Apple Working to Update and Simplify iTunes Store and App Store in 2012?

[kas23]

"Music" app here we come. Just like they are removing the functionality of other apps, maybe they can remove the "buy" button too.

 

[sazivad]

Warning: n00bish question!

What is it about iTunes that everyone dislikes? People say it's in need of an overhaul, but I've never had any significant problems with it. Is that because I'm not a "power user" or whatever?

 

[wikus]

Warning: n00bish question!

What is it about iTunes that everyone dislikes? People say it's in need of an overhaul, but I've never had any significant problems with it. Is that because I'm not a "power user" or whatever?

It's loaded with crap that most of us don't use, don't need and don't want. It's a resource hog; it uses far too much ram and too much of the CPU. Simply disabling all of the non-essentials in iTunes does *not* improve performance. iTunes eats up at least 50mb of RAM when it has no music in its library. Fill it with 10,000 mp3s (in my case) and it skyrockets to 200mb and thats with all the non-essentials disabled. I can't even imagine how awful it would be to have movies, tv shows and all the other crap enabled on it. The alternatives, like Enqueue and Vox offer a small, lightweight and *really* fast application for this task. I've never seen Vox go beyond 15mb of RAM usage, and Enqueue typically uses about 30-40mb of RAM fully loaded, and both do a way better job.

A lot of us just want a small simple application used ONLY for playing back music on the computer. The name iTunes itself is misleading, it should be called iMedia, since Apple has loaded it with everything but the kitchen sink.

 

[69650]

If as rumoured Apple starts to move towards all SSD in its computers then we are all going to have much smaller hard drives for the forseeable future. Most of my hard drive is clogged up with iTunes content. The solution? Move the content into iCloud which then acts as your own personal hard drive in the cloud. Instead of having to download iTunes purchases you get the option to store them in the cloud and just stream the content as and when you need it. Makes a lot more sense for films and tv shows. I would probably just download the music for my iPod and stream the video content instead.

You can already do this with podcasts. You don't have to download a podcast to watch it. You can stream it instead. Makes a lot more sense.

 

[MattInOz]

Seems, to be some misunderstanding here, this is about the iTunes STORE. Not the application we use on the computer. Read it again, it states they want to improve searching for content. All of that is in the iTunes Store on Apple's side, nothing to do with the software side we see.

iTunes itself is a bloated joke. When it was just music, it was fast, efficient and worked. Not it's like starting a damn steam engine. Take 5 minutes before it comes to life.

Apples recent survey about iTunes was very much both Store and the Application.

The other thing is they seem to be running 3 different ideas in iOS at the moment on how to handle this situation. You have Paired apps like Music/Video/iTunes Store, iBooks has another take and finally Newsstand similar to iBooks but with the pre-app display of content.

I personally would prefer if they did split them up.
Have a nice light Browser then jump straight to playing music.
Make better use of visuals while browsing but then get it out of the way.

Warning: n00bish question!

What is it about iTunes that everyone dislikes? People say it's in need of an overhaul, but I've never had any significant problems with it. Is that because I'm not a "power user" or whatever?

In the immortal cry of all music fans.
"It sold out man, it use to be about the music"
(Yes that Tool song is one of my favourites)

 

[yongren]

Dude, I would love to have an app on my computer called "Music," in which would be music and nothing else. And one for "Videos" and "iBooks." And iPhoto could even be renamed "Photos" for good measure. Make iOS syncing happen in the background, totally automatically, every time you add or change something. Then, have an app called "iStore" or just "Store" for buying Mac AND iOS apps.

Oh, and ditch Ping.

 

[Pegamush]

i always wondered why don't they used iSync for syncing iphones/idevices.
itunes is such a good program to play music, why did they make it so sh.tloaded with crap?

i'm not completely sure they will, but i will love to see a stand alone store app, a cloud only sync (maybe in future) for idevices, and why not dreaming: quicktime with library? (don't know if i'm going to use that, but it would make sense..)

edit. i just noticed they did it on the new vlc 2.0!! too late for you QT.

 

[Yumunum]

They should solve the weird mystery... Why is the iTunes store also the iBookstore and App store? Make them separate. Add iBooks to Mac (okay, probably not gonna happen), give it the iBookstore like the iOS app. Then make the Mac App Store the "App Store" that has both iOS apps and Mac Apps. Problem solved. Right now the naming scheme is weird. Kinda like how "Notes" is within mail currently. It's just weird. Thankfully that's getting fixed in ML

 

[DenisAuermann]

Hehe

They need to create more categories, the ones they current have are too vague for the amount of apps they carry.

Maybe even add a "cart" option? I would love to queue up a few apps I want to buy by adding them to a cart?

This would be a very good feature on iOS because I HATE downloading an app and getting bounced out of the app store to watch it download!

I feel ya, Buddy. That pisses me off too

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A406 Safari/7534.48.3)

I just wish I could update my apps or download previously purchased apps from iCloud without entering my password. Or just make it an option. I would only want my password required for apps that cost money.

