Itunes strikes the wrong note (iTunes)

Member Name: dididave

Product:	iTunes
Date:	27/06/09 (78 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Feature rich, itunes store is good, podcasts

Disadvantages: Very difficult and complex to use, not transferrable.

I find iTunes the single most frustrating piece of software I have ever used in my life. Everything it claims itself to be it is not. Itunes is supposed to be intuitive and easy to use...it is not. It claims to be a straightforward way to "sync" media to your ipod...it is not!

Not everything about iTunes is bad. As a media player it is as adequate as alternatives such as Microsoft's own Windows Player playing pretty much all the media file types you can think of. However, using iTunes as your default player if you own an ipod creates a whole set of issues the worst being that the library is full of media that may or may not synchronize and work on your ipod thanks to Apple's fussy file type fiddling. You may have an MP4 movie in your iTunes library for example but this does not mean it will sync and work on your ipod unless you convert them into ipod friendly codecs. This is just one example of how a supposedly user friendly system becomes increasingly complex.

It is a pity as the interface looks user friendly and navigates easily enough. All of your media library is easily accessed from a left hand menu and adding and editing files to your library is an easy process although you will often find yourself relabelling as they are in the wrong category. This seems to be a particular problem with audio books and tv shows with iTunes unable to differentiate between a movie or tv show without you editing your file with tags heavily, similarly often your audio books turn up in the music section. Nothing is so annoying as putting your ipod on shuffle only to have to fish it our your bag to skip a beginners Spanish lesson that has directly followed Bon Jovi!

Although iTunes does have a drag and drop interface the complicated series of categories available make it very difficult to find your files. I find this particularly true in the case of my music tracks were if I dare to add multiple files or folders they are scattered all over the place, despite the ability to sort by album or artist. Itunes is definitely a software of heavy editing and you find yourself spending long hours trying to precisely categorize your collection into some sort of overly complex Dewey decimal system! This does mean your media library could be the most organized and impressive anyone will ever see. However, I do miss a drag and drop system were I can simply put things in folders according to my tastes and order them by name.

The things iTunes does well, it really does do exceedingly well. Podcasts are a particular revelation to me and are one of the few parts of iTunes I can navigate effectively. A large part of iTunes appeal is the access to countless films, music and other media via the iTunes store and I find the free content here superb, easy to download and a great resource. This is perhaps because podcasts are often a listen once thing so I don't feel the need to organize them and can find them easily. I find the iTunes store, the odd crash aside, very quick and easy to use and the introduction of the new "Genius" function to my library is a great idea. "Genius" is a product recommendation tool similar to ones found on Amazon and although it struggles with my eclectic tastes, it has found me some good stuff to download.

Despite my moans about difficulties organizing my media library iTunes has got some good features including a find album artwork tool that makes it that bit easier to navigate your media library. Again it is somewhat limited if you have weird and wonderful tastes but if you are a popular music fan your songs will all have album artwork available.

Itunes is undoubtedly feature rich and perhaps this is why I find it so hard to get along with. Most people using iTunes will be syncing some sort of ipod to it and this is done automatically simply by plugging it into your USB port so iTunes boots up. Unfortunately, the people at Apple have saw fit to have numerous options as to whether you want all media synced, certain categories and whether you want to keep files on your ipod or bin them. All well and good I here you cry. It does mean though that there are so many customizable options that you often struggle to find a balance between what you want on your ipod and what you actually have. I have veered from having everything on my hard drive on there, including my son's dodgy speed metal to struggling to have anything at all. Now I consider myself tech savvy but has taken me an age to get a grip with iTunes. I am still finding fiddly bits of menu to mess with and struggle daily to put things in the right place. How I long for a simple life of wind up radio!

I currently on my eighth version of iTunes and each upgrade is negligible and takes ages to install. Apple seem to have gone down the Microsoft route of pestering you with automatic updates until you cave in and I find this very irritating. Itunes is undoubtedly resource hungry with up to three processes running while in use and there are certainly more processor economical softwares out there. It looks the part but it annoys me intensely to the point were I have tried with little success to find a suitable alternative as it can slow computers to a standstill.

This bring me to iTunes biggest drawback and that it that only one ipod can be synced to your copy of iTunes and it is non-transferable. If your computer dies your are screwed as you will wipe all your media of your ipod if you install your ipod elsewhere. There are ways round this but why should I look for them when I can plug in a twenty quid alternative and drag and drop files anywhere?

Itunes is one of the most over hyped bits of free software I have ever encountered. It is clumsy, slow and overly complex. It's few good features are outweighed massively by the bad and I strongly recommend people look for any alternative.

Summary: Find another alternative.

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