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Apple Releases iTunes 5
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Some_Big_Spoon said:
Apple always seems to get to the point after a little while that they have to change the look and feel of their products, for little other reason than to change. You can either love it or hate it. I predict that we'll see the disappearance of the multicolored (close, minimize, etc.) buttons soon, possibly along with the aqua scroll and progress bars and move more towards a graphite-ish scheme.
johnnyjibbs said:
Yes -- it was part of SJ's presentation. The Nano replaces the Mini. I actually like the fact that we've got a new name. The Mac Mini and the iPod Mini were awfully confusing.
bankshot said:I've said this many times before, but it always bears repeating...
This is really starting tp p*** me off. I browsed the new iTunes pages at apple.com and still found no mention of gapless playback. Apple doesn't freaking care. It's pathetic. This is a feature that should have been in iTunes 2 at the latest so that those of us who really care about our music can enjoy albums without jarring gaps of silence between tracks. Now we have iTunes 5, and presumably it still isn't there.
What about when you said the Apple employees working on iTunes/iPod were all music lovers, Steve? Sounds like a lie to me. Nothing but empty hype. People who really care about music would not stand for such shoddy playback.
We all love to trumpet the fact that Apple is the company that pays attention to detail. I call BS in this case. This is one detail that's been glaringly neglected time and time again. Surely one Apple engineer realizes this is a problem and would like to fix it? It's not that difficult - numerous solutions exist. If Winamp can do it, why not iTunes? And don't get me started on iPod...
I'll go ahead and give it a try (nothing keeping me on 4.9), but I have zero hope that it was added and simply not mentioned. Apple does not always pay attention to detail - in the case of their music products they seem to only pay attention to what's hip or cool. I'm getting sick of it.
If any competitor's product even approached the ease of use and integration between iTunes and iPod, I'd jump ship in a second and replace my stolen iPod with something else. As it is, I keep waiting for the new generation of iPod that won't mangle my favorite albums. Seems it won't happen any time soon.
And before anyone replies, the following are not acceptable solutions:
- Cross-fading
- Ripping a whole CD as one big track
If a 20-year-old CD player can play without gaps and skip tracks, I want my state of the art jukebox software and device to do it too. Is that really too much to ask?
Unfortunately the masses don't care (they just want to shuffle), so Apple's ears are (tone) deaf to this request. What about the details, Apple?
</rant>
There, that felt good.
amen brother! I'm with you - I listen to a lot of live music and it bugs the heck out of me...
johnnyjibbs said:
I like Metal but with the new styles I am all for just dropping it. It doesn't fit anymore. Just leave the light and the dark plastic and that's it.
m-dogg said:
I agree on the gapless playback feature. It's something that itunes is lacking. I listen to a lot of live music as well as Pink Floyd - you don't want to listen to DARK SIDE OF THE MOON or THE WALL with gaps. The answer isn't to have the album on your ipod twice - that takes too much room. I don't understand why apple can't add this feature? it should just be a small line of code and a button. right?
Lacero said:
Still no proper undo. Still does nothing. I was so hoping for this.
All in all a crappy upgrade. Hopefully iTunes 6 will come out in January...
Right click to check/uncheck multiple songs
I've had a "Check/Uncheck selected songs" applescript installed for a while now, but I notice that there's a similar option if you right-click songs now. Is this just an extension of the scripts menu somehow, or does everyone else see it too? If so, it makes checking and unchecking large groups of songs much easier.
I've had a "Check/Uncheck selected songs" applescript installed for a while now, but I notice that there's a similar option if you right-click songs now. Is this just an extension of the scripts menu somehow, or does everyone else see it too? If so, it makes checking and unchecking large groups of songs much easier.
sammyjojo said:I'm on my pc right now, but I'm sure this applies to the mac version also (installing as I type), but they added VBR to AAC importing!!! Prefs->advanced->importing->settings->custom, look for use vbr!
nice - I've been hoping for that!
Outlook synching
So what's this about Outlook/Outlook express synching on the PC? Has someone tried that?
