Steve Isaacs

Why doesn't iTunes have a feed for what I listen to, for what I purchase? It doesn't make sense, there is a TON of cool user data that would only help to publicize their service. Why is iTunes such a walled garden? - Steve Isaacs

iTunes is such a poor program. It lacks in so many surprising and obvious ways. - Akiva Moskovitz

Akiva - I strongly disagree. I love it, but there's no reason it won't pipe out RSS feeds we can use here. What don't you like about it? - Steve Isaacs

Well, you can sort of get there by scrobbling to last.fm. As for why it's a walled garden? It's made by Apple - walled gardens are just in the company's blood. Also, let me forward the thesis that iTunes simply blows - it's the primary thing that's keeping me from buying another iPod. - Eric P

Well, on a Mac, it's apparently much better but on a PC, it's just rubbish. I only use it because I need to sync my iPhone. My main complaint about it is the lack of options over very simple things: where's the option to delete the original WAV files when converting to ALAC? Where's the option to automatically convert ALACs to AAC or MP3 when transferring to a device or burning to CD? Why can't I just play tracks without having to import them into the library? Where's the Now Playing list? - Akiva Moskovitz

Why can't I search the Radio list? Why can't multiple users run iTunes at the same time on a server machine? Why can't I specify HOW iTunes keeps folders organized? Where's the plug-in architecture so I can play and convert FLAC or APE files? I could go on and on and on... - Akiva Moskovitz

I've been pissed at itunes since one of their updates erased all my non-smart playlists. I spent a lot of time creating those playlists! - Shannon Jiménez

Make me a member of the iTunes hating club. I've settled on Songbird for Audio and WMP for Video so far. - Yuvi (has IRL friends!)

Oh, Shannon reminds me of another good one: if I set up a Smart Playlist that has, say, 50 randomly-selected 4- and 5-star files... why can't it randomize from my library each time I sync my media device? It's just the same 50 tracks until I recreate the list from scratch. It's rubbish. - Akiva Moskovitz

Also, it's just a no-good PC citizen. PC apps should behave like PC apps on a PC because they are PC apps! - Yuvi (has IRL friends!)

@Yuvi - why wouldn't you use VLC for your video needs .. WMP is such a pig on resources - Steven Hodson

@Steven - I like WMP's interface better. Honestly, I haven't given VLC much of a try. When I did try it last year, however, it failed to give a great first impression. - Yuvi (has IRL friends!)

@Akiva Moskovitz: I couldn't agree more. On the bright side, Songbird keeps getting better and better, and has lots of cross platform mozilla-y goodness, with all the play-anything-ness of VLC. - Eric P

I'm probably the only person on the planet that doesn't like the Mozilla feel. The ONLY reason why I use Firefox 3 is because of the CS Lite and NoScript plug-ins. Ubiquity's nice, too. Otherwise, I'd be back with Opera in a heartbeat. - Akiva Moskovitz

Um...they do. I've got a feed up on my blog from iTunes. - Jill, Superhero Librarian

+1 Eric. Songbird is now my primary Music Player. - Yuvi (has IRL friends!)

JMS - really? Where do I find it? I've searched... - Steve Isaacs

iTunes? Oh yeah, I remember it using it in dark ages... It seems so long ago... - Ryo

I love iTunes; i've always used it my first mp3 was an iPod shuffle never looked back since then - Gordon Swaby