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Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi Discuss Bloated Software Accusations, Upcoming iTunes Plans
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iPhoto was castrated with the same arguments (simplify and go back to roots.... etc blabla). In fact, me and the most people I know wish back iPhoto and they avoid and dislike its successor. One can always find friends, if one claims to be able to simplify something. The implementation is usually quite debatable. That's why I do not like these frivolous prophets like Eddy&Co. These kind of guys promote reduced unsexy and useless software like "Photos".
Yes, Steve Jobs knew how sell product but for the most part it was interesting product. You mention FaceTime, but FaceTime was largely ridiculed and mocked at its intro. Even months after the talk from the Mac punditry was "I still don't know anyone that uses FaceTime." FaceTime largely became popular for the same reason MS Explorer did -- it was bundled into widely used hardware. Steve Jobs had plenty of "flop" products. But the blockbusters truly changed the world so they are overlooked.
But Jobs signature was ease of use and simplicity and that criterion had changed at Apple. It's products are quickly becoming as complicated and non-intuitive as anything MS has ever produced. Just in figuring out where to make a change in iOS settings can be a "Where's Waldo" experience.
I'll keep my snide comments about software improving over the past five years to myself. I've dealt with enough crap since late 2013 to repeat my angst but I won't. Now that I haven't upgraded my 6s or 27" iMac from their initial operating systems, they seem to running pretty well. That'll be the plan for as long as I can hold out (hopefully through most of my school work which starts next month.)
I would love it if there was a separate app for movies as I really only use iTunes to play music during my commute now. Remember simplicity and Quality Control, Apple?
I would love it if there was a separate app for movies as I really only use iTunes to play music during my commute now. Remember simplicity and Quality Control, Apple?
Nnnn it doesn't ACTUALLY do that unless all your purchased music is already in their library. If it actually did what you just wrote here, I'd be a happy subscriber and Spotify would be €14.99 poorer each month.
By Gods YES. I was editing a playlist yesterday. Find song. Grab song. Playlist list appears... scrolled neatly to the top. Scroll patiently to where my playlist is. Find next song. Grab song. Playlist list appears... scrolled neatly to the top. Scroll IMpatiently to where my playlist is.
This doesn't happen to me much but it does. I once had to e-mail myself songs from my Android phone because iTunes deleted them. iCloud is off. I have no idea why it does that.
Yup, that's how I see it.
Store. you can buy anything here. Apps, music, movies, books, all in separate tabs, connected by payment and download system. All purchases get seamlessly integrated with your current libraries and stored for free in iCloud. Once you paid for something it does not do a disappearing act no matter what.
Music, Videos, Books, Podcasts. They do what it says on the tin. Each can be (un)installed if you feel like it. (I have no use for Podcasts for instance.)
Sync. It opens a new window for your iDevice of choice. You drag and drop whatever you want from Music, Videos, Books etc. Playlists, albums, photo albums, whatever you want on the iDevice, just treat it like a Finder window. You can enable iCloud if you want but you don't have to. No "matching" is done when syncing. If you need more space on your iDevice or in iCloud, you pay for it. You don't let Apple "match" completely different songs that happen to have similar titles because for some reasons you can't store your own songs in iCloud.
I switched to Spotify for 99% of my music-related needs but for... well, not an audiophile, so say "power user" of music Spotify's handling of local files is atrocious. Mind, Apple's handling of local files is completely unusable, so atrocious is a step forward.
I really don't understand all the bitching about iTunes. So far about all any of you have said is that it's bloated and sucks. That doesn't really say much. Well on my iMac it loads in about 1 second. All the music I purchased is there, and it works fine for me. Maybe you guys don't know how to work it? Or maybe you have hacked your computers to the point that it doesn't work? I have never had any issues with it.
I joined Apple Music, and that service works fine too. Have added many albums I owned on vinyl years ago, and many new ones. I understand that Macrumors is all about proving that you are way smarter than Apple, but really I don't see the problem here.
I joined Apple Music, and that service works fine too. Have added many albums I owned on vinyl years ago, and many new ones. I understand that Macrumors is all about proving that you are way smarter than Apple, but really I don't see the problem here.
Apple Music works very well if you don't have your own library, I'll give you that.
iTunes works very well if you don't enable iCloud. (And ideally don't have your own library.)
Also if the only stuff you listen to is strict mainstream and you don't care for remixes, bootlegs, live recordings, don't care if your Beatles albums are mono or stereo, etc., I am sure you don't have any problems with syncing via iCloud.
1-App Store should be a different app (or integrated in the Mac App Store)
2-media playing, organizing, storage should be another app.
3-Syncing and managing your iOS devices should be a separate app.
the current clumsy Frankenstein monster is not cutting it. This is a 14 year old software that was meant to play mp3. Thats it.
2-media playing, organizing, storage should be another app.
3-Syncing and managing your iOS devices should be a separate app.
the current clumsy Frankenstein monster is not cutting it. This is a 14 year old software that was meant to play mp3. Thats it.
Absolutely! I just want on my music stored on a central iTunes server (poss integrated into an airport/time capsule device) that all clients (iPad, iPhone, computers, apple TV or 3rd party iTunes client e.g. DNLA compliant radio or TV) can access. Any device can add music to the storage pool, and all devices update the available library.
I have a mix of music purchased on CD that is burned to iTunes, and music purchased through the iTunes store. I have no stolen or bootleg music. Maybe that is the issue. iTunes works better with music LEGALLY owned and installed. You may need to deport your ILLEGAL music and bring it back LEGALLY.
