iTunes and other annoyances

Written by Clinton Phillips Sunday, 06 December 2009 22:15

iTunes is one of my most-used applications. When I turn on my PowerBook G4, it launches and starts playing songs automatically. It doesn't stop until I shut my PowerBook down at the end of the day. I use iTunes to manage the content on eight iPods, buy apps for my iPhone, download podcasts (like MacThePodcast — shameless plug) and rent the occasional movie.

iTunes is among my most-used applications, but it is not among my favourite.

There are a number of things about iTunes that bug me — simple design and usability problems that really, really annoy me. I'll start with the most recent.

I wanted to convert ten short videos to iPhone-compatible format. Usually, it's a simple process: select the videos you want to convert, tell them what device you want to play it on, walk off, have a beer and it's done by the time you get back.

But not on this occasion.

This time I selected the videos, told them iPhone, had my beer and when I got back, instead of having ten videos ready to sync, I was greeted by an error message. iTunes successfully converted the first video but it encountered an error on the second one, threw its hands up in the air and gave up.

What iTunes should have done is stopped converting the second video and made a start on the remaining videos. It should have shown the error message once the other videos had finished converting.

It might not sound like a big deal but it is. If iTunes had continued converting, I would only have one video left to convert instead of nine. I'd only have to spend another five to ten minutes instead of 30 to 45. I could have synced the videos that did work and worried about the other one later.

But no, I had to select all nine videos, convert them and hold iTunes's hand in case it encountered another error.

That isn't as bad as the problem I had on the App Store a few hours prior.

I have a heap of apps that I've downloaded for my iPhone but I've only used them a few times. I keep them in my iTunes library in case I want to use them again or an update makes one of them more useful.

I haven't updated any of these apps in aaaaages, so thought I had better check. iTunes reported that 33 apps needed to be updated (just as an aside, the iTunes Store desperately needs tabbed browsing). I clicked the “download all free updates” button, then entered my password.

I was promptly told that one of the items I wanted to update was no longer available — but I wasn't told which one. And of course because one was not available, none would update using the one-button method. The only way to find out which app was stopping the entire process was to update each app individually until I found it, which is really time consuming and involves a lot of back and forth (seriously, the iTunes Store really needs tabbed browsing).

But, being clever, I found a workaround.

I synced all 33 apps to my iPhone and checked for updates — my iPhone updated all 33 apps without any worries at all. Then I just synced the apps back to iTunes.

Rather a convoluted solution to a simple problem, don't you think?

What iTunes should have done is told me which app was no longer available and updated the ones that were available. Wouldn't that have been much nicer? Yes, it would.

Here's another problem with the iTunes Store: ever tried to buy something, only to be told that the Terms of Service (TOS) have changed? I'll refresh your memory.

When iTunes updates its TOS, we're not told about it until after we make a purchase. See an album you want to buy? Or an app? Click "Buy", enter your password and the download should start — but it doesn't. Instead you're presented with a dialog telling you that the TOS have been updated and you need to agree to them before the transaction can begin. You're then whisked away to the TOS page, you click the agree checkbox and then you’re told to make the purchase again.

It's like going to a shop and taking a heap of things to the checkout, then the register operator scans all the items, tells you the total and — just before you hand over the money — you're told that the conditions of entry have changed. You're taken to the manager's office to read and sign the new conditions, but in the meantime all your items are taken back to the shelves and the sale has been cancelled. (I've used this analogy before elsewhere.)

You know what iTunes should do? When you go to the iTunes Store a big yellow banner should drop down alerting you to the TOS changes. Then you go to the page, check the box and continue browsing.

You're still interrupted but you're interrupted when it's convenient. It's better to be told before you try to purchase something than during. Especially seeing though iTunes doesn't start the download once you've agreed to the new TOS — you have to make the purchase again. Most annoying.

[Except that if you had to agree to the TOS as soon as you got to iTunes it would irritate people who were just there to browse and not buy anything. What iTunes should do is remember what you were about to purchase and let you complete your transaction. Then no-one would be annoyed. — MJCP]

Just quickly, because I've gone on about this longer than I intended, why do we have to agree to the End User License Agreement (EULA) twice? When a new version of iTunes comes out, we have to agree to the EULA before we can download it via Software Update. Then we have to agree to it again before we can launch iTunes. Why do we have to do it twice?

Why does the redesigned iTunes Store use those horizontal scroll bars? They look stupid on a 23" screen and I imagine that they would look absurd on one of those 27" monsters. Surely Apple could make the Store wider and reduce the whitespace on either side?

Why is the volume slider backwards in relation to the playback scrubber? Look at it, it's backwards!

And why doesn't the iTunes Store have tabbed browsing?

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