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journal: mac
See, this is why I hate iTunes…
How does a company as revered as Apple mess up something as simple as a Pause button?
So let’s say i’m listening to an album in iTunes. ‘s all good. But then the phone rings, or I click over to YouTube, or something happens that makes me pause the music. Still no problem. But then I head back to iTunes, maybe check out the store, search for an artist or something. I don’t find what i’m looking for, so I hit the Play button to resume the album I was listening to.
Only it doesn’t resume the album; instead, it starts playing whatever I am looking at in the store. And it drives me completely insane!
People call this intuitive!? When I click “Pause” it means I want to hold it in that position so I can resume viewing/listening to it later. That’s how Pause buttons work. It doesn’t mean it should completely forget what I was listening to and play something else.
Every other jukebox application implements a persistent Now Playing list which never changes unless you explicitly tell it to. Why can’t iTunes implement this simple feature? And while they’re at it, how about throwing in a “Stop” button? I know Apple loves its iconic three-button “Rewind, Play/Pause, Forward” button arrangement, but for the love of God, the Pause button is completely broken!
Am I the only one who sees this? How does a company as revered as Apple mess up something as simple as a Pause button?
Is Steve’s RDF really that strong?
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11 | 3168 |
| UnnDunn | comments | views |
thinkback
I’m sorry, but that’s not good enough. The bottom line is the Pause button on iTunes acts more like a Stop button. The whole purpose of Pause is to temporarily freeze playback at a certain location so it can be resumed later (maybe after a toilet break or similar short interruption.) That function is broken in iTunes. Period, end of story.
What you’re describing is akin to the “Resume” feature on a DVD player, whereby you can Stop playback, turn off the player, but have it remember where you were so you can come back the next day and continue watching. It’s great that iTunes does that, but it’s no substitute for a working Pause button.
| UnnDunn | Sep. 16, 2006 | |
| 11:51 am |
This has always bugged me as well. I’m usually pretty careful about not changing the current playlist in iTunes when I’m listening to music in case I have to pause it suddenly, or if I have changed it, I go back to it before pausing. But sometimes, I forget or it’s really quick, and it does exactly what you described. It even changes to a stop button when you’re looking at something besides your current playlist.
I love iTunes, but this is definitely something I wish they’d change. The sooner, the better.
| Sep. 16, 2006 | |
| Arden | 8:19 pm |
It needs a working stop button too, when I’m through listening to something, I want to click on the stop button to get the song out of the player.
| Sep. 19, 2006 | |
| 6:48 am |
Only it doesn’t resume the album; instead, it starts playing whatever I am looking at in the store. And it drives me completely insane!
You have something else selected in the music store and you press the Play button and you think it’s intuitive to have it play what you were playing before versus playing what you have selected?
Personally, I have not problem realizing that I’m in the Store and that if I press Play, it’s going to play what I have selected. Why is that so hard for you to grasp?
Every other jukebox application implements a persistent Now Playing list which never changes unless you explicitly tell it to.
So if you click on an album and press play, it will populate a “Now Playing” list with that album? That’s a good feature.
But I can just go to my Library and I see 8,900 songs and if I press Play with one of them selected, it’s going to start playing at that song and continue through the entire list. How is “Now Playing” defined?
Playlists keep playing no matter what you do with your Library or the store, but if you start playing another file it flushes out what you were playing before. You can bring up multiple windows in iTunes by double-clicking on a Playlist.
I think it will confuse more people than not if you have multiple players - store, video, music, now playing, etc. all behaving independently.
You have something else selected in the music store and you press the Play button and you think it’s intuitive to have it play what you were playing before versus playing what you have selected?
Oh, yes, I think it is. I think, if I’m listening to a certain playlist (say, Party Shuffle) and I’m browsing the iTS, I should be able to pause and resume what I’m playing without having to go back to the original playlist.
Personally, I have not problem realizing that I’m in the Store and that if I press Play, it’s going to play what I have selected. Why is that so hard for you to grasp?
It’s not that it’s a hard concept to grasp, it’s just not the best way of doing things. It shouldn’t just play whatever’s on the screen, it should play what I had told it to play before.
So if you click on an album and press play, it will populate a “Now Playing� list with that album? That’s a good feature.
But I can just go to my Library and I see 8,900 songs and if I press Play with one of them selected, it’s going to start playing at that song and continue through the entire list. How is “Now Playing� defined?
Playlists keep playing no matter what you do with your Library or the store, but if you start playing another file it flushes out what you were playing before. You can bring up multiple windows in iTunes by double-clicking on a Playlist.
I think it will confuse more people than not if you have multiple players - store, video, music, now playing, etc. all behaving independently.
You’re missing the point. Nobody’s saying that there should be an entirely new “Now playing” playlist in the Source list, that repopulates based on whatever playlist you tell iTunes to play, ala Windows Media Player. The point is, it should remember which playlist you WERE playing, and if you hit “pause” (because there should be an independent “stop” button) it pauses that playlist until you hit play. It should be able to pause and resume a playlist in the background, without having to mess around in the Source list.
If I’m playing Party Shuffle and I then double-click on a song in the iTS, then yeah, it should start playing that (and continue to the next one, in the Store). But turning the “pause” button into a “stop” button when you’re not looking at the current playlist is annoying and unintuitive.
