Apple broadens Leopard distribution, iTunes update soon
Apple Computer this week made pre-release versions of its next-generation operating system available to a broader developer audience. Meanwhile, the company is aware of ongoing issues with its latest iTunes release and is working on a solution. And, yes: Apple's AirPort Extreme is becoming increasingly hard to find.
Leopard offered to ADC members
According to several developers, Apple on Monday evening extended copies of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Preview to its Apple Developer Connection -- the largest of its registered developer demographic.
The 4.3GB download is reported to be the same build distributed to developers who attended the company's World Wide Developers Conference in early August.
The Universal installer includes support for PowerPC-based (G4 and G5) and Intel Macs. PowerPC G3 support is reportedly omitted from the distribution.
iTunes update in the works
The consensus amongst some early iTunes 7.0 adopters is that the software release -- dubbed by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs as the most significant update to iTunes yet -- is not the company's best work.
Users around the Web and on Apple's support forums are reporting an assortment of quality issues since updating to the new version -- released last week -- such as frequent crashes, poor audio quality and interface graphics anomalies. New gapless playback technology is being blamed for the majority of the bugs.
People with ties to Apple say the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is well aware of the matter and that it's toiling feverishly to rectify the issues. It hopes to release an update to both the Mac and PC versions of the jukebox software -- presumably iTunes 7.0.1 -- as soon as possible, those people say.
Meanwhile, PC users of iTunes 7 are not too thrilled by Apple's decision to make the iTunes installer force application aliases onto the Windows XP Start Menu and Desktop, calling it a "Microsoft move."
"Being pedantically tidy, I have my own 'Utilities' folder in my Start Menu, which I launch apps such as iTunes from," one user told AppleInsider. "Now, when I delete the automatically created iTunes folder from the Start Menu (where I don?t want extraneous [stuff]) the iTunes installer runs next time I launch the programme, and not only replaces that, but also put an iTunes application launcher on my squeaky clean desktop!"
(Lack of) AirPort inventory suspicious
As mentioned in our "One more thing" report, Apple resellers are having an incredibly difficult time locating AirPort Express wireless base stations for their customers. The company's primary distributer in the United States has been slack of inventory for weeks and now the Apple online store is also listing no availability of the Extreme base station until mid-November.
Admittedly, we're not quite sure what's going on here. Though anything is possible, it's incredibly unlikely that Apple would update its wirless devices to the still unratified 802.11n wireless standard. According to the IEEE 802.11 Working Group Project Timelines, 802.11n is not due for final approval until July 2007.
Leopard offered to ADC members
According to several developers, Apple on Monday evening extended copies of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Preview to its Apple Developer Connection -- the largest of its registered developer demographic.
The 4.3GB download is reported to be the same build distributed to developers who attended the company's World Wide Developers Conference in early August.
The Universal installer includes support for PowerPC-based (G4 and G5) and Intel Macs. PowerPC G3 support is reportedly omitted from the distribution.
iTunes update in the works
The consensus amongst some early iTunes 7.0 adopters is that the software release -- dubbed by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs as the most significant update to iTunes yet -- is not the company's best work.
Users around the Web and on Apple's support forums are reporting an assortment of quality issues since updating to the new version -- released last week -- such as frequent crashes, poor audio quality and interface graphics anomalies. New gapless playback technology is being blamed for the majority of the bugs.
People with ties to Apple say the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is well aware of the matter and that it's toiling feverishly to rectify the issues. It hopes to release an update to both the Mac and PC versions of the jukebox software -- presumably iTunes 7.0.1 -- as soon as possible, those people say.
Meanwhile, PC users of iTunes 7 are not too thrilled by Apple's decision to make the iTunes installer force application aliases onto the Windows XP Start Menu and Desktop, calling it a "Microsoft move."
"Being pedantically tidy, I have my own 'Utilities' folder in my Start Menu, which I launch apps such as iTunes from," one user told AppleInsider. "Now, when I delete the automatically created iTunes folder from the Start Menu (where I don?t want extraneous [stuff]) the iTunes installer runs next time I launch the programme, and not only replaces that, but also put an iTunes application launcher on my squeaky clean desktop!"
(Lack of) AirPort inventory suspicious
As mentioned in our "One more thing" report, Apple resellers are having an incredibly difficult time locating AirPort Express wireless base stations for their customers. The company's primary distributer in the United States has been slack of inventory for weeks and now the Apple online store is also listing no availability of the Extreme base station until mid-November.
Admittedly, we're not quite sure what's going on here. Though anything is possible, it's incredibly unlikely that Apple would update its wirless devices to the still unratified 802.11n wireless standard. According to the IEEE 802.11 Working Group Project Timelines, 802.11n is not due for final approval until July 2007.
Comments
Most? Seems like some guesswork or hyberbole may be at work
I've had no problems. Maybe because I'm not using YouControl ITunes, which seems to be in need of an update for iTunes 7. I have processed all my songs for gapless, though.
