[bOOzo]

Seems like a lot of people think it's ugly. I like it better, but I'm curious what the majority think, so I'm posting a poll.

[Vi0]

It's not worse; it matches Safari. Just make all the metal apps match each other. That is the big problem.

[OAW]

The only thing I don't like is that the upper left and right corners are kind of "jaggy" in fullview mode. In the other modes the corners look fine. I like the sunken buttons because it matches Safari.

OAW

[Timo]

Don't care for the "Music Store" icon in green (don't like the "Library" one either). Actually all of the icons in "Source" seem crude to me.

[Fallout]

The green color blows, but everything else is pretty cool. Is the text aliased for anyone else?

[ambush]

I have no AntiAliasing issues, but still, the interface is uglier.... (why a lil' blue dot on the volume slider?????)

Also, the green colour is UGLY.

[forkies]

My text isn't antialiased. well,

1) Plain English text isn't antialiased while 2) any track with Japanese text or a characeter with an accent is. It looks shitty.

[edit: nm, found out how to fix it http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=157962]

[sambeau]

Originally posted by OAW:
The only thing I don't like is that the upper left and right corners are kind of "jaggy" in fullview mode. In the other modes the corners look fine.

That's funny - that was one of the things that I thought was fixed and better than before..

Still say the buttons are ugly though. THey look ok-ish when blue, but are just not as nice as the old glass ones..

<- look like they've been drawn with a pencil

<- look like they are actually made of glass

[sambeau]

My mistake! I see what you mean

<-- jaggy!

[SomeToast]

34 votes better?! What madness is this?

The flattened controls squished too close to the mysteriously be-dotted volume slider makes me wonder just what intern Apple has creating their UI these days.

Tried to make the controls look like iCal and Safari? Failed.

[mitchell_pgh]

I think it generally looks cleaner and more refined from previous versions. I know the jagged edge looks a little strange and the buttons aren't "glass" but I'm tired of the "bubble" look and feel. It's getting old.

[fireside]

the green is **** and the volume slider is weird but everything else is nice

[DaedalusDX]

I like the look when the window is expanded and you can see the song list and the browser view... it reminds me alot of Safari, especially when you're browsing the Music Store...

However, when i have it minimized to the small size with just the pause, back, forward, and volume slider, it looks kind of cartoonish... the buttons look off center... at least with the floating buttons they were given a better illusion...

Oh well. I still love it. Psh.... its ugly, but its faster. THERE.

[DeathMan]

They're just having a difficult time making up their minds on what the metal interface should look like. I don't really like it all that much. Safari works for me, but the iTunes interface doesn't look that spectacular to me. iMovie I really like. I voted that its better because its more consistant with the other iApps, and thats a good thing.

[beanman]

I enjoy the new look, but unless you are really into using iTunes, like many of us, you probably wouldn't notice too much of a difference.

My main problem is that there needs to be more picks in the online service, but then again, I'm just picky.

[geekwagon]

Originally posted by ambush:
I have no AntiAliasing issues, but still, the interface is uglier.... (why a lil' blue dot on the volume slider?????)

Also, the green colour is UGLY.

Yours has a blue dot?? Mine has a dot but it isn't lit up blue, just a darker grey so it looks inset. It must have some purpose then. Do you have sound check on? I don't...

I don't mind the green on the icon. I thought it was kinda amusing that the icon that leads to increased profits for Apple was mulah green though

EDIT: Ah, I see, it glows blue when you drag it..

[SomeToast]

Originally posted by geekwagon:
Yours has a blue dot?? Mine has a dot but it isn't lit up blue, just a darker grey so it looks inset. It must have some purpose then.

I assumed that the dot in the volume slider meant that I had unsaved changes in my volume setting.

Interface consistency. That used to be a pretty cool thing.

[clarkgoble]

There's only a blue dot when you click on it. I think it is just a "gee whiz" thing myself.

I don't mind the buttons too much, although the 3D effect could be better done. But they are more like the buttons on an iPod rather than the more bubbly ones in iTunes3.

