iTunes is so fucking stupid

[DS1]

Trust Apple to fuck it all up. You can't browse their catalog without downloading a hulking beast of a piece of shit media player which does little more than eat resources and try hijack everything else you do.

:rant:

[LSK]

1. wheres winamp when you need it?

:shrug:

[DS1]

3. right here with me

I just want to know if iTunes has Assault on Reason via Audiobooks, but I can't search the catalog without having the Apple Spy installed on my computer

[eeyore]

8. Apple spy?

Do you mean the Mini Store that suggests other titles to you? I'm pretty damn sure you can disable that feature. On the Mac version it's under the View menu. You can turn it on or off - you chose.

[Deja Q]

2. I tried removing it from my XP box...

By doing so, I got a warning saying other apps may no longer work properly.

Amusing which ones were included... and people bitch about Microsoft not knowing how to program (despite that being a fair criticism)...

I wonder what it would do to Vista...

[eeyore]

4. I think you have more of a PC issue than anything else...

Maybe it sucks on a PC, can't really speak to that. But it's far from a hulking beast, and it's a hell of a lot more than a media player. Used well it's a pretty damn amazing database for your music, and by far the most efficient way to purchase digital music ever invented. How does it hijack you?

BTW, on an Apple machine you can delete it by throwing it in the trash and emptying the trash. No warnings or any other implications. Sounds like windows issues to me.

:shrug:

[DS1]

5. It'll override my settings such as not wanting iTunes to play my mp3s

It's download is far too big for what it does. I didn't have a problem deleting it, that was HypnoToad, you'll have to ask him.

I do not want to download iTunes unless I know what I'm looking for is on the apple site. You apparently can't do that. You need a 20 meg download just to look through their catalog.

[eeyore]

9. Are you on dial up or something?

What's the issue with a 20 meg download? Literally should take about 2 minutes to download. Is your machine so full that 20 megs makes that much of a difference while you search the catalog?

[gmoney]

35. no, it's far too big for what YOU want it to do

"$800 for a computer when I just want to play solitaire? Hell, I can get a deck of cards for 79 cents..."

Go to Audible.com, Apple's partner for audiobooks, and you can browse their catalog. They also partner with Amazon. It's $27, or some special deal when you sign up or something for $21. Or just buy the damn audiobook for $20, rip it, then sell it.

Personally, I think iTunes is great. Some features are overkill to me (like flipping through album covers) but I can see how some folks would love it.

[ghostsofgiants]

6. It's a resource hog, and Winamp can do most of the same things without hogging memory.

[Mojambo]

11. So you can use Winamp to put music on your Ipod?

If so, I'm dumping iTunes asap.

[ghostsofgiants]

20. You sure can.

[eeyore]

12. Winamp can't purchase from the iTunes store, right?

Winamp also can't interface with the iPod as far as I know. I really think this must be a PC issue, because on a Mac this shit is incredibly seamless, and takes very little memory. In fact, I'm pretty sure that in the Mac OS applications that are open but not active take up no memory at all. I generally have 15-20 apps open at all times, and literally have never had a system lockup on my current Mac. About once a week I may have an application lock up, an 95% of the time it's a web browser lockup that is solved by force-quit and reopening the browser.

[ghostsofgiants]

21. Actually Winamp can interface with iPods.

You can't use the iTunes music store with it, which is why I said "most."

iTunes has never cause a system lockup for me either, but it uses around five times the memory that Winamp does. That (plus the 20mb download that DS1 mentioned above) = unnecessary bulk.

[liontamer]

10. My problem with itunes is that you're forced to use it the way they want you to.

If you buy something on the itunes store, you need Itunes, you need to have the preferred version of itunes, and you can only play the music on your computer (even if you use a different program) if itunes (the current version) gives your computer permission.

For those who don't buy new computers every 2 years, Itunes becomes a huge drain on RAM. This is doubly annoying because it's just a music program. It's a tiny distraction that should run in the background. It's not as glaring an issue if you're a mac person who would probably use itunes anyway, but if you're a pc person who doesn't even have an ipod, being forced to go through all of that because you happen to want something off the itunes store is ridiculous.

[eeyore]

15. Without Apple digital music would not be where it is today...

Apple negotiated with all of the major music labels to create a system for purchasing digital music online. Without them having done all of that, MP3 players would still be stupid little toys, not the near manditory lifestyle item that they are today. So after inventing the modern technology standard for digital music, you expect them to make it easy to use someone else's software? Why the hell would they do that? That's just bad business. There is a reason that they are the standard - they created an incredble solution for a problem that had been elusive to everyone who tried it before them. I have no problem with them dictating the rules for a business that they created.

[bettyellen]

16. excactly, especially since Windows ripped of all their user friendly innovations, i can't blame them

for being a bit protectionist about the technology.

[DS1]

27. Fair point, but not my argument

I'm on cable, so the 20 meg download isn't a problem, it's the fact that a simple mp3 playing and sorting system shouldn't take up as much computer resources as iTunes does. And, back to my main point, you can't browse the collection without downloading it. It just doesn't make sense to me.

edit to change dialup to cable. i'm tired

[liontamer]

29. i've bought digital music online one time

it was a hassle. and itunes is a memory suck even if you're not buying online music. It's not a program that fits everyone's lifestyle. If you have no problem using it, great. Others do. One of them felt like writing a thread about it.

[deucemagnet]

7. Amen to that.

I love my iPod, but iTunes is a worthless bloatware piece of shit. :grr:

[Gatchaman]

13. Maybe if you had a PC made in this century you wouldn't have these problems

And Winamp has a terrible user interface.

