9/7/08

Am I the only one who hates iTunes?

Ok, I tried iTunes several years ago when the first iPods and iPod Nano's came out. Didn't like it. Now, for my birthday my wife got me a new 4 gb iPod Nano so I have to use it now. So I downloaded the latest (7.x) and gave it a shot. I thought they would have improved upon their offering in the last few years but it doesn't appear that they have. I don't claim to know iTunes in and out but here are my thoughts:

(After talking to my brother who works for the dark side at a Mac store and is a "Mac Genius" I have updated my list)

Dislikes:


  • No "Mini" or small player mode like Windows Media Player or every other music player. (I think Win Media does a great job in putting it in the tool bar) There is a "Mini" by clicking on the "Restore Down" button but it doesn't look that good.
  • Can't add play list by right clicking. You have to go to the menu or remember the hot keys. I guess that goes back to Mac's stupid single button mouse. There is one more way by clicking the "+" at the bottom of the screen.
  • Most players let you view your music by Genre, Artist, and Album as iTunes does, they just do it much better. You can customize what you want to see a little more but I still don't like how it is laid out.
  • No "Visualizer" as you would expect. I think they mean "visualizer" in the terms of video's. The Visualizations aren't big things, they are just cool if you are playing music for some sort of event and you want something showing on the projection screen.
  • Isn't working with my iPod! It won't show up any more! It seams that whatever method they use for communication to the device is finicky.
  • Doesn't sync with other portable devices without 3rd party add in.

Likes:

  • Is supposed to work with the iPod.
  • Has iTunes store.
  • Can play video.
  • The biggest like for me would have to be Nike + for the iPod. http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/

The likes are quite short but I could go on with the dislikes. I am just surprised that Apple is so popular with their iPod line and iTunes but their product in most cases is lacking. Feel free to disagree.