Steve Jobs Defends New iTunes 10 Icon Against Criticism

[enzos]

iTunes 10 is better

It really is a terrible icon.

On the contrary, it's fine or will be after people become familiar with it. More importantly iTunes now significantly faster at doing most things I've tried, including initial and subsequent start-up times.

 

[faroZ06]

450 posts about an icon. Seriously. It's a friggin' icon. Click on it, hide your dock and listen to music or watch a show. Seriously.

Yeah but an icon can really affect how much someone likes it, surprisingly. I, personally, judge an app by its cover sometimes. The new logo looks too "cheap". I don't know how to explain it, but it's just not right. It's trying to be simple but looking strange.

For example Quicktime Player looks way more appealing just by the logo than RealPlayer, no matter which one you like better (I personally like QTP but I added Perian QT plugins so I odn't know if QTP without mods is better or worse than RealPlayer).

And if it's so unimportant why did you click on the post?

 

[faroZ06]

New icon, same clunky interface.

You call iTunes clunky?!

Man, I hope you don't like Windows Media better?

 

[ChrisGonzales90]

You call iTunes clunky?!

Man, I hope you don't like Windows Media better?

To be honest I liked media player up to media player 12. Microsoft totally messed up the UI on that one. Plus from versions 9-11 you could change the color of the player.. Media player 12 removed that. So we are stuck with the ugly UI

 

[Cloudane]

The icon is fine. It's a little basic, but maybe the designers like their Minimal tracks I'm all for minimal but clear/informative design, and you can't really miss the feel of "your music is in here". I can't imagine anyone looking through the dock and wondering which icon could be iTunes.

It happens to be sat next to the icons for iMovie and iDVD here, and looks right at home.

By far the worst thing about the redesign is that sidebar with its washed-out style. There's minimal, and there's downright boring and more difficult to identify the icons instantly.

 

[reflekshun]

iTunes doesn't sell CDs, goodbye CD icon. I can see why this makes sense for the product.

 

[DeJ]

So.. what is Steve Jobs e-mail addy!! After looking at it in my Dock a few times, while reading all of these comments!! I think it sticks out pretty great!!! And it's right next to my Twitterrific icon!! And yet it still sticks out!! I just think, most of those that dislike the new icon, are those that really hate change!!! I mean I hate change just as much as the next guy or girl, but I've learned to live with something, at least for a short time, before I decide I hate it!!
"Hey.. try this!"

"Nah"

"Why not?"

"Because I don't like it!"

"YOU'VE never tried it!!!!"

See what I'm saying! In a few mths, or a year, a lot of those disliking it now… will slowly under their breath say.. "hey.. i love that new iTunes icon." Then in two years.. "Man… I'm so glad they changed that icon! They needed to, that old one was getting outdated!"

The "Brand" is the music note!!! You all can certainly see that!!??

 

[nagromme]

The monochrome sidebar icons are bad for usability, but not that awful. The monochrome home folders in OS X are another story! They could have just colored those new icons in contrasting simple colors, and all would be well. Luckily, that’s user-adjustable, unlike iTunes.

I do like the new icon. But I think it should be purple or orange, to match the similar functions on iOS devices. (iPod or iTunes apps.) And the default Dock had enough blue in it already!

All of which is no big deal. The UI weirdness (zoom buttons, scrollbars) is just bizarre. Not that they’re bad, but when will OS X finally gain the remaining 5% of UI consistency? I await 10.7.... and res-independence.

 

[manu chao]

iTunes doesn't sell CDs, goodbye CD icon. I can see why this makes sense for the product.

Nobody criticises the disappearance of the CD from the iTunes icon, I repeat, nobody. You are defending a change nobody is criticising. What people are criticising, is the replacement which simply looks somewhat uninspiring.

 

[ishtahir]

It's new so there will be people hating on it, give it about a week everyone will get used to it.

But I like it, it really sticks out on my dock!

Should they have made the iTunes logo the one of the iPhone, with the pinkish-purpleish color?

 

[ChrisGonzales90]

I think I should complain about the apple logo. After all apple was popluar for this

 

[My Poor Brain]

To be fair...

Everyone here chiming in dismissively with "it's just a logo" or "there are more important things in life" should be aware that they can have that same logic turned against them very quickly whenever they take issue with something....such as...

"It's just a piece of technology..."

"It's just a tech company..."

"It's just a web forum..."

"It's just a phone...don't hold it that way..."

etc...

That sort of dismissive attitude stifles healthy debate and constructive criticism.

Is this logo the most important thing in the world? Of course not. Does it make or break Apple? Nope! BUT....for virtually every Mac user it's a constant presence on their dock at the bottom of their screen. In that respect, I think it looks out of place and gawky.

 

[Primejimbo]

Ok, first off, its an icon!

Second, its a step forward. We aren't in the 90's anymore, CDs are becoming a thing of the past and iTunes has been the leader moving consumers from physical media to digital downloads. The old icon was dated, a thing of the past, like vinyl records.

Well said. I actually like the new one.

