I hope they finally get rid of the dreaded "8364" errors with Itunes Match. I have a number of purchased songs that I can't play any more because I get this error message.
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iTunes 11 to Include Improved iCloud Integration and iOS 6 Support
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Really? Or you know one guy who did that? Or are you simply making ridiculous assumptions?
If iTunes was truly the utter and complete failure you're suggesting it is, how on earth did so many millions of people make due for years with iPods when you absolutely were stuck doing anything and everything with iTunes? At least with the iPhone and iPad you can get just about any content you want from the device, but beforehand, you were stuck syncing iPod's with a computer to get anything at all to consume on the device. People figured it out.
iTunes is hardly great, but I don't think it's nearly as bad as many make it out to be. Well, at least on a Mac. On Windows, it's nothing short of abysmal. But I know plenty of self-proclaimed "computer-stupid" people who objectively are pretty computer-stupid who have had no problems using their iPods for years and now iPhones and iPads more recently, even on Windows!
What I've found interesting though in my personal experience with these people that worked their iPods just fine is that if they have Blackberry's or Android phones, they have absolutely no idea how to do anything related to the computer or getting their content to and from said device. No clue.
Let's say Blackberry Desktop Software and Blackberry Media Sync were better than iTunes (though they aren't at all). What does it matter if people have absolutely no idea that it exists let alone how to use it? At least with Apple, iTunes has mostly become a ubiquitous piece of software, instantly associated with Apple, iPods, iPhones and iPads. Very few people have to guess or search to figure out how to connect their new iDevice to a computer and get information on to and off of it.
Hell, before iOS 5, what was the first thing people saw when they turned their device on?
"Connnect to iTunes."
Don't minimize the importance and value of that knowledge. After all, do you really think the whole concept of iCloud is any less confusing to the non-enthusiast?
I'm fully open to the possibility that I just am too used to it at this point, but could someone explain to me what exactly is so complicated about iTunes? To me, it's fairly straightforward most of the time, only sluggish and far too often buggy. But complicated? I still don't exactly see it.
iTunes is trying to be all things to all people. The problem in my eyes isn't the software itself, but Windows. Now, before anyone is quick to judge me as a fanboy, hear me out. It's not a perfect theory, but it's something to consider.
All new Macs are shipped with the App Store & iTunes pre-installed. It's very logical to think if you had to re-imagine the whole process that you'd download all applications, books, etc from the App Store, and deal with all your Music (and Movies) using iTunes. You'd have iCloud to sync all the information between those two applications and your device(s). This is ideal and how I wish things worked. Keep applications focused and lean.
Now, with Windows users, those Applications don't come pre-installed. So if you're Apple you have to now write a separate application for the Windows App store, and tell users they have to install two pieces of software. So much for "it just works" if you're a windows user.
That is why I believe Apple still continues to cram more and more functionality into iTunes. If they were able to cut the cord on supporting Windows (an impossible scenario), then I'm willing to guess they'd move the management of all applications, etc into the App Store standalone app.
All new Macs are shipped with the App Store & iTunes pre-installed. It's very logical to think if you had to re-imagine the whole process that you'd download all applications, books, etc from the App Store, and deal with all your Music (and Movies) using iTunes. You'd have iCloud to sync all the information between those two applications and your device(s). This is ideal and how I wish things worked. Keep applications focused and lean.
Now, with Windows users, those Applications don't come pre-installed. So if you're Apple you have to now write a separate application for the Windows App store, and tell users they have to install two pieces of software. So much for "it just works" if you're a windows user.
That is why I believe Apple still continues to cram more and more functionality into iTunes. If they were able to cut the cord on supporting Windows (an impossible scenario), then I'm willing to guess they'd move the management of all applications, etc into the App Store standalone app.
