9 ms·

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

28 points by elblanco 16y ago

blahedo 16y ago
Has Apple ever followed the HIG when they didn't feel like it? It's a brilliant idea, coordinating UI across disparate apps from multiple companies, but I seem to recall that going all the way back to the 80s Apple has pretty freely disregarded the guidelines when they thought they had a better idea. (And at least some of the time, the "better idea" got worked into the next round of HIG, so maybe that's ok?)
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- mcav 16y ago
  It's OK by me as long as Apple continues to let third-party developers do the same.
  - lukifer 16y ago
    This is fine for Mac apps, but Apple can kill iOS apps dead for this reason, while letting their own deviations slip through unimpeded. In general, though, I think interface guidelines are like the rules of grammar: when you understand them well enough, you understand when it's okay to break them. Whether the change to the three upper-left buttons falls into this category is somewhat subjective.
ericz 16y ago
Personally, I would feel very uncomfortable having one application with vertical close/minimize buttons while others are horizontal. I wouldn't expect the introduction of this level of inconsistency from an Apple product.
- Gibbon 16y ago
  You can set it back to horizontal if you want: defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -1
  - someone_here 16y ago
    I'm surprised you have to use the command line to change such an option in an Apple product.
    - bruceboughton 16y ago
      Yes, it should definitely be in the Preferences dialog! I'm not that impressed with iTunes 10.. the grey icons are a disaster for quickly finding things; it refuses to play a TV Show I downloaded yesterday from ITMS (not authorized); and Ping is lame.
      - Timothee 16y ago
        Yes, it should definitely be in the Preferences dialog! I'm not quite sure if it's sarcasm or not. Honestly my first thought when I saw the buttons like this was "WTF is this?!". However, this should not be an application preference! One thing that Apple does (that every company should do) is making choices for the users. Sometimes they're wrong (this one looks dubious to me) but adding settings is the wrong approach to it. I recently started to use a Windows PC (granted it's XP) again and the number of preferences (e.g. system, Outlook) available is completely insane.
        bruceboughton 16y ago
        Sorry, that was indeed sarcasm. What's the sarcasm punctuation mark again?
      - epochwolf 16y ago
        You want secrets.prefpane :) (if you are a mac) Edit: http://secrets.blacktree.com/ http://secrets.blacktree.com/
thought_alarm 16y ago
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?
- sprout 16y ago
  Because iTunes is a bloated moneymaking machine that has had very little thought put into UX since the store took off?
  - thought_alarm 16y ago
    We get it. You don't understand iTunes. I have a saying: Never ask a computer geek for music advice. They'll always give you a stupid answer.
kaffeinecoma 16y ago
Since upgrading to 10, all my music sounds flat and tinny. I have an audio cable running from my Mac Pro into my stereo. If I play a song via iTunes, it sounds like crap. If I plug the cable into my iPhone and play the same song, it sounds fine. Anyone else experiencing this?
- astrange 16y ago
  Check the equalizer setting?
  - matthew-wegner 16y ago
    Check Preferences -> Playback -> Sound Enhancer, too.
Jkeg 16y ago
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 enough to accidentally stop the song/podcast, you have to re-navigate to the Music section and manually restart the file and navigate to the right portion, only if you happen to know where that is. * Yes I know you can right click on the song area and pause there. This is about UI design, not whether or not I can figure out how to pause a song.
- thought_alarm 16y ago
  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 "pauses" and the button changes to a Play button. - Now push the Play button. What happens? Does it resume the previous playlist? Or does it start playing the currently visible playlist? Anyway, I use the Play/Pause button on my keyboard.
  - Jkeg 16y ago
    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.
    - 16y ago
naner 16y ago
In the last picture what is the "checkbox" column for?
- jasonlotito 16y ago
  Syncing. Checkbox marks items you want to sync.
J3L2404 16y ago
In regards to the close/min/max buttons... No, 'abomination' is not too strong a word.
peng 16y ago
The upscaled UI elements suggest a touch-based OS X in the near future. Anyone else think so?
- Perceval 16y ago
  There's evidence that Apple is considering it: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/08/23/apple_filing_shows_touch_screen_imac_with_adjustable_stand.html http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/08/23/apple_filing_s...
bep 16y ago
I don't like that ars usually don't test in Windows. At least for the photoshop and itunes articules I have read.

