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iTunes Turns 13 Today -- Continues To Be 'Awful' (qz.com)
An anonymous reader points us to a link on Quartz: On April 28, 2003, Apple started up a revolution. Enter the iTunes Music Store, unveiled with a proud flourish by a beaming Steve Jobs. It was a digital jukebox, a music distribution game-changer, a record store to end all record stores -- and it did, in fact, kill off a great number of those. [...] For 13 years -- 15 if you count the two years the program was just a file-storing service -- users have grumbled loudly about iTunes' unwieldy interface, its bloated features, its inability to simply get better. [...] Instead of trying to streamline the service over the years, Apple has opted to stuff an overwhelming number of new features -- movies, television shows, podcasts, mobile apps, and most recently, Apple Music -- into it.The report mentions the following issues with iTunes: space-sucking size, slowness, ugliness, bloatware, lack of online or social integration, a wonky back-end, music isn't even its priority. Marco Arment, who is best known for co-founding Tumblr, and creating Instapaper app, noted some development-end issues with iTunes in 2015. He wrote: [...] The iTunes Store back-end is a toxic hellstew of unreliability. Everything that touches the iTunes Store has a spotty record for me and almost every Mac owner I know. And the iTunes app itself is the toxic hellstew. iTunes has an impossible combination of tasks on its plate that cannot be done well. iTunes is the definition of cruft and technical debt. It was an early version of iTunes that demonstrated the first software bugs to Grace Hopper in 1946. Probably not coincidentally, some of iTunes' least reliable features are reliant on the iTunes Store back-end, including Genius from forever ago, iTunes Match more recently, and now, Apple Music.
Not that I'm a big fan and I do use it but when a writer has to scream "It'z Teh TERBBIGEAL HELLSHTUE!!!!1111!!!!" every other sentence I'm simply not going to take them seriously. Maybe too much politics makes me cynical but I don't find a lot of value in statements that need to use more adjectives than nouns. That to me reeks of fanboyism.
seriously, it's been some time I laughed so hard from a headline. A perfect fitting for "itz funny cuz itz tru"
iTunes is truly awful. So much so that it's banned from all of our work computers (it installs all kinds of extra crap with it). Winamp, long after it's dead, is still the best music player there is.
I don't respond to AC's.
iTunes will still be shit.
Must be another iTunes program out there. The iTunes I'm using works fine.
I'm not a fanboi by any means. I have however used iTunes for music for at least 10 years and don't have any complaints. I buy an album, it downloads, I play music. I don't see a better Music platform out there for things like Albums and Songs, so I don't get the gripes. I ignore whining rants too, so think twice before providing your personal anecdotes.
Is Pandora better for Radio? Probably, maybe? I don't know, I listen to a radio for radio. Well actually I also occasionally use the iHeart app for radio, but mostly radio for radio. Is NetFlix or Xfinity better for videos? Probably, maybe, I watch movies on my TV or in a Theater. Is some free Tor sharing better? "free" may harm large studios who screw over musicians, but it also harms the musicians harmed by those same studios. Robbing a slave owner never freed any slaves.
People who's opinion translates to dollars have said that iTunes is something other than awful for 13 years. I'm one of them people.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
And here I was thinking iTunes was only awful on Windows for obvious reasons.
Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
I'm an occasional iTunes user on both the Mac and Windows versions. I usually start using it when I'm trying to figure out why sync isn't working, or to perform a reset on a phone. My experience, similar to what I've seen with other programs, is that Apple is using the "UX" excuse to dumb down the program. The problem is that since you can manage your phones completely independent of it now, you usually go into iTunes for 2 reasons - to fix problems or to use your music collection on the local machine. In my opinion, neither of these functions are optimal. Too much functionality is hidden or in places you wouldn't expect. This is the problem with consumer-focused software; it has to be completely idiot proof and look pretty, but that makes it less functional.
