Live data from Hacker News

ITunes 10 hands-on: snappier performance, questionable UI choices

arstechnica.com

21–30 of 42 posts

Re: ITunes 10 hands-on: snappier performance, questionable UI choices

#21
post #16

My favorite iTunes feature insanity: When you listen to a song in the "Music" section of iTunes, you have a "pause" button; when you are listening and browsing iTunes store, the "pause" button inexplicably and detrimentally becomes "stop", so you have to re-navigate to "music" just to pause a song. Never mind that "stop" functionality is essentially pointless in digital music players anyway, if you are unfortunate en…

It changes to a Stop button because when you press Play again it will start playing the currently visible playlist/screen rather than the previous playlist. So let's say the Play button works the way you want it to: - You start playing a playlist. The Play button turns into a pause button - You navigate to a different playlist. The pause button does not change to a Stop button. - Push this pause button. The music "pa…

1. You can't press play again, it's just faded out.

2. What other playlist? I'm in the iTunes store. I haven't given any indication that I want to or even could specify another playlist to play.

2. That's exactly how it should work anyway. If I want to change the playlist, that's a different kind of event altogether from just pausing. Having one UI element try and control both is confusing. In this case, a dedicated stop button would actually be useful, as that could distinguish between pausing the current playlist and stopping it altogether. But removing relevant pause functionality just because you're in a different program section? Pointless.

Re: ITunes 10 hands-on: snappier performance, questionable UI choices

#22

They've used that same headline to describe that last 5 iTunes releases. There is a big difference between usability and artistic sensibility. Ultimately, some people just have a difficult time reacting to change. iTunes 10 was released only two days ago. Why not let it sink in for a while?

Because iTunes is a bloated moneymaking machine that has had very little thought put into UX since the store took off?

Re: ITunes 10 hands-on: snappier performance, questionable UI choices

#24
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It changes to a Stop button because when you press Play again it will start playing the currently visible playlist/screen rather than the previous playlist. So let's say the Play button works the way you want it to: - You start playing a playlist. The Play button turns into a pause button - You navigate to a different playlist. The pause button does not change to a Stop button. - Push this pause button. The music "pa…

1. You can't press play again, it's just faded out. 2. What other playlist? I'm in the iTunes store. I haven't given any indication that I want to or even could specify another playlist to play. 2. That's exactly how it should work anyway. If I want to change the playlist, that's a different kind of event altogether from just pausing. Having one UI element try and control both is confusing. In this case, a dedicated…

> You can't press play again, it's just faded out.

Right, because there's nothing to play. If you preview a song in the store then the Play button becomes active.

The point is that the Play button does only control one thing: the playlist or screen that you are currently viewing.

It works the same whether you're switching between two playlists, or between a playlist and the store. How else would you have it work?

Re: ITunes 10 hands-on: snappier performance, questionable UI choices

#25
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can set it back to horizontal if you want: defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -1

I'm surprised you have to use the command line to change such an option in an Apple product.

Uh, this is the norm for many settings in OS X.

Re: ITunes 10 hands-on: snappier performance, questionable UI choices

#26
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It changes to a Stop button because when you press Play again it will start playing the currently visible playlist/screen rather than the previous playlist. So let's say the Play button works the way you want it to: - You start playing a playlist. The Play button turns into a pause button - You navigate to a different playlist. The pause button does not change to a Stop button. - Push this pause button. The music "pa…

1. You can't press play again, it's just faded out. 2. What other playlist? I'm in the iTunes store. I haven't given any indication that I want to or even could specify another playlist to play. 2. That's exactly how it should work anyway. If I want to change the playlist, that's a different kind of event altogether from just pausing. Having one UI element try and control both is confusing. In this case, a dedicated…

> Right, because there's nothing to play.

There's nothing there to play because "pause" irrationally became "stop" for no apparent reason (remember there's no playlist in sight), and the user accidentally pressed it. There's no reason for it to be this way.

Why shouldn't the play button apply to songs, especially when it was played individually and not as a playlist? Seems like the type of thing a music player should do.

Re: ITunes 10 hands-on: snappier performance, questionable UI choices

#28
post #26
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. You can't press play again, it's just faded out. 2. What other playlist? I'm in the iTunes store. I haven't given any indication that I want to or even could specify another playlist to play. 2. That's exactly how it should work anyway. If I want to change the playlist, that's a different kind of event altogether from just pausing. Having one UI element try and control both is confusing. In this case, a dedicated…

> Right, because there's nothing to play. There's nothing there to play because "pause" irrationally became "stop" for no apparent reason (remember there's no playlist in sight), and the user accidentally pressed it. There's no reason for it to be this way. Why shouldn't the play button apply to songs, especially when it was played individually and not as a playlist? Seems like the type of thing a music player should…

The Previous, Play, and Next buttons apply to the screen you are currently viewing. They work just the same in the store as they do on any other iTunes screen.

Re: ITunes 10 hands-on: snappier performance, questionable UI choices

#29
post #16

My favorite iTunes feature insanity: When you listen to a song in the "Music" section of iTunes, you have a "pause" button; when you are listening and browsing iTunes store, the "pause" button inexplicably and detrimentally becomes "stop", so you have to re-navigate to "music" just to pause a song. Never mind that "stop" functionality is essentially pointless in digital music players anyway, if you are unfortunate en…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN