Fair Warning: Do not update iTunes (More fun with podcasts)...

[Chakravartin]

In the latest version of iTunes, Apple hid the "refresh" button for podcasts. It's now a tiny little thing in the upper left corner of the screen. They also added a completely useless "feed" view.

That garbage is easy to forgive. It's not like Apple has a reputation for making a functional or simple graphic user interface or anything like that.

Another thing they did, tho was to change the way that podcasts are downloaded. You no longer see the status of a podcast-download at the top of the screen. There's no indication anymore when a podcast is being downloaded...

Except this: During a download, the entire iTunes interface stalls and the cursor beachballs, perfectly mimicking a hang/crash.

I've reproduced this on 3 computers. iTunes 11.2.2 becomes completely unresponsive during podcast downloads.

No way for an ordinary Joe to figure out that it isn't crashing. I happen to have MenuMeters installed and saw that there was data coming down, so I gave it a few minutes and as soon as the download completed the beachballing stopped.

If you have a lot of podcasts or you get a few big ones now and again (the 4GB Apple keynote podcast, for example) that could put iTunes out of service for quite awhile.

I'd consider it a bug, except that the last few iterations of iTunes have so obviously been intended to dissuade anyone from actually using the app.

If you insist on using iTunes, best to avoid this update and if you've already updated, best to disable automatic downloads unless you like your music being interrupted during iTunes' periodic fits.

[Black]

Is there an alternative to iTunes that will manage playlists on an iPod?

[sekker]

I think we should do a simple petition to Apple:

'Dear Mr Cook,

Please fix iTunes?

It feels like a Microsoft windows program now in its infinitely poor interface and implementation.

With our sincerest love,

Apple iPod users. "

[DP]

I am on 11.1 and noticed things like no indication of downloading. Also, I loaded Mavs on my mid 2009 MBP and there are no scroll arrows now which means I have to use two fingers to scroll. I can click just above and below the scroll bar but it usually jumps too far when I do that. Is there an app or setting to add back the scroll arrows?
They also dropped the "Save As" from the menu in Preview which I use a lot. I know from this august forum to hold down the Option key and Save As appears but why even bother to change it to that? It wasn't broken and they fixed it...

[davemchine]

I've had to quit and restart iTunes several times due to video streaming being interrupted every few minutes. Not apples best release.

[cbelt3]

I SO Agree.... the iDevice interface in iTunes is farging useless. I mean, it's there, but you have to hunt for it. Obscurity is NOT a good model for an interface.

[DP]

Maybe we could send a letter with the offered signatures of this forum and present it to Apple. Think it would help?

[silvarios]

cbelt3 wrote:
I SO Agree.... the iDevice interface in iTunes is farging useless. I mean, it's there, but you have to hunt for it. Obscurity is NOT a good model for an interface.

Breaking up the iTunes Conglomerate. That guy has it right.

Apple had a really nice base for syncing devices, iSync. Instead of extending it to syncing media, they killed it completely. The iPhone never tied into iSync. Lot of cool OS X tech got thrown out by Apple after the iPhone release. Sending/Receiving SMS on my Mac was pretty cool. I think I remember sending and receiving calls as well. Now we have the closed silo that is iMessages that doesn't really support the same features. Yay, progress!

[silvarios]

DP wrote:
Maybe we could send a letter with the offered signatures of this forum and present it to Apple. Think it would help?

I doubt it.

[ka jowct]

DP wrote:
I am on 11.1 and noticed things like no indication of downloading. Also, I loaded Mavs on my mid 2009 MBP and there are no scroll arrows now which means I have to use two fingers to scroll. I can click just above and below the scroll bar but it usually jumps too far when I do that. Is there an app or setting to add back the scroll arrows?
They also dropped the "Save As" from the menu in Preview which I use a lot. I know from this august forum to hold down the Option key and Save As appears but why even bother to change it to that? It wasn't broken and they fixed it...

Those were some seriously stupid and annoying interface changes. You can reverse some of the nonsense with Mountain Lion Tweaks, which also works with Mavericks.

Also, you can use system prefs to adjust what happens when you click in a scroll area.