Apple fans are funny in that they tout the simplicity of Apple software, and then imply people are idiots if they have trouble with it. If people have trouble with it, then by definition it isn’t simple. You don’t get to double-dip your sanctimony; either praise Macs for the simplicity of “it just works,” or belittle people for not being able to figure it out. You can’t do both.
All of you people who only use iTunes to put software on your iPod–why don’t you use other software to do it? I always did back in the day. Has Apple made this impossible?
I know the freeware Ephpod that I used is no longer updated, so it might not work on newer devices. But merely Googling for ipod software found a few on the front page. Surely there’s some freeware out there.
This is a valid complaint (to a certain extent - it depends how cretinous the user was being). iTunes is one most unintuitive large pieces of software I’ve used in a long time, and I’m a software developer geek who has spent his whole life using applications without reading the manual. I also hate pretty much every other thing about it, so when I occasionally have to use it this really stands out.
For instance:
It took me a good 15 minutes recently to work out how to rip a CD. You know, the frequently used option that doesn’t have fucking menu item and is only acessibly via a small button in the bottom-right hand corner of the screen where no sane GUI designed puts important buttons?.
Besides the monsterous GUI (and that’s not just the issue above - there are plenty of other problems) there are also the untrustworthy background processes and constantly trying to install QT and Safari. That’s enough by itself to make me never install it, truly disgraceful behavour on Apples part. If Microsoft did the same they would be rightly crucified for it.
iTunes is actually the major reason why my next MP3 player won’t be an iPod.
Have you used that to drop files into an iPod (or other player with iTunes), and has done so led the player to detect the new files by itself? Because if not, I believe that’s what people are complaining about.
If I tell my music players to use files from This, This, and That locations, any time the files in those locations change the music players refresh the library while playing. But other players I’ve tried (I haven’t tried iTunes) don’t refresh automatically. I won’t use any player that needs me to hold its hand in order to realize I’ve changed the songs in my E: memstick.
Oh, a thing iTunes did for me which I’m reasonably sure it wasn’t supposed to do…
One of my coworkers had an iPhone. One day, he used it to transfer some files from his machine to mine. Along with his whole music library. The rest of the team intends to never, ever let him live down some of the songs found there, contenders for Kitchiest Song Of The Seventies (I’d link the ones by Rafaella Carra or Luis Aguilé, but I’m at work and youtube is probably unaccesible).
I’m reasonably sure that other “memstick” type devices don’t drop their contents into unknown computers.
In my opinion, iTunes isn’t bad but is also far from great.
It is the only program on my Mac that regularly freezes up or just acts sluggish.
After 5 years of use, I still can not fathom some of the synch options, such as the option to NOT manually manage music. It took me awhile with my iPhone to figure out why I couldn’t rename/delete playlists on it through iTunes - oh, it defaulted to not manually managing music. This also applies to managing Podcasts and photos on the device. Really, it makes no sense.
Other than those issues, it’s pretty simple to use.
This is a valid complaint. While easy to navigate and such, the actual workings of iTunes is difficult to master, and when they make changes, they don’t tell anyone. There is a fair amount of menu searching and button pressing to troubleshoot things.
On the other hand, there’s really not much more tinkering and troubleshooting than any other program. People just like to bitch, I guess.
My thought on this is that Apple software is really simple and just works …if you’re not familiar with computers. The problem is that a lot of people are well-versed in the Windows world so you expect to see certain things in certain places as a default and when the Mac doesn’t do that, you get confused and/or frustrated. That’s why you end up having people say “I’ve been a software developer for 25 years and this doesn’t make sense!” It doesn’t make sense in the context of what has become the norm, but if you aren’t familiar with that norm perhaps it’s much easier and more intuitive.
Yep. Pretty much just what I wanted to say. For a company that supposedly creates user friendly devices, how they came up with iTunes is a real head scratcher. There is nothing obvious or intuitive about it IMHO. Hate it with a passion.
Right. People who have otherwise almost never complained about software in their life have in unison decided to direct all their hatred towards iTunes for absolutely no reason. You figured this one out.
How many people do you need to tell you that iTunes is probably the shittiest software they’ve ever dealt with, or at least very very bad software, before it sinks in?
How many times do I need to include things like “that is a valid complaint”, “fair enough”, or “not a defense of iTunes” for it to sink in that I’m not denying any of that? Take your strawman elsewhere.
