I just turn off all the crap/stuff-I-don't-use (iTunes DJ, Genius, Sound Enhancer, Sound Check (I use replay gain; Sound Check sucks), Podcasts) and it works really well for me. Admittedly I don't like what they've done with iTunes 10, but the solution is simple: I haven't "upgraded" and will stick with version 9.
Agreed for the most part, but I would argue that while "not upgrading" is a fix it's not really a solution if you Grok the difference.
Also, my main complaints (at the top of the thread), are simply:
- Ping appears to replace the genius bar which is the only useful part of Genius for a lot of folks.
- There doesn't seem to be a way to get rid of "Genius mixes" even when genius is disabled.
After some research, it seems that the complaint about grey icons is basically lame in that other similar programs are similarly adorned, and that the complaint about the Ping drop-down being everywhere is especially lame because it's more or less what people were asking for just last week.
It seems that the reason the Ping drop-down is everywhere, is so that you can "like" music in your iTunes Library that you didn't actually purchase from the iTunes store. It doesn't seem to work very well, but given that this is likely it's purpose and that everyone was initially complaining about this very thing, it's hard to see this as a valid complaint. It seems like a very practical way to achieve that goal IMO.
Also, my main complaints (at the top of the thread), are simply:
- Ping appears to replace the genius bar which is the only useful part of Genius for a lot of folks.
- There doesn't seem to be a way to get rid of "Genius mixes" even when genius is disabled.
I don?t an issue with either of these. Ping is listed under Store in the side bar and Genius under it?s own section in the side bar. Under the Genius category is Genius, Genius Mixes and all the Genius playlists I?ve created and they?re all easily removable.
Perhaps you don?t have Genius enabled under iTunes » Preferences... » General » Show:
duh Just because you are going straight has no bearing on whether a compass is pointing forward. You should learn what a compass is for before complaining that it doesn't work.
All of the electronics in your car affect your compass. Try standing outside away from electronics. Makes a big difference. Don't even use the compass to test. Just use the maps application that came with your phone. If you don't know what the needle in a compass is....stop using the compass. Just use the map app and see if things are pointing in the right direction on that.
Ping is poorly implemented. I'm surprised this site has not reviewed Ping at all. It is a buggy kludgy pile of junk. I had such high hopes for using it. I'm downloading this update to see if my mind is changed about that.
Basically enabling Ping destroyed my iTunes account so I can't purchase from the iTunes store. I've complained 3 times to Apple with no response. I fine with them not wanting my money. Hopefully this doesn't affect too many people, but I guess we'll see that in the quarterly financial numbers.
I'm confused...how can Ping affect you buying stuff? What is happening when you try to buy content from iTunes?
I'm confused...how can Ping affect you buying stuff? What is happening when you try to buy content from iTunes?
he may be talking about iTunes 10 causing issues with Credit Cards for some users. I don?t see how Ping could prevent one from being able to purchase items, in fact, it?s design to help facilitate more purcahses via social networking.
I don’t an issue with either of these. Ping is listed under Store in the side bar and Genius under it’s own section in the side bar. Under the Genius category is Genius, Genius Mixes and all the Genius playlists I’ve created and they’re all easily removable.
Perhaps you don’t have Genius enabled under iTunes » Preferences... » General » Show:
Thanks for the tip. I have been putting words like "apparently" before my statements about it being missing.
In any regard I don't see the same thing. I have genius enabled, but all I see is the button at the bottom right that used to enable the genius bar, now enables the Ping bar. When the Ping bar is open it's just blank. There are no sub-tabs or options that I can see.
Mostly I'm okay with iTunes, I even got used to the horrid icon. I think overall what's happening here is that Apple's penchant fro not giving the user a lot of control choices in preferences (the kind of thing that would fix all the complaints on this thread), is falling down philosophically with iTunes simply because iTunes has become such a huge bloated program and is so many things to so many people.
Keeping choice to a minimum *is* the best design philosophy, but it kind of assumes that the software itself is simple, directed, and easy to use in the first place. iTunes is the closest thing Apple has to a "Microsoftian" or open source kind of program in that it's become this giant confusing, unmanageable suite of stuff. In this particular case, more control, in the way of letting us have more detailed preferences is the obvious cure but it goes against everything Apple says it stands for design-wise. What Apple isn't seeing so far is that the behemoth that is iTunes basically goes against everything Apple stands for anyway.
