Otaku, Cedric's weblog

I think I remove the stupid quicktime icon from my tray about every week. It seems like everytime itunes gets an update, the icon goes back in the tray. Drives me crazy.

I fully agree. Even if you download iTunes you get that damned quicktime autostart.

Definitely annoying.

On the power adapter: this is why I use pig tails.

Dion

(the comment stripped the URL:
http://www.almaer.com/blog/archives/000671.html)

I think you're stretching when you call the lack of bluetooth in an iPod "evil". None of my desktops have bluetooth support, and I don't really feel the desire to add it. It might be handy for some, but have you seen the inside of an iPod? Where are they gonna put the bluetooth stuff?

I totally agree with your first three points. Your fifth point, about the power adapter, is moot now. The 5th gen iPod videos don't come with a power adapter anymore. USB charging only.

His points have merit but they are pretty weak and none of them strike me as evil, annoying perhaps. Certainly not as evil as censoring Tibetan websites from Chinese searches, we should probably do some level setting before using the word "evil".

System tray: Annoying for sure. But then again just about everything puts a system tray icon in there for no apparent reason.

Email address: My guess is that most people don't uncheck the boxes, hit download, it says they need their email address, then they type it in. Only advanced users uncheck the boxes.

Quicktime on Windows: Buy a Mac and you will get even more "bundled software" that doesn't suck.

Synchronization: Probably because the speed of bluetooth is so slow. Maybe once there is something as fast as firewire/usb2 thats wireless they will add it. UWB?

Power adapter: The reason that thing disconnects is because you can replace it with a long cord. You may not have seen those cords before is because they come free with powerbooks but not the ipods.

Cannot agree more! They are all annoying!

This is just a case of "When in Rome..."

Fact is, just about every dang thing I ever install on Windows has a misleading installer, tries to bundle extra stuff, and abuses the system tray. It's really not fair to hold Apple to a higher standard.

...unless you're running OS X, of course. ;)

Plus Bluetooth is slooooowwwww.

You forgot to mention the insidious iPod service and ituneshelper.exe process that itunes insists on running 24/7. I've long since removed itunes from my machines. The only reason I ever installed it was to listen to other people's music. Fortunately there are lots of programs out there to help you leech music from silly mac folk (see ourTunes, myTunes, etc).

It's hidden, but you can actually grab quicktime w/o itunes (www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html). Of course you're still asked for an email address, to which I always use steve.jobs@apple.com. After some combination of deleting qttask.exe, removing the startup entry in the registry and making the Quicktime folder non-writeable, one can make the systray icon die for good.

All of this stuff reminds me of the software Real Networks used to ship. Way to go Apple!

Thanks god there is a "QuickTime Alternative". It is almost as good as the original one and allow me to use my favorite movie player.

hi cedric,

agree with you on most points -- but I think you were irritated enough to write an unusual post :-)

my organization is giving users an old quicktime bundle -- I'm sure you can find one. If not, I can send you one -- just email me :-)

Emails : Yes, it's 2006 -- we expect Apple *NOT* to leave them by default -- but all you had to do was uncheck them!

power adapter : yeah, too bad -- I'd love to buy the pigtails Dion's mentioned.

BR,
~A

One very useful utility is Mike Lin's Startup Monitor:

http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml

You will be amazed at how much stuff installers put on your startup. His other tools are also great.

One catch after you clean up: be sure iTunes is running when you connect the iPod.

Were you unable to find http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html ? It's linked to off the Quicktime+iTunes download page.

You get the "do not disconnect" message when you have the iPod mounted as an accessible file system. So pulling the plug may interrupt an OS write out. Bluetooth? Yes, I'd like to move 40GB of data to my iPod over Bluetooth, it'd only take a week or two. Really, Bluetooth isn't an option for a connection to a mass storage device.

And at least the Apple Power Adapter gives you the option of running a standard power cable into it or running it as a wall wart. Most power adapter designs, it's one or the other.

Want clickthrough? On the Mac, clickthrough happens to a background window with the command key held down; have a try clicking with Windows modifier keys.

Apple is evil, as is Microsoft and Google. Pretty much once any company gets beyond one person it starts getting greedy and evil. And oh, you left out the most important point - an iPod that lasts an hour on a full charge!

The iTunes download page behavior isn't the one described by Cedric. There are only 2 selected checkboxes, clicking on the download button direcly without touching anything just works.

The Quicktime 7 download page (with bundled iTunes...) is the one that pops up an error dialog.

- Sylvain

1) It's there, just hidden in an annoyingly RealAudio-like "make it a small link nobody can see" gambit: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html
2) Evil, hands down. Writing Windows software isn't Apple's greatest strength. :)
3) Yes, but at least you can leave the email address field blank if you don't accept the subscriptions, which makes it less evil than most product signups
4) I hear there's currently a proposal that might make Bluetooth able to transfer faster than 1Mbps. Be still, my beating heart. :)
5) Apple is notoriously bad at following even its own click-through guidelines: http://daringfireball.net/2003/05/the_problems_with_clickthrough
6) I like the Apple power-adapter. Unlike most other power-bricks, it doesn't use up excessive horizontal space, which makes it more power-strip friendly than most other adapters. Then again, I charge my iPod over USB anyway.

