Apple to PC Users: If You Want iTunes to Work, Wait to Get Vista

[Jeremy Charette]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/16610585.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/16610585.htm</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Apple has some advice for PC-based iTunes customers that are considering upgrading to Windows Vista: Wait! In a support document updated Thursday, the company warned such customers that its digital music software has some compatibility issues with Vista, the latest version of Microsoft's flagship operating system. Among the known issues: Songs purchased from the iTunes music store may not play; contacts and calendar entries won't sync to customers' iPods; and customers could corrupt their iPod unless they eject it from Windows using iTunes."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/toastedipod301231.jpg" /> <br /><br />Apparently if you install Windows Vista, and connect your iPod via iTunes, you'll end up with something resembling the picture above. (I kid, I kid!) Actually, Apple has <a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305042">posted a support topic </a>which covers installation of iTunes in Windows Vista, as well as how to avoid the known problems with using an iPod with Vista. If you follow the instructions, you shouldn't have any trouble. Says something about Apple however, that they've had access to Vista for months now, and still haven't released a bug-free, Vista-compatible revision of iTunes. :roll:

[Tim Williamson]

I guess I'm gonna have to go out and buy a Mac to use iTunes...not.

[Vincent Ferrari]

I don't know if it says anything about Apple any more than the Zune not working with Vista out of the box.

That being said, I do think Apple f'ed up royally by not getting a Vista fix ready for iTunes for the Vista launch.

[Tim Williamson]

Haha, the Zune doesn't work with Vista out of the box??? Jeez... :roll:

[Vincent Ferrari]

Doesn't the software need a patch / the device need a firmware update?

And don't roll your eyes like I'm some wacked out know-nothing for saying that. I didn't buy one, I'm just relaying what I've heard and unless they've gone back and changed every single box that had the software in it, the Zune doesn't work with Vista out of the box.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20061221/zune-vista-upgrade.htm

It requires a software update.

Maybe I should roll my eyes at you now.

[Tim Williamson]

Doesn't the software need a patch / the device need a firmware update?

And don't roll your eyes like I'm some wacked out know-nothing for saying that. I didn't buy one, I'm just relaying what I've heard and unless they've gone back and changed every single box that had the software in it, the Zune doesn't work with Vista out of the box.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20061221/zune-vista-upgrade.htm

It requires a software update.

Maybe I should roll my eyes at you now.

You misunderstood, I was rolling my eyes and Microsoft not you. :)

[Vincent Ferrari]

Then I'm an ass and I look mighty foolish right about now and I'm gonna learn not to type angry...

Someday... :lol:

Sorry about that.

[Tim Williamson]

No problem, I should apologize to you since after I read your post I started making generalizations in my head about people from the Bronx. ;)

[Vincent Ferrari]

Scary part is, I'm not from the Bronx. I'm originally from Queens... You wouldn't know it if I didn't tell ya ;-) HAHAHAHAHH

[Jeremy Charette]

Hey hey youse guys, Brooklyn checkin' in heah. Settle down now, have a cannoli.

[Jason Dunn]

I'm using iTunes on Vista right now and it works fine - but I didn't do an upgrade, nor do I have any purchased music, so I might not be seeing the problems others are seeing.

[Kacey Green]

I don't recall having any problems with RC1 &amp; 2 when I helped a friend put music on his iPod. What did Apple change between then and now? Did I miss something?

[randalllewis]

I have little use for Apple, but they aren't alone. Yahoo- the new owners of Musicmatch Jukebox- have no version of their product that works with Vista either. I wouldn't care expect I have quite a few songs purchased from them that I can't access now because you need MMJB on the computer to play them. I can guess that Apple's failure to get something written for Vista was at least partially related to their general arrogance. Yahoo's excuse....well, face it: they have no excuse.

[Kacey Green]

Thats why I chose a Plays for Sure device. I use Urge for now, but Sidebar geek at MSTechToday is trying to bring me over to the social. (Zune)

[ctmagnus]

That's why I still but CDs and why I rip my music in good, old, reliable MP3 format. ;)

[Tim Williamson]

That's why I still but CDs and why I rip my music in good, old, reliable MP3 format. ;)

QFT x Eleventy-Billion!!!!!! :lol:

[Dyvim]

Says something about Apple however, that they've had access to Vista for months now, and still haven't released a bug-free, Vista-compatible revision of iTunes. :roll:

Heck, Apple still hasn't released a bug-free, XP-compatible revision of iTunes 7.

Personally, I'm not having any issues with it, but apparently plenty of people still are.