The biggest clue that lack of preferences for such a complicated program is the problem is that people are freely passing around the terminal commands that fix this or that thing, far more than they every used to. It was rare (even in the recent past) for anyone to care about it that much. Now every time Apple comes out with a new version it's the first thing you see on the forums. You even see this kind of advice on non-tech sites now. If I was Apple I'd take it as a sign and act on it quickly.
Thanks for the tip. I have been putting words like "apparently" before my statements about it being missing.
In any regard I don't see the same thing. I have genius enabled, but all I see is the button at the bottom right that used to enable the genius bar, now enables the Ping bar. When the Ping bar is open it's just blank. There are no sub-tabs or options that I can see..
This is what I have in my sidebar. I have actually deleted all my personal Genius mixes as I realized I don?t listen to them anymore, but they were all listed directly underneath.
Ping is even more irritating than it was before. In your music library it appears as a graphic link next to any track title you click on, and is takes up three lines in the right click menu. These features remain even if you hide the sidebar.
Ping is such a poor product and being pushed so intrusively.
Yup, we're being drowned in, it I can barely see my iTunes interface anymore.
lol.
Can anyone explain to me what is complicated, stress inducing or "difficult" about the iTunes experience, a screen grab below of my iTunes. Can't think of anything simpler or more intuitive.
Removing the Genius Sidebar is a big mistake by Apple, and pretty arrogant. Apparently Ping is the only way to "discover" new music now, by following specific people and artists and seeing what they do. No thanks!
I irony is, I only started using the Genius Sidebar yesterday, before I got notified of the update. It's new to me and I love it. I've downgraded to 10.0.0 to get it back, but Apple could turn it off on their end because it depends on the iTunes Store.
I hope Apple gets a lot of negative feedback and restores the Genius Sidebar in the next update.
That screenshot shows the Genius section in the source pane, it does not show the Genius sidebar. The Genius sidebar is gone in 10.0.1.
I now see what you are saying and notice you did capitalized it to mean specifically Genius Sidebar, but you should note that the main, default side bar that list Genius is more commonly referred to the side bar, not a source bar.
Now I understand what you and others are referring to I’m so glad that is gone. I turned that off almost immediately after Genius came. Hated it. It was pointless advertising that got in the way of my music. I use Genius all the time for playlists, but not their Genius suggestions. That isn’t how I ever want to find new music. Though it’s too bad Apple can’t offer both solutions to users then see which is more beneficial, but it could be that sales via the Genius Sidebar was too low to warrant keeping it.
This is what I have in my sidebar. I have actually deleted all my personal Genius mixes as I realized I don?t listen to them anymore, but they were all listed directly underneath.
That's not the genius sidebar.
But unrelated to the sidebar issue ... If anyone can tell me how to get rid of those genius mixes I'd be very happy. They have been bugging me since day one.
The first time they appeared, one couldn't alter them at all, but only add one's own genius mixes, then they made it so you can delete them, but you can only delete "all but one." You *must (according to Apple), have at least one. However, several times (not just on updates), all the genius lists recreated themselves wholesale for me. They keep coming back like a bad penny.
This is especially irritating in that when you sync a device, they are listed first, and the toggle is auto-set to "open" so they take up (on my monitor) about an inch and a half of the two and a half inches of vertical space in the playlist window. You have to hit the toggle arrow every single f*ing time to get your vertical space back. This is with Genius *disabled* as well.
This is a nightmare for me in that I have hundreds of playlists and I have to scroll down every time I sync when I don't ever use genius lists, nor do I ever want to see them.
For me (the reverse of your situation probably), the genius playlists have never worked, because they just work off of the "genre" field for the most part, and most of the music I listen to is either "indie" or "alternative" so a list that mashes everything indie or everything alternative together is never useful. Genres hardly even matter in music anymore but iTunes Genius seems to rely on it heavily.
The only thing useful for me in regards Genius, was the sidebar because it took you to a list of all the music from the selected band with suggestions of related material. I actually endured the horror of the "can't remove em" genius lists in my sync solely because I liked the genius sidebar.
I think the main takeaway overall is that iTunes *is* a huge multi-faceted program that does many different things and is used in many different ways by lots of people. So to my mind, restricting the UI and the preferences the way Apple does with their software, is in *this* case, possibly the worst thing they could do and is actively screwing over their customers.
My only hope is they realise this soon. There is no alternative to iTunes really so we have to grin and bear it.
