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How iTunes Is Changing on PC

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Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#201

Post by toast0 »

wackget wrote: post #191

I use an old version of iTunes on Windows and haven't found anything better, for the following reasons: 1. It has a taskbar player, which is a tiny strip of media controls which sits in your taskbar. AFAIK the only other player to offer this is Windows Media Player. 2. It has the best-looking (for me) GUI with the column browser etc. 3. You can use parental controls to disable all the crap like the store/videos/radio…

> 1. It has a taskbar player, which is a tiny strip of media controls which sits in your taskbar. AFAIK the only other player to offer this is Windows Media Player.

In the taskbar meaning where you select applications that can maybe show the window title but by default is just icons these days? Or the in the notification area / system tray? If the later, Winamp has a bundled plugin for that, and I believe Foobar2000 does too.

Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#202

Post by dr-detroit »

incanus77 wrote: post #138

The phrase “everything you needed to be entertained” is indicative of the biggest problem that I see with Apple today: a focus on consumerism and passive consumption. Twenty years ago, iTunes’ emphasis was on collecting, experiencing, and enjoying an art form. It’s a very subtle difference, but it speaks to the attitude that Apple projects today. When was the last time the intersection with the humanities was mention…

[dead]

Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#203

Post by refulgentis »

sleepybrett wrote: post #184
refulgentis wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never 100% understood it either, the only steelman I've been able to come up with over years is most people are like me and lose or damage the wireless earbuds every 6-12 months. I'm lucky enough to be a yuppie tech nerd with disposable income to treat it as a fact of life. Whereas for them it feels like a forced march to spend $150 every year.

> Whereas for them it feels like a forced march to spend $150 every year. Except that you are not, there exists a 8-10$ dongle from apple for lightning to headphone and, i just had to check, there exists a usb-c to headphone dongle for the same price range if you happen to have the newest gen phone. So instead it's a forced march to buy a new dongle if you happen to lose your cheap wired headphones/earbuds, assuming…

Sure -- do you want me to steelman that too? (TL;DR: 'forced purchase' and 'can't use your stuff' effects still play in)

Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#204

Post by crowcroft »

crazygringo wrote: post #165
incanus77 wrote: post #138

The phrase “everything you needed to be entertained” is indicative of the biggest problem that I see with Apple today: a focus on consumerism and passive consumption. Twenty years ago, iTunes’ emphasis was on collecting, experiencing, and enjoying an art form. It’s a very subtle difference, but it speaks to the attitude that Apple projects today. When was the last time the intersection with the humanities was mention…

> iTunes’ emphasis was on collecting, experiencing, and enjoying an art form. I get much more enjoyment out of experiencing new music through radio functionality in Apple Music or Spotify than wasting time "collecting". It expands my horizons rather than limiting myself to what I already know I like. There's nothing passive about recommendations. I hear a new song I like, I go to research the artist, I start a new ra…

In my experience you almost entirely lose the human experience of sharing playlists, talking about new discoveries, getting together with people to listen to new music.

For each individual it is probably a better experience, but there is something lost still. I don't know if it's fair to lay blame for that on Apple though, it seems like that's where things are going anyway in some many dimensions of life.

Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#205

Post by fshbbdssbbgdd »

aniforprez wrote: post #30
pier25 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple Music app on macOS is also hot garage.

Apple TV is also somehow hot garbage I don't understand. These are "just" media players and all split up to do one thing each. How do they all do that one thing so miserably. TV hangs for multiple seconds every single time I download or delete episodes of TV shows and the player is so incredibly bad and doesn't save your progress properly

Huh, it never occurred to me that you could download episodes on an Apple TV. What’s the use-case? I download shows on my iPad so I can watch them when I’m traveling without internet, but my Apple TV is always plugged in. Intermittent connectivity in the home? Maybe bugs stick around because the feature is rarely used?

Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#206

Post by soneil »

Manfred wrote: post #14
eudoraexplora wrote: post #11

I like how Apple's page starts with "When iTunes was originally released, it had everything you needed to be entertained. Now, there are individual apps for all your media" - yes, exactly! That's the problem!

What is exactly the problem with individual apps in your opinion? This not a weird jab, I'm actually curious.

My issues with the individual apps isn't that they're individual, it's that they're all Catalyst apps. This brings with it mandatory sandboxing, so my media files must live on my system drive. Any attempt to relocate them violates the sandbox, and it's recreated clean.

It's pretty neat, and pretty surprising, that I can still sync my iPod in 2024. But having a large collection of audiobooks means there's a lot of data clogging up my system drive - where audiobooks would otherwise be an ideal candidate to be offloaded almost anywhere else (they're slow, they're infrequent, etc).

Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#207

Post by incanus77 »

mrguyorama wrote: post #187
incanus77 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, Apple aligned itself in a way that ultimately added to its and its partners’ bottom lines. But somehow, the company’s attitude felt aspirational to me in a way that it does not today.

Then you fell for the lifestyle advertising. Simple as that

I can see your point. For me personally, though, the progression was:

1. Like the look & feel of Apple hardware

2. Feel like the iPod/iTunes scene is shiny bullshit, but whatever

3. Buy a laptop & figure I'll give OS X a shot, if not install Linux

4. Fall in love with the ability to really get some work done rather than have to futz with my system all the time (despite loving to futz with my system)

5. Eventually, become an Apple platform developer

Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#209

Post by sleepybrett »

refulgentis wrote: post #203
sleepybrett wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whereas for them it feels like a forced march to spend $150 every year. Except that you are not, there exists a 8-10$ dongle from apple for lightning to headphone and, i just had to check, there exists a usb-c to headphone dongle for the same price range if you happen to have the newest gen phone. So instead it's a forced march to buy a new dongle if you happen to lose your cheap wired headphones/earbuds, assuming…

Sure -- do you want me to steelman that too? (TL;DR: 'forced purchase' and 'can't use your stuff' effects still play in)

'forced purchase' is much different when its $8 and not $150 (and let's be clear you can get bluetooth headphones and earbuds for well under $100 at this point). Let's also remember that when apple made this change originally they packed in earpods w/ lightning connectors.

I can understand some grousing when the headphone jack was removed. I can't understand grousing still almost 8 years later. Buy the phone or don't buy the phone, they clearly aren't going to add the jack back.

Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#210

Post by sunshowers »

crowcroft wrote: post #204
crazygringo wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> iTunes’ emphasis was on collecting, experiencing, and enjoying an art form. I get much more enjoyment out of experiencing new music through radio functionality in Apple Music or Spotify than wasting time "collecting". It expands my horizons rather than limiting myself to what I already know I like. There's nothing passive about recommendations. I hear a new song I like, I go to research the artist, I start a new ra…

In my experience you almost entirely lose the human experience of sharing playlists, talking about new discoveries, getting together with people to listen to new music. For each individual it is probably a better experience, but there is something lost still. I don't know if it's fair to lay blame for that on Apple though, it seems like that's where things are going anyway in some many dimensions of life.

Just the other day, I discovered a rather incredible ambient/drone album using a nonstandard tuning [1] via Spotify's Discover Weekly, and excitedly pinged all my art-music-liking friends about it.

[1] Trances by Jules Reidy: https://juliareidy.bandcamp.com/album/trances

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