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Major Apple applications have become inscrutable and frustrating. - iTunes, Music and the iTunes store are a mess. I understood the old iTunes organization. Na

Major Apple applications have become inscrutable and frustrating. - iTunes, Music and the iTunes store are a mess. I understood the old iTunes organization. Navigation within my music collection has become highly non-intuitive. It seems that there are multiple paradigms (long list of tracks, and another sectioned off by album), and it isn't always clear why one or the other is used. I keep forgetting how to get to the store. Once there, the integration with the stuff I've bought is unclear (especially for video content). I once got extremely confused watching a series, not realizing that one particular view of the episodes were ordered by POPULARITY, not in chronological order. And ratings! I get the 0-5 star rating system. Then they added the heart icon for -- uhh -- something. Why not just use the existing rating system? Why do I have to rate things again for a different purpose? - Podcasts have become very confusing. I want to be able to control what is physically present on my devices, to control data usage on my phone, and space usage on all devices. They've intentionally made that difficult. - Photos is a disaster. There are many different organization paradigms, and it is unclear why some of my recent photos appear in some of them but not others. What are the differences among events and photo stream? Why do some pictures show up in the by-date organization but not photo stream? What's in the cloud? When does it sync with my phone? Why is it easy to sync with my phone by cable but not IP? If current trends continue, my beautiful Mac hardware will be nothing but a boot loader for VMWare and Linux.

