10th June 2010, 12:41 AM
And my conclusion? As nice as a lot of the widely advertised features are, it lacks some extremely basic functionality.
By basic, I mean I can't even find a "browse files and folders" option. Anywhere. I literally am forced to first convert all my music INTO iTunes' proprietary internal music format and use it's own playlisting, and the only way to do this seems to be a drag and drop. This also means I can't export it's playlists to whatever media player I wish to.
Along those same lines, I expect in most modern media players for external devices to appear in a browsing window when I plug them in, such as my PSP. Even Windows Media Player does this (though the Zune player does not, I guess they "copied" iTunes' LACK of functionality, not a surprise considering it's, well, Zune). In other words, unless it's an iPod, I can't easily move music back and forth between a music device and my computer.
Basically, for all the media "management" options it has, and the various organizational features are well done I must make clear, they can't outweigh the lack of the most basic file management features imaginable. I honestly don't see how this has become such a popular tool when I can't even simply browse my directory structure from within the program or move my music into a portable system and back seamlessly in the same way. I had heard about all these amazing synching features, but I guess that's only if you own an Apple-made device like an iPod. In order to move things FROM my iTunes library, I can't even just browse to the folder. I've got to convert it out of that library format into something more open, and then use standard operating system methods to then copy that music back into it. The whole thing is just a mess, leading me to ask why I shouldn't just use, sigh, frickin' Media Player like I've been doing.
In fact, even Sony's Media Go seems more capable. At least it's library system doesn't require a preliminary conversion to a proprietary format and it recognizes my PSP (it may still exclusively recognize it, but it does it well and organizes files as actual files). I don't really WANT to use Media Go mind you, but it actually HAS these features.
Is this what "user friendly" now means, hiding the actual FILE STRUCTURE from the user, permanently, forcing them to learn MORE about the inner workings of the thing JUST to do something outside Apple's profitable parameters? I'm all for making the interface easy to use, but let's not simultaneously delete entire commands from the interface. It's about as annoying as Windows 7's "pseudo folders" that trick the user who doesn't do a little research into thinking that everything actually is physically located in those folders, instead of the reality, that they are spread around the disk (causing headaches more often than it should when it comes to file management).
If I've missed something and there are ways, easy ways, to do what I am trying to do with this program, please tell me so. So far, in looking this up online, I've found very convoluted guides that actually suggest I BURN A CD and then rip it back in Media Player as part of the process of getting something back out of the library. That's... idiotic.
By basic, I mean I can't even find a "browse files and folders" option. Anywhere. I literally am forced to first convert all my music INTO iTunes' proprietary internal music format and use it's own playlisting, and the only way to do this seems to be a drag and drop. This also means I can't export it's playlists to whatever media player I wish to.
Along those same lines, I expect in most modern media players for external devices to appear in a browsing window when I plug them in, such as my PSP. Even Windows Media Player does this (though the Zune player does not, I guess they "copied" iTunes' LACK of functionality, not a surprise considering it's, well, Zune). In other words, unless it's an iPod, I can't easily move music back and forth between a music device and my computer.
Basically, for all the media "management" options it has, and the various organizational features are well done I must make clear, they can't outweigh the lack of the most basic file management features imaginable. I honestly don't see how this has become such a popular tool when I can't even simply browse my directory structure from within the program or move my music into a portable system and back seamlessly in the same way. I had heard about all these amazing synching features, but I guess that's only if you own an Apple-made device like an iPod. In order to move things FROM my iTunes library, I can't even just browse to the folder. I've got to convert it out of that library format into something more open, and then use standard operating system methods to then copy that music back into it. The whole thing is just a mess, leading me to ask why I shouldn't just use, sigh, frickin' Media Player like I've been doing.
In fact, even Sony's Media Go seems more capable. At least it's library system doesn't require a preliminary conversion to a proprietary format and it recognizes my PSP (it may still exclusively recognize it, but it does it well and organizes files as actual files). I don't really WANT to use Media Go mind you, but it actually HAS these features.
Is this what "user friendly" now means, hiding the actual FILE STRUCTURE from the user, permanently, forcing them to learn MORE about the inner workings of the thing JUST to do something outside Apple's profitable parameters? I'm all for making the interface easy to use, but let's not simultaneously delete entire commands from the interface. It's about as annoying as Windows 7's "pseudo folders" that trick the user who doesn't do a little research into thinking that everything actually is physically located in those folders, instead of the reality, that they are spread around the disk (causing headaches more often than it should when it comes to file management).
If I've missed something and there are ways, easy ways, to do what I am trying to do with this program, please tell me so. So far, in looking this up online, I've found very convoluted guides that actually suggest I BURN A CD and then rip it back in Media Player as part of the process of getting something back out of the library. That's... idiotic.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)