Apple tops PC rivals in customer experience, but iTunes lags behind

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 47
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dreyfus2 View Post


    While I like some of the changes in iTunes 9, especially the home sharing feature which works extremely well for us, the new store layout is certainly not one of them. Album and movie covers are much too small now - on a high density screen they are almost indistinguishable, artist names and titles are cut off everywhere - especially helpful when you are on a TV show detail page and it lists 10 seasons under "More Seasons" all having exactly the same name ending with "..." (and of course the season number being included in the "..." part).



    I have attempted to replicate your issues, but I must be missing something.



    Unless you are using a slow computer and connection, the 'i' buttons and rollovers work beautifully and extremely fast. Especially love the previews.
  • Reply 22 of 47
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by IHateRegistering View Post


    Browsing or playing my movies in iTunes is quite fast, and playing them is fast (it was horrible on an older Hp laptop however).



    But when I attempt to sync to an iPod or iPhone, it is incredibly slow. Not the actual syncing, but loading the list of my movies in the "movie" tab of the iPod or iPhone in iTunes.



    So you are using newer HP laptop?



    'Loading?' Are you referring to the actual time it takes to download the movie to your iPod? How large are they?
  • Reply 23 of 47
    zunxzunx Posts: 620member
    It is AMAZING that:



    - iTunes (Store) has an awkward search and browse engine.

    - iTunes (desktop application) does not allow to RESUME playback if you quit the application and open it again, restart or shut down the Mac and start up again.



    - Much as it is also amazing that QuickTime window cannot be expanded just clicking the top left green (+) button.



    FOR YEARS NOW!!! Shame, shame, shame!!!
  • Reply 24 of 47
    icyfogicyfog Posts: 338member
    The story lists the rankings for the computer manufacturers. I'd like to see the rankings for iTunes, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

    I can't imagine an online store much worse than Amazon. Well I guess I could, but I haven't seen one. Borders wasn't mentioned, but I like that site. So I'd rate that one and the two mentioned above over Amazon.
  • Reply 25 of 47
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zunx View Post


    - iTunes (desktop application) does not allow to RESUME playback if you quit the application and open it again, restart or shut down the Mac and start up again.



    You?re right! I never noticed this but it should open up the last thing you used and resume where you left off. All iDevices do this just fine.



    I?d also like to see an option to open videos with QuickTime. I hate using iTunes for storing videos because I hate having to right click, Show in Finder, and then click play in QuickTime (I?ve already set the file types to open with QuickTime by default). The player acts nothing nothing like the QuickTime player.
  • Reply 26 of 47
    dreyfus2dreyfus2 Posts: 1,072member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    I?d also like to see an option to open videos with QuickTime. I hate using iTunes for storing videos because I hate having to right click, Show in Finder, and then click play in QuickTime (I?ve already set the file types to open with QuickTime by default). The player acts nothing nothing like the QuickTime player.



    This can easily be done using AppleScript. I use this one: http://www.macosxhints.com/dlfiles/i...deo_script.txt



    You can also add a keyboard shortcut in System Preferences to run this script.
  • Reply 27 of 47
    My experience with itunes is a very good one. very easy to buy music and apps.



  • Reply 28 of 47
    bsenkabsenka Posts: 799member
    A lot of Apple's hardware and software decisions frustrate me, but I actually think that iTunes is one of the few things that they are truly doing right. Nothing else even comes close to competing with it. I've yet to encounter any of the issues other posters are claiming in this thread.
  • Reply 29 of 47
    kotatsukotatsu Posts: 1,010member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by IHateRegistering View Post


    While I prefer iTunes to all other music/movie management software (that I've tried), it does need improvement.



    I have 1800+ movies in my library. When syncing to my iPhone, or even clicking on the "movies" tab, it is RIDICULOUSLY slow. Like it has to load info on every single movie; it literally takes about 5 minutes for iTunes to become responsive after clicking the "movies" tab of my iPhone in iTunes.



    I also have some nagging problems with songs not being compiled into complete albums. Say, I put a couple songs from an album in iTunes, and got the rest of the album's songs "somehow". Well, I will rename all the songs with the same album, artist, and track # of #, but they will still not play in the correct order, or group together. I'm probably doing something wrong, but this is way too hard.



    There is also a problem with iTunes retrieving the correct album art for many albums/songs.



