iTunes 10 now available for download - Page 2

I think it's kind of ironic how people constantly viewing this site and forum are commenting on how gray iTunes has become. AI should claim they were forward-thinking enough to design their website based on the future (now current) release of iTunes.

Personally, I think the color muting is cosmetic at best or worse. It's nothing really important to me. As for the vertical Close, Minimize, Expand buttons, I love it. I hope they implement that across all applications. Get rid of the title bar, in almost all cases, it's wasting my precious vertical screen real estate. If I've opened an application, I know what the app I'm looking at is, if not, I can see the name in the menu bar. Get rid of redundancy. Ping? I signed up, but I won't use it except to see when my fav artists that are using it announce a new album for sale. I can't be bothered to update my facebook or twitter 90% of the time as it is.

My only disappointment is the new iTunes icon. I disagree with some, because to me it does fit in with the randomly designed other dock icons. However, this is Apple's music, movie, tv, book, app store. They could have really emphasized the multimedia store as it has become. Did they decide Windows Vista was a great icon to emulate? I don't know. Maybe it just hasn't grown on me yet. I am glad they removed the CD icon that was cool in the 90's era, but the new icon is very uncreative. I guess it's safe, but now they have to live with this icon for awhile and it doesn't stand out to be taken notice of at all. At least I like blue.

Now just bring on iOS 4.1! I guess I'll continue to wait patiently for a better notification system in 5.0.

usbmuxd (USB Multiplex Daemon) is a part of iTunes (http://marcansoft.com/blog/iphonelinux/usbmuxd/) and is 64 bit now. At least it is at my 64 bit enabled system.

Hmm.... all the icons are grey, but not classy grey, crappy grey.
And it's still a 32-bit app. In 2010.
And the volume thing looks ugly.
And that's about it! Shouldn't it have been 9.1 instead of 10?

p.s. Does anyone know how to remove Ping from the left bar?

Edit: the best I can say about this app is, it might imply Apple's devs are busy working on something else.

Agreed... including the Grrrrrrrr!!!

As of this morning, iTunes 10 is showing up in Software Update. I'm downloading now.

Having read a few of the (negative) comments, my guess is that trying new UI ideas out with iTunes will provide some useful feedback for future System updates. Most of us hate change initially but then sometimes the changes do turn out to be good and have a lot of thought behind them.

I will try iTunes 10 with an open mind...

Is it really the end of the world to have some slight visual changes?
None of them bother me at all, and I am a BIG user of iTunes.
To me it looks fresh and appealing. It's also free! Quit the moaning...

I find it interesting they're still supporting PPC and wonder how much longer that will last. If it weren't for the iTunes store they would've dumped support for it a couple years ago -- like they did with many other apps.

Not saying that with bias, since none of my primary machines are PPC anymore.

What happened to the icons colors?! why are they all grey??? WTF?!

Everybody seems to hate

1) the grayness: I acutally like it. The world today is so colorful and full of noise I actually enjoy sitting in front of a software which doesn't flood my optical channels and lets me focus on the music.

@silverpraxis: good point with the AI users complaining about grey. lol

2) the max /min buttons: Did you notice that the move of the buttoms freed up space at the top of the window which was wasted. It's now gone meaning that the software takes fewer space to show more info which I applaud.

Everybody talking of UI-guidelines. You are absolutely correct, BUT with this logic there would only be stagnation. And who says 10.7 isn't gonna look like that? They are testing this with iTunes I guess. And the space-argument is what makes me like the change.

Of course they should have added a toogle-setting for color/grey-interface.

And for the logo: I think it's a good idea to get rid of the CD in general. I'd rather have a second harddrive (SSD for OS X pleasure) in my MacBook as well, instead of a CD-Rom drive. All this is to come sooner or later.

Just my two cents and to add someone to this thread who actually likes the changes. :P

I've been trying it with an open mind for a while now.

GOOD:

- Definitely more speedy
- Ping is pretty cool. I hope it turns into something that can completely replace MySpace. I hate it when a band has a horrible MySpace page as their only web presence.
- I actually agree with the vertical traffic light - makes the window more compact. Yes, it's not standard, but it's still obvious to use isn't it?