[ghostsofgiants]

31. Even though it's directed at DS1, I'm gonna reply since I made similar complaints...

I have a P4 3.0GHz processor and a gigabyte of RAM. iTunes still sucks.

[DS1]

32. Winamp's interface is fine. It doesn't hide all the things you need like an Apple interface does

Oh look, there's only four buttons. God forbid you want to do anything advanced with it, you have to go digging for it.

Yes, my computer was built well into this century, I'd know as I built it myself.

[bettyellen]

14. yes Martin, ITunes is selling the Gore book, as well as the new Colbert...

I noticed that there were lots of political books doing well there. Don't like audio books myself, but I do love me my ITunes.

[northzax]

17. don't worry, this fall

you will be able to get your downloads from Amazon, no software needed.

[supernova]

18. ITunes works beautifully on my MacBook

:P

Plus it accepted all my entire Limewire collection. :thumbsup:

[Deja Q]

19. So the choices are:

1. Ditch the PC and buy a "Macintosh", whose hardware is a PC plus an extra TPM chip and an operating system that was hijacked from open source that uses said TPM chip so it can't be installed on any other PC (even though that's been purportedly hacked)... a nice cost of $1000~$3000 depending how fast you want it...

2. Keep the PC (which had cost anywhere from $500 to $1800 depending on how fast you wanted it) and ditch iTunes, and save the extra $1000~$3000.

That's a difficult choice. :spray:

[supernova]

22. The MacBook replaced a

10 year old Micron Desktop clunker. I'm using the MacBook as my main computer now. And my objective is to downsize, not collect heavy boxes I can't move by myself.

So, realistically I paid 1400 for 10 years, that's about 140/year. Beat that. :spray:

[eeyore]

25. My $800 iMac runs beautifully...

This notion that Macs are overpriced is soooo last century. I really don't care what platform you use, but you know not of what you speak. The price difference between platforms is completely negligent, especially when you factor in machine longevity. I've got a 5 year old iBook that still functions perfectly every day for hours on end. I bought it for $1400, so by my calculation that's $466 per year so far, and I have do doubt that I'll be using it 2 years from now, bringing that total down to $200/year. Sounds like a pretty damn good value to me.

Regardless, I don't really care what platform you prefer, or anyone else. I just can't believe the baseless tales that people repeat about systems they don't even use.

:crazy:

[Awsi Dooger]

28. You realize you were responding to HypnoToad

He frantically trots out a version of that same paragraph whenever Apple is the topic and he senses an opportunity to claim Macs are overpriced and OS X is overrated. Been going on for years and years in this forum. It's hysterical he doesn't realize how desperate and juvenile it sounds. Plus, as you indicate he always gets the prices wrong, using the highest possible numbers as if someone walked into an Apple Store and begged to pay the highest retail price and then some. I've never kept a Mac for less than 5 years and the first "major" problem came last week when an iBook hard drive failed after 2.5 years.

I can't imagine being a Mac user yet posting in PC threads and listing all the supposed faults, the same ones over and over.

[mainegreen]

23. I've never liked it. I refuse to install it now. MediaMonkey is a better player.

Hell, most anything is better. *MusicMatch* might even be better.

[no name no slogan]

26. Stay away from MusicMatch. It sucks donkey balls.

I was a loyal MM user from version 4. Yahoo bought MM a couple years ago and tried to be the next iTunes. They "integrated" version 10 with their crappy online music service and turned it into a bloated piece of crapware that crashed my machine whenever I started it up.

Once I got an iPod I ditched MM and have been running iTunes without any problems. Most of my purchased music is from eMusic, which I've never had a problem importing into my iTunes library. I rarely use the iTunes store, but have purchased some stuff there.

For the record, I have a homemade 1.15ghz Athlon machine with 512mb RAM, running WinXP Pro SP2.

[Initech]

24. I'm starting to like WMP11 way way way better than iTunes.

WMP has a much slicker interface and when I put the shuffle command on, it actually shuffles the songs! And I can go to other albums and create a playlist without the damn thing stopping in the middle!

[Elidor]

30. Sounds like Son of Realplayer™

I guess I expect that shit anymore, but I use Napster. It hasn't been too bad, except the selection isn't that hot sometimes. A lot of the European electronica I'm into is severely underrepresented. Thank god for Soulseek.

[ghostsofgiants]

33. Another iTunes complaint: It doesn't even support OGG-Vorbis.

It's bad enough I can't put them on my iPod, but I can't even listen to them on my computer if I'm using iTunes.

(Just felt like adding because I'm bored.)

[riverdale]

34. IPod is a piece of shit!

Allow me to be the one to bash iPods. I got one for free for signing up with DirecTV. Now keep in mind that I've been using MP3 players since they were invented and cost well over $200 apiece (anyone remember Diamond Rio?). iPod is the the least favorite of all the ones I've ever had. The problem is not the player per se, but how it ties you into Apple. The whole system is not built for user convenience, but rather as a starting point for Apple to continue to suck the money out of your wallet. You are forced to install special software, and visit their piece of shit website (iTunes) where you have to log into to do anything with your music. Even if you already have all your MP3s and just need to put 'em on the player. Plus the proprietary music format, no battery, and the "ear bud" earphones suck ass. I currently am using one I bought at Target, a no-name called TruTech 1GB. This cost $54 and straps on your arm - to me that alone makes it way more convenient than a pocket-player. Best thing is, drag-n-drop your files onto the unit via Windows Explorer. I don't use any kind of software with it.
I recently had a Creative Zen MP3 player. I liked that one because it was like a little USB stick that hooked directly into the computer, no wires. It worked well for a few months then mysteriously died, so I can't recommend that one.