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[WanderingWind]

I'm an iOS user and have been for a long time. Fan as I am, even I can't defend iOS or iTunes at this point. iOS's UI is severely outdated. It was fine when most people had a handful of apps to content with. Most folks within the iOS ecosystem have dozens to hundreds of apps. No matter how tightly you organize it, the base forced grid system creates a mess. And more and more undeletable garbage apps get added every update.

iTunes is complete garbage now, too. The store takes minutes to load, it's overly convoluted to do simple things like making playlists, syncing only specific things to your phone/iPad and the UI is a complete mess. Some things are icons, some are text links, the store is a text link that blends in with local content, the music and playlists are inexplicable separated, connect is useless garbage....it's just a holy mess. It needs a complete, from the ground up, overhaul.

And the music app on the phone is ridiculous. Opening it takes you to this weird-ass semi-social media/store amalgam instead of to, you know, your fucking music. There are too many steps to get to say, a playlist of music. It should be immediately available from the initial splash screen. There is a separate iTunes store app. Why try to mix the two, to the detriment of both? And to the extreme detriment to the end user? Gah!

 

[Kinitari]

Safari on Mac is a great web browser and more people should give it a chance. In particular, if you're using a laptop Safari will give you MUCH improved battery life over Chrome.

Safari's one of the things they're doing well with in both OSX and iOS.

You guys don't understand my pain.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

Does it matter if they keep buying new iPhones?

 

[dsp]

I was a diehard apple fanboy for years, but that's slowly changing. The iphone 4 was my last iphone before switching to android and while I love my MacBook pro, it seems like they don't really care about their desktop stuff as of late.

The reasons I was attracted to the apple ecosystem were the pro apps (logic, Final Cut) and I liked the OS allowing a lot more freedom than windows as far as DRM goes. For example running an older version of osx off an external hard drive.

Honestly, if a linux distro were able to take apples place in the pc market, I'd use that instead.

It'll never happen. A lack of top applications and games will continue to see to that, while Linux users will just recommend subpar solutions with a fuck you attitude. It's a damn shame, too, 'cause it's all I really want.

 

[anonymous_abc]

It's also telling that many of us just want more stability and less bugs in the next iOSx update, and have wanted this for a couple of years now...

 

[Game Guru]

Hey, I've been having issues with iTunes on PC lately, so do any of you have advice on a program similar to iTunes that can both play music and download podcasts?

 

[zeshakag]

As someone who is a big fan of the iPhone, the Apple discussion forums are filled with 50-100 page long threads of people being inconvenienced by a bug, bad design decision, or hardware malfunction being completely ignored.

Like fuck I can't even lock in landscape mode. Only portrait mode can be locked in for some reason.

 

[SMOK3Y]

Then you aren't a PC user.

iTunes on Mac is alright. iTunes on PC is a giant NOPE, and yet iOS users are forced into it.

What i dont like about apple is with a galaxy i can hook it up to any PC it'll work to transfer whatever i want. for iPhone it needs iTunes....

 

[Stat Flow]

iOS is getting stale. The fresh coat of paint was nice but that was two OSes ago.

I'm really thinking/hoping that iOS 10 and the iPhone 7's new hardware are gonna bring some fresh innovations.

I've only been on OS X for 2 years now but I'm loving it. Out of the box it's nice, but there are tons of utilities that can make the experience a joy.

 

[dreamcastmaster]

When users move most of the iPhone apps to a folder named "Apple trash", you know you fucked up.

I did this myself and only later found out it was a thing. Stop giving me shitty apps for an asperational life Apple think thier users are living.

 

[Sesuadra]

I'm shocked to learn that people still snyc music to their phone from a PC. It's 2016, that shit should all be in the cloud

wait wut? flac or 24bit files in the cloud....you crazy?

