Thread: iTunes SDK

WTH is iTune?

iTunes is apple's media player... it's a bit better than win media player and winamp, audio sounds better, and it's got it's own very nice compression but thats about it.

I tried it and thought it sucked pretty badly. The interface is really dumbed down, the media library wiped a bunch of my folders and it cant play half the formats that winamp can. If you like Apple computers, and have a hard time working programs like winamp then iTunes is for you.

Also, like all other programs from apple, it assumes you want to run it and take the whole of your screen, but actually make very poor use of the real-estate. I couldnt tell the difference between it and winamp in audio quality at home on my hifi system, so in the car theres no chance of being able to tell the difference.

If you use iTunes to download music then you have to use iTunes to play them. It (iTunes) has a nasty habit of going off and reformatting your music library to AAC format while you're not looking. Maybe they fixed that since I abandoned it.

So, in summary, IMHO its a maximized version of a dumbed down winamp. For those that cant work more than one mouse button they'll probably be happier with iTunes...

... and Windows Media player is fine provided you are ok with MSFT taking over your desktop and turning it into a billboard for the highest bidder. Then there is there reporting, for your convenience they upload the DVD's you watch so they more accurately target you with ads. Isnt that just peachy of them. Of course its anonymous, they dont know you are you (we have MSFT's word for this), but they do know that whomever you are, if you like T2, then there's a good chance you'd like T3 and so they will make sure their ad server responds appropiately.

WMP is fine, just unplug the network cable first...

It also has very good library management features. The power of iTunes is in the library and now this could be used by any program with the SDK. No need to worry about a slow, hard to manage database. Just use the iTunes db and you get not only fast access to the music but also very good synchronization, importing new files directly into the library (no need to regenerate the db) and support for more types of files (including IDs not just playback).

Originally Posted by PCF_Ronin

iTunes is apple's media player... it's a bit better than win media player and winamp, audio sounds better, and it's got it's own very nice compression but thats about it.

Itunes exposes the 'database' - which is an XML file, via a standard DOM, so you can enumerate from any point in the tree. This is actually trivial to write, especially in c#, which can expose an explorer folder in much the same way. iTunes takes forever to build its database because it actually reads a sample of the track and calculates its volume levels so it can normalize on playback.

Reading a set of directories, looking up the meta data (ID3 tags in MP3) and writing out an XML file isnt a lot of code.

Given the XML you could actually write a lot of the interface using a web control with simple XSL and let the app do the XSLT.

Originally Posted by mobileh1

Also, like all other programs from apple, it assumes you want to run it and take the whole of your screen, but actually make very poor use of the real-estate.

well that settles it... the company who pretty much brought us a "windowed" gui cannot seem to make a application that can be resized.

seriously get the facts straight before you make such outrageous statements, it makes the rest of your observations worthless.

Have you used iTunes? Have a look at:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/

Then, tell me it makes good used of screen real-estate, compared say, to WinAmp, which does the same in about 1/10 of the same space.

Have you used a Mac? How many menu bars are there? Ummmmm, let me see, 1 right? So how many applications windowed can you use at the same time....ummmmm 1 right? Am I missing somethig here or is there a single menu bar? You can run as many apps as you want, but only use one at a time.

Apple say this is better because running everything maximized is less confusing for people. Then again, this is the company that also thought we couldn't work more than one mouse button

If you use the Windows version of iTunes you can resize the window, but then you wouldnt be able to see all those lovely ads they show you...

ads? ITUNES ads or your spyware (i don't know which you are reffering to, spyware courtesy of windows, or mac ads in itunes) I run iTUNES on my windows box (get no ads i might say), as well as on my mac (again, no ads). You can run a two button mouse with mac OS, but why have 2 when one is all you need? At least for the mac, itunes compresses into a handy little box that takes up less space than winamp (winamp min. controls and min plst.). And, at least for normal use (ie. not programming, because I don't know from a coders standpoint), the database system kicks winamp straight in the crotch. It might be dumbed down, but why use something more complex when it gets the job done easy?