With the release of iTunes 9, Apple has upset a lot of people, myself included.
If you scour their online discussion forums, you will see host of others complaining as well. From changes in long-standing design models to developers seeing huge decreases in their App Store sales since the redesign, there is plenty to be upset about.
Here are my main griefs with the latest fruity jukebox software, and I hope Apple is listening:
1. A long-standing bug that I have reported several times over the last 2+ years is still very present. For all of the details, view my post by clicking here.
2. iPhone and iPod developers are now seeing large drops in their sales revenue: up to 50%! This is because of the “improvements” to the App Store layout and design which seem to snuff out the little guys and further promote the “big dogs”. Read More
3. The green + button no longer sends the iTunes player into Mini Mode. I understand that they may have wanted to more strictly conform to their own Aqua Human Interface Guidelines, but they’ve left this feature in for far too long, and now lots of people are too used to it. It’s especially annoying when I’m working on music, because now you have to use two hands to minimize the iTunes player into Mini Mode by either holding Option while clicking the + or using the Command+Shift+M shortcut, making me put down my guitar or other instrument first.
The Green + is Broken
4. The background color for many of iTunes layout modes is now a bright white instead of black. This is too harsh on the eyes of most people, and Apple needs to change it back to black, or a darker shade of grey, or at least let the background color be user-changeable.
5. Apple has removed the Shopping Cart feature of the iTunes Store, or at least made it much harder to find and use, and this makes the entire experience much less user-friendly. Now it’s too easy to accidentally purchase songs, and no longer can you create a shopping cart of items over time to purchase at a later date.
Apple needs to listen to their millions of users and the thousands of complaints on their own website alone and get these issues straightened out right away, or they risk alienating a lot of people (myself included, and I’m the biggest Apple fan I know).
If you agree, please take a moment to comment on this post (as a sort of petition), and/or file your grievance at http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html.