Overall I like it, although to be fair the changes are subtle.

The big interface change I love is support for the context-menu in the playlist pane. Why iTunes3 didn't support that I'll never know.

[geekwagon]

Originally posted by clarkgoble:
The big interface change I love is support for the context-menu in the playlist pane. Why iTunes3 didn't support that I'll never know.

YES!! Agreed. I have been using that all day and didn't even notice that it suddenly started working. I used to constantly right click on playlists and grumble when nothing happened.

[SSharon]

OK, so like most people I like most of the improvements but the buttons are wierd, I know people like consistency but I don't like every app looking the exact same.

Also before I complain, does anyone know if this version has support for importing 2 cd's at once (I really want to buy another cdrw but I'm not going to until I know I can import 2 at once and hopefully burn 2 at once too).

Thanks in advance if anyone knows this since I can't try it.

[Cipher13]

Fugly.

[SSharon]

it would also be nice to have more control over the source part. like be able to sort and drag stuff and change the icon colors.

[MindFad]

The things people find to bitch about.

[Gatorzx2]

I like it, it seems more smooth and refined. Floating bubbles are a thing of the past I think.....

[Kate]

iTunes 4 as an app is internally much more refined now than its predecessors, however this is not reflected by its interface, that got even more cluttered, incoherent, fuzzy and fugly IMHO.

The UI designers shoould take lessons by the iPod designers. Aplles UI division is seriously going the Windows-Style-Way: Patchwork.

I do feel sorry for those guys, it cannot be great fun to deliver something so substandard compared to what used to be Apples refined UI style.

[TheIceMan]

Originally posted by sambeau:

<- look like they've been drawn with a pencil

Yes. Completely agree. It looks like someone drew it in with a pencil!

[Nathan Adams]

I'm not a huge fan of some of the cosmetic changes.
I was a silent fan of the purple icon (i liked it about the same as iTunes 2's blue) - but the green doesn't look right in the dock at all.
Me thinks it all boils down to "Music" replacing "Switch" on the green tab of the apple website...

Never been a fan of the new iLife buttons, and they look even more out of place in iTunes - especcially in the little window mode. I like having that sunken metal bevel around the buttons - like we see in DVD Player. The buttons are easier to see like that, against the grey metal, and look less randomly placed.


Other than that though, no other complaints. The Album Art display was pulled off really well (plus they show when you're in the visualizer!). Hopefully CDDB start handling coverart in the future - as an increasing number of popular players now use them.

I had no problems with font's here...

[SomeToast]

Safari's search field magnifying glass icon:
A list of recent searches performed.

iTunes' magnifying glass icon:
A fixed list of search options.

But hey! At least they tried to make the glossy control buttons look the same between 'em!

[joltguy]

Hey Max

Looks like you may have some fans at Apple, eh? First the sunken widgets in metal, and now these flattened buttons that are mysteriously like the iFix patch. Very interesting.

And for the record I vote for the new "flat" buttons, they look more refined. I could do without the green though. Also, when you click on the Music tab on apple.com and it turns green, does the joint between the tab and the bar look "off" to anyone else? It doesn't look right to me.

[- - e r i k - -]

This doesn't look right at all:

[willed]

I don't like the volume nipple or the three main control buttons. Not cool.

[kovacs]

I like the new embedded metal icons, the new green icon is OK but the play and forward buttons are to flat...

[Developer]

I think the old buttons were slightly better than the new flat ones, but it's a matter of taste so I can live with it. What I don't understand is the dot in the volume slider. It looks like an "unsaved changes" dot, but that doesn't make sense in a volume slider. It doesn't look good either, so I wonder why they added it.

[-Q-]

Originally posted by Developer:
I think the old buttons were slightly better than the new flat ones, but it's a matter of taste so I can live with it. What I don't understand is the dot in the volume slider. It looks like an "unsaved changes" dot, but that doesn't make sense in a volume slider. It doesn't look good either, so I wonder why they added it.