As stated earlier, I see that is Genius in the main side bar, not the Genius Sidebar. Mea culpa, but I do think some clarification could have been used knowing that there is a chance for ambiguity.
Quote:
But unrelated to the sidebar issue ... If anyone can tell me how to get rid of those genius mixes I'd be very happy. They have been bugging me since day one.
I right/Option-clicked mine and choose Remove or Delete, depending if yo are talking about Genius Mixes or Genius Playlists, respectively. You can also choose Hide next to Genius so you don’t have to see them.
Just pointing out that Spotify is probably one of more commonly used alternative ways of listening to music on a computer, and the interface on that is also grey, with many similarities to iTunes. Why the aggression?
I didn't mean to seem aggressive, just the mention of Spotify seemed to come from nowhere. I was mentally wondering if you replied to the wrong thread, where some other thread someone suggested it to fix their objections to iTunes. I've heard of Spotify in passing, but I don't remember anyone on this or other forums I read mentioning Spotify, maybe it's just too obscure to have heard of complaints of the software?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Superbass
(snipped big list of artists & labels)
Fluke won't make songs play on an iPod, and still has pretty limited functionality in terms of tagging, album art, etc.
There's really no reason to continue with the back-and-forth and make excuses for apple, it's probably one of the 4 or 5 most commonly used audio file types (after MP3, WAV and maybe WMV), and Apple's denial of it resulting in 3rd party workarounds isn't excusable.
I could have sworn there was a converter that dynamically converted FLAC items on iPod sync, but I can't find it now.
Unfortunately, it may well be one of those occasions to dump the iTunes/iPod. Even the 4th most popular audio format might be well below Apple's radar.
Comments
I just turn off all the crap/stuff-I-don't-use (iTunes DJ, Genius, Sound Enhancer, Sound Check (I use replay gain; Sound Check sucks), Podcasts) and it works really well for me. Admittedly I don't like what they've done with iTunes 10, but the solution is simple: I haven't "upgraded" and will stick with version 9.
Agreed for the most part, but I would argue that while "not upgrading" is a fix it's not really a solution if you Grok the difference.
Also, my main complaints (at the top of the thread), are simply:
- Ping appears to replace the genius bar which is the only useful part of Genius for a lot of folks.
- There doesn't seem to be a way to get rid of "Genius mixes" even when genius is disabled.
After some research, it seems that the complaint about grey icons is basically lame in that other similar programs are similarly adorned, and that the complaint about the Ping drop-down being everywhere is especially lame because it's more or less what people were asking for just last week.
It seems that the reason the Ping drop-down is everywhere, is so that you can "like" music in your iTunes Library that you didn't actually purchase from the iTunes store. It doesn't seem to work very well, but given that this is likely it's purpose and that everyone was initially complaining about this very thing, it's hard to see this as a valid complaint. It seems like a very practical way to achieve that goal IMO.
Pearl Jam (everything)
David Byrne
Nine Inch Nails (Reznor's website states that over 20% of sales are FLAC)
Brian Eno
The Eagles
The Beatles (they sell a complete works in FLAC USB drive on their website)
Bonnaroo Festival (complete concerts from the past several festivals)
Tallis Scholars (complete works)
Paul McCartney (last couple albums)
Merge Records (sells everything as FLAC - you might recognize Arcade Fire, Superchunk and Caribou as some of their artists)
....
So I guess that means nobody new or good uses FLAC.
Good to know.
Also, my main complaints (at the top of the thread), are simply:
- Ping appears to replace the genius bar which is the only useful part of Genius for a lot of folks.
- There doesn't seem to be a way to get rid of "Genius mixes" even when genius is disabled.
I don?t an issue with either of these. Ping is listed under Store in the side bar and Genius under it?s own section in the side bar. Under the Genius category is Genius, Genius Mixes and all the Genius playlists I?ve created and they?re all easily removable.
Perhaps you don?t have Genius enabled under iTunes » Preferences... » General » Show:
duh Just because you are going straight has no bearing on whether a compass is pointing forward. You should learn what a compass is for before complaining that it doesn't work.
All of the electronics in your car affect your compass. Try standing outside away from electronics. Makes a big difference. Don't even use the compass to test. Just use the maps application that came with your phone. If you don't know what the needle in a compass is....stop using the compass. Just use the map app and see if things are pointing in the right direction on that.