But I know others HAVE had problems, and I'll be glad for an Apple update to prevent them.
Re aliases on Windows: bad move. How annoying!
The alternative views (album view & Cover Flow) are disabled in the Podcast section, which is unfortunate, because it works fine in my Podcasts smart playlist.
I was more disappointed with the bugginess of Tiger compared to Panther, and the interface of iPhoto 6 which I just cant't get used to.
All in all, not a bad update to iTunes, just needs some tweaking to make me thrilled again.
everything seems to be working fine except for the "Get Album Artwork" feature. I right click a particular song and tell it to get the artwork and then nothing happens.
It only fetches artwork for songs it can find in the iTunes Store.
oh, I hope they get rid of the ugly scroll bars in the new iTunes and go back to a more aqua look.
I agree. Or at least, if metal is now going to have no glass, make ALL metal apps that way! One metal theme, one white glass theme. Not a dozen
I would hope for excellent UI consistency in Leopard, along with res-independence... but I notice that iTunes 7 is NOT res-independent at all, even when you enable Tiger's hidden scaling ability. Some things in Tiger (like some buttons in Finder) ARE res-independent, so I had hoped iTunes 7 would show some of that too.
PS, some tech notes on iTunes 7 issues:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index...ge=1&pagePos=1
Anyway, it doesn't surprise me that the iTunes UI is a bit... different. It has to fit in in MacOS X, and XP, and look like it's ready for Vista. Given all of that, I don't think it's horrible.
"Being pedantically tidy, I have my own 'Utilities' folder in my Start Menu, which I launch apps such as iTunes from," one user told AppleInsider. "Now, when I delete the automatically created iTunes folder from the Start Menu (where I don’t want extraneous [stuff]) the iTunes installer runs next time I launch the programme, and not only replaces that, but also put an iTunes application launcher on my squeaky clean desktop!"
That is the fastest way to go from great software to crapware in an instant. I cant beleive that Apple would be that fucking idiotic! that cant possibly be right, and if it is, someone needs to be fired!
What they really need to do if FIX COVER ART SCROLLING in windows...that is absolutly pathetic!
-iGrant
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of AX owners whose protests have been totally ignored over the past year or so. They could have done with the likes of Appleinsider getting involved in looking into why so many AXs were croaking just out of warranty.
I want to know if a Student ADC membership will allow me to download the preivew of OS 10.5, I really really want to try that software out.
No. Student ADC members get no pre-release software. But you *do* get a free copy (or several) when it ships.
squeaky clean desktop
What does that suppose to mean, a squeaky clean desktop? Anyway.
Btw, no probs at all both on an older G3 iMac and a not too old PB12".
Personally i like that implementation of cover flow, but i don't like
how it behaves sometimes. Example: If i have selected Music by Genre
(with classic iTunes GUI on), say, Jazz, and i switch on Cover Flow mode, i'd expect
to browse through all Jazz Albums, instead Cover flow presents the
entire library. This can't be a feature.
Anyway, it doesn't surprise me that the iTunes UI is a bit... different. It has to fit in in MacOS X, and XP, and look like it's ready for Vista. Given all of that, I don't think it's horrible.
I installed iTunes 7.0 on Vista today just to see if it would work and it does, mostly. I imported the same CD into both WMP and iTunes and the sound quality was better in iTunes. The only problem I saw was the music video was very choppy, but I think it has more to do with QuickTime that iTunes. The iTunes UI is still the solid gray color, but the preferences window got the aero glass effect.
What does that suppose to mean, a squeaky clean desktop? Anyway...
I believe the writer was referring to her/his Microsoft Windows desktop.
My G5 is steaming to an Airport Express box, which in turn is hooked up to my $3000 Paradigm speakers.
I played the same audio files from version 7 and 6, and there is quite a big difference. In iTunes 7, there is hissing and background noise, not to mention very sharp and piercing bursts in the high (tweeter) range. EQ on both is set to flat.
The gapless playback seems to work for some albums, but not others.
One huge gripe I have with cover flow, is that even with a dual 2ghz G5 with 4.5 gigs of ram and an ATI X800 card, if i don't flip very slowly, i get the music icon before the art appears. And my cover art is small (from Allmusic.com).
Also, there is no way to go to current song when in Cover flow or Album views. Thats really annoying and not thought out at all.
I like the new look thou.
However, while I can live with the Cover flow and other small annoyances, having crappy audio is not an option.
Oh, I should also add, that on my $400 desktop speakers, I can't really notice any distortion from iTunes 7. So it is a subtle flaw.
I've read from Windows users too that they have found one fix, to go to the new Quicktime and reset the audio from 24bit back down to 16bit audio. When I checked, my settings were normal, so it's not that issue on the Mac.
Bad release from Apple... but the first one in a while.