What are your thoughts on the New iTunes 11?

iTunes never has included negative search criteria in the smart playlist name as far as I can remember. I'd suggest 'the Mac way' is to fill in little details like titles automatically, but allow editing afterwards, it simplifies the creation dialog. Usable default values that can be changed - that feels like the Mac way to me.

How should it handle 'begins with…' and playlists multiple criteria? e.g. 'Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins but not begining with Jailhouse' seems unweildy for the sidebar to me.

You can also hit enter or fn+return on short keyboards to edit the name field of a selected playlist.

I'd suggest making a playlist folder and then create all your smart playlists, new ones go inside the folder if you have it selected. Drag them all out once you have the names 'fixed'.

Cornel wrote:

Yes - I know you can edit it afterward

I don't mean afterwards at random. I mean do it as the final part of the act of creating it, in the same way that you need to decide which options to use at the bottom.

I have to say I'm very surprised there is no simple, intuitive way of naming a smart playlist at the outset. Seems an odd .omission and more than a little un-Mac like.

I don't have a Mac, but I'd be surprised if every application demanded you name the document before you start editing it so I can't see how that works.

tt2

Yes - that'd work. Now I know the system is slightly ropey, however, I can compensate, and there are several workarounds. It just caught me off guard the first time, since I have a lot of smart playlists, and once I'd created the new one it simply disappeared into the melange of existing lists without a recognisable name or - more importantly - without giving me a chance to assign one. It's only a little point, but I believe it could have been better thought through.

turingtest2 wrote:

Cornel wrote:

Yes - I know you can edit it afterward

I don't mean afterwards at random. I mean do it as the final part of the act of creating it, in the same way that you need to decide which options to use at the bottom.

I have to say I'm very surprised there is no simple, intuitive way of naming a smart playlist at the outset. Seems an odd .omission and more than a little un-Mac like.

I don't have a Mac, but I'd be surprised if every application demanded you name the document before you start editing it so I can't see how that works.

tt2

No, not before editing it, before saving it. That way I can find the new list easily (I have a lot of smart lists:-).

Cornel wrote:

.. and once I'd created the new one it simply disappeared into the melange of existing lists without a recognisable name or - more importantly - without giving me a chance to assign one.

That would be annoying. As I say, when I complete the set of rules in iTunes for Windows the new playlist is displayed with the playlist name already highlighted for editing so I can just type the name I want..

tt2

Cornel: You shouldn't have to do anykind of work around, Apple Simple made iTunes a Neutered pet project for some one! The fact that millions are users are ****** off goes beyond me why Apple doesn't keep it so you customize it, most users used Coverflow, heck Apple still has the option to use it when your looking stuff up you can change the option to have the coverflow. iPads/iTouches etc, all use the swipe feature, and coverflow you could use this way as well as using your mouse. They sold hundreds of thousands of remotes with Macbooks Pros and iMacs and now the remote function is reduced. I used a Mac Mini in my Home Theater Room, and when they got rid of cover flow I was royally POed! Well I was able to reinstall 10 on my computer and I shut off my automatic updates, I already was made when they removed "Front Row" as I thought that was a excellent program for allowing one to access iTunes with a much more GUI and visual access, then they got rid of that which was Odd and now coverflow is gone. 😟 Apple should allow iTunes coverflow as an option if you want to turn it on or off and change the look, much like they still do when searching for other programs. Sorry for the rant! 😉

Cornel wrote:

This may well have been covered and - if so - I apologise but I've spent a couple of days helping a friend with her new iPod touch. We sorted the issues, but I came across something odd; as far as I can see there is no information from Apple, nor does anyone seem to know about how to name a Smart playlist as you set it up.

The first option presented is a sort criterion, and it seems that whatever is entered in that field becomes the name of the smart playlist until changed by the user at a later point. The sheer daftness of this - if it's indeed true - was brought home when I tried to create a smart playlist which excluded all titles with 'Xmas'. The new list was named 'Xmas'. Someone please tell me the Apple software people aren't that daft and that I've overlooked something blindingly obvious.

@cornell

This may not actually answer your question, but here's some info you might be interested in. I find the easiest way to exclude certain music like xmas music is to do this:

1) create a separate standard playlist for each type of music you're not particularly interested in, most of the time... I have the following: xmas, halloween, special occasions, 'really in the mood' (sorry for all the fans out there but I really have to be in the mood to listen to gnr, metallica, ozzy and a few others, in which case I'll go pick them out specifically. I do this so I'm not bothered by these songs in my normal playlists)

2) Create a smart playlist called 'master list' that has the criteria "not in this play list", defined once for each of the playlists created in #1

3) base your other smart playlists on #2 (such as "all 5 stars, not listened in the past 5 days, within "master list")

It makes it easier to browse through your library and right-click -> add to playlist whatever... to quickly add/remove them....

