Apple Delays Simpler and Cleaner iTunes 'to Get It Right' 252
Hugh Pickens writes "iTunes has been criticized in the past for being slow and growing increasingly unwieldy as more and more media types have been added to what used to be simply a music player. Apple announced iTunes 11, the latest version of the program, at its iPhone 5 event in September and said the update would be released by the end of October, but Apple's deadline for the upgrade has slipped. 'The new iTunes is taking longer than expected and we wanted to take a little extra time to get it right,' Apple told technology site AllThingsD. 'We look forward to releasing this new version of iTunes with its dramatically simpler and cleaner interface and seamless integration with iCloud before the end of November.' The update is said to be the most significant upgrade to iTunes in the 11-year life of the program, which has grown from a simple music player to the most powerful retailer in the music business — and a force in the movie, television and e-books businesses — and, on Apple's PCs, the portal to its app store."
Better upgrade (Score:3, Insightful)
Good for them (Score:5, Insightful)
As much as I dislike Apple, kudos to them for admitting the new iTunes isn't ready and postponing the release rather than pushing out potentially buggy and incomplete software. Too many software companies will just shove whatever they have finished out the door, whether it works or not.
(Although it is possible to err on the opposite side. See Duke Nukem Forever)
They've never gotten it right (Score:4, Insightful)
Even when I had a Mac Mini and a MacBook, every upgrade to iTunes would have video playback issues until the library was deleted and re-created (backing up all your content before-hand of course). The same thing happened with the last 2 updates that were released 10.6.x and 10.7. The last 10.6.x update caused a slight drop in framerate and 10.7 caused a massive drop in frame rate on high end systems and crashed iTunes on low-end systems. It took a deleteion of the library file to get it working again. Given they're past failure to fix this issue over the last 6 years, I have no hopes of them fixing it with 11.
Interface? Give me cleaner code (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Better upgrade (Score:2, Insightful)
Thanks for the warning, Apple. Now I know that I need to upgrade now, before you remove my favourite functionalities.
As much as I hate Apple, it's assholes like you that made iTunes the elephantine mess it is today. "THIS IS MY FAVOURITE NICHE FUNCTIONALITY YOU TOSSERS SO YOU BETTER KEEP IT IN OR ELSE. Why not just get rid of all those useless other features I don't use? I'm certain I won't mind. Just ignore everyone else who posted this exact same message in regards to a different feature and keep focused on ME."
Re:Good for them (Score:5, Insightful)
They could have admitted this before they started bolting on stuff. It's needed a complete overhaul for a very long time. If people weren't forced to use it, most probably wouldn't.
Not surprised (Score:5, Insightful)
You should be lucky to get itunes11 in November, it takes Apple 2 weeks to update one webpage.
Re:Apple wants to get it right? (Score:3, Insightful)
Give us the option to buy DRM free.
Do you live in a cave? And been in that cave since the beginning of 2009?
Re:Better upgrade (Score:4, Insightful)
Final Cut Pro X (Score:3, Insightful)
Apple's dug themselves into a hole in this one. They have an app that suffers from feature creep and is a resource hog. The only way to fix both issues is a complete code rewrite and interface redesign. Best case they will successful in both areas, but people will still complain that they don't like the new UI. Worse case, they just pull a "Final Cut Pro X" and still have a memory/CPU hog that does less than before. Hopefully they chose the former, and are just taking their time to polish it up.
get it right (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple,
I don't have and don't want an iPod, so don't make me install an iPod service.
And get rid of whatever the hell Bonjour is. I don't use it, and I don't care what it is, but iTunes goes ape shit if it's gone.
And get rid of the updater service. I don't trust you to ship an update that doesn't bork my music collection. I've been burned by you guys on that too many times.
In short, get rid of anything that runs in the background. The only Apple binary I ever want to see in ProcessExplorer is iTunes.exe.
-Anonymous Coward
Re:Apple wants to get it right? (Score:5, Insightful)
They should.
Also, just because google doesn't do something, doesn't mean nobody should.
Re:Sign of the times (Score:2, Insightful)
And yet millions of average people use it just fine. Maybe your issues are PEBKAC related?
Apple is a niche market, dropping from 23% to 15%. You can blame me if it make you personally feel better. itunes was part of Apple lock-in, and nothing more. Given a more open; cheaper alternative; average people[sic] have chosen to use the devices that aren't locked into itunes. It was an advantage [to apple] in the old days when the iPod was king, with a monopoly [both content and device], but now users are looking closer at Apple devices, and asking why they are paying more...for less, and itunes is part of the problem.
Re:Good for them (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree to this. Furthermore, some personal background for anyone who cares.
The main reason which has stopped me from buying an iPod (though I like them a lot) was iTunes. I am a man with very simple needs. I need my MP3 player to connect through USB and be recognized as a drive, so that I can copy over whatever I want without the need of additional software. Sure, I can accept some tiny, fast software that acts as a middle-tier between my player and my PC, but iTunes was everything BUT that. Then again, were it an opt-in software, I would have used a workaround, but so far it was required, so no thanks.
Make iTunes faster, smaller, simpler and I'll buy your nice iPods, because I like them, but right now, it's like buying a nice Ferrari with manure-filled seats.
Re:Sign of the times (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Good for them (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Interface? Give me cleaner code (Score:4, Insightful)
Tim Cook doesn't like to apologize (Score:4, Insightful)
...but he's had to do so twice in the past six months: first, for ill-advised changes in Apple's retail stores, and second, for the premature release of Maps.
Both executives whose decisions resulted in these apologies are gone.
Re:Good for them (Score:2, Insightful)
If it doesn't work the way tech-savvy people - you know, ones who actually know about stuff - want it to work then doesn't that imply that the design is a bag of old cunt?
iTunes is Apple's cash register (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course it's a mess. iTunes is a music player, a video player, a file manager, a sync program, and a shopping cart. Quicktime is also bundled in there somewhere.
The main function of iTunes is to create a direct connection between Apple and your bank account. So Apple is unlikely to separate the shopping cart function from the other functions.