So i’ve been using iTunes since back when it was version 2 and have pretty much been satisfied with the whole UI. But just recently Apple has released iTunes 9 at they’re “Its just rock and roll…” event, but too me it seems like an unnecessary update. Where should i start…

What I Dont Like..

My main quable with it is the new Store UI, it looks too much like it has been designed for a touch device, much like an iPhone or even a rumored tablet (yuck). Don’t get me wrong it looks nice, but it doesn’t flow nicely. I liked how the old store looked like part of the regular library, and everything kinda matched. Now its just too busy, there are things everywhere. It seems like a step backwards.

Look at all the extra stuff, and this is just on top, there is more if you scroll down. Also the store is WAY too processor heavy. Loading the Store main page ramps the fans on my iMac up to takeoff mode (4000rpm) and then the spinning ball shows up for a second or two. Is it all flash based now? It seems like its running as a web app and not a desktop based app.

Some other things that changed include: While in your music library, clicking the “store arrow” on a song that’s tags don’t match with iTunes, takes you directly to the store main page and not a Did you mean this? page. So you have to manually search, which then shows you everything that matches in the store, podcasts, apps (that usually have nothing to do with what you want), videos, etc.

Also if you have songs that didnt come from the store and you’re trying to tag them, you cant copy and paste the info anymore.

A BIG annoyance is that the track skip buttons dont do anything in the music store anymore. Before, i used to go to the Top Songs and click the first one to play and then click ’skip’ and go down the list. Now you cant do that. You have to click the little circle for each one. APPLE PLEASE FIX THIS!! its by far the worst thing about the update. (Well besides the miniplayer issue which since has been fixed)

[UPDATE] I just recently discovered that the “Just for you” section of the store is missing. I liked that when i was looking for music that was similar to the stuff i already like and have. It was sorta like the genius feature, but for stuff you dont own yet.  I cant seem to find it in the store now.. Hmm tsk tsk…

Here are some things that i DO like..

The tabs on the top of the store are cool, but this have been added to the old style store.

The genius mixes are pretty cool. i just wish under each one it would say what it was instead of having to rollover to find out.

And when you in the store i like how the music video previews show up on top, just like a QuickLook, saves the store from having to load another page, and a spinning ball. But, when its finished playing it stays there and you have to click out by hand.

And the iTunes LP thing is ok, im not really into all that extra stuff, they look cool and allbut i just want to listen to the music and not look at all that extra stuff. At least on the computer that is, i do like analog CD cases. Music videos are one exception, but they dont need to have a whole song and dance about them, just include them with the album, as an option that can be turned on or off at checkout, something like: “Do you want the extras for $4.99?” would be nice.

Also i like how the album QuickLook is, but the one song at a time preview is tedious..

And one thing I’ve been hoping for for a long time as the ability to scoot your iPhone apps around via iTunes, and now you can, but, it still needs some work. You can drag and drop stuff where ever you want, individual or whole pages, but its still limited by the ’spring’ action, you really cant just drop it anywhere you want, you have to fight with the spring loaded “springboard”.

Other than these few items I’ll give the new iTunes 4 stars, (down from 5) and the redesigned store a 3, of 5. What do you think? Do you like the new store? Hate it? write a comment and let me know.

Andrew Apple Apple, itunes, itunes9, music store

Ok so its about time for me to buy a new computer.. My current set up is a G5 iMac which still runs fine but last week something happened to safari and i sorta have to redo alot of stuff that i was waiting to redo until i got a new one. Recently Apple has released the new MacBook Pros, at an attractive-er price and ive seriously been considering buying one. BUT, im in a dilemma, ever since ive been using a computer it has always been a desktop so moving to my main machine being a notebook im not sure how im going to like it. So i need YOU to help me decide.

The Candidates:

The big plus side here is that ill be able to take all my stuff and move it to another place and keep working. I’ve also always wanted a MacBook Pro, even though i still have an iBook (ok come on its a G3 900mHz for crying out loud) so that i can be portable at the moment, and quite frankly if im going outside of the house, that would be the one i take, because if something happened to it, it would be less of a disaster.

The Downside here is that i would be tied to a laptop at all times instead of a desktop like setup (since the iMac is a hybrid middle ground). To compensate i am going to buy a screen to go with it. Id like the Apple LED on but its too big at 24″, but i might testdrive on just to see. I like a clean flowing desk and im not sure how well the form factor of a laptop next to a screen will work.