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| Sep. 19, 2006 | |
| Arden | 3:05 pm |
, yes, I think it is. I think, if I’m listening to a certain playlist (say, Party Shuffle) and I’m browsing the iTS, I should be able to pause and resume what I’m playing without having to go back to the original playlist.
So how do you listen to the file you have selected in the iTunes Store if not by clicking on the giant play button at the top?
It’s not that it’s a hard concept to grasp, it’s just not the best way of doing things. It shouldn’t just play whatever’s on the screen, it should play what I had told it to play before.
It should play what you have selected, otherwise how do you play what you have selected?
The point is, it should remember which playlist you WERE playing, and if you hit “pause� (because there should be an independent “stop� button) it pauses that playlist until you hit play. It should be able to pause and resume a playlist in the background, without having to mess around in the Source list.
So you want two sets of playback controls - one for the store and one for the playlist you are playing?
I’m not trying to be a prick here, really. I’m ignorant about the feature you guys are describing because I don’t use any of the Windows players anymore and I haven’t experienced the improvements. I’m very open-minded about features in other players that are useful that iTunes may not have.
So if I’m playing a song in my playlist and I go to the Store, the Play button becomes a Stop button. Without anything selected in the Store, if I want to pause the music because the phone rings, I only have a Stop button and then I can’t resume. This is the functionality that we are talking about? If so, I agree. Without anything selected in the Store, it should be a Pause button.
It’s weird that you can actually pause it by right-clicking on the Dock icon and selecting Pause from there while you are browsing the Store and resume the same way.
MacWorld has a piece on iTunes 7 about some things that need fixing.
I was replying to UnDunn’s specific statement about having something selected in the Store and pressing the Play button and how it plays what he has selected versus what he was playing before he stopped his music. I don’t understand the functionality that he’s asking for in that regard.
It’s weird that you can actually pause it by right-clicking on the Dock icon and selecting Pause from there while you are browsing the Store and resume the same way.
... I did not know about that! But that is what I want. I want to be able to push the button up in the top left, have it PAUSE, and have it RESUME without having to do anything else. None of this playlist scrambling crap.
I’m not trying to be a prick here, really. I’m ignorant about the feature you guys are describing because I don’t use any of the Windows players anymore and I haven’t experienced the improvements. I’m very open-minded about features in other players that are useful that iTunes may not have.
So if I’m playing a song in my playlist and I go to the Store, the Play button becomes a Stop button. Without anything selected in the Store, if I want to pause the music because the phone rings, I only have a Stop button and then I can’t resume. This is the functionality that we are talking about? If so, I agree. Without anything selected in the Store, it should be a Pause button.
Okay, so if you have something playing in Party Shuffle and you browse the store, you should be able to play and pause Party Shuffle without anything happening. To listen to something in the store, or any other playlist for that matter, you should be able to hit stop and then hit play, or just double-click something in the store. Now are you understanding?
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| Sep. 20, 2006 | |
| Arden | 9:46 am |
Okay, so if you have something playing in Party Shuffle and you browse the store, you should be able to play and pause Party Shuffle without anything happening.
I agree, and you can do that via the Dock icon. They need to make it so that if I’m in the Store and have nothing selected, there is no Stop button. It’s a Pause button for the song playing and turns into a Play button for the song that’s playing until I select something in the Store.
But the Play button should always play what I have selected no matter what, IMHO.
OK, in Windows Media Player (and most other audio jukeboxes in Windows) there is this concept of a “Now Playing List” which merely tells you what songs are currently queued up for playback.
In order to change the list, I have to issue an explicit command to do so. I can add things to the list by dragging them in or by selecting “Add to Now Playing” from a context menu. I can remove things by selecting the list item(s) I want to remove and hitting Delete. I can rearrange items in the list by dragging them around. Or I can overwrite the list with a completely new list by double-clicking something in the library (thus indicating my desire to play that thing.)
All of the playback commands only deal with the Now Playing list. |< and >| move between tracks in the list. Stop stops playback at the current track on the list; Play restarts playback at the beginning of the current track. Pause freezes playback for resumption later, as it should.
At any time, you can quickly save or burn your current Now Playing list with a single click.
The Now Playing list provides massive flexibility and it always gives you very clear and explicit information about what the player is going to do next. If you’re used to the way iTunes does it, it may take a little while to get used to having the list, but it’s nothing compared to getting used to not having it, and dealing with all of the idiosyncracies that result from having to constantly guess as to what iTunes will do next.
| UnnDunn | Sep. 20, 2006 | |
| 5:19 pm |
Or I can overwrite the list with a completely new list by double-clicking something in the library (thus indicating my desire to play that thing.)
That sounds like a nice feature. How do you append that new album? How would you browse your album and have it play two different albums or half of one album and half of another?
I use a Playlist in iTunes and I know exactly what’s going to play next. It sounds like you might be playing from your Library as you browse your Library.
If I’m listening to my “Now Playing” Playlist and I’m browsing my Library and I want to add another album to what I’m listening to, I select the album and then right-click and there’s an option to add it to the “Now Playing” Playlist, or I can drag and drop.
1.
Every other jukebox have an integrated online music store?
iTunes does not forget the tune or the spot in the song when you pressed Pause when you go back to the Library (or playlist). Simply ensure that you have “Remember playback position” enabled in the song’s Get Info (under Options).
Cheers
Frank