iTunes 7... Where's Piles?

Okay jut so we're clear, this post does not criticize the Cover Flow view of the new iTunes, but rather, the Album art list view. I think th Cover Flow UI is slick. The list view with Cover Arts is not.

I don't get it. Apple owns the patent for the Piles UI concept (demo, description) , one of the more novel ideas in UI that i know of, and they just let the perfect oppurtunity to showcase it slip away by not using some part of it in the newly-added Album Art View in iTunes 7.

Cover Flow in iTunes 7 - Cool



List View - Not Cool

And what adds to the weirdness is the fact that it's Microsoft (of all companies) who seems to be the one who's more serious in using piles (or at least a variant of it) in the form of Stacks in the upcoming Media Player 11.

Stacks in Media Player 11

In fairness to Apple's User Interface experts, i have no idea how the concept fared with the users in actual usability tests done by Apple.

Just wondering... why my list of songs are soo widely spaced when viewing artworks in iTunes 7 when i think that it could have been implemented differently...

Otherwise, iTunes 7 rocks, so far. :)