

Miscellaneous Thoughts and Observations on iTunes 11 - tmoretti
http://daringfireball.net/2012/11/itunes_11

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aes256
My initial (sure to be expanded) list of things I hate about iTunes 11:

1) The option of a dark background in grid view has been removed; the white
background is horrible;

2) Sometimes the expanded view works well (the algorithm is clearly quite
clever, zooming in to remove borders, etc.), other times it looks atrocious;
it's around half and half; I've now spent hours debating whether to turn it
off or keep it on;

3) Track lists in columns, everywhere, often inexplicably (e.g. on an artist
page with no other albums); I know there's a bunch of horizontal white space
to fill, but this is an ugly way to fill it;

4) With the new grid view and 'expanded view' there is no longer a quick way
to view useful metadata about tracks (e.g. last played, number of plays,
etc.);

5) Previously track lists formed 'rows' that had alternating background colors
(I forget the name for this) that made it easier to follow; this is no longer
the case, and for some reason looking at track lists in iTunes 11 makes me
want to break things;

6) The new status bar no longer allows one to toggle the unit of measurement
for the amount of music in the library; previously you could toggle hours,
minutes, etc. now all it shows for me is days;

7) There is no longer an easy way to copy album artwork out of iTunes;
previously you could have a preview up in the sidebar, right click -> copy;
now one has to select an individual track (inexplicably, doesn't work for
entire albums), right click -> get info -> artwork -> copy;

8) The album artwork thumbnail at the top of the window (in the little dialog
showing the track, etc.) looks ugly and can't be removed;

9) The sidebar in the old version used to match the sidebars in other OS X
apps (Finder, Mail, etc.); now the font has changed to Helvetica (bold, for
that matter) it doesn't match anything;

10) The coloured sidebar icons that got ditched with OS X Snow Leopard and
iTunes 10 are back; I really hope this isn't a sign of things to come
elsewhere in the OS;

11) The option to change the size of album artwork in grid view has been
removed; it's now one size, take it or leave it. This is excruciatingly
irritating;

12) Still no FLAC support; this is beyond a joke now;

~~~
arrrg
Haha, I think this list illustrates quite nicely how useless reviews of
software might be. Not a single one of the points you mentioned irritates me
even lightly†. Those are all things I do not care about or even like. I hate
completely different things about iTunes.

That is not to say that anything you mentioned isn’t a valid point, they
clearly all are. I have often thought that as comprehensive as possible lists
of grievances (created by more than one person – you didn’t mention a single
thing I hate about iTunes and immediately noticed) might be the ideal way to
review things. When you read the review you can then just discard all the
grievances you don’t care about and use the rest for your decision making.

—

† The App Store one is the lone exception.

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hcarvalhoalves
Apple's lack of consistency on every iTunes update always baffles me (see
[http://s12.postimage.org/cra1i5ax9/Captura_de_Tela_2012_11_2...](http://s12.postimage.org/cra1i5ax9/Captura_de_Tela_2012_11_29_s_22_23_23.png)
for reinventing the wheel), but this time they really get the prize for
changing the font on the entire UI.

Now, the real news. It is _not_ a complete redesign until you make a separate,
decent application to sync with iOS devices. The navigation when I plug the
iPhone is still the same, and it sucks.

Also, how does it make any sense that iPhone apps are still managed by iTunes,
not the App Store, when on the iPhone itself iTunes and App Store are clearly
different apps? Come on Apple, you can do better than rely on fanboys praising
everything you release on their blogs.

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purephase
I'm not sure how I feel about it. Maybe I'm a luddite, but I prefer list view
and I can't see how to flip that on in the music section.

Something still feels a bit unpolished about it as well.

~~~
jonursenbach
To get back to the list view, you have to click "Songs".

~~~
sliverstorm
Which would be fine, except searching then takes me back to the other view. I
miss being able to use "search" as "filter"

~~~
arrrg
For some reason taligent’s very relevant response is marked dead: “Click on
the dropdown in the search field and deselect ‘Search Entire Library’. It will
now change to ‘Search Playlist‘ and filter as before. Although it seems a lot
slower than before.”

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fratis
I like the changes and new features quite a bit. My single quibble is that you
can't use the MiniPlayer when iTunes is in fullscreen mode.

I'd love to be able to relegate iTunes to its own Space and have the
MiniPlayer float around the Space I use for development, etc. When I want to
do basic navigation (beyond what I can do with my keyboard), I'd use the
MiniPlayer; when I want something more, I could swipe over to the fullscreened
app.

Maybe in 11.1.

~~~
purge
You can, just go to window > mini player and it appears in conjunction with
the fullscreen itunes.

~~~
arrrg
… but you have to do that _before_ you switch to fullscreen mode. I’m not sure
whether the ability to do this is a feature or a bug. It certainly seems like
one: When you switch from fullscreen back to the desktop with the mini player
you briefly see it flash its controls. That cannot be intended behavior.
Anyway, they certainly should turn this into a feature.

Cohesion is a bit lacking and there are many small bugs, which is probably
inevitable given the rushed release. I hope whoever worked on iTunes during
the last two months (which must no doubt have been hell) gets a few days off
and can then work on polishing and fixing those little bugs.

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nthitz
Gruber approves of an Apple product... What's next, RMS advocating for free
software?

~~~
philwelch
HN troll whines about Gruber submission. What next, an argument about patents?

~~~
nthitz
I would argue that the article doesn't really say much/add much value and that
if it weren't written by Gruber, it wouldn't be submitted and it wouldn't be
on the front page.

~~~
eli
Even if the sentiment is perhaps predictable, it's still an interesting and
relatively detailed critique.

~~~
philwelch
The interesting part of a Gruber post isn't the conclusion, it's how he gets
there.

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oulipian
"Does Apple have a single other remaining app with a modal preferences
dialog?"

What is Gruber talking about? The "Preferences" dialogs in Pages, Keynote and
iBooks Author work exactly the same way as the one in iTunes.

~~~
siglesias
Modal means that you can't do anything else in the app when the window is up.
In the other apps you mentioned I can open their preferences and still use the
app for something if I have to without closing it.

~~~
hboon
To add to that, another common and very useful behavoir of non-modal
preference box is the changes takes effect immediately, rather after OK is
clicked.

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cedricd
It feels weirder with an iPhone connected. You either see just the iPhone menu
or you're in your library. Now that it's almost like two apps with one button
to switch between them.

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jhawk28
My favorite part of the new app is that scrolling is fixed on Windows.

~~~
quux
What was wrong with it? I haven't used iTunes on windows in years.