Some stereos have that "feature" where the slider buttons light up. Really popular on equalizer buttons too. I think some designer liked the pretty lights on their stereo at home and decided to imitate it.

Unfortunately, it does look like the 'unsaved changes' indicator. Ah consistency...who needs it?

[SSharon]

what do people think about adding themes to iTunes and letting us choose what style buttons we want? Can this be done by third party people?

[Developer]

Someone should have told that "designer" that sliders on computer screens don't need a little light inside since the whole screen is illuminated.

[bOOzo]

Originally posted by joltguy:
Hey Max

Looks like you may have some fans at Apple, eh? First the sunken widgets in metal, and now these flattened buttons that are mysteriously like the iFix patch. Very interesting.

And for the record I vote for the new "flat" buttons, they look more refined. I could do without the green though. Also, when you click on the Music tab on apple.com and it turns green, does the joint between the tab and the bar look "off" to anyone else? It doesn't look right to me.

Hi
Yeah, they seem to get inspired by some of the stuff I do. And it seems like they had a look at the iFix too. They changed the same stuff we changed and they did the sunken bevel the same way, using a full gradient and then a mask to make it a bevel.

We are updating the iFix patch and it will (among some other things) change the volume slider back to aqua.

I like the new interface, except for Apples sunken x-+ buttons and the volume sliders which is out of place. It's also a shame that the edges are jagged.

I also noticed that they changed the beige color of the info panel to a darker shade for some reason..

[Mithras]

Originally posted by MindFad:
The things people find to bitch about.

Ditto.

[MacGorilla]

How about a "I'm sick of iTunes threads" option?

[sushiism]

i like the new buttons, apart from the volume nipple I think thats what makes the interface look weird really.

The album art in visualizer is great i love that

and the green icon is really nice, I was a fan of the purple one, not the blue one though blue is too predictable. But green is really cool its like a new flavor or something to go with the new buying music / sharing features. And andds a nice bit of green to my over blue dock

[daftpig]

well.. im not so attuned to the nuances of GUI design and have never complained much abt Aqua but I must say that I totally agree with Cipher:

FUGLY!

and I wouldn't even know if that's an understatement.

I just don't see how you can place an embedded flat glass look with a bubbly pull-down menu (look at Equalizer window), or how the inside of the vol slider glowing is more obvious than a bubble that darkens, and how the controller elements when the main window is zoomed to small are totally incongruous in layout with the traffic spots.

I've not got pissed with UI on a mac before. People have to face iTunes everyday!

EDIT: The buttons on iTunes are totally flat. The buttons on Safari are not. In fact the ones on Safari have a good visual depth.

[Greenland is for toy dogs]

Originally posted by MindFad:
The things people find to bitch about.

Werd. Griping over pixels.

[Guy Incognito 2]

Just to let you all know so it's no suprise...I just farted.

[gorickey]

Originally posted by Guy Incognito 2:
Just to let you all know so it's no suprise...I just farted.

Some things never change...

[dont.wanna.tell]

I do not like the look that much, but the buttons seem larger than before, and that makes me hit them more easy.

And I like _that_!

cu Martin
p.s.: Am I the only one to miss the "I don't care" option in the poll?

[sambeau]

Hey Max,

I don't suppose you fancy sorting out a little app to put my nice glass bubbles back, do you?

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez!

[Appleman]

I like the new look, but:

1. don't like and don't understand the sinken +-x

2. don't understand why a cd should become smaller when highligted

[n~s]

It's different, but it doesn't bother me at all. The volume nipple is amusing. I never liked the "glassy" look, so the flat looking buttons don't bother me. I really like the album graphics....I suck at this, I can't find anything to get upset about

[wr11]

Well I think the green icon is okay, it matches my Limewire Icon next to it in the dock.

[Anomalous]

Where is the option for "Same as iTunes 3"? I don't think it matters much either way. I do like the green, though.