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iTunes *still* needs work
This is a follow-up to my previous complaints about the iTunes software.
Basically, they keep hitting many marks and missing other opportunities.
1. A recent release added cute little arrows next to the songs in your library bringing you to the album on the iTunes Music Store. That's great and all, but how about propagating that data back to iTunes so we can do somethign useful with it. How about a column in the UI for the # of downloads in the iTunes Music Store? Then, we can make smart playlists based on the songs popularity. Also, they added the icon to bring you to the store and an option to turn it off. Unfortunately, it isn't in the right-click menu, so once you disable the arrow icon (it *seriously* clutters the UI so I turned it off) you lose the functionality completely. Besides, why would we want to buy a song we already own? (A: we don't, but they can try to sell us related content)
2. AirTunes Client App; Where is it? An obvious extension of the AirTunes streamign solution is to deliver an airtunes app for Pc's/Mac's. This way, iTunes can drive a dorm-wide house-party for free. (A: why make it, it'll undermine sales of their oddball Airport Express device) Don't get me wrong, I think it's a briliiant product; especially to get dorm kiddies with wired internet to kick back on the futon. Without a way to remotely change songs, though, I don't see the utility. Maybe there is a hidden RF remote receiver in the Express, that can feed the commands back to the the serving iTunes machine. Also likely is a future iPod that can stream to one of these devices, or at the very least (and perhaps more likely), act as a wireles remote with a screen for your desktop's collection. Streaming barely-compressed audio over 802.11g would suck the batteries too fast on the iPod.
3. Maintaining my iPod collection still sucks. I complained about this before, but it still hasn't improved. All I want is my iPod to contain all of the music that meets a certain criteria (In my case, I want all songs with a certain rating or higher, and all albums that I consider critical to have at all times)
For the rest of the space, I want a random selection of *albums* (whole albums, not random tracks). There should be an easy way to re-shuffle these random songs. I also want a way to flag an album for synchronization next time. ( A dock with a hotsync button, like the Palm Pilot would be pefect. Merely docking it could simply charge it up, but hitting that sync button will get you all the ones you flagged for listening and a random selection of other tracks) On the iPod device, there would be a new view, "my random albums", which lists the albums that were randomly added to the iPod. By rating a song highly while listening on the iPod, it will stay on the iPod since the iPod keeps all my highly rated songs above any random album of the day.
Basically, they keep hitting many marks and missing other opportunities.
1. A recent release added cute little arrows next to the songs in your library bringing you to the album on the iTunes Music Store. That's great and all, but how about propagating that data back to iTunes so we can do somethign useful with it. How about a column in the UI for the # of downloads in the iTunes Music Store? Then, we can make smart playlists based on the songs popularity. Also, they added the icon to bring you to the store and an option to turn it off. Unfortunately, it isn't in the right-click menu, so once you disable the arrow icon (it *seriously* clutters the UI so I turned it off) you lose the functionality completely. Besides, why would we want to buy a song we already own? (A: we don't, but they can try to sell us related content)
2. AirTunes Client App; Where is it? An obvious extension of the AirTunes streamign solution is to deliver an airtunes app for Pc's/Mac's. This way, iTunes can drive a dorm-wide house-party for free. (A: why make it, it'll undermine sales of their oddball Airport Express device) Don't get me wrong, I think it's a briliiant product; especially to get dorm kiddies with wired internet to kick back on the futon. Without a way to remotely change songs, though, I don't see the utility. Maybe there is a hidden RF remote receiver in the Express, that can feed the commands back to the the serving iTunes machine. Also likely is a future iPod that can stream to one of these devices, or at the very least (and perhaps more likely), act as a wireles remote with a screen for your desktop's collection. Streaming barely-compressed audio over 802.11g would suck the batteries too fast on the iPod.
3. Maintaining my iPod collection still sucks. I complained about this before, but it still hasn't improved. All I want is my iPod to contain all of the music that meets a certain criteria (In my case, I want all songs with a certain rating or higher, and all albums that I consider critical to have at all times)
For the rest of the space, I want a random selection of *albums* (whole albums, not random tracks). There should be an easy way to re-shuffle these random songs. I also want a way to flag an album for synchronization next time. ( A dock with a hotsync button, like the Palm Pilot would be pefect. Merely docking it could simply charge it up, but hitting that sync button will get you all the ones you flagged for listening and a random selection of other tracks) On the iPod device, there would be a new view, "my random albums", which lists the albums that were randomly added to the iPod. By rating a song highly while listening on the iPod, it will stay on the iPod since the iPod keeps all my highly rated songs above any random album of the day.
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