why-el 11y ago
iTunes is absolutely terrible. I did several updates for my girlfriend and friends, and none of them figured out iTunes. Most of them downgraded.
- geophile 11y ago
  Spotify is a possible replacement (even without their streaming and music finding services), but I find that application quite buggy.
  - afandian 11y ago
    Spotify's approach to customer engagement and accountability is a little better than Apple's in that they have a product support forum. But their contempt for the customer seems to be about the same WRT to removing features on a whim. They removed a deal-breaker feature a couple of years ago (filter a list for a song) and have only just managed to put it back, only half working, now. I don't know how bad iTunes has got (haven't used it in 5 years) but I can't recommend Spotify as a replacement. If anyone does have any suggestions, I'd be very glad to read them!
  - x0x0 11y ago
    spotify is pretty crappy (experiences on android): * they broke google maps for about 3 months. Originally, when google maps needed to give audio directions, music would pause. It worked. Some moron decided, instead, to make the audio keep playing but make it quieter while google maps was giving audio directions. What he or she actually did is to mute google maps. This persisted for 3 months while assholes there made excuses (how fucking hard is git revert) and claimed bluetooth audio wasn't supported and therefore customers had no grounds for complaint. What was particularly frustrating across the 100 page support threads was the fact that this bug was so obvious that clearly not a single employee uses the android app or gives a damn about the experience. * spotify added a moronic "control spotify from other devices" feature. What this does in reality is this: listen to spotify on your way to work. At work, set your phone down and start listening to spotify on your computer. The next time you get a txt or interact with your phone (ie enter your pin into the lock screen), the spotify session that's been lurking steals control of your mac and jumps back to whatever you'd been listening to hours ago on your phone. The cure is to always leave spotify in offline mode and/or kill the task when you're done listening to it. * listening to files you own -- eg a concert recording unavailable in spotify -- while theoretically supported, is just janky. * If you make the mistake of allowing spotify to go online on your phone, it eats battery life. * there's a long list of other bugs, but I now wait at least 3 months before installing any updates and archive previous apks so that I can revert their idiocy. I really need to get on figuring out how to import their playlists into something better.
    - m3rc 11y ago
- etimberg 11y ago
  I've been liking Google Play Music so far.
  - at-fates-hands 11y ago
    My only issue with GM is the portability. I work out frequently, and lugging around a large smartphone isn't the best scenario for simply listening to music. I'm looking into getting a smaller MP3 player and putting my GM library on that to achieve the level of portability I need for my music.
    - DonnyV 11y ago
      Your entire music library doesn't have to live on your device. Just stream it right from GM or cache the albums you want to listen too.
      - jacquesm 11y ago
        What really gets me is that some scrappy start-up tried to launch a service like that in the 00's and got totally burned by the labels because it was not 'fair use' but now google does it it is ok.
        m3rc 11y ago
        Yeah, shit like that really does suck. At the very least, we get that kind of service now.
        danielweber 11y ago
        I believe that Apple and Google got permission from the labels to do it.
        jacquesm 11y ago
        Fair use shouldn't require permission.
bzudo 11y ago
I totally agree with you on Photos. Everything about it is overly complicated. It should be a simple as take photo, it's on my phone, automatically added to my computer and in the cloud. Edit/delete anywhere. At least they got rid of the Camera Roll. If I do plug my iPhone into the computer, I should be able to drag and drop photos from my phone through Finder. No application needed. I miss the old iPod Classic and it's external hard drive functions.
- gress 11y ago
  Photos works exactly the way you seem to want it to on my devices. I take a photo and it appears on all devices. I delete a photo and it's deleted everywhere. Likewise for edits. You sound like you're talking about iPhoto. If you don't want to use photos, you can use Image Capture, which is part of OSX and gives you exactly the drag and drop functions you want.
  - geophile 11y ago
    There are two photo apps? Seriously, I'm not aware of this. I'm talking about "Photos" whose logo is eight ovals of color arranged in a circle. (The fact that this confusion is even possible is part of the problem.) My experience is that I take a photo on my phone. It shows up in some albums that seem to have recent content but not others. The time lags are unpredictable, so I have taken to syncing manually.
- JustSomeNobody 11y ago
  "If I do plug my iPhone into the computer, I should be able to drag and drop..." This may sound petty, but this is the biggest reason I don't use an iPhone. Smartphones are more than consumption devices. They are tiny computers and I want the flexibility of using a tiny computer.
  - tonylemesmer 11y ago
    Not at all petty. This and being forced to use iTunes are my primary reason for disliking iPhones. Having said that, my Android phone is rooted, so there's probably an argument that I could have an iPhone and root it to achieve what I want.
tracker1 11y ago
I really don't use any Apple software on my rMBP except for the OS... and even there improper handling of Bluetooth and WiFi are unacceptable. I went with another macbook because I love the touchpad, and like an all-metal case. That said, I paid through the nose for something with an OS update that's simply unreliable. It will be the last Apple product I buy for a long time, and TBH, if Ubuntu comes out with a good experience on Apple hardware, I'd probably switch the OS out.
- Jerry2 11y ago
  Just sell it and buy some laptop that you can use Linux on. Why "suffer"?
  - tracker1 11y ago
    Part of it is most of the linux friendly laptops I don't like... There's a few points.. one, I like a larger touchpad, with whole-pad clicking... other than the chromebooks, and my logitech htpc keyboard I haven't seen this (I also don't like the region based right-click)... The touchpad is a huge issue for me. Second, I REALLY don't like either the Fn button being in the corner (muscle memory), or anything obstructing the right shift (again muscle memory). As it is, I hate most laptop keyboards. Third is the display, I actually really like the retina display itself, and it allows for scaling VMs very nicely. Probably the closest in terms of hardware to MBP would be some of the Asus and Acer ultrabooks, which I'm not entirely opposed to, but then it's still hit and miss on hardware support. What I would love would be for Ubuntu, or someone much more familiar with their installers to create an installer that would just detect that it's apple hardware, and make it all just work... that would include bluetooth, wifi, proper touchpad drivers/configured in the box. I really like my rMBP hardware wise... but going to something with different headaches won't exactly be better.
jads 11y ago
Photos had been exactly what I'm looking for in a photo management app. It's rock solid, I have all my photos available on all my devices, all of which update almost instantly. It was a total mess before, with fragmentation between iPhoto and Aperture, but this new solution actually seems to work really well and seems to be well received. Everyone has a different experience but mine has literally been: take photo on iPad or iPhone, it appears on every device - including the Mac and Apple TV - almost instantly As for Podcasts, I view many of Apple's apps as "starter apps". If you have outgrown what you can do or want to be able to do, that's what 3rd party apps are for. Power users like us make up a far smaller number of overall users than we think, so apps are intentionally designed to be simple, as opposed to restricted. If you want granular control, check out Overcast or Pocket Casts. The iTunes Store itself is still ok, but Apple Music is a shitshow. The Music app has been so badly nerfed that I can't rely on it for a daily commute on the tube.
- drumdance 11y ago
  I have issues where deleting a photo only temporarily deletes it. It magically shows up again and I can't figure out the underlying logic for that.
Jerry2 11y ago
>If current trends continue, my beautiful Mac hardware will be nothing but a boot loader for VMWare and Linux. Your whole post is a pretty good troll but I'll bite anyway. Tell me, what do you plan on replacing iTunes and Photos with under Linux? From what I've seen, there's nothing there that even comes close to functionality of iTunes or Photos. And why even run Linux in a VM? Why not boot it? Why not sell MBP and just buy a Lenovo? Anyway, your whole post is silly.
- geophile 11y ago
  Not a troll. I don't know what I'd use instead, I gave up Linux-only years ago, and now use a Linux VM for development, Mac for everything else. Also, networking through the Mac is still simpler, at least for now. I know that Linux has some media apps, but I use them so little that I really can't compare. However, my sense is that Linux apps get better over time, and Apple apps are definitely getting worse. If current trends continue, the lines will cross.
- Fritsdehacker 11y ago
  I like digikam. It mirrors the internal photo albums with directories on the disk, so if you want tot browse tour photo's directly, you can still find them easily. Things like labels, comments and ratings are all stored in a little database file. You can view by album, but also by date or use custom filters.
aagha 11y ago
Tried Android?
- geophile 11y ago
  Yes. Switched to iPhone. I like the access to the filesystem, available on some Android phones, but the iPhone is a superior product in my opinion. The two main advantages are 1) not having to care about which kind of memory an app is sitting in, and 2) voice control. I also find the iPhone less buggy overall, but I haven't used Android in about a year.

