You and the two others that quoted me are the only ones I know lol. Now you all can say goodbye to it
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Roundup of Changes in iTunes 11: 'Expanded View', No Cover Flow, 'Up Next' and More
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You and the two others that quoted me are the only ones I know lol. Now you all can say goodbye to it
Just noticed this morning that if you are downloading something using one iTunes account and logout to switch to another account, the download stops. This wasn't the case with 10.x.
This sometimes happens in our household as my wife and I still use our separate iTunes accounts to purchase things, even though we maintain a single iTunes library.
This sometimes happens in our household as my wife and I still use our separate iTunes accounts to purchase things, even though we maintain a single iTunes library.
I upgraded to iOS for Apple TV 5.1.1 and iTunes 11 successfully but have had one issue and that is that when streaming from iTunes Home Sharing the feed will just stop when the home computer goes to sleep. This happens when streaming music or movies and can be avoided by extending the sleep period.
This did not happen before the update and is probably an iTunes rather than ATV issue.
This did not happen before the update and is probably an iTunes rather than ATV issue.
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Selecting movies for a device still stinks
One thing that always annoyed me in the previous version was the way of selecting movies to sync onto an iDevice. It would show about 9 or so movies in a window with fairly large "movie poster" images, and you had to scroll slowly through the screen to find the movies you wanted. Having an option of a simple list view would be SO. Much better. The improved it by making the overall view BIGGER, but still no simple list option.
One thing that always annoyed me in the previous version was the way of selecting movies to sync onto an iDevice. It would show about 9 or so movies in a window with fairly large "movie poster" images, and you had to scroll slowly through the screen to find the movies you wanted. Having an option of a simple list view would be SO. Much better. The improved it by making the overall view BIGGER, but still no simple list option.
Was hoping, now iCloud is more integrated, it would ask you when you purchase something, if you want to download instead of automatically doing so. Buying a tv show season and having to cancel all downloads is a pain when all I want to do is stream them and not waste space on my laptop.
After spending a bit more time with this update I'm actually liking it overall.
Mini Player
This is one of the stars of the show as it's now a lot more powerful. I miss the progress bar, but you can now do so much more from just the mini-player, without having to endlessly switch to the full window to do simple tasks.
Search
Part of the reason the new mini-player is so powerful is the new, vastly superior, search. Finally we no longer have to open iTunes up, find the right entry in our sidebar and then search; it simply searches everywhere, all the time, and gives results useful enough to quickly find what we wanted.
All I need to do now is abandon my old habits for the old search, and relish this new golden age of actually being able to find music without endlessly jumping into, or out of, playlists and albums first
Next Up
A great extension of the old iTunes DJ. I do miss being able to manipulate it like any other playlist, but it doesn't seem to be missing any major features for keeping it stocked with music. My main gripe at the moment is that iTunes doesn't seem to remember what music source you were playing from when close and re-opened, so whenever I open up iTunes I have to go back to the correct playlist and start playing from there; it would be better if iTunes just remembered what you were playing when you last closed it (like iTunes DJ did).
Another small gripe is that you can't seem to go back properly on Next Up, at least when shuffled, as it just chooses a new song instead of pulling one back in from the history list.
Cover Flow
I personally miss cover flow; I was never a huge fan of it as it was on the desktop but I was hoping with the edge-to-edge window that Apple would have made a bigger, better cover flow that took up the whole view, maybe with the ability to simply type to filter the view. Flick through till you find what you want and touch it show the expanded view underneath, or double tap to open the album in more detail with a cover-flow of all available artwork, plus any digital booklet and/or music videos.
Cover flow is a great idea that I wouldn't like to see die as it's one of those stylish interfaces that's good fun for touch users without being too inefficient (if done right). Plus it's a great way to "lazily" search for music when you're not sure of what you want.
So yeah; while I didn't use cover flow a lot as it was, it still has a ton of potential that I'd like to think Apple could still see realised, rather than simply abandoning it.
