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WMP - some positive features that iTunes lacks?


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WMP - some positive features that iTunes lacks?
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Mac+
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Join Date: May 2004
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2005-04-08, 05:13

On the campus where I live, I think a lot of the staff have been intrigued by my positive espousal of Apple's integration of hardware and software. When I bring out my "sleek looking" (5 yo!) TiBook and they see the sweet GUI of OS X, they are further impressed!

In fact, I'm happy to report that there are now four staff members who have begun to express an interest in purchasing Apple laptops for work. Additionally, since a lot of their work is spent travelling to Beijing and Shanghai six times a year, I was not surprised when they returned from Beijing the other week to find out each of them had purchased iPods! Consequently, I have become their Apple Support person - a position I enjoy.

However, today when I was helping one of them alter a few things in iTunes (on their PC), I saw - for the first time - WMP.

Now, I can't recall if iTunes has these features - but I thought they were well designed.

1) On installation of a CD, WMP not only searches CDDB for the track listing (something iTunes already does) - it also performs a Google image search of the album cover. Please tell me that I'm wrong - but I can't recall the last time iTunes downloaded album art automatically for me.

2) The album folders (within the user's Music folder) all have icons of the album art on them - a helpful touch when searching the folder heirarchy on Windows machines. Nice eye candy too - I think it would be cool for Apple folders to incorporate an album icon. It ain't hard I'm sure - what is Apple's developer policy on this feature - anybody want to weigh in? (Spotlight may make this a moot point - but if you occasionally feel like browsing the Finder, then having the album icon on a folder is a good thing I believe.)

3) It seems to be able to do what iTunes already can do plus handle playback of movie and TV files. Is this where iTunes is headed? The multimedia iPod seems an inevitability at some point, just a case of when I guess. Doesn't iTunes handle music videos and movie trailers now as well? Will iTunes evolve to be more of a universal media file organiser?

I'm not a Windows basher - each to their own. It goes without saying that the iPod (and Windows iTunes) has gone a long way for luring switchers, but I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the design and feature set of this software on a first time viewing of it. Granted I have not lived with WMP - but I am interested in hearing from those who do use it.

Is it good, or "a bloated sack or protoplasm"? Of course, I'd also like to hear from those who can offer some Apple developer perspectives as well.

As always, TIA.
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Last edited by Mac+ : 2005-04-08 at 05:28. Reason: added image of Ren
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ast3r3x
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2005-04-08, 07:12

I wonder if it actually googles, or gets it from a database like amazon.com...anybody know?

Album art in the finder is novelty, but it would look very cluttered. It would be horrible looking if you were to view in list or column view too.

I think the whole album art thing for a cd, is nice (but not in the finder) but unreliable.

As for iTunes playing video, I don't want that to happen. iTunes is for tunes. Make a video application that plays video well if you want that. Both can access the iPod, no need for it to be one app to do everything for the iPod. Each program should do as it pleases with the iPod, and then you could just use iSync to update everything (iPhoto, iTunes, whatever video app) to the iPod.
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torifile
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2005-04-08, 07:28

Remember, Mac+, that MS has a different application philosophy. "Everything and the kitchen sink" is the MO for MS.

And the album art thing for folders sounds nice, but it's really pretty unnecessary. I don't remember the last time I navigated to my music folders in the finder. I just use iTunes for all of that.
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ast3r3x
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2005-04-08, 07:44

Quote:
Originally Posted by torifile
I don't remember the last time I navigated to my music folders in the finder. I just use iTunes for all of that.
Which shows you the album art
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Mac+
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2005-04-08, 07:53

Quote:
Originally Posted by torifile
Remember, Mac+, that MS has a different application philosophy. "Everything and the kitchen sink" is the MO for MS.

And the album art thing for folders sounds nice, but it's really pretty unnecessary. I don't remember the last time I navigated to my music folders in the finder. I just use iTunes for all of that.
Yeah, I do the same thing. But it did strike me as a nice piece or work for the user if ever they had to navigate for a music file via their Finder (or whatever it is called).

I guess I'm a sucker for eye candy ... especially if it has a benefit to the end user, of course!

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Mac+
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2005-04-08, 08:03

Quote:
Originally Posted by ast3r3x
I wonder if it actually googles, or gets it from a database like amazon.com...anybody know?
Actually, I gotta admit, I'm not sure whether it retrieved the album cover images from google or amazon, or some place else.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ast3r3x
Album art in the finder is novelty, but it would look very cluttered. It would be horrible looking if you were to view in list or column view too.
Well I don't know if Windows offers column view or not, and I agree that list view with icons in folders would be a mess. I only saw this in the folder view and it looked helpful. If it were an option to be coded as such (just for folder view), then I think it would be a good enhancement. It may not be used all of the time, but it would be helpful when the user does actually navigate to their music folder in search of a song file.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ast3r3x
I think the whole album art thing for a cd, is nice (but not in the finder) but unreliable.

