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Apple Will Likely Replace iTunes on macOS With Standalone Music, Podcasts, and TV Apps in Next Major Update (9to5mac.com)
Developer and blogger Guilherme Rambo, writing for 9to5Mac: Fellow developer Steve Troughton-Smith recently expressed confidence about some evidence found indicating that Apple is working on new Music, Podcasts, and perhaps Books apps for macOS, to join the new TV app. I've been able to independently confirm that this is true. On top of that, I've been able to confirm with sources familiar with the development of the next major version of macOS -- likely 10.15 -- that the system will include standalone Music, Podcasts, and TV apps, but it will also include a major redesign of the Books app.
The new Books app will have a sidebar similar to the News app on the Mac, it will also feature a narrower title bar with different tabs for the Library, Book Store, and Audiobook Store. On the library tab, the sidebar will list the user's Books, Audiobooks, PDFs and other collections, including custom ones. The new Music, Podcasts, and TV apps will be made using Marzipan, Apple's new technology designed to facilitate the porting of iPad apps to the Mac without too many code changes. Further reading: Steven Troughton-Smith Thinks iTunes Breakup is Nigh (DaringFireball).
The new Books app will have a sidebar similar to the News app on the Mac, it will also feature a narrower title bar with different tabs for the Library, Book Store, and Audiobook Store. On the library tab, the sidebar will list the user's Books, Audiobooks, PDFs and other collections, including custom ones. The new Music, Podcasts, and TV apps will be made using Marzipan, Apple's new technology designed to facilitate the porting of iPad apps to the Mac without too many code changes. Further reading: Steven Troughton-Smith Thinks iTunes Breakup is Nigh (DaringFireball).
As long as I don't ever need to use iTunes again I'll be happy. When it came out it had about 10% of the capability of the software I was using, 200% of the bloat and 1000% of the advertising.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
When not just call the standalone app iTunes and remove the other stuff? iTunes is still pretty recognizable as far as branding goes, so I don't see them throwing it away.
It has been long overdue for this though. Too much cruft over the years has left it a bloated mess. Hopefully the put some sane developers in charge of these apps who just want a clean, efficient app instead of the usual baboons that would fuck with the UI in the most bizarre manner possible.
I agree with "do one thing and do it well", so splitting up the functionality makes a lot of sense. Will iTunes still be the one application to sync everything between your laptop / desktop and your iDevice? Or is Apple pushing people to save everything on the iCloud?
They really, really do not feel like Mac apps and are very clunky. Try to manipulate a list in the Home app - it is nothing at all like the drag and drop you'd expect, it's clearly built around the idea of a long-press triggering some kind of mode, then reordering, then saying 'Done'. A phone app, in other words.
iTunes may not be everyone's favourite, but at least it's designed for a computer interface. It's also more powerful than the iOS one too, with things like smart playlists not syncing properly over to the iOS app (try a smart playlist that's dependent on another playlist - eg. all tracks from a certain playlist that are also rated above three stars - won't sync).
I hope it doesn't start a dumbing-down of the apps and a transition to a less Mac-like interface. If Apple can't be bothered to use their own native APIs and start cross-porting, why should any other developer show interest?
Personally I'd like a separate app that can sync to devices, cloud, etc. that's independent of the apps that manage, play, or download the content. My biggest gripe with iTunes is that since they started their cloud music service, it's completely fucked everything up as far as device/content management goes. Maybe they thought they were trying to make it simple so that anyone could use it, but the reality is that they turned it into a mess that makes it almost impossible to get it to do what you actually want it to do.
What really kills software (and to a similar extend software companies) is that it gets too big and grows beyond what made it great to begin with and tries to glom all kinds of shit no one really wants onto that core product. Those inane and unwanted add-ons metastasize and ruin everything.
iMovie '08 was completely and abruptly redesigned from all previous iMovies. Final Cut Pro 7 was completely abandoned for FCPx. In each case, Apple said suck it up.
Based on previous behaviour, they'll act the same way to legacy iTunes users. If people want to keep using their hardware, they will have to keep up with the software changes.