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iTunes Widget.. Let's Talk

Balin64

Balin64

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 23, 2002
772
1
In a Mauve Dream
Hi.

I have posted a couple of Tiger issues. I took care of the first one. This one is still driving me nuts:

When I invoke Dashboard, and I want to use the iTunes widget to either play/pause, volume, back/forward, or change the playlist, it takes a good 12-14 seconds before it is responsive.

Is anyone experiencing this problem? I have tried refreshing it (it will refresh after the same 12-14 second wait) and killing it in Activity Monitor then adding it to Dashboard again.

No dice. I did a clean install and added tunes afterwards.

What the...? Other than that, Tiger seems pretty stable so far: except I can't print to my trusted Epson SP 1200. But, I'll figure that one out.

To anyone who remembers my woes from earlier this week with airTunes, I have solved them for now.
 
I think the iTunes widget just isn't very good - it tends to be unresponsive and I think we're all waiting for itunes widget 1.1 given that for some people it's also causing problems by relaunching their iTunes etc

I've given up on it and gone back to using Synergy in the menu bar.

Incidentally, when we get to iTunesWidget 1.1, I'd also like to see it flip through title/artist like iTunes itself does rather than just seeing the song name.
 
Applespider said:
I think the iTunes widget just isn't very good - it tends to be unresponsive and I think we're all waiting for itunes widget 1.1 given that for some people it's also causing problems by relaunching their iTunes etc
Click to expand...
Ditto that. It really cant be that difficult to get the thing working. So I too have given up on it entirely and won't even activate 1.1 unless the verdict from the users is a universal upward thumb.

Incidentally, on the tail-end subject, I've also had trouble printing on my printer .. but that's kinda settled down for now.
 
Thanks Guys/Gals

I feel better knowing I am not the only one with the problem.

I was spoiled by KeyXing. I have used it for ages...

I had F8 set to display iTunes, F9 for Play/Pause, F10 to reverse, F11 to forward and F12 to toggle listening on/off for KeyXing. It was beautiful. I resisted installing it because I wanted a whistle clean Tiger install. Now, I am considering installing it again because I miss the feature so much. Not to mention that I had the other F-keys set to other apps/scripts.

Is there an app that works in Tiger for this? I've searched VersionTracker with no luck.

Unfortunately, KeyXing is no longer developed, and like I said, I doubt it works with Tiger. :(
 
Applespider said:
I think the iTunes widget just isn't very good - it tends to be unresponsive and I think we're all waiting for itunes widget 1.1 given that for some people it's also causing problems by relaunching their iTunes etc
Click to expand...

thank god! i was wondering why my itunes kept on randomly opening itself, but i hadn't done a search yet. i never use this widget anyway so i guess i can bin it for now..
 
Widget != Application

I haven't had any trouble at all with the iTunes widget. On my PowerBook, it is very responsive. Even on the occasions that it has to launch iTunes, it's nearly instantaneous.

It's just a widget; it's not a full fledged application. It's a frontend for iTunes, and requires it to be open. I guess since I usually have iTunes running anyway, I don't see this as being as issue.
 
velocityofjack said:
I haven't had any trouble at all with the iTunes widget. On my PowerBook, it is very responsive. Even on the occasions that it has to launch iTunes, it's nearly instantaneous.

It's just a widget; it's not a full fledged application. It's a frontend for iTunes, and requires it to be open. I guess since I usually have iTunes running anyway, I don't see this as being as issue.
Click to expand...

it's not the fact that itunes has to be open that's the problem. i have itunes open most of the time too. the problem is that the widget decides to randomly launch itunes whenever it feels like it (even when you arent looking at the dashboard)

this is v. annoying when your machine is about to go to sleep and suddenly itunes decides to open.
 
Apple definitely rushed the iTunes widget. It does not have the look or feel of an apple product. I imagined apple making a iTunes widget that could display the album art for the song being played as well as scrolling the artist and album. I would also like to be able to change the rating of the song with the widget. Hopefully they will add these features in the next one.
 
My iTunes widget is DAMN slow, to the point of being unusable on both my G3 500 (expected) AND G4 1GHz (definitely not expected!).
Come on apple, sort it out, adjusting the volume is like playing online games on dialup!
 
Wow, that is strange. I have absolutely no problems with iTunes widget responsiveness. Maybe it has something to do with the kind of files iTunes is playing?
 
James Philp said:
My iTunes widget is DAMN slow, to the point of being unusable on both my G3 500 (expected) AND G4 1GHz (definitely not expected!).
Come on apple, sort it out, adjusting the volume is like playing online games on dialup!
Click to expand...

