Apple's iTunes 9 rumored to have Blu-ray, social media support

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
A new report suggests that the next version of Apple's iTunes could carry support for Blu-ray discs, visual management and rearrangement capabilities for App Store software, and integration with social media Web sites.



Citing a "pretty reliable source," The Boy Genius Report revealed Saturday what could become new features in an anticipated upcoming new release of Apple's digital media software.



"One of the new additions to iTunes is said to include Blu-ray support which lines up nicely with a recent AppleInsider report about Apple integrating Blu-ray into their new iMac line-up," the report states. "Something else that will most likely make a bunch of people happy is that we?ve been told iTunes 9 will finally include the ability to visually organize and arrange your iPhone and iPod touch applications. Something that wasn?t so clearly described was some kind of Twitter/Facebook/Last.fm integration. Maybe broadcasting what song you?re playing to your friends?"



The rumors regarding Blu-ray corroborate with a report this week from AppleInsider. Sources cryptically suggested that two compelling new features would come with Apple's newest iMacs, leading some to speculate that official Blu-ray support from the company could be coming in the near future. One of those features is said to have long been on the wish-lists of many Mac users while the other is expected to cater to the semi-professional audio/video crowd.



The source for The Boy Genius Report reportedly didn't provide a time frame for the new iteration of iTunes, but one might assume that Apple could make an announcement at its annual iPod event in September.



If the Blu-ray rumors pan out, it would be a major turnaround for Apple. Less than a year ago, Chief Executive Steve Jobs went as far as to call the technology "a bag of hurt."
«13456713

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 248
    ...snappier!
  • Reply 2 of 248
    zunxzunx Posts: 620member
    Blu-ray support (both movie payback and rewritable disks) is an absolute must across all Macs.
  • Reply 3 of 248
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    If the Blu-ray rumors pan out, it would be a major turnaround for Apple. Less than a year ago, Chief Executive Steve Jobs went as far as to call the technology "a bag of hurt."



    Not really a turnaround, the "bag of hurt" was in reference to the licensing, which was a mess at the time, but I'm led to believe has been notably tidied up since then.
  • Reply 4 of 248
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    okay i'm trying to figure out the itunes supports blu-ray part of the equation. cause its not like i can pop a DVD in and have itunes rip it to put on my ipod. so what exactly is itunes going to do with my blu-ray disks.



    perhaps someone can explain that math to me
  • Reply 5 of 248
    Everyone keeps bringing up the "bag of hurt" quote... but they never continue with it... he also said "We?re waiting until things settle down, and waiting until Blu-ray takes off before we burden our customers with the cost of licensing." So things have probably settled down.
  • Reply 6 of 248
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    I'm really hoping Apple isn't thinking that Blu-Ray is compelling because it isn't. Frankly it strikes me as being about as modern as magnetic core memory. Plus the premium you pay for the media is a joke.



    On the other hand iTunes is showing some significant aging and a completely Cocoa based iTunes would be fantastic. My biggest fear thought is that it will be Snow Leopard only. Well not so much a fear as I will update to SL the minute it is out, but rather there will be weeks of whining from people that think Apple owes them.



    My thinking is that to power some of the more interactive parts of an enhanced iTunes they would need to go parallel with GPU processing. In other words to get all the goodies on screen you will need a fairly modern machine. Of course iTunes 9 could be designed to degrade gracefully when running on older OS'es and hardware. I'd rather see Apple push forward though.





    Dave
  • Reply 7 of 248
    hattighattig Posts: 860member
    I presume that also means BluRay support in Quicktime?



    I think that last year or earlier this year, the BluRay disc association was looking into simplifying the licensing for BluRay, and maybe they now have, in to a single reasonable fee per device, instead of the mess that it reportably was before.



    Will iTunes 9 be Cocoa? Could be why SL iTunes 8 versions show no real improvements so far.
  • Reply 8 of 248
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by charlituna View Post


    okay i'm trying to figure out the itunes supports blu-ray part of the equation... ...what exactly is itunes going to do with my blu-ray disks.



    Beats me too!!!!



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    I'm really hoping Apple isn't thinking that Blu-Ray is compelling because it isn't. Frankly it strikes me as being about as modern as magnetic core memory.



    I second that dude!!



    I'd like to see full screen cover flow behave as it does on the iPods - i.e. flip the cover round to allow selection of a particular track. I may then actually use the feature as I tend not to bother with it as it stands.
  • Reply 9 of 248
    dagamer34dagamer34 Posts: 494member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zunx View Post


    Blu-ray support (both movie payback and rewritable disks) is an absolute must across all Macs.



    As far as I know, there aren't any slot-loading Blu-ray drives. Apple can't put a product in their computers that doesn't exist yet.



    If anything though, it should be an option for Mac Pros.
  • Reply 10 of 248
    ituomasituomas Posts: 35member
    Blu-ray, great. But in iTunes? Why not in DVD Player, or even QuickTime?



