Monday, September 18, 2006

iTunes 7: wait for 7.01 or 7.02

Bugs galore. Apple has a well deserved reputation for inadequate software testing, and iTunes 7 is typical. These are typical (Macintouch):
David Schwartz

The fine folks at Rogue Amoeba have posted an announcement regarding the interaction between iTunes 7 and Audio Hijack Pro:

http://www.rogueamoeba.com/forum/ubb/Forum2/HTML/001059.html

In essence, Bookmarkable MP3s are treated as Podcasts, although they don't show up in the Podcast listing. Bookmarkable AACs are treated as Audiobooks, and they do show up in that listing (as long as it is enabled). The latter is likely a feature, while the former is buggy....

... Tom Parrish
Thanks for the tip regarding the removal of visualizer plug-ins. After removing them, iTunes 7 does not crash at the end of each song. Also, the gapless feature is working!
Slow performance on older machines. Problems with dual monitors. Lots of issues with the gapless feature. Bugs galore.

Wait for 7.01 or even 7.02. Same old, same old.

The interesting question is why Apple so often ships prematurely. My guess is it's a combination of their secretive culture (so they can't do proper beta testing) , Jobs historic willingness to ship early, and a marketing need to coordinate various releases and announcements.

iTunes 7 isn't as bad as Aperture 1.0 or iPhoto 4, but it's surprisingly buggy for such a critical mass market product. I usually don't credit CEOs with the influence the media gives them, but this does feel like a Steve Jobs issue.

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