I would get the 15″ one because a 17″ portable is too big. So its between these too, currently i have an 80GB hard drive so ive learned to compute small so the hard drive space i really am not worried about. Especially since ill have it hooked up to my 1TB drive (although now i with that was a FW800 drive, oh well)

SD card slot, YAY!! -selling point-

So its down to speed. I was leaning toward the 2.66, although the 3.06 would be nice, but i like the price of the 2.53. So here is the question, am i REALLY going to notice the difference and say “damn, i wish i would have bought the 2.66″ its less that a tenth of a speed difference. ANYTHING would be better than the single core, G5 1.8 ghz i run now. Also the thing i really like about these is the dual graphics, and im thinking the 2.66 would be a better choice because it has the 9400M and GT with 256mb.

The Plus Side is most definitely the price, this one is considerably less. Also i wouldn’t need to buy an additional screen to go with it, and it would work with my flow better. It has the same processor as the MacBook Pro, the 2.66, and a little bigger hard drive too i think.

The Down Side to this one is slightly larger. Im pretty sure i dont want a 24″ screen, thats just too big. So in-order to have the 20″ i wouldnt be able to have the GT graphics and that was something i really liked with the MBPs. Also i wouldnt be able to take it to different parts of the house. I like to watch top gear from hessmo.com and i would like to hook it up to my 42″ tv in my room and watch it there, with this i cant do that. I also dont really like the design of these as they havnt quite grown on me yet. Also 2GB of ram is what i have now so it seem foolish to get a new computer with the same.

So its down to these three to pick from, 2.53 MBP, 2.66 MBP, or the iMac. Would i really notice NOT having the GT graphics? Id like to future proof a bit here since its kinda a bit stack of cash to drop on something. Hard drives can be upgraded later if need be so thats last on my list of worries.

Im definitely leaning toward the 2.66 MBP as of right now. One incentive to get one soon is that i have a student discount, and i checked on the MBPs and its $150 off, plus that iPod thing which i probably wont get cause i dont need another one. So Please leave me a comment on which one you think i should get . and then ill do a review on it!

Andrew Apple, Things i Want Apple, imac, macbook pro

Let me just start by saying “Thank you Apple” and “About time”!! Anyone who has an iPhone should know why..

There is still no official date on the release, just ’summer’ but im assuming it should be in June sometime, most likley the same time that the Snow Leopard is going to come out, or possibly in July, just like last year.

If you havnt had a chance to watch it or at least read about it you can click below:
Watch
Read

Anyway a few things that im excited for is the ability to send and receive MMS. This has been one of the most annoying things about having an iPhone is getting that message from AT&T: “You have received a multimedia message, go here and type in this code that is too long and difficult to remember and the this stupid password and we will show you a little tiny version of the message you should have got”. So amen to that. Also the copy and paste feature, while it will come in handy, wont be at the top of my list to get excited about, but the forward message feature will be though! I dont know how many times ive wanted to forward a message to someone and cant so i have to retype it out. Tethering, via dock connector AND bluetooth will come in handy, P2P should be interesting, but i think the upgrade i would like the most is going to be the ability to have turn by turn. Although it wont be integrated directly into the phone via Apple, a third party or two will be snapping that one right up and is at the top of my list to buy. If i can hook my phone up in my truck and charge it, listen to itunes iPod, and then every once and a while have a ,preferably, British person tell me to “Turn left in 500 feet” and then the music fade back in that would just be AWESOME!! Head up display option would be nice too.. Developers hint hint..

What are you likes, dislikes, and what would you like to see from Apple as well as the developers? leave me a comment.

Andrew Apple 3.0, Apple, iPhone

Hey you’ll never guess what this is going to be about.. ok well if you couldn’t let me just say that i just downloaded Safari 4. Ive been messing with it now for about an hours and so far its pretty slick..  im not gong to do a full review, or even a partial one because i havnt used it enough yet and lets be honest, its a web browser, that would be like me doing a review on printer paper, or trash, or something..

So far this is what i like:

This is most definitely my favorite part, right off the bat this knew what my favorite sites to visit were. There are different modes that let more or less pages through but i like this one the best currently.  If you download safari 4, just for kicks put this thing in ’small’ mode and it loads like 18 or 20 or so of your ‘most visited’ pages, you’ll be surprised at what it puts in there.. I noticed though that in this mode i dont even visit my own site often enough for it to put it as the top 12.. tsk tsk.. must blog more often!

I also like how pages seem to load up snappier, i know that this this can supposedly fire out javascript things all sick nasty fast and what not but cant think of anything of the top of my head to really test it on. Any Suggestions?

