Dear Apple, WTF did you do to iTunes?

I'm not a fan of the recent updates to iTunes, but I probably shouldn't be surprised by the changes. Driven by the 'need' to address complaints from some iTunes critics, Apple seems to be steadily devolving the software.

It started out with the most recent 'major' revision to iTunes. This is the one that switched everything from one window to a series of functional pull downs for music, videos, apps. Suddenly, a list of options that that could toggle from a single screen required a pull down, and the app couldn't remember it's previous state. Way to bury the functionality guys.

And for whatever reason, the guys in charge of this version felt like when you couldn't remember where you were before, the place you probably wanted to be was looking at the list of things that you already downloaded from iTunes. Use case? You've got me.

Essentially, what it did seem to do for me was add clicks and interaction when you just wanted to sync your phone and update any apps. Not to mention the whole, where am I and where is the stuff that I'm looking for...

But when your so close to brilliance like that, you probably just need a couple of tiny tweaks to make it really special.

Enter the latest version. It looks like they've fixed the problem with remembering the app's previous state (sort of), but they also seemed to have decided that what you really need is extra security. Now you have to enter your password two or three times in order to update the apps on your phone. And you have to love the latest feature that they introduced; namely, they've figured out a way where it can't remember all of the apps that you were downloading during an update. Trying to update five apps? It may stop on the second or third app download. And, if that wasn't frustrating enough, the only thing that could be better? You need to enter your password again in order to download.

It's crazy. It's like iTunes has gone from overly simple to the kind of craptacularly disjointed and complex that Microsoft might engineer. If this is the future, we're doomed. Talk about an overhaul that needs a serious overhaul...