Apple Announces Major iTunes Update Coming Next Month [Update: Version 10.7 Released Today]

[iEvolution]

Fortunately there will be at least one version in its current form to support the latest iDevices in the event iTunes 11 looks and runs like a turd.

[Frobozz]

I can not wait for this. I expected this would be coming soon– it's been obvious that iTunes has had too many things tacked on without a complete redesign.

Let's hope they really improve the usability!

[akilone]

I was very disappointed with released day, I expect to be released these days. Is there any possibility of some beta leaked version?

[Saladinos]

The problem with iTunes is that it's against Apples typical app design: typically their apps are focused on one thing (e.g. iPhoto for photos, iTunes for music, mail for email, notes for notes, etc).

iTunes does loads of stuff totally unrelated to music - it's the gateway to all digital purchasable content through the iTunes Store; so apps, books & movies go there, too. It's also the place to manage your iOS devices (their apps, books, movies, contacts and settings and backups and everything else).

On iOS, Apple have separated these functions in to different apps, with their own "store" buttons and albumins and archiving. The movies app is currently the worst - its more like a finder window full of unsorted junk than a "music app for movies"; you can't sort or filter by actors, for example.

Apple should remake the movies app in the style of the iOS Music app.

Then they should bring that separated app concept to OSX. IOS device syncing is less important in the wake of iCloud, but I would still include it by having each OSX app handle the syncing of its type of content to the device.

[pdjudd]

Originally Posted by Saladinos

Then they should bring that separated app concept to OSX. IOS device syncing is less important in the wake of iCloud, but I would still include it by having each OSX app handle the syncing of its type of content to the device.

How would the separate app concept work for Windows users? Apple would be stuck with development and maintenance of even more apps.

[iTim314]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet...

PING IS DEAD!

[BaldiMac]

Originally Posted by Saladinos

The problem with iTunes is that it's against Apples typical app design: typically their apps are focused on one thing (e.g. iPhoto for photos, iTunes for music, mail for email, notes for notes, etc).

Replace "iTunes for music" with "iTunes for media" and the consistency is renewed!

(Not to mention that iPhoto also does video and PDFs, Mail has done notes and reminders until ML)

iTunes does loads of stuff totally unrelated to music - it's the gateway to all digital purchasable content through the iTunes Store; so apps, books & movies go there, too. It's also the place to manage your iOS devices (their apps, books, movies, contacts and settings and backups and everything else).

See above.

Then they should bring that separated app concept to OSX. IOS device syncing is less important in the wake of iCloud, but I would still include it by having each OSX app handle the syncing of its type of content to the device.

So, you want 8+ apps open in order to sync with your iOS device? Seems a lot more complicated.

[iTim314]

Originally Posted by BaldiMac

So, you want 8+ apps open in order to sync with your iOS device? Seems a lot more complicated.

You don't need all the apps open. Does iTunes require iPhoto to be open to sync photos? No.

What you'd have is an app solely dedicated to syncing your iOS devices, and like iTunes currently does with iPhoto, it'd pull all the necessary information from the media apps that it needs. Much simpler, and a far smaller memory footprint.

[farawaybrothers]

Originally Posted by iTim314

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet...

PING IS DEAD!

On iTunes it says "Ping will no longer be available as of September 30" I used to like Ping

[talmy]

Originally Posted by iTim314

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet...

PING IS DEAD!

Great news! I never really wanted everyone to know my favorite group is (was) ABBA anyway.

[BaldiMac]

Originally Posted by iTim314

You don't need all the apps open. Does iTunes require iPhoto to be open to sync photos? No.

What you'd have is an app solely dedicated to syncing your iOS devices, and like iTunes currently does with iPhoto, it'd pull all the necessary information from the media apps that it needs. Much simpler, and a far smaller memory footprint.

Except that's not what the poster said that I was responding to. He said he would have "each OSX app handle the syncing of its type of content to the device."

