10/16/2003 Archived Entry: "iTunes MS!"

I am officially a believer in iTunes. Released today for Windows, iTunes has already granted me access to some songs that I've been unable to find acceptable copies of on the various filesharing networks, and also replacement copies of some songs I have crappy copies of. The software itself is free, and, as I'm sure anyone who knows anything already knows, tracks are ninety-nine cents apiece. Most full albums are ten dollars.

In my opinion, the best thing about iTunes is the ability to preview a song before downloading. I've spent the past forty-five minutes listening to song previews various and sundry, and now I'm jamming out to the built-in radio streams.

Total amount of money spent today: $7.50

Happiness at finally being able to pay money to support a music distribution system I believe in: Boundless.

Now, the bitching:

I dislike the iTunes application because, like the Windows version of Quicktime, it refuses to take on the skin attributes of the host operating system and instead has its own crazy user interface.

Whenever the application wants my attention, it just grabs the focus, even if I'm currently working in another maximized application. This, frankly, is annoying as fuck. In the time it's taken me to type this entry, my internet radio stream has required re-buffering three times, and each time after the rebuffering finishes, the iTunes app jumps to the foreground on top of my browser window. I'd prefer it just blink at me from the taskbar, like a well-behaved application ought.

SLOW. SLOW. SLOW. The UI is slow and jerky. On one hand, I run in 1600x1200, so perhaps I should expect some jerkiness. On the other hand, I don't experience this kind of UI sluggishness with any other application currently installed, so I don't think it's just my computer or anything.

Also, not only did installing iTunes install Quicktime--and I was getting along just fine with Media Player Classic and Quicktime Alternative--but it also installed some retarded useless iTunes "helper" background app. No, you don't need to run that. It's my computer, thanks.

Finally, iTunes is highly modal. Doing one thing stops whatever else you're doing. Like, you can listen to a preview, but clicking on another album, even to just get a track listing, stops your current preview from playing. I don't like that.

So, I suppose my preliminary verdict is, iTunes good, iTunes application bad.

[Previous entry: "Pain, pain, and more pain"] [Return to archive...] [Next entry: "My forehead"]