iTunes 9 vs 10

The updates in the newer version of iTunes has always educed some kind of curiosity in users. Apple has added some new features and updates to the iTunes 10. The Music Icon added in iTunes 10 has not been successful in grabbing the attention of the users. A user may even change the Mac iTunes icon to something fancy if he wants to. The icon has been designed to look squarish “flurry like” rather than round shaped.

In iTunes 9, the album art pop window used to spring out largely only if the user clicked on the album art work panel located at the bottom of the iTunes page. In iTunes 10, the windows just spring out similar to the new QuickTime X Window HUD. The controls are overlayed to bring up the album art pop window. This makes the iTunes 10 look great if used on a desktop.

In the earlier version, the iTunes merely showed the syncing process. iTunes 10 now shows the steps remaining in the actual sync process. Also, the iTunes 10 now shows the capacity information bar which changes according to the item selected without throwing up a “not enough space” error message. The capacity information bar also displays space used in bytes or the number of items just by a single click on the titles.

The title bar of iTunes 10 has undergone some changes. The orientation of the action radio buttons in iTunes 9, which used to be located at the top left corner, has been changed from horizontal to vertical in iTunes 10. The volume slider has been created to look more chubby in iTunes 10.

The flippy triangles which used to float all over the Mac iTunes 9 have now been replaced by hover sensitive “hide” labels. The “hide” labels in iTunes 10 bring up the playlist, Devices and Genius. The user may choose to hide/show the list by double clicking on the playlist or Genius labels.

The icons in iTunes 9 looked more lively and visually attractive. The monochrome effect used for icons in the iTunes 10 does not look as attractive. It is more like just reading lines of text that point to the icons. The icons in iTunes 10 is designed to look very amateur, desaturated, and dull. However, the aqua controls within the preference icons look still active and colorful.

The ping service in iTunes 10 recommends relatively new artist albums to follow which is quite disappointing as Apple needs to have sufficient data on the user’s music interests in purchases before making any recommendations.

Summary:

1. The icons in the iTunes 10 are designed to look desaturated whereas iTunes 9 had

more saturated icons.

2. In iTunes 9, the album art pop window used to pop up only when the album art work

panel was clicked whereas the window springs out in iTunes 10.

3. The syncing process in iTunes 10 shows steps remaining to complete the sync

whereas the iTunes 9 did not.

4. The action buttons are vertically oriented in iTunes 10 as opposed to its horizontal

orientation in iTunes 9.

5. The flippy triangles in iTunes 9 are now replaced by hover-sensitive hide labels in

iTunes 10.

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