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The Good, the Bad and the Not So Ugly Interface

By Pilky, September 9, 2005

The top two corners are STILL not antialiased.

Well, iTunes 5 is out and I’ve been using it for the past few days. If it wasn’t for the “streamlined” interface then it wouldn’t seem so much like it was worthy of being 5.0. That’s not to say that it isn’t good, it’s just it seems to be lacking from what I thought iTunes 5 would be.

The most obvious change is the new interface. Gone is the brushed metal, here is the, well.. umm… grey thingy. Now I’m not one of the people who likes to talk about how they hate brushed metal every 5 minutes, because in all honesty, I kinda like it. I think that this new look could be the new brushed metal of OSX and I think it’s pretty nice. The bigger display is nice, though I liked the more rounded sides. I also like the small changes they’ve made to the source list. The blue background, the shadow on the highlighted text.

Searching has been improved quite a bit. The search bar is nice to switch between what you want to look for but searching also filters the browser columns too, which is nice cause when you have a few 100 artists it…
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iTunes 5.0: First Impressions

By Nick, September 7, 2005

Excuse me for being horribly underwhelmed.

With great fanfare, Apple announced several new goodies; one of which was iTunes 5.0. Wow! Version 5! It must be bursting at the seams with new stuff!

Excuse me for being horribly underwhelmed.

At any rate, here are some of my first impressions of iTunes 5.0.

The UI Police
Under the guise of “streamlining” the iTunes interface (an interface that was damn good), Apple decided it would be a good idea to mangle what was one of the most refined, most elegant user interfaces on the Mac OS and turned into, well, I don’t know how to describe it. Some like it; I detest it. I can’t describe it, but the word “awkward” describes it well. Prior to iTunes 5, I complaoned about the hideousness of Mail 2.0 (which I have since tweaked to make it halfway tolerable). I thought Mail was the ugliest app on OS X; iTunes has since taken that title. Ugh.

Look at me, Strong Bad! I’m smart!
Smart Shuffle is a minor addition and its usefulness may or may not be important to you (zero importance for me personally). But if you use shuffle and don’t like it when itunes randomly plays three straight Smashing…
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Lakewood Studios Releases iList Data 3.0

By Nick, September 7, 2005

Lakewood Studios has released version 3.0 of its iList Data database software for Mac OS X. According to Lakewood Studios’ press release:

Lakewood Studios today released iList Data 3.0, by far the most powerful, low cost, single-user database software for the Macintosh.

Now available in an easy-to-install personal edition, iList Data is built on the same engine that powers iList Studio, our multi-user database software. iList Data supports nearly all of the single-user features of iList Studio, but creates standalone databases that do not require the installation of server software.

iList Data’s benefits include integrated graphing, user designed record editors, ten find modes, and batch editing. Also included is extensive support for cataloging images and other files.

iList Data 3.0 can normally be purchased for $69.95 though it can be purchased for $49.95 via a special Introductory offer through Saturday September 10. Site licenses and Academic pricing can also be purchased. A free trial version is available for download from Lakewood Studio’s web site.


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Apple Intros iTunes 5, iPod nano, iTunes Phone

By Nick, September 7, 2005

At a special press event, Apple has announced a number of new music-related products and updates:

  • iPod nano: Made to replace iPod mini, it holds 500 or 1000 songs, is flash-based, features a color screen, and starts at $199 US.
  • iTunes 5 released: features a tweaked interface, “smart shuffle,” folders, Spotlight-like search, and parental controls, among other features. Free download.
  • Motorola Rokr: the iTunes phone is here at last; holds 100 songs. Service is provided through Cingular; the phone goes for $249 US with a two-year service contract.

Also, Apple has released QuickTime 7.0.2 (available via Software Update).


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DT Interviews Nitrozac & Snaggy

By Pilky, September 7, 2005

The Joy of Tech is one of the most popular topical web comics on the net, covering topics from Apple to Microsoft to general geekiness. So of course, Deep Thought had to talk to the creators:

What inspired you to create JoT?

Nitrozac: We were having great success with our first web comic, After Y2K, which is a serial, story-line based comic. It had a large and loyal fan base, but we found that publishers didn’t want to work with such complicated storylines and characters. So we decided to try a comic that was not so dependent on an on-going story or particular characters, and ta-da! JoT was born. Within a short time we had attracted the eyes of publishers around the globe. We had our first book published by O’Reilly, our comics are regularly picked up by newspapers and user groups, and we are appearing monthly in MacWorld UK magazine.

Snaggy: AY2K is an amazing comic, and it’s storylines and characters are very dear to us, but it is limited somewhat by its own framework… a separate cartoon universe trapped in a post-Y2K meltdown. We were able to satirize current events and people through this frame, however we were…
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