That seems so odd to me - I wonder if this is a harbinger of things (iCal/Mail?) to come for windows. Could they be laying the groundwork for more crossover apps? Not sure how this would fit in with any business plan.
Incidentally, my 'next song' button is broken, it acts just like the 'back' button, repeating the same song forever. I've got an older version of synergy installed so testing to see if that's the problem.
So what's this about Outlook/Outlook express synching on the PC? Has someone tried that?
That seems so odd to me - I wonder if this is a harbinger of things (iCal/Mail?) to come for windows. Could they be laying the groundwork for more crossover apps? Not sure how this would fit in with any business plan.
Incidentally, my 'next song' button is broken, it acts just like the 'back' button, repeating the same song forever. I've got an older version of synergy installed so testing to see if that's the problem.
Jovian9 said:
I disagree completely. First, I don't want to waste double the disk space. There's no reason I should have to. Second, I want the freedom to skip a track in the middle of a gapless playback session if the urge suddenly strikes me. That doesn't usually happen, but I want that freedom, just like I have with any CD player. Finally, I want every time I listen to a song, gapless or not, to increment that song's play count and last-played time. This method will not do that, so it is unacceptable to me.
Like I've already said, the solution is easy. Apple has simply chosen to ignore it for no good reason.
Jovian9 said:
Again, I completely disagree. You're suggesting that I go audiophile, which I see as absolutely ridiculous. Every method of listening to music has an inherent loss to it (CDs truncate audio to a "mere" 16 bits of precision at 44.1 kHz, vinyl -- which audiophiles love -- has a horribly worse signal to noise ratio than CD, etc), but my real experience is that iTunes/iPod are perfectly acceptable given decent (not high end - those are for suckers) speakers or headphones and a quiet environment. I care about listening the music, not spending $100k to gratify my ego that my "golden ears" will be satisfied with the quality of audio reproduction (you can guess that my opinion of audiophiles is a low one). And to me, removing the gaps between tracks is vastly more important than squeezing out some tiny extra amount of audio "quality" that no human ears can distinguish in the first place.
Like we often say about many Apple products, the appeal is in the overall experience. For me and my listening preferences, that includes:
- All of my ~5,000 songs at my fingertips
- Organizing my music into playlists, both manually and based on logical criteria (smart)
- Find based on song title, album, artist, and metadata quickly
- Good audio quality (not cheap, not over the top)
- Several shuffle options, including album, song, and playlist shuffling
- Seamless integration between my software jukebox and my portable device
- Update metadata such as play count, last played time, etc for any song that's played
- Play full albums without gaps between tracks
- Ability to skip tracks when doing any of the above
That's what does it for me. Give me a system that meets all of those, I'm in heaven. Force me to work around any of them or simply don't provide some of them, and I'm a cranky old bastard. iTunes/iPod gives me all but the last two (and the one above them, when speaking of gapless playback). If gapless had never been done before, I wouldn't care (and if so, nobody would ever release an album that required it, so it'd be a moot point). But since it's been done in a much simpler device over 20 years ago, such that much available music depends on it, I feel like I have a right to complain. What bothers me so much is I know it's not that difficult. They just don't care.
Of course, Apple has no obligation to listen. But I will continue to actively search for a replacement if they continue to ignore this request (I'm not the only one). The first company that gives me all of the above points will get my business. Unfortunately all of Apple's competitors fall short in some of the other areas, so I continue to wait.
For you, your solution may be just fine, and I'm happy that it works for you. For me, I will continue to wait for whoever wants to attract my business with a better product.
howard said:
do the nested folders appear on your ipod? or are the all just in alphabetical order still?
HUGE BUG!
Ok, so now I can include podcasts in my playlists. HOWEVER, I STILL cannot load a podcast with Autofill....HELLLLOOOO Apple! This is BOGUS.
Ok, so now I can include podcasts in my playlists. HOWEVER, I STILL cannot load a podcast with Autofill....HELLLLOOOO Apple! This is BOGUS.