Comments on: iTunes 4: “Hidden” features

By: Erik J. Barzeski

Erik J. Barzeski — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

You’re reaching for straws, now, dude. You’re not even nitpicking – you’re beyond that. Those functions are not required, but they’re nice to have. There’s nothing to indicate that you can command-click a title in a title bar to get a pop-up menu, but it’s there, and it’s good. Hide it from the newbies (don’t over-complicate the UI) but give the power users the functionality.

By: Pierre Igot

Pierre Igot — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Mmm, I would still argue that there is no reason not to use the hh:mm:ss format as the default format, and not to have a menu item for the ability to open a CD/playlist in a new window.

I don’t see why this qualifies as “beyond nitpicking”. I am not desperately trying to find flaws in Apple’s software. I’m just writing down issues that I encounter AS I USE the software.

There is a fine line between nitpicking and attention to detail. Usually the latter is Apple’s forte — and most of it results from Mac users being equally attentive.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I think you meant “complaining about” rather than “compiling about” in that first sentence.

Yeah, this minor feature is not obvious, but there are plenty of things in any Microsoft program that are not obvious either (right-click this, control-click that), so iTunes is hardly alone there.

My main criticisms of iTunes is that there is no position slider in the mini-view, and that iTunes for Windows should work like a Windows app, not a Mac app. The maximize button should maximize, for instance. But all in all, it’s a cool app.

By: Pierre Igot

Pierre Igot — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks for reporting the typo :-).

I don’t usually use MS software as a reference when it comes to usability/intuitiveness, so the fact that iTunes “is not alone” is poor consolation :). Yes, it’s a very minor thing, but it’s not totally unimportant.

By: Tom Hudson

Tom Hudson — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I agree with Pierre that the default time format is not a trivial issue. I would argue that anything that is not only against common convention but downright annoying is not nitpicking.

Until I read Pierre’s post, I was using a calculator to manually add up times from the song lists to be able to report on my website how much playtime the particular composer was afforded on various soundtrack releases. I don’t know anyone who reports play times in decimal values. “6.1 minutes”? Are you kidding me?

Now I can use all of iTune’s other great features to easily pare down the lists to my specific criteria and immediately know what hh:mm:ss values to report on the site.

Thanks, Pierre, for pointing this out. However, so far as I can tell, this is not documented anywhere, nor (as you say) are there any interface clues; so I’d almsot call this an Easter Egg more than I would call it a feature.