The advantage is if you have your master list, you can see what is there, you can right click an album/song and say "add to playlist" defined in step 1. It is then removed. To add it back, go to the special playlists, select, delete (though you might have fun figuring out which playlist you put it in, so you'd want to keep the "exclude music" lists down to a small handful.

And when those occasions do present themselves, you already have a playlist dedicated just for that purpose.

That's similar to some of the strategies I use at the moment, and thanks.

But it wasn't the playlist content that was troublesome; it was more that I was taken aback by the actual programming itself.

I've been using Macs since the '80s, and their main selling point has always been ease of use. Now, I can accept that once I understand the foibles of any program, I can work around its perceived shortcomings. And I suppose this one isn't all that bad; but it is illogical. To me, anyway, it doesn't make sense to have the initial filter criterion become the default title of the smart playlist when it must have been equally as straightforward to have a simple box asking for the name of your list prior to saving it. What is also a little annoying is that I can't find anything, anywhere from Apple that explains this. A single line in their iTunes help file would have sufficed, but if there is that line I can't find it.

I suspect this is all part of Apple's minimalistic approach which in the main, I applaud, but I wonder, sometimes, if they consider all the ramifications of their policies.

Anyway, thanks for all the help and comments. everyone.

I remember my first moments on Itunes 11 years ago, was beautiful...changing the deal... Don't push us away apple.

I gave it three months but just couldn't take iTunes 11 anymore. I spent an evening exporting my iTunes 11 library as XML, importing in iTunes 10, and rebuilding. I lost a lot of data about my songs and had to re-add all my apps and reconfigure my iPhone and iPad. It was a nuissance, but staying with iTunes 11 would have been worse.

Why did I want out of iTunes 11?

Searching large libraries is s-l-o-w. The combs and playlist position reset whenever I change views. The up-next playlist editing is clumsy. I can't open two playlists at once. I can't view my library and the store at the same time. Play order gets screwed up if I'm playing one playlist while viewing another. I can't even fit as many list items on the screen.

I got a total of one wanted feature in iTunes 11. That's the ability to view my TV purchases in the cloud. Literally every other change was a don't-care or a tedious regression.

iTunes 11, maps and the new iPhone podcast app broke my trust in Apple. Since these, I've been much more wait-and-see on any new Apple spend. It's not worth the premium if I've got to learn to eat around the bugs.

McGroarty: totally agree with you, to the point I am holding off buying a new iMac because iTunes has turned into Bloatware! If I can

install iTunes 10 on my new machine then I might buy one.

Apples interface is still on your computer "AKA" Cover Flow which

you can still setup to look at program etc.. then remove it from iTunes 11 is beyond comprehension! That is just one gripe of several I have.

This piece of garbage called iTunes 11 - don't let that stop you from buying a new iMac. You can load iTunes 10 and off you go. The new machines with SSDs freakin' rip.

I've using using v11 for months now. No longer do I bother enjoying quickly built mixes and being able to randomize them with the click of a button, and so forth. Now it's just a store front and a place to hold my music and movies, sync phone, etc.. It's a real piece of garbage but I have too much into it now to go back. lol

I've been experimenting with other music players, like Vox and Enqueue. I've pretty much written off iTune...

I'd suggest you go see an Apple Store genius if you are able to do so. They may be able to tell you (or allow you to try the iTunes 10 installer) on a new iMac, the store machines get re-imaged to a clean state so your changes shouldn't worry them, assuming they are willing to help. They may even have a tech note that shows the versons that can still run iTunes 10.

Apple make new machines require particular OS versions, and the OS version can limit the iTunes version.

I suspect news of 10.9 will come out at WWDC next month, sometime after that Apple will ship that as the default OS, and find some reason for preventing you installing 10.8 & iTunes 10 etc. Now might actually be a good time to get a Mac that can still run iTunes 10 for a few years.

completely agree.

i've stopped upgrading everything. i down(?!)graded to iTunes 10.7 months ago, but have been worried ever since that if i up(?!)grade my iPhone software, or OSx, or anything else, that it might force me to upgrade from iTunes 10.7 to 11, which I absolutely do not want to do.

so, like many others on this thread, I'm stuck in a timewarp. happy where i am, but knowing full well that there is dark at the end of the tunnel...

i am lucky that i bought a new iMac in january, and having switched off any upgrades of anything, i'm safe. until apple either turn iTunes into something vaguely worth having, or withdraw functionality on what i've got and force me to accept something that 56,000 posts say is ****.

i'm sure that many people are in the same situation. we'll all hit the wall at different times. When i do, iTunes will either be good enough, or i'll quit, and go to the dark side.

i wonder what steve jobs would say, to me and so many other 30 year apple devotees...?

iTunes 11 is horrible.

I like iTunes 10 the best.

Operating System: Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3

MacBook Pro

Febuary 2011

Username on Apple Support: Macintosh OS X