So, if you've recently updated iTunes to v7.0, you may have noticed it's a little buggy. I never upgrade immediately after Apple releases a new version of anything. Over the past 2 years their upgrades have gotten progressively buggier as time goes on. Whenever I see a new version, I wait until I see a new version of that new version.
Thankfully, iTunes 7.0.1 has now been released which is said to have corrected many of the bugs in 7.0. The funny thing is that one of the most annoying things, to me, about previous version of iTunes is still included. This is the feature where if you don't listen to a podcast in iTunes after a while, it stops updating it until you tell it to start updating it again. The only indication that it has stopped is a little exclamation mark next to the podcast title. You click it and it says something like "You haven't listened to this podcast in a while, would you like iTunes to resume updating it?"
Stupid iTunes can't tell that I listen to almost all of my podcasts every day--ON MY iPOD! So, rather than having it keep track of what I dump onto my iPod (Big iBrother, much?) I'd rather there just be a way to SHUT THIS STUPID FEATURE OFF!!
Seriously, this is one of the things I hate about Macs and computers in general--they're beginning to think too much. Stop anticipating what I want and if you absolutely MUST anticipate at least give me the option to STOP YOU PERMANENTLY.
I haven't ever and will never need iTunes to stop updating ANY of my podcasts. If I need it to stop updating, I will simply delete the podcast from iTunes.
I agree - and this is something I've always bashed Microsoft for - embodied by that annoying talking paper-clip. Companies should know that they even when they know what 90% of users want, they'll really annoy the other 10% if they force majority rule on their personal computers. Don't anticipate my actions, you'll too often be wrong. Every week I have to re-tell iTunes to keep updating my various podcasts. I actually love iTunes - if they fixed this it would be a near perfect app.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, CR--though I'll NEVER love iTunes. To me, it's just big brother "helping" me get mp3s/mp4s onto my iPod where my old Rio mp3 player would act like a hard disk and just play the mp3s I'd dump onto it. I rather miss that simplicity--though I'll never miss the plastic case and the tiny storage capacity.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don't think software engineers should worry about how 90% of the users use software or computers because if they only worried about what the majority KNOWS they like/want, there will never be innovation.
There's this great app for OSX called Quicksilver that allows the user to access almost any file or application on his/her computer with just a few keystrokes. I never thought I'd like it or use it until I gave it a try for a couple days and it blew me away. I hardly ever use aliases/shortcuts any more. If I hadn't kept an open mind and tried the thing, I'd still be bothering with double clicking on everything!