Hey Apple – Love the iPhone, Fix the iTunes

The tech world is always buzzing with the latest rumors from Apple. 

Will the next iPhone have a virtual keyboard which projects itself onto any surface? How about a holo-beam, capable of projecting anything on the iPhone’s screen into thin air – similar to the holodeck on Star Trek The Next Generation, only much smaller? Will they introduce a male version of the digital personal assistant Siri, so you can choose whether your phone is male or female?

Apple has an amazing marketing machine. They get the word out about their products through the rumor mill. Usually, when a rumor is spread about a company’s products, services, or even the company itself, it is negative. But Apple intentionally creates rumors about potential products and product features to generate so much media and geekdom hype that come launch day, we’re all like meth addicts climbing the walls waiting for our next fix.

Apple’s products for the most part are also technological break-throughs that rock the world, and change the way we do things for ever.

Remember the original Sony Walkman? A massive -- by today’s standards -- square of plastic, with a row of control buttons on the side.

We’re not talking about the next generation Walkman, which had the CD-player in it, we’re talkin’ the original from the 1980’s – long before anyone had ever seen a metallic disc – unless you’re referring to a heavy metal rock band’s metal-painted record. Remember those?

Both the record and the audio cassette became history as CDs and DVDs took the world by storm.

But the real innovation which shook the world was Apple’s iPod – a tiny portable MP3 player, which allowed you to carry more music, and it was crystal clear because it was digital audio.

When Steve Jobs first announced the iPhone with his famous phrase “this changes everything,” he wasn’t lying.

Before the iPhone, all most of us did on cell phones was talk, text and occasionally surf the net, using really bad text-driven cell phone browsers.

Who would have thought we’d ask our Smartphone for directions, what the weather forecast will be like, or to name the song currently playing in the restaurant?

Apple’s marketing machine is slick and creative, but their hardware products are also equally impressive – if not more so.

However, Apple’s software is surprisingly really, really, REALLY awful. Or at least it is on my MS-Windows machine, which may also be part of the issue.

Whenever I plug my iPhone into my computer to charge and sync with iTunes, I always cringe, watching with a tummy-turning uneasiness to see how iTunes will screw up my iPhone today.

Unless you jailbreak your iPhone, you have to use Apple’s iTunes to download and update apps, podcasts, and the latest updates to the iPhone’s operating system -- iOS.

You’d think Apple would have put as much care into creating iTunes, as they did their iTunes-dependent devices – iPods, iPads and iPhones all require iTunes for content management, unless they are jailbroken.

Think again.

It’s as if iTunes has a mind all its own, some days it’s in a great mood, and syncs without any issues.

The next day, it gives me an error and refuses to sync. Sometimes all it takes is unplugging my iPhone, closing iTunes, and starting again. Sometimes I have to delete backup files. Sometimes I have to enter crazy chaotic command line codes from an MS-DOS prompt window. Sometimes I just say ?!?!?! it and reset my iPhone to factory settings, and then restore everything from my network’s backup.

iTunes sucks – no – it is a disaster of an application. My iPhone can be working perfectly, and iTunes may have worked just as perfectly previously. But without any updates or warnings to either, when I plug in the iPhone – poof – iTunes decides to go all meshuguna crazy on me, and throws a fit. 

Maybe it’s because of Apple’s long standing rivalry with Microsoft. I run MS-Windows machines – as do about 95 percent of the planet – so maybe the Windows version of iTunes isn’t as error-free as it’s more native Apple-based Operating System (the Mac OS)?

If it is – Apple – get over it. Not everyone using an iPhone is going to change their entire platform to conform to your standards.

Whatever the issue – Apple really needs to seriously fix iTunes. Although Apple let the genie out of the tech bottle by giving the world its first real Smartphone, they are no longer the only game in town.