Performance
I think a big mention has to go out to performance. Though I'm still a bit mad at the iTunes folks for not addressing this sooner, as every iTunes update was slower and slower, and generally worse than ever at just playing music.
This new version is very responsive, and I haven't had it lock up once. Older versions used to have a lot of trouble, particularly when syncing an iPod (or other iDevice I expect), this new one actually can play music and manage my music player at the same time!
Complete Package
I'm still not a big fan of the all-in-one nature of iTunes. I'd personally prefer a separate app for syncing/managing iDevices, and simply using the iTunes store in a proper browser like Safari with quick links for jumping between the two. But the package is at least more polished than before, and more functional, without being too complicated.
There's a lot of stuff to get used to that's different; personally I'm a fan of ditching the sidebar in favour of the more specialised horizontal tabs. And with the capabilities of the mini-player I hardly need even those.
One other gripe is that iTunes still only plays fairly specific movie files, which means my heap of quicktime friendly TV shows and movies remain unmanaged even though I'd personally like to have everything in iTunes. It's in Apple's best interests to make sure people import everything into iTunes, even stuff from other sources, as no-one in their right mind is going to re-buy a TV show just because iTunes won't play it, but they might be encouraged to buy Season 2 of the same show via iTunes if that's where they're keeping Season 1, for example.
There's also no easy way to repair split albums that have incorrect album artists; aside from making it again easier for people to manage music they've acquired from multiple sources, gracenote and even iTunes store purchases aren't always correctly tagged, resulting in multiple albums. I'm hoping in future there will be an easier way to just select a split album and combine them together automatically, with suggestions on which metadata to correct in order to do so.
Conclusion
Bit of a massive post, but yeah, I'm generally positive about the update as it's much faster both in performance and ease of use. Lots of stuff to like about it, and nothing that stands out as a big issue to count against it.
Mini Player
This is one of the stars of the show as it's now a lot more powerful. I miss the progress bar, but you can now do so much more from just the mini-player, without having to endlessly switch to the full window to do simple tasks.
Search
Part of the reason the new mini-player is so powerful is the new, vastly superior, search. Finally we no longer have to open iTunes up, find the right entry in our sidebar and then search; it simply searches everywhere, all the time, and gives results useful enough to quickly find what we wanted.
All I need to do now is abandon my old habits for the old search, and relish this new golden age of actually being able to find music without endlessly jumping into, or out of, playlists and albums first
Next Up
A great extension of the old iTunes DJ. I do miss being able to manipulate it like any other playlist, but it doesn't seem to be missing any major features for keeping it stocked with music. My main gripe at the moment is that iTunes doesn't seem to remember what music source you were playing from when close and re-opened, so whenever I open up iTunes I have to go back to the correct playlist and start playing from there; it would be better if iTunes just remembered what you were playing when you last closed it (like iTunes DJ did).
Another small gripe is that you can't seem to go back properly on Next Up, at least when shuffled, as it just chooses a new song instead of pulling one back in from the history list.
Cover Flow
I personally miss cover flow; I was never a huge fan of it as it was on the desktop but I was hoping with the edge-to-edge window that Apple would have made a bigger, better cover flow that took up the whole view, maybe with the ability to simply type to filter the view. Flick through till you find what you want and touch it show the expanded view underneath, or double tap to open the album in more detail with a cover-flow of all available artwork, plus any digital booklet and/or music videos.
Cover flow is a great idea that I wouldn't like to see die as it's one of those stylish interfaces that's good fun for touch users without being too inefficient (if done right). Plus it's a great way to "lazily" search for music when you're not sure of what you want.
So yeah; while I didn't use cover flow a lot as it was, it still has a ton of potential that I'd like to think Apple could still see realised, rather than simply abandoning it.
Performance
I think a big mention has to go out to performance. Though I'm still a bit mad at the iTunes folks for not addressing this sooner, as every iTunes update was slower and slower, and generally worse than ever at just playing music.
This new version is very responsive, and I haven't had it lock up once. Older versions used to have a lot of trouble, particularly when syncing an iPod (or other iDevice I expect), this new one actually can play music and manage my music player at the same time!
