Metropol

I'm glad you said that Sput. Not marvelous on my PC but a pleasure on the Mac.

Which is just as well given that it's your only decent choice if you're on a mac

Actaully I can undersatnd the attraction of iTunes for mac users. If you use a Mac and can convince yourself to think like iTunes you are going to have a rather nice time. But I can't.

I dislike a lot of aspects about the PC version of iTunes. I dislike the fact it is about 60MB to download. I dislike how it seems to update every other day. I dislike how it tries to install Safari on my computer at every opportunity. I dislike how it tries to convert my entire audio folder to AAC whenever it gets the chance. I dislike the bizarre "iTunes Music" folder it dumps within My Music. I dislike the fact that the MP3 encoder built in to it is intentionally crippled, and the knock on effect this has for the rest of digital music. I dislike the illogical way you have to fiddle around in CD buring tools of all places just to convince iTunes to convert a file from one format to another. I dislike the weird nonstandard skin. I dislike the fact that they try and lock out other audio sources by making it annoying to add non-iTunes sourced music to the libary. I dislike the way it feels like a vaguely souped up version of QuickTime which is inherently beastly. I dislike how it can't play MP3 files gaplessly. I dislike the fact that in its docked version it's practically unusable. I dislike the fact that it doesn't interact with ANY Windows hotkeys. And most of all i dislike the fact they've chosen a DRM format that locks your music into iTunes.

But if it works for you who I am to complain!

You're wrong, cdd.

I installed iTunes on a PC once, just because I had been with Winamp for so many years I felt I should at least assess what was considered the top of the competition.

What a vile experience. I certainly can't imagine why anyone would use it as a media player/library of choice, without the burden of an iPod. I can't vouch for the Mac version, but would assume it doesn't feel quite so awkward there.

I'm always a little bit tainted because, as with the rest of the Apple philosophy, iTunes is not a playground for people who like to tweak, optimise, or extend. That will work for most, but never for me.

And their Genius nonsense particularly grates with me because I've been a raging last.fm-evangelist for a good five years, and after seeing how it does collaborative filtering so right, Apple have got it so painfully wrong.

Sput wrote:You're wrong, cdd.

He's right. Or at least, I agree, so am also wrong.

iTunes is the only hesitation I have about getting an iPod/Phone. Having said that, if I had either of those devices I would get over my issues - but until that time I wouldn't touch iTunes with a 10 foot pole.

I have iTunes installed on my PC for one single purpose, I use its very nice "keep my music folder oraganised" function to rename rearrange my files after i've downloaded a load of albums.

Other than that, it lies dormant, and with as many services disabled as I can do.

It's horrible though, its slow, its buggy, it's ugly and dunno about anyone else but since the latest version it appears black and pink until you minimise and restore it at which point i gets back its proper look.

It can't play things gasplessly however, its CD ripping (at least last time i used it) is shockingly slow and tedious and the whole thing is just bloat. I mean WHY does it take 40 mins to install when winamp takes 40 seconds?

Utter shite.

What's this about a DRM format that locks you into iTunes? That you download? If so, not for much longer. Certainly nothing it's generated for me has been DRMd and everything I've ripped has gone to mp3 as soon as I've set it in the preferences.

40 minutes to install? Wow.

Sput wrote:What's this about a DRM format that locks you into iTunes? That you download? If so, not for much longer. Certainly nothing it's generated for me has been DRMd and everything I've ripped has gone to mp3 as soon as I've set it in the preferences.

Let it go Sput. Naewan wants yer shite iTunes, eh?

dunno what he's going on about there, wasn't it WMP7 that had "add drm" on by default?

but the program is a slow bloated mess. I mean its essentially a skin for quicktime, and we know how lovely quicktime for windows is.

Even I'm getting distracted and I know iTunes for Windows is a pair of big old pants.

OH alright then, it's shit. You got me. I'm not going to stop using it on the PC though, because i still quite like it