First look: Apple's overhauled iTunes 11

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  • Reply 101 of 242


    I have a macbook pro 2012 and installed the new iTunes. The one problem I have is when I update iTunes match my whole computer freezes until it is finished. Besides that it seems to be much faster. 

  • Reply 102 of 242
    djrumpydjrumpy Posts: 1,116member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Pooch View Post





    that would be the equalizer ... and although that is still there (under the Window menu) i can't see where to enable the visuals.


     


    Visuals are under the View menu.

  • Reply 103 of 242


    I can get used to whatever the layout is.  My big question is: does the new version keep all of the playlists from the previous version??  If I have to recreate all of my damn playlists...I will go medieval on Apple's behind.

  • Reply 104 of 242
    djrumpydjrumpy Posts: 1,116member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DmitryB View Post


    I can get used to whatever the layout is.  My big question is: does the new version keep all of the playlists from the previous version??  If I have to recreate all of my damn playlists...I will go medieval on Apple's behind.



     


    I use playlists extensively and they all moved over intact. There are also scripts you can use to back them up (including Smart Lists). A good idea if you have a ton like I do.

  • Reply 105 of 242

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DJRumpy View Post


    The playlists are only available under the Music dropdown for some reason. Probably a bug as my playlists also include movie playlists, which also show up under Music. Has anyone figured out the home movies bit yet and how it works?



    That's not true.


    If you start dragging a TV Show or an Album or a Movie, or an iTunesU class etc... the Playlists show up on the right.


    I recommend watching the following demo:  

  • Reply 106 of 242
    djrumpydjrumpy Posts: 1,116member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleSauce007 View Post


    That's not true.


    If you start dragging a TV Show or an Album or a Movie, or an iTunesU class etc... the Playlists show up on the right.


    I recommend watching the following demo:  



    Why would I want to start dragging a file just to see a playlist? It also only shows the devices and the 'purchased' playlist and any static lists,. The feature you describe is useful for moving or adding a file to a device or static list, but doing that to simply access your playlists makes no sense. The issue isn't about moving or adding a media file to a device. It's the fact that the playlist button only shows up under Music, rather than under movies, podcasts, music videos, etc. You can access all of them from Music though, which isn't intuative.

  • Reply 107 of 242
    djrumpydjrumpy Posts: 1,116member


    By the way, for those nervous about losing any playlists, you can export them beforehand, including the criteria for Smart Playlists (a feature that iTunes lacks for some reason).



    http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=exportsmartcriteria


     


    Just download and put this apple script in your ~/Library/iTunes/Scripts folder. It will let you do 'Selected' playlists, or 'All'. Very handy.

  • Reply 108 of 242
    djrumpydjrumpy Posts: 1,116member


    Heh. Looks like you can now export Smart List criteria in iTunes 11. That's excellent, although it appears you would have to do each on individually (the script above will export all of them in one shot...handy for a full backup). Just make sure you export it using the XML format (the default is TXT).

  • Reply 109 of 242
    sjksjk Posts: 603member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DJRumpy View Post


    So far my biggest gripe is the lack of easy access to Playlists, which has prompted me to turn the sidebar back on. […snip…] What they should have done is logically shown a playlist button if you have playlists for the associated media type.



     


    And presumably still display all playlists because trying to display only media-specific playlists could be confused by mixed media playlists and nested playlist folders.


     



    Quote:


    FYI, the new Home Movie option is another media type under your library, which is a welcome addition. You can tag a movie as a 'Home Movie' instead of just 'Movie'. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to show up under the sidebar list of categories under Library, but it does access them from the new horizontal 'Home Movie' button.




     


    It's Home Video(s). image  Thanks for the tip.


     


    I discovered the Command-<#> shortcut switches between the major library categories.  Anyone know of shortcuts for navigating between top row buttons?  And I still haven't figured out what the cloud icon next to the category menu signifies.

  • Reply 110 of 242
    djrumpydjrumpy Posts: 1,116member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sjk View Post


     


    And presumably still display all playlists because trying to display only media-specific playlists could be confused by mixed media playlists and nested playlist folders.


     


     


     


    It's Home Video(s). image  Thanks for the tip.


     


    I discovered the Command-<#> shortcut switches between the major library categories.  Anyone know of shortcuts for navigating between top row buttons?  And I still haven't figured out what the cloud icon next to the category menu signifies.



    The cloud button just indicates when you have downloads available in the cloud for the selected library category. For example, any past purchases, digital downloads, etc. I elected to just turn them off in the preferences, but you can also turn them off via specific file selection, or just for a specific category (Movies, Music, etc).



    I think Apple could do the context sensitive playlists properly. If a playlist displays a specific type of media, show it in that media category. Seemingly simple enough. I already sent in a suggestion. Say for example you have a playlist that shows Podcasts and Music. Then that playlist would show in both Podcasts and the Music category. They already do something similar with Apple TV (TV Show playlists won't show in the Movies section but they will show in the TV section and vice versa).

  • Reply 111 of 242

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by oneof52 View Post


    I can't find cover flow for movies or sorting movie with art by date added.  Not happy.



