win8 Is it just me or those Metro apps really sucks so bad?

[BajiRav]

The thing is of course that "many" people is not even close to the majority. in fact the HUGE majority of people don't have such huge collections. MS can't make apps focused on the "poweruser" with gigabyte collections and tens of thousands of songs and ablums who want to tweak and mess with every part of the music.

they need to target the large majority of average users who want simple apps that do what they wants, fast and easy.

I don't buy this. I know exactly one person who actually streams music on his mobile device, while most others rely on downloaded music. These other folks do know and use streaming music on their PCs but the limited data plans in US kills any prospects of streaming media on a regular basis.

Note: This is from a pool of about hundred people I know and interact in real life on a regular basis.

[HawkMan]

I don't buy this. I know exactly one person who actually streams music on his mobile device, while most others rely on downloaded music. These other folks do know and use streaming music on their PCs but the limited data plans in US kills any prospects of streaming media on a regular basis.

Note: This is from a pool of about hundred people I know and interact in real life on a regular basis.

What I'm hearing is

"Americans don't understand what offline playlists are" or they understand it,and use it but you think they use actual bought and downloaded music

how big is your collection?

I'm at work so I don't know, but it count at least several tens of gigabytes. Maybe hundred(s). Dunno. I'm a collector.

[remixedcat]

What I'm hearing is

"Americans don't understand what offline playlists are" or they understand it,and use it but you think they use actual bought and downloaded music

I'm at work so I don't know, but it count at least several tens of gigabytes. Maybe hundred(s). Dunno. I'm a collector.

biggest playlist?

Mine: AGNX-FutureTrance.m3u 1937 files 11.5GB 5.7Days.

And Jriver Media Jukebox handles it with no problem-o!!! No huge Disk activity, no buffering, stuttering, or any of that mess....

Also it's very easy for me to organize it further and create a folder from all that... sort by whatever, have playcounts take those and make the "best of future trance" playlist based on all the high playcounts,send to devices, etc.... can the music app on start screen do all that?

[BajiRav]

What I'm hearing is

"Americans don't understand what offline playlists are" or they understand it,and use it but you think they use actual bought and downloaded music

I'm at work so I don't know, but it count at least several tens of gigabytes. Maybe hundred(s). Dunno. I'm a collector.

sorry what? it's not offline playlists when they don't stream anything on their mobile devices. I didn't claim they actually bought the music. I just know they don't use streaming music as much as you think.

[remixedcat]

also streaming is a bigger drain on the battery to listen to music... many prefer offline music becuase of this.

[Luke777]

I don't like that apps only can run in full screen on a desktop computer.

I know you can have 1/3 of the apps on the left or right,

but It should have been possible (an option on Desktop Computers) to run them in a window (Desktop visible) maximize screen (with taskbar visible) and full screen (F11).

Also enabling Areo tranparent should also have an option on desktop computers.

[theyarecomingforyou]

I don't like that apps only can run in full screen on a desktop computer.

I know you can have 1/3 of the apps on the left or right,

but It should have been possible (an option on Desktop Computers) to run them in a window (Desktop visible) maximize screen (with taskbar visible) and full screen (F11).

It would have been fine if they had handled them like traditional apps on the desktop - that is you have the traditional window chrome (with the ability to minimise, restore and maximise); their icon appears on the taskbar (not a separate hidden taskbar) and you have the option to run them in fullscreen. Doing that would have eliminated most people's problems with WinRT apps. On a tablet it should default to fullscreen mode; on a desktop it should default to windowed mode, with an option for fullscreen mode (and an easy way to switch back and forth).

I don't want Solitaire to run in fullscreen mode - I have a 30" 2560x1600 monitor and I have to actually move away from my screen because it's so big (it's hard to focus on all the cards at the same time); normally I just run it in a window (as do most people) but that isn't an option with Windows 8. I notice that Microsoft didn't replace the desktop version of Calculator with a Metro version, nor with Paint, Sound Recorder or Notepad. Microsoft clearly recognises that some apps don't need to be run in fullscreen mode and in fact are better when in a window, yet they plough ahead anyway. It's arrogant and it most certainly isn't for the benefit of the user.

