(no subject)

[coraa]

Dear iTunes,

You have insisted that you need to update my library, a process which, apparently, takes a while, during which I can't listen to music or do anything else in iTunes. Okay, fine. Applications require updates like that from time to time. I understand.

However!

Stealing focus from my other applications every thirty seconds (yes, I timed it) while you do this IS NOT ENDEARING. Especially when you aren't stealing focus to prompt me to do something, you're just randomly stealing focus to make me look at the progress bar crawl along a little farther. It means that not only can I not use you to listen to music, I can't do anything else while I wait to listen to music! Even typing this post is annoying, because every sentence or two iTunes opens itself over the posting window and then helpfully goes 'ding' because I'm suddenly trying to type onto the progress bar.

In conclusion: KNOCK IT OFF.

No love,

Cora
who's trying to listen to music and write, and right now, inexplicably, can't do either

People who get all smug in the comments about how this wouldn't happen if I used [insert favorite other music program here]? NOT HELPING EITHER.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Dear iTunes,

You have pissed off both Jasmine AND Winnowill, which, I have to tell you, is just not such a hot idea.

Just warning you,
Asakiyume

[coraa.livejournal.com]

One's a spirited and short-tempered princess with a pet tiger and use of a magic carpet! The other is a possibly-insane, definitely-dominant healer-turned-paingiving-fleshshaper who can hunt you down in either the physical or spirit realms! Together, they fight crime annoying software!

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

OMFG I HATE waiting for iTunes to update itself. If I could get away with never doing so, I would, but at least on the Dell from Hell if I don't update it, it won't burn CDs anymore....

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if I don't upgrade mine when it wants upgrading, it refuses to play nice with my iPhone. Argh. Also, it has a fun tendency to tie itself to all other Apple software, so I can't, e.g., upgrade QuickTime to the newest version (so webpages will display properly) unless I let it also upgrade iTunes. Suck!

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

OMG I KNOW. That is SO annoying. I tend to just like one piece of software and stick with it, and not necessarily upgrade it all the time. Argh!

[donaithnen.livejournal.com]

This wouldn't happen if you didn't insist on using the computer for both listening to music and for writing!!! Back in my day if we wanted to write something we had to paint it on cave walls! And for music we had to bang rocks together! (Strangely enough, that was also the same method we had to use for getting fire. Very exciting when you wanted one but got the other.)

(Just figured i'd preempt all the other smug comments ;)

[istgut.livejournal.com]

Music + fire obviously = rock and roll

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Hee hee hee!

[avani.livejournal.com]

Next time, maybe you could find some way to give your writing program 'always on top' status? On the Mac, I use WriteRoom, and I'm sure there is a good Windows equivalent.

[istgut.livejournal.com]

Hehehe.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a good idea! I'll see if Liquid Story Binder has an 'always on top' setting.

[istgut.livejournal.com]

ITunes seems to have gotten worse with every update. My iPhone doesn't remember which song it was on anymore.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it certainly seems to get bloatier with each upgrade, or at least there are always new, noisy bells and whistles that I neither want nor need. And then it always insists on rescanning my entire library so it can... do something, I don't know. Sigh.

I'd switch back to WinAmp, except that WinAmp's iPod plug-in, which I used to swear by, doesn't handle the iPhone all that well. Sigh, again.

[zeborah]

On my iTunes it wouldn't let me visit the iTunes store (for my weekly free single-of-the-week) without upgrading. Fine, I said, and upgraded. Then it still wouldn't let me visit without upgrading Safari (web browser - it must use the underlying engine somehow). I grumpily went to do that only to diiscover that I can't upgrade Safari without installing updates to my entire operating system. (They're big to download and I've been busy.) At that point I decided I don't need to upgrade my operating system just to get a bit of music that I probably won't like all that much anyway.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Oooooooh yes. One of the things that drives me bananas is the way everything is tied together. I can't upgrade my iPhone firmware/software unless I upgrade iTunes. (Heck, sometimes it decides that I can't back up my iPhone unless I update the iTunes software, which seems like armtwisting to me.) If I upgrade iTunes, it insists on upgrading QuickTime and a handful of other stuff. So every time a new minor version of iTunes comes out, I'm stuck upgrading half a dozen things so that it will allow me to continue to back up my phone.

The fact that it then wants me to sit and admire the progress bar the entire time is just the icing on the annoying cake.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Really? OMFG that really sucks so much.

[kagejim.livejournal.com]

I didn't realise itunes was THAT BAD. Knew it sucked, but sheesh.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

(Random commenter: Hi!)

My solution has been to use iTunes only for backups and syncing with the iProduct of choice. The rest of the time, the benighted bloatware stays *off*, though sadly still resident in memory. I use WinAmp for listening to music, and have turned off the option that has iTunes copy all the music into its own library. I just indexed the drive, and left it at that.

Alternatively, you could always let iTunes build the music library, and then use WinAmp to play from there -- if memory serves, iTunes no longer does cute things like rename all your files beyond recognition.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I used to use WinAmp exclusively; I used the WinAmp iPod plug-in, and it worked like a charm, and kept iTunes away. But with the iPhone, it got a lot more complicated, so I tried to switch to iTunes. Perhaps it's time to switch back. >_<