Oops, the click-through link should have been: http://daringfireball.net/2003/05/interface_details_itunes_vs_safari

You realize, of course, that you can get an extender for the power chord. This brilliant move allows one to reclaim space on power strips - and even can act as an extension chord!

These are only minor evils compared to Apple's DMCA enforcements.

One additional thing that annoys me is there's no 'itunes update.' You have to install and download the entire app over again for each annoying little point release. v6 was released but then 6.0.1 came out inside of a week, and 6.0.2 came out in mid-Jan 06.

I refuse to install any future itunes releases until I can download just the bits that have changed. Microsoft seems to have figured out how to make that work for Windows (which is far, far more complicated than itunes), why can't you do it for itunes? And they even suck, remember? Time to start making the software downloads smaller and not just the devices.

Two more evils:

Turning function into fashion. It just plays entertainment. Why all the colors and styles and co-branding? Worse than a pair of "insert latest cool pair" of jeans.

Price fixing. No matter where I buy the things, apple has forced retailers to accept minimum prices.

The iTunes hidden tasks have another irritating consequence. This is in addition to the things Tim mentioned above.

Once you load iTunes (and those hidden tasks) if you plug in an iPod, you can't use it as a flash drive anymore.

This scenario isn't that wierd:

1) Your music library is on your computer at home. You sync your ipod nano with it and listen to it ... whenever.
2) You want to use the ipod at work to transfer a file or two to a coworker's computer. Who knows why you don't just email it.
3) If either of you has downloaded iTunes and installed it, it will not be available as a flash drive when you plug it in.

I suggest they make the ipod tasks optional.

What a pain.

The iTunes hidden tasks have another irritating consequence. This is in addition to the things Tim mentioned above.

Once you load iTunes (and those hidden tasks) if you plug in an iPod, you can't use it as a flash drive anymore.

This scenario isn't that wierd:

1) Your music library is on your computer at home. You sync your ipod nano with it and listen to it ... whenever.
2) You want to use the ipod at work to transfer a file or two to a coworker's computer. Who knows why you don't just email it.
3) If either of you has downloaded iTunes and installed it, it will not be available as a flash drive when you plug it in.

I suggest they make the ipod tasks optional.

What a pain.

And tech support is bad too. This is my expeirence from this weekend. http://rogerweber.blogspot.com/2006/02/tale-of-two-tech-supports_19.html

Quicktime is like Real player !

They always get installed on your machine even if you don't want it! And the only way to remove it is to delete their entry from the registry. Nice! How do we call this? virus? spyware?...

Someone just has to say it: you deserve to suffer for using the wrong OS, pal!

Why buy overpriced Apple hardware at all?

For about $120 you could've gotten a tiny 20GB Archos Gmini:

http://www.archos.com/products/music/gmini_xs_202/tech_specs.html?country=global&lang=en

Archos? I learned my lesson about those hunks of junk a few years back when I was going on a trip and needed portable photo storage. I have never seen such a poor UI and quality in a product. You don't just buy hardware you're buying usability and software features as well.

I was annoyed when my ipod mini broke a year back or so and went on a hunt to find a non-apple replacement. It was then that I realized that though the device itself is well built and has a nice, simple UI, that it was iTunes that I am hooked to. Very smart strategy by Apple (assuming it was planned that way). This is the highest margin razor/blade system ever devised. Gillette must be envious.

what pisses me off is all of the proprietry hardware. Apple has just recently come up with an ingenious invention known as the 'magsafe' power adaptor. They have not allowed third party manufacturers to produce these, so we are left buying more of apple's overpriced junk whenever the thing spontaneously combusts (as it has been shown to do.)

Whatsmore, we can't buy a bloody DC/DC converter to save battery life when running it off 12V DC.

The magsafe function is in itself useless, and invented entirely to stop people from using generic (read - BETTER) plugs.

what pisses me off is all of the proprietry hardware. Apple has just recently come up with an ingenious invention known as the 'magsafe' power adaptor. They have not allowed third party manufacturers to produce these, so we are left buying more of apple's overpriced junk whenever the thing spontaneously combusts (as it has been shown to do.)

Whatsmore, we can't buy a bloody DC/DC converter to save battery life when running it off 12V DC.

The magsafe function is in itself useless, and invented entirely to stop people from using generic (read - BETTER) plugs.

China Medical University offering mbbs in china with english medium and training for USMLE and Plab Exams.

http://www.chinamedicaluniversity.org
http://www.medicalschoolsinchina.com