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Why does iTunes suck?

I've been wondering that for a long time. Apple generally makes good software, so you'd think they'd be capable of improving iTunes. My guess is that it's because they keep duct taping more functions onto it rather than scraping it and starting over.
 
Let the others test the field

The new MobileMe can't come soon enough.

I think Apple is waiting to release their music locker as a smarter response to Amazon and Google's clunky ones.

Getting to market later, learning from competitor's mistakes, with a better product has served Apple well in the past.
 
Google has seriously raised the bar with the I/O keynote. Apple better have one massive show in store for WWDC.

I seriously fail to see where the bar was raised. They created a rather simple cloud based music service. Its nice and all, but we know Apple is coming out with one that will at least match the service in function, and possibly exceed it.

No bar has been raised. Maybe bumped a tiny bit. but to the naked eye no one can really tell the difference.
 
Today feels like War on Apple day:

1) Microsoft buys Skype, poised to set up a Facetime competitor across Windows devices and Xbox.
2) Google announces a flurry of Android related developments that challenge iOS, iTunes, etc.
3) YouTube begins its assault on iTunes by announcing movie rentals.

If nothing else, maybe this will finally force Apple to rewrite (or rethink) iTunes so that it stops sucking. I'm also wondering how much longer Apple thinks it can sit out the TV market before it's too late. At the very least, it needs to sign up some partners to carry Apple TV as an OS. And that means it probably needs to have its own little "Ice Cream Sandwich" moment where it streamlines iOS across Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, and Lion.

Google wants Android to be compatible with literally every object that plugs into a socket. Apple should want the same.

I guess I don't understand why anyone uses iTunes for more then a backup/sync service to their music and devices? All the music is DRM free, so you can use any music player you want. And isn't youtube the same price as everyone else, so I don't see how they are going to make any head room in the retail space that is owned by Netflix and not Apple...

Next month Apple will annouce a ton of new stuff iOS.
 
It's bloated, slow (practically not useable if you're on a PC), has no (real) web-based solution, requires incredibly cumbersome syncing (especially for apps), etc. And why can't I run my iOS apps on my Mac?

By and large, iTunes is the same application it was 10 years ago. They've just grafted feature after feature into it (video, apps, Genuis, the iTunes Store, for instance) with little concern for useability or common sense.

+1

And you forgot to mention Ping. That alone is enough to show that iTunes is bloated with useless cr@p. You can't even do basic things like make nested folders for your pictures.
 
Does anyone have a reasonable use case for this?

People with music libraries so big they don't fit on their iOS devices? (Seems like a huge investment to serve a niche market)

People who want to listen to their music as a "guest" on someone else's device? (Also not really getting that one)

Maybe I'm missing something. Right now it just feels like another shoulder shrug technology, like Airplay.

Isn't it obvious? This is how you get people off the iPhone. They can move their music into Google's cloud, and sync to their devices just like they do in iTunes, without ever plugging their phone into their PC or Mac.

The only hitch, obviously, is that you can't buy your music from Google, but that will change. They've got everything else, all without a program you have to run from your home PC or Mac.

Why else would it be Flash based?
 
You sir, are narrow minded and need to stop thinking for yourself. My iPhone only holds 32 gigs. I need to reserve 10 gigs of that for apps and photos, leaving me only 20 gigs or so for music. My iTunes library at home has 15,000 songs and is over 150 gigs.

There are millions of others like me out there who have been playing mp3 files since the day the mp3 format was invented and have a vast catalog of music, and want access to that catalog from any device in the world no matter where I'm at, and unfortunately, they don't make an iPhone big enough to hold it. Even if I got the 160 gig iPod classic, which Apple is talking about discontinuing, I would already have filled it up and have no more room for new music.

Hey kid, if you think Apple is gonna give you 150gb of online storage for a reasonable price, you need to stay back a few grades. It will be cheaper to buy 2 iphones than pay apple for storage.

MobileMe = $100 and you get 20gb. LOL.
 
Today feels like War on Apple day:

1) Microsoft buys Skype, poised to set up a Facetime competitor across Windows devices and Xbox.
2) Google announces a flurry of Android related developments that challenge iOS, iTunes, etc.
3) YouTube begins its assault on iTunes by announcing movie rentals.

If nothing else, maybe this will finally force Apple to rewrite (or rethink) iTunes so that it stops sucking. I'm also wondering how much longer Apple thinks it can sit out the TV market before it's too late. At the very least, it needs to sign up some partners to carry Apple TV as an OS. And that means it probably needs to have its own little "Ice Cream Sandwich" moment where it streamlines iOS across Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, and Lion.