I'm not defending "GUI by engineer" applications like the ones I have to support at work either. I work with one right now where the configuration part of the app is simply a massive properties tree and XML editor for a 5K+ set of data. But the other extreme is no good either. When a reasonably intelligent person has to spend several seconds trying to figure out which magic gesture or barely-visible hotspot hides the functionality you need, something's wrong.
iTunes in 1946? Did I wake up in an alternate universe this morning?
Ok, so they accuse apple of "stuff(ing) an overwhelming number of new features" into ITunes, and then they say that Apple should rather have stuffed in even more useless features, like "online or social integration". WTF? That is close to the most useless feature ever, plus it would create a lot of extra confusing UI, which they are criticizing Apple for (and I don't disagree)... Buuuut, this report is BS - and I dislike apple, so I would jump on any chance to lambast them...
I hated iTunes so much that I ran out and bought a Zune. I'm not kidding. That's how awful it is.
Maybe if a Mac was my primary machine I wouldn't mind all the iTunes mishegas so much. I don't need my portable device to be inextricably paired with an account at Apple. Screw that noise.
(Note: "mishegas" is Italian for "fuck you, Apple, I don't want quicktime for Windows")
You are welcome on my lawn.
So this latest release, is literally the worst release ever. The next release, will be worse. Every release is the worst release of it's life.
.
For music, AppleTV gen4 is a big step backwards from AppleTV gen3.
And then there's the iTunes backend which is as bad as, if not worse than, what most have been saying about it. Slow, buggy, cumbersome, bloated, really bad UI, slow, buggy, etc.
I am surprised that I have stayed with Apple's music infrastructure for this long....
http://www.yiddish.co/mishegas...
"Insanity or craziness"
Good thing I'm a neophile linguist (in training).
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The only thing I use iTunes for is as a backup program for my iPad, and even then, I run it in a VM sandbox that doesn't have network access, and only long enough to do the backup. And to copy MP3 files to my ipod touch. That's it. I can't imagine ever using it for anything else.
I'm confused.. The summary suggests that iTunes existed in 1946: "It was an early version of iTunes that demonstrated the first software bugs to Grace Hopper in 1946".
Can someone explain what Marco is talking about? Is that a joke? If so, it's a bad one.
My employer insists on giving me an iPhone, but prohibits iTunes on my company-issue laptop because it's such shit. Even if I wanted it on my home computer, I run Linux so it isn't even an option. And since it's a relatively new device, Apple actively breaks whatever free software works even semi-well with it. Company policy also prohibits me from using iCloud, so I can't add music through iTunes Music, I can't delete iTunes Music, I can't even seem to delete the stupid U2 album they foisted upon me. That means certain apps that can normally play music for me, can't play music, because Apple only allows them to play music via iTunes Music.
I will never spend my own money on an iPhone. The only reason I have one is because I'm paid to have it.
Unfortunately, my wife prefers Apple's music players, and we're both using Linux now. Fortunately, she prefers the ones they don't make anymore, so Linux software actually works pretty well with them. We actually just paid 45 euros to get her old Nano repaired, and we're about to get her chunky old iPod with a clickwheel repaired. It's amazing how much easier and more pleasant it is to use these old devices than it is my iPhone 5....
Who are we kidding, even nukes can't kill iTunes.
I am by no means a Apple or Mac Fanboy, but I must say that iTunes 4 was pretty decent. I used to use it to play music as well as loading my iPod.
That was the last version that was usable. iTunes 5 sucked, and every version since has sucked harder.
Now I only start iTunes to mess with what is stored on my iPod. I should probably convert to RockBox
I will not hesitate to bitch about the new iPods, disposable pieces of crap that they are. I'm on my 2nd iPod, and I intend to keep it running as long as possible: a iPod Video 30GB from gen 5. It's on it's third battery, and last Summer I replaced the internal 30 GB drive with a SD card (which sadly is not easily removable.) It works better than any other player I've used, though when if finally dies I will simply stream everything from "the cloud."
