Is iTunes 11 still a device manager?

[ipedro]

iTunes has become so bloated over the years to the point of becoming practically an OS onto its own. From music player to syncing music was great. Adding movies and tv shows, it stayed within the multimedia library manager.

Moving on to a device manager for all iOS devices took it too far. Managing apps, photo albums, iOS firmware updates and everything else turned it into a bloated do-everything platform.

I'm cautiously optimistic that iTunes 11 has finally shed this bloat. While it's not clear from the video, the drop down menu doesn't seem to contain a device manager.

I see:

Music
Movies
Tv Shows
Podcasts
Books

Maybe the delay in releasing iTunes 11 is in finishing an iCloud manager? iTunes itself was functional and appeared ready. An update to Mountain Lion's iCloud settings panel (and a Windows iCloud app) could be in Mountain Lion 10.8.3 and might be a pre-requisite for the iTunes launch.

 

[Intell]

Music
Movies
Tv Shows
???
Devices?

Music
Movies
TV Shows
Podcasts
Books

 

[ipedro]

I had a clearer look: the bottom is in fact "Books". It even has a book icon.

 

[pedromartins]

I had a clearer look: the bottom is in fact "Books". It even has a book icon.

What are you talking about? iTunes uses less than 300mb of ram (usually less than 150mb window mode, it's using only 92mb right now, playing audioslave, 320kbps, 39,2gb library, podcasts downloading lol), opens in less than a second, is really fast..

how can you call it bloated? do you want the thing to open 0.1s faster?is that it?

ML, 2011 air i7

 

[Intell]

What are you talking about? iTunes uses less than 300mb of ram (usually less than 150mb window mode, it's using only 92mb right now, playing audioslave, 320kbps lol), opens in less than a second, is really fast..

how can you call it bloated? do you want the thing to open 0.1s faster?is that it?

ML, 2011 air i7

You obviously don't have 13,000+ songs, 2,500+ TV shows, 850+ movies, 2,000+ apps, and 6,000+ podcasts. Loading that will be slow on even the latest Mac.

 

[SimpleLove]

Ch...
How do you have all of that content...? Music is understandable, but all the movies and TV shows...

If you are LEGALLY gathering content, your library would balance out better and iTunes will run like it's intended...

 

[Intell]

Ch...
How do you have all of that content...? Music is understandable, but all the movies and TV shows...

If you are LEGALLY gathering content, your library would balance out better and iTunes will run like it's intended...

Most of the movies, tv shows, and music I ripped myself from discs I own and still have around in boxes. All the apps and podcasts are from Apple. Doesn't matter where the source is, iTunes just cannot run well with an excessively large library.

 

[MasterHowl]

I'm cautiously optimistic that iTunes 11 has finally shed this bloat. While it's not clear from the video, the drop down menu doesn't seem to contain a device manager.

Maybe there isn't anything plugged into the Mac

 

[The Bulge]

You obviously don't have 13,000+ songs, 2,500+ TV shows, 850+ movies, 2,000+ apps, and 6,000+ podcasts. Loading that will be slow on even the latest Mac.

You obviously have no idea that loading such library will be slower anyway.

 

[ipedro]

What are you talking about? iTunes uses less than 300mb of ram (usually less than 150mb window mode, it's using only 92mb right now, playing audioslave, 320kbps, 39,2gb library, podcasts downloading lol), opens in less than a second, is really fast..

how can you call it bloated? do you want the thing to open 0.1s faster?is that it?

ML, 2011 air i7

Bloat isn't a processing requirement, it's feature creep. When you have an app intended for music performing countless other tasks completely unrelated to the original intention of the app, it is bloated.

iTunes 11 appears to shed a lot of its functions to iCloud and it looks to be successful in integrating the store into the app, rather than just as an in-app browser. It also succeeds in making listening to music enjoyable again and demonstrates an intent on leading the user into rediscovering their music.

This is all great. Will it defer the function of iOS device management to the operating system where it belongs? It looks like it may.

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Maybe there isn't anything plugged into the Mac

That's a great point, and I hope that's how it functions. iPod nano and Shuffle don't have iCloud built in so hardwired syncing will be a requirement. If I plug in an iPod nano or Shuffle and an additional menu shows up, great. But don't fill up the UI for those who are adopting the new way of syncing: iCloud.

 

[adildacoolset]

Bloat isn't a processing requirement, it's feature creep. When you have an app intended for music performing countless other tasks completely unrelated to the original intention of the app, it is bloated.

iTunes 11 appears to shed a lot of its functions to iCloud and it looks to be successful in integrating the store into the app, rather than just as an in-app browser. It also succeeds in making listening to music enjoyable again and demonstrates an intent on leading the user into rediscovering their music.

This is all great. Will it defer the function of iOS device management to the operating system where it belongs? It looks like it may.

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That's a great point, and I hope that's how it functions. iPod nano and Shuffle don't have iCloud built in so hardwired syncing will be a requirement. If I plug in an iPod nano or Shuffle and an additional menu shows up, great. But don't fill up the UI for those who are adopting the new way of syncing: iCloud.

For all we know, iTunes 11 might have improved speed. But we'll have to wait and see.

But why is it expected to be a music player only? Isn't iTunes supposed to be the device that unifies all the ios device data. Isn't it supposed to be a "mission control" for ios devices, where it handles all the communication, input, output etc. ? Of you don't want bloat, then no one is forcing iTunes. Use QuickTime along with the folder that iTunes stores the music in. Or you can copy them out for convenience. Now that is intended for the sole purpose of media.

 

[westonm]

I hear about it a fair bit, but have never experienced a problem with iTunes bloat performance wise. I've been updating the same library file since 2002 and it still loads plenty quick (3 bounces or so after a cold boot - '09 iMac). I'm sitting at 4,000 songs, 280 movies, 30 podcasts, and 3400 TV shows.

Feature wise there is plenty of bloat. I imagine it's a function of Apple having to keep it all tied together for Windows trojan-horse-ness, iterate support at a pace to keep up with the new iOS devices, and the massive branding behind "iTunes". I'll be happy if the new version finally gets rid of the plethora of modal dialogs and aging interface conventions.

As far as a "device manager", the only thing I still "sync" is podcasts. And they mentioned iCloud should be handling those duties with version 11. The functions will still - probably - remain in iTunes so as not to disrupt the habits of non-iCloud users.

Version 11 seems to have all kinds of custom interface doodads and widgets, which I'm both intrigued by, and not a fan of. The closer they can keep to the base Cocoa classes the better in my eye. Perhaps rolling changes into the classes as required. The naming continues to irk me as well. iTunes has clearly become "Apple Media Player", yet has kept the music focused name. Additionally, it causes confusion for new users in regards to other "i-Apps". iTunes is playback, yet iMovie is solely for authoring, etc.

 

[BlackMangoTree]

You obviously don't have 13,000+ songs, 2,500+ TV shows, 850+ movies, 2,000+ apps, and 6,000+ podcasts. Loading that will be slow on even the latest Mac.

Thats small compared to what i have and on a 2011 MacMini iTunes is very quick. Even on my iMac 2007 it performs very well. Not slow at all to start up. 1 - 2 seconds.