BUX Podcast #68: Is the UX Any Better in the New iTunes 11?

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Ben and I wrestle with the new version of iTunes in today’s mini podcast. 10 minutes of farm fresh tech news and opinion.

After reading this article from Farhad Manjoo of Slate, we wonder: (out loud and for your listening pleasure ) Why is a music player is so difficult to get right?

Ben uses iTunes daily but doesn’t sync with his Android phone. I’m not a daily user and use it only when I get tired of the same 10 songs on Pandora. We both suffer from FUD about allowing iTunes to manage our library of music and about upgrading.

Good and Bad of the new iTunes Design

Bad – Burnish, old amp look. Decorated interface with superfluous gradients. c’mon now – you are better than that.

Good – Moving stuff to the top of the interface (playlists, albums, songs, etc. ) It works better if you have tons of that stuff. Which Ben certainly does.

Questions:

Is there a need for an improved iTunes or should it be split into components (iStore, iSync, iMusic, etc? If not now, when? Ben doesn’t think they will anytime soon, but they should! Why? Two is better than one. Two stores is better than one store. Surely someone can figure this out.

Does iTunes integration justify buying an iPhone 5? I’m on the fence, but Ben is ready to jump on it.