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Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi Discuss Bloated Software Accusations, Upcoming iTunes Plans
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Why does 4 GB of ram get sucked up when I boot my computer. Tell me something isn't bloated. When I fire Windows 10 up it only sucks a gig and a half.
Huge scoop for Gruber. But he has been talking with several Apple execs over the past couple years, such as Federighi was on the Talk Show to talk about Swift a few months back, and when he had that show (maybe at WWDC) with Phil Schiller. I always mention on here that people need to listen up when he talks, because he often has the inside view compared to many other tech journalists/bloggers out there. He's an over the top and often polarizing personality, but well sourced.
I listened to this podcast earlier today. Craig is great. When he was asked about radars he gave a completely honest answer and admitted that Apple needed to improve external communication on radars that are filed. Eddy was asked about BT keyboard support not being available for TV out of the box and about how bloated iTunes is and didn't really answer either one. Apparently Apple had "data" that not many people use BT keyboards with TV. Ok but did Eddy actually run though the setup of a new TV including downloading apps. If he did there's no possible way he could think entering passwords using that remote was a great customer experience. I wish Gruber would have probed a bit more on Apple's approach to, say, Photos vs iTunes (which keeps getting more and more bloated). But I suppose he has to be careful or he'll stop getting Apple execs on his show.
I'm a little dismayed they continue to relegate iTunes remarks to music. It is the Media Hub for the entire Apple eco-system! Movies, Books, AudioBooks, TV shows, video... It is the gateway for the Apple TV to get to all of my stuff.
The most horrific thing to me about iTunes is it can't be trusted 100% to keep the library straight. Things can simply disappear and you have to show iTunes what happened to it. How the hell can something just disappear? It should rigorously protect the location of files and their integration into the database.
Another thing is the Dan Brown-esque intrigue to get the library transferred to another computer. It should be as easy as putting the whole folder on the new computer (PC or Mac - shouldn't give a ****) and saying to iTunes - here it is. Right now there are many files and even after following directions, everything - all my careful organization and meta data for my videos is gone. WTF.
It's not about making changes to interface or features that will make it better. Get the stuff under the hood rock solid and RELIABLE and that'll win the war. The dressing can come later. There has been WAY too much focus on the dressing.
The most horrific thing to me about iTunes is it can't be trusted 100% to keep the library straight. Things can simply disappear and you have to show iTunes what happened to it. How the hell can something just disappear? It should rigorously protect the location of files and their integration into the database.
Another thing is the Dan Brown-esque intrigue to get the library transferred to another computer. It should be as easy as putting the whole folder on the new computer (PC or Mac - shouldn't give a ****) and saying to iTunes - here it is. Right now there are many files and even after following directions, everything - all my careful organization and meta data for my videos is gone. WTF.
It's not about making changes to interface or features that will make it better. Get the stuff under the hood rock solid and RELIABLE and that'll win the war. The dressing can come later. There has been WAY too much focus on the dressing.
That works too. And is far better than this all in one catastrophe
But I really believe that streaming services without a web app is stupid. Not everyone can always install applications like iTunes wherever they are. When I tried out the beats radio, i kind of enjoyed it. But tying me to iTunes just to listen to it means that I'm listening to it only when I'm at home on my MacBook Air.
I refuse to run iTunes on my desktop, since the iTunes windows program has serious performance issues, and suffers from an extremely bad memory leak (has always, Apple refuses to fix it). And installation of media programs like iTunes while at work is strictly prohibited.
I could see it really going into either app, hence the 2-3 apps comment I made.
Just curious. What numbers (the # of movies and TV shows) do you consider to be in "large movie and TV show libraries"?
I really hate using iTunes on my Mac. I'm an apple Dev and been using apple products for years, even I can barely get a playlist set up or even manually put music onto my iPhone! It's the worst navigation ever created, I can't even imagine how newcomers begin to figure that mess out! My wife and family members won't even use it because they can't figure it out and not complex things, something simple like - oh I don't know putting music onto a phone?! Who ever made it should be fired on the spot... It's crap
I think its so bloated now, that even the kool-aid drinkers can't defend it.
My biggest gripe is haven half the UI in iOS devoted to AppleMusic when I have no interest in that service-the whole, you might like....
iTunes at heart should have a tie into the iTunes Store in my opinion. AppleMusic really should be a separate app, in both iOS and OS X or develop the app to have 2 separate UI's/Functions or an easy way to turn on and turn off services, like AppleMusic.
The iPod/iPhone/iPad syncing mechanism, is alright, but it's slow, and hasn't had any real improvements.
I like iTunes on my Mac, but goodness it is a piece of junk of Windows machines. It is a bloated piece of software over there. Have you guys actually watched the install process?! If I had a PC, I'd use an Android phone for the sole reason of not having to install iTunes.
No. It needs to be like how it is on iOS.
