iTunes modifies Apple's UI defaults dramatically

[Southern Patriot]

They will, at the same time when Microsoft brings proper Windows Media support to Mac OS X.

I think Hell would have to freeze over (again) for that to ever happen. Microsoft seems determined to deprive other platforms of proper Windows Media support. Windows Media Player for Mac never was great, but at least it was functional. The Flip4Mac plugins are utter trash, and buggy as hell (and don't get me started on the outrageous price for the versions that allow for import/export ability!!!).

[.Neo]

Yup.

There are a few rub points in iTunes 10, but overall it's better than iTunes 9. I don't get the hate.

I don't really hate iTunes 10, I just hate iTunes as a whole. What a dog of an application performance-wise. Converting music files to 128 AAC for my iPod on-the-fly takes for ever. Why? Because iTunes only uses one of the eight cores available. It will slow to a crawl if you perform more than one action at a time. iTunes will also randomly hang at startup when an iPod, iPhone or iPad is connected. Back in 2007 I actually thought the poor performance and lock-ups had to do with my aging eMac only to find out it didn't run much better on the latest 24-inch iMac with a 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo.

The gap between Mac OS X Snow Leopard's other default applications and iTunes has become huge when it comes to performance.

Keep it up Apple! (Y)

[Elliott]

I don't really hate iTunes 10, I just hate iTunes as a whole. What a dog of an application performance-wise. Converting music files to 128 AAC for my iPod on-the-fly takes for ever. Why? Because iTunes only uses one of the eight cores available. It will slow to a crawl if you perform more than one action at a time. iTunes will also randomly hang at startup when an iPod, iPhone or iPad is connected. Back in 2007 I actually thought the poor performance and lock-ups had to do with my aging eMac only to find out it didn't run much better on the latest 24-inch iMac with a 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo.

The gap between Mac OS X Snow Leopard's other default applications and iTunes has become huge when it comes to performance.

Keep it up Apple! (Y)

I agree. I wish Apple would do for iTunes what they did for QuickTime X. I don't like how iTunes performs or behaves either. I just don't think iTunes 10 is any worse than any previous versions and really don't understand the hate surrounding it.

[.Neo]

I wish Apple would do for iTunes what they did for QuickTime X.

You mean rewriting the software and leave out 75% of the features of the previous version in the progress? Not sure if that's the solution I'm waiting for either. :/

[Xtreme $niper]

I assumed the goal of iTunes 10 was just to upset people.. and they are doing a rather good job at it.

Honestly, between this and Safari 5, Apple's OS X development efforts are starting to disappoint me greatly.

[Quillz]

Honestly, between this and Safari 5, Apple's OS X development efforts are starting to disappoint me greatly.

The downside of being hip, trendy and making all your money off portable gadgets... Their other products begin to suffer.

[.Neo]

The downside of being hip, trendy and making all your money off portable gadgets... Their other products begin to suffer.

Apple always made more money off Mac sales than iPods and iPhones. I don't know if that's still the case today, if not it changed recently.

[Elliott]

You mean rewriting the software and leave out 75% of the features of the previous version in the progress? Not sure if that's the solution I'm waiting for either. :/

You have to start somewhere. Both QuickTime and iTunes are pretty big pieces of software.

[.Neo]

You have to start somewhere. Both QuickTime and iTunes are pretty big pieces of software.

Apple has been deploying dual-processor Macs since what... the early G4-erra? Quad-core and dual-core have become increasingly popular since 2006 and yet anno 2010 iTunes makes ZERO use of that. Sounds like slacking to me...

[Alladaskill17]

Yeah, I didn't really like the iTunes 9 UI and this one isn't really better.

I think that iTunes really needs a complete rewrite as a native Cocoa application, maybe with iTunes 20 :rolleyes:

A complete rewrite doesn't mean the layout of the UI would be changed.

Anyways, but yea the icon for iTunes 10 is terrible lol

[.Neo]

A complete rewrite doesn't mean the layout of the UI would be changed. Anyways, but yea the icon for iTunes 10 is terrible lol

I don't have any problems with the new icon to be honest... I find it pretty humorous how people handle any form of change so poorly. Most complained just as much about the icon used by iTunes 9 when it was first introduced.

[jason13524]

Has anyone else noticed that iTunes 10 has moved the buttons that control the window size and hidden state?

It's a pretty dramatic change. I hope this is not the way that the rest of their UI is going in 10.7, whenever that eventually gets revealed.

The attached image is from the full player, and not the mini-player.

I wouldn't say moving three buttons across to down is anywhere near dramatic, its probably a one minute job.

[.Neo]

I wouldn't say moving three buttons across to down is anywhere near dramatic, its probably a one minute job.