Then why finish your post with “people just like to bitch”, suggesting that there aren’t valid complaints?
I don’t get all the hate.
iTunes works just fine for me, I guess because it does what I need it to do. And I don’t find it slow at all (8000 tunes, 4GB RAM).
I do some photography. I don’t use Adobe Bridge because it lacks some features that I love about Photoshop Lightroom. So I use LR. But I have no desire to see Bridge - and those who use it - burn in hell. (burning bridges - get it? :))
If iTunes doesn’t perform some function that you want performed, then obviously it’s not for you.
Use another program.
mmm
I’m not suggesting they’re not valid. I’m suggesting that there are valid complaints with EVERY program.
My complaints are of a more mundane variety. I don’t do anything fancy or use that genius stuff so I get pissed off when routine functions that were perfectly serviceable become more difficult to use with every update.
Sometime I search the web for song titles and correct spellings, you used to be able to copy and then paste the title to the I-tunes search boxes, now it will not let you do that. You can no longer do a power search for just music videos. Trying to scroll up or down is a jerky nightmare as well as page forward or back, the time lag is incredible. Again routine features that once worked fine were eliminated or have become very slow to use. Now it is calling for yet another one of the endless updates to give me features I won’t use but will probably cause a more boated screen and become ever slower to navigate.
Yes, Apple has made it more difficult. On the iPod Touch there isn’t even a disk mode anymore so I can’t use my freakin’ 64GB of storage for something that I choose instead of what Apple lets me use it for. There is third-party software that works with newer iPods, but you first have to have iTunes installed. I figured I would try iTunes for the heck of it, and it wasn’t as bad as it used to be, but updating my music is a pain.
My daughter’s iPod Nano is easy to update with third-party software, in fact the third-party software can run from the iPod and needs no installation. Imagine that.
To make this analogous with what people most dislike about iTunes, suppose Canon brought a very nice digital SLR to the market, and when you brought it home you discovered that in order to get your photos off the device you were required to install CanonFodder, a proprietary application for editing, organizing, and publishing photos. In spite of not doing any of these things as well as your preferred software, CanonFodder requires 10GB in order to half-ass them, and while your computer is perfectly adequate for running LightRoom, you find that CanonFodder takes forever to open and routine tasks max out your CPU & memory. It also silently installs as a service Konichiwa, which is intended to automatically detect any devices on your network which might contain images and make them available to your image library. Although this is not a service you have asked for or have any use for, it occasionally causes your computer to reboot, or kills your NIC driver.
There are some third-party apps out there designed to work with your camera in place of CanonFodder, but none of them compare well with LightRoom, and what you’d really like to be able to do is just plug the camera into any PC, use Windows Explorer to copy the photos, and then use the software that works best for you, without first having to install an application to mediate that for you. (Like every other digital camera on the market.)
Much later, after you’ve unloaded your Canon on craiglist and replaced it with a slightly-less-attractive-Nikon-which-at-least-you-are-free-to-use-as-you-like, you break out In angry red hives when the topic turns to CanonFodder, and someone who finds that CanonFodder meets their own needs and expectations is mystified: “If you don’t like CanonFodder, why don’t you just use Maxim Straw?”
It’s been covered, but I have my music arranged in nice folders the way I want. With mp3 players, flash drives, SD cards, cell phones and the other numerous storage devices, I can simply drag and drop them as I choose. Why should I download a program that doesn’t let me use a product how I want? I have avoided the whole iAnything craze because restrictions make me angry. I can also carry documents like resumes and whatever random files I want on mp3 players. I once had a copy of Doom on an mp3 player that I would plug into the computer and play during class.
I’ll concede some of your points, but honestly, iTunes does not take forever to open, does not max out my CPU and memory with routine tasks, does not occasionally cause my computer to re-boot, and does not kill my NIC driver.
Anyway, I’m a Nikon guy all the way; what did you expect from Canon??
Several people have strongly implied that the complaints are not valid, and they’ve chosen to do so in that smug, condescending Apple-is-better-than-PC way. You’re catching some shrapnel from that.
While you haven’t been smug or condescending, you have been evasive, like for instance in this response. What happened to the Apple motto of “it just works”? Now Apple software is just as crappy as every other piece of software out there? That’s a disingenuous defense, especially when most of the complainers here think it’s worse than the competition.