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
I'd say VLC... unless you *are* into whipping llamas.
Why doesn't Apple just develop a rest api for itunes and let 3rd party developers create applications for it? Then you could have it on your ps4 or whatever. For those that aren't familiar with what I am talking about this is exactly how Netflix is implemented.
Whoever is in charge of this business unit should be fired.
Well, this is "fuck the channels" Eddie Cue [1]. Good luck with changing his mind on that. And actually I think it'd be wholesale against how Apple works.
Besides, why the hell would Apple want a PS4 interface? They want to sell more AppleTVs (or iPads or whatever else). They are not a content company, they sell hardware.
[1] http://curi.us/1732-steve-jobs...
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It still overshadows ALL OTHER music management programs out there massively.
Yes, and Windows is the most popular OS. And IE was (is?) the most popular browser.
iTunes is still crap.
Wow, the vitriol...
And all this time I thought I was the odd one, not like iTunes.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
I really don't understand why iTunes is so frowned upon. As a music player, yeah maybe Winamp is great but iTune is not just a player. And for the most part it is for organizing/arrrangement/sync-ing music (and app). I have a hard time finding a good alternative...
iTunes has all the charm of a fat, bloated dead cow. However, it still works for me.
I live and die by metadata in iTunes. I almost exclusively use Smart Playlists to generate what I listen to. Winamp doesn't cut it for that, nor does anything else I've found. I take the time to correct all the meta data on all my music so I can do just this - that's important to me. To me this is the only way to really enjoy my music collection. If I want to listen to a single album, that's easy. If want to find all music I haven't listened to in a year that is of genre XXX, that's also easy. Show me how you can do that with anything else except iTunes or some iTunes clone. Definitely not WinAmp last I checked.
As for the iTunes clones, none of them come close to being able to run like iTunes. Try sorting by 'Album by Artist' or 'Album by Artist/Year' - I haven't found that in any of them, or if it does, it doesn't work the same. I hate to say it, but when I sorting data in iTunes, it just works perfectly for me. I get exactly the data I want IN THE ORDER I WANT. Not to mention the fact that none of them can sync to an IOS device, such as my iPod. Hell it's a Gen 2 iPod and *STILL* nothing can sync to it. I want auto-syncing of tracks and metadata - until somebody cracks the iTunes database format I'm stuck syncing with iTunes from my Mac.
Find me something that does all this and does it from OSX and I'm all over it. Until then, I'm stuck with iTunes. (Granted, I'm sticking with v10.7, anything else makes my eyes bleed and is full of crap I never use like their streaming services.)
MPC-HC played a pirated copy just fine on my TV whilst Pillars of Eternity ran on the monitor.
That's what happens when you require people to use shit in order to do things legally.
Apparently they aren't doing such a good job at that any more.... all this tie in crap is strangling the company. For all we know iTunes could be the largest media distribution hub in the world if they followed an open model.
love is just extroverted narcissism
Too much functionality is hidden or in places you wouldn't expect
So damn true. I used to actually like iTunes, it was pretty powerful and easy to use. But they kept changing the interface to hide things. It's insane. The functionality is still there, but good luck finding it.
iTunes at least has a purpose and fulfills it. Really, what is the point of Sharepoint?
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
I've never understood why it's so popular to hate it. I've used it since it came to PC, and for the last few years I've had a Mac. I think it works pretty well, does what it should and looks neat. The only issue I've ever had was with the early PC version, where ejecting the CD would actually unmount it, but no biggie (that's what you get porting something from *nix I guess :))
I have all my CDs ripped and in my iTunes music collection and I purchase stuff from the Store. I also have an iPhone with which I sync music, and used an iPod back in the days with the PC version. Again, no issues. YMMV of course, but in all honesty I would believe an application that has lasted so long and with such a large user base will work pretty well for most people.
