

Apple releases iTunes 11 - nimeshneema
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/11/29/apple-releases-itunes-11-with-simplified-player-redesigned-store-and-more/

======
lectrick
I would like Apple to release a damn API to the iDevices so that some other
motherfucker can innovate on this clusterfuck of an old codebase

~~~
omfg
The new version is a ground up rewrite..

~~~
jfb
I find that difficult to credit - I don't have any insider info., but that's
not how Apple goes, for the most part. Also, if they _were_ doing a total
rewrite (as they did with FCP or iMovie) I would expect the outcome to be much
_more_ different from iTunes 10 than 11 is.

~~~
danieldk
_I find that difficult to credit - I don't have any insider info., but that's
not how Apple goes, for the most part._

From my first experience, it does seem to be whole lot faster than iTunes <
11\. I also like interface more.

~~~
jfb
No question good work was done. But I imagine a complete rewrite would involve
say non-modal preference dialogs just to pick a long-running irritation out of
a hat.

~~~
danudey
Seconded. The preferences dialog appears to be completely unchanged from
iTunes 10.

What's especially irritating about this is that modal preferences dialogs with
'Ok'/'Cancel' buttons have been discouraged since, as far as I'm aware, the
10.0 HIG.

~~~
jonknee
> What's especially irritating about this is that modal preferences dialogs
> with 'Ok'/'Cancel' buttons have been discouraged since, as far as I'm aware,
> the 10.0 HIG.

When _has_ Apple followed their own HIG?

------
ishansharma
It works well for me on Windows but there are no significant performance
improvements. Design is no doubt better.

I still wonder why Apple doesn't use their $100 billion to get some A-grade
software engineers. Steve Jobs used to boast about A-level players and all
that. But current mess that iTunes is can't be from A-level players.

And don't even get me started on Safari for Windows. Apple just seems to have
dropped ball completely on it!

~~~
jfb
I wonder who you think works on clang/llvm (or CoreAudio, or xnu, or
Quicktime)? People who can't get jobs writing Rails models for consumer web
startups?

~~~
olgeni
> I wonder who you think works on clang/llvm (or CoreAudio, or xnu, or
> Quicktime)?

People smart enough not to get anywhere near iTunes?

(really, would you trade clang or kernel dev for that?)

~~~
jfb
Touché!

In fairness, though, the iTunes client team is a lot smaller than most people
probably realize. Problems with the software are almost certainly the fault of
management trying to do more with less, and not the competence (in my
experience, extremely high) of the individual devs.

------
high5ths
New version seems faster in some respects, but at least ridiculously slow in
another: searching with the Column Browser open.

I have a huge library--~63000 songs; I'm a musician--and although iTunes 10.7
search was quite reasonable, the new iTunes takes several seconds to do
anything after typing a query. Even if I turn off "Search Entire Library" (so
that it only searches the active screen, like Music) it is incredibly
unresponsive. I'm talking ~6 seconds for the UI to update and the program to
become responsive again. If I limit the search to only one field (e.g.,
Composer) it is faster, but still substantially slower than iTunes 10.7 (~2
seconds for the UI to update, compared to the previous results of nearly
instant), and it makes the search much less useful.

Closing the Column Browser speeds up filtering, though it's still slower than
10.7.

~~~
dbrannan
Perhaps iTunes 11 needs to index your library over again before the speed
improves?

~~~
zerovox
I doubt it, it seems to be using the same plist format(essentially, a
glorified xml file) as previous versions.

~~~
hokkos
the plist is only for external app, internally it uses a sqlite.

------
SG-
It seems finally the green maximize button no longer toggles the mini player
mode and actually does what it's supposed to do.

------
Argorak
I really like the new mini player. Its finally useful, as it finally includes
all main music listening tasks including search.

~~~
Argorak
I have to take that back. The mini player considers "space" the same as
"enter" and just hits whatever has focus at the moment. Also, it tends to
select "back" if you refocus.

------
jfb
Looks a lot like iTunes 10. And … the bug I opened in 2008 is still there!
Sweet. Sort your library by Album/Year, and then reverse direction (year
descending.) Reverses album order. E_WONTFIX.

~~~
jonknee
Not at all actually.

