iTunes Blues

[Hardbopjazz]

Today Apple pushed out a new release of iTunes to support the OS for the iPhone 7. I went and installed the new release. It has a different look to it. 

 

[Scott Dolan]

Is it functional? 

[psu_13]

It seems to work mostly like before. They just changed some of the layouts so everything is a lot bigger. Especially in Apple Music.

[Hardbopjazz]

11 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

Is it functional? 

I like it. It is functional to me. 

[fasstrack]

I just got a 1 1/2 pound laptop and soon will have a CD-DVD Rom drive. I'll be able to burn any CD I own or order onto the hard drive and listen to it anywhere.

No use for itunes here, and if it's one of that prick Steve Jobs's offerings, like Bush the Elder 'I say it tastes like broccoli, and I say the hell with it'...

[rostasi]

So what will you be using as your player to listen to your music?

[fasstrack]

1 hour ago, rostasi said:

So what will you be using as your player to listen to your music?

The laptop...

[rostasi]

So, each time you want to hear a song,
you'll be clicking on a file to hear it?

[fasstrack]

5 hours ago, rostasi said:

So, each time you want to hear a song,
you'll be clicking on a file to hear it?

Sure. Why not? Patience is a virtue---and one I sorely need to learn.

And I believe you can 'select all' to play an entire CD you've burned, plus 'create playlists' and libraries. It's quite versatile, actually...

Edited September 22, 2016 by fasstrack

[rostasi]

Wow! OK, I did not know that. It's almost 2017,
and there are still PCs sold without any audio
player software included. I still don't know how
playlists and libraries are created without it,
but I'm assuming you're using spreadsheets
of some kind. Anyway, surprises abound!

[fasstrack]

No spreadsheets. I ain't that smart, patient or involved. The heavy lifting is pretty much done for you by the program(s).

 

'They say it's idiot-proof, but I think I found a way to beat it'.

---Trumpet player John Eckert

 

[Scott Dolan]

I don't think you understand how this works, Joel. You have to have an audio program to rip and play your music. It's not just "the laptop" that will be doing it. 

I also don't get the extreme hatred for iTunes. For ripping and audio playback, it's just as solid as anything else on the market. 

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I hate iTunes (and Apple generally), not because I don't think their stuff's any good, but because iTunes, with my iPod the only bit of Apple I come into contact with, in order to make themselves seem different from everyone else and, thus, be easily identifiable, adopt an anti-human policy.

For example - you ask ANYONE in the world, speaking any language you like, if they really want to do something they've said they want to do, they'll respond 'YES' in whatever language. Apple doesn't believe in yes. If you wanna delete something, you have to press D.

It's not a big thing, but what it means is absolutely HUGE.

And that's not the only thing. So much of the programme is deliberately counter-intuitive it's almost alien. And I REFUSE TO EVER GET USED TO IT.

MG

[fasstrack]

,,,And if, heaven forbid, you need support you will likely get a snotnosed prima donna infant terrible on the other end of the line.

That's the experience I had when I owned my lone Mac. Between that and my already alluded to disdain for the late Mr. Jobs and the horse he road in on are the reasons why (I never say never) it's highly unlikely I'd purchase any Apple product again...

Edited September 22, 2016 by fasstrack

[JSngry]

So...what software will you be using to organize and play your music? It will have a name besides "the PC".

[rostasi]

Yeah, it was this that was (and still is) confusing me about Joel's statements,
but I haven't had to deal with all the excessiveness of a PC since the last century
that I'm assuming that apparently there are very few basic things that come with
them now and so I'm believing that Joel really doesn't have any audio software
and that he's just gonna play his tunes by clicking on individual files. Maybe?

I have no idea what MG is talking about.
A computer is not going to spontaneously ask you
if you want to delete something and therefore you
say (or press) "yes." You have to want to do this for
some reason and so you press your "delete" key.
What's extra great about that simple act is that
you can even have options or variations on that
"delete" if you choose.

As for Apple support, every year for many, many years,
Consumer Report's annual rating of these companies
that produce computers has always rated Apple support
with their highest ratings - always the highest you can get - 
based on their annual survey of customers. Apple have their
problems, but it appears that "support" is something that
many agree is fantastic.

[Scott Dolan]

PC's still come bundled with a ton of shit. But I do agree with everything you have said, rostasi. This conversation is seemingly devolving into a couple of old cats yelling "get off my lawn!", only they have no idea if anyone is even ON their lawn, or if they even have a lawn. 

Look, I'm certainly not a huge fan of iTunes, but these grievances seem almost made up out of thin air. 