[HawkMan]

biggest playlist?

Mine: AGNX-FutureTrance.m3u 1937 files 11.5GB 5.7Days.

And Jriver Media Jukebox handles it with no problem-o!!! No huge Disk activity, no buffering, stuttering, or any of that mess....

Also it's very easy for me to organize it further and create a folder from all that... sort by whatever, have playcounts take those and make the "best of future trance" playlist based on all the high playcounts,send to devices, etc.... can the music app on start screen do all that?

And ? or so what ? that a use case that makes you about one in a million. YOU are not the one being targeted by MS. They're targeting the average users who just want to hit play and not mess with giant playlists. most people would rather have many small playlists since they rotate songs constantly.

also I doubt your playlists is 11 Gig, the files it plays may be, but the playlists itself isn't even close. me personally I hardly ever use playlists because I find it take to much time to set them up, I usually find and artist and play all his songs or an album I like. Music should be listened to in albums, not random singles. Then again, most music today, it's all the same and there's no cohesiveness or story to it anyway. and you might as well listen to the same one all the time, especially techno/trance.

also streaming is a bigger drain on the battery to listen to music... many prefer offline music becuase of this.

And? all the spotify playlists on my phone are, guess what, offline playlists, I download them once and then I play them locally on the phone. funny how all the anti streaming people have NO clue how spotify, Wimp, Zune/Xbox Music and so on works.

[remixedcat]

Umm that playlist is the ENTIRE Future Trance Discography... 61 volumes+ 2 "In the Mix" volumes +1 megamix+ Best of 15 years+Limited Edition+ 2 more Best Ofs.

I don't listen to just an artist's stuff I like hearing a mix... so does lots of people.... tons of people use playlists!!!

I also have my own compilation series I make with real album art and do them like a professional would... I have them all in neat folders, properly tagged, properly numbered, and my playlist has them all in order.

5 volumes of trance

5 volumes of house

6 volumes of hands-up

8 volumes of hardtrance

and 12 volumes of general euroclub music...

all done in the style of stuff like FT,DD,DJNX,TVX,etc...

I would NOT be able to compile those on the music app.... JRMJ has the tools to do that... and very nicely... I also use MP3TAG to have more options and even auto-number the tracks for me....

But I'm not gonna go on about this becuase you just assume everyone uses music apps the same... when they don't I even understand it's different... WMP has been working fine for everyone for years... even my mom knows how to make playlists, burn cds, tag files, etc with it... she's not very savvy compared to the likes of people on this forum... even my neice and nephews know how to use it to make playlists and they use them a lot and they are all under age 10!!!

[cropcircles]

Welcome to Windows 8, the soon to be most epic fail ever for desktop users.

And your not alone mate, that above is the reason most users won't go near it. Hell, a good 90% of the people I know will be sticking with Windows 7 simply because of how much of a mess 8 is for desktop users.

Agreed !

[bandit_liberty_rumble]

funny how all the anti streaming people have NO clue how spotify, Wimp, Zune/Xbox Music and so on works.

What "anti streaming people"? Personally I use Spotify a lot, mainly for music discovery, or for music that isn't important to me in the long term. At the same time, I still buy music (preferably CDs and lossless downloads) and have a large collection on my PC. Personally, I'd rather not get into a situation where, unless I continue to pay, month after month, I lose access to all the music that's important to me.

[Arceles]

I have terabytes of FLAC.... and to begin with, they don't even include FLAC decoding.

[efjay]

Well they definitely need to sort out all the crashing, most 3rd party apps don't launch after the first time and just crash back to the start screen. Useless.

[HawkMan]

Umm that playlist is the ENTIRE Future Trance Discography... 61 volumes+ 2 "In the Mix" volumes +1 megamix+ Best of 15 years+Limited Edition+ 2 more Best Ofs.

I don't listen to just an artist's stuff I like hearing a mix... so does lots of people.... tons of people use playlists!!!

I also have my own compilation series I make with real album art and do them like a professional would... I have them all in neat folders, properly tagged, properly numbered, and my playlist has them all in order.