BAD:

- Album artwork being limited in size in list views is a terrible idea. Gone are the beautiful large/resizable artworks from iTunes 9. And now that album/artist columns are gone from the list it's even worse. I have all this blank space that artwork used to fill. Now I have postage size artwork (and yes, I know about the small/medium/large setting - still too small). Also, if an album only has a few songs (like if you only bought a few from iTS), then it doesn't even show the artwork - terrible. Really miss this feature.


SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE:

- Grey interface doesn't bother me, but it doesn't excite me either.
- New icon is fine on its own, but on the dock it just doesn't look like it fits in with the other OSX icons - maybe I'll get used to it.


Apart from that, it still plays my music no problem, which is really all that matters I guess!

I think I accidentally set my monitor to greyscale.

Edit: /sarcasm

The Windows 64bit version is actually a 32 bit version of the iTunes software, but with 64-bit hardware drivers for iDevices.

You could argue about why a music player needs to be 64 bit, as it would never need to address more than 3GB of ram (well it never should need to anyway..), but if Apple can sell us an update of Leopard with no new features, just "under the hood" improvements like 64-bit and GCD, then they can't be surprised when we moan that iLife, iWork and Final Cut Studio are still 32-bit whilst iCal and iChat are!

And in the case of iTunes, still not cocoa. I guess the cross-platform nature of iTunes is to blame for that.

Mac windows have a big fat bar across the top, unlike the traditional thin bar with a title.

In that sense making the resize buttons vertical does make more sense, and in fact horizontal was probably a remnant of the old thin title bars.

I do wonder if this, and the new look to the app icon, are going to be a 10.7 thing?

I would think so; all that's on the top "row" of the title bar are the 3 colored buttons and the name of the app in most cases and since the name is at the top left by the apple logo anyway you might as well re-arrange the 3 buttons and get rid of that near empty horizontal row.

Also as to the grey, many seem to think that it makes you focus on the content and not the look of the app itself, which is always a good thing. so yeah, hopefully 10.7 will look like this.

For those complaining that album artwork isn't shown in the new album list view, switch to album list view then view > always show artwork. Voila.

There's a how-to set-up, tweak and delete guide to Ping here:

http://technologme.com/using-ping-on-itunes-10/2607/

Nope, the title bar was consistent with ALL other Apple software, this breaks the UI consistency and is bad. They still haven't fixed the colour of the iTunes window either - the shade of grey doesn't match anything else on OSX, nor do the scrollbars. Time for some consistency. I don't hate the new look, but this looks less and less like Apple software with every revision. And it's hardly "big and fat"...


I hope not. The icon is appalling.

*Today's Diaper Change*

It takes longer to complain about the icon than it does to find and download a replacement.

They're even worse - how about a nice icon with a new ipod touch featured with a new quicktime style twist? Even a nice pro grey icon to match the new look would be good.

Yes, which is all important stuff - the window control/traffic lights and application/document name - it's not a waste of space, it's common sense interface design. The application menu only shows the current application, it doesn't indicate all application windows open in front of you, only the current active window/application.

UI consistency should be adhered to, I've tweaked my itunes and put the top bar back as it should be, the whole thing looks much more balanced.

What is the obsession with "thin" and screen "real estate" - I don't get it. We all have bigger screens than five years ago with more real estate, we don't need to start removing necessary, common sense design elements.

Some people are getting confused though, thinking the icons are disabled. That didn't occur to me at first, but looking at it, I can see where they're coming from. If they wanted to be monochromatic, perhaps black would have been a less confusing choice.

I don't like Ping, it doesn't allow you to be anonymous. Your real name is what is shown. Dislike. Bad for children, adults and everything in between.

ermmm - unless you change your account name under ping > profile > edit profile information!

Really not very difficult now, is it...

Also, by choosing to require approval for people to follow you, no one that you don't want gets to see your information.

Simple, easy to understand privacy. Facebook could learn a lot.

Love the seeming "snappiness" of 10, but the icon is from HELL! I've always loved Apple's pathological attention to graphical detail when it came to the beauty and intricacy of their icons, but when I saw this new one I was like "Huh?!?!?! WTF! No. Seriously. WTF?!?!?!". It looks like clipart!

You mean everything you say can be traced to you as a unique number, probably with accurate credit card details and hence address information, meaning that I won't be allowed to indulge in, or be annoyed by racist and homophobic morons posting comments of questionable legal content and generally childish troll-talk? Count me in.