    I also have a terrible time with my Apple TV. It randomly, but surely, looses connection with my computer (iTunes). I know when it is acting flaky because it will stop displaying movie artwork (and then say the movies are in the wrong format). I have to restart iTunes and unplug/replug the Apple TV often to get them to sync up correctly. This is lame lame lame. There's no way I could go on deployment and leave my Apple TV with my wife, and expect it to reliably work day-in and day-out.



    I don't mind the iTunes store or the general layout. I can usually find what I want quickly. I don't use Genius at all. I just hope they fix the performance problems and AppleTV connection/syncing issues.



    I have the same problem with my Apple TV, and it drives me nuts.



    As for iTunes, what a train wreck. It looks like a spread sheet and runs like it's stuck in the 1980s. Absolutely horrible. Why does it take iTunes 5 minutes to sync my iPhone, even when there is nothing new to copy over? It's just stupidly slow.



    I can only assume Apple have never seen the Zune desktop client. It's beautiful, slick, and fast.
  • Reply 30 of 47
    noirdesirnoirdesir Posts: 1,027member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bsenka View Post


    A lot of Apple's hardware and software decisions frustrate me, but I actually think that iTunes is one of the few things that they are truly doing right. Nothing else even comes close to competing with it. I've yet to encounter any of the issues other posters are claiming in this thread.



    What happens when you connect an iPhone or iPod? iTunes has always put up a spinning beachball if I try to do anything in iTunes during the first couple of seconds of syncing.
  • Reply 31 of 47
    The iTunes Store is a mess. Since the recent redesign I can't find anything as quickly as I used to before. Granted the old store layout was also cr4p because you could only read one screen of apps at a time, and not jump three ahead or so, but the "improvements" are no better. The search is inaccurate, and while I used to find useful apps quite quickly, now I have to plough through loads of useless crud - as well as music tracks, videos and stuff I have no interest in.



    Amazon is much better because the search is good, the recommendations are helpful, the ability to drill down is simple and informative, and buying is a piece of cake. In contrast, the iTunes store just puts so many barriers in my way to making a purchase that I now don't browse it al all anymore, I only buy what I see someone else recommend on a forum or blog.
  • Reply 32 of 47
    Well what bothers me on iTunes is it memory leak (if you play music over hours the memory footprint starts climbing like crazy). Plus if you search for a genre of music it is a lot harder to find music/movie of a certain style.
  • Reply 33 of 47
    b747b747 Posts: 27member
    Another vote for a redesign from me. I use Play or Amazon to purchase music though, I will not pay a premium just to use iTunes.



    On my Mac iTunes is ok and I like using the remote to control it. However on Windows it's dire, I hate using it there. With nothing else to sync the iPhone with though I suppose we have to live with it.
  • Reply 34 of 47
    razorpitrazorpit Posts: 1,796member
    iTunes has become so cluttered that I have found myself not exploring for new artists/podcasts as I have done in the past. This is coming from someone who generally accepts Apple software with open arms.
  • Reply 35 of 47
    Hmmm. I didn't realise people had such a negative experience of the iTunes store (never used it myself...)



    I guess Apple have to prove they are 'King of Interface' all over again...and make it faster and more efficient and stable.



    I can't believe someone said Zune marketplace is better.



    But then, I guess Apple have to step up. It's not like they're not making any money out of it and they have nearly 40 billion in the bank.



    Lemon Bon Bon.
  • Reply 36 of 47
    desuserigndesuserign Posts: 1,316member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by IHateRegistering View Post


    I also have some nagging problems with songs not being compiled into complete albums. Say, I put a couple songs from an album in iTunes, and got the rest of the album's songs "somehow". Well, I will rename all the songs with the same album, artist, and track # of #, but they will still not play in the correct order, or group together. I'm probably doing something wrong, but this is way too hard.



    I suggest reading the iTunes help article entitled

    "Customizing the information about items in your library"

    You may just need to indicate that the songs are all part of the same compilation.
  • Reply 37 of 47
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by IHateRegistering View Post


    While I prefer iTunes to all other music/movie management software (that I've tried), it does need improvement.



    I have 1800+ movies in my library. When syncing to my iPhone, or even clicking on the "movies" tab, it is RIDICULOUSLY slow. Like it has to load info on every single movie; it literally takes about 5 minutes for iTunes to become responsive after clicking the "movies" tab of my iPhone in iTunes.



