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iTunes 12.6 messed-up mini-player

R

rexone

macrumors 6502
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Oct 4, 2007
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Lake Weyba on the sub-tropical Sunshine Coast :)
Bravo Apple!
You took a function that was streamlined, elegant & functional gave it to an 8-year old & let them break it.
The 'new, improved' mini-player in iTunes is just hideous.
Nearly twice as tall as previous versions, no longer displays artwork thumbnails, looks like a big clunky notification pop-up and you can't close the blinkin' thing. The X that is supposed to be there to close it disappears never to return so I now have the mini-player window stuck on my desktop as a permanent fixture.
Why oh why do they change something that wasn't broken & take it seriously backwards in every respect?
But then that seems to be the Apple way these days. Look no further than the truly abysmal Photos app.
Just awesome work all-round Apple.
 
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I agree with most of your points and think you will find addition reinforcement on other threads. I will let you know that if you click on the 3 dots and select hide large artwork the" X" will appear and you can close the minelayer. Pretty elegant...huh!!! LOL
 
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rexone said:
thanks @mic j that worked & that's awesome usability isn't it?
Add a completely hidden extra step that you can only activate by clicking on a totally unrelated function... Awesome.
Click to expand...
Yeah totally agree, also its more prominent on the desktop. I guess porting the Mini-Player from the previous version which worked both in form and function would have made to much sense? Makes me want to downgrade to Previous Version.
 
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And Done! Back to iTunes Vs 12.4 Happiness Restotred Rainbows and Unicorns!

Mini player.jpg
Mini player.jpg
 
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What a bunch of whiners!!! All you have to do is keep the large artwork open all the time, whether you want to see artwork or not, and the "x" to go to the normal size iTunes is displayed whenever you bring your cursor over the artwork. It's pretty obvious that Apple wants you to display that artwork...period! Now....LOVE than new mini-player...GOT IT??
 
mic j said:
What a bunch of whiners!!! All you have to do is keep the large artwork open all the time, whether you want to see artwork or not, and the "x" to go to the normal size iTunes is displayed whenever you bring your cursor over the artwork. It's pretty obvious that Apple wants you to display that artwork...period! Now....LOVE than new mini-player...GOT IT??
Click to expand...

Yeah well each to his own ..Rainbows and Unicorns
 
I'm trying to like the new mini player, but so far I prefer the prior version of mini player for its shorter height. It is nice to be able to have the Up Next and the Lyrics as tab options. Still, I preferred clicking to change the elements shown vertically in the old mini player; having trouble getting used to having to slide it up to ditch the artwork now (or worse, use that no-keyboard-shortcut entry at the bottom of the "..." option list to do it).

I may end up using the separate resizeable artwork as a player; the one that you can get from the main window by command-clicking on the little artwork icon in the Now Playing area. I like that idea. That player isn't exactly "mini" but has appeal to me for the simple controls on it if I don't mind giving up the screen real estate to something square instead of a skinny strip like the old mini player. I can see doing that in a Space where I just have a text editor and Notes open maybe, since I resize stuff like that all the time anyway.

Or I could end up more often just using the main iTunes window in a separate Space now. Mission Control with a hot corner enabled makes switching as good as swiping to change Spaces.
 
LizKat said:
I'm trying to like the new mini player, but ....as good as swiping to change Spaces.
Click to expand...
All good thoughts LizKat but still at the core if the issue, as you mention too, is that it's no longer really a miniplayer.
I really get bugged when Apple fix stuff that wasn't broken coming up with a solution that's inferior to the previous version.
 
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rexone said:
All good thoughts LizKat but still at the core if the issue, as you mention too, is that it's no longer really a miniplayer.
I really get bugged when Apple fix stuff that wasn't broken coming up with a solution that's inferior to the previous version.
Click to expand...
Exactly Rexone!! Which is why I downgraded.
 
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bladerunner88 said:
Yeah totally agree, also its more prominent on the desktop. I guess porting the Mini-Player from the previous version which worked both in form and function would have made to much sense? Makes me want to downgrade to Previous Version.
Click to expand...
I'm thinking the sane thing. Go back a version. Why would they take something small and functional (and god knows there was never much about itunes small and functional) and make it a great big blot on the screen. You don't even need the thee dot function to push the control panel ove rthe artwork - just do it with the mouse. That's not the point. It was nice before, it is crap now. What idiot in Apple keeps screwing everything good they do over? Do they hate users?
 
alangater said:
I'm thinking the sane thing. Go back a version. Why would they take something small and functional (and god knows there was never much about itunes small and functional) and make it a great big blot on the screen. You don't even need the thee dot function to push the control panel ove rthe artwork - just do it with the mouse. That's not the point. It was nice before, it is crap now. What idiot in Apple keeps screwing everything good they do over? Do they hate users?
Click to expand...

tbh when I really think about this some more, I conclude Apple wanted to offer a more iOS-like experience via the mini player in iTunes under MacOS. And, I say well hey you know, if I want an iOS-like experience, I have an iPhone, an iPod touch and a couple iPads for that.

When I'm using iTunes on a laptop, and electing to use mini player, it's usually because I'm working in some other app and want iTunes up and running but using minimal to zero screen real estate. I don't care then about artwork, lyrics or even UpNext, assuming I picked a playlist or else some album. That was the whole point of the original mini player option, to run iTunes in as minimal a fashion as possible while also using other app(s) in the same Space.

The new mini player is kind of like a stealth way of getting the MacOS iTunes to look and feel more like iOS. What's next, ditching iTunes' main window and caling all its functions something else in some other app(s)? No sale here if that's the road ahead.

I was never a non-fan of iTunes' "complexity" in OS X. I liked it fine. I like it less and less every time they dumb it down now and subtract another feature. I'm actually still doing a slow burn over no more editing multiple playlists at once, and no more visual re-org of a playlist's play order when you shuffle it.

Those things worked and were not broken, and neither was the mini player broken until a couple versions ago when Apple seemed to be trying to make mini player look like it was beamed down from an iPhone onto a laptop/desktop screen. I'm not going to revert but I'm going to put up some more feedback to Apple on this issue.
 
LizKat said:
...I conclude Apple wanted to offer a more iOS-like experience...
Click to expand...
And therein lies the entire problem @LizKat - Apple seem to be trying to shift the iOS experience to the desktop environment.
I can tell you... I have not invested nearly $10,000 in iMacs for our home-office because I want them to operate like giant iPads.
The most insidious example of this iOS shift was when iPhoto & Aperture were replaced by the truly appalling Photos app. It is designed to be just like an iOS app in it's linear & inflexible functions.
We rely on iPhoto as a photo library manager for our 50K + images. It may not be a great editor or whatever but it is an awesome photo library management tool that gives you excellent flexibility in how you store & use your images.
Sadly Apple are slowly hobbling iPhoto with every OS update as they are determined to get users onto the seriously inferior Photos. We will reach a point where we'll have to buy a Mac Mini just to run an older version of the OS that is fully iPhoto compatible.
All because people inside Apple have decided that they know better than their users & these are just the changes we're seeing in iTunes - backwards steps as they make it more like an iOS app.
 
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I think one annoying aspect of the "new" minelayer was fixed in the last update. The "X" in the upper left hand corner is now there all the time. No need to have to go through multiple steps to make it appear. Yahoo!!!!
 
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