Apple preps iTunes 7.5 for November release

[AppleInsider]

A new version of Apple Inc.'s iTunes media software due as early as next week will deliver a number of small refinements, but is not expected to introduce any major new features, AppleInsider has learned.

Due for release as iTunes 7.5, the software update will offer increased stability and better management of duplicate song and video entries, people familiar with the matter say.

Apple also hopes the new version will ease troubles faced by some iTunes Store customers while attempting to upgrade certain standard iTunes tracks to iTunes Plus versions.

Users of the current version of iTunes have experienced an issue where iTunes Plus upgrades cause the software to hang indefinitely following data downloads, eventually requiring a force quit.

iTunes 7.5 will simultaneously be made available for users of Microsoft's XP and Vista Widnows operating systems and include better troubleshooting methods.

The software is currently in late beta and targeted for a release within the next week, as it is also expected to bundle support for the UK and German versions of iPhone. However, those familiar with the matter say plans for critical software releases such as iTunes are often subject to change, which could push the release out by a few additional days.

Nonetheless, iTunes 7.5 should be available by mid-month at the latest.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[Fotek2001]

Well all I can say is that I hope they either add some decent audio enhancement technology to iTunes or else allow third party applications like SRS iWOW and (the now defunct Volume Logic) to work properly with iTunes.

The difference these third party plugins make is phenomenal and does make you wonder why itunes has to sound so bad by default.

[bdkennedy1]

Can someone explain why we need better management of duplicate songs and videos?

I wasn't aware that my duplicate songs and videos had a problem.

[Galley]

It really stinks that Volume Logic was discontinued; that software was amazing! Apple should buy it and incorporate it into iTunes and iPods.

I'm expecting iTunes 7.5 to include a fix for the 100% processor bug when syncing an iPod classic.

[noirdesir]

When did iTunes stopped being supported on W2k?

[Tobsen]

I think it will be relesed before 9th November, because T-Mobile Germany has it in the specs for the iPhone http://www.t-mobile.de/iphone/technische_details.jsp

[philbutler]

I would just like to see better library management. I'd like to keep my music on my iMac and my videos on an external drive. This way, I'd have my music with me when I put my iMac in my trusty iLugger and carry it around.

Also, I'd love to see better control of the AppleTV menu hierarchy. I know that Movies/TV Shows/YouTube makes sense for most people, but I'd like to have:

Twins (I have 2 yr old twin girls)
CedarMont Kids
DVD a
DVD b, etc

Josh (my 6 yr old son)
Scooby Doo
Title A
Title B, etc.

Home VIdeos
2001
2002, etc

TV Shows

Movies

This way, my son can keep in his area and not mess with the other stuff.

While I am on my soapbox, why doesn't Apple produce a lower-cost AppleTV w/o a hard drive - I never play stuff from the 40G drive since it's too small. I'd rather it be used as a smart cache for recently viewed items, etc. or done away with and just spool from the computer. Just my 2 cents worth.

[funkyp56]

wonder if its coming today

[teckstud]

Maybe we'll finally get downloadable movies in 720P? Or movie rentals? Something please for that useless AppleTV!! Didn't Steve say in August that we'd be getting something by now? Where is it?

[danielandrews]

I also hope they fix the UI inconsistency in Leopard (inactive iTunes windows are the same color as active ones, as opposed to a lighter shade as with other apps), but I'm not counting on it.

[Squuiid]

What about Vista x64 support?! That is LONG overdue!
I want to be able to use my iPhone on Vista x64.
C'mon Apple, get with the times.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301301

[Berzerker]

Apple also hopes the new version will ease troubles faced by some iTunes Store customers while attempting to upgrade certain standard iTunes tracks to iTunes Plus versions.

How exactly is this done?

Edit: Never mind. Figured it out.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by noirdesir

When did iTunes stopped being supported on W2k?

I wouldn't pay it much mind. They probably didn't want to bother supporting an OS that's eight years old now. It still works for me on W2k. The same goes for Safari too. The only thing is that if you try to get support, you might not be successful. Not that I remember having any problems with iTunes, and the problems with Safari beta were because of Safari, exactly the problems I see on XP too.

[daniel84]

Originally Posted by Berzerker

How exactly is this done?

Go to the store and click on iTunes Plus.

[RCO3]

The difference these third party plugins make is phenomenal and does make you wonder why itunes has to sound so bad by default.

There *is* a phenomenal difference using plugins like SRS. I've tried it. It's enormous.

It's also incredibly artificial and fatiguing sounding. It makes cheap speakers sound OK, and good speakers sound like week-old ass. iTunes doesn't have an inherent sound, it simply decodes the MP3s and plays them back**. The most likely contributors to poor sound quality are poor source material (128k or less MP3s being a perfect example), poor speakers (laptop speakers, multimedia speakers, or pretty much anything from Best Buy), and poor ears. Having been a professional sound engineer for over 15 years, and having listened to iTunes on a variety of audiophile systems and studio monitors as well as the little guys in my MBP, I will confidently assert that iTunes itself is not to blame. I consider using SRS and the like as a way to correct problems with your speakers and to modify the sound to match your preferences, but iTunes needs no correction itself.

Don't think you can afford really good speakers? Try diyaudio.com and zaphaudio.com. You'll be amazed what a hundred bucks (or less) can do when marketing isn't part of the equation.

(** I'm sure you can find a test in which someone compares WinAmp, iTunes, etc., and finds differences. I'll be SERIOUSLY surprised if any competently-performed test finds differences as significant as even the slightest amount of processing done by SRS.)

[caliminius]

I wonder if there's any chance it might provide better support for songs with multiple artists. This has bugged me since I made the switch from Windows Media Player (back when I owned a PC) to iTunes. With WMP, if a song had multiple artists you just put a semicolon between each and they song and album would appear under each artist. iTunes makes multiple artists into different artists and this is horrible when synced to an iPod when you end up with 12 different listings for the same artist (Pink