Of all the new features of iTunes 5.0 advertised on the official website, I only find Playlist Folders useful. But there are at least 2 new “features” inconvenient to me.

Firstly, the Library. In the previous version, the Library only contains songs. Podcasts could be found in a separate section on the leftmost column labelled “Podcasts”. Everything was tidy and easy to be found. iTunes 5.0 mixes everything together in the Library, may it be podcast, music, or audiobook. Thinking about deleting the podcasts from the Library and then relying on the Podcast section on the leftmost column? No, no, you can’t. If you delete those entries, they will also disappear from the Podcast section. There is no way to change the default view or to apply a default filter to the Library. The only solution is the new Search Bar, which is actually a set of filter buttons. So now I have to press the Music button on the Search Bar first to filter out everything but “Music” when I browse my Library.

Another annoying thing (to me, at least) about the new iTunes is the interface language. iTunes 5.0 automatically chooses the language matching that of your OS, and it does not give you an option to choose another language. I hate using a Chinese interface as I often get lose at the meaning of the commands. I take the following remedial measures:

Changing iTunes 5.0 back to English

1. Start the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del, find iTuneHelper.exe under the Process tab, and end that process
2. Start Windows Explorer, go to the directory containing iTunes, say C:\Program files\iTunes
3. You will find 3 sub-directories there: iTunes.Resources, iTunesHelper.Resources and iTunesMiniPlayer.Resources
4. Under each of these 3 sub-directories, there are a number of sub-directories starting with 2-alphabet country code. I delete all these sub-directories except en.lproj.
5. Repeat the deletion for the said iTunes*.Resources sub-directories, and those in C:\Program files\iPod
6. Reboot

All the above “new features” are not really bothering me. Not that they are endurable, but I always use iTunes only for finding podcasts (because everyone advertise their podcasts in ITMS), and editing MP3 tags (it is convenient and the end products can be correctly shown in PSP). I don’t have an iPod, and I use EAC with LAME to rip my CDs into MP3s. I can easily switch to substitute podcast directories and other tagging programs.

I am not fond of the new iTunes as it seems to me Apple is adopting the Microsoft attitude in treating users as idiots who cannot make decisions for themselves. If Apple is going down that route, it will be on my blacklist soon.