“Apple knows that the iTunes interface is extremely confusing and needs work,” Jacob Kastrenakes writes for The Verge. “But apparently its solution is to add even more menus.”
“Apple released an update to iTunes today that’s supposed to give it ‘a simpler design,’ supposedly making it easier to navigate between sections to find what you’re looking for,” Kastrenakes writes. “To do that, it brings back an old iTunes standby: the lefthand navigation bar, which disappeared a while back.”
“It’s definitely easier than searching for those items in drop-down menus, like you had to before,” Kastrenakes writes. “But the update doesn’t address the core issue with iTunes’ navigation, and perhaps even makes it worse: it’s still weirdly difficult to find the section you’re looking for — as in, your music library, your video library, or the App Store.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Today was merely a stopgap measure, hopefully.
Apple, especially under Steve Jobs, has shown a great and admirable willingness to cannibalize themselves. They obliterated their iPod business with the iPhone, for one example. But, when it comes to iTunes, they seem paralyzed by fear of change. Apple paralyzed by fear is not a pretty thing and it doesn’t yield pretty things. It yields hot messes like iTunes.
iTunes screams to be broken up into separate, streamlined apps. It’s been screaming that for years. But Apple seems to be scared silly to do so — perhaps 800+ million credit cards have something to do with it — so they’ve tinkered around the edges, making questionable tweaks here an there and bolting on even more bloat.
Grow a pair, Apple, and do what needs to be done already. — MacDailyNews Take, July 17, 2015
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If you have to ask yourself “Why is this so difficult? Am I an idiot?” then there is a User Interface problem, not a user problem. This is, after all, what we pay Apple for. Those type of questions are for Windows/Android sufferers, not Mac/iOS users.
Who’s responsible for iTunes’ unsettled, rather awful UI, a blind Microsoft reject or nobody at all? – MacDailyNews Take, July 10, 2015
SEE ALSO:
Apple releases iTunes 12.4 – May 16, 2016
Apple Music needs a web widget – March 8, 2016
Fixing iTunes: To the iCloud! – February 18, 2016
Spotify dims as Apple Music shines – April 27, 2016
Yet another example of how Apple Music is messed up – December 16, 2015
Alternatives to Apple’s bloated iTunes – November 17, 2015
Should iTunes be split into 16 different apps? – October 20, 2015
Apple admits it has ‘homework to do’ to improve Apple Music – September 3, 2015
The tragedy of iTunes: Nothing ‘just works’ – July 28, 2015
Dear Apple, please go thermonuclear on iTunes – July 28, 2015
Marco Arment: iTunes is a toxic hellstew – July 27, 2015
Jim Dalrymple: I got (most of) my music back; Apple working to fix Apple Music issues shortly – July 26, 2015
Jim Dalrymple: Apple Music is a nightmare, and I’m done with it – July 23, 2015
Apple’s iTunes: Whatever happened to ‘It Just Works? – July 17, 2015
The iTunes Report: Still a mess – July 14, 2015
Apple Music, both on iOS and OS X, is an embarrassing and confusing mess – July 10, 2015
