Software has gone downhill since Cook fired Forstall. Too bad Cook is such a big headed fool.
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Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi Discuss Bloated Software Accusations, Upcoming iTunes Plans
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Software has gone downhill since Cook fired Forstall. Too bad Cook is such a big headed fool.
Thanks for the link. Definitely disagree, but that's me. There's a reason almost all of my core use apps on my iOS devices are not developed by Apple. They used to be, a few generations ago. That in itself tells me something.
I completely agree with Mossberg. I dread opening iTunes. Apple has basically ruined it. I am one of those who STILL SYNCs WITH A CABLE... Even if that were not the case, the current UI is practically unusable. They need to go back to the sidebar interface where at one glance I can see all my library items and connected devices.
I hate itunes with a passion. It is bloated and disgusting. Whoever took the lead on ruining iTunes should be fired, it's that bad. It's literally causing me to not want to deal with Apple media and syncing my devices because I get a queasy feeling just looking at it. It's amazing to me this used to be functional piece of software. They've really lost the plot and it would be better to just start from the ground up rather than updating this unholy mess.
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It was implied that it was not ok, since you said it was "laughable" and argued that it was expected for an interview to not ask embarrassing questions. So what is it? Ok or not? And if it's ok, then how can it be laughable?
As for the "large portion" you are right, it is anecdotal evidence. But from what I've seen it is consistent here, on Reddit, on Facebook, and in real life. If we are referring to iTunes these complaints have been going on for years. Yosemite for example was notorious for it's abundance of bugs (Wifi, Mail, Finder, etc). This is anecdotal too, but I have never since I switched in 10.3 experienced such low quality in OSX as with Yosemite. I'd rather have paid OSX upgrades every two years than this.
Seems like people are focusing on the various music channels within the app to split out, but I say the complete opposite.
Leave all aspects of MUSIC in iTUNES. Just make them separate sections.
1) my library
2) Apple Music streaming
3) Radio, including beats and Internet radio streaming
4) music store
Make syncing and device management a seperate app, that can read from the libraries from my photos app and iTunes app, and th various other libraries, like App Store and video and such listed below.
Make the iOS app management part of the Mac App Store. Two clear sections for OS X and for iOS. there is nothing intuitive about managing iOS Apps from within iTunes, especially now that OS X has an App Store.
Make a new version of QuickTime that incorporates the video aspect of iTunes movies and tv shows. Perhaps call it iVideo even. This has a store too, for all video services that iTunes has hosted.
Spin off iBook management to the iBooks app on Mac OS X. again, all of this content syncing done through a dedicated syncing app.
The end goal being that I procure, purchase, stream, manage metadata like ratings and playlists all within iTunes for music, within iVideo for video, within iBooks for books, within an App Store app for apps, within Photos for photos... And when I want to manage my syncing of all this content, I use a syncing app to select the types of media and such I want to sync.
Please make it so apple. It's well beyond time to stop making iTunes that Swiss Army knife of our digital world. This is like merging a toaster, a refrigerator, a sink, and a dishwasher all in one. there are reasons you say that's a bad idea with hardware, so stop doing it with software.
Thanks for your polite and documented reply. I just wanted to point out that the very moment you get near one of those executives with a chance of asking a question, then I assume you can't do no harm, otherwise....I just don't want him and others like him to be confused as "daring" and "free-speech" journalists
iTunes server for AirPort Time Capsule so we can stream directly to any supported device. I'm not sure anymore what is the primary purpose of iTunes anymore, I find myself using it less and less.
Apple does software better than most, but they have some really annoying habits that seem to be persisting. First, they shovel in things like The Watch app on your iPhone and don't let you delete it. Same for Tips and Find Friends. Those are hardly core operating system functions, and there is no reason to prevent me from deleting things I don't need.