+1

I don't like that Ping user name is your real name - which you can change but it will then break your credit card details for itunes (change ping name = changes account name)

From what I read - but not tested yet - It will also relabel all your existing iTunes reviews with your real name. I don't want the developer taking retribution because I confirmed his fart app was just as bad as all the other fart apps.

I'm not sure why I don't like this it just doesn't feel right - I don't think there are other social sites forcing real name usage. I think I fear less of how my info might be used (do I want you to know that I am an 80s music fan - oops ; as to how someone with bad intent might use the information to build a profile of me and use it in ways that are unimaginable today. E.g. the student teacher that was denied her degree because she posted on face book about her hangover (I read that in the UK press so it's likely to be a made up story).

Sorry, I really like the new GUI. Grey icons are so good, they don't miss colour at all and help to focus on content indeed. iTunes icon much more illustrative, modern approach and less 3D - like. What else? The flash lights will change with next OS.
Me: graphic designer.

Actually the iTunes Icon - which I think is much better - is very similar to the iTunes Icon that is used in iOS - the CD hasn't been a feature of iTunes on iOS for a long time (if ever? - when did it change?)

Yes, the "feat" you might be thinking of is that you can boot into snow leopard in the 32 bit kernel and it can still run 64 bit apps.

Not sure how I feel about the All Grey Interface, the placement of the Red/Orange/Green buttons, the layout of Album Art and Text in the farthest left field, or the new icon.

Apple has some serious work to do. Glad we have this Ping thing though.

I miss the old icon as 99.999% of my 33,000 tracks are from CDs I own.

No need for such snark. I will have to investigate further before I install this on the little brats computer. I can just see my 10 year old looking and realizing her name isn't right and changing it back to her real name. The kid is very smart (gets this from the wife) but lacks common sense (again from the wife . A common problem parents face is kids not realizing the real dangers of stalkers and pedophiles (knowing something is not the same as truly comprehending the danger). Compounded by how quickly my kid has learned to navigate mac os and make changes that I do not necessarily catch right away.

Granted, I may not be as much of an aesthete as some here, but I am a little puzzled by the angst over the look of the new iTunes. I always thought that iTunes was one of the more drab-looking of Apple's software, and they've simply made it more so.

The new set-up looks a little cleaner and simpler, actually. As to the icon, I agree that it is a bit jarring. Perhaps they should just get rid of the white ring around it; might make it a little easier on the eye (I did prefer the previous straight top of the musical note icon, though).

Do people know if the photo upload issue with Ping has been fixed? I could not upload, last night.

One other question: is it only one Ping account per iTunes account? In other words, what's the deal if I wanted to create a Ping profile for myself (the iTunes account is in my name), but my daughter also wanted to create her own (but she uses my account name and password for her downloads), and our musical tastes are totally different? Can Apple allow some sort of 'family allowance' for accounts? If not, I am guessing that Apple will seriously miss out on a huge potential social networking population: 14 - 18 year olds who are prolific buyers of music using their mom's/dad's accounts and are the prolific/dominant users of SN. (While I am probably interested in exploring the SN on the music front, I generally avoid things like FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc).

I am ok with the new icon, but I'm just curious to know specifics on why you or anyone else here thinks it is appalling? I just want to review the situation from your point of view.

Click on the "Album list view" icon on the top right (there are four buttons. This one is the second from the left). After that, go to "View" and select "Always Show Artwork". You will have to check this for all of your playlists as well but that will solve the missing artwork dilemma. Hope that helps.

Nope. It does come through via the software updater. Just might need to be patient.

I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there bob.

I can appreciate your thought process, and maybe this would have worked in 2002 when iTunes was just for music/iPods, but not anymore. iTunes is now the media hub of OS X, and I think the icon should reflect this, even if the name still just references music. Having an icon specific to an iPod touch in 2010 when iTunes does music, tv, movies, apps, etc. would be very strange to me.

I am always in favor of them coming up with new icons to give the dock a facelift, and I like the new icon for now. It will be fine until they come up with a whole new design aesthetic for 10.7.

I know. I really am feeling the loss of colour. I understand you have to do something cosmetic to the GUI each upgrade to satisfy people. But, I think this trend of subtracting to "simplify" is not always good. Colour does not make it complicated or less elegant.

Colour good. Gray bad.

I keep looking through the preferences hoping to find a "enable colour" button. But, I can't even stand looking at the gray preferences.

I feel like I just went colour blind.