It was bound to happen, and it has. ITunes, designed for simple users. A computer, a device, maybe two.
Real life doesn’t work that way.
Six computers in this house. Two Windows desktops (XP and 2000). A Windows Laptop (XP). Another Windows Laptop (Vista or 7, I forget). Two Macs – soon to be three.
Between us we have a dying 30GB 2nd Gen iPod, a wonky 10GB 3rd Gen Mini, one iPhone, and the newest addition to the family, an iPod shuffle for workouts and music-on the go. We are smart, educated computer professionals, well versed in the Way Things Should Be Done.
However, we do them the way they happen to fit. Our reality grew organically. One device, then another, add some, take some away. The upshot of it is that all of the devices currently sync to 1 of the Macs and none of the other devices.
Since ITunes doesn’t really care what device you have, iPod or not, this can lead to several kinds of trouble. Our most recent and poignant example was sleepy time music. We’ve got several gigs full of kid pop on the iPhone, and when we’re on one of our many road trips, we plug it in and the kids listen as they drop off for naps on said long rides (we have racked up 80,000 miles in the last three years if that tells you anything).
So the next time the iPhone sync’d, and then the Shuffle sync’d, guess what the Shuffle had as its top 25 list? Kid music.
Granted – you want to make the user experience easy for users – but to force them into planning elaborate structures (and yes, more than one iTunes account or machine is elaborate) to keep their family’s music from cross-pollution of preferences is just … not right. At least identify the devices – both by your internal mechanisms (read the device codes and profiles) and external mechanisms (device name – friendly or TRY to identify the millions of other media players that aren’t from Apple). Allow users to create device profiles, and fine tune further if they like. So iPhone preferences and ratings don’t leak into the Shuffle.
At the very least, ITunes, ask me before you start synching something simply because I plug it in. Or make me set a setting to ask you to ask me before synching when I plug in. Desperate for a charge, I plugged my iPhone into my sister’s computer the other day and it started synching. She warned me (I’m not the usual updater, I leave it to the Hub for the movement) so I stopped it. But if one of the kids had decided to help me by plugging in my phone? Not necessarily the best thing to just start synching willy-nilly. And yes, they’re allowed to touch the technology; we try to guide rather than hide, even when it results in a few mishaps.
And please, get a make over, ITunes. You don’t seem to handle interfacing with the Photo app very well, according to Tog (I can’t find the darn article now). So how about a rebuild? IMood, IGroove, IMedia …. IVibe?
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