Second is their "change for change's sake" approach to user interfaces. I'm no luddite -- I like new shiny tech, and change is inevitable. But there have been changes in iTunes, in the Music app on the phone, and so on, that simply don't work for anybody I know. Some things (such as how you download a playlist) have been reverted to the previous and much better UI, but only after being changed for no apparent reason. Other things, such as adding the Radio button in the Music app and not giving me a way to remove it) just add clutter in the hopes that...what -- that I'll mistakenly click on the button and decide to subscribe?
Third is the removal of features during "upgrades," a practice that is all too common in iMovie and iPhoto. Many of those features eventually come back, but only after complaints from thousands of customers. That is why so many people keep iMovie 9 around, why many others simply don't update their applications.
Second is their "change for change's sake" approach to user interfaces. I'm no luddite -- I like new shiny tech, and change is inevitable. But there have been changes in iTunes, in the Music app on the phone, and so on, that simply don't work for anybody I know. Some things (such as how you download a playlist) have been reverted to the previous and much better UI, but only after being changed for no apparent reason. Other things, such as adding the Radio button in the Music app and not giving me a way to remove it) just add clutter in the hopes that...what -- that I'll mistakenly click on the button and decide to subscribe?
Third is the removal of features during "upgrades," a practice that is all too common in iMovie and iPhoto. Many of those features eventually come back, but only after complaints from thousands of customers. That is why so many people keep iMovie 9 around, why many others simply don't update their applications.
iTunes Home Sharing hasn't worked reliably in what 6 years now. I remember when I first got my Apple TVs and iPad. Home sharing was a killer feature. My entire library showed up instantly. Now it doesn't even show up on the iPad and the Apple TV take 2-3 minutes to show me what is in my library.
How can those devices reliably download and stream from the web but can't do it any longer on a local gigabit/AC network?
However if set up my own iTunes server on my Linux based NAS they all show up instantly and stream reliably. iTunes doesn't do half the things it was originally designed to do very well anymore.
How can those devices reliably download and stream from the web but can't do it any longer on a local gigabit/AC network?
However if set up my own iTunes server on my Linux based NAS they all show up instantly and stream reliably. iTunes doesn't do half the things it was originally designed to do very well anymore.
Every complex shipping software has a long list of known bugs and an even longer 'list' of unknown bugs. That's reality. There are bugs in Photoshop for example that have existed for 5+ years, that have been reported to and filed by Adobe but not fixed so far. If you try one software product and encounter no bugs and then try another product and encounter a dozen bugs, unless those bugs are serious (or encountered within a very short time frame), that's likely just the luck of the draw whether your system, your usage did let you run into those bugs. OS X also always had bugs that endured over several generations. The presence of bugs is expected. What is at question here is number and severity of the bugs, and that is something the outside world can only make some educated guesses on and as it appears Apple themselves don't have the best picture of.
That might be exactly one of the categories that Apple must improve its data collection on. But by now it will be obvious to Apple that there are such areas where it needs to improve its metrics. However, knowing what to do and implementing it are two different things.
To some degree the beta releases might be a PR move (mainly in satisfying the desire of some people to get to a new OS version sooner as previously possible) but if you ever had anything to do with a large software project, you'd know that more testing is essentially always a good thing.
I tried AM when it came out, within a couple of weeks I had run into enough problems that I nuked it and restored my library from a backup. AM certainly was too much of a mess when it came out (in particular for people with existing libraries, if you started with an empty slate is was much better). I might try it again when I have nothing better to do. A lot in this thread however is about iTunes in general and not just about how AM is doing. And there, iTunes without AM, I cannot really report about any real problems.
Even if it is tempting to believe that Apple doesn't use any metrics, I think nobody can really believe that all those diagnostics that Apple is asking us to send back to them (via the preferences) all go into a black hole. It might appear so from the outside and Federighi acknowledged that the Radar system (the tool via which developers can file bug reports) while used constantly internally is not very good at communicating back those having filed them what is happening with them. And yes, it very much appears that they are missing something important but it is also clear that this is dawning to them as well.
Getting rid of him was like when they got rid of Job's. Apple's software quality and ease of use went down the toilette. I still miss iOS 6 and especially the simple and clean notification/widget pulldown.
