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Dear Auntie TUAW: What happened to the mini player in iTunes 9?

by Josh Carr Sep 10th 2009 at 7:00PM

Dear Auntie TUAW,

With all the shiny goodness of iTunes 9 and a way to finally organise iPhone/iPod Touch apps without getting a friction burn on my thumb, I settled in for some music lovin'.

Now I don't know how everyone else in the world likes their iTunes experience, but personally I'm quite fond of using the miniplayer. I love having it floating atop everything else for quick track skipping without having to resort to any kind of ghastly menu bar or dashboard trickery (I'm a purist maybe?).

To my dismay the zoom button now... actually... zooms the iTunes window rather than presenting me with my favoured miniplayer. It's no great loss (considering the hot key is only shift+cmd+M) but I liked the simplicity of "The green one gives me small happy player."

Love and kisses,

Your Nephew James



Dearest James,

Auntie TUAW wanted me to answer for her; she's in the process of baking some cakes for the annual church social at Our Lady of Perpetual Motion, so she's a bit tied up right now.

I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble with the new functions of iTunes 9. I have hope! Apple didn't change the functionality too much. In fact, they made it more consistent with the rest of the operating system. The green "+" button now acts as a proper zoom button like every other app out there -- BUT -- if you hold the option key while pressing it you still get the mini player like the previous versions of iTunes. Sure, you can use the shift+command+M hot key if you'd like, but there's a still a mouse click solution that will hopefully help you and the rest of our readers out.

With best regards,

Cousin Josh

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Dear Auntie TUAW, With all the shiny goodness of iTunes 9 and a way to finally organise iPhone/iPod Touch apps without getting a friction...
 

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35 Comments

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Joseph

The iTunes 9.0.1 software update solves this problem :) WOO!

September 23 2009 at 5:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Reilly

The mini-player is in iTunes 9. What are you guys talking about?

Its under View > Switch To Mini Player

The Key Command is Shift-Command-M.


PROOF: http://i29.tinypic.com/10nx9vl.jpg

September 13 2009 at 12:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
npx

Wow, I'm amazed how people can be annoyed by this UI correction!

It was actually one of the most obvious inconsistencies in Mac OS X (since iTunes is such a popular app) and it's great they finally fixed it. Sure, if people use the mini player a lot they should/could add a button somewhere in iTunes for fast "minimization", but please... the green button thing was awful. Just because some people got used to it doesn't mean it's right, cause it downright wasn't. :)

Apple have clear human interface guidelines and it saddens me every time they break the rules themselves... so... well done.

September 11 2009 at 12:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
James

So Freaky my name is James and I tweeted about this all day when iTunes came out, Woah!

September 11 2009 at 10:58 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to James's comment
Johnny

Obviously, everyone has their own preference, but I personally think this makes a lot more sense. Sometimes I move the window to my main screen to watch video and then move it back to the second screen when done. Now, I can just hit the green button to make the window fit perfectly on the second monitor when I move it back. It always annoyed me that you had to manually resize the window before moving it to the smaller display.

September 11 2009 at 10:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gary

Glad to see I wasn't the only person who was disappointed with the mini player function. I guess the option green button is OK but sure would like to see it return to normal again.

September 11 2009 at 8:58 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mrtotes

Now if only they'd fix iPhoto so it doesn't quit when I close the window.

September 11 2009 at 7:38 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to mrtotes's comment
Kev orng

That behaviour actually IS consistent with OSX.

I can't remember the precise wording, but here's the gist of it:

Clicking the red X only closes the document or the particular window of an app. Other docs or windows stay open, background process stay running, and the app stays running until you quit it.

In cases where there can be only one instance/window of a program, the program does not open separate documents, and it does not run any background processes, closing the only possible instance of the program quits the program.

September 11 2009 at 12:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
LifeSux

??? so the computer that "just works" expects you to know what applications can have more than one window open? seriously? so, ok, it's "consistent" but it's not good UI.

September 12 2009 at 6:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
LifeSux

I like the idea of consistency, but would like a button for the mini player somewhere in the interface. It doesn't need to be in the upper left, but should be easy enough to add a button so it can be done one handed.

As for consistency, it would be really nice if the red close button either closed a window or quit an application. as it is, it does either or both, depending on what application you are using.

and can people please stop posting "oooh, I figured this out before I read it here and I am oh so clever, expert really, and know how to use twitter". How insecure can you be?

September 11 2009 at 6:54 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dannybuoy

This has also really got my goat. Very frustrating. Apple please change it back or I'll tell my mum and she'll write you a horrid letter

September 11 2009 at 3:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Max

Luckily for everybody, Mac OS X rocks. In other words, just go to System Preferences, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts. Then add iTunes as an application and add three shortcuts;
1. "Switch to Mini Player" to Control-Command-Z
2. "Switch from Mini Player" to Control-Command-Z
3. "Zoom" to Control-Command-Shift-Z (or whatever you prefer)

Works like a charm for me ;)

September 11 2009 at 2:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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