If one clicks on a library there, it's added to the horizontal list but then one finds it's not checked in the edit box. But that's only for editing, not selection. With some experimentation, one finds that clicking on the three dots (.) brings up the list of libraries and text accompaniments. See, for example, " iTunes 12: Bringing Back the Library and Playlist Sidebar. Eventually, one finds that it's possible to display both one's music and the playlists.
That divorces the user from the immediate contact with songs as items in a list. Then one immediately wonders if there's a way to make things right again because, in Tunes 12, the default is Album view. This is a two-fold attack on the user's psyche. One's first reaction may well be: Why is this list so short? Where's the text? What happens if I click on one of these icons? And, oh, by the way, where's my sidebar, my collections of things, my music and playlists?
With iTunes 12, in contrast, a shorted series of icons is now shown horizontally, and the text is removed. One can expect with confidence that clicking on a named library will focus on that library because of where it's located visually and because the icon is accompanied by text. Further down, one can also see one's collections in the form of playlists. One can see at a glance all of one's libraries (Music, Movies, TV Shows and so on). ITunes 11: libraries in sidebar, labelled. ITunes 11 respected that metaphor by using the sidebar (though the sidebar had to be turned on) to organize and display collections: both libraries and playlists. And so, a library is a collection and a playlist is a collection. Think of it as a small library of your favorite things. A playlist is also a collection of songs, but it has a special nature.
Just as a library is a collection of books, a music library is a collection of songs.
iTunes 12 fails in this regard.įor example, let's take a look at a collections of objects.
That's fine so long as painstaking care is taken to ensure that the music player portion is the very best, most intuitive software that Apple engineers can devise. However, as soon as the iTunes store opened, iTunes became a vehicle for the sale of music. ITunes started out as an application that allowed Apple customers to play music extracted from their CDs. Unfortunately, iTunes 12 has a subpar user interface, and in a panel discussion, three TMO staff members judged judged it to be the worst software Apple has ever produced. It should be up to Apple's standards as best-in-class software. It's so important that Apple's iTunes should be the finest example of what Apple developers can build. For many people, music is a very important part of their lives.