What's with the retro iTunes icon?
Now that iTunes has had a full version update, and the commercial side of iTunes is officially called "The iTunes Store," one would expect to see a new application icon. I sure was surprised to see the blue 8th notes over a CD...haven't we seen this before? Oh yeah, it was essentially the icon for iTunes 2.0. Odd.I was wondering if Apple would abandon the musical notes all together and come up with something completely new, but they went the retro route instead. I guess I like it.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
steve said 4:20PM on 9-12-2006
oddly, the new itunes has no button for visualizations, and the visualization preferences button has been removed from the GUI. Also, i dont see a way in the preferences to disable the gapless audio file scanning.
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Dari said 4:25PM on 9-12-2006
The old icon is purple, the new one is blue. Simple as that.
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pedro said 4:26PM on 9-12-2006
Apple used to change each of their logos colors with each new release. They still do it with a few apps. I'm happy that they're back! It was originally purple, then blue, then green, and green, and green and now we're back to blue! Welcome back, blue!
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3xa said 4:27PM on 9-12-2006
have you noticed that the mini-store-button has gone away?
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pedro said 4:28PM on 9-12-2006
Amazingly enough, someone has an itunes icon timeline!
http://www.techmanifesto.com/archives/2005/09/08/the-itunes-icon-timeline/
I was off a bit. How about that itunes 1.0 icon!
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George said 4:42PM on 9-12-2006
I dislike the current scroll bars because I don't feel they are consistent with Aqua user interface but I guess I will get used to it.
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Brent said 5:06PM on 9-12-2006
Do anyone else get a little bit of a PC feeling when looking at the new iTunes GUI?
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olivier said 5:07PM on 9-12-2006
the graphical overall redesign is just gross, the icon with the blurry CD and glossy note is just so iTunes 1.0
when it popped up in my 'switcher' i freaked out.
and what's with those plastic windows-like gradient?
GROSS!
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NitRam Den Gale said 5:12PM on 9-12-2006
This icon fits better with the video and audio applications made by Apple... (Blue is the theme of iMovie, iDVD, QuickTime and now iTunes)
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Danny said 5:28PM on 9-12-2006
Does anyone know why the dock menu icon for itunes is still green, how can i update it to blue?
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Niels said 5:56PM on 9-12-2006
Aaahhh! YAUTISNA! (Yet Another User Interface That Is Not Aqua) And it's ugly as hell. Looks like a someone at Apple got their hands on a pre-OS X copy of Kaleidoscope.
But the new features are nice.
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tr said 6:13PM on 9-12-2006
haha...that's great. i was just looking at the icon, thinking "didn't they use blue already?", and then i came across this post!
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Query said 5:34PM on 9-12-2006
C'mon, Think Differently, people! Windows isn't plastic, it copied glass from OS X.
And I'm beginning to like the new interface. I bet that at least /some/ of it will be implemented in Leopard, if not all of it. We all know how iTunes brings about OS redesigns (a la the smooth dark-gray title/toolbars replacing brushed metal that will supposedly be implemented in Leopard).
And my two cents on the icon: It takes away from the Front Row menu.
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Bjorn Nitmo said 12:57PM on 11-10-2006
The dock item will remain green until you launch iTunes 7 for the first at which point it will automagically switch to blue. This is standard OS X behaviour.
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olivier said 6:18PM on 9-12-2006
+ iTunes is all f*cked up, still a beta i guess...
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Stevie said 8:16PM on 9-12-2006
It is definitely a more pleasing color than green...every time i see it I have this burning desire to click on it...but i have work to do so this is a very hard day for me.
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David Johnson said 8:17PM on 9-12-2006
This guy (author of this article) is a moron. Look at what he posts:
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/09/11/apples-agenda-for-the-media-event/
Follow up your stories and admit they are false.
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Andrew Harden said 9:40PM on 9-12-2006
Well that article was posted before the event (as in the night before), and the first line reads "Ok, it's time for some last minute rumor mongering" keyword there being "rumor."
I'm not sure how I feel about the new UI in iTunes. I don't think it's ugly, it just feels so....un-OS X like, for some reason it reminds me of Linux, and maybe even what Vista would look like minus the glass. If Leopard implements it system-wide I suppose I'll get used to it quick.
One thing I don't like is that downloads no longer appear in that main "now playing" window along the top (that has the Apple logo when nothing is playing or downloading), so if I keep iTunes minimized to just the playback controls I can't tell if my podcasts are actually updating or not.
The Coverflow integration is great, and I especially like the "hybrid" view that shows the artwork along the side in the main area. The iPod "info" page that pops up when you mount your iPod is also pretty slick.
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Lockboard said 11:01PM on 9-12-2006
The new icon is an abomination. On my 17 in iMac LCD at native res (1440x900), it looks pixelated anc cheap, and the disc has color banding as if I was running my screen on 256 colors (It's on millions of colors). It's a shame compared to all the nice OS X icons, and the previous iTunes 6 icon, which looked smooth and clean. Actually the new icon reminds me of shitty Windows icon or Mac OS 8 icon. Are we going back in time or what??
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Sam said 5:18AM on 9-13-2006
If you seriously think the iTunes UI looks anything like Windows, get your eyes checked out.
It's funny how every UI change by Apple results in yells of "gross!". The gumdrops of Aqua are over five years old, from the era of the translucent 1G iMac. It stopped looking cutting-edge around the time that every cheap Taiwanese USB hub was built to resemble that paradigm.
Look at the Apple.com of today. Now go to the Wayback machine and look at it five years ago. Look at the MacBook Pro, the new Nano, and the Mac Pro. Compare them to the Tangerine iBook and the Flower Power iMac. Which era does the new "dark unified" belong to, and which era does Aqua belong to?
One complaint I agree with is the loss of the EQ button without even a keyboard shortcut to lessen the blow. PLEASE don't force me to use menus, Apple. A big reason I switched was your UI design which eliminated the need for menus in day-to-day things.
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