Re: Songbird...

On 2008-12-03 21:55:42 +0000, T i m <news@xxxxxxxxxxxx> said:

On Wed, 3 Dec 2008 20:41:57 -0000, "Woody" <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


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

They aren't a lot different, or are you saying that the subtle difference
throws you?


Erm, spose. Well, it's not just that of course it's the whole way that
or any app manages your data. Any file manager for example simply
allows you to explore what you have. It doesn't bundle up all your
.exe's and .dats as to do so would be meaningless (not the same as
searching for stuff or wanting to display stuff like that I don't
mean).

iTunes doesn't bundle anything up. It just gives you an interface to find your files and play then easily. All your music files are in your iTunes library folder, in subfolders organised by artist, then in subfolders by album.


It's the same thing as Picassa or iPhoto (is it). If they don't do
anything to the files collection then they are fairly pointless and if
they do I don't need / want them.

Well......Picassa and iPhoto act as browsers for your files, viewers for your files and also as limited editors for your files if you so wish.

To get the same functionality, you'd need to use Windows Explorer to locate the right file, a .jpg viewer (or whatever file format you use) to view it, and an editing application should you wish to edit it. Of course, the editor and viewer are often the same app.



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.

That is what I do, that is the way iTunes is laid out. You have your
'collection', your group of CDs, you have a column that lists all the
artists, a column that list all the albums a column that lists all the
genres (which is a waste of space for my point of view), and a list of all
the tracks.

So you don't know all those things or can't access those things
yourself (manually)? If I want to listen to some Quo I choose the Quo
folder then the particular Quo album then the track and play it. I'm
not sure how a package could help me play that quo track (without some
prior effort on my part anyway). Scrolling down a longer single list
isn't necessarily easier for me.

There is no need to scroll anything. All you need to do is type in the track name into the search box on the top right.

For example, if you want to play a track called "Track 1" just type "Track 1", everything that doesn't match will be filtered out and you can just click on that track and it will play.

If you want to listen to "Album 1", type in that name and all the tracks on that album will be listed and everything else filtered out. Click on a track to play.

If you want to listen to your Quo collection, type "Quo" and all your Quo tracks will be listed. If you want to filter furter start typing the album name....


It's really, really easy....far easier than finding the right folder on the disk, then selecting the right track. Of course, if you DO want to do it that way, you can just use FInder to go to the right artist folder, select the right album, then the right track then double click it to play.....


No, I didn't mea n the store particularly but I was trying to give a
comparison that we both might understand (the man - file interface) to
show how I prefer the same *direct* contact with music, photos or
videos.

So - just use finder to do exactly that. No problem. Counter intuitive though....


<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.

ok, I guess we are just a bit different. I can't actually see much of a
difference between that and iTunes.

No, I agree they (from your description) both work similarly, the
difference I guess is I see they are similar (results wise) and prefer
not to complicate matters (as I see it) by letting some 3rd part app
manage my stuff. KISS etc.

KISS would be letting iTunes (for example) present a unified interface for browsing and playing your files rather than using a file browser to find the file, then a player to play it.


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?

They are exactly the same structure. Just use Finder if you want to view the raw folders. It's more difficult though as you have to navigate to the right folder, whereas iTunes knows where the music is located and has a neat search/filter ability. It's much quicker.



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