 

[MacFly123]

Here is my predictions right now:

When Mountain Lion launches Apple will release an all new iTunes with the UI from the iPad, a separate video app like on iOS, the podcasts will go in either the new music/iTunes app or videos app based on type, the iTunes store will be integrated into the music app for audio and built into the videos app for movies/tv, and the Mac App Store app will just be App Store with Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch all in the same App Store.

It would be a MUCH better and consistent experience!

So let it be written!

(The second they showed Mountain Lion I knew they would do this because I have thought about it before and I think it is now becoming clear! I'm very excited!)

 

[mrsir2009]

I think there should be a separate iDevice manager

 

[jclardy]

To be honest the App Store is the most antiquated feeling app I have on my iPhone.

It has only had minor revisions since the iPhone 3G 3 years ago.

Things I would like to see:
- Video clips for app descriptions. Screenshots are great, but it is annoying having to search youtube to see how an app acts before buying it. Most good apps have a video trailer/demo of them, so it would help push down the bad apps.
- "Report this app" button. Since the Pokemon Yellow and Temple Jump scams this would make things so much easier for Apple. Especially since it takes them so long to see a 1-star rated app shooting up the paid charts.
- Better app recommendations. Genius is cool, but it should be integrated from the front page and not partitioned off. Something more like Amazon, where it is tailored towards the user.
- Better categories/category pages. Going straight into a new app list is pretty useless, as each category gets around 30-40 new apps every day, some more than that. It doesn't have to be a "featured" section, just an automated thing that shows popular new apps. Maybe an "Upcoming" apps section for apps that are relatively new but have good reviews/number of downloads.

Also rather than just sorting based on purely download count they should take ratings into account. And at the same time, developers should be able to respond to user reviews, as right now they are anonymous, and if someone complains about some random fixable issue the developer can only hope they read the update text.

Those are just some of my ideas. The main gist is that Apple should start promoting quality over quantity and be able to stop scams like "Pokemon Yellow" before they start. Also help out niche apps to allow developers to make decent money on more expensive apps (Which means higher quality apps that are tied to a specific niche are viable.)

 

[SiriusExcelsior]

The single app controlling everything works much better. I have my iPhone syncing over Wifi to iTunes on my Mac Mini and I don't have to think about anything. It just syncs on its own anytime I plug it into any charger or anytime I go into Settings on my iPhone and click the sync button.

I can't imagine having to worry about multiple apps when all I want to get is get all my content on my device. And then managing space on your device would require juggling between multiple different apps. It's not hard to understand why its best to have one tool to manage all your media content.

I'd imagine they would have a sync solution that didn't involve opening a bunch of different apps

..and this one-app sync solution is called.. iSync!

Having iTunes doing the syncing is mostly just historical, and made sense back in 2001 since iSync wasn't around when the iPod came out. Having the iPhone sync with iTunes also made sense because, to the end user, it was basically an iPod with phone functionality, and iTunes had always been used to sync iPods.

But I think at some point, having a music jukebox software sync photos, contacts, calendars, apps, documents, books, games, etc will become like hammering a square wooden peg into a round hole: It'll sort of fit, but it sure won't look pretty.. Have you seen how many tabs there are on the device screen in iTunes?

I'm sure many other people will have wondered at one time or another why the iPhone didn't sync using iSync when all other phones did ('cept maybe the ROKR). Apple hopefully will also have wondered this, and will now use iSync for the purpose it was created, instead of letting it languish and having iTunes become this complicated media/device manager software...

As for having to open multiple apps to sync, iTunes already gets around this when it syncs contacts, photos, movies, etc. You just do it in iTunes; you don't have to open Address Book, iPhoto, iMovie, etc. It's not a stretch to see iSync doing the same thing

 

[DaveTheRave]

Warning: n00bish question!

What is it about iTunes that everyone dislikes? People say it's in need of an overhaul, but I've never had any significant problems with it. Is that because I'm not a "power user" or whatever?

I don't consider myself a power user but for such an important program for Apple it seems to be a bit sluggish. And in general it seems cluttered. It drives me nuts that it can't find artwork for many mainstream CDs I've imported. But I don't hate the program. The wifi sync with my iPhone is really convenient - great new feature.

 

[skadd]

iStore

Why is the Mac App Store separate from the iTunes Store? Why not make one store for everything? iStore?

 

[ArcaneDevice]

But I think at some point, having a music jukebox software sync photos, contacts, calendars, apps, documents, books, games, etc will become like hammering a square wooden peg into a round hole: It'll sort of fit, but it sure won't look pretty.. Have you seen how many tabs there are on the device screen in iTunes?

With iTunes the bloated Ring of Sauron that it now is, it's hard to remember that it was once looked like this:

http://www.atpm.com/7.02/itunes.shtml

And when compared to it's roots in Soundjam, even version 1.0 looked gigantic.

 

[pdjudd]

Why is the Mac App Store separate from the iTunes Store? Why not make one store for everything? iStore?