5 volumes of trance

5 volumes of house

6 volumes of hands-up

8 volumes of hardtrance

and 12 volumes of general euroclub music...

all done in the style of stuff like FT,DD,DJNX,TVX,etc...

I would NOT be able to compile those on the music app.... JRMJ has the tools to do that... and very nicely... I also use MP3TAG to have more options and even auto-number the tracks for me....

But I'm not gonna go on about this becuase you just assume everyone uses music apps the same... when they don't I even understand it's different... WMP has been working fine for everyone for years... even my mom knows how to make playlists, burn cds, tag files, etc with it... she's not very savvy compared to the likes of people on this forum... even my neice and nephews know how to use it to make playlists and they use them a lot and they are all under age 10!!!

You missed the point that, you're not a common use case, in fact your use case is about 1 in a million, AT BEST. people use many small playlists, that they change as they feel like.

Also you can easily add files to playlists in the music app so I still don't get the whining. it's far easier and better to manage for regular users than WMP and over the top apps like JRiver.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Many can tell you otherwise. I have 250GB of music. There's people that would think that that is a puny tiny and "not a collection" by thier standards... there are people that have double digit TERABYTES of music. Imgine those users that try to use the metro music app.

Did the people at MS try HUGE collections like those?

I have an 80GB collection (about 15,000 files). Works great. But to be honest, the vast majority of my music playback is streaming / SmartDJ / etc. That goes for my PCs and my phone.

[Dashel]

Then go delete your collection and use the terrible apps (since it not only works good, but great). The rest of us realize this doesn't hold a candle to the Zune software or even WP7 and all your posts are just a distraction from that simple fact.

[HawkMan]

Again, if the built in apps that are built for regular users and users who just want to organize and play their music, you can still download foobar which you would even if they had an app as advanced as the old WMP.

[Dashel]

Yet Brandon just said that he, as a large collector, thinks its just great.

Foobar? Who uses foobar? Zune is the benchmark. (Though since you put it that way, if I was delusional enough to think that foobar is a good product, then the built-in might seem passable). Thankfully, I don't.

[HawkMan]

Yet Brandon just said that he, as a large collector, thinks its just great.

Foobar? Who uses foobar? Zune is the benchmark. (Though since you put it that way, if I was delusional enough to think that foobar is a good product, then the built-in might seem passable). Thankfully, I don't.

And? When did I say the music app didn't work with large collections? It works fine with mine.

If I wanted something more advanced foobar is the way to go, fully customizable, I can set up my view as I want, I can have one panel with folder view and one with artist/album view, very handy when fixing tags. Sound quality is unparalleled and while I like Zune and the music player, it's media management is better than anything else and if it doesn't work as you want it, you can customize it to perfection.

[remixedcat]

Are you a heavy playlist user like me?

I have an 80GB collection (about 15,000 files). Works great. But to be honest, the vast majority of my music playback is streaming / SmartDJ / etc. That goes for my PCs and my phone.

[DeadEndAccount]

Well they definitely need to sort out all the crashing, most 3rd party apps don't launch after the first time and just crash back to the start screen. Useless.

So apparently it is Microsoft's fault that third party applications are crashing? If the crashing is so wide spread how come we don't see a media circus around it - maybe it is just your installation?

[Rickkins]

The rest of us realize

Please do not presume to speak for us.

Signed,

The Rest of Us.

[n_K]

FooBar, rubbish?

I think you need your head retuning. FooBar's perfect for loads of people and devices and uses very little system resources. Although you having a pretty powerful PC compared to say an embedded system wouldn't really care less that you're using way more power or anything.

[MFH]

So apparently it is Microsoft's fault that third party applications are crashing? If the crashing is so wide spread how come we don't see a media circus around it - maybe it is just your installation?

Yeah, why don't we hear about the issues with a to be released OS in the general media? /s

[DeadEndAccount]

Yeah, why don't we hear about the issues with a to be released OS in the general media? /s

Because the RTM is already out there and if there was a major issue then guess what - we'd be hearing about it by the early adopters.

How about reading the post, thinking about it and the before you even write a reply consider asking yourself whether what you're going to write makes any sense what so ever.