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Features: • not iTunes You know, iTunes wasn’t so bad before they convoluted the UI/UX to shit...looking at the music app on iOS 5-6 vs iOS 10-11 is like compa

Features: • not iTunes You know, iTunes wasn’t so bad before they convoluted the UI/UX to shit...looking at the music app on iOS 5-6 vs iOS 10-11 is like comparing a walkway to a labyrinth. The amount of steps taken backwards in Apple’s UI / UX is staggering. Even the simple replacement of the Spotlight bar from an unobtrusive widget in the top right corner to a giant box in the middle of the screen, directly covering your content.

briga 9y ago
Exactly, the problem is that they kept fixing things that weren't broken and making random illogical UI changes until the program got so over-engineered and bloated that it was a chore to use. The program worked fine, but I guess the team of engineers wanted to keep their jobs so they kept including these unnecessary "fixes".
- NegativeLatency 9y ago
  And pushing you done the path of buying stuff from the iTunes Store. The UI funnels you into the store by default, not to your media collection.
lbotos 9y ago
You can drag it and move it wherever you want. I usually put mine in the top 2/3rds of my screen as I'm a habitual <cmd>+space <do math in spotlight>
- tbodt 9y ago
  Fun fact: if you press and hold the spotlight icon in the menu bar, the spotlight window is reset to its default position.
  - adamcharnock 9y ago
    Mind. Blown. Thank you both!
  - hungerstrike 9y ago
    I never understood why Apple always hides functionality beneath undiscoverable gestures. Especially on iOS where once I had a friend complain that they cannot see the time that a message was sent or received. I had to show them to hold and swipe so they can see the hidden column of times. I guess they don’t want to clutter up at the interface with things like labels and options.
    - rovr138 9y ago
      Of course, it would make it cluttered which would make finding the most used information harder. But sometimes a quick look at the manual is all that's needed, > Tip: To see what time a message was sent or received, drag a bubble to the left. https://help.apple.com/iphone/11/#/iph82fb73ba3 https://help.apple.com/iphone/11/#/iph82fb73ba3
      - always_good 9y ago
        You can't add much more indirection than making someone credentialize in a manual to do something as trivial as showing timestamps. Better hope you catch that one-liner tip and then remember it when you're back in the app at some other point in time. I'd rather every app just have a hamburger menu with a menagerie of settings so that those settings can exist even if they're too hard to design for. Instead designers write blog posts that shame everyone for making those menus in the first place. Hidden gestures is the worst UX of all. For the same reason Siri will never replace a CLI -- completely probabilistic, unknown interface.
        rovr138 9y ago
        But can you talk about CLI and criticize looking in manuals and one liners you have to remember? I believe it's smarter knowing how to find things and where. That's what I'm trying to show. That it is documented and where. Maybe someone could benefit from the link. I don't have any pull with Apple to get them to change. I can just read the manual and figure out how things work.
    - imglorp 9y ago
  - saagarjha 9y ago
    If you have a Force Touch trackpad, you'll feel a notch when dragging the window around, which will you you align it with the default position.
    - rcthompson 9y ago
      Does this feature exist for any other window alignment tasks?
      - saagarjha 9y ago
        Not that I'm aware of. Unfortunately this feature seems to be a little underutilized throughout macOS.
- tonyedgecombe 9y ago
  Well, you learn something new every day.
lachenmayer 9y ago
Some really nice folks are trying to figure out the whole "not iTunes" issue - it's called hyperamp: https://github.com/hypermodules/hyperamp https://github.com/hypermodules/hyperamp
- jitl 9y ago
  > electron HN hates election apps :-/
  - saagarjha 9y ago
    For good reason: for apps trying to be more resource efficient or lightweight than iTunes, Electron is the wrong way to go.
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    Electron apps should stay in the browser as the Web apps they are.
    - roryisok 9y ago
      And if the browser provided unrestricted file access they probably would. But we'd all be in trouble
      - pjmlp 9y ago
        All apps, even native ones should be forbidden to have unrestricted file access. Just because something runs under my id, doesn't mean I want it to read everything I have in $HOME without me knowing about it, and possibly sharing it with the world. On my systems, every sandbox option I can enable is turned on.
        roryisok 9y ago
        My point was the browser has no file access. Most electron apps work with the filesystem in some way, and in the browser it's not possible to, for instance, give a web app access to a folder on the desktop
AceJohnny2 9y ago
I, and everyone I know, detest iTunes. It has become the definition of feature creep, as it evolved from being a music manager/player for iPod to being the full "everything iPhone" manager, including backups and system updates.
shyn3 9y ago
iTunes never worked. It's why applications like Ephpod and others were developed. It's terrible, and every UI / UX update makes it more so.
- NegativeLatency 9y ago
  It worked for me pretty well before they hit the double digit version numbers. Back when the icon was green/blue
  - lostgame 9y ago
    Okay, to be clear, this is what I mean by 'before they ruined it.' I mean, I'm talking green icon.
starsinspace 9y ago
Yup, in iOS 10 they ruined the Music app, in iOS 11 they ruined the Podcast app... I wonder which one's next...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
b_f 9y ago
Yesterday I finally accidentally discovered where they hid the "shuffle" and "repeat" toggles on the iOS 10 music app.
KMag 9y ago
Speaking of terrible UX, I'm not sure what ITunes hopes to achieve by repeatedly asking me to log in while just playing some music. If I'm not using any feature that requires login, and I have literally clicked "cancel" 5 times at the login prompt since starting up iTunes a few days ago, it's just silly to keep asking me to log in.

briga 9y ago

Exactly, the problem is that they kept fixing things that weren't broken and making random illogical UI changes until the program got so over-engineered and bloated that it was a chore to use. The program worked fine, but I guess the team of engineers wanted to keep their jobs so they kept including these unnecessary "fixes".

