This article was published on September 5, 2010

The New iTunes 10 icon: sucks or rocks?


The New iTunes 10 icon: sucks or rocks?

iTunes 10 iconJust in case you’ve missed it: Apple released iTunes 10 last week and it has a new icon. In theory that wouldn’t be worth blogging about but as these things go there has been a major uprising among iTunes users who think the new logo is dumb, ugly, misplaced or simply boring.

Some people want the iTunes 9 Logo back.
Other people are finding out ways to do that.

iTunes 9 iconTo be honest I never liked the old logo and was excited to hear Steve Jobs announce the new one. I also completely agreed with him that the whole CD metaphor is misplaced. Very soon CDs will be as current as VHS tapes.

YouTube icon iPadBut wait. Doesn’t that go for the YouTube icon too? That television set is older than Steve Jobs himself, right? Besides that I welcome a new icon.

The <3 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

But why keep the note? iTunes is as much about music as it is about CDs. I hardly use iTunes for music. I need it to sync my iPad and iPhone. To buy, download and watch movies and series. And I use it to find Apps to use on my iDevices. So, a better name would have been iMovies, iStore, iSync, iApps or iConnected. Or any other name with a ‘i’ in front of it.

iTunes? That’s just one of the things that this app does, and I don’t use it that much.

Following that logic the note doesn’t make sense either. Why not just use the App store icon? Or just show a large ‘i’ on a blue dot? Why the note?

These are, of course, all senseless ramblings on a Sunday afternoon. Apple decides what Apple decides and all we can do is get used to it or… well, there is no alternative really.

So, to help you get used to the new icon here are some sources for entertainment:

Follow the hilarious thoughts (and insults) of the new iTunes 10 icon on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/itunes10icon

Follow the dying words of the iTunes 9 icon:
http://twitter.com/itunes9icon

Want your old iTunes 9 icon back? Here is a simple tutorial on how to do it:
http://www.macstories.net/mac/want-itunes-9-look-back-theres-a-mod-for-that/

A very nice alternative design that brings the iTunes icon in line with the iPad and iPhone version:
http://ryanrjames.com/itunes/

Want more alternatives to the iTunes 10 icon? Here are 10 beautiful alternatives:
http://www.macstories.net/mac/10-beautiful-itunes-10-replacement-icons/

And last but not least, a nice cartoon to put this whole discussion in perspective (Click for a bigger image):

Get the TNW newsletter

Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

Also tagged with


Published
Back to top