Music App
+Buy Music
+Stream Music
+Radio
Video App
+Live TV
+Stream Movies
+Stream Shows
Books App
+Books
+Audiobooks
Podcast App
App Store App
+Mac App Store
+iOS App Store
[doublepost=1455313937][/doublepost]The problem is that iTunes, at this moment in time, sucks. It is way too complicated, there are too many gotchas, and it is way too onerous.
Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi spoke with John Gruber in this week's episode of "The Talk Show," where they commented on recent opinions that Apple's software isn't up to snuff and offered some details on a new version of iTunes coming in OS X 10.11.4.
Last week, Re/code's Walt Mossberg wrote a piece entitled "Apple's Apps Need Work," pointing towards a "gradual degradation" in quality in several Apple apps and services like iCloud, Mail, and Photos. iTunes for the desktop was one of the most heavily criticized apps, with Mossberg saying he "dreads" opening it because it's "bloated, complex, and sluggish."
During the podcast, Gruber asked Eddy Cue about Mossberg's opinion, prompting him to give some background on how Apple wanted the iTunes experience to work. iTunes, Cue said, was designed at a time when people synced their devices via cable, so offering a centralized place with all of a user's content was key. With Apple Music, Apple decided on a design that would put music front and center while also integrating cloud music with hard copies purchased through iTunes.
"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. He went on to explain that Apple is continually re-evaluating iTunes, and there are plans to release a refreshed version alongside OS X 10.11.4 next month.Cue and Federighi went on to talk about the issues that arise whenever Apple makes major changes to software, as there are always people who prefer not to see significant changes. According to Federighi, there's a "tricky balancing act" with software updates.The two also highlighted the immense scale that Apple is working on, with more than 1 billion active devices and 782 million iCloud users. More than 200,000 iMessages per second are sent at peak times, and there are more than 750 million transactions per week in the iTunes Store and the App Store. Apple Music has grown to 11 million subscribers and more than 2.5 million errors in Maps have been fixed, a number presented as evidence that Apple is continually working on its software.
"I would say first there's nothing we care about more," said Federighi, speaking on Apple's software and services. He believes Apple's core software quality has improved significantly over the course of the last five years, but pointed towards an ever-raising bar that pushes Apple to keep evolving and implementing new features. "Every year we realize the things we were good at last year and the techniques we were using to build the best software we can are not adequate for the next year because the bar keeps going up," he said.
Federighi and Cue's full discussion with John Gruber about the state of software, the desktop version of iTunes, and Apple's efforts to expand its public beta program, can be listed to over on the Daring Fireball website.
Article Link: Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi Discuss Bloated Software Accusations, Upcoming iTunes Plans
Actually listening to the interview could be a good start.
No need to be snarky here, lots of interesting facts came out, great interview!
No need to be snarky here, lots of interesting facts came out, great interview!
Denial... not just a river in Egypt.
Seriously, the fact that no one sees a problem is the biggest problem. No software is perfect, but thinking that Apple software is more "reliable" now than 5 years ago means they are using the wrong metrics.
What about when my contacts just stop syncing? Or when iMessage suddenly stops working? Does that even show up as a problem, or does it show up as though I just haven't got new messages?
Seriously, I don't notice very many crashes anymore, but I do notice lots of cases where things fail and there's nothing obvious I can do to fix it.
Seriously, the fact that no one sees a problem is the biggest problem. No software is perfect, but thinking that Apple software is more "reliable" now than 5 years ago means they are using the wrong metrics.
What about when my contacts just stop syncing? Or when iMessage suddenly stops working? Does that even show up as a problem, or does it show up as though I just haven't got new messages?
Seriously, I don't notice very many crashes anymore, but I do notice lots of cases where things fail and there's nothing obvious I can do to fix it.
I don't even use iTunes these days except for migrating to new iPhones. Everything important is now on iCloud and if I want to watch something on a bigger screen I can use the Apple TV.
Ugh. Sounds like iTunes is going to get even worse for me. I hope they prove me wrong, but I'm not optimistic.
This would be a terrible idea. You'd have to remember which song is on what app... Then say you really like an album and buy it and now it disappears from the one app into other?
5 points of failure? No, thank you.
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Name is not going to change the function of the app.
In case Apple isn't sure how it all should work for all the various platforms, they might want to check out this small company called Google. Google Play Music works great, from local music to cloud storage to streaming. Any platform including web.
It's a joy to look at and to use. Google Music Manager "watches" my music folder and if I add anything to it, it automatically puts it in my cloud collection which is then available to me on any device.
Shouldn't it be that easy?
It's a joy to look at and to use. Google Music Manager "watches" my music folder and if I add anything to it, it automatically puts it in my cloud collection which is then available to me on any device.
Shouldn't it be that easy?
Because unused ram is wasted ram. Everything you might need is cached and ready for you, using less battery while increasing performance.