iTunes 9 Is Hideously Ugly, Part 2: Let’s Not Look At It Too Much, Then

This is an update to my earlier post, in which I smugly and fecklessly skewer Apple’s visual redesign of their cross-platform music store/music management mega-app, iTunes.

Here’s the update: It’s still ugly, still visually inconsistent with both Microsoft and Apple operating systems, and the ‘fade to pale’ action when the app is not in focus is still terrible.

Fortunately, there are at least a dozen apps out there that allow you to control iTunes without ever having to look at it. Here, I’m quickly covering three programs with three different approaches:

• ExTray – has hotkeys and album art, but is somewhat clumsy.
• hktunes – has basic hotkeys, is super small and focused, but limited.
• bbBroamTunes plugin for Blackbox (my personal choice) – offers more flexibility over the other two and is bug-free. But, it’s not as easy to configure, and only works in Blackbox.

Quickly Toggle Mouse Sensitivity Settings with Mat

This post is a dual plug, for both the simple software solution Mat (Mouse Acceleration Toggler), and for the DonationCoder.com forums.

Mat doesn't have a GUI; it just eats, shoots, and leaves.

Download Mat here.

In short, this utility allows you to alter mouse speed and acceleration settings with a simple Windows shortcut, rather than having to open the mouse properties dialog and adjust a slider or tick a box. Just create a shortcut to the program, add your desired parameters to the shortcut (see the above screenshot for an example), and launch the shortcut anytime you need a specific mouse speed setting. I use it to toggle between a basic touchpad and a rather sensitive gaming mouse.

This utility is small, free, and best of all, immediately stops running once it completes its task.

How I Got Someone to Make This For Me, or Why DonationCoder.com Is Pretty Awesome

I have a mouse that I use for gaming, but otherwise, I prefer to use a touchpad to save my wrist some wear and tear. The problem I ran into was that my touchpad is of a different sensitivity than my mouse, and in Windows, both devices use the same mouse settings. The result was that when switching between the two devices, my pointer would either move very sluggishly, or go flying across the screen. I knew I needed something simple that could quickly toggle these settings for me.

iTunes 9 is Hideously Ugly

What? No! What is wrong with you?

Now, I am not a graphic designer, nor a professional UI guru, and am, at my best, a completely false artist. But Apple software on Windows has long been designed with great pains to import, inject, and invade the visual style of Apple computing into the Windows domain. They call it a halo effect. It’s supposed to make you want to ditch your current PC and buy an Apple. It’s why you can’t look at brushed metal without shuddering, recalling 1998’s Quicktime slowly coming to life after having hijacked your media file preferences (if it wasn’t that, it was RealPlayer, another insidious and sluggish piece of tech).

But at least with iTunes 8, I could bear seeing the music player in the background. It was even nice seeing the album art out of the corner of my eye. Now, I can’t play a single track without minimizing the player. It’s that 1980’s stone-washed jeans look it gets when it’s not the foreground app. Why is it so bright? Why is the background white in Apple’s newest (and more or less worthless) album view?

What’s worse, is that this ugliness is likely deliberate. It’s the app, calling attention to itself. It’s that same halo effect nonsense: lookit me, I’m an Apple app! No, wait, don’t click off of me, I’ll get brighter! Shut up. Go to the system tray, until I need to fast forward to the next track.

And yes, I could switch to a different music manager, but a) I have four years of historical data sunk into iTunes: ratings, Smart Playlists, playcounts, etc. b) I have an iPod, c) It’s not worth the money or effort to rig up a whole new music player with all my preferences, and d) there are a lot of things that iTunes actually does very well with minimal fuss, Podcasts for one.

So go be smug somewhere else. This is a legitimate complaint, iTunes 9 is  inexcusably ugly. As the screenshot shows, even Mac users hate it, and they have fewer choices than PC fans.

Book Reassures Introverts that They’re Not Weirdos

Linked from BoingBoing:

I devoured that book in one sitting, and actually cried with relief at times. You mean I’m not the only person who finds the telephone odious? My preference for online communication doesn’t make me a weirdo? (Preference over the telephone, that is. I like face-to-face.) You mean there are other people out there who don’t think parties are loads of fun?

You mean I’m not a freak?

Read the interview here.

Book is: Introvert Power, by Laura Helgoe

Looks like Spelunky hit 1.0… and the big time

Click to download Spelunky!

I was just writing about Spelunky for my blog, wondering when it would hit 1.0, when BAM, front page of IndieGames:

Spelunky Coming to XBLA in 2010

No foolin’. And it’s got a real website, too:

http://www.spelunkyworld.com/original.html

Though it came out shortly before year’s end, I’ve pretty much thought of this action roguelike as my personal Game of the Year ‘09. It’s not immediately obvious, especially if you’re one to quit games the split second they get difficult (and this is one unforgiving game), but the acrobatic stunts and the unexpected interactions of simple mechanics really add up to a charming and deeply fun game.

It kind of irks me that, like Cave Story, Spelunky will be getting the special treatment (better graphics, some unspecified extras) for its console debut, but fortunately, Derek Yu is a man with his feet on the ground, and the Windows version will continue to be free. XBLA exposure isn’t exactly a bad thing, and it’ll put a few dollars in his pocket. Good for him, I say. Plus, the interest may well spawn new variations on the action roguelike.

(Personally, I don’t own and have no interest in owning an XBox, but if the improved version of this game hit the Nintendo DS I’d be all over it.)

Seriously, if you haven’t tried out this little gem, do so, immediately.