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iTunes will never work well

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Re: iTunes will never work well

#121

Post by flukus »

Dain42 wrote: post #116
flukus wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maps and the occasional website (the browser used to have zoom options too) with crappy css are the only times I really need pinch zoom. It's annoying as hell when you're holding a coffee and want to zoom.

You're probably outside the 95th percentile on that one, though, and good design targets the rest of the user base. I think most people probably just got annoyed by accidentally hitting those, or by them taking up real-estate or cluttering the view.

> You're probably outside the 95th percentile on that one

In what way? If you mean one handed usage, it's pretty common here when people are standing on public transport, you need to hold on with one hand. If you mean the infrequency I need it, take a look through you're list of installed apps and tell me how many require zooming? Almost all are designed specifically to avoid it.

Re: iTunes will never work well

#122

Post by twhb »

jheriko wrote: post #11

i don't understand how apple have a reputation for good ui... all of their stuff is terrible. the main problem: zero discoverablity - i need to google how to do things, then get some snotty fanboy answer about how easy and obvious it is, but there is literally no way to infer the functionality from the design. they do love to steal context too... and interrupt your flow... ... i could go on and on, but having zero-di…

Speaking of, Apple is to blame for the absolute worst case of discoverability I've ever encountered: getting the iOS App Store app to list all apps labeled "Essentials".

Dug around, couldn't find it. Googled it, found a few forum threads where everybody concluded it couldn't be done. Went into an Apple store, gave an employee a few minutes to figure it out, and he gave up.

And yet, it's possible.

Rather than just tell you, I'm going to leave this as a challenge. See how long it takes you to figure this out.

Re: iTunes will never work well

#124

Post by usmannk »

twhb wrote: post #122
jheriko wrote: post #11

i don't understand how apple have a reputation for good ui... all of their stuff is terrible. the main problem: zero discoverablity - i need to google how to do things, then get some snotty fanboy answer about how easy and obvious it is, but there is literally no way to infer the functionality from the design. they do love to steal context too... and interrupt your flow... ... i could go on and on, but having zero-di…

Speaking of, Apple is to blame for the absolute worst case of discoverability I've ever encountered: getting the iOS App Store app to list all apps labeled "Essentials". Dug around, couldn't find it. Googled it, found a few forum threads where everybody concluded it couldn't be done. Went into an Apple store, gave an employee a few minutes to figure it out, and he gave up. And yet, it's possible. Rather than just tel…

Searching for "essentials" seems to do the trick.

Re: iTunes will never work well

#125

Post by zepto »

pfarnsworth wrote: post #98

iTunes is the worst piece of software I've come across in a long time. I banned it from my computer until I upgraded to my iPhone 7. Now, the only computer with enough disk space to accommodate my backups of 256GB is my personal desktop, so I was forced to install iTunes. It's infuriating and in the 4 years that I haven't used iTunes, it hasn't gotten any better. I would love to blacklist whoever is responsible for i…

It's obviously not a delightful piece of software, but attacking the team that works on it is mean spirited.

You know nothing about the constraints they work under.

Re: iTunes will never work well

#126

Post by sverige »

madeofpalk wrote: post #76
sverige wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why have it at all? The point is that if it's there taking up space, it should work well. It doesn't. Fix it or kill it.

Oh, you're right. I still think there should be some kind of iOS device management on Mac (for backups and old-fashion-sync), but I'm not the first person to call for it to be overhauled and split out into a seperate app (iSync anyone?)

Completely agree.

Re: iTunes will never work well

#127

Post by thenewwazoo »

twhb wrote: post #122
jheriko wrote: post #11

i don't understand how apple have a reputation for good ui... all of their stuff is terrible. the main problem: zero discoverablity - i need to google how to do things, then get some snotty fanboy answer about how easy and obvious it is, but there is literally no way to infer the functionality from the design. they do love to steal context too... and interrupt your flow... ... i could go on and on, but having zero-di…

Speaking of, Apple is to blame for the absolute worst case of discoverability I've ever encountered: getting the iOS App Store app to list all apps labeled "Essentials". Dug around, couldn't find it. Googled it, found a few forum threads where everybody concluded it couldn't be done. Went into an Apple store, gave an employee a few minutes to figure it out, and he gave up. And yet, it's possible. Rather than just tel…

Wow. That was about five minutes of hunting, and I actually seriously considered the possibility that your comment was a troll. That was impressively unexpected.

Re: iTunes will never work well

#128

Post by ptomato »

Dain42 wrote: post #118
cageface wrote: post #79

If you're using a Mac then you should go buy yourself a copy of Swinsian now: http://swinsian.com/ It's a lean, fast native player that supports tons of formats, has great library management features, and omits all the bloat and confusion of iTunes.

It doesn't really matter to me, as I'm not a Macintosh user anymore, but does it have the smart playlist feature like iTunes? That's the biggest thing I miss in most music players, including my current one, Google Play Music (with my all-access).

Yup, it does.

Re: iTunes will never work well

#129

Post by ploxiln »

TD-Linux wrote: post #93

Do you still have to use iTunes to transfer music to iPhones? Can't you just copy files over and use some other playback app on the iPhone? The author sounds makes it sound like they are "forced" to use iTunes. (disclaimer: the newest Apple product I own was manufactured in 1983)

There is no "copying files over" with iDevices. For a long time there was "gtkpod" / "libgpod" which reverse-engineered iPod protocol and database format to load songs on an iPod. But on later iPods it involved an extracted Apple signing key, and Apple issued (successful) DMCA takedowns on websites which provided these keys.

Most pages on the gtkpod website currently appear to be defunct, probably because it's been impractical to make it work with iPhones.

Re: iTunes will never work well

#130

Post by pvg »

striking wrote: post #23
jheriko wrote: post #11

i don't understand how apple have a reputation for good ui... all of their stuff is terrible. the main problem: zero discoverablity - i need to google how to do things, then get some snotty fanboy answer about how easy and obvious it is, but there is literally no way to infer the functionality from the design. they do love to steal context too... and interrupt your flow... ... i could go on and on, but having zero-di…

Their reputation stemmed from the days where everything was discoverable. Want to delete a file? There's a trash can glued to your dock. Need to perform a function but don't know the name? Look it up in the Help menu's search box. Now, though, they've done the Windows 8 thing of overloading gestures and hiding behaviors. Want to see your notifications? Two-finger swipe to the left, starting from the edge of the touch…

Notifications have a dedicated button at the far right of the menu bar, a prime Fitt's Law location. The help and the trash are still where they've been for years.
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