I still sync my iDevices via cable. Tried iTunes Match once...nope, nope nope. Terrible. I just keep my music actually on my phone. I've got the space. I don't always have a signal. I find Apple Music makes music ANYTHING BUT front and center. It's horrible. I refuse to use Apple Music. Thank gods for jetAudio. The best music player I've found for iOS. Dark theme, clean interface, wakes up app when you lift your iPhone, rotates screen no mater which direction the phone happens to be in (so even if the phone is upside down, it's readable - why doesn't EVERY iOS app do this???), offers audio plug-ins (I find Bongiovi DPS mandatory - sounds so much better with it). Truly a great music app. I highly recommend it.
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I also miss the old UI... Back in 2006 I absolutely loved iTunes, now days I dread even opening it.
QA is a huge problem for Apple and it seems to be only getting worse.
Logging into https://supportprofile.apple.com/ shows a list of incorrect cases (which show errors when clicked) and incorrect repairs (which again show errors).
I have 10+ open bugs on the Apple Bug Reporter, of which about half get no attention, another quarter receive feedback then go silent and the other quarter get marked as duplicates and who knows if they even get fixed. Almost all reports provide detailed steps and usually screenshots and/or videos demonstrating OS X/iOS bugs.
Logging into https://supportprofile.apple.com/ shows a list of incorrect cases (which show errors when clicked) and incorrect repairs (which again show errors).
I have 10+ open bugs on the Apple Bug Reporter, of which about half get no attention, another quarter receive feedback then go silent and the other quarter get marked as duplicates and who knows if they even get fixed. Almost all reports provide detailed steps and usually screenshots and/or videos demonstrating OS X/iOS bugs.
I could not have put it better. It describes Apple's dominating focus since I bought my first Apple products, a Macbook Pro and iPOD Touch in 2010, and why I, an old-codger person, cling to Snow Leopard, and an old iTunes that works with my not-updated 2012 iPad Mini and iPod Touch.
Agreed. It should be held to higher standards ESPECIALLY because it's Apple. That's not because of the brand, but because of the premium price.
I agree and miss "some good habits" too. I guess the question is why should a technological business model cater to people who could be dead in 1-20 years?
The biggest problem I have with iTunes is the bugs. Holy ****, it's got a lot of issues. And it's had most of them for a VERY long time. It doesn't need **** added or subtracted as much as it needs a good once over and sorting out. I miss when Apple was known for things "just working". We shouldn't have to bend over 50 different kinds of backwards just to get a few things done in iTunes, Mail, etc...
Didn't read all of the replies here, so I'm sure some of my complaints have already been voiced, but here goes:
1) It's not intuitive.
2) It's buggy.
3) It's changing from a music storage/buying software to a music streaming service, leaving those who adopted early out of the picture, because Apple has decided to move in 'a different direction'.
4) Steaming uses wireless data quickly, and wireless data is expensive, especially if you exceed your monthly alottment. Public WiFi, and free buisness WiFi, is frequently not available, and certainly not available everywhere.
5) Some songs and artists aren't well represented on iMusic. Some never will be.
6) Companies can change the terms of their agreements, sometimes with little or no warning or explanation. This includes music companies with Apple, and Apple with customers. This can mean you lose access to some/most/all of the songs with no real recourse.
1) It's not intuitive.
2) It's buggy.
3) It's changing from a music storage/buying software to a music streaming service, leaving those who adopted early out of the picture, because Apple has decided to move in 'a different direction'.
4) Steaming uses wireless data quickly, and wireless data is expensive, especially if you exceed your monthly alottment. Public WiFi, and free buisness WiFi, is frequently not available, and certainly not available everywhere.
5) Some songs and artists aren't well represented on iMusic. Some never will be.
6) Companies can change the terms of their agreements, sometimes with little or no warning or explanation. This includes music companies with Apple, and Apple with customers. This can mean you lose access to some/most/all of the songs with no real recourse.
Yes I've done that and it's much better after the last iOS update but still happens every so often.