I pit iTunes!!

The BBQ Pit
1

Just to be up front: I’m not an Apple fanboi, but I don’t despise Apple either.

So, okay, I was just on vacation and my cousin gave me her old iPhone 4s. She just got a 6 and didn’t need the 4s anymore. Well, who says no to that? Especially if you’ve been using the same flip phone you got when you initially signed up with your provider, eight years ago?

So I’m all excited about how neat the iPhone is and how it can do tons of stuff. Including playing mp3’s. Great! I have all these mp3s on my PC, and I can sideload them right onto the iPhone! Cool!

Errrrrrrt! Sound of brakes screeching!

Every other device I’ve ever had, you plug it into the PC, a new window opens, you select your files, you copy them to the device, and you’re done.

But oh, no, not the iPhone!

So I call my cousin and ask how I’m supposed to sideload content onto this thing. She says use iTunes. So I download it and…

It is a fucking train wreck! Never in my life have I had to run a program that was so user-unfriendly, un-intuitive, arduous, complicated, and just plain bizarre. I want to add a new playlist? I have to erase everything that’s already there in order to do that? Why can’t I find the photo folder on the device? Why do I have to worry about synching? Why can’t I just copy the stuff and be done with it? Why did the guys who make such a big deal out of inventing drag-'n-drop decide NOT to use it? Jesus God, it’d be easier to do it in DOS!

Well, luckily I was able to find another program that does what I want it to do. However, it only does music and won’t do photos, even though there is a button that’s supposed to let you do that. So now I’m stuck looking for another app for that.

Apple really need to get their shit together and fix this mess of an interface. I’m glad I got the phone for free. It is a cool gadget. But knowing what I know now, I would not buy an iPhone. Something that should be so simple is so unnecessarily convoluted.

So all in all…GAH!

Thank you for your attention. That is all.

2

Just wait until it starts prompting you to update.

3

Wait, let me guess, you can’t opt out.

4

There used to be a way to reverse updates downward… I think it was after 7 that people REALLY started to complain.

I don’t know if that’s an option anymore.

5

My iTunes pesters me to update about every five minutes.

I exaggerate, but iTunes does seem to want updates much more frequently than any other program on my computer. Once every couple of months, at least.

6

Yeah, that turned me off apple forever. My 4s was the first apple product I ever bought, and it will be the last.

7

My wife installed it on my laptop because she couldn’t get her own to recognize her phone, and I got bugged by iTunes all the way through law school. Eventually I said “use Google Play or die,” or words to that effect, and burned her library onto a disc and uninstalled.

8

Maybe it’s just familiarity, but I like iTunes.

I have it on my computers at home and work, on my iPod, and on my iPad. I have it set up so that my home and work computers synch over WiFi.

It is an ungodly bulky program, I’ll give you that.

9

I don’t know about the rest of the rant, but I’m weird in that I don’t like to leave photos on my iPhone. So when I connect it to the PC via a Lightning cable and there are photos on it, a pop-up window appears in Windows 7 asking me what I want to do with the photos. So I use Windows Explorer to browse to the iPhone and either copy or move the photos off the iPhone. As for syncing, I actually want to do this, so that the apps and other info on the phone is backed up to my computer.

10

Like a lot of Apple’s ideas, good in concept but ruined intentionally by a desire to lock out the user from certain functions. I started a thread a while back about trying in vain to move a podcast from one device to another. A FREE podcast, I might add. And nope, can’t be done because Apple deliberately prevented simple functions (like easily moving filed) in order to force people into iTunes, presumably in the hope of getting them to buy something.

I don’t believe Apple users are idiots. But I do think there is some truth to the idea that Apple products are targeted at those who aren’t especially tech savvy. I am a strong Windows user, and there is almost always a way to do what I want there. Not so with Apple.

11

Ooh, I hope someone pits the Office Ribbon next! Or maybe Things Made Out Of Cheap Plastic Now!

12

In my day, iTunes was made outta bakelite! Bakelite, goshdarnit!

13

Itunes is why I don’t have an iphone. I hate how it tries to take over my computer by making it the default for everything.

14

You know, it is possible to say “No” when iTunes asks to be the default program. That’s how I have it set up.

15

I fucking HATE iTunes.

There are so many things about it that just make it harder to do what I want, which is simply put some music on my phone and make mix CDs for my car. Why oh why does it keep overriding the song order that I want for the CDs? And putting things in “folders.” I don’t want folders on my random mix CD for my car. I just want a bunch of songs in a row. Anyway…

The bigger problem is that there is some U2 album stuck in the ether that I can’t get rid of. I never bought it. I never wanted it. I desperately want to get rid of it. But every time I try to delete it from everything, it comes back.

That U2 album is like herpes.

16

Just gonna leave this here…

Lee, this ought to be a very cathartic watch for you. James Rolfe is truly a genius... pun intended. :D
17

Seriously? People are still upset about that? Did you try the process shown here? Namely:

“To remove this album:
Go to Connecting to the iTunes Store..
Click Remove Album to confirm you’d like to remove the album from your account.
Sign in with the Apple ID and password you use to buy from the iTunes Store.
You’ll see a confirmation message that the album has been removed from your account.
If you downloaded the songs to iTunes on your Mac or PC or to the Music app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you’ll need to delete them manually.”

18

Do you have a Windows phone? Curiously, I do not know anyone with one. Until recently, I’d never seen one in the wild. Last weekend I saw one and said, “Hey! Is that a Windows phone? How do you like it?”

I was totally serious, not being sarcastic, but he just gave me a nasty look and walked away.

19

I had a 3Gs at one point. It was a happy day when I dumped it for a Galaxy and deleted iTunes from my computer. I haven’t had to connect my phone to a PC since.

20

iTunes is truly awful software. And I say that as a huge fan of most things Apple makes.