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iTunes 11, good or bad?
- Thread starter varunsanthanam
- Start date
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iTunes match screwed up my library pretty bad because one day I started deleting iTunes Match duplicates (ones said are matched on cloud more than once). But then a few days later saw that the originals were also deleted from my cloud. There werent that many that I lost but I was waiting for iTunes 11's "Major Overhaul" in hopes that they addressed it. But from waht I can see so far, if you had a complaint/issue with the last iTunes then this new one did nothing to fix them.
The biggest thing for me was the sound quality. Glad to hear that it hasn't changed and everything sounds the same. My only complaint would be the lack of a slider to adjust the album cover size while using the Album view category. If you have hundreds of albums it becomes a bit tedious because of the extra large size.
The new mini player is actually really cool!
The new mini player is actually really cool!
It's about 5x times faster on my aging Early 2008 Macbook Pro. Everything is fast, search, going to a new section, looking up genius suggestions (which actually opens up right there in the little popup, instead of switching to a new section). I'd say the only thing that's actually about the same speed is the App Store; it still lags which seems weird considering how fast the rest of the iTunes is.
Really liking the new interface. The expanded view is simply awesome. I actually went through most of the albums just to see each one. Pretty nice. And the updated mini player is awesome as well. I'll probably replace Bowtie with this. The great thing is, if you stick it on the bottom left/right and activate the up next list, it will show a nice animation as it rises to the top so you can manage your up next list and it goes back down once you're done.
But the feature I like the most is Play Next/Up next. Love it.
Really liking the new interface. The expanded view is simply awesome. I actually went through most of the albums just to see each one. Pretty nice. And the updated mini player is awesome as well. I'll probably replace Bowtie with this. The great thing is, if you stick it on the bottom left/right and activate the up next list, it will show a nice animation as it rises to the top so you can manage your up next list and it goes back down once you're done.
But the feature I like the most is Play Next/Up next. Love it.
Nope. I just updated to itunes 11. Okay, it doesn't look like you can stop a song from playing. Old crap I removed from my library a long time ago is now back in there. Duplicates are also there. I now have to remove them all again. Now when you do that, itunes hides it from the icloud purchased section. Why?! Also searching your own library is not as easy anymore. I'm not feeling it at the moment.
Something in between I love it and I hate it might have got my vote...It's certainly a huge improvement, and was sorely needed. The IOS like interface is no surprise, and the drop down menu's are far more intuitive than the old clunky offering we grew to hate.
On the whole, it's a winner so far, it is certainly faster than before, and it seems to connect more reliably to my ipad and iPhone.
I like the viewing options, and I think that new users will find it a lot easier to get to grips with than the previous incarnation. The jury is still out on just how stable and reliable it is, but time will tell on that score.
On the whole, it's a winner so far, it is certainly faster than before, and it seems to connect more reliably to my ipad and iPhone.
I like the viewing options, and I think that new users will find it a lot easier to get to grips with than the previous incarnation. The jury is still out on just how stable and reliable it is, but time will tell on that score.
One thing is really annoying....The capacity bar for Iphones and Ipads etc. is now so small you can hardly see it...Okay it;s not a major bug, but I did like the old one...At least you could see your free space at a glance, with 11 you need binoculars.
No iTunes DJ, so I won't be upgrading.
While Up Next is a great feature, the main functionality I used for iTunes DJ was the guest voting/requesting songs feature, which is no longer present in iTunes 11, superb for parties. No need to worry about sorting playlists out, just leave your friends pick the music, no complaints then.
Big shame, so I'll be holding off upgrading.
While Up Next is a great feature, the main functionality I used for iTunes DJ was the guest voting/requesting songs feature, which is no longer present in iTunes 11, superb for parties. No need to worry about sorting playlists out, just leave your friends pick the music, no complaints then.
Big shame, so I'll be holding off upgrading.
I absolutely love it. Best thing to happen to iTunes and one of my favorite pieces of software now.
So, what do we think of the new iTunes?
I love it actually. I was skeptical at first (change is scary!!), but I already like it better new. It looks cleaner, and the album view is pretty
. Luckily the side bar and status bar could be restored so that's another plus.
The only thing that I don't like, is the fact you can no longer display your duplicates
What do you guys think?
I love it actually. I was skeptical at first (change is scary!!), but I already like it better new. It looks cleaner, and the album view is pretty
. Luckily the side bar and status bar could be restored so that's another plus.The only thing that I don't like, is the fact you can no longer display your duplicates
What do you guys think?
I don't hate it, but so far I'm not loving it.
The UI is certainly quite different then I'm used too. Right now it seems more awkward to get to certain views I prefer and that's not a good thing. I like seeing things in the sidebar. Without the sidebar accessing my iPhone's settings or playlists.
I'll reserve my judgement until I get more used to it, I will say its more cleaner and as one review put it. You see less but you get more. I'm not a fan of the flat controls, I like some 3d built into them. Lack of depth in the control's visual appearance is not a good thing imo
The UI is certainly quite different then I'm used too. Right now it seems more awkward to get to certain views I prefer and that's not a good thing. I like seeing things in the sidebar. Without the sidebar accessing my iPhone's settings or playlists.