[Jason Dunn]

I'm going to have to amend my opinion of iTunes on Vista: it's not so great. It was just fine in terms of installing, importing music, etc. When I connected my wife's Shuffle, things went down hill. First it demands to purge all the music on it before it sets up the partnership (grrr), which I have to agree to. Then I selected about 600 songs, added it to a playlist, then told iTunes to do a random sync to the Shuffle with the option to transcode to 128 kbps AAC turned on.

That was two days ago, and I still can't get it working right! iTunes is a very badly behaved application when it comes to sharing the CPU - it's using 80% to 100% of the 1.74 Ghz Pentuim M CPU to transcode the audio. That's normal. But what's NOT normal is how it refuses to open/display/do anything while it's transcoding. I can't even get it to display on the screen if I alt+tab through a few applications. Windows Vista is really great at keeping your system responsive even when the CPU is pegged, but iTunes seems to be the exception to that. I also noticed that csrss.exe is taking up a lot of CPU cycles at the moment, and that's a core Windows program, not an iTunes one...so there must be some sort of conflict here. :roll:

I have the same level of patience with Apple as I do with every other vendor: Vista has been coming for YEARS, it's been finalized for MONTHS, so for them not to have their software ready to go is inexcusable. :evil:

[Tim Williamson]

I think Apple's just trying to get under Microsoft's skin by doing this...but that reasoning still doesn't explain why Vista doesn't even support their Microfost's own Zune out of the box. At least WMP works fine in Vista (right?).

[Jason Dunn]

...but that reasoning still doesn't explain why Vista doesn't even support their Microfost's own Zune out of the box. At least WMP works fine in Vista (right?).

The reason is pretty simple: the Zune software was finalized and shipped off to get manufactured back in (likely) August...Vista wasn't finalized then, so how could the Zune team have their finalized software working with a beta OS? The LAME part was that the Zune team didn't have the Zune software ready for when Vista went RTM and 1000's of techies started to install it back in December...but at least that's fixed now and someone with a Vista computer has Zune software that will work for them.

[Tim Williamson]

Wouldn't you think retail Vista would be bundled with the Zune software though? Or is does the RTM version = the retail version?

[Jason Dunn]

Wouldn't you think retail Vista would be bundled with the Zune software though? Or is does the RTM version = the retail version?

Retail Vista bundled with Zune software? Nope, that makes no sense at all. ;-) Vista still comes with Windows Media Player 11, whereas the Zune software really needs a Zune to be useful. Heck, WMP11 is more functional than the Zune software.

RTM = release to manufacturing, as in the code is finalized and people with MSDN accounts can download the final version (that's what I did).

[Tim Williamson]

Sorry, I meant wouldn't you think Microsoft would have included the Zune software within Vista, but since you mentioned the Zune software wasn't ready by Vista RTM, then that makes sense.

[Vincent Ferrari]

I'm going to have to amend my opinion of iTunes on Vista: it's not so great. It was just fine in terms of installing, importing music, etc. When I connected my wife's Shuffle, things went down hill. First it demands to purge all the music on it before it sets up the partnership (grrr), which I have to agree to. Then I selected about 600 songs, added it to a playlist, then told iTunes to do a random sync to the Shuffle with the option to transcode to 128 kbps AAC turned on.

That's funny 'cause every shuffle I've ever owned has done that on XP also...

I think iTunes' handling of the Shuffle is seriously flawed.

There's another bug that I just came across. If you sync your podcasts over, they don't play in order. Period. It'll never happen. The only fix is to remove your library and reimport it.

I wish I was kidding.

Of course that's not an official solution (I found it on an OSX tip site) but you would think that the iTunes folks would've thought of that...

[Tim Williamson]

I don't know if it's just my "slow" PC (Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, 1 GB RAM, Radeon X800 video card, XP) but iTunes just crawls and seems really delayed when scrolling through the music list. Why can't they make an interface that scrolls as smooth as Picasa?

[Vincent Ferrari]

It does.

On the hardware it was originally designed for.

Let's face it, Apple's never going to make great PC software (Quicktime and iTunes are weak on windows but kick ass on the Mac) and Microsoft Office is a piggy dog-slow kludge pile of garbage on the Mac that most Mac users are forced to use despite it's slow flaky behavior and complete non-standard Mac UI.

All in all, it's no surprise that neither Apple nor Microsoft are exactly rushing to get their crap in order on the other's platforms.

One major difference, of course, is that iTunes and Quicktime are free while Office costs (at a minimum if you have a student or teacher in the hizzy) $149.