Roundup of Changes in iTunes 11: 'Expanded View', No Cover Flow, 'Up Next' and More

[PCMacUser]

My Airport Express needed a firmware update to 7.6.1 before it showed up in iTunes 11, in case anyone else is having the same issue.

[jApplewocky]

I'm an apple fan since 1987, never had a complaint and lots of my friends did follow me. But how about now and the future?

The looks are excellent, but
comparing with 10.7, on the same system the 11 version is terrible slow on
- searching
- updating tags and ilustrations
- starting to play a song
- getting the info window

No lllustration on songlisting
No coverflow
No finding duplicates
and probably more things to come

With Steve in the lead this would never had happen!!!
To much energy in patentwar i guess.

[milo]

Originally Posted by Drunken Master

No you're not...

Actually, yes I honestly am, but nice work on reading my mind.

[CalZephyr]

When I shuffle a playlist it will no longer sort in the order it plays. Actually, I have no idea what it's sorting by when I click on the first column (number).

[kirk26]

The look is so bad compared to the old version.

[Badagri]

Originally Posted by kirk26

The look is so bad compared to the old version.

iTunes 10 feels like the equivalent of coming from iTunes 4. iTunes 11 feels like 2012/13.

[isaacf]

I joined this forum just to lend my voice to those missing Coverflow from the latest upgrade. I only just discovered today it had been removed without any plans of reinstating it and I am deffo not pleased! I've expressed my view on Apple's Feedback page here - http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html - and I enjoin anyone feeling the same to do likewise.
And to those who said it was useless for them, at least you had the choice of not using it. I ALWAYS leave CoverFlow on anytime I'm shuffling songs or on my playlist. And to those comparing Cover Flow with "Expanded View" - please!

[DudeDad]

Originally Posted by smwatson

I have 20,000 songs and it is slooowwwww. Scrolling through artists is quick but it takes a while for artwork to load. The view of albums is annoying too, why can't we see a list of albums not just all of them there so you have to scroll through to find the one you want? It now takes longer to do that. For artists where you have a lot of albums (10+) you have to scroll through a lot of stuff before you hit the tenth.

Coverflow was rubbish.

Our libraries are similar....I have close to 22,000 songs, most are in Apple Lossless format (large files) on an external drive connected by USB 3. I'm not having the song slowness you are having (I also have a brand new Mac Mini i7, 16GB RAM -- replaced a 6 year old Mac Pro).

Regarding the album art, some does not show up, but there was a report yesterday that there is a bug affecting artwork and that it will be fixed in the first update.

Overall, I'm pleased with 11; especially how well it connects to my devices.

I used the "use camera" feature on a MacBook Pro to scan an iTunes gift card rather than manually enter the code -- very nice, but since I use a non-apple monitor with my Mac Mini (and a separate camera), that feature is not available on the mini....

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Originally Posted by jApplewocky

I'm an apple fan since 1987, never had a complaint and lots of my friends did follow me. But how about now and the future?

The looks are excellent, but
comparing with 10.7, on the same system the 11 version is terrible slow on
- searching
- updating tags and ilustrations
- starting to play a song
- getting the info window

No lllustration on songlisting
No coverflow
No finding duplicates
and probably more things to come

With Steve in the lead this would never had happen!!!
To much energy in patentwar i guess.

A report yesterday said that the finding dups feature and a repair to an artwork bug are coming soon....

[iThat]

I haven't read each and every one of the 100+ replies. But, no one so far has discussed the other serious issue the disappears with coverflow . ...Sorting compilation based music, such as classical. For those *&^*%^%$ at Apple development, that is music that was written before Back Street Boys. The music is meant to be played through multiple tracks. With the old iTunes, one could view by album, sorted by composer, and shuffle by group. Try scanning and selecting a particular composition, with 80GB of classical music, with this new matrix of oversized album covers. Doesn't work.

Who knows maybe this will show everyone just how much the coverflow feature is an important ideal & product in the itunes universe.

However at the end of the day this isn't iTunes anymore. This is something else.
I also want to thank the developers for there hard work as well. We do appreciate it and its rarely actually seen within the public eye so it makes it just that most important that they are recognized for their work.
It's just this decision seems like it was made a little arbitrarily.


In the end tho if the light sensor on the IPT5 and CF make a return it would complete this ones universe. No doubt.
All in all if that happened I might actually start buying apple products. My last 2 apple products where actually given to me.

Regards,
Nexus One Owner

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by iThat

I haven't read each and every one of the 100+ replies. But, no one so far has discussed the other serious issue the disappears with coverflow . ...Sorting compilation based music, such as classical. For those *&^*%^%$ at Apple development, that is music that was written before Back Street Boys. The music is meant to be played through multiple tracks. With the old iTunes, one could view by album, sorted by composer, and shuffle by group. Try scanning and selecting a particular composition, with 80GB of classical music, with this new matrix of oversized album covers. Doesn't work.

Can't you still do this from the Songs view?

[iThat]

Originally Posted by zhenya

Can't you still do this from the Songs view?

You can not .

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And that is not even the point.
The point is that this is a incredible negative move by apple. It represents contraction and restriction. And a pure public none acknowledgement of high end profile users. The same users that have helped apple to grow, reform and expand.

*Channels oddballs voice.