I understand what you are proposing, and I like it in theory. However, one problem is that all media isn't easy to separate into separate apps. There are overlaps that complicate things. Do music videos go in Music or Video? Do videos from your camera go in iPhoto or the Movie app? Where do ringtones go? Audiobooks vs iBooks. Podcasts can be audio or video.

And then you have the biggest problem pointed out by pdjudd. How do you manage all of these different apps on Windows? Because the majority of iOS device users are on Windows.

[StephenCampbell]

I watched the iTunes segment of the keynote last night, and there is a part where he clicks "Songs" in the new iTunes, and they show up as a list, which can be sorted by Album or Time or Artist via the columns. He didn't show whether the Genres/Artists/Albums boxes above the list can be made available again, but I assume they can.

It was just so surreal watching him talk about "improving the way you listen to music." Is this a joke? iTunes plays music. Everybody can listen to their music in iTunes. There is absolutely nothing to improve there. This drive to constantly change thinks makes them look a little insane sometimes, because he's standing up there saying "a great new way to do this.. and we've notice people like to do that.. and bla bla bla" and I'm thinking, wait a minute! When I open iTunes, all my stuff is right there, laid out neatly, and I can listen to or watch anything I want with a click of the mouse.

This is insane!

[iTim314]

Originally Posted by BaldiMac

Except that's not what the poster said that I was responding to. He said he would have "each OSX app handle the syncing of its type of content to the device."

I understand what you are proposing, and I like it in theory. However, one problem is that all media isn't easy to separate into separate apps. There are overlaps that complicate things. Do music videos go in Music or Video? Do videos from your camera go in iPhoto or the Movie app? Where do ringtones go? Audiobooks vs iBooks. Podcasts can be audio or video.

And then you have the biggest problem pointed out by pdjudd. How do you manage all of these different apps on Windows? Because the majority of iOS device users are on Windows.

Ah, I see what you're saying now. I, like many other, just wish running iTunes didn't make the rest of my not-brand-new MacBook Pro come to a crawl. The first idea that always comes to our minds is, "Divide the app." iTunes is currently taking up 26.7% of my memory just playing music.

[BaldiMac]

Originally Posted by StephenCampbell

I watched the iTunes segment of the keynote last night, and there is a part where he clicks "Songs" in the new iTunes, and they show up as a list, which can be sorted by Album or Time or Artist via the columns. He didn't show whether the Genres/Artists/Albums boxes above the list can be made available again, but I assume they can.

It was just so surreal watching him talk about "improving the way you listen to music." Is this a joke? iTunes plays music. Everybody can listen to their music in iTunes. There is absolutely nothing to improve there. This drive to constantly change thinks makes them look a little insane sometimes, because he's standing up there saying "a great new way to do this.. and we've notice people like to do that.. and bla bla bla" and I'm thinking, wait a minute! When I open iTunes, all my stuff is right there, laid out neatly, and I can listen to or watch anything I want with a click of the mouse.

This is insane!

That's a bit shortsighted. The main areas that Apple has worked on improving is discoverability of music in your library and the ability to dynamically create playlists. Obviously, if all you want to do is listen to a specific song or album, there's not much to improve.

For example the "Up Next" feature is a convenient way to manage upcoming songs, so you can preemptively skip songs before they start to play. Kind of like the DJ playlist, but easier to use and better integrated into the basic workflow.

[pdjudd]

Originally Posted by BaldiMac

And then you have the biggest problem pointed out by pdjudd. How do you manage all of these different apps on Windows? Because the majority of iOS device users are on Windows.

I was looking at things from an Apple development point of view - more apps is just way more development - for apps that would be inherently more complicated as individuals. Same issue though...

[BaldiMac]

Originally Posted by iTim314

Ah, I see what you're saying now. I, like many other, just wish running iTunes didn't make the rest of my not-brand-new MacBook Pro come to a crawl. The first idea that always comes to our minds is, "Divide the app." iTunes is currently taking up 26.7% of my memory just playing music.

That's odd. I've never experienced system-wide performance problems from playing music through iTunes. And I've never notice memory usage over 200mb or so.

