Everyone knows that Apple's core strength is its design ethos reflected in the user experience. They're a true software company that places design elegance above everything.
iTunes shows this perfectly. Compare for instance the experience burning a CD:
In Windows Media Player:
1. Start Windows Media Player
2. Select the tracks you want to copy.
3. Click 'Burn'.
In iTunes:
1. Start up iTunes
2. iTunes notifies you that a new version is available and you must install it before you proceed.
3. Install the new version of iTunes.
4. Restart your computer.
5. Find the album you wish to burn to CD, and purchase it on iTunes.
6. Enter your iTunes password
7. Reenter your credit card
8. Attempt to buy the album again
9. See a 'The connection was reset' error when a track tries to download.
10. Click 'download' several times, not because it does anything but it relieves your frustration a little.
11. Google the problem and find that the solution is to reconfigure your router to point to a random DNS server on the other side of the world.
12. Screw your eyes up and try restarting your computer, router, and modem for luck. It sounds easier than reconfiguring your router.
13. Try to download again.
14. Hooray! The 'connection was reset' error has gone!
15. But, you now get a 'Your computer is not authorised' error.
16. Look around for a way to 'authorise' your computer. Fail to find it.
17. Google the problem and find that this is a new feature of the version of iTunes you just had to install, and that option is under a menu that is hidden by default and reactivated by an obscure button about 10 pixels wide.
18. Enter your iTunes password again.
19. Now start building up a playlist for the MP3 CD you want to burn.
20. Select 'Burn playlist to CD'
21. See error - some of your tracks are in a foreign format.
22. Look in Windows Explorer and see that the album you just downloaded has come down in m4a format.
23. Stare in perplexity at the screen.
24. Check the 'download as' setting that you set ages ago to ensure you never had to deal with m4a format songs again
25. Discover that this setting has reverted to m4a with the new version you just installed.
26. Go to every song you just downloaded, and select 'create mp3 version' for each song
27. Now, you have two copies of each song, with no way of telling which is mp3, and which is m4a.
28. Delete the m4a songs from your playlist, then randomly pick a song copy to put back in.
29. Use 'View in windows explorer' for each song, to see if you picked the right song. You have a 50:50 chance, after all, so the odds are okay.
30. Repeat steps 28-29 until all your songs are in mp3 format.
31. Now realise your playlist is completely mis-ordered. Vainly try to put it back how you meant it to be.
32. Now select 'Burn playlist to CD'
33. After a short time the CD will finish burning and be ready to play in your car stereo.
Simple!
It only took me a few hours to make the CD for Aidan! I checked Mike's steps, and he got it right.
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