If you have an Apple router (not sure if all models) WOL works great and iDevices can wake the Mac. (The router maintains the home sharing precense to other devices)
What I find that people find confusing about iTunes is when you connect a device to another iTunes library and it asks whether you want to sync it and erase it, but you can back up the settings, but not necessarily the apps and music, unless you sign in to iTunes and sync purchased apps, and purchased music, but not music you got from somewhere else, that will be erased, oh wait you got a new computer and your old one is destroyed, how do I get the songs off of my iPod back onto my computer, I can't, etc etc... It's the syncing to a different computer and all of the implications that's a bit confusing as to what is about to happen to your device
In general use, I don't find there is anything too complicated about it.
It works with podcasts, and I assume you can set it to work with normal songs too:
Select a track in iTunes, and Get Info. Go to the Options tab, and check "Remember playback position" (or change "Remember position" to "Yes" if you selected multiple tracks).
Now just perform a sync before you eject your iDevice, and in theory, playback will start from where you stopped once you select the same song (I guess this is the catch).
All I've ever been waiting for is multi-genre support. iTunes is working fine for me otherwise on OS X.
Yeah! And we shouldn't let Taco Bell get away with selling stuff other than tacos either! (Unless they would like to get into the doorbell business. I'd be okay with that.)
Ideally, you could just hide the different sections of the library that you don't care about and stop pretending that the couple hundred MBs that iTunes takes up on your hard drive is significant in 2012.
A lot of people that want a really simple application that is JUST for the organization and playback of their music library without all the bloat that the current iTunes suffers from would just use something other than iTunes.
Here are two major issues I have with iTunes:
1)
Apple sells 27" iMacs and can't use the screen real estate.
2) Video management in iTunes is terribly limited and confusing.
Considering Home sharing is the only option for video on Apple TV2 other than directly from iTunes Store (without jailbreaking), it really seems they don't want you supplying you own videos and want to force you to iTunes purchased only videos.
1)
Apple sells 27" iMacs and can't use the screen real estate.
2) Video management in iTunes is terribly limited and confusing.
Considering Home sharing is the only option for video on Apple TV2 other than directly from iTunes Store (without jailbreaking), it really seems they don't want you supplying you own videos and want to force you to iTunes purchased only videos.
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I disagree somewhat. iTunes does attempt to make it easy to manage all of your music. But do think iTunes could run a little better.
Still though... the iPod captured over 75% of the MP3 player market... even today. Obviously iTunes isn't that much of a deterrent.
The alternative is making people organize their files into folders... and we know how clueless people can be with that...
Remember... there are people who don't read tech-websites and who have no concept of files and folders. These are the same people who save documents on their desktop because they don't know any better.
As for being scared away from the iPhone because of iTunes... and running towards Android... I bet a lot of people already had some kind of iPod over the last decade.
From my observations... my non-techy friends with iPods and iPhones had all their music on their new iPhone immediately after they plugged their iPhone into their computer the first time.
Most of my friends with Android phones... they don't keep music on their Android phones.
They continue to use their iPods.
This is my experience with it only...and I am a Windows user, and while it has not forced me into an android product, I am at this point still using my iphone 3GS because I don't want to mess things up by trying to move/sync/install stuff to a new phone. Also, the only reason I have an iPad 2 right now is because it was gifted to me. At best, I connect my phone to itunes maybe twice a year. And basically, I have all syncing unchecked.
Now, with all that preface out of the way....
The way the libraries are locked down. Authorization/deauthorization/can't have your library on 2 pc's and be able to sync to both. In just the time I've had the 3GS (coming up on 3 years) I've had to "move" my data due to new computers or re-installs. I've used 4 authorizations and it has just been me...1 person...no family members, etc., just me with only one device (until last week). It should be much easier to move/maniupulate/manage your library and not be told "your device has been previously synced to another library...go ahead and delete stuff from the phone?".