Then you aren't a PC user.

iTunes on Mac is alright. iTunes on PC is a giant NOPE, and yet iOS users are forced into it.

my itunes library on my desktop windows pc is 4tb heavy and I never had a problem ._."..

about the article.
the music app on the iphone is horrible. it is useless and everything they changed since apple music in it is shit. I would do a lot of things to get the iOS8 music app back. switching between artist/genre/album was so easy and fast..

 

[MilkLizard]

I will never understand hate for iTunes. It is not sluggish, it's just not light.

iTunes runs like shit on my PC with 12GB of RAM. It's fine on my MacBook though.

The worst is that with every bigger update they promise better performance, but it still runs like shit.

 

[barit]

Yeah iTunes on PC is really bad. It's so freaking bad that I now refuse to buy Apple products ever again and dumbed my iPod Nano for a classic MP3 player. Best decision in my life

 

[Firebrand]

I will never understand hate for iTunes. It is not sluggish, it's just not light.

I've only tried it on Windows recently and it's so confusing. And the only reason I even launched it was because it's needed to do something on iPhone I can just do in the Windows explorer on other devices.

At least we don't have to deal with that Quicktime crap anymore that couldn't even do fullscreen.

 

[Owari]

Try running logic with more than one plug in without crashing on a Mac that costs sub-$2500. You can't.

 

[IrishNinja]

Then you aren't a PC user.

iTunes on Mac is alright. iTunes on PC is a giant NOPE, and yet iOS users are forced into it.

Of course you would... Itune is shit on my pc, absolute shit. And if you want to sync anything to ipod touch, you have to use itune, oh the horror.

Yep. Absolute garbage

came to post this - itunes is shithouse on PC, has been forever now. i use third party shit for my ipod and only miss out on some beats/etc radio shit im trying to find elsewhere

 

[Palette Swap]

It's also telling that many of us just want more stability and less bugs in the next iOSx update, and have wanted this for a couple of years now...

Yeah, all I'm asking for is better stability and less performance hits on older devices.
I think it's a good ecosystem because of how widely supported it is (and I like the hardware and camera) but I don't get the feeling Apple is managing the software side in the right direction, or any direction actually.

As someone who is a big fan of the iPhone, the Apple discussion forums are filled with 50-100 page long threads of people being inconvenienced by a bug, bad design decision, or hardware malfunction being completely ignored.

Like fuck I can't even lock in landscape mode. Only portrait mode can be locked in for some reason.

Every time I run into an iTunes bug and do a search, the first result is an Apple discussion thread of 2009 where no one has found a definitive fix, and that's still going on years later. That shit is infuriating.
Typically that thing where it never finishes syncing has been around forever.
(I always have a suspicion it's because I don't use iTunes very often, because iTunes is fucking awful on PC)

 

[JrBaconCheeseburger]

I did this myself and only later found out it was a thing. Stop giving me shitty apps for an asperational life Apple think thier users are living.

I like this post.

The second part of it.

 

[Pops Maellard]

I can understand where this is coming from. I almost entirely avoid iTunes because I stream most of my media on my phone. I don't have an Apple TV anymore either. Outside of the morbidly amusing disaster that is iTunes every other Apple app I've used works seamlessly across all of my devices. Calendar/iCloud stuff/messages is the biggest reason I'm so invested in the Apple ecosystem. Anecdotally, it always works.

 

[JimmyRustler]

OS updates killing your old devices is the worst. Haven't updated my iPhone and iPad for years. Want to force me to buy new devices Apple? No thanks.

 

[Dalek]

Yeah, all I'm asking for is better stability and less performance hits on older devices.
I think it's a good ecosystem because of how widely supported it is (and I like the hardware and camera) but I don't get the feeling Apple is managing the software side in the right direction, or any direction actually.


Every time I run into an iTunes bug and do a search, the first result is an Apple discussion thread of 2009 where no one has found a definitive fix, and that's still going on years later. That shit is infuriating.
Typically that thing where it never finishes syncing has been around forever.
(I always have a suspicion it's because I don't use iTunes very often, because iTunes is fucking awful on PC)

This is so true.

