At this point, chronic UX problems seem endemic to iTunes, in which case the solution will appear when the product achieves end-of-life.

I was trying to use the iPhone Music app, and it kept popping up dialogs prompting me to sign into iTunes. I understand why they want you to be logged in, but this approach of letting you play songs but taking over the screen every few seconds, thus rendering your phone nearly unusable, is the worst of both worlds.

I was reminded of the chronic UX problems I experience when using iTunes, which I’m compelled to use as an iPhone owner. I decided to collate some of my thoughts on iTunes over the years, which can doubtless be corroborated by many such sentiments from other long-suffering users of this product.

At this point, whatever the causes of the product problems with iTunes and related iOS apps — feature scope, management, team structure, etc. —we can be pretty sure that the only ‘solution’ will appear when this software achieves end-of-life, the same way that the mystery of how to set recording time on VCRs was finally solved by their obsolescence.