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iPod Suggestions & feature requests for iPod/iTunes?

micropat

micropat

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 12, 2007
15
0
San Diego/Francisco, CA
What features would you like to see on next generation iPod and the next iTunes release?

I ask, because I'm compiling a list of feature requests to be voted on on my "social suggestions" website, FeVote.

The goal is to get an awesome list of the top feature requests for Apple's perusal.

If you'd like to join in and submit the suggestions yourself, or just vote on suggestions, please feel free. Otherwise, post here and I'll do it for you.

Thanks for your help!
 
TheAnswer said:
It's much easier to submit these directly to Apple's own iTunes feedback website.
Click to expand...
And I agree! But I daresay it's ineffective and uninteresting.

The point of FeVote is to get a public list of top suggestions, as submitted/voted on by people; essentially, a 'petition' for feature requests. An individual letter won't carry much weight. A letter with a massive amount of signatures will.

Apple's feedback form is perfect for bug reports, but I think they're missing out on a whole lot of great feature ideas. Two examples, Yahoo! and Dell, have gotten great feedback/suggestions through public participation (submitting/voting): Yahoo!'s Suggestion Board, Dell's Ideastorm.

I'd like to try this for Apple.

So, suggestions...? :)
 
Two somewhat related suggestions:

Enable Autofill for the rest of the iPod line, not just the shuffle.

Allow downconverting of music to 128kbps AAC for the nano as well as the shuffle during sync, for users who prefer song quantity over sound quality. (The full-size iPod models have storage capacities that tend to make this issue mostly irrelevant.)
 
I wish iTunes and iPhoto would have libraries that are easy to load and unload. For instance, Christmas songs can stay on my computer until Winter, then easily be copied to my iPod.

iPhoto would have a separate library for work photos.

And my iPod & iPhoto would keep the heirarchy of photos from Windows before I got my Mac. (Thousands of photos need multiple layers of photos on my iPod).


I wish iTunes allowed me to get rid of duplicate songs - but still play the two albums that have a duplicate song. The song file is owned by two albums.

Allow me to search for the song "Marion" without pulling up "Funeral March Of A Marionette" as well. (MacIntosh searches default to this, but allow a more specific search).

Allow multiple genres to be selected. For instance, a song can be both "Children's" and "folk", or "Country" and "Rock".

Allow me to create a smart playlist based upon lyrics, or album - maybe of everything that doesn't have an album assigned, or everything with multiple albums, or everything that I have checked as being a song - but which I haven't found lyrics for yet.

When my iPod is synchronized with my main computer, allow me to still sort and select songs from it to play through my work computer.

Sell a safe young children's headphone/earbud.

Make it easy to include my smart playlists, dragging them from iTunes to iPod to iTunes (not the songs, just the criteria).

A utility that shows differences between my iPod and my iTunes.

A utility to show me who's listening to my iTunes - or whose iTunes I am listening to.

The ability to play YouTube videos on my iPod.

Let me synchronize between my #1 and #2 authorized iTunes in my two connected home computers. This means I don't need a normal backup.

Let me check to see which authorized iTunes this computer is using - I suppose an iTunes can be authorized for multiple accounts (on a LAN it listens to songs bought by me or by someone else). Is this computer my #2 account or my #3 account?

Fix the bugs that make it difficult for me to buy a song on my #2 account and bring it home to my #1 account.

When it is possible to upgrade my iTunes store songs to non-scrambled, let me pay for every one I have at once, and convert them.
 
Also: change iTunes and Quicktime so that they don't need administrator privelege to upgrade on a Windows machine. If we went though all the channels to get the initial install, why should the upgrade require that we go through PC support again?

I don't know how this works now - which might make a difference in sales - but I'd like to be able to plug to my computer in an iPod shuffle next to my regular iPOD, and easily copy albums or playlists over. Two iPods can be better than one. Also, I don't know how two iPods for two different family members works on one computer. If it works fine - make it obvious. Jack and Jill might have overlapping tastes - but they are not identical. Maybe we need more powerful scripts in the synchronization process to handle multiple iPods.

It would be nice to synchronize "last played" or "rating" between a secondary iTunes and my iPod/primary iTunes. That doesn't include copying songs, but changes the random player.

I very much would like some control over what the "default" music is when I hit shuffle on the front menu of my iPod. That is the main way I listen to music. (same thing with iTunes, I hit Play without doing anything else). I'd like to set the default to the playlist that I have set up that includes everything except children's music, for instance. When I am babysitting, I play only children's music, but normally, I want to get to my default playlist as instantly as possible. Maybe put "scramble" on the top of the menu, so all I have to do is turn on my iPod, and push the button through the cover.
 
I think a simple solution to the last request of choosing the default music that is being shuffled would be to simply include a "Playlist" option in the shuffle choices (currently you can only choose Albums or Songs).

I enjoy using the shuffle feature but usually only for playlists as I really like listening to albums from the beggining to end. It is very annoying when having to constantly change the shuffle settings when going between playlists and artists.
 
Bluetooth For Headsets and for Syncing.

Also I'd like to see a little more variety for the types of video files ipods can handle. M4A's are great but 99% of my videos are ripped MPG and converting them is a pain in the..... You know.

To make the ipod a little more green friendly by using a photo voltaic solar cell for the face or under a clear face so it can charge where ever you have ample light.

If I think up anything else good I'll let yous know
 
All excellent requests/ideas!

I've added some of them, maybe half.

dXTC, thanks for the clarification! Fixed.

Howard, that was one long, and well thought-out list. Thank you! sonofjabba, thank you too. :)

Keep 'em coming! Feel free to submit/vote when you get a chance.
 
HD Vidoe content!

HD Movies, HD tv shows!!!!
HD Movies, HD tv shows!

What is the point of having an AppleTV if you can't even get the HD content you want on iTunes???
 
I'd like to have a "children's library" that had all of my settings for when I let my grandkids play with my iPod - simplified menu and only their songs and movies.

When I get home, I dismount that library and put back in my library - with my menu settings.

I'd like the ability to dismount my logical drive, with my plugged in iPod usable - playing music through my computer speakers.
 
I'd like to play shuffled songs on my iTunes, with my choice of the album cover coming up automatically or the lyrics - without me touching anything when the song changes.
 
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