 

[spekkeh]

Isn't it simply a waning honeymoon period? ITunes has always been shit, these applications:

Now raise your hand if you use iCloud Mail, iCloud Drive or the default iOS Notes or Reminders apps instead of third-party options like Gmail, Dropbox, Wunderlist, Evernote and so on

are all ancient by tech standards. Jobs reality distortion bubble is starting to fade and people begin to realize they have been rabidly championing ever more unnecessary hypes.

 

[Breakage]

I've successfully managed to avoid installing iTunes for Windows for years. I just manage everything from my iPhone.
I'm surprised the application is still called "iTunes" when the software has evolved into something beyond a utility for music management.

 

[gimmmick]

It boggles my mind how I can't erase these god damn apps, they are reaching verizon bloat ware status.

Been using macs for over 10 years, and you can really see the regression of the company from a software stand point. There shouldn't be any reason why my g5 imac from 2005 runs a more stable os (OSX 10.4 Tiger) with little to no crashes then compared to the current release (10.11 El Capitan).

My macbook pro came with Snow Leopard back in 2010 was honestly the best software I have ever used. The thing ran like a champ.

 

[MilkLizard]

You can only drag and drop playlists. Don't know how long it's been like that.

Now this is simply not true. I drag and drop albums on my devices all the time.

You just have to turn that feature on.

 

[bomma_man]

Yeah if it wasn't for their build quality I'd be thinking about moving on.

iTunes and Safari are absolutely FUCKED on my 09 MBP. iTunes needs to be running on it's own, and even them it takes like five minutes to load, and regularly crashes. Safari doesn't play videos in full screen anymore and crashes every time I try to use Facebook. All I use these days is chrome and word (08 vintage) unless I desperately need to sync my phone, cos everything else is cooked.

My 4s is still goin okay, although I occasionally have to restart it to get videos working again, and certain ram heavy sites don't work at all.

All in all, I wish I had more disposable income.

Edit: maybe now that I've finished uni I can wipe my MBP and start again. Any good guides for a tech illiterate?

 

[mrklaw]

I haven't used iTunes with my iPad for years. Likewise with my new iPhone. Never going to use it unless I have to. That means I have no music on my phone because apple are idiots. So I just use google play music instead.

 

[BocoDragon]

I've successfully managed to avoid installing iTunes for Windows for years. I just manage everything from my iPhone.
I'm surprised the application is still called "iTunes" when the software has evolved into something beyond a utility for music management.

That does bug me. I guess it's just too valuable a name because it refers to both the service of selling music/movies/apps as well as the desktop client that facilitates it.

Let's put into perspective the fact that it hasn't been music-only since 2005

 

[choodi]

So, so, so much this.

iTunes has been a steaming pile of dogshit for a literal decade now. It astounds me that one of the most powerful and influential companies in the world hasn't cared enough to fix an application that sits at the heart of their entire tech ecosystem, and it astounds me moreso that they've largely been able to get away with this.

This is what I don't understand.

Why do people allow them to get away with this? Even become apologists for this shit.

 

[Jill Sandwich]

iTunes needs to be put to bed, with Apple Music for music and an iPhone/Pod manager program separate.

 

[Memento_Mori15]

Do you have to jailbreak your ipad to do that? I think I remember back in 2012 that was the case, and that was one of the reasons my first iPhone was my last.

Nope.

 

[jelly]

Copying Music to an iPod is Orwellian.

I defy even the biggest fanboy to describe the process with a straight face. Mac or PC.

It still confuses me. Haven't figured out individual songs, only artists or albums.

Microsoft is rock bottom but you know, their approach may pay off in the long run if they get any traction.

 

[Aurongel]

"ACTIVATE ICLOUD NOW TO ENABLE FIND MY IPHONE!"

Me: Seriously...?