    I also have some nagging problems with songs not being compiled into complete albums. Say, I put a couple songs from an album in iTunes, and got the rest of the album's songs "somehow". Well, I will rename all the songs with the same album, artist, and track # of #, but they will still not play in the correct order, or group together. I'm probably doing something wrong, but this is way too hard.



    There is also a problem with iTunes retrieving the correct album art for many albums/songs.



    I also have a terrible time with my Apple TV. It randomly, but surely, looses connection with my computer (iTunes). I know when it is acting flaky because it will stop displaying movie artwork (and then say the movies are in the wrong format). I have to restart iTunes and unplug/replug the Apple TV often to get them to sync up correctly. This is lame lame lame. There's no way I could go on deployment and leave my Apple TV with my wife, and expect it to reliably work day-in and day-out.



    I don't mind the iTunes store or the general layout. I can usually find what I want quickly. I don't use Genius at all. I just hope they fix the performance problems and AppleTV connection/syncing issues.



    It sounds like the real problem is that Itune is really set up to deal with products bought form itunes. It sounds like you got a miss match of source for you content which is causing problem. Such as the songs not showing up in the same ablum. You have to modify all the song in the same album, even the ones you bought from Apple, iTunes is smart enough to know each song did not originate form the same source.



    I have a mix of sources, I buy form itunes and got many of my albums from old CD or CD's I got from friends and the only way to make itunes know they are all the same is to force it to do it for you. The same goes for the movies, unless all your movies are all the same format it causes itunes to switch between encoding methods. The only way to fix that is to make sure your movie are all MPG not something else and they are all the exact same encoding method, but that is hard to do if you locating content all over the place.
  • Reply 38 of 47
    desuserigndesuserign Posts: 1,316member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lemon Bon Bon. View Post


    Hmmm. I didn't realise people had such a negative experience of the iTunes store (never used it myself...)



    I guess Apple have to prove they are 'King of Interface' all over again...and make it faster and more efficient and stable.



    I can't believe someone said Zune marketplace is better.



    But then, I guess Apple have to step up. It's not like they're not making any money out of it and they have nearly 40 billion in the bank.



    Lemon Bon Bon.



    Yup, I'm generally very happy with Apple software efforts, and I don't hate iTunes like I hear so many people say. But what I do hate is the search feature in general and the App store in particular. The search just plain does not work well (and where can I find out if I can use search terms? Or rather, why don't standard search queries work?)

    Everything is even worse in the App store. Unless you know what you are looking for, you cannot find anything (and even if you do know what your looking for?by name?you often can't find it!) If you want a category, or similar software, or you want to compare the different offerings you have somehow managed to find? Forget about it!

    And yes?when I'm looking for Apps, No?I'm not looking for songs or movies or audio-books or music video (By now I'm thinking "idiots!") This alone probably brings App developers to the verge of forming an Apple board of directors lynch mob!
  • Reply 39 of 47
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    I am not sure how you compare itunes an application interface to content to a store like Barns and Noble or Amazon. I wonder what their survey questions were like. Itunes does far more then what BN or Amazon does.



    I have used Itunes to locate and buy apps, songs and movies, and it does it quite fine and I have done the same on Amazon and besides finding what i am looking for it it blasts me with ads of things I am not interested in, amazon may provide some extra information about a product most time it has no value with music or movies since I either decided I like or not, Not really interested in hearing people complaint about the music or artist, the same goes for itunes, everyone a critic today and most have no clue what they are talking about and you know have people posting good and bad reviews of product in an attempt to sell more product or discreet the competition.
  • Reply 40 of 47
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Smiles77 View Post


    I believe a completely rewritten client is needed. The interface changes should be minimal, but the underpinning code needs to be largely scrapped and written with speed in mind.



    Additionally, when is iTunes going to get 64-bit support on Snow Leopard???



    Removing the store from the application, and providing a link to it that will open in your browser should do it. Making the storefront the same as Amazon, wholly browser-based, will rid iTunes of the clutter. More people would actually be able to buy there too, as you wouldn't need any additional software. Perhaps all of the competition's phones could purchase there as well.

    Maybe a web storefront is what the server farm is for? Apple is slower than average to get things done, due to the quality controls. Most times, it works out for them doing it slower and better, so hopefully this is in the works.
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