Unless you want things in a special way of course, in which case many Apple products are guaranteed to annoy you (but you knew that already).
iTunes is better at handling iThings, but only because Apple won't allow you to use anything else.
Try something else. If all you use is iTunes, on a single monitor Mac, you'll never see how woefully lacking it is.
I've used iTunes on Windows for many years as a music player only, and while it definitely has some annoyances, nothing else seems to do all the things that I want:
- auto-organize its own folder
- not reorganizing external folders
- volume normalization
- smart playlists
It is oddly lacking support for Ogg Vorbis and FLAC, but you can install 3rd party support for those.
I've tried several other music players, but none seem to do all of the above. The most promising ones unfortunately lack the expressive power of iTunes smart playlists, such as a playlist of "matching album Diablo or Torchlight, rated 3+, limited to the 25 least often played items, auto-update list after each play".
I liked it when it was Sound Jam!
http://www.macworld.com/articl...
https://www.panic.com/extras/a...
Paid good money for that software, a month before Apple took it, called it iTunes and released it for free.
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
Our family is still happily using mp3s and torrents for most of our music and video content. (I did buy a Netflix subscription about three years ago.)
So you're proud of teaching your family to be a bunch of theives?
But the iTunes pay-as-you-go model?
You mean paying for the songs and videos you buy? How is this different than buying a CD or DVD at walmart or on Amazon? How is it different than buying a CD and ripping it to MP3 other than you don't have to rip it?
Have you even used iTunes cause I'm pretty sure you're treating iTunes as if its a subscription service when it isn't, there is a recently launched subscription service, but you certainly haven't be using a service thats a year or so old for the past 13 years so ... you're just talking out your ass or are you implying that you won't buy anything ever? If so, you're just a pathetic thief.
You don't have to agree to pay for shit that you believe is unfair, you can choose not to consume it. Thats not what you're doing though. You're choosing to continue to consume it and telling the content creators to fuck off. Pathetic thief.
Not really something I'm interested in on my just-over-six-figure income with three kids and a mortgage.
Ahhhh awesome ... a 1%er who's too fucking cheap to pay for the frivolous shit he steals.
You sir are a fucking asshole of the highest order, I have no doubt your 3 kids are spoiled brat assholes thanks to your outstanding moral fiber you've demonstrated today.
Best of yet ... your fucking proud of the fact that you're a huge douche bag. You should have your skull driven through by a freight locomotive.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
The iPod nano 5 gen is the peak of their Apples devices. Light, 16 GB, solid, many hours of battery life, awesome click wheel interface but even more awesome is that it is the last iPod that works with libgpod, so you don't need iTunes to run it :-)
*sigh* it was all broken with the ipod nano touch. A truly stupid device and concept. I bought a refurbished gen 5 nano's after washing my old ipod.
BTW I would never ever buy an iPhone for fear I would have to use iTunes to talk to it.
In 2016, you still can't copy paste almost anything in that software.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
...mice or cooperative multitasking to complain about. So the Hatebois whine about "walled gardens" in between playing games on their walled-garden consoles, and bitch about how much iTunes sucks when they've never even used the damn program.
Agreed. Dumping on iTunes is a popular pastime here, but personally, I've found it well suited to my needs:
1. Managing music on my modified 1TB iPod Classic
2. Playing music on my PC, or piping it to other parts of the house
On the other hand there are things about it that I totally ignore, and have shut off in the UI:
1. The entire music store
2. Movie / TV episode playback
3. All radio features
4. All "iTunes U" features
I'd be happy to see an application for list 1 that's entirely separated from the application that handles list 2. But I suspect their syncing/backup system will need a lot of alteration to support that...
Apparently they aren't doing such a good job at that any more.... all this tie in crap is strangling the company. For all we know iTunes could be the largest media distribution hub in the world if they followed an open model.
So they only have a $50B quarter and they're suddenly not "doing such a good job any more"? hahahahha
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