Things i dont like:

So far it doesnt seem that im disliking many things about it, unlike firefox’s constant “Ooh, hey! i downloaded an update, restart me” or the “Yeaaaah.. ive been working enough for a while i think ill just stop loading pages”. But, there IS one thing that so far i absolutely can not stand! and its the damn tabs being at the top.. Why Apple have you put them up there.. this is why i hate that they are on the top. 1. it looks goofy and un-Apple like, 2. You cant double click to create a new tab like Safari 3 which (after 2 years of not knowing it was there) was one of the main things i loved about Safari. 3. The flow is off. Something about Apple’s software and such just seems the flow. This though, with the damn tabs at the top, it doesnt flow. It takes me a second or two to search out what tab i want. Also i dont like how they fill up the whole top of the page evenly, instead of just being a few inches long all the way to the left. Heres what i mean.

See?? The tabs start smaller and eventually fill up and then get smaller as you add more and more. So if you have two tabs they are both near the top left corner, in S4 they are split between the full width of the page, no thanks.

And this is what i mean by looking goofy and un-Apple like. Look at how the square and clunky looking the non active tab looks compared to the window controls.Another thing i noticed is that when i have multiple tabs open and want to close a few of them, i can just click the ‘X’ on the tab, keep the mouse where its and then click the ‘x’ in the next tab, not anymore, you have to move over a bit to do that, again, no thanks.. I guess ‘Apple key’ and ‘W’ will have to suffice.

Havent had much time to use any of the other feature such as CoverFlow and the History browser, which is like coverflow for your history, but as time goes by im sure ill do a ‘revised review’ to let you know.

If you havent gotten it yet its avaliable from the Apple site. You can get to it by clicking here:

Andrew Apple Apple, beta, safari, safari 4

Date Confirmed!! See you at the keynote!!

ok so im not actually going but ill be watching the stream via apple.com. Who going?

Andrew Apple Apple

 ooooohhhhh… Pretty Slick, “if” this is it, im glad that it doesnt have the edges like the Air. And this one still has the optical disk drive thank god, thats one thing i think was a big mistake leaving out of the Air. This one though, i think (and this more of just wishful thinking really, dont hold me accountable for the facts being wrong) will have a BluRay reader/burner, it may also have an option for the SSHD and hopefully those new silver-zinc batteries. Also glad they are still making them out of Aluminum. The only thing i *dont* like anout this is that the keyboard is black. I dont like typing or a black keyboard, for some reason it slows me down and looks less, “clean”. maybe though it will be an option, black or white, or even like the current MBPs where is is the same color at the computer itself. 

And as always being a MBP, or even just an Apple product it self, it will be about $2500-$3000 for the one i want. My iBook G3 though is starting to show its age, the battery only lasts for like 2 hours and its slow, 900mhz slow.. wozzers.. We shall see though on the 9th (possibly).

Andrew Apple, Things i Want Apple, macbook pro

So i have gotten wind of Apple’s next event, supposedly on September 9th… Mark you calendars accordingly to watch the keynote.

This however is much more than a week and a half, its from my “next keynote” dashboard widget. 

The list of thing to be released i got from here [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N99aEA4UkBc] and MacRumors.com.

Some stuff to include and my thoughts as follows:

- Revamp of entire iPod line.- Small cosmetic changes to Touch, Nano to see significant redesign

Ive seen leaked photos of the new “nanos” and im not sure i lek them very much. I have the newest nano (video) and i really like the design of it. the only thing that i dont like about it is that the headphone jack is on the bottom and it is hard to use in the car. Also, the click wheel is far too small and it hard to control, especially in the dark. 

- iPods to see fairly large price drops to distance itself from the $199 iPhone.

Sure it sounds like a good idea, but iPods are already fairly cheap. The Nano runs at $199 now for the 8GB version. I know thats the same price as the iPhone, but that is only cheep because its is subsidised by AT&T, otherwise it would be $700

- iPod touch 2.1 software, iPhone to get update very soon after.

Will do Video and copy paste? no details on this but its not something im super excited about..

- iTunes 8.0 (“it’s a big update w/new features”).

The details i got on this however were fairly interesting. 256kbps is pretty cool, although it would mean id have to buy a new HD, my iMac’s is only 80gb, nothing really. The price though, pretty steep for a per year thing, but when you think about it, its only the same price as 130 songs alacarte.. But mobileme people (like me) get it for 99.. although this is all still unconfirmed. I wonder though how it will work for burning cds, or if it would be iPod only. 

- All of this coming in the next 2-3 weeks.

- Blu-Ray support coming in Mac OS X 10.5.6

Not really a big deal for me, however, when i buy a MacBook Pro (or iMac or the like), it could be a useful item to have onboard. 

other things that i have seen are iPhone disk use, iDisk access for iPhone and photo syncing options for mobileMe. The iDisk access i think is the only one of those that i would actually use.

Andrew Apple Apple, event, iPhone, iPod, Rumor