Google wants Android to be compatible with literally every object that plugs into a socket. Apple should want the same.

Yeah, and Apple TV better watch out for Google TV, right?

Solution to iTunes problems: buy a Mac.

Ever wonder why Google and Amazon launch their services so half-baked? Beta? Again? Without record label approval? Without movie or TV company deals in place? Because they want to dazzle you with their "functionality." Before what's coming from Apple.
 
You sir, are narrow minded and need to stop thinking for yourself. My iPhone only holds 32 gigs. I need to reserve 10 gigs of that for apps and photos, leaving me only 20 gigs or so for music. My iTunes library at home has 15,000 songs and is over 150 gigs.

Um, I think I was asking sincerely so that I could expand my narrow mind.

I thought I was missing out on some really cool use for this besides "My music library is bigger than my device storage".

This is a big technology deployment to support the case you're talking about, considering storage on devices continues to increase, outpacing the growth of most music collections.
 
Does anyone have a reasonable use case for this?

People with music libraries so big they don't fit on their iOS devices? (Seems like a huge investment to serve a niche market)

People who want to listen to their music as a "guest" on someone else's device? (Also not really getting that one)

Maybe I'm missing something. Right now it just feels like another shoulder shrug technology, like Airplay.


yes, no need to buy a $300 device just to listen to music. the Inspire 4G is on sale for $29.99 at radio shack and comes with 8GB storage. apple may have cornered the flash market but google bypassed them and are letting you put your music in the cloud to stream to any of their cheap devices. same with amazon.

the commoditization of smartphones is well underway. tablets is yet to be seen but i'm on the lookout for a cheap xoom on clearance to complement my ipad 2
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

djrobsd said:
Does anyone have a reasonable use case for this?

People with music libraries so big they don't fit on their iOS devices? (Seems like a huge investment to serve a niche market)

People who want to listen to their music as a "guest" on someone else's device? (Also not really getting that one)

Maybe I'm missing something. Right now it just feels like another shoulder shrug technology, like Airplay.

You sir, are narrow minded and need to stop thinking for yourself. My iPhone only holds 32 gigs. I need to reserve 10 gigs of that for apps and photos, leaving me only 20 gigs or so for music. My iTunes library at home has 15,000 songs and is over 150 gigs.

There are millions of others like me out there who have been playing mp3 files since the day the mp3 format was invented and have a vast catalog of music, and want access to that catalog from any device in the world no matter where I'm at, and unfortunately, they don't make an iPhone big enough to hold it. Even if I got the 160 gig iPod classic, which Apple is talking about discontinuing, I would already have filled it up and have no more room for new music.

I hope that was a little tongue-in-cheek, as I don't see him as narrow-minded at all. I was wondering the same thing, why do I need a cloud-based app on my iPhone, which is already an mp3 player? Limited space makes sense (I'm not yet exceeding my 32GB, and 64GB in the near future would last me a while). Maybe I could store my Winger and Loverboy songs on the cloud, for the rare listen, and save more room for movies. Makes sense.
 
Isn't it obvious? This is how you get people off the iPhone. They can move their music into Google's cloud, and sync to their devices just like they do in iTunes, without ever plugging their phone into their PC or Mac.

If people were itching for an excuse to get off the iPhone, that might almost make sense, but they're not. It's the hottest consumer product in world history.

And Apple is supposedly working on this too - to also get people off the iPhone?
 
Isn't it obvious? This is how you get people off the iPhone. They can move their music into Google's cloud, and sync to their devices just like they do in iTunes, without ever plugging their phone into their PC or Mac.

The only hitch, obviously, is that you can't buy your music from Google, but that will change. They've got everything else, all without a program you have to run from your home PC or Mac.

Why else would it be Flash based?

To make it hard for iOS users to do? Duh.

Aside from gmail, Google makes things that are marginally usable. Great engineering for engineering nerds. Now, they're adding the commercial tactics of Microsoft. They want to rule all.
 
Ever wonder why Google and Amazon launch their services so half-baked? Beta? Again? Without record label approval? Without movie or TV company deals in place? Because they want to dazzle you with their "functionality." Before what's coming from Apple.

Considering your constant bashing of the "beta" tag, what was your thoughts on Apple's complete and available to retail customers MobileMe service?