As for iTunes playing video, I don't want that to happen. iTunes is for tunes. Make a video application that plays video well if you want that. Both can access the iPod, no need for it to be one app to do everything for the iPod. Each program should do as it pleases with the iPod, and then you could just use iSync to update everything (iPhoto, iTunes, whatever video app) to the iPod.
Yeah, I don't think I want iTunes to do it all ... sort of bummed me out that they used it to provide iPhoto integration with the iPod. I would prefer iSync to handle it all as you suggested as well.

Still, on the Apple website I'm pretty sure they advertise viewing new video clips and movie previews from the iTMS in iTunes. What does this point to?

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Luca
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2005-04-08, 10:15

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac+
When I bring out my "sleek looking" (5 yo!) TiBook
Off topic, but how on earth did you get your hands on a TiBook a year before it was released????


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Mac+
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2005-04-08, 10:55

Quote:
Originally Posted by Luca
Off topic, but how on earth did you get your hands on a TiBook a year before it was released????


Dangnabit - I knew I should have cracked Mactracker open before I made this post! What I meant to get across was that they were impressed with the look of the TiPB, a design that I mistakenly thought was five years old. (I should have realised - iirc I bought my Rev B in late 2001, which meant that the orginal models were released in January of that same year!)

[Back on topic]What are your thoughts on WMP Luca? You had a PC there for a while - were you using Windows?

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omem
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2005-04-08, 11:40

i think we should be able to listen to mp3 with iTunes without having to add them to our library. just a playback feature and then if we wanted to add the mp3 to the library we would tell itunes to do so. i dont like having to "preview" albums in quicktime (one quicktime window per mp3) just to avoid adding them to my library..

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NaMo4184
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2005-04-08, 12:02

Quote:
Originally Posted by omem
i think we should be able to listen to mp3 with iTunes without having to add them to our library. just a playback feature and then if we wanted to add the mp3 to the library we would tell itunes to do so. i dont like having to "preview" albums in quicktime (one quicktime window per mp3) just to avoid adding them to my library..
I'm pretty sure you can change this in the itunes settings.
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Kickaha
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2005-04-08, 12:08

Use the Finder. View the folder in column view, and the Preview pane off on the far right will playback any QuickTime content, right there, including MP3s and such. Perfect for a quick review of a clip.

You can tell iTunes not to add the file to its repository, but it will always add it to its Library.
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rasmits
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Join Date: Oct 2004
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2005-04-08, 13:27

Windows Media gets all of it's information (Band Bios, Album Art, Discographys) from the All Music Guide.

When I used Windows, the folder album art was useful because I would go into Windows Explorer every time I wanted to listen to something, and open the album from there. Now, I use iTunes and open my music that way, without ever opening the Finder. People I know who use iTunes on Windows do that too. They never go into Windows Explorer to open their music anymore.

edit: It would look good, but I know a lot of people who hate programs to change to look and feel of their folders. WMP changes the icons, without telling you. Most people disable that feature to save hard disk space, and so it loads the folders quicker. I also know that when I used it, occasionally it would get the wrong album cover and you'd be stuck with it in your folder. It's almost impossible to change.
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curiousuburb
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2005-04-08, 15:13

IIRC, there are Applescripts for iTunes that will add album art from web sources.

Haven't tried any personally.

It wouldn't surprise me if Apple integrated the most evolved variation of this in future releases as an option, but I don't see it being default due to filesize and the fact that some might not want it. I presume some folks might also want the option to specify which album in the cases of song which appear on multiple discs.

Still... it's there if you want it and are prepared to support small developers.

As to WMP vs QT in general, one could talk codec quality, DRM, proprietary formats and/or corporate attitude.

iTunes leverages the QT core (hence Finder playback of mp3 in QT preview form), and the recent addition of movie trailers to the iTMS might suggest a growing synergy, but one might argue that it's actually going the other way... QT ubiquity. MPEG-4 is based on QT. Most, if not all of the highest quality codecs are still QT, not WMP.

But I'm not sure if you're specifically narrowing the question to iTunes. Are you?
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curiousuburb
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2005-04-08, 15:33

Quote:
Originally Posted by rasmits
Windows Media gets all of it's information (Band Bios, Album Art, Discographys) from the All Music Guide.
AMG used to be my #1 recommendation for music info online (as IMDB is to movies).

They've never had good audio samples compared to other sites (a shame), but the data was often more thorough, the user feedback was usually informative, and the linkage was useful in music-map, 'related to', 'followed by' and other tangents. They've even added a Thinkmap style interactive banner that draws connections to similar groups and genres visually.

Then they rebuilt the site for IE/WMA only.
Nosy registration required for "premium content" like advanced search, WMA-only audio.
Spawned tabs for new links don't get proper URLs for bookmarking in Safari.

Too bad... they had such potential.
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