Ping is poorly implemented. I'm surprised this site has not reviewed Ping at all. It is a buggy kludgy pile of junk. I had such high hopes for using it. I'm downloading this update to see if my mind is changed about that.
Basically enabling Ping destroyed my iTunes account so I can't purchase from the iTunes store. I've complained 3 times to Apple with no response. I fine with them not wanting my money. Hopefully this doesn't affect too many people, but I guess we'll see that in the quarterly financial numbers.
I'm confused...how can Ping affect you buying stuff? What is happening when you try to buy content from iTunes?
I'm confused...how can Ping affect you buying stuff? What is happening when you try to buy content from iTunes?
he may be talking about iTunes 10 causing issues with Credit Cards for some users. I don?t see how Ping could prevent one from being able to purchase items, in fact, it?s design to help facilitate more purcahses via social networking.
I don’t an issue with either of these. Ping is listed under Store in the side bar and Genius under it’s own section in the side bar. Under the Genius category is Genius, Genius Mixes and all the Genius playlists I’ve created and they’re all easily removable.
Perhaps you don’t have Genius enabled under iTunes » Preferences... » General » Show:
Thanks for the tip. I have been putting words like "apparently" before my statements about it being missing.
In any regard I don't see the same thing. I have genius enabled, but all I see is the button at the bottom right that used to enable the genius bar, now enables the Ping bar. When the Ping bar is open it's just blank. There are no sub-tabs or options that I can see.
Mostly I'm okay with iTunes, I even got used to the horrid icon. I think overall what's happening here is that Apple's penchant fro not giving the user a lot of control choices in preferences (the kind of thing that would fix all the complaints on this thread), is falling down philosophically with iTunes simply because iTunes has become such a huge bloated program and is so many things to so many people.
Keeping choice to a minimum *is* the best design philosophy, but it kind of assumes that the software itself is simple, directed, and easy to use in the first place. iTunes is the closest thing Apple has to a "Microsoftian" or open source kind of program in that it's become this giant confusing, unmanageable suite of stuff. In this particular case, more control, in the way of letting us have more detailed preferences is the obvious cure but it goes against everything Apple says it stands for design-wise. What Apple isn't seeing so far is that the behemoth that is iTunes basically goes against everything Apple stands for anyway.
The biggest clue that lack of preferences for such a complicated program is the problem is that people are freely passing around the terminal commands that fix this or that thing, far more than they every used to. It was rare (even in the recent past) for anyone to care about it that much. Now every time Apple comes out with a new version it's the first thing you see on the forums. You even see this kind of advice on non-tech sites now. If I was Apple I'd take it as a sign and act on it quickly.
Thanks for the tip. I have been putting words like "apparently" before my statements about it being missing.
In any regard I don't see the same thing. I have genius enabled, but all I see is the button at the bottom right that used to enable the genius bar, now enables the Ping bar. When the Ping bar is open it's just blank. There are no sub-tabs or options that I can see..
This is what I have in my sidebar. I have actually deleted all my personal Genius mixes as I realized I don?t listen to them anymore, but they were all listed directly underneath.
I don't mind the greyness. I actually like it. The less distraction the better.
The less distracts you from the Store, the better:
Ping is even more irritating than it was before. In your music library it appears as a graphic link next to any track title you click on, and is takes up three lines in the right click menu. These features remain even if you hide the sidebar.
Ping is such a poor product and being pushed so intrusively.
Yup, we're being drowned in, it I can barely see my iTunes interface anymore.
lol.
Can anyone explain to me what is complicated, stress inducing or "difficult" about the iTunes experience, a screen grab below of my iTunes. Can't think of anything simpler or more intuitive.
-it's open source
-it's supported in Linux
In that case if its so damn important to you. I suggest you check out this great alternative... www.ubuntu.com.
I irony is, I only started using the Genius Sidebar yesterday, before I got notified of the update. It's new to me and I love it. I've downgraded to 10.0.0 to get it back, but Apple could turn it off on their end because it depends on the iTunes Store.
I hope Apple gets a lot of negative feedback and restores the Genius Sidebar in the next update.
Removing the Genius Sidebar is a big mistake by Apple, and pretty arrogant.
Maybe it?s user error. Note that is iTunes 10.0.1 (22).
Maybe it?s user error. Note that is iTunes 10.0.1 (22).
That screenshot shows the Genius section in the source pane, it does not show the Genius sidebar. The Genius sidebar is gone in 10.0.1.
