This morning, as usual, I plugged my iPhone into my PC. It needs iTunes running to 'sync'. Or in other words, to remain stuck in the iJobs max security prison. Unless, mysteriously during the night, my PC has become 'de-authorised'. Just let me use the damn thing!! If it's on my bloody computer, it IS authorised.
So I click 'Authorise'. "You are only allowed 5 computers to be authorised. You've reached your limit. This computer cannot be authorised unless you de-authorise one of the others." In the meantime another message tells me my iPhone will have 130 apps deleted if I proceed with the sync and don't authorise the PC. I can't, you bastards, because when I've long ago had to authorise this same bloody computer 5 times, and when I de-authorise ALL of them, I'll lose my bloody apps. Then I'll have to load every single one of them using my < 1MB internet connection - if it allows me to do so at all and I don't have to re-install iTunes and get a new Apple account ("we're sorry that ID is already in use" - YES, by me!!)... complete with a new password that requires numbers, letters (upper and lower case), and characters that are neither letter or number but totally screw up what tiny semblance of organisation there might have been in the several thousand ID/Password bollocks I increasingly have to remember. Can't wait for the day when every site and device simply knows it's me. By smell perhaps. Essence of Grombler. "Welcome back Mr Grombler. Is that a curry I detect. Next time you want a curry there's 20% off at .....". Sigh.
But iTunes itself has just been 'upgraded'. How can they possibly call it an 'Upgrade'? And what an even more odious thing it's become. In the old iTunes you sort of eventually learned where most things were. Not attempt at Windows symbolism, but not a million miles away. New iTunes, that every iJobs forces you to use, hides everything you previously got used to finding - like the settings for your iPhone. It tries to be as different from everything you've got used to as possible. It's even got those horrendous minute dots that you need magnifying glasses to find on macs which open or close stuff. But back to trying to find my iPhone. If its plugged in and syncing, there's a new button that appears that say 'iPhone'. Hurrah! But whatever you do, do not click it! It disconnects the iJobs. After the sync, it disappears completely. Clicking on a tiny little icon somewhere near the top left that looks like nothing I've seen before, brings up a list of options including 'Devices'. Of course your iPhone, now that it's finished syncing, doesn't appear there. Nor does your AppleTV. In fact nothing does, despite the fact iTunes is self-evidently being used on one.... which any day soon will need reauthorising.
What the new iTunes possibly does do is help you organise your music (about which I give a toss. Didn't need track names when I was younger, don't today) - although as everyone knows, it only plays music on iJobs (and previously authorised devices). Put something into iTunes and it's lost to the rest of the world. DO NOT BUY MUSIC OR VIDEOS FROM APPLE IF YOU HAVE AN ANDROID OR PLAIN OLD MP3 PLAYER. You've just wasted your money.
So iTunes is horribly designed, you can't find what used to allegedly be there, it manages things you're not interested in (and loses things you are - like when your iPhone syncs with Outlook, the previous IOS syncs your Notes. Not IOS 6!), and it forces you to own iJobs kit which are all loathsome... but beautiful in a mysteriously addictive way. Damn them!!!
So I click 'Authorise'. "You are only allowed 5 computers to be authorised. You've reached your limit. This computer cannot be authorised unless you de-authorise one of the others." In the meantime another message tells me my iPhone will have 130 apps deleted if I proceed with the sync and don't authorise the PC. I can't, you bastards, because when I've long ago had to authorise this same bloody computer 5 times, and when I de-authorise ALL of them, I'll lose my bloody apps. Then I'll have to load every single one of them using my < 1MB internet connection - if it allows me to do so at all and I don't have to re-install iTunes and get a new Apple account ("we're sorry that ID is already in use" - YES, by me!!)... complete with a new password that requires numbers, letters (upper and lower case), and characters that are neither letter or number but totally screw up what tiny semblance of organisation there might have been in the several thousand ID/Password bollocks I increasingly have to remember. Can't wait for the day when every site and device simply knows it's me. By smell perhaps. Essence of Grombler. "Welcome back Mr Grombler. Is that a curry I detect. Next time you want a curry there's 20% off at .....". Sigh.
But iTunes itself has just been 'upgraded'. How can they possibly call it an 'Upgrade'? And what an even more odious thing it's become. In the old iTunes you sort of eventually learned where most things were. Not attempt at Windows symbolism, but not a million miles away. New iTunes, that every iJobs forces you to use, hides everything you previously got used to finding - like the settings for your iPhone. It tries to be as different from everything you've got used to as possible. It's even got those horrendous minute dots that you need magnifying glasses to find on macs which open or close stuff. But back to trying to find my iPhone. If its plugged in and syncing, there's a new button that appears that say 'iPhone'. Hurrah! But whatever you do, do not click it! It disconnects the iJobs. After the sync, it disappears completely. Clicking on a tiny little icon somewhere near the top left that looks like nothing I've seen before, brings up a list of options including 'Devices'. Of course your iPhone, now that it's finished syncing, doesn't appear there. Nor does your AppleTV. In fact nothing does, despite the fact iTunes is self-evidently being used on one.... which any day soon will need reauthorising.
What the new iTunes possibly does do is help you organise your music (about which I give a toss. Didn't need track names when I was younger, don't today) - although as everyone knows, it only plays music on iJobs (and previously authorised devices). Put something into iTunes and it's lost to the rest of the world. DO NOT BUY MUSIC OR VIDEOS FROM APPLE IF YOU HAVE AN ANDROID OR PLAIN OLD MP3 PLAYER. You've just wasted your money.
So iTunes is horribly designed, you can't find what used to allegedly be there, it manages things you're not interested in (and loses things you are - like when your iPhone syncs with Outlook, the previous IOS syncs your Notes. Not IOS 6!), and it forces you to own iJobs kit which are all loathsome... but beautiful in a mysteriously addictive way. Damn them!!!
At last! Someone else who hates iTunes. Somehow the Apple cognoscenti mafia have elevated iTunes to to the level of uncritisisability (is that a word?) despite it being an awful program. Terrible. Crap. Unreliable. Always updating and needing re-boot. One of the main reasons I will never have an iPhone.
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