    Coverflow goodbye. It was more eyecandy than useful really, so not missing it here.

  • Reply 112 of 242
    sjksjk Posts: 603member


    Originally Posted by DJRumpy View Post


    The cloud button just indicates when you have downloads available in the cloud for the selected library category. For example, any past purchases, digital downloads, etc. I elected to just turn them off in the preferences, but you can also turn them off via specific file selection, or just for a specific category (Movies, Music, etc).



     


    Got it - thanks.  Disabling it under Preferences makes it go away.  I was confused with it still displayed even after selecting every individual "Hide <category> in the Cloud" option.


     




    I think Apple could do the context sensitive playlists properly. If a playlist displays a specific type of media, show it in that media category. Seemingly simple enough. I already sent in a suggestion. Say for example you have a playlist that shows Podcasts and Music. Then that playlist would show in both Podcasts and the Music category. They already do something similar with Apple TV (TV Show playlists won't show in the Movies section but they will show in the TV section and vice versa).



     


    Good example.  Having only recently started playing with Apple TV, I noticed how it filters out any TV Shows in a mixed Movies+TV Shows playlist that it displays under the Movies section and any Movies from that same playlist when its displayed under the TV Shows sections.  I can imagine it working like that in iTunes while also handling nested playlists similarly to Apple TV.

  • Reply 113 of 242
    1st bug I've just noticed is that Plays and Last Played will not update if Crossfade is selected.
  • Reply 114 of 242
    Definitely no improvement when synching to iPhone and iPad,
    still a messy "Books"-section and
    double-clicking on the books don't open on my iMac since there is no iBook for OS/X

    I'm still trying to get used to it (Podcast listing fonts got too big and my list got unmanageable). For me it's just a cosmetic change without the media hub functions I expected.
  • Reply 115 of 242


    The artist photo 'Gallery' seems rather slow, unfinished and buggy.  I clicked on a photo and just got a grey box, nothing else.  Second time I got a black box with the image but no controls.  Third time I got the controls too.  You can resize the image window but the photo doesn't resize.  Totally lacks the Apple polish. image


     


    Also, on 'normal' non-retina screens the artist's Store view cuts off the 'Recommended' list and you can't scroll right to view it.  image


     


    Apart from these niggles which I'm sure they'll fix soon, very pleased with the update.  image

  • Reply 116 of 242
    djrumpydjrumpy Posts: 1,116member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by xenon8000 View Post



    Definitely no improvement when synching to iPhone and iPad,

    still a messy "Books"-section and

    double-clicking on the books don't open on my iMac since there is no iBook for OS/X

    I'm still trying to get used to it (Podcast listing fonts got too big and my list got unmanageable). For me it's just a cosmetic change without the media hub functions I expected.


     


    Can't agree more. Really like the option to read books on my Mac and iBooks still lacks that after all this time :\

  • Reply 117 of 242
    djrumpydjrumpy Posts: 1,116member


    It appears that they tried to combine the syncing activity into a single info pane with scroll bars. An odd choice, but at least you can still click on a specific device to see any sync activity for that specific device. I didn't notice any particular speed improvements there. I did a test sync of about 32 GB of data and 16 GB of data and saw only 1-3 MB/s according to my network activity.



    I think I could learn to like the interface given time. I've turned the sidebar back off and just started using 'Music' to manage my playlists. I do like that it removes all of the clutter from the left pane even if it is 'music' centric, it works.


     


    FYI, for those who are curious, you can turn off the color preference changes in the General options ("Use custom colors for open albums, movies, etc."), as well as disable all iCloud downloads, which I found distracting after removing some I didn't want and still having them show up in the list. You can disable all iCloud options in the preferences on the Store tab ("Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases"), or just use the View option to disable iCloud downloads for a specific Library view:



        View - > Show/Hide {Mediatype} in iCloud



    Edit: You can also just delete an iCloud download by selecting the item, and holding down Alt + Delete and selecting the option to delete the iCloud download if you just don't want or need that download to show up anywhere. Just remember this will probably remove it from all devices.



    Hope that helps.

  • Reply 118 of 242

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tumme-totte View Post



    Where did iTunes DJ go? I loved that one!


     


    It's now called "Up Next".

  • Reply 119 of 242
    cgjcgj Posts: 276member


    I know I initially criticised iTunes 11 for being blurry, but after just a few hours use I have warmed to it.


     


    While I still maintain that the use of Helvetica makes the text look less sharp and slightly bulkier, it's just something that I've already gotten use to (like the new icon).


     


    What I do like, however, is the album view. I really like the way iTunes takes the colour scheme of the album artwork, it looks great. I only wish they'd group the album into one, though, rather than separating one album into multiple pieces if there is a different artist. I have over 7 different 'NOW' album lists, yet in reality it's one album.


     


    But other than that, I haven't encountered any bugs and it seems to work a lot quicker than before. 

  • Reply 120 of 242
    Podcasts don't sync across devices yet. Am I supposed to delete the podcasts in iTunes for them to sync to my iPhone and iPad (which do sync BTW)?
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