28 points by elblanco 16y ago

Has Apple ever followed the HIG when they didn't feel like it? It's a brilliant idea, coordinating UI across disparate apps from multiple companies, but I seem to recall that going all the way back to the 80s Apple has pretty freely disregarded the guidelines when they thought they had a better idea. (And at least some of the time, the "better idea" got worked into the next round of HIG, so maybe that's ok?)

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
mcav 16y ago
It's OK by me as long as Apple continues to let third-party developers do the same.
- lukifer 16y ago
  This is fine for Mac apps, but Apple can kill iOS apps dead for this reason, while letting their own deviations slip through unimpeded. In general, though, I think interface guidelines are like the rules of grammar: when you understand them well enough, you understand when it's okay to break them. Whether the change to the three upper-left buttons falls into this category is somewhat subjective.

ericz 16y ago

Personally, I would feel very uncomfortable having one application with vertical close/minimize buttons while others are horizontal. I wouldn't expect the introduction of this level of inconsistency from an Apple product.

Gibbon 16y ago
You can set it back to horizontal if you want: defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -1
- someone_here 16y ago
  I'm surprised you have to use the command line to change such an option in an Apple product.
  - bruceboughton 16y ago
    Yes, it should definitely be in the Preferences dialog! I'm not that impressed with iTunes 10.. the grey icons are a disaster for quickly finding things; it refuses to play a TV Show I downloaded yesterday from ITMS (not authorized); and Ping is lame.
    - Timothee 16y ago
      Yes, it should definitely be in the Preferences dialog! I'm not quite sure if it's sarcasm or not. Honestly my first thought when I saw the buttons like this was "WTF is this?!". However, this should not be an application preference! One thing that Apple does (that every company should do) is making choices for the users. Sometimes they're wrong (this one looks dubious to me) but adding settings is the wrong approach to it. I recently started to use a Windows PC (granted it's XP) again and the number of preferences (e.g. system, Outlook) available is completely insane.
      - bruceboughton 16y ago
        Sorry, that was indeed sarcasm. What's the sarcasm punctuation mark again?
    - epochwolf 16y ago
      You want secrets.prefpane :) (if you are a mac) Edit: http://secrets.blacktree.com/ http://secrets.blacktree.com/

thought_alarm 16y ago

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?

sprout 16y ago
Because iTunes is a bloated moneymaking machine that has had very little thought put into UX since the store took off?
- thought_alarm 16y ago
  We get it. You don't understand iTunes. I have a saying: Never ask a computer geek for music advice. They'll always give you a stupid answer.

kaffeinecoma 16y ago

Since upgrading to 10, all my music sounds flat and tinny. I have an audio cable running from my Mac Pro into my stereo. If I play a song via iTunes, it sounds like crap. If I plug the cable into my iPhone and play the same song, it sounds fine. Anyone else experiencing this?

astrange 16y ago
Check the equalizer setting?
- matthew-wegner 16y ago
  Check Preferences -> Playback -> Sound Enhancer, too.

Jkeg 16y ago

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 enough to accidentally stop the song/podcast, you have to re-navigate to the Music section and manually restart the file and navigate to the right portion, only if you happen to know where that is. * Yes I know you can right click on the song area and pause there. This is about UI design, not whether or not I can figure out how to pause a song.

thought_alarm 16y ago
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 "pauses" and the button changes to a Play button. - Now push the Play button. What happens? Does it resume the previous playlist? Or does it start playing the currently visible playlist? Anyway, I use the Play/Pause button on my keyboard.
- Jkeg 16y ago
  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.
  - 16y ago

naner 16y ago

In the last picture what is the "checkbox" column for?

jasonlotito 16y ago
Syncing. Checkbox marks items you want to sync.

J3L2404 16y ago

In regards to the close/min/max buttons... No, 'abomination' is not too strong a word.

peng 16y ago

The upscaled UI elements suggest a touch-based OS X in the near future. Anyone else think so?

Perceval 16y ago
There's evidence that Apple is considering it: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/08/23/apple_filing_shows_touch_screen_imac_with_adjustable_stand.html http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/08/23/apple_filing_s...

bep 16y ago

I don't like that ars usually don't test in Windows. At least for the photoshop and itunes articules I have read.