Simple. Windows. There is no need to sell mac apps for Windows - so why develop another App that must be maintained but would be mostly wasted on the Windows platform. It’s the same reason they keep things in iTunes - it makes developing easier since they don’t have to develop 3 different applications (that likely won’t work the same) for Windows. Right now they have to develop for Windows - they don’t have a choice (Jobs was forced into doing it). Apple doesn’t want to further invest into windows. Right now iTunes has files that are cross platform and they just have to develop one app (the store is server side) on two platforms.

 

[charlituna]

I have been saying this for years (or at least thinking it really hard) but iTunes needs to be broken down into component parts

They could refocus iTunes as a player app, perhaps bring the DVD playback controls into it as well. Roll all the stores into the app with the Mac App Store. And then for syncing just have the device appear on the desktop and you double click to access the syncing. Perhaps if you are doing wifi sync you have the option to have the icon stay on the dock (or appear whenever the device is connected to wifi) not unlike the whole idisk desktop 'drive'

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it states they want to improve searching for content.

Vastly improving their metadata would be a start. When you hit a link on an actor you don't get all their movies much less tv shows or music or audiobooks. There are bad links like the soundtrack Sucker Punch from last year on the movie from the 1990s. Many major stars are missing out of movies as well. I think they fixed it now but at one point Emma Watson was only listed in 2 of the Harry Potter films, and I've seen other examples

probably wouldn't hurt for them to add some more and better content as well. Like say 1080p video (or at least 720p on everything), required closed captioning on all videos if not also multi language audio and subtitles. More timely schedules for releases and no more of this six weeks after the dvds came out on tv seasons. Better pricing wouldn't hurt either

 

[Watabou]

I'm all for simplifying iTunes. As long as they don't take away features, it will be fine.

Last.fm integration would be welcome. We've been asking for this feature since iTunes 9.

iTunes is still the best at what it does though. I've tried many iTunes alternative for the mac and they all pretty much suck.

And I don't know why some of you guys say it's bloated and uses too much ram. Really?! I have almost 58GB of music. And how much ram does iTunes use? A mere 110MB. I'm extremely satisfied with how iTunes runs in Lion.

 

[wikus]

I'm all for simplifying iTunes. As long as they don't take away features, it will be fine.

Last.fm integration would be welcome. We've been asking for this feature since iTunes 9.

iTunes is still the best at what it does though. I've tried many iTunes alternative for the mac and they all pretty much suck.

And I don't know why some of you guys say it's bloated and uses too much ram. Really?! I have almost 58GB of music. And how much ram does iTunes use? A mere 110MB. I'm extremely satisfied with how iTunes runs in Lion.

I have 180gb of music. RAM usage is typically a minimum of 100mb, typically around 150mb, sometimes up to 200mb.

The alternatives like Vox and Enqueue use 15mb and 30-40mb respectively.

 

[helicon1]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

iTunes is a key Apple brand. iTunes the store is not going to die, this year.

iTunes had 6 key functions:
* Sync content to iDevices
* Play content from some libraries on some devices
* import content from external sources
* manage metadata
* Home sharing
* iTunes store

iCloud is the syncing strategy. Local sync is likely to act more and more like iCloud. Expanding airdrop over wifi feature to all Apple devices for sharing between all devices with the same apple ID would be killer.

iOS increasingly uses specialist apps to play content. Files are auto imported on open and automatically managed in app specific file libraries. I expect OS X to do this more and more. I'd like to see iOS gain more user-customization of metadata, smart lists and user enabled options to share say the music library with another app.

Home sharing should be an OS feature at least on apple devices.

That leaves just the iTunes store where Apple can leverage the most valuable aspect of the iTunes brand - as a retail focus for marketing and sales of content and voucher cards. The brand is embedded into default apps on Apple devices.

I think this strategy would simplify the user experience and focus the Apple software development team. A new icon focused on the iTunes brand would be based on the colorful dancing silhouettes with white headphones would harmonize the approach.

 

[Watabou]

I have 180gb of music. RAM usage is typically a minimum of 100mb, typically around 150mb, sometimes up to 200mb.

The alternatives like Vox and Enqueue use 15mb and 30-40mb respectively.

100-200MB isn't much when I have 4GB ram to use. And most people have upwards of 8GB of memory these days.

I could use Vox and Enqueue but as they don't have syncing support and I would have to run iTunes anyways for that, I'd rather use just iTunes.

 

[wikus]

100-200MB isn't much when I have 4GB ram to use. And most people have upwards of 8GB of memory these days.

I could use Vox and Enqueue but as they don't have syncing support and I would have to run iTunes anyways for that, I'd rather use just iTunes.

There's really no excuse for any mp3 player to use more than 100mb of ram to do one and ONLY one very specific task: play an mp3 file.

For people who require the most out of their computers (graphic designers) every megabyte counts for RAM usage. Sure, not running iTunes would benefit but music in the background has become kind of a necessity for some of us.

 

[Macman45]

Well, they couldn't make it any worse than it is now...It confuses new and old users alike. Lets hope this is a proper re-vamp, and not just a series of patches.