[http://images.pcworld.com/reviews/graphics/products/uploaded...](http://images.pcworld.com/reviews/graphics/products/uploaded/apple_itunes_10.html_664578_g2.jpg)

vs

[http://images.apple.com/itunes/whats-
new/images/redesigned_p...](http://images.apple.com/itunes/whats-
new/images/redesigned_player_libraryviews1.jpg)

There's no sidebar for quick access to things, you have to click album art to
select a song, etc. It's a very large UI departure. You can return it to more
normal though by viewing by "song" and then selecting View > Show Sidebar.

~~~
jfb
It hasn't added any useful metadata features. It doesn't appear to cache the
downsampled synced versions of music. The default view is different, but it's
trivial to get back to the well understood two/three pane layout. There's more
iCloud stuff. The "Up Next" feature is pretty nice.

------
vineel
I just downloaded this. I really like the new design, especially the new album
view feature.

The most interesting update to me is iTunes Match:
<http://www.apple.com/itunes/itunes-match/>

~~~
kmf
Hmm. As far as I can tell, not much about iTunes Match has been updated. It's
been available since iOS 5 (and whatever the corresponding iTunes update was
-- 10.x?)

~~~
vineel
Oh, for some reason I'd never heard of it until this update. My mistake.

------
hcarvalhoalves
What's up with the awful bold fonts everywhere in the interface?

~~~
panacea
Haven't downloaded yet, but apparently they use Helvetica Neue Light for some
interface elements now. Perhaps you don't have that installed and it's
defaulting to Bold?

------
rsenk330
I've been using iTunes DJ a lot lately, but it doesn't appear to exist
anymore. Am I missing something?

~~~
whichdan
I'm still waiting for iTunes to have a normal queue that only plays the songs
in it.

~~~
htp
How would this differ from a playlist and/or Up Next?

~~~
e1ven
I've been waiting for "Up Next" Since I migrated from Winamp - Being able to
play a song, and then realize "I know what would go PERFECTLY after this", is
very useful.

Or listening to music, selecting a much of tracks, and throwing them in the
queue, without the hassle of creating a playlist ahead of time.

Very pleased!

------
Derbasti
That reminds me just how awful iTunes is. About a year ago, I switched to
RDio/Spotify and I have not looked back. I do not have any local mp3s any
more. Just some flacs for audio testing purposes.

It has been months since I last used iTunes.

~~~
sneak
I use iTunes to play my collection of lossless audio (downloaded as FLAC,
converted to ALAC in m4a containers). I also like to DJ occasionally, or send
albums to friends. Spotify allows for none of that, and has no lossless
playback options.

I'm not down on Spotify - I am a customer, as well. But don't pose it as the
solution to actually possessing a music library. If all you do is listen to
your music on earbuds, it's just fine. The moment you want to do more with it,
you're stuck.

~~~
Derbasti
It is a solution for me.

------
CoachRufus87
I look forward to checking this out though I find that with Spotify/Pandora,
iCloud iOS backups, and the Podcast app on my iOS devices, I open up iTunes
less and less these days. It's not even on my dock anymore.

------
ludwigvan
I am pretty happy with Enqueue as a replacement for iTunes, it plays flac's
too.

<http://www.enqueueapp.com/> (No affiliation)

------
rmrfrmrf
That logo just keeps getting more and more atrocious. Goodness.

~~~
hcarvalhoalves
Icon you mean.

------
sbmassey
Does it do anything more sensible with pdf's and epub's?

~~~
dchest
Nope.

------
garand
Here's the old icon for anyone that want's it.

<http://grnd.cc/LEbh>

------
krickle
I wish they would release us from iTunes or at least let me use the damned
thing with my work and home computer.

------
Historiopode
The new UI is quite nice, although its striking similarity to Sonora's design
leaves me with quite a bitter aftertaste. Unfortunately there seem to be no
substantial improvements over metadata and format handling; it looks like I
will keep missing foobar2k for a long time still.

------
MartinCron
I still can't authorize more than 5 computers. Yes, 5 computers is a lot, but
if you home/work computers for a couple with a shared account/library and a
family room iMac, that's it.

------
eduardordm
Can someone convince me there is a non-stupid reason for having to close Xcode
to make the upgrade?

------
gavinlynch
Gotta be honest: although the new UI is very much functional, it looks like
absolute shit.

~~~
sliverstorm
Form follows function, in my mind.

~~~
gavinlynch
Yah, just surprised they couldn't achieve both, as they often have. Won't stop
me form using it.. Just not sure this change was worth the effort.