[rhett7660]

Was it mentioned if you will be able manage one library that is shared on a server and being able to move those files to your iPhone/iPod/iPad etc without having to move them to the local machine? I haven't watched the video yet so I don't know if it was mentioned yet.

[milo]

Originally Posted by iTim314

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet...

PING IS DEAD!

Cook announced that months ago.

Originally Posted by BaldiMac

So, you want 8+ apps open in order to sync with your iOS device?

One improvement would be the option of syncing without having the app open. Or just a simple "sync" app that syncs everything.

[newagemac]

Originally Posted by urbanslaughter

Don't really agree with this being called "wireless sync" since you need to be plugged into power and connected to Wi-Fi. It's not exactly wireless, but it get's the job done. I honestly don't find it any easier to just plug in my phone than to plug it into the computer. I mean, really, what's the difference?

The difference is I can plug in next to my nightstand instead of getting out of bed and going downstairs to hook up to my Mac Mini in the office every night. That's a pretty big difference.

Also, you might not be aware of this but you don't even have to plug into power. Go into settings on your iDevice, click on iTunes Wifi Sync, and just choose to sync from there. True wireless syncing. No cables. At all.

[StephenCampbell]

Originally Posted by BaldiMac

That's a bit shortsighted. The main areas that Apple has worked on improving is discoverability of music in your library and the ability to dynamically create playlists. Obviously, if all you want to do is listen to a specific song or album, there's not much to improve.

For example the "Up Next" feature is a convenient way to manage upcoming songs, so you can preemptively skip songs before they start to play. Kind of like the DJ playlist, but easier to use and better integrated into the basic workflow.

Yes, I will be using the Up Next feature myself... but the way they speak is as if people weren't able to listen to their music until this update. None of these updates are important or necessary. They're little gimmicks that are like "hey cool, I can do that now!" and have no impact on happiness in life at all.

And I don't like the playlist thing. All my playlists are right now permanently displayed on the left side of iTunes, and I can drag anything into any of them. Again, what's to improve?

I'm a hands-on person. I want the digital life to be as equivalent to the analog life as possible. I have my music in iTunes, let me do with it what I want. If I want to hear a song from a different album after the current song finishes, I need to go to that album and play that song after this song is over.

All this automated stuff is going to disconnect us from reality. I wonder if Apple is also in the therapy business.

[BaldiMac]

Originally Posted by StephenCampbell

Yes, I will be using the Up Next feature myself... but the way they speak is as if people weren't able to listen to their music until this update.

That's just a strawman. No one has implied anything of the sort. Your own quotes spoke only of improvements.

None of these updates are important or necessary. They're little gimmicks that are like "hey cool, I can do that now!" and have no impact on happiness in life at all.

Speak for yourself. Removing minor annoyances increases my happiness.

And I don't like the playlist thing. All my playlists are right now permanently displayed on the left side of iTunes, and I can drag anything into any of them. Again, what's to improve?

The "Up Next" feature is the dynamically generated playlist that I was referring to! From your previous statement, it seems that you find it a useful improvement.

[StephenCampbell]

Originally Posted by BaldiMac

That's just a strawman. No one has implied anything of the sort. Your own quotes spoke only of improvements.



Speak for yourself. Removing minor annoyances increases my happiness.



The "Up Next" feature is the dynamically generated playlist that I was referring to! From your previous statement, it seems that you find it a useful improvement.

The dynamically generated playlist is fine. It'll be nice.

But the regular use of playlists is gone out of whack.. they only appear when you want to drag something to them, and the listings are really large and blocky, like those retarded giant-digit phones for old people. I want to be able to see as much music as possible at once.

[pdjudd]

I don't mind - I hardly ever use playlists anyhow and even if I did, they are still easily accessible at the top. I would much prefer a more compact interface that doesn't waste space.

[rien333]

Pretty weird how some people are really bashing the design while not even that much has changed. Yes, the album art lay out is the default now, but you can easily change it back to an other mode.

[Supermacguy]

Originally Posted by milo

Or just a simple "sync" app that syncs everything.

And what would they call that.... iSYNC!?