What is with these negative ways.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...tsFW4EmQ#t=57s

[milo]

For anything but the smallest libraries, it's hard to imagine using anything but the songs view. Going through classical material still works great for me using the songs view and column browser with Composer as one of the columns.

[iThat]

Originally Posted by milo

For anything but the smallest libraries, it's hard to imagine using anything but the songs view. Going through classical material still works great for me using the songs view and column browser with Composer as one of the columns.

For anything but? Sorry?

[milo]

What are you asking?

[iThat]

Originally Posted by milo

What are you asking?

Sorry are you for or against CF ? Your comments are unclear



For those that want a workaround.
Coverstream seems like a solution but only on macs.


But can this be linked with iTunes 11 ?
Should be noted it does have Last.FM support as well.



A few others are.

- Everplay (also with Last.FM support)
- Steelskies

- Songbird (requires CF "MediaFlow" addon) win/mac

(partial CF features)
- CoverSutra
- XDeskCover (windows)
- Run iTunes 10 in vm or sandboxed , this could be done on any platform actually.

CAD for windows is also kinda helpful.


By the way:
I was actually hoping for CF to be expanded. I never in my wildest dreams would have wanted it removed.
Things like adding the ability to have back covers with even more robust features and networking coverflow into the iPhone remote app so you can move your iTunes coverflow right from your iphone or iPod.

Apple. Lets expand and conquer. Then refine. Rinse repeat!

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by iThat

You can not .

I must not fully understand you because you can certainly still view by album and sort by composer in this view. What, exactly can't you do?

(Honestly trying to help here - many things people, including myself, think they can't do in the new version is just done a little it differently now).

[iThat]

You know it almost feels like apple has removed useful features just for the sake of removing them. Call me crazy but thats how it seems.

And if you look at the code review (the security doc) from 10.6 > 10.7 you will see that there where a few backend bug fixes as well. REAL code review.

It seems to me like apple simply does not want to spend the money on code review and thats why they dropped the original core.

They are taking the easy way out by changing the entire backend of the program itself.

Call me even crazier but something tells me the justice department should get involved here. This is bordering on reckless behavior (The backend change not the CF issue) and may have many reprehensible privacy vulnerabilities affecting hundreds of thousands of users.

edit:
Its just like the kernel change from iOS 5.1.1 > 6.
Now people have a entirely new animal to tinker with and poke.

[cambo]

Originally Posted by cambo

I'm liking the new iTunes 11 look and feel.

It does seem to have a few problems and I've had to force quit 3 times already - but that could be iTunes Store/communications related.

I quite miss the album artwork when playing a song (except in microscopic form in the mini-browser).

And I definitely do not like that my playlists which used to play in random order now only play according to how they are sorted. How can I sort randomly?

And it still doesn't send the Visualizer to AppleTV :-(

One week later and I'm liking iTunes 11 more:

I found random has been switched to shuffle - same effect so I am happy. :-)

I bought a song but it never showed on my play list - eventually I found it in the cloud and downloaded to my iMac, now all seems well.

Still a few strange things happening with my playlists, but as long as I don't lose them entirely and still have copies in the cloud I can live with it.

[Al Muhammed]

Expanded View looks just like the Android music player. Don't like it. Bring back Cover Flow.

[chasemac]

The world is material, yet climatically physical and I am without the rhetoric metaphysical.

[jazzmusician]

Originally Posted by TwinCities Dan

Miss my coverflow already... :'(

Same here. They should give us the COVER FLOW back !!!!

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Originally Posted by jApplewocky

I'm an apple fan since 1987, never had a complaint and lots of my friends did follow me. But how about now and the future?

The looks are excellent, but
comparing with 10.7, on the same system the 11 version is terrible slow on
- searching
- updating tags and ilustrations
- starting to play a song
- getting the info window

No lllustration on songlisting
No coverflow
No finding duplicates
and probably more things to come

With Steve in the lead this would never had happen!!!
To much energy in patentwar i guess.

I agree. iTunes 11.0 was a huge mistake. Apple should fix the bugs with the Artwork asap. Furthermore, they should give us back the Cover Flow !!!

[kirk26]

Originally Posted by Badagri

iTunes 10 feels like the equivalent of coming from iTunes 4. iTunes 11 feels like 2012/13.

They took out the "next" and "previous" buttons when editing songs. Now I have to close and then open each song to edit them. Very frustrating.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by kirk26

They took out the "next" and "previous" buttons when editing songs. Now I have to close and then open each song to edit them. Very frustrating.

For some reason they are missing if you choose multiple items, but if you choose one item, they are still there. Hopefully an oversight.

[Argmire]

I loved Coverflow, sorry to see it go, rights issues? I'm seeing more effort put into making money than making things exciting.
Grid view doesn't show which song/album is playing.
As always, when in the store, long song names/composers, etc are cut off. Columns should be expandable.
Browsing songs should be more like a web browser with the ability to open a link in a new tab. iTunes has always ignored this kind of experience.
There has alway been album art but where have all the liner notes gone, copyright issues?
Jobs or not, Apple doesn't make the effort they claim.

[mitch19661966]

I've spent the last 48hrs transferring and updating my TV Show Library. Can someone answer me why some of my shows i can see the "All Episode" button followed by each Season and why the others won't show the "All Episode" button? I'm getting frustrated.
Not to mention I too spend many hrs finding artwork that I can't see because the 1st Season Artwork become the default. ARGH!!!!!