It's not a dramatic move to execute from a developer point of view, but then again that probably wasn't what he was referring to. It's a dramatic change in the sense that people, regardless of using Mac OS X, Windows or Linux, have always been accustomed to those buttons being situated horizontally.

[Southern Patriot]

Most complained just as much about the icon used by iTunes 9 when it was first introduced.

Hell, if I remember right, people complained when they changed the musical note on it from green to blue!

[andrew_f]

I've really gone off iTunes recently. I still don't understand how Apple can have a strop about third party developers using Carbon (specifically a rumored part of the spat with Adobe - having only moved to Cocoa recently) and interface guidelines when arguably their biggest piece of software outside is built on it and defies them.

I haven't got a real problem with the logo but it seemed obvious to me that their reasoning was an excuse, really. "iTunes isn't about CDs" is a fair point, but it is still a music platform? I would argue not, I'd say it was a media platform - by their reasoning the logo should include references to books, apps and movies (a good mockup I saw actually did this well).

The fact it's iTunes 10 and not iTunes X bugs me as well, as does the fact the metal chrome around the logo is completely different to Quicktime X's. Apple used to be king of polish and consistency, what happened?

[Elliott]

Apple has been deploying dual-processor Macs since what... the early G4-erra? Quad-core and dual-core have become increasingly popular since 2006 and yet anno 2010 iTunes makes ZERO use of that. Sounds like slacking to me...

Taking advantage of multiple cores in OS X efficiently means using Grand Central Dispatch which means rewriting in Cocoa. They could take use multiple cores in Carbon, but it's more trouble than it's worth for a media app.

[ccuk]

I don't have any problems with the new icon to be honest... I find it pretty humorous how people handle any form of change so poorly. Most complained just as much about the icon used by iTunes 9 when it was first introduced.

I think the new icon looks cheap... And it's also a poor choice. Files associated with Safari on my Windows box look very similar to music files now.

I also miss the dash of colour on the side bar, having everything a drab shade of grey doesn't really do it for me.

[.Neo]

Taking advantage of multiple cores in OS X efficiently means using Grand Central Dispatch which means rewriting in Cocoa. They could take use multiple cores in Carbon, but it's more trouble than it's worth for a media app.

The point is if Apple wanted to put any effort into making iTunes Cocoa they would have done so by now. Clearly they have little to no interest.

I think the new icon looks cheap... And it's also a poor choice. Files associated with Safari on my Windows box look very similar to music files now.

They're really not that similar...

I also miss the dash of colour on the side bar, having everything a drab shade of grey doesn't really do it for me.

With that I agree. iTunes 10 looks too black and white for my taste as well.

[amon91]

My guess is iTunes 10 is a preview of what OSX 10.7 will look like, remember what happened with Leopard and 7.0. I have to agree it looks a little black and white and I must say I miss the 'color' earlier versions of OSX had.

[+virtorio MVC]

I think I'm in the minority who really like the iTunes 10 look.

[Sandor]

The problem with itunes is it's function has grown so much over the years that's it's actually lost a sense of purpose.

is it a music player? is it an online music/app/whatever store? is it for syncing your ipad? etc

They need to rename it to something useful and re-write it from the ground up.

[.Neo]

Clearly there is still more than one issue with using the new close / minimize / zoom button layout...

It just looks retarded this way. :laugh:

The problem with itunes is it's function has grown so much over the years that's it's actually lost a sense of purpose.

is it a music player? is it an online music/app/whatever store? is it for syncing your ipad? etc

They need to rename it to something useful and re-write it from the ground up.

The way things are going iTunes will probably end up containing every single feature Mac OS X, iLife and iWork have to offer by the time it hits version 20. From playing music to making spreadsheets.

[+virtorio MVC]

Clearly there is still more than one issue with using the new close / minimize / zoom button layout...

It just looks retarded this way. :laugh:

The way things are going iTunes will probably end up containing every single feature Mac OS X, iLife and iWork have to offer by the time it hits version 20. From playing music to making spreadsheets.

iTunesOS

[PyX]

I installed a pack to actually revert all the new changes in iTunes 10 to iTunes 9. It looks MUCH better this way. The icons on the left are beautifully colored again, and the traffic lights are back where they were. The volume control is finally as tiny as it was before and the button to control the volume doesn't look like a CD anymore (hell, that's where they hid the CD from the icon).

I also downloaded a custom icon from this site (there’s a lot of choice) :

http://www.welovemac...des-graphistes/

I took this one :

[Elliott]

Clearly there is still more than one issue with using the new close / minimize / zoom button layout...

It just looks retarded this way. :laugh:

Yea, it definitely doesn't look right that way, but I bet they looked at usage statistics and realized very few people double-click playlists to open a new window. Because of that, they figured they might as well save some space for most users and cut off some pixels.