NegativeLatency 9y ago
And pushing you done the path of buying stuff from the iTunes Store. The UI funnels you into the store by default, not to your media collection.

lbotos 9y ago

You can drag it and move it wherever you want. I usually put mine in the top 2/3rds of my screen as I'm a habitual <cmd>+space <do math in spotlight>

tbodt 9y ago
Fun fact: if you press and hold the spotlight icon in the menu bar, the spotlight window is reset to its default position.
- adamcharnock 9y ago
  Mind. Blown. Thank you both!
- hungerstrike 9y ago
  I never understood why Apple always hides functionality beneath undiscoverable gestures. Especially on iOS where once I had a friend complain that they cannot see the time that a message was sent or received. I had to show them to hold and swipe so they can see the hidden column of times. I guess they don’t want to clutter up at the interface with things like labels and options.
  - rovr138 9y ago
    Of course, it would make it cluttered which would make finding the most used information harder. But sometimes a quick look at the manual is all that's needed, > Tip: To see what time a message was sent or received, drag a bubble to the left. https://help.apple.com/iphone/11/#/iph82fb73ba3 https://help.apple.com/iphone/11/#/iph82fb73ba3
    - always_good 9y ago
      You can't add much more indirection than making someone credentialize in a manual to do something as trivial as showing timestamps. Better hope you catch that one-liner tip and then remember it when you're back in the app at some other point in time. I'd rather every app just have a hamburger menu with a menagerie of settings so that those settings can exist even if they're too hard to design for. Instead designers write blog posts that shame everyone for making those menus in the first place. Hidden gestures is the worst UX of all. For the same reason Siri will never replace a CLI -- completely probabilistic, unknown interface.
      - rovr138 9y ago
        But can you talk about CLI and criticize looking in manuals and one liners you have to remember? I believe it's smarter knowing how to find things and where. That's what I'm trying to show. That it is documented and where. Maybe someone could benefit from the link. I don't have any pull with Apple to get them to change. I can just read the manual and figure out how things work.
  - imglorp 9y ago
- saagarjha 9y ago
  If you have a Force Touch trackpad, you'll feel a notch when dragging the window around, which will you you align it with the default position.
  - rcthompson 9y ago
    Does this feature exist for any other window alignment tasks?
    - saagarjha 9y ago
      Not that I'm aware of. Unfortunately this feature seems to be a little underutilized throughout macOS.
tonyedgecombe 9y ago
Well, you learn something new every day.

lachenmayer 9y ago

Some really nice folks are trying to figure out the whole "not iTunes" issue - it's called hyperamp: https://github.com/hypermodules/hyperamp https://github.com/hypermodules/hyperamp

jitl 9y ago
> electron HN hates election apps :-/
- saagarjha 9y ago
  For good reason: for apps trying to be more resource efficient or lightweight than iTunes, Electron is the wrong way to go.
- pjmlp 9y ago
  Electron apps should stay in the browser as the Web apps they are.
  - roryisok 9y ago
    And if the browser provided unrestricted file access they probably would. But we'd all be in trouble
    - pjmlp 9y ago
      All apps, even native ones should be forbidden to have unrestricted file access. Just because something runs under my id, doesn't mean I want it to read everything I have in $HOME without me knowing about it, and possibly sharing it with the world. On my systems, every sandbox option I can enable is turned on.
      - roryisok 9y ago
        My point was the browser has no file access. Most electron apps work with the filesystem in some way, and in the browser it's not possible to, for instance, give a web app access to a folder on the desktop

AceJohnny2 9y ago

I, and everyone I know, detest iTunes. It has become the definition of feature creep, as it evolved from being a music manager/player for iPod to being the full "everything iPhone" manager, including backups and system updates.

shyn3 9y ago

iTunes never worked. It's why applications like Ephpod and others were developed. It's terrible, and every UI / UX update makes it more so.

NegativeLatency 9y ago
It worked for me pretty well before they hit the double digit version numbers. Back when the icon was green/blue
- lostgame 9y ago
  Okay, to be clear, this is what I mean by 'before they ruined it.' I mean, I'm talking green icon.

starsinspace 9y ago

Yup, in iOS 10 they ruined the Music app, in iOS 11 they ruined the Podcast app... I wonder which one's next...

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

b_f 9y ago

Yesterday I finally accidentally discovered where they hid the "shuffle" and "repeat" toggles on the iOS 10 music app.

KMag 9y ago

Speaking of terrible UX, I'm not sure what ITunes hopes to achieve by repeatedly asking me to log in while just playing some music. If I'm not using any feature that requires login, and I have literally clicked "cancel" 5 times at the login prompt since starting up iTunes a few days ago, it's just silly to keep asking me to log in.