Why the fuck does Apple has UI guidelines if they aren't going to follow them?
That screenshot shows the Genius section in the source pane, it does not show the Genius sidebar. The Genius sidebar is gone in 10.0.1.
I now see what you are saying and notice you did capitalized it to mean specifically Genius Sidebar, but you should note that the main, default side bar that list Genius is more commonly referred to the side bar, not a source bar.
Now I understand what you and others are referring to I’m so glad that is gone. I turned that off almost immediately after Genius came. Hated it. It was pointless advertising that got in the way of my music. I use Genius all the time for playlists, but not their Genius suggestions. That isn’t how I ever want to find new music. Though it’s too bad Apple can’t offer both solutions to users then see which is more beneficial, but it could be that sales via the Genius Sidebar was too low to warrant keeping it.
This is what I have in my sidebar. I have actually deleted all my personal Genius mixes as I realized I don?t listen to them anymore, but they were all listed directly underneath.
That's not the genius sidebar.
But unrelated to the sidebar issue ... If anyone can tell me how to get rid of those genius mixes I'd be very happy. They have been bugging me since day one.
The first time they appeared, one couldn't alter them at all, but only add one's own genius mixes, then they made it so you can delete them, but you can only delete "all but one." You *must (according to Apple), have at least one. However, several times (not just on updates), all the genius lists recreated themselves wholesale for me. They keep coming back like a bad penny.
This is especially irritating in that when you sync a device, they are listed first, and the toggle is auto-set to "open" so they take up (on my monitor) about an inch and a half of the two and a half inches of vertical space in the playlist window. You have to hit the toggle arrow every single f*ing time to get your vertical space back. This is with Genius *disabled* as well.
This is a nightmare for me in that I have hundreds of playlists and I have to scroll down every time I sync when I don't ever use genius lists, nor do I ever want to see them.
For me (the reverse of your situation probably), the genius playlists have never worked, because they just work off of the "genre" field for the most part, and most of the music I listen to is either "indie" or "alternative" so a list that mashes everything indie or everything alternative together is never useful. Genres hardly even matter in music anymore but iTunes Genius seems to rely on it heavily.
The only thing useful for me in regards Genius, was the sidebar because it took you to a list of all the music from the selected band with suggestions of related material. I actually endured the horror of the "can't remove em" genius lists in my sync solely because I liked the genius sidebar.
I think the main takeaway overall is that iTunes *is* a huge multi-faceted program that does many different things and is used in many different ways by lots of people. So to my mind, restricting the UI and the preferences the way Apple does with their software, is in *this* case, possibly the worst thing they could do and is actively screwing over their customers.
My only hope is they realise this soon. There is no alternative to iTunes really so we have to grin and bear it.
That's not the genius sidebar.
As stated earlier, I see that is Genius in the main side bar, not the Genius Sidebar. Mea culpa, but I do think some clarification could have been used knowing that there is a chance for ambiguity.
But unrelated to the sidebar issue ... If anyone can tell me how to get rid of those genius mixes I'd be very happy. They have been bugging me since day one.
I right/Option-clicked mine and choose Remove or Delete, depending if yo are talking about Genius Mixes or Genius Playlists, respectively. You can also choose Hide next to Genius so you don’t have to see them.
No one, nor did I suggest it.
Just pointing out that Spotify is probably one of more commonly used alternative ways of listening to music on a computer, and the interface on that is also grey, with many similarities to iTunes. Why the aggression?
I didn't mean to seem aggressive, just the mention of Spotify seemed to come from nowhere. I was mentally wondering if you replied to the wrong thread, where some other thread someone suggested it to fix their objections to iTunes. I've heard of Spotify in passing, but I don't remember anyone on this or other forums I read mentioning Spotify, maybe it's just too obscure to have heard of complaints of the software?
(snipped big list of artists & labels)
Fluke won't make songs play on an iPod, and still has pretty limited functionality in terms of tagging, album art, etc.
There's really no reason to continue with the back-and-forth and make excuses for apple, it's probably one of the 4 or 5 most commonly used audio file types (after MP3, WAV and maybe WMV), and Apple's denial of it resulting in 3rd party workarounds isn't excusable.
I could have sworn there was a converter that dynamically converted FLAC items on iPod sync, but I can't find it now.
Unfortunately, it may well be one of those occasions to dump the iTunes/iPod. Even the 4th most popular audio format might be well below Apple's radar.