 

[Mindwipe]

Again, don't mean to sound like I'm here to defend Apple, but what kind of El Capitan issues are you having? It's been perfect for me so far aside from an issue where it didn't go to sleep by itself once. Noticeably improved performance over Yosemite too.

Spotlight is completely broken and breaks the indexing database about every three days. It's not functional more often than not. I have tried a lot of remedial work and nothing has fixed it.

iTunes ability to cope with libraries on shared partitions is busted.

Photos is a bug minefield.

Notifications seem random at best.

My iMac frequently gets it's bluetooth keyboard locked on infinite repeat when waking up from sleep.

Wi-fi takes much longer to wake up after sleep than previously.

Video often fails to fullscreen properly, resulting in broken aspect ratios or just a tiny video in a big sea of black.

Textedit is still saddled with the failed New Document Model that is never going to happen and that makes it useless.

Keychain syncing just randomly fails for no reason.

Disk Utility has been, to all intents and purposes, destroyed as a useful tool.

 

[Funky Papa]

I think it's important that more people are paying attention to the terrible situation of Apple's own apps.

I'm mostly a Windows/Android user, but my tablet of choice is an iPad. It's well built, simple and smooth, unlike the janky touch version of Windows or the undercooked implementation of Android for tablets. With that said, Apple's core apps are a total mess.

Calendar, iBooks, Photos and Mail may work, but they have become so terribly stale I no longer use them. And those are the good apps. Many others are either bloated to hell or just plain worthless. Watch, Find Friends and Game Center are particularly bad. Multimedia handling is still beyond subpar if not borderline garbage. I guess Safari is not too bad (at least is very stable for me), but it's also becoming long on its tooth, specially coming from the latest versions of Chrome and when it comes to handling images.

But the thing it irks me the most is the lack of usabilty, which is a crime against Apple's much vaunted essence. Just yesterday I was trying to transfer some files to my iPad and I had to look for a tutorial since I had forgotten how to do that. That's how stupid the situation is. And don't get me started on how TERRIBLE Apple's software for Windows is. Quicktime effectively replaced Real Player in the "why would you ever use that" role, while iTunes for Windows has been one bloated, cumbersome, unintuitive bastard of an app since its very inception.

I don't know if Apple believes that mistreating Windows users with subpar performance will drive them towards OSX, but so far it's having the contrary effect on me.

And while I don't use OSX, all my colleagues working in media have been crying since the transition from Aperture and Final Cut Pro. I was somewhat familiar with FCP and I still can't understand how they could think it was a good idea to move away from such a tremendous, incredibly intuitive video editing platform to the current software. FCP was the tool I envied as a Windows user.

I really, really like my iPad, but Apple needs to overhaul its entire software.

Edit: let's make a huge splash about iOS finally having widgets, only to hide them in some poorly devised menu that is always far out of sight. Good grief.

 

[kiguel182]

I love OSX and my Mac but I don't really use any off Apple's core apps. On my iPad I do use the email client and the ebook reader but that's kinda it.

I do think their apps are nothing special. Safari is sluggish on my kinda old Macbook (while Chrome doesn't) and their other apps just do nothing that makes me use them I guess.

So yeah, except for their ebook reader that I like way more than the kindle app, there isn't an Apple app that I find a must use.

 

[Mindwipe]

But the thing it irks me the most is the lack of usabilty, which is a crime against Apple's much vaunted essence. Just yesterday I was trying to transfer some files to my iPad and I had to look for a tutorial since I had forgotten how to do that. That's how stupid the situation is. And don't get me started on how TERRIBLE Apple's software for Windows is. Quicktime effectively replaced Real Player in the "why would you ever use that" role, while iTunes for Windows has been one bloated, cumbersome, unintuitive bastard of an app since its very inception.

It's time for Apple to admit that they have completely failed at file management in iOS and go back to traditional methods. If they come up with something better people will switch to it. But it's very obvious at this point that they don't have any better ideas, and all the approaches they have tried have been awful.