Ditto that DAMN slow for a G4 1.33Ghz. I gave up within five minutes of use. Also, the controls seem pretty crude, since the only way to select specific songs is to a) play an entire playlist or b) next/previous track until you locate it (nigh impossible). Looks like synergy still gets my use.
 
Balin64 said:
I feel better knowing I am not the only one with the problem.

I was spoiled by KeyXing. I have used it for ages...

I had F8 set to display iTunes, F9 for Play/Pause, F10 to reverse, F11 to forward and F12 to toggle listening on/off for KeyXing. It was beautiful. I resisted installing it because I wanted a whistle clean Tiger install. Now, I am considering installing it again because I miss the feature so much. Not to mention that I had the other F-keys set to other apps/scripts.

Is there an app that works in Tiger for this? I've searched VersionTracker with no luck.

Unfortunately, KeyXing is no longer developed, and like I said, I doubt it works with Tiger. :(
Click to expand...


try tunekeys. its pretty much awesome, and freeware. integrates with growl too.
 
Yeah, same problem here on my G5 dual. Nothing to do with computer power, just a crappy widget. I've stopped using it :(

Anyway, what's with the name 'widget' I thought widgets were the things in Boddington's (wasn't it?) that Jack Dee used to advertise... You know some gizmo that made your beer frothy.

YOJ
 
well there's definitely something weird going on. I have a PB G4 1.5 GHz, 512 MB of RAM and I've only had ONE instance of the iTunes widget being unresponsive. Seems pretty much fine to me most of the time.
 
freeorangeshoes said:
try tunekeys. its pretty much awesome, and freeware. integrates with growl too.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I'll try it out.

I wonder if or installations of Tiger are to blame: as in, how we added tunes. I did a clean install, then moved the contents of my backed up Itunes folder to the Tiger one, and launched iTunes. It did update at launch.

I did not want to create all my playlists and re-rank 3000 songs. That's the only shortcut I took.

I do hope they fix it soon...
 
i get the delay pretty consistently when I just access dashboard and go straight to the itunes widget. Who wants to wait 5-10 secs before they can use a widget :(
 
TreeHugger said:
i get the delay pretty consistently when I just access dashboard and go straight to the itunes widget. Who wants to wait 5-10 secs before they can use a widget :(
Click to expand...

exactly, what's the point in waiting for widgets? that defeats the whole object :rolleyes:

with me, my itunes only takes a few secs to respond, but sometimes have to wait for upto 10 seconds after pressing F12 before my dashboard comes up. it's majorly annoying, trust me.

imac g5 w/512 ram here. shouldn't be any delay.
 
Umm..

Now I am not a programmer, but I have basic critical thinking skills.

It seems that the "pipe" connecting the widget to the iTunes program has its valve "shut off" if Dashboard is not in use for a sort period of time. When you invoke Dashboard, and click on any of the widget's controls, your command is recognized, but the pipe must be refilled with "1's and 0's" before your command can reach iTunes. This is either a rushed job by Apple, or an instance of an install that they did not test on. Otherwise, why would some of us be having the oproblem and not others?

I already wrote some feedback to Apple about this. It better be fixed in 10.4.1. :mad:
 
10.4.1 DOES NOT FIX PROBLEM

Wow.

When I saw the details of the update and saw the Widgets comment I was sure there would be an improvement: nothing. Same annoying delay. Damn!

Also, Tunekeys download site is not working. :(

Any other thoughts?


I guess I have to use the "hold down iTunes icon in dock" routine. That seems so... primitive?

How can it be that AirTunes have about a second delay and this thing be such a dog? I am a loss.
 
I think the whole iTunes widget is fairly stupid. Even if it hadn't been extremely slow and unreliable. In fact I tried it the day I installed Tiger, and it was the first (of the "default" widgets) I closed for good. I think I'm way better off wit the ordinary (minimized) iTunes window. Why would I invoke Dashboard to skip a song or adjust the volume when I already can do this just as easy from the app itself...???
 
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
I think the whole iTunes widget is fairly stupid. Even if it hadn't been extremely slow and unreliable. In fact I tried it the day I installed Tiger, and it was the first (of the "default" widgets) I closed for good. I think I'm way better off wit the ordinary (minimized) iTunes window. Why would I invoke Dashboard to skip a song or adjust the volume when I already can do this just as easy from the app itself...???
Click to expand...

Well, I wish it would work right. it's terrible on my Dual G5- unresponsive and slow. I'm highly disappointed in Apple.
 
I recommend getting Sizzling Keys for iTunes, sorry couldn't get Version Tracker, its being slow. But anyways, it lets you control iTunes at anytime. Its awesome.
 
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