I must say that the idea for this thread came from a dreadful error message that I received when i attached my iPhone to my Mac.
It gave a clue that I should “delete the back up for this iPhone and then try again”. There is an option in the Summary tab that let you switch between backing up to “iCloud” or to “this computer”. Nowhere a mention in iTunes about an option to delete a back up as iTunes requested me to do….
But so I ran into the surprise that you can obviously back up to iCloud. Now I do remember reading somewhere that my standard iCloud space is 5 Gb, so what happens when I’m gonna back up my 28 Gb iPhone data … no idea.
Anyway, this whole experience and digging through the different menus led me again to the conviction that iTunes in its current form is bloated, complex and ready for a complete overhaul. Clearly over the past 10 years all kinds of functionality is added, leading to a cluttered mess that is pretty untypical for Apple.
Some of my main beefs:
You have entries at the left side of the iTunes screen (Music, Movies etc..) but also all kind of tabs at the top of the iPhone screen (more options than on the left, like Info, Apps, Tones). Why this is different? You tell me.
Syncing things. Since iCloud things should have become more simple, but in the “Info” tab (as well as the other tabs) there is an overload of things that can be checked (and then synced). But how this exactly works out in conjunction with iCloud?
In case of my problem with the back up: I understand that applications generate data that need to be stored somewhere. But why do we need to back up applications itself onto local (iTunes) drives, why couldn’t this be syned from Apple’s computers in case an application is missing?
On to the next terrible tab ‘Apps’ where you can sync your Apps and lay out the screens for you iPhone, iPod and iPad. The dragging of apps to the desired screen works so miserably (you are only able to drag one app at a time for example), it makes you wonder why this has never improved. File Sharing is also pretty terrible: why am I not allowed to drag directly from the file viewer into the Finder?
Music tab: too complex, this whole Playlist based paradigm is outdated, complex and takes ages to get music from your iTunes to your iPad/iPod/iPhone.
Photos tab: another let down. Why am I not allowed to preview the content on my iPad/iPod/iPhone, before I decide to sync it with iPhoto? I always use the Image Capture application to exchange material from my iPhone to my Mac, but that functionality should of course be integrated in iTunes itself.
Anyway, I hope that Apple will change its ways concerning exchanging information between its devices. To achieve this I can think of following steps:
Users shouldn’t have to worry or think about syncing when it somes to contacts, calendars, mail accounts, applications etc.). Everything should sync over iCloud wirelessly based on your iCloud id, no questions asked, no need for checking things. Only unless you want to exclude or change things you adjust settings in iCloud.
Music, movies, books, photos should reside in a specific (new) ‘Content/ media application’. On the level of a content item it should be indicated that the item should be shared with iPad/iPod/iPhone, this syncing should be in real time, no need to manually sync, get rid of the Playlist paradigm: playlists should be optional not be conditionally.
The 'App Store' should be upgraded to simply 'the Store': this is where you buy your media, apps, regardless if it’s being used on a certain device, regardlessly if it’s music, movies, books or apps. Purchased media directly comes available on the device that is supporting the app, unless you indicate you don’t want it to become available or it is technically impossible to install it onto a device. So you can buy for example Mountain Lion from your iPhone and it becomes installable for your iMac based tough your store id.
I understand that these are pretty rough ideas that need further elaboration and probably I am overseeing lots of things, but the current state of things is too hard to manage from the standpoint of an end user.
Hopefully during the new iPhone introduction we will hear more about plans concerning the future of iTunes.
It gave a clue that I should “delete the back up for this iPhone and then try again”. There is an option in the Summary tab that let you switch between backing up to “iCloud” or to “this computer”. Nowhere a mention in iTunes about an option to delete a back up as iTunes requested me to do….
But so I ran into the surprise that you can obviously back up to iCloud. Now I do remember reading somewhere that my standard iCloud space is 5 Gb, so what happens when I’m gonna back up my 28 Gb iPhone data … no idea.
Anyway, this whole experience and digging through the different menus led me again to the conviction that iTunes in its current form is bloated, complex and ready for a complete overhaul. Clearly over the past 10 years all kinds of functionality is added, leading to a cluttered mess that is pretty untypical for Apple.
Some of my main beefs:
You have entries at the left side of the iTunes screen (Music, Movies etc..) but also all kind of tabs at the top of the iPhone screen (more options than on the left, like Info, Apps, Tones). Why this is different? You tell me.
Syncing things. Since iCloud things should have become more simple, but in the “Info” tab (as well as the other tabs) there is an overload of things that can be checked (and then synced). But how this exactly works out in conjunction with iCloud?
In case of my problem with the back up: I understand that applications generate data that need to be stored somewhere. But why do we need to back up applications itself onto local (iTunes) drives, why couldn’t this be syned from Apple’s computers in case an application is missing?
On to the next terrible tab ‘Apps’ where you can sync your Apps and lay out the screens for you iPhone, iPod and iPad. The dragging of apps to the desired screen works so miserably (you are only able to drag one app at a time for example), it makes you wonder why this has never improved. File Sharing is also pretty terrible: why am I not allowed to drag directly from the file viewer into the Finder?
Music tab: too complex, this whole Playlist based paradigm is outdated, complex and takes ages to get music from your iTunes to your iPad/iPod/iPhone.
Photos tab: another let down. Why am I not allowed to preview the content on my iPad/iPod/iPhone, before I decide to sync it with iPhoto? I always use the Image Capture application to exchange material from my iPhone to my Mac, but that functionality should of course be integrated in iTunes itself.
Anyway, I hope that Apple will change its ways concerning exchanging information between its devices. To achieve this I can think of following steps:
Users shouldn’t have to worry or think about syncing when it somes to contacts, calendars, mail accounts, applications etc.). Everything should sync over iCloud wirelessly based on your iCloud id, no questions asked, no need for checking things. Only unless you want to exclude or change things you adjust settings in iCloud.
Music, movies, books, photos should reside in a specific (new) ‘Content/ media application’. On the level of a content item it should be indicated that the item should be shared with iPad/iPod/iPhone, this syncing should be in real time, no need to manually sync, get rid of the Playlist paradigm: playlists should be optional not be conditionally.
The 'App Store' should be upgraded to simply 'the Store': this is where you buy your media, apps, regardless if it’s being used on a certain device, regardlessly if it’s music, movies, books or apps. Purchased media directly comes available on the device that is supporting the app, unless you indicate you don’t want it to become available or it is technically impossible to install it onto a device. So you can buy for example Mountain Lion from your iPhone and it becomes installable for your iMac based tough your store id.
I understand that these are pretty rough ideas that need further elaboration and probably I am overseeing lots of things, but the current state of things is too hard to manage from the standpoint of an end user.
Hopefully during the new iPhone introduction we will hear more about plans concerning the future of iTunes.