Complete Package
I'm still not a big fan of the all-in-one nature of iTunes. I'd personally prefer a separate app for syncing/managing iDevices, and simply using the iTunes store in a proper browser like Safari with quick links for jumping between the two. But the package is at least more polished than before, and more functional, without being too complicated.
There's a lot of stuff to get used to that's different; personally I'm a fan of ditching the sidebar in favour of the more specialised horizontal tabs. And with the capabilities of the mini-player I hardly need even those.
One other gripe is that iTunes still only plays fairly specific movie files, which means my heap of quicktime friendly TV shows and movies remain unmanaged even though I'd personally like to have everything in iTunes. It's in Apple's best interests to make sure people import everything into iTunes, even stuff from other sources, as no-one in their right mind is going to re-buy a TV show just because iTunes won't play it, but they might be encouraged to buy Season 2 of the same show via iTunes if that's where they're keeping Season 1, for example.
There's also no easy way to repair split albums that have incorrect album artists; aside from making it again easier for people to manage music they've acquired from multiple sources, gracenote and even iTunes store purchases aren't always correctly tagged, resulting in multiple albums. I'm hoping in future there will be an easier way to just select a split album and combine them together automatically, with suggestions on which metadata to correct in order to do so.
Conclusion
Bit of a massive post, but yeah, I'm generally positive about the update as it's much faster both in performance and ease of use. Lots of stuff to like about it, and nothing that stands out as a big issue to count against it.
Apart from all the songs which you like to listen to which aren't on Spotify.
Spotify is very good, don't get wrong, and I tried replacing my music app on my iPhone with Spotify for a while. But there were just too many things I wanted to listen to that weren't on Spotify. So I gave up and went back to the iTunes and the music app.
I am really digging the new iTunes 11 interface. I think it's a big improvement overall to the bloated interface of the previous versions. What I am missing, though, is an option to change the background colour in the new album view. I think the white background is a bit harsh on the eyes. An option to change it to a softer grey colour would be much appreciated.
colour is back!?
do you think this back-peddling may make its way into OsX finder? as since Lion it got ditched along with custom icons in the sidebar which is a real pain in the bum - the SIMBL fix only affects finder not in-app file dialogue so id like to see a full return to colour sidebar (or at least an option for it?).
I have a feeling the monotone sidebar was first shown in itunes then followed up in OSx so hopefully the return of colour will follow too...
do you think this back-peddling may make its way into OsX finder? as since Lion it got ditched along with custom icons in the sidebar which is a real pain in the bum - the SIMBL fix only affects finder not in-app file dialogue so id like to see a full return to colour sidebar (or at least an option for it?).
I have a feeling the monotone sidebar was first shown in itunes then followed up in OSx so hopefully the return of colour will follow too...
Anyone else think the design is incredibly tacky? Looks like some kind of crappy bloatware that would come pre-installed on a Windows system. The info in the 'Now Playing' hud/display seems cramped and throughout the whole app text is so anti-aliased it's a bit blurry. Are there any new features apart from renaming iTunes DJ and the removal of some features? It's so incredibly over-designed, too much shine.
I'm the only human being alive who used cover flow in tandem with the song list view?
Like so:
iTunes 11
How about: Sync; Transfer and Backup?
I have not figured out how to find these three functions and I wonder if they are no longer present.
How about: Sync; Transfer and Backup?
I have not figured out how to find these three functions and I wonder if they are no longer present.
Only thing I don't like about this is the actual UI change... It is very nice and sleek and even a bit darker looking than standard Apple which is fine. It just feels like a Johnny Ive design implementation - and the entire rest of the OS lacks this entirely.
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Only on 'Music'. In my playlists I just used the list.
A lot of the usual whining....