I do use iCloud, but have all the music on my iPhone stored on the iPhone so that when flying or service is not available I can listen.
Unfortunately it is still a death wish. Just tried it again two weeks ago. I saw no improvements.
Well on my MBP it loads quick and is fast most of the time. If it decides to talk to my phone or iPad it slows to an absolute crawl. My library is stored on a network share, but iTunes forgets it's location ALL THE TIME meaning new music often gets added to a default location. iTunes refuses to move all the media to one place claiming there isn't enough disk space, there is. Over the years it keeps generating duplicate versions of media, so I estimate that the library is 30-40% bigger than need be. I can never quite get up the enthusiasm to sort it all out. I've got a large collection of movies, both from the store and ripped locally, and it is ALWAYS forgetting the artwork for random films, and the only way to get it back seems to be to "Get Info" for each film individually. Just recently its ability to consistently airplay audio to my appleTVs seems to have gone away, when other devices are fine. So yes I'd say it's got buggy, but what alternative?
Splitting iTunes into different functions seems like a good idea to me. I'd love to be able to use a music app to play music to via airplay, whilst watching a movie locally. I'd even more love to be able to store my music on my MBPs internal drive and movies and TV shows on the network..
Touching.
Now try to sync a live album or a single with five remixes of the same songs, ripped from LEGALLY purchased CD via iCloud.
This would be too much for me. I'd like to see things split by music, video, books, apps&ios management. Each one would contain a player/viewer for each type + a store to get more content. Basically the way iBooks works now on iOS.
I have over 500 movies and TV episodes purchased from iTunes and they all appear just fine in iCloud across all of my devices. I've never had anything just "disappear." Either your account is set up incorrectly or you don't have iTunes configured properly.
That's not to say I like the way iTunes is organized -- I agree with most of the other posts here in that these services should be split into separate apps.
I really agree with that. Tim isn't much of a creative mind, he's just a damn good businessman. Apple needs their most powerful role to be fulfilled by someone who is creative and Tim can go back to COO duties.
I don't have any music that has 5 remixes of the same song. I guess I am not into remixes. Mostly Jazz and Classical music. I would imagine I fall into the 95% of mainstream users who have a 100 or less albums. So for us, iTunes works fine. I just use it 'out of the box' and it all works well, as does Mail and the Calendar.
I'm sorry, did you say you could get on your desktop and go to the internet and install an app onto your ipad without touching the ipad? Yeah I thought so. Do you even use Apple products? Obviously I wasn't talking about installing apps using the device itself. I just find it highly convenient when I'm researching apps on my desktop or tablet for my phone to simply install the app right then and there from the web instead of having to open a separate program to install and manage those apps. It's more convenient to research those apps on a large screen versus my iPhone.
I put this example out just to illustrate the point that we don't need a separate desktop program to manage things. Apps, music, contacts, media, etc can all be managed quite effectively over the internet. If anything I prefer having something like OneDrive or Google Drive where it plugs directly into the file explorer and viewing/managing files on the cloud are just like managing them right on the desktop.
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Apple's music program iTunes used to be the source of your music. Now it's the source of everything. It wasn't designed to be the source of everything and this is the main dilemma of today's iTunes. The problem with iTunes starts at the top:
"We decided in the short term that what we wanted to do is really make it when you're in music and iTunes, all you see is music," said Cue
This is wrong, on many levels. iTunes, even though its name has tunes in it, showcases ALL of Apple's entertainment. It's the hub of your entertainment, disguised as a music player. It's confusing, illogical, and needs to be redesigned from the ground up.
Most people in this thread discuss chopping things up into different apps. This isn't needed. Apple could, without question, design an easy to use application that meets the needs of the content inside of the current iTunes design.
The problem is Cue and his team. Cue, as I've stated numerous times before, is not the man to get the job done. His previous work shows that he's not good at designing easy-to-use products within the Apple ecosystem. This is a job for Forstall (yes Forstall).
As much as it's cliche to feel the need for Steve Jobs, this is one of those times that his absence is noticeable. Steve was great at taking Apple's poorly designed products, redesigning them, and making them current. Apple doesn't have anyone on their team right now that's able to do that efficiently, except for Ive.
Apple needs to do something, and I'm sure they will, but I have doubts that they'll take the proper route.
"We decided in the short term that what we wanted to do is really make it when you're in music and iTunes, all you see is music," said Cue
This is wrong, on many levels. iTunes, even though its name has tunes in it, showcases ALL of Apple's entertainment. It's the hub of your entertainment, disguised as a music player. It's confusing, illogical, and needs to be redesigned from the ground up.
Most people in this thread discuss chopping things up into different apps. This isn't needed. Apple could, without question, design an easy to use application that meets the needs of the content inside of the current iTunes design.
The problem is Cue and his team. Cue, as I've stated numerous times before, is not the man to get the job done. His previous work shows that he's not good at designing easy-to-use products within the Apple ecosystem. This is a job for Forstall (yes Forstall).
As much as it's cliche to feel the need for Steve Jobs, this is one of those times that his absence is noticeable. Steve was great at taking Apple's poorly designed products, redesigning them, and making them current. Apple doesn't have anyone on their team right now that's able to do that efficiently, except for Ive.
Apple needs to do something, and I'm sure they will, but I have doubts that they'll take the proper route.
Cue needs to go, he's been nothing but problematic for Apple. Forstall needs to come back too, he's been sorely missed when it comes to the state of Apple's current software. I would love nothing more than to see him return in a similar fashion to Steve Jobs in 1997 and fix everything that Craig Federighi and Jony Ive have been breaking since his departure.