Example, I finally plugged my iPhone 3GS in after a few months and I let it upgrade me to iOS5.1. Which led to a message about failure to restore. When it finally finished updating, I was then able to manually tell it to restore again and ended up with most stuff back. On top of that though, I was dealing with the "synced to another library message." Because yes, since the last time it synced I built a new computer and so it was a new library with all my music re-imported.
Anyway, at first I was trying to just copy some additional playlists and music on to my phone by dragging/dropping within itunes. But it wouldn't allow that. And then the message that the phone has already been synced didn't "I'm only deleting the music on your phone so you can resync"; instead it was written in such broad terms that for all I knew it was going to delete contacts and other stuff too!
Also, in sitting down with the family member who gifted me the iPad 2, to back it up so she can restore it to her new iPad, it was frustrating to try to figure out the difference between backup, sync, and then WTF "transfer purchases" was for. And the itunes "help" was not helpful at all. We went ahead and clicked on "transfer purchases" but honestly had no idea what it was doing. It just started "transferring". But we just had to click and cross our fingers because we did not know what it was doing.
So basically...it is not intuitive or even sensible. There is not useful "help" for it in the program. And you have to jump through too many hoops. I do not see it as straightforward at all.
But then, I also wish iOS had a local folder I could drag and drop a bunch of files too that ALL the apps on the iPad could read from AND write to. The work arounds to use dropbox or sugarsync or etc. are just not logical to me at all.
I would prefer it if they made an iCloud app that would centralize management and syncing of all data, apps, and media, and pull all that out of iTunes, iPhoto, Mail, and all the other apps. Obviously iTunes needs to communicate with the iCloud server in the background, but let's clean out the iTunes interface and dedicate it to music again.
Many people don't understand it's quit harmless to keep iTunes open and minimized. And it uses very little RAM or CPU cycles when it's idling in the grand scheme of things.
Yes, it would be nice to have an iTunes that actually didn't work backwards wouldn't it? It's the one thing that people struggle with, and it's not just Mac users either....I've had even more grief from buddies who use the Windows version....Having to re-install it is a pain.
Lets hope these changes do fix the old problems.
iTunes is the first product of the new generation of Apple marketing.
By that I mean that, it is the less updated, the less upgraded, the less innovative, less changing of all Apple products
I could post here pics of all 11 itunes version side by side since it's been released, you would been impressed at how little it has changed. And for a few years, Apple has been updated, getting more and more bloated with supplementary bugs sometimes but it has gotten ZERO innovation or new worthy function (Match is used by a minority of people, Ping by nobody and iTunes LP was a complete failure...)
Even Facebook or more complicated software such has Ableton Live or Photoshop have changed 10 times more these 3 last years and brought way more than iTunes.
By that I mean that, it is the less updated, the less upgraded, the less innovative, less changing of all Apple products
I could post here pics of all 11 itunes version side by side since it's been released, you would been impressed at how little it has changed. And for a few years, Apple has been updated, getting more and more bloated with supplementary bugs sometimes but it has gotten ZERO innovation or new worthy function (Match is used by a minority of people, Ping by nobody and iTunes LP was a complete failure...)
Even Facebook or more complicated software such has Ableton Live or Photoshop have changed 10 times more these 3 last years and brought way more than iTunes.
because doing more things is what itunes needs to do.
edit: i re-read and noticed they primarily listed the music functions of icloud, so i guess those additions do make sense. i still wish they could move some of the more esoteric idevice functionality out of itunes though. like folding ios app management on your computer into the mac appstore software.
I think it's time they dismantle iTunes into its constituent parts (at least on the Mac side; Windows can stay as is).
Audio, Video, and Apps should all be separately handled (or perhaps unified in an iCloud product) independently of the device they appear on. Merge the App Store and the Mac App Store.
Devices should each have independent portals for managing their contents, and sync should be a seamless background function in OS X.
Could you please expand on this post? If this works as I think it does, I'd instabuy an Apple router / Time Capsule.
Was it really necessary to come off as condescending and live up to the 'holier than thou' apple user stereotype?