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Comment by peterburkimsher | Hacker News Reader

I still use iTunes 10.6.3 because it's the last version with Miller Columns on the top, playlist folders (with a Library view), a miniplayer that I can use to fast-forward, and sync.

Syncing music. Contacts. Calendars. Safari Bookmarks. Notes. Apps. Ringtones. Videos. Photos.

The killer feature of the Apple ecosystem was the way the Digital Hub worked together. It's all gone by now. They demand always-on Internet to connect to the cloud.

I'm trying to rewrite my own ecosystem one app at a time (I've done Notes and Maps, halfway through contacts & calendars, and still need to start music & photos). It's going to take years of on-and-off work, but I don't trust Apple to keep providing that, so I must make my own. Some shell scripts linking other apps just won't cut it for me - I want a scriptable, syncing ecosystem that Just Works.

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> I still use iTunes 10.6.3 because it's the last version with Miller Columns on the top, playlist folders (with a Library view), a miniplayer that I can use to fast-forward, and sync.

None of these features have gone anywhere.

Columns are still available as an option in the Songs library view. (Check the View menu if you're not seeing it.) They aren't available in the newer sorted library views like Artists or Genres because those views already have some form of filtering "baked in".

I don't believe playlist folders ever changed. They're certainly available in current versions.

The mini-player has changed a bit, but you can certainly fast-forward by pressing and holding on the forward button, or by dragging the playback indicator.

Sync… I'm not quite sure what you're referring to here?

Syncing contacts and calendars was removed in iTunes 11.

https://www.macworld.com/article/2057971/os-x/sync-contacts-...

Syncing Notes and Safari Bookmarks were removed in Mac OS 10.8.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/79978/how-can-i-sy...

Syncing apps was removed in iTunes 12.

The mini-player doesn't show the track name.

http://dossy.org/2012/11/itunes-11-is-a-total-failure/

"Some soft of filtering baked in" doesn't cut it for my large library. I want to be able to navigate quickly through a deep hierarchy (Genre/Christian -> Artist/IHOP -> Album/Jon Thurlow). I'm dealing with tens of thousands of songs. iTunes 10.6.3 could do it. Since then it's been dumbed-down beyond recognition.

> Syncing [stuff] was removed...

As it should be. None of that functionality made sense to have in iTunes. It was essentially a relic of the iPod era.

> The mini-player doesn't show the track name.

It's a little dependent on window size, but there are definitely still mini-player modes that will show the track/album/artist names when the mouse is outside the window. (When the mouse enters the window, they're replaced with the player controls.)

> "Some soft of filtering baked in" doesn't cut it for my large library.

So use the Songs view with the column browser. (Cmd+B will show/hide it on macOS.) It hasn't changed. The new library views are entirely optional.

The most frustrating aspect of iTunes is the things that break from release to release...I shouldn't really say 'break' as its more they simply remove functionality.

Case in point: Look at your iTunes screen right now in Artists view. See lots and lots of missing artist pics (pink microphones)?

It used to be that you could manually set an artist pic, but they simply removed that and offered no workable solution. Its like a year 1 programmer approach.

Its sorta amazing to me that the same company that produces Logic Pro, Garage Band, Final Cut...has such a lackluster music player. Its schizophrenic. Sadly as Apple has ballooned in size, I only see these problems getting worse.

> They demand always-on Internet to connect to the cloud.

It's interesting, you're talking about a syncing system (syncing requires connectivity) and have an issue with requiring access to one of the most convenient sources of connectivity, which is the internet.

We're in a transition time right now. Access to the internet is not always available. It is not always fast. But this time will pass. It makes sense, to me, to design for this future.

> I'm trying to rewrite my own ecosystem one app at a time [...] I must make my own.

I sympathize with this (and good luck!). But I could spend a lot of effort organizing my digital life, but (for me) it feels like I would be a slave to this effort, and what does it get me, really? I spent a long time organizing my digital movie collection; now most films I want to watch are on streaming services. I spent a long time organizing music; now Apple Music and Spotify are much more convenient.

There was an essay from a while back floating around online about the ever-increasing burden of organizing our digital lives. I wish I could find it now, but it really summarized a lot of what I feel about this.

We're in a transition time right now. Access to the internet is not always available. It is not always fast. But this time will pass. It makes sense, to me, to design for this future.

Sometimes, internet is also expensive and metered. It might be where things are going, sure, and I'm all for that. But I think forcing this stuff with no other option is either elitist or disconnected from reality.

Having an internet connection as a requirement is "disconnected from reality"? In 2017?

I travel the world quite a bit and it's quite difficult to be offline, in any populated area of non-trivial size. Whether it's South-East Asia or Europe or South America, I'm never far from some kind of WiFi access point.

Where the heck do you live ???

I agree with you, but I think syncing is itself a 'first-world problem', in that you need to be able to own multiple devices in the first place to even worry about syncing.

If you have metered/expensive internet, modern smartphones are going to present all kinds of problems, syncing aside (e.g. app download sizes for one).

What country do you live in and where?

I live in Taiwan. Mobile phone companies require a monthly payment to offer 3G/4G services. Prepaid doesn't provide Internet access. There is a lot of free WiFi, so I use that + SMS when I need to communicate.

On a hike to a waterfall, my friend Lenard asked if someone can play music on a Bluetooth speaker. There was no phone signal so he couldn't get Apple Music. More seriously, he couldn't even get a map to find his way home. This wasn't a problem for me.

There are many popular posts on HN complaining about Facebook these days. I don't have a problem, because I only check FB when I'm online. It can interrupt my work in the office, but not dates. I can enjoy mealtimes without disruption. I have offline Wikipedia (10GB of text on a 64GB phone) if I need to check any facts. Internet access is only needed for real-time communication, and the telephone can do that.

Every carrier in Taiwan offers prepaid voice, text and data. In both 3G and 4G.

If you need help getting setup, give me an email at me@drsr.me.

At the moment, in a country with much worse/more expensive internet than what I'm used to, though still very good by global standards.

In seriousness though, I'm optimistic for fast worldwide internet. There are new solutions for low-population density areas on the horizon. If you look at current stats, about 47% of the world are online now, up from 16% a decade ago. In the developing world it's 40% up from 8%. I actually think in some ways it's an easier problem to solve than, for example, access to clean water. I wouldn't be surprised if this reaches 90% in a decade.

I imagine bigger problems will be variance in speed and latency, and artificial restrictions on supply/metering, and product design not accounting for this. Which we're already seeing in e.g. app sizes, webpage sizes.

You must be using a third party for your mapping imagery still? Unless you have launched a satellite or done extensive exploration?

Yes, I use a third party, and download tiles using MOBAC. Having my own cache was important when Google Maps removed pinyin for a couple of weeks.

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