Re: Songbird...

On Wed, 3 Dec 2008 18:13:55 +0000, usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Woody)
wrote:

What automatic stuff in iTunes? It is pretty simple.

I don't know ... it's just the way it's all laid out and not always
'obvious' (to me anyway).

Is it not?

No. :-(

I find that suprising. So they have a list of artists, a list of albums
they did and a list of tracks.

Well, they aren't lists as in Windows explorer type lists.

Not being funny or anything but what part of that is non obvious? I
can't actually see how it could be more obvious. Not saying this as
critisism, but my current open university course is user interfaces, and
part of it is watching people use something and see how they progress
through it.

Ok. Erm, I guess it's what I said above. Ok, I don't have much of a
music collection (in fact it's really only the Mrs's stuff I've ripped
for her for her mp3 player) but if I want to play something I want to
go and get it from my 'collection', as I would if I was going to a CD
on the shelf and choosing a track from that. I can't really explain
much better than that as it's difficult to put across what it is about
it that just feels wrong to me.

Like when trying to download an app for
Linux stuff, all the different versions, formats, mirrors etc.

I don't get you - what does that have to do with iTunes? There are no
versions/formats/mirrors in iTunes.

I said like in the sense of not intuitive or easy. I'll try and
explain.

If I want a file on my PC or an app from the net I want to go and get
it myself. Re a file on the net, I go to the site and choose the
'Windows' file to download. More often than not it gives me the file
there and then or the option of a mirror if that first link didn't
work. If I choose a mirror it takes me to *the file* on another
server, not a directory listing that I have to read and make decisions
about as it often does with Linux (and OSX to a lesser degree). So, I
click on the Windows file, it asks me what I want to do with it (run
or save) and I choose save and where I save it to (every time). Once
it's done I double click on it and it installs and puts an entry in
the Menu for me (same with Ubuntu).

<change thought> If I want to play a track I'll go to my music folder
(probably not the default 'My Music' folder), choose the file and
click on it to play in (probably) WMP (I rarely listen to the whole
track or much more than one track (before getting bored), ADD again).
The only time I generally listing to music for any time is in the car
(radio) or streaming internet radio. I like variety and a bit of
talking or adverts breaks the music up a bit.

I guess I don't like the concept of 'My Music' and it being some
generic melting pot ... I want a music folder and folders (albums?)
under that.

Well, yes, you have a music folder with artists and albums under that.

Yes, as you do with iTunes but you don't see them as a folder
structure do you? Aren't they shown as the Albums with their art (or
other combinations as desired etc). I guess what I'm saying is I don't
have personalised collections of stuff (be it music, photos or videos
etc) but just quantities of said that *I* access directly, rather than
via some app? Same with the camera or scanner etc. I explore to the
camera memory card and pull what I want and put where I want, by hand,
rather than letting some app do it for me.

iDVD [1] etc is all to wacky / automated for this old files n folders
bloke to tolerate long enough to get to know how it works (like all
the OSX news readers and the McGarmin thing).

I love iTunes. It is something that works very well. ok, It is getting a
bit bloaty, but the basics are good.

I was looking for a free podcast on the store the other day (for the
first time) and I must have gone round and round 10 times clicking on
stuff trying to firstly find what I wanted then actually getting it to
download.

Oh sorry, not talking about the shop. I couldn't care less about the
shop. I am talking about the application.

Sorry as well, I sort of blurred them together as a role as they have
the same look and feel.

Once I'd worked out the less than intuitive (to me) weird
process I finally got what I wanted (and several repeats of the same
thing). Now (believe it or not) I'm normally ok with what I call
straightforward stuff, finding / downloading / expanding / installing
(even mounting now!) as long as the interface doesn't try to do it all
for me, then I get confused.

I guess you must be different to most people then.

I don't think there's much question of that! I don't think I'm unique
though.

I think they target
that at the majority of people who aren't skilled, so if you don't fit
into the gap you are disadvantaged.

Ok and thanks.

As I say I don't really care about the store, although I am a little
suprised you had a problem with it. I mean my mum can use it.

But that may be part of the issue. I know another way and most noobs
don't. Maybe these apps that pi$$ me off so much are really much
better for someone with no previous computing (in the old school
sense) experience. It's also like smoking, it's ok as long as you keep
trying it (but at first it makes you sick)?

I am not against something else, if there is an improvement, but looking
at the specs at the moment, it doesn't seem to have the basics sorted
that much.

I'll give it a look later.

Me too.

I have (on XP) and while I'm pleased to report it looks *more* like a
Windows app and even a bit 'Agenty' (as in the news reader) it's as
Andy says, very much like iTunes in some of it's look (if not feel).

FWIW I don't like the later WMP's (although don't dislike it as such),
preferring the simplicity of MPlayer (for Windows).

Erm, I was making an optical disc that would play in a domestic DVD
player.

Yes, which is not the thing iDVD is for.

Hmm, yet the Nero equivalent has the same capabilities but was far
more intuitive for me (and worked). [1]

Are you saying my one track won't work without a musical menu?

No, I am saying that if you want to take one bit of video and put it on
a DVD, iDVD isn't designed for that.

But can do it presumably? What else could I have used that was built
in to the OS that would have made a player readable DVD then?

If however you go on holiday somewhere and make 20 section of videos and
want to bore your family to tears with it, iDVD is your man.

LOL (funnily enough my Niece just came back from a month in Auz and NZ
and did just that to their grandparents (3 of 4 fell asleep) ;-)


Sometimes there are better ways of doing things than the same way as
other things (and sometimes there aren't).

Thanks, that's cleared that up. (no, it did!) ;-)

T i m


[1] In iDVD (I think it was) you click the Media tab but can't seem to
explore the filesystem (the file I wanted was on the desktop). It
wouldn't drag and drop from the desktop so I thought if I browse to it
it might give me a clue if it was willing to accept it or not.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Songbird...
    ... they aren't lists as in Windows explorer type lists. ... or any app manages your data. ... that is the way iTunes is laid out. ...
    (uk.comp.sys.mac)
  • Re: Is Apple colonizing Windows?
    ... > App by App, Apple is slowly taking over Windows, or "colonizing" the> old ... > Windows World "if you like". ... Apple Mail? ... And iTunes is like a giant Adware program. ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)
  • Re: iPod: move music libary to another drive
    ... free space so I wish to move my entire collection to the new drive. ... I assume we're talking iTunes for Windows here? ... Be sure to move just the iTunes Music folder - not the files n stuff in My ...
    (uk.comp.sys.mac)
  • Re: C++ carbon beginner
    ... It was written in Carbon because it was a originally an OS 9 app. ... Because Apple killed off the Cocoa-on-Windows capability they'd inherited from NeXT, it was then presumably easier to get iTunes onto Windows from a Carbon source base than a Cocoa source base. ...
    (uk.comp.sys.mac)
  • iTunes wont start
    ... I've had a Macbook pro dropped in that won't start iTunes - "iTunes quit ... I've tried dumping the app and reinstalling, ... music folder from it's normal location. ...
    (uk.comp.sys.mac)