It is pretty safe to say that a lot of people use iTunes religiously. All Mac users use it, of course, but even a ton of Windows users love iTunes now, since it is freely available. However, our beloved iTunes is definitely not perfect. It suffers from serious UI issues, such as too many panels and unclear buttons. Notice how the MiniStore button looks identical to the artwork button.



But it's not even the UI that is the most annoying. As you may know, iTunes has video playback functionality. You can download TV Shows and Music Videos from the iTunes Music Store. Rumor says full length movies are coming as well. Unfortunately, loading videos in iTunes is painfully slow on even the fastest Macs. You also only get the choice of playing a video in the "Album Artwork" box, opening it in a new window, or full screen. Personally, I open purchased videos in QuickTime Player, or find the video in Front Row and play it from there. (No, DRM movies don't work in iVideo ;)) It's much faster and friendlier to do this, unfortunately. It's obvious that a major update is needed.

So when will we see a new iTunes? One that is ready for the movie-centered future? Will it have a new name? A new graphical user interface? iTunes is lagging behind the rest of the iLife suite due to its Windows counterpart, but that shouldn't have to make the rest of us suffer. I'm not questioning Apple's designers, I am simply saying that it might be time to update iTunes for the future.

Hey, I can wish, can't I?