Apple ID embedded. So what?
Even when it was encrypted it was trivial (for a geek :) to convert them to MP3's. Originally you could use your Firewire iPod connected to decrypt the files on the fly -- then Apple blocked that. Always has been possible to use something like Audio HiJack to re-record to MP3's.
Today -- just convert to MP3 in iTunes. No issue. And I keep going back to MP3 because of legacy devices connected to stereo's that only understand MP3's [original SliMP3's :-].
What the issue? Sales are up (and my stock :)
Apple's dug themselves into a hole in this one. They have an app that suffers from feature creep and is a resource hog. The only way to fix both issues is a complete code rewrite and interface redesign. Best case they will successful in both areas, but people will still complain that they don't like the new UI. Worse case, they just pull a "Final Cut Pro X" and still have a memory/CPU hog that does less than before. Hopefully they chose the former, and are just taking their time to polish it up.
Apple,
I don't have and don't want an iPod, so don't make me install an iPod service.
And get rid of whatever the hell Bonjour is. I don't use it, and I don't care what it is, but iTunes goes ape shit if it's gone.
And get rid of the updater service. I don't trust you to ship an update that doesn't bork my music collection. I've been burned by you guys on that too many times.
In short, get rid of anything that runs in the background. The only Apple binary I ever want to see in ProcessExplorer is iTunes.exe.
-Anonymous Coward
They should.
Also, just because google doesn't do something, doesn't mean nobody should.
Now that Forstall is gone, they're going to take a couple days to remove the stitched-leather look.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Reminds me of one major update where a new feature they were touting was a new and improved visualizer.
Really? Who sits at their computer just watches 3D rendered shapes change form? This is a selling point for the general audience? Why did you spend Dev time working on this instead of making the program more stable or streamlines; or even a USEFUL feature?
I still use iTunes. It's my favorite way to buy music. If i can't find an album there, it's probably not available for digital distribution at all. (Once or twice amazon has had an album that iTunes has not)
I don't even like to download torrents/rapidshares/whatever of albums unless they're lossless. I've downloaded too many albums with bad encodes that sound like garbage. I'll go to ebay/amazon and get a physical CD before I download some random mp3s
It's not perfect, but I still like it. iTunes is one of the few programs Ive used that actually shave bloat with later iterations. Recently they shed the quicktime requirement (Even apple admits that quicktime is a niche product now) And now they're chucking ping and other unnecessary things.
Since iOS5, apple has moved to make the iOS devices independent of PCs. You don't need a computer to use and iOS device now, and they're changing itunes to reflect that.
I wouldn't say it should be anyone's first priority, but music players have had that since we were wearing onions on our belts (as was the style at the time). Some folks must want it.
That's only true in a small number of cases. The great majority of music can be redownloaded DRM-free via either individual track re-downloads via iTunes Plus, or by subscribing to iTunes Match for one year, and letting that match and upgrade all your tracks. I believe at this point you can simply delete and redownload your track for a DRM-free version.
I hate DRM as much as anyone, but you're the dumbass for buying DRMed goods and then being pissy when only some and not all DRM was removed from them later. Apple is willing to work toward your goal, and you're pissed because they don't deliver 100%?
For clarification, I've dropped Apple from my personal device lineup now that Google has tablets that match or beat iPad. I've been enjoying using iTunes Match to match and upgrade my old music, then uploading the up-rate media to Google Play.
The preceding comment is my own, and in no way construes an opinon of the Emperor of Mankind.
I disagree. Why does a simple ipod obfuscate all the files on it, rather than keep a simple folder/file structure that would be usable by any other mp3 player? Apple lock in. I've used itunes and it's not good. What about muti user management? Multi device management? It doesn't seem to do those very well. I see itunes as the unfortunate way of getting music onto my ipod, not the best way. MIllions of users use itunes because they have to. Blaming the end user for the failings of itunes strikes of fanboi.
I'm hoping "simpler and cleaner" mean "less arrogant."
I have a couple podcasts I save up for when I travel. I was updating my iPod before a recent trip and noticed those podcasts weren't getting any recent episodes. Turns out iTunes stopped downloading those podcasts because I hadn't listened to them recently.
There's also the recurring issue of iTunes storing audio files where the Apple Devs want files to be stored, not where I configure iTunes to store files.
So how about a version of iTunes that will download what I decide to download, store files where I decide to store files, copy those files to my iPod, and nothing else?
I don't need some developer somewhere deciding what I should or shouldn't download or where files should be stored on my machine.