 

[*LTD*]

The old one had little relevance these days.

The new one looks fine, although rather generic.

I don't think I'll be losing a a helluva lot of sleep over it, though.

 

[manu chao]

The UI weirdness (zoom buttons, scrollbars) is just bizarre. Not that they’re bad, but when will OS X finally gain the remaining 5% of UI consistency?

I don't consider the zoom buttons to be part of the UI, they are part of the chrome. Both close and minimise buttons are superfluous in single-window apps (as is the titlebar), quitting and hiding the app do exactly the same thing as closing or minimising.
And the zoom button is not often used, and if you use it often enough, you'll probably have a keyboard shortcut mapped to it anyway.

But I discovered another layout oddity. Notice the gap between the checkboxes and the actual podcasts? And why are the checkboxes further left than the disclosure triangles. That looks weird.

(My theory is that the new layout has been designed mainly with the checkboxes hidden and that they have been added again as an afterthought.)

 

[ChrisGonzales90]

Everyone here chiming in dismissively with "it's just a logo" or "there are more important things in life" should be aware that they can have that same logic turned against them very quickly whenever they take issue with something....such as...

"It's just a piece of technology..."

"It's just a tech company..."

"It's just a web forum..."

"It's just a phone...don't hold it that way..."

etc...

That sort of dismissive attitude stifles healthy debate and constructive criticism.

Is this logo the most important thing in the world? Of course not. Does it make or break Apple? Nope! BUT....for virtually every Mac user it's a constant presence on their dock at the bottom of their screen. In that respect, I think it looks out of place and gawky.

Well of course silly. But we are talking about the icon, not anything else. Those who complain about the icon are the ones who complain about the stuff you listed. I'm sorry if you take the comments about its just an icon off offended but its the truth.

I thought apple was all about keeping things simple and easy to use?

 

[mrboult]

i do not care for the new icon so simply changed back to the old one that i know and recognise.

but as people seems to be so upset i have attached (hopefully) some alternatives.

 

[MrSmith]

It's about time people stop emailing Steve Jobs over stupid crap like this.

True, but you can not email for an eternity when you're dead.

 

[SeaFox]

It's a bloody icon, get over it.

Seriously. The huge deal this is just shows how anal retentive some Apple users are.

Does anyone remember the old days in computing where all programs had the same generic operating system designated icon so you could tell they were applications and not documents, or a little further back from then when only the three character extension told you a file even was a program?

If the iTunes icons actually changed to reflect the status of the program in some very useful way, and the new design hampered this feature, THEN I can see cause for alarm. But it's just a picture you click on so you can get the program to launch, nothing more. Let's remember the point of computing is to actually use the software on the machine. Using icons as "pretty desktop decorations" is dumb. I pick and arrange application on a launchpads based on if I use them often and want to be able to access them more easily, not because the icons "look cool".

 

[DMann]

i do not care for the new icon so simply changed back to the old one that i know and recognise.

but as people seems to be so upset i have attached (hopefully) some alternatives.

This last one seems vaguely familiar.

 

[My Poor Brain]

Ok, first off, its an icon!

Second, its a step forward. We aren't in the 90's anymore, CDs are becoming a thing of the past and iTunes has been the leader moving consumers from physical media to digital downloads. The old icon was dated, a thing of the past, like vinyl records.

As an aside, what's funny is that vinyl record sales have been surging the past few years. Vintage is trendy now and a lot of people are going back to vinyl because it's the way music was "meant to be heard." Granted, I do like some of the warm qualities of vinyl.

I'm not trying to argue any point with this... I just thought it was interesting. Google it and you'll find all sorts of interesting articles. Vinyl sales are going up as CD sales go down.

 

[iSamurai]

the stiffy disk is obsolete... yet it is almost the universal "save" icon

the ipod's scroll wheel is almost gone... yet it is used in all ipod icons even on the iphone

most cameras now are digital... yet camera phones still play that film rolling sound when a picture is taken...

sometimes an icon doesn't have to be updated. it's a matter of the public being able to recognise what it represents. i believe this the itunes logo should've stayed as is.

 

[tkermit]

As an aside, what's funny is that vinyl record sales have been surging the past few years.

Indeed some have speculated that vinyl may outlive CDs after all.

Incidentally, of the most recent albums I've bought, at least some I purchased directly from the artist or label as a combo package that included an instant lossless download as well as a vinyl record shipped to me.

'tis the future, I tell thee

 

[cti]

With national security at an all time high. Is this really the time to get so worked up over a silly icon? I'd hate to be around you when something bad happens and everyone is running to safety and your throwing a fit over a silly icon.

Change is good. Remember when Apple went from the iconic rainbow logo to the sliver one that we have now? Change is good.

i for one prefer the rainbow logo. or even this one

 

[reubs]

This last one seems vaguely familiar.

It's from this guy's dA page: http://noelkudo.deviantart.com/

He says straight up it's inspired by the Looney Tunes opening. In fact, he calls the icon itself looneyTunes.