Do you think Apple has any experience designing usable software? You wouldn't know it from iTunes. I just started using it with my Shuffle, and I am baffled by many parts of the interface. Any they have implemented none of the standard help (like Tool Tips) to explain the affordances in the interface.

I finally found this help page on apple.com that explains what all the little do-hickeys next to songs means. There is NO WAY to find this out in iTunes itself!

The checkmarks next to songs seems really stupid to me. What the heck are they for? Do they mean one thing in my PC library, and another thing for songs stored on my Shuffle?

The Blue Dot's next to podcast episodes was similarly obscure (basically, it's an indication of "new").

Why doesn't iTunes "do the right thing" when synching podcasts to the player:

- Remove any podcasts that have been listened to.
- Download all new podcasts subscriptions to the player.

I seem to have to manually do these steps instead of just docking my iPod and having it do the right thing.

iLike is getting some great PR and user growth. They launched in the fall, and they are currently at Alex 6,000. Pretty good growth rate.

Quoted: iLike is a new service by GarageBand. (Learn more about GarageBand here.) The company is run by Ali and Hadi Partovi, twin brothers with over a decade of success as entrepreneurs. They are joined by a seasoned team of managers, investors, and advisors.