I wouldnt worry about that, Im sure theyre trying to make sure it runs as well as possible on OSX while remaining as buggy as possible on Windows.
That makes little sense from a business strategy perspective. They make most of their profits from portable devices; desktop and laptop hardware, despite its visibility, is secondary in financial terms. When they had the only decent smartphones and tablets, they could get away with having iTunes work crappy on Windows and hope to maybe guide a few users onto OSX with promises of better support. But now that Apple faces serious competition from the new generation of Android devices, this roadblock risks losing market share in portables for no good reason. I think they're serious about fixing iTunes on Windows this time.
Just re-download it from the cloud: presto! Instant DRM Free copies of your old files...
...but he's had to do so twice in the past six months: first, for ill-advised changes in Apple's retail stores, and second, for the premature release of Maps.
Both executives whose decisions resulted in these apologies are gone.
They've been delaying it for a decade now.
I just need to manage my iPhones. I need separate profiles (since I have multiple devices) so they don't try and sync up apps with whatever the last person did. I don't need music playing when all I wanted to do was drag some tunes into my phone.
Maybe I'm using it wrong? I'm not an apple fanatic. I just needed to get into the iOS development game, and it was a good deal on a decent phone (now that the iPhone 5 is out, iPhone 4/4s is a heck of a deal if you are in a contract anyway)
Apple should have an iOS Device Manager that does all the syncing and such, and keep iTunes separate.
Of course it's a mess. iTunes is a music player, a video player, a file manager, a sync program, and a shopping cart. Quicktime is also bundled in there somewhere.
The main function of iTunes is to create a direct connection between Apple and your bank account. So Apple is unlikely to separate the shopping cart function from the other functions.
Staring at air is amusing when you're on LSD.
Just to correct the "record", such as this is. DRM-free music on iTunes launched on May 29, 2007. The Amazon MP3 store launched in beta on September 25, 2007.
You remember it the other way around because memory is an illusion.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
it has been for like what, 6 years now?
How do I move an episode of Mad Men from iTunes to a non-Apple device?
In fact, I predict a disaster that will have me looking for another entertainment hub.
...And the entertainment hub that you're looking for is called Plex. Based on how you describe your usage of iTunes, Plex may fit the bill. However, its suitability for you depends on two major questions:
1.) How willing you are to jailbreak your Apple TV - or replace it with one of these.
2.) How much DRM'd video content you've got tying you to the Apple ecosystem.
They've got iOS,Android, and desktop apps, and they work more beautifully than I can possibly describe.
I'll try not to sound like a fanboi here...
I was reviewing products for CNET back when MP3 players and software was starting to take off...before Apple had anything and SoundJam was its own thing.
I remember back then it seemed like everyone had a player before the iPod. Every consumer electronic company had one, as did Intel, Virgin, Coke, Nike, etc...
The one thing most of these had in common, along with many digital cameras, was that they didn't desktop mount, but required platform specific software. In fairness, this was in part an issue with how USB was implemented on PCs prior to Windows XP, but many vendors even after XP were thinking they were doing the consumer a favor by requiring the use of software that "facilitated the use" of their products.
I was dual Mac/PC platform at the time (now I use mostly Macs except to develop/test for PC). It was very frustrating that devices couldn't just mount on the Mac, although some devices that required software on the PC did just mount on the Mac.
So when Apple came out with iTunes and the iPod, at first, it seemed pretty screwed that they themselves went with a software required syncing system.
However, things have changed radically since then.
My *main* iTunes library is almost 1TB. I have other iTunes libraries on several volumes that I use for work, production, a media server and other uses. On my main library, I have, I don't know, a bazillion playlists? I have multiple iPads, iPods, and iPhones. I also sync iTunes with a media server, Sonos system, as well as flash cards in my car and other devices. It's not uncommon for me to sync multiple devices at the same time, some wirelessly and some plugged in via USB.
For the life of me, I have no idea how I could even begin to manage all of this on a system level without software. Likewise, without playlists, the idea of duplicating folders would be a nightmare, since many of the playlists have the same songs in them.
For a casual user, I can understand the "why can't I just drag and drop from the system", but for me, the filesystem is actually a generic purpose filesystem app, be it The Finder on the Mac, or Explorer on Windows that absolutely sucks for specific file purposes such as music or photos. And iTunes/iPhoto/Aperture are file management apps only much better suited for these file types.
I'll admit that iTunes is far better on the Mac than Windows, and of course there is no iPhoto/Aperture on Windows, but still it's far better than trying to manage everything yourself from the generic file system management app be it Finder or Explorer.