 

[MajorTom]

Reading this thread reminded me that iTunes is a thing. I have an iPhone (and have for years) but I never use iTunes.

The only thing I would use it for is to transfer music to my phone. But I have Spotify so I don't really need to do that.

 

[linkboy]

I've fully moved on from Apple, having replaced my iPod Classic late last year with a Sony Walkman (nwz-a17).

The biggest reason was iTunes. I legit hate that program.

 

[kiguel182]

iTunes doesn't bother me because well, I don't use it. I have Spotify for music, Netflix for media and iBooks for the books. I make as much effort as I can to not have to access the computer with my iPad.

When I do have to use iTunes I use apps that allow drag and drop and it's mostly pain-free.

 

[Always-honest]

I agree. And i keep reading more of this on forums.

They really need to step it up and not just be thickheaded and arrogant.

ITunes is fine on Mac but i mostly use Spotify these days.
Mail is fine too.


Totally an Apple guy here by the way. I still very much prefer working on a Mac than a Windows machine.

 

[Maximo]

Reading this thread reminded me that iTunes is a thing. I have an iPhone (and have for years) but I never use iTunes.

The only thing I would use it for is to transfer music to my phone. But I have Spotify so I don't really need to do that.

Yep only times im reminded of when Itunes is a pile of garbage is the parents or occasional family member needing to setup their Ipad/Iphone, then reminded my parents don't own a PC or Laptop anymore so the setup is a nightmare.

 

[DOWN]

What's wrong with Mail on iOS?

And you don't need to use iTunes with iPhone. They made iOS able to independently sync and update years back, foreseeing some casual users having only iPad and iPhone with nowhere to sync to.

 

[- J - D -]

Imagine having to walk a family member who isn't tech-savvy through transferring files/music to/from an ios device.

Now imagine trying to do this when they're using itunes on pc.

It is a waking nightmare.

 

[ItIsOkBro]

Maybe there was a time when iOS was a relatively bug free and usability focused experience but that time is long gone. I first noticed it during the iOS 8 upgrade fiasco of 2014. Apple stays riding on the good will they generated years ago.

 

[Dougald]

I don't mind the Mail or Calendar apps, Photos on OSX is alright (I find it a little cumbersome on iPhone). The other bloatware on iOS is a blight

iTunes is and always has been a complete and utter mess though. Luckily I haven't used media files in 7 years (since Spotify), but it's the reason I won't switch to Apple Music.

 

[Doc Holliday]

When I can play a brand new song from an artist I like on Spotify faster than a song I actually own on Itunes, you know there is a problem.

I can stream a spotify song on my sonos faster than I can play a song on my Iphone.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

yep, iTunes sucks and iOS has its own problems, the inability to downgrade being chief among them.

MacOS...sorry, no problems there. I haven't restarted my Mac since December and I use it daily. Wonderful OS, whether its new features are great or not.

 

[Gattsu25]

I've hated iTunes for YEARS but, oddly enough, have no problems with the most recent redesign of it on Windows.

My problems with iTunes vanished when I no longer had to rely on it. I don't use it for syncing, I don't use it for image/podcast management. I just use it for auto-arranging my music folder (which I then play outside of iTunes).

Hmm...actually intended to start this post as a defense but after writing it out it seems more like a corroboration of the complaints and general desire to move away from Apple services.


I use a Macbook for work but don't rely on any Apple service, not even the keychain (rely on my memory for that). I'm using third party software for everything else.

 

[gamz]

I think their main concern is the OS and the hardware. The hardware is where they make the money everything else they seem fine you use Google or MS software.

When I had my 6 Plus I used Chrome and MS Apps for it. Really MS apps either work the same or better on the Iphone then the Windows Phone. For that I was grateful because you can't beat Apple Store and how streamlined the phone is. I never once used any of their own apps.