I love it. Many improvements in the UI, but I am really excited by what's underneath. Has no one noticed what seems to be going on under the hood? I keep all my music in iTunes in Apple Lossless and convert them the other formats as needed. I generally keep everything on my iPads and iPods in 256AAC, but frequently need MP3's for other players, particularly in the cars. I used to do this in the Finder with XLD, but now iTunes is 64 bit AND threaded so making an MP3 copy of an album or converting to send to a device is very fast. Older versions only did one song at a time. I haven't tried a video yet, but I am hoping it uses the cores there as well.
Looks like a lot more here than just new eye candy!
I love it. Many improvements in the UI, but I am really excited by what's underneath. Has no one noticed what seems to be going on under the hood? I keep all my music in iTunes in Apple Lossless and convert them the other formats as needed. I generally keep everything on my iPads and iPods in 256AAC, but frequently need MP3's for other players, particularly in the cars. I used to do this in the Finder with XLD, but now iTunes is 64 bit AND threaded so making an MP3 copy of an album or converting to send to a device is very fast. Older versions only did one song at a time. I haven't tried a video yet, but I am hoping it uses the cores there as well.
Looks like a lot more here than just new eye candy!
Agggggggggh! I want the cover flow back. It looks boring now!
If you didn't like cover flow you could always just not put it on. Now we are FORCED not to have it. Stupid decision
If you didn't like cover flow you could always just not put it on. Now we are FORCED not to have it. Stupid decision
My biggest gripe with cover flow was that it was kind of awkward for me to use. You had this beautiful display of album art and underneath it a list. It was just kind of awkward, they should've put the list aside the cover flow and or somehow incorporated the album songs perhaps on top of the album art for quick glance.
That said, I never really used it, but I still want it back!
eBook genres gone?
I had organised my ebooks in iTunes in genres, making it possible to list all IT related books under "IT books" and all travel books under "Travel books". While it's still possible to edit the genre of an ebook, it no longer seems to be possible to reflect this in the view.
Similar things apply to the iTunes playlist, where it's no longer seems to be possible to specify the metadata to be displayed in the list view.
I had organised my ebooks in iTunes in genres, making it possible to list all IT related books under "IT books" and all travel books under "Travel books". While it's still possible to edit the genre of an ebook, it no longer seems to be possible to reflect this in the view.
Similar things apply to the iTunes playlist, where it's no longer seems to be possible to specify the metadata to be displayed in the list view.
I do not find it slow at all! In artist mode, I can zip through the artists quickly and have access to their albums, all sorted by year of release.
Annoying? It's new and you have to get used to change...so far, I find it fresh, and sleek.
Coverflow? It was cool looking, but the more music you have, the less useful it was, IMO. Rarely used it and will not miss it.
My opinions
95% of the time I was listening to music in iTunes, I used iTunes DJ with a Cover Flow window above the list. It was an easy way to enjoy music I want to hear while I'm working, and make easy changes if I wanted to.
I upgraded and logged in, to find iTunes DJ gone, along with Cover Flow. So for me, this has been a hugely jarring "update". I'm trying to get used to "Up Next", but so far it's requiring a significant change of process for me.
I rate all my music, and generally had iTunes DJ running off a playlist that was, depending on my mood, something like 4-5* or unrated. Then if iTunes DJ played an unrated song, I could rate it a 3 or something. Now if I do that, the song disappears out of my 4-5*/unrated playlist and it quits playing. That's very jarring.
Cover Flow was great as I could visually see what was playing and what was up next. If you're not a visual processor, then maybe that wouldn't be useful to you. It was to me. For all those of you LOLing at those of us who used Cover Flow, consider that maybe it was more just that YOU couldn't figure out a use for it. I didn't use it to find something to play, but to show me what was playing. Up Next doesn't show me what's playing.
On that note, I could see the next 15 things that were playing in a list, and could remove something from the list if I didn't want to listen to it. For example, I'm learning German, and I listen to a certain amount of "learning German" stuff while I'm working. At a certain point I don't want to hear any more for the day, and would just remove them from the upcoming list in iTunes DJ. In Up Next, I have no idea what's up next without clicking on a list, which is a much bigger interruption to my work.
