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mackandproud · Sep 24, 2009, 02:14 AM

That was my first reaction as well. I read a few posts and a review and I thought, 'no way it's as bad as people say.' You know how mac guys create threads with 1500 posts based on whether safari opens up a web page 1/1,000,000,000 of a second faster than firefox.

So yeah, I figured this was more of the same. Wrong. The UI sucks. The two tone faux metal is garish. The volume slider just looks odd. The font is tiny and unappealing. The white background is highly irritating. The green button was jacked up.

Itunes 8 was solid and I couldn't believe 9 could be botched as badly as people were saying. Now we know!

Originally Posted by Big Mac

Is the new UI really as bad as people say it is?

Spheric Harlot · Sep 24, 2009, 03:12 AM

The source icons are a little eyesoreish, but on the whole, I really like it.

infowarrior · Sep 24, 2009, 09:07 AM

FWIW saying, I went and downgraded to iTunes 8.x the day before 9.01 came out.....even though Apple fixed the green-button Mini player bug in iTunes 9. Frankly for me all I use iTunes for is MP3 playback and organising anyway .... it's gotten too big for what I use/need it for!

mackandproud · Sep 28, 2009, 02:51 AM

My mini-boycott of Itunes 9 ended today. I couldn't hold out any longer. As long as they fix the white background debacle, I will have no more complaints.

Actually, I have one more. The font is jacked up. It's way too small, and generally looks bad. I couldn't tell you why, but it does. And then there's the bizarre and useless two tone sheen/glare which is completely silly and over the top.

Overall, itunes 9 looks and feels like an ill-executed windoze rip-off of itunes. Say it ain't so, Apple!

MallyMal · 04:40 PM

9.0.2 is out. Says you can change the background to dark but I can't find where to do that. It also throw up two errors while I was installing it on my Mac Pro with Snow Leopard.

Edit: Found the BG color under Preferences-> General

mackandproud · Oct 29, 2009, 11:40 PM

It sure is a relief to get away from the glaring white.

It's not really black as it was before, more like a dark grey. Apple just can't seem to get it "right."

Itunes works, but esthetically, it's a pain in the arse. I've been dissatisfied with the smallish font too. Apple fixed something/s which was/were never broke to begin with. Never a good idea.

TETENAL · Oct 30, 2009, 07:16 AM

It wasn't black before.

infowarrior · Oct 30, 2009, 08:36 AM

I am still on 8.9.x after the Green Dot fiasco with 9. Frankly I use iTunes only as MP3 organiser/player for my existing songs, don't have a JesusPhone, and could care less about the Store. 8.9.x works just fine for me, thankyouverymuch.

I could be wrong, but iTunes is starting (to me) to feel more bloated with each new release.

Spheric Harlot · Oct 30, 2009, 06:41 PM

Originally Posted by infowarrior

I am still on 8.9.x after the Green Dot fiasco with 9. Frankly I use iTunes only as MP3 organiser/player for my existing songs, don't have a JesusPhone, and could care less about the Store. 8.9.x works just fine for me, thankyouverymuch.

I could be wrong, but iTunes is starting (to me) to feel more bloated with each new release.

You are. 9 restored some of the zippy I was missing.

mackandproud · Nov 6, 2009, 03:21 AM

I notice you scour this forum in order to "rebut" every possible criticism of Apple, especially Itunes 9. It's really bizarre and obsessive. Itunes is not a human being you have to demonstrate loyalty to, like Smithers to Mr. Burns. It's just a computer program which is more or less useful, and which is more or less esthetically pleasing.

Try not to get too invested emotionally, or identify your ego with crushing or stamping out any criticism of Apple. Seriously, it's creepy. Good luck.

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot

You are. 9 restored some of the zippy I was missing.

Spheric Harlot · Nov 6, 2009, 04:57 AM

Seriously: If that's what you think, why not just put me on ignore?

asg900 · Nov 13, 2009, 03:15 AM

How to change the default view when launching iTunes? It now opens in grid view with albums shown sorted alphabetically. I want to have it always open with the list view displayed and sorted with the last added (my newest music) at the top. I manually do this three-step operation each time I open iTunes. Thanks...

Hal Itosis · 04:41 AM

Not too crazy about the way the store works (or looks) anymore. I miss my shopping 'cart'. EDIT: oh okay, maybe the <Wish List> is a suitable replacement. [it can be viewed in a browser as well.]

Also... it seems once you click in its content area, the tab key goes dumb. We can't tab into the search box for example, gotta click. I also find it weird that ⌘F doesn't put the focus on that search box (gotta use ⌘⌥F instead). Oh i see, ⌘F is full screen? No thanks... should be the other way around. [and even adding a big fat ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.iTunes/Cache.db doesn't make pages at the store load as fast as they did in 8.2.1]

FWIW, i never used either 9.0 or 9.0.1 --- but 9.0.2 seems to have the same 'Green Dot' behavior every other iTunes always had. [the only tweak i've done is to invertStoreLinks]

Hal Itosis · Nov 13, 2009, 06:32 PM

Originally Posted by Hal Itosis

FWIW, i never used either 9.0 or 9.0.1 --- but 9.0.2 seems to have the same 'Green Dot' behavior every other iTunes always had. [the only tweak i've done is to invertStoreLinks]

Reportedly, the 'Green Dot' behavior can be toggled with:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes zoom-to-window -bool YES
[advisably, iTunes should not be running at the time.]

I just checked mine with:
$ defaults read com.apple.iTunes zoom-to-window
2009-11-13 17:26:01.665 defaults[4734:10b]
The domain/default pair of (com.apple.iTunes, zoom-to-window) does not exist

...which indicates that whatever behavior i'm seeing in inherent (to 9.0.2 anyway).