[fasstrack]

3 hours ago, rostasi said:

Yeah, it was this that was (and still is) confusing me about Joel's statements,
but I haven't had to deal with all the excessiveness of a PC since the last century
that I'm assuming that apparently there are very few basic things that come with
them now and so I'm believing that Joel really doesn't have any audio software
and that he's just gonna play his tunes by clicking on individual files. Maybe?

I have no idea what MG is talking about.
A computer is not going to spontaneously ask you
if you want to delete something and therefore you
say (or press) "yes." You have to want to do this for
some reason and so you press your "delete" key.
What's extra great about that simple act is that
you can even have options or variations on that
"delete" if you choose.

As for Apple support, every year for many, many years,
Consumer Report's annual rating of these companies
that produce computers has always rated Apple support
with their highest ratings - always the highest you can get - 
based on their annual survey of customers. Apple have their
problems, but it appears that "support" is something that
many agree is fantastic.

Yes, click on files. Nothing confusing about that.

My new laptop is driving me crackers, though (well more crackers than I already was). Among many other anomalies and crazy-making design glitches I wont bore you with, now it won't let me set Windows Media as my default player, instead I have to use a piece of s&&t called Groove Music that wouldn't play a file a friend emailed and won't let me listen to KCR without a whole goddamn rigmarole. Grrrrr.

Re Apple support: I can only speak from my own experience, and I hated everything about dealing with them...    

3 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

PC's still come bundled with a ton of shit. But I do agree with everything you have said, rostasi. This conversation is seemingly devolving into a couple of old cats yelling "get off my lawn!", only they have no idea if anyone is even ON their lawn, or if they even have a lawn. 

Look, I'm certainly not a huge fan of iTunes, but these grievances seem almost made up out of thin air. 

? Which 'old cats'? What lawn?

[Scott Dolan]

If all you have to do is "click on files", then why do you need to set Windows Media player as your default player?!

Pretty hilarious how you spent so much energy disparaging Apple, yet are having curse-worthy problems with your shiny new laptop that I never experience when using my iTunes library. Perhaps it has been user error the entire time. Ever stop to consider that? 

[JSngry]

I'm pretty anti-Apple myself, just because, but I do think that people who don't like to "get under the hood" so to speak are usually better served by Apple products.

Otherwise, if you're gonna work on a Windows platform, learn how your shit works and then make it work.

[Scott Dolan]

I used to live for the "under the hood" stuff. I loved registry surfing, and overclocking all in the name of squeaking out just a bit more speed. But now machines are lightning quick without the tweaking, and Windows Vista sent me into an emotional death spiral when it came out. So I've been an Apple guy ever since. 

Though, I do have a Windows 7 machine at work and must admit it's a pretty outstanding OS. 

[JSngry]

7 is fine by me, haven't gotten into 10 yet.

My wife has an iPhone, and I'll be damned if I can work it. I know it's "just" learned behavior and muscle memory, but real-time communications is not the arena in which I want to put on training wheels, if you know what I mean.

Having said that, I might have an in for a free iPad, which I might get, just because...figure it's better to know and not need it than to need it and not know.

Kinda like learning, really learning Spanish. That is something I definitely want to do in the nearer future, and for those same reasons. Don't want to be unable to communicate due to , right? But I'm a lot more cheered about learning Spanish than I am learning Apple. But that's just me.

[Scott Dolan]

A buddy of mine who works in IT for a living says that Windows 10 is by far the best OS they've ever built. I'll take his word for it, but I'm never going back. 

As for the iPad, you should definitely give it a try. I have gotten to the point where 99% of all "computing" I do is done on an iPad. The only thing I really use my iMac for is for my music catalog. 

 

[JSngry]

I've spent the last 2-3 months working essentially phone-only (Android, of course), kind of a forced-necessity type thing, just to get the feel of that. It's good medicine, but it tastes bad!

One thing I think we all need to realize is that the only way that any of this telecommunications stuff goes backwards is if electricity of any kind becomes wholly extinct. Until then, "evolve or die" might be a bit strong in the short term, but in terms of the long game...that's about the size of it.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

5 hours ago, rostasi said:

I have no idea what MG is talking about.
A computer is not going to spontaneously ask you
if you want to delete something and therefore you
say (or press) "yes." You have to want to do this for
some reason and so you press your "delete" key.
What's extra great about that simple act is that
you can even have options or variations on that
"delete" if you choose.

 

If you want to delete an album from iTunes, you click it to select it, press your delete button then, like Windows or most other stuff, it'll ask if you do want to delete the songs (no asshole, I've selected an album, don't wanna delete songs but the whole shebang  and there are no songs, just a fifty minute sermon ). THEN you can't say yes or no, but you have to say delete.

Sorry, that's not the way people in every culture respond to such a question. In other software they expect, rationally, that you'll say yes or no.

MG