Neither the window at the top of the big player, or the mini player, shows the rating. I use ratings a lot, and this makes using iTunes annoying for me.
As others have mentioned, the cover art is WAY too small. Yes, I can open a larger version in another window, but that covers iTunes.
I'll get over it, and life will move on, but Apple have removed a LOT of useful edge features here, and that's going to confuse and annoy a lot of people.
95% of the time I was listening to music in iTunes, I used iTunes DJ with a Cover Flow window above the list. It was an easy way to enjoy music I want to hear while I'm working, and make easy changes if I wanted to.
I upgraded and logged in, to find iTunes DJ gone, along with Cover Flow. So for me, this has been a hugely jarring "update". I'm trying to get used to "Up Next", but so far it's requiring a significant change of process for me.
I rate all my music, and generally had iTunes DJ running off a playlist that was, depending on my mood, something like 4-5* or unrated. Then if iTunes DJ played an unrated song, I could rate it a 3 or something. Now if I do that, the song disappears out of my 4-5*/unrated playlist and it quits playing. That's very jarring.
Cover Flow was great as I could visually see what was playing and what was up next. If you're not a visual processor, then maybe that wouldn't be useful to you. It was to me. For all those of you LOLing at those of us who used Cover Flow, consider that maybe it was more just that YOU couldn't figure out a use for it. I didn't use it to find something to play, but to show me what was playing. Up Next doesn't show me what's playing.
On that note, I could see the next 15 things that were playing in a list, and could remove something from the list if I didn't want to listen to it. For example, I'm learning German, and I listen to a certain amount of "learning German" stuff while I'm working. At a certain point I don't want to hear any more for the day, and would just remove them from the upcoming list in iTunes DJ. In Up Next, I have no idea what's up next without clicking on a list, which is a much bigger interruption to my work.
Neither the window at the top of the big player, or the mini player, shows the rating. I use ratings a lot, and this makes using iTunes annoying for me.
As others have mentioned, the cover art is WAY too small. Yes, I can open a larger version in another window, but that covers iTunes.
I'll get over it, and life will move on, but Apple have removed a LOT of useful edge features here, and that's going to confuse and annoy a lot of people.
No Coverflow - No Download
No thank you.
If you didn't like Coverflow you didn't use it anyway, so you should be neither happy nor sad that this viewing option is gone.
I like Coverflow. I'm only using Coverflow on all my machines. I type the first few letters of the band I want to listen to and the albums fly by. It looks and feels great, especially when listening to random songs.
I don't understand why Apple removed that view, makes no sense to me. And I'm not gonna upgrade until this view is brought back.
No thank you.
If you didn't like Coverflow you didn't use it anyway, so you should be neither happy nor sad that this viewing option is gone.
I like Coverflow. I'm only using Coverflow on all my machines. I type the first few letters of the band I want to listen to and the albums fly by. It looks and feels great, especially when listening to random songs.
I don't understand why Apple removed that view, makes no sense to me. And I'm not gonna upgrade until this view is brought back.
Best iTunes version Ive used so far (and Im using iTunes since I bought the first iPod nano years ago, the one that scratched too easily
The only thing I miss: Dark background, and the possibility to view the album covers in "Songs" view:
Image
I really miss this too. For those of us who really like using the list view with all the details, this was a great way to separate out a huge long list.
the new search can't handle multiple details. If you search name of an artist and a song, it won't bring you any results! So many songs share same names, and each artist has many songs. This makes it hard to get to a specific song through the search! That's horrible!
I agree, the new search is terrible in this respect. Fine, make it work like it does, but when you are in song view, why did they remove the feature where the list was refined in real-time as you type?
Thanks, that is a little bit better, but it should still be refining the song list view in real time while typing. That way I know exactly how much I need to type in order to narrow it down to only the content I want. Now, not only is it an extra keystroke, but if I haven't typed enough to narrow it down fully, I have to start over. Dumb.
How does it feel to be as wrong as possible about something? Seriously, you couldn't be more wrong. That has to have a unique feel to it.