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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

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The next edition of "Everything Must Go" will be appearing here soon. --Paul

Sunday, December 25, 2005

iTunes: Easy to use, or not?

OK, I never expected to post anything on Christmas, but my wife is putting the kids to bed, so I turned on the PowerBook and found an interesting debate. First, Dave Winer posted a fairly accurate criticism of Apple iTunes, which he berated for being inscrutable. I like and use iTunes, but Winer's right:

The user interface on iTunes is awful. It’s the worst piece of crap I’ve ever used. People would tell me when I was a Windows user that it was because the Windows version of iTunes is crap but the Mac version is easy. Well, both programs are head-up-butt impossible to figure out. The user model makes no sense. When is something on the iPod? How many copies of the music do I have? Where the fcuk are they? How do you delete something? Is it really gone? Why does it wipe out the contents of the iPod when I don’t say it’s okay to?

Needless to say, the Apple Web isn't going to put up with that kind of abuse. One of the more friendly responses was from Les Posen, who actually took the time to answer each of Winer's somewhat rhetorical questions about iTunes. The fact that Posen's post is so long should alarm people. I think it proves that Winer has a point.

Apple iTunes isn't perfect. I still like it better than WMP 10 or RealPlayer 10.5, despite its performance issues (especially on Windows) and odd balkiness. And I've seen it inexplicably wipe out all the content of various iPods, only to have to complete refill them again.

[ Posted at 8:05 PM | Permalink ]