    I think it's time for Apple to stop and ask themselves: what is iTunes, after all? iTunes used to be a light and fast music jukebox, but today it's one giant app that handles everything. For me it would make sense to build video library and video store into QuickTime, have iTunes for audio content, and maybe create an entirely new app for App Store and device sync.



    Just my 0,02€.
  • Reply 11 of 248
    cdycdy Posts: 13member
    I couldn't care less about Blu-ray. Give me the app sorting thing, though!



    Oh and find a way to block the Palm Pre again. Vampires.
  • Reply 12 of 248
    19841984 Posts: 955member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dagamer34 View Post


    As far as I know, there aren't any slot-loading Blu-ray drives. Apple can't put a product in their computers that doesn't exist yet.



    If anything though, it should be an option for Mac Pros.



    There have been slot-loading Blu-Ray drives for a couple years now.
  • Reply 13 of 248
    dzigndzign Posts: 27member
    One feature I've been wishing for is some sort of "CSS" formating for all the metadata so all text of songs infos is formated the same in a snap...



    Another one would be integration of the star rating in the metadata so you don't lose it if you reinstall everything... My work around has been to create a genre for best songs...



    Oh and cocoa for sure !
  • Reply 14 of 248
    askewaskew Posts: 21member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by 1984 View Post


    There have been slot-loading Blu-Ray drives for a couple years now.



    Yep, the PlayStation 3 features a slot-load Blu-Ray drive. It works beautifully.
  • Reply 15 of 248
    zandroszandros Posts: 537member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dzign View Post


    One feature I've been wishing for is some sort of "CSS" formating for all the metadata so all text of songs infos is formated the same in a snap...



    Another one would be integration of the star rating in the metadata so you don't lose it if you reinstall everything... My work around has been to create a genre for best songs...



    Oh and cocoa for sure !



    Or you could backup your iTunes Library and Database files? I assume you're already backing up the music.
  • Reply 16 of 248
    wobegonwobegon Posts: 764member
    I too don't get where 'Blu-ray support' comes in concerning iTunes, unless they're retiring DVD Player in Snow Leopard, but that seems unlikely. Perhaps Mac Pros will feature optional Blu-ray drives, but they're not likely to be introduced at the annual iPod event.



    Some things I'd like to see on the App Store side of things include the ability to gift paid apps, perhaps Genius app recommendations, the ability to rate apps in iTunes without having to visit the app's store page, and (dare I say?) some new policies for developers. See Craig Hockenberry's wishlist for some good ones, like developer approval (rather than app update approval) and public responses to customer reviews (sort of like how a forum works). If they're going to do a 64bit Cocoa iTunes, maybe a new foundation for the store itself is in order.



    Finally, an Apple TV revision would be nice, some worthy additions being Netflix and/or Hulu integration, a pointer remote (as has been pictured in patent filings) for intuitive point-and-click media browsing, web browsing, and/or third party Apple TV apps/games (which could also be controlled with or enhanced by a paired iPhone/iPod touch).



    I'll believe The Tablet when I see it.
  • Reply 17 of 248
    7aces7aces Posts: 11member
    Blu-ray would be a very welcome addition in my opinion. I already have an external Blu-ray drive hooked up to my iMac. It's pretty much the only reason why I have a BootCamp partition installed on it, so I can view BDs on Windows. Just hope someone'll make some sort of decryption tool available for Mac sooner or later - not a big fan of region coding and user restrictions on my own discs.
  • Reply 18 of 248
    str1f3str1f3 Posts: 573member
    I really don't care about this stuff and I'm guessing that most iTunes users (Mac & Windows) feel the same way. I want a faster 64-bit Cocoa app. I could care less about social networking in a media player. iTunes is the slowest app on my Mac. Even slower than Office now because of SP2.
  • Reply 19 of 248
    Here's hoping they'll release a standalone Apple Blu-ray drive (or have compatibility with 3rd party ones). My Blu-ray player is a fairly early model and takes about 5/6 minutes to load a disc (and is only profile 1 compatible, so no picture-in-picture or online content for me at the moment). I get the feeling my iMac could handle it just fine. It'd have to be a firewire connection though. I doubt USB will be fast enough (plus I've ran out of USB ports and have a Firewire 800 port free).
  • Reply 20 of 248
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by str1f3 View Post


    I really don't care about this stuff and I'm guessing that most iTunes users (Mac & Windows) feel the same way. I want a faster 64-bit Cocoa app. I could care less about social networking in a media player. iTunes is the slowest app on my Mac. Even slower than Office now because of SP2.



    Yes, very much agreed. iTunes is a great concept and I like it, BUT, it us WAY too slow and basically suffers from feature bloat. They need to completely rethink their implementation of everything from the groundup. Give us a completely new iTunes.
Sign In or Register to comment.