I'll reserve my judgement until I get more used to it, I will say its more cleaner and as one review put it. You see less but you get more. I'm not a fan of the flat controls, I like some 3d built into them. Lack of depth in the control's visual appearance is not a good thing imo
LOVE the "play next" feature. I've been wanting something like that for AGES. I also love the new album layout, it looks lovely.
Selection of anything is cumbersome and pretty TERRIBLE for large music and video libraries. The album / artist views are way too cumbersome to sort through and the song / episode displays take way too much screen space. The list views are just long lists with no album / episode season segregations and no artwork. Terible terrible terrible. Those of you who like it either have really small libraries or work for Apple (or both, which is the most likely).
Once again, Apple dumbs down the workings of a perfectly functional interface to SOLEY please the generalist, non-power, user. This is almost as bad as the iPad music player, although not quite. I am sure the Music player in the iPhone / iPod is next to be ruined, although I don't care because I switched to the Note 2.
Once again, Apple dumbs down the workings of a perfectly functional interface to SOLEY please the generalist, non-power, user. This is almost as bad as the iPad music player, although not quite. I am sure the Music player in the iPhone / iPod is next to be ruined, although I don't care because I switched to the Note 2.
two things I miss. Being able to double click on an album and have it show a list of songs. I may not want the album to start playing from track 1 and want to pick a different one. Secondly, I liked being able to group my iOS apps by category (e.g. sport, news, utilities, etc) instead of just iPhone and iPad.
The store is damn ugly now. I don't know what they were thinking.
The horizontal scrolling is unnatural and unfamiliar. Users expect to see horizontal scrolling in three situations:
- Slideshows, where it actually make sense
- Websites that are designed way too wide
- more "creative" websites that do this intentionally (they're annoying, not creative)
The last icon to the right shows only half of the icon, which I suppose is to indicate that scrolling is possible, but it's visually disturbing, making the layout look "broken".
It's even worse on the iPad version. As an app author, it concerns me that the new layout makes app discovery more difficult.
It's silly that the store is still integrated into iTunes. Break it apart so that the store is separate from iTunes.
As for the iTunes part of it - well, I can't comment, since I don't use iTunes for music. I don't play music on my computer, so it's a bunch of unnecessary visual clutter when I want to access the App Store to find iPhone/iPad apps.
I guess it's a great opportunity, though, for third-party app-discovery websites.
The horizontal scrolling is unnatural and unfamiliar. Users expect to see horizontal scrolling in three situations:
- Slideshows, where it actually make sense
- Websites that are designed way too wide
- more "creative" websites that do this intentionally (they're annoying, not creative)
The last icon to the right shows only half of the icon, which I suppose is to indicate that scrolling is possible, but it's visually disturbing, making the layout look "broken".
It's even worse on the iPad version. As an app author, it concerns me that the new layout makes app discovery more difficult.
It's silly that the store is still integrated into iTunes. Break it apart so that the store is separate from iTunes.
As for the iTunes part of it - well, I can't comment, since I don't use iTunes for music. I don't play music on my computer, so it's a bunch of unnecessary visual clutter when I want to access the App Store to find iPhone/iPad apps.
I guess it's a great opportunity, though, for third-party app-discovery websites.
Overall Improvement, But...
A) Possible Bugs that need to be addressed ASAP:
i) Crossfade is now disabled for same album tracks
ii) Play-count not working
B) Dropped Features that should be reinstated:
i) iTunes DJ
ii) The little 'circle-with arrow' icon next to the playing track's progress bar. This was great for taking you instantly back to the playing track - no matter where you are in iTunes...
C) Features that I Wished for:
i) Ability to 'create' your own customized "View Options"
ii) Ability to have your EQ preferences carry over when you 'Burn Playlist to Disc'
A) Possible Bugs that need to be addressed ASAP:
i) Crossfade is now disabled for same album tracks
ii) Play-count not working
B) Dropped Features that should be reinstated:
i) iTunes DJ
ii) The little 'circle-with arrow' icon next to the playing track's progress bar. This was great for taking you instantly back to the playing track - no matter where you are in iTunes...
C) Features that I Wished for:
i) Ability to 'create' your own customized "View Options"
ii) Ability to have your EQ preferences carry over when you 'Burn Playlist to Disc'
It looks beautiful! I love how it's smart when adding the right colours in the background according to the album artwork!
Only thing I don't like is the fact that you can't re-size the size of the album artwork... I don't like it being so tiny, I usually had it mid-size. But who knows, they might add that option in the future.
Only thing I don't like is the fact that you can't re-size the size of the album artwork... I don't like it being so tiny, I usually had it mid-size. But who knows, they might add that option in the future.
Voted 'love it' which isn't strictly true. I seem to be the only completely indifferent person on the planet.
Aside from a couple of minor things, it works (for me) exactly how 10.7 worked. Good job really, I was quite worried that my 180Gb of media were about to go South.
Thanks Apple.
Aside from a couple of minor things, it works (for me) exactly how 10.7 worked. Good job really, I was quite worried that my 180Gb of media were about to go South.
Thanks Apple.