I paid for .mac once and didn't renew. I've had far less trouble with Google's "Beta" services then the Apple cloud service I paid for.
 
I wonder what all these cloud providers will do with this storage when the novelty of cloud based music wears off and hardly anyone uses it? I'm sure they'll think of something.

Most people wishing to play music on the go, need a portable music player of some sort. If you are lugging the player around anyway, then why not load it with music?

The argument I can understand is that someone might wish to hold more music than the player's capacity. Well again for most people, if you are away from home that long, you will likely have other equipment with you such as your laptop. And if music is the issue then the ipod classic is always an option with its larger storage capacity.

I think that Apple should consider adding some features to ipod classics. Allow for wireless connection and the ability to pair up with an iOS device for transfer of data or streaming. With that, someone traveling for an extended amount of time could use the ipod classic to carry extra data in a smaller piece of equipment than a laptop. The iOS devices could also back up to the classic some documents such as text files and presentations made in the field where there might not be internet available.
 
Yeah, and Apple TV better watch out for Google TV, right?

Solution to iTunes problems: buy a Mac.

Ever wonder why Google and Amazon launch their services so half-baked? Beta? Again? Without record label approval? Without movie or TV company deals in place? Because they want to dazzle you with their "functionality." Before what's coming from Apple.


so now you have to buy a $1200 computer just to run itunes?
 
I signed up for the Beta using my gmail account but without the functionality of iTunes, MobileMe, and my iPhone I don't see how it would make me leave Apple.

I guess I'll know more about the service once the invite is sent.
 
I seriously fail to see where the bar was raised. They created a rather simple cloud based music service. Its nice and all, but we know Apple is coming out with one that will at least match the service in function, and possibly exceed it.

No bar has been raised. Maybe bumped a tiny bit. but to the naked eye no one can really tell the difference.
In that case, I certainly hope Apple paid closer attention to this event than you did. Google laid out a vision for every single electronic device in your home syncing and interacting (wirelessly) with your Android device.

I guess I don't understand why anyone uses iTunes for more then a backup/sync service to their music and devices? All the music is DRM free, so you can use any music player you want. And isn't youtube the same price as everyone else, so I don't see how they are going to make any head room in the retail space that is owned by Netflix and not Apple...
Netflix doesn't rent newly released movies via streaming. YouTube now does.

But to answer your previous question, I think the best answer is there aren't obvious, easy-to-use alternatives. Until today, anyway (though the brunt of Google Music will never be felt until it signs on with the music labels).
 
It definitely feels more like Apple vs. Google than Apple vs. Microsoft nowadays. Crazy how fast things change.

I have a friend that short sold Microsoft this time last year. Managers refused the deal cause it was seen as insane. He is now laughing to the bank.

IMO Microsoft is becoming a legacy company with a shrinking customer base. Windows 7 saved their ass. IMO, netbooks and netbooks that convert to tablets are going to be their biggest growth. There is a lot of schmucks out there that run apps over ten years old.
 
yes, no need to buy a $300 device just to listen to music. the Inspire 4G is on sale for $29.99 at radio shack and comes with 8GB storage. apple may have cornered the flash market but google bypassed them and are letting you put your music in the cloud to stream to any of their cheap devices. same with amazon.

Sorry, but I use iPods and iPhones because they are great music players. That's why I paid the $300, because they aren't crap players like the Inspire 4G.

Your use case is a very poor Rube Goldberg device that doesn't really solve any real problems, especially considering iTunes songs aren't DRM anymore.
 
So, curious how this raised the bar against Apple?

Movie renting? You still can't buy from the Android Market.

The music uploading is only uploading - you still have to buy your music from iTunes or Amazon.

The use of 3rd party hardware is nice - but that's brand new to Apple's Made for iPod, etc.

Same OS across all systems I'm sure will be nice too - but just like Apple and soon WinPhone7, Blackberry, etc. - your device has to be able to support it.

I will say Android Market for Google TV "could" be a boon - still not convinced mobile apps on a TV outside of Netflix, Hulu or movie/tv/podcasting apps even make sense in a broad sense (as in I've never felt the urge I need to twitter from my TV).

Don't get me wrong - it looked promising for google heads for sure, not seeing how this means Apple needs to "step up their game" as opposed to them just keeping their game going like they have been.
 
If it's NOT free... I'm walking. I'm not paying for another thing every month.. especially if I can hold everything on my iPhone or iPad... if I need more room, an iPod Classic would suffice.
 
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