I used it when necessary, but when out of practice, it always seemed like it's default operation was to delete all my songs from my device. It's second most likely operation was to try to fill my device with my entire library. In short, it was always hard to use, impossible to trust, and generally useless for anyone with a collection of music files that existed prior to iTunes.
Agreed.. except it sucked on Mac too. If you had already existing large, well organized collection of digital music in various formats (mp3,flac, ape, etc) then iTunes was not the app for you. Actually it was was one of the worst applications I ever attempted to use. It's ridiculous default behaviors and counter intuitive interface were so frustrating. I even tried using a Mac for a year to see if buying into the whole ecosystem was needed. Nope. iTunes was an app designed with no care whatsoever for what the customer wanted. This was many years ago but I was never able to find an app on the Mac that could easily manage a very large collection of digital music in various formats so after one year of trying gave the Mac to my wife (she still likes them) and went back to Foobar 2000 on the PC.
Foobar and later Songbird were definitely the way to go if you had music outside of what you purchased from iTunes. I
n the old days of iTunes, you couldn't even go directly to MP3 with your purchases. Many times I burned an RW disc with new music, then ripped it to MP3 and manually named things. I really don't miss that.
Foobar and later Songbird were definitely the way to go if you had music outside of what you purchased from iTunes. I
n the old days of iTunes, you couldn't even go directly to MP3 with your purchases. Many times I burned an RW disc with new music, then ripped it to MP3 and manually named things. I really don't miss that.
Who wants crappy MP3 when the sonically-superior AAC is available?
If your crappy car CD player can only handle MP3s, iTunes can easily convert them. Later versions even made that process transparent to the user.
Agreed.. except it sucked on Mac too. If you had already existing large, well organized collection of digital music in various formats (mp3,flac, ape, etc) then iTunes was not the app for you. Actually it was was one of the worst applications I ever attempted to use. It's ridiculous default behaviors and counter intuitive interface were so frustrating. I even tried using a Mac for a year to see if buying into the whole ecosystem was needed. Nope. iTunes was an app designed with no care whatsoever for what the customer wanted. This was many years ago but I was never able to find an app on the Mac that could easily manage a very large collection of digital music in various formats so after one year of trying gave the Mac to my wife (she still likes them) and went back to Foobar 2000 on the PC.
Your objections regarding flac, ape, (and ogg) are (or at least in the case of flac, were) duly noted.
However, all of iTunes "counter intuitive interface" issues are neatly negated by the use of "Column Browser" mode. Can't imagine a more intuitive interface; especially for large collections.
When you make your mark in the world, watch out for guys with erasers.
-- The Wall Street Journal
It was never intuitive on Windows (Score:2)
I used it when necessary, but when out of practice, it always seemed like it's default operation was to delete all my songs from my device. It's second most likely operation was to try to fill my device with my entire library. In short, it was always hard to use, impossible to trust, and generally useless for anyone with a collection of music files that existed prior to iTunes.
Re:It was never intuitive on Windows (Score:2)
Agreed .. except it sucked on Mac too. If you had already existing large, well organized collection of digital music in various formats (mp3,flac, ape, etc) then iTunes was not the app for you. Actually it was was one of the worst applications I ever attempted to use. It's ridiculous default behaviors and counter intuitive interface were so frustrating. I even tried using a Mac for a year to see if buying into the whole ecosystem was needed. Nope. iTunes was an app designed with no care whatsoever for what the customer wanted. This was many years ago but I was never able to find an app on the Mac that could easily manage a very large collection of digital music in various formats so after one year of trying gave the Mac to my wife (she still likes them) and went back to Foobar 2000 on the PC.
Re: It was never intuitive on Windows (Score:2)
Foobar and later Songbird were definitely the way to go if you had music outside of what you purchased from iTunes. I
n the old days of iTunes, you couldn't even go directly to MP3 with your purchases. Many times I burned an RW disc with new music, then ripped it to MP3 and manually named things. I really don't miss that.
Re: (Score:2)
if you had music outside of what you purchased from iTunes.
There's the problem right there. Apple regularly assumes there was nothing before them.
Re: (Score:1)
if you had music outside of what you purchased from iTunes.
There's the problem right there. Apple regularly assumes there was nothing before them.
Bullshit.
Re: (Score:1)
Foobar and later Songbird were definitely the way to go if you had music outside of what you purchased from iTunes. I
n the old days of iTunes, you couldn't even go directly to MP3 with your purchases. Many times I burned an RW disc with new music, then ripped it to MP3 and manually named things. I really don't miss that.
Who wants crappy MP3 when the sonically-superior AAC is available?
If your crappy car CD player can only handle MP3s, iTunes can easily convert them. Later versions even made that process transparent to the user.
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed .. except it sucked on Mac too. If you had already existing large, well organized collection of digital music in various formats (mp3,flac, ape, etc) then iTunes was not the app for you. Actually it was was one of the worst applications I ever attempted to use. It's ridiculous default behaviors and counter intuitive interface were so frustrating. I even tried using a Mac for a year to see if buying into the whole ecosystem was needed. Nope. iTunes was an app designed with no care whatsoever for what the customer wanted. This was many years ago but I was never able to find an app on the Mac that could easily manage a very large collection of digital music in various formats so after one year of trying gave the Mac to my wife (she still likes them) and went back to Foobar 2000 on the PC.
Your objections regarding flac, ape, (and ogg) are (or at least in the case of flac, were) duly noted.
However, all of iTunes "counter intuitive interface" issues are neatly negated by the use of "Column Browser" mode. Can't imagine a more intuitive interface; especially for large collections.