why-el 11y ago

iTunes is absolutely terrible. I did several updates for my girlfriend and friends, and none of them figured out iTunes. Most of them downgraded.

geophile 11y ago
Spotify is a possible replacement (even without their streaming and music finding services), but I find that application quite buggy.
- afandian 11y ago
  Spotify's approach to customer engagement and accountability is a little better than Apple's in that they have a product support forum. But their contempt for the customer seems to be about the same WRT to removing features on a whim. They removed a deal-breaker feature a couple of years ago (filter a list for a song) and have only just managed to put it back, only half working, now. I don't know how bad iTunes has got (haven't used it in 5 years) but I can't recommend Spotify as a replacement. If anyone does have any suggestions, I'd be very glad to read them!
- x0x0 11y ago
  spotify is pretty crappy (experiences on android): * they broke google maps for about 3 months. Originally, when google maps needed to give audio directions, music would pause. It worked. Some moron decided, instead, to make the audio keep playing but make it quieter while google maps was giving audio directions. What he or she actually did is to mute google maps. This persisted for 3 months while assholes there made excuses (how fucking hard is git revert) and claimed bluetooth audio wasn't supported and therefore customers had no grounds for complaint. What was particularly frustrating across the 100 page support threads was the fact that this bug was so obvious that clearly not a single employee uses the android app or gives a damn about the experience. * spotify added a moronic "control spotify from other devices" feature. What this does in reality is this: listen to spotify on your way to work. At work, set your phone down and start listening to spotify on your computer. The next time you get a txt or interact with your phone (ie enter your pin into the lock screen), the spotify session that's been lurking steals control of your mac and jumps back to whatever you'd been listening to hours ago on your phone. The cure is to always leave spotify in offline mode and/or kill the task when you're done listening to it. * listening to files you own -- eg a concert recording unavailable in spotify -- while theoretically supported, is just janky. * If you make the mistake of allowing spotify to go online on your phone, it eats battery life. * there's a long list of other bugs, but I now wait at least 3 months before installing any updates and archive previous apks so that I can revert their idiocy. I really need to get on figuring out how to import their playlists into something better.
  - m3rc 11y ago
etimberg 11y ago
I've been liking Google Play Music so far.
- at-fates-hands 11y ago
  My only issue with GM is the portability. I work out frequently, and lugging around a large smartphone isn't the best scenario for simply listening to music. I'm looking into getting a smaller MP3 player and putting my GM library on that to achieve the level of portability I need for my music.
  - DonnyV 11y ago
    Your entire music library doesn't have to live on your device. Just stream it right from GM or cache the albums you want to listen too.
    - jacquesm 11y ago
      What really gets me is that some scrappy start-up tried to launch a service like that in the 00's and got totally burned by the labels because it was not 'fair use' but now google does it it is ok.
      - m3rc 11y ago
        Yeah, shit like that really does suck. At the very least, we get that kind of service now.
      - danielweber 11y ago
        I believe that Apple and Google got permission from the labels to do it.
        jacquesm 11y ago
        Fair use shouldn't require permission.

bzudo 11y ago

I totally agree with you on Photos. Everything about it is overly complicated. It should be a simple as take photo, it's on my phone, automatically added to my computer and in the cloud. Edit/delete anywhere. At least they got rid of the Camera Roll. If I do plug my iPhone into the computer, I should be able to drag and drop photos from my phone through Finder. No application needed. I miss the old iPod Classic and it's external hard drive functions.

gress 11y ago
Photos works exactly the way you seem to want it to on my devices. I take a photo and it appears on all devices. I delete a photo and it's deleted everywhere. Likewise for edits. You sound like you're talking about iPhoto. If you don't want to use photos, you can use Image Capture, which is part of OSX and gives you exactly the drag and drop functions you want.
- geophile 11y ago
  There are two photo apps? Seriously, I'm not aware of this. I'm talking about "Photos" whose logo is eight ovals of color arranged in a circle. (The fact that this confusion is even possible is part of the problem.) My experience is that I take a photo on my phone. It shows up in some albums that seem to have recent content but not others. The time lags are unpredictable, so I have taken to syncing manually.
JustSomeNobody 11y ago
"If I do plug my iPhone into the computer, I should be able to drag and drop..." This may sound petty, but this is the biggest reason I don't use an iPhone. Smartphones are more than consumption devices. They are tiny computers and I want the flexibility of using a tiny computer.
- tonylemesmer 11y ago
  Not at all petty. This and being forced to use iTunes are my primary reason for disliking iPhones. Having said that, my Android phone is rooted, so there's probably an argument that I could have an iPhone and root it to achieve what I want.

tracker1 11y ago

I really don't use any Apple software on my rMBP except for the OS... and even there improper handling of Bluetooth and WiFi are unacceptable. I went with another macbook because I love the touchpad, and like an all-metal case. That said, I paid through the nose for something with an OS update that's simply unreliable. It will be the last Apple product I buy for a long time, and TBH, if Ubuntu comes out with a good experience on Apple hardware, I'd probably switch the OS out.

Jerry2 11y ago
Just sell it and buy some laptop that you can use Linux on. Why "suffer"?
- tracker1 11y ago
  Part of it is most of the linux friendly laptops I don't like... There's a few points.. one, I like a larger touchpad, with whole-pad clicking... other than the chromebooks, and my logitech htpc keyboard I haven't seen this (I also don't like the region based right-click)... The touchpad is a huge issue for me. Second, I REALLY don't like either the Fn button being in the corner (muscle memory), or anything obstructing the right shift (again muscle memory). As it is, I hate most laptop keyboards. Third is the display, I actually really like the retina display itself, and it allows for scaling VMs very nicely. Probably the closest in terms of hardware to MBP would be some of the Asus and Acer ultrabooks, which I'm not entirely opposed to, but then it's still hit and miss on hardware support. What I would love would be for Ubuntu, or someone much more familiar with their installers to create an installer that would just detect that it's apple hardware, and make it all just work... that would include bluetooth, wifi, proper touchpad drivers/configured in the box. I really like my rMBP hardware wise... but going to something with different headaches won't exactly be better.

jads 11y ago

Photos had been exactly what I'm looking for in a photo management app. It's rock solid, I have all my photos available on all my devices, all of which update almost instantly. It was a total mess before, with fragmentation between iPhoto and Aperture, but this new solution actually seems to work really well and seems to be well received. Everyone has a different experience but mine has literally been: take photo on iPad or iPhone, it appears on every device - including the Mac and Apple TV - almost instantly As for Podcasts, I view many of Apple's apps as "starter apps". If you have outgrown what you can do or want to be able to do, that's what 3rd party apps are for. Power users like us make up a far smaller number of overall users than we think, so apps are intentionally designed to be simple, as opposed to restricted. If you want granular control, check out Overcast or Pocket Casts. The iTunes Store itself is still ok, but Apple Music is a shitshow. The Music app has been so badly nerfed that I can't rely on it for a daily commute on the tube.

drumdance 11y ago
I have issues where deleting a photo only temporarily deletes it. It magically shows up again and I can't figure out the underlying logic for that.

Jerry2 11y ago

>If current trends continue, my beautiful Mac hardware will be nothing but a boot loader for VMWare and Linux. Your whole post is a pretty good troll but I'll bite anyway. Tell me, what do you plan on replacing iTunes and Photos with under Linux? From what I've seen, there's nothing there that even comes close to functionality of iTunes or Photos. And why even run Linux in a VM? Why not boot it? Why not sell MBP and just buy a Lenovo? Anyway, your whole post is silly.

geophile 11y ago
Not a troll. I don't know what I'd use instead, I gave up Linux-only years ago, and now use a Linux VM for development, Mac for everything else. Also, networking through the Mac is still simpler, at least for now. I know that Linux has some media apps, but I use them so little that I really can't compare. However, my sense is that Linux apps get better over time, and Apple apps are definitely getting worse. If current trends continue, the lines will cross.
Fritsdehacker 11y ago
I like digikam. It mirrors the internal photo albums with directories on the disk, so if you want tot browse tour photo's directly, you can still find them easily. Things like labels, comments and ratings are all stored in a little database file. You can view by album, but also by date or use custom filters.

aagha 11y ago

Tried Android?

geophile 11y ago
Yes. Switched to iPhone. I like the access to the filesystem, available on some Android phones, but the iPhone is a superior product in my opinion. The two main advantages are 1) not having to care about which kind of memory an app is sitting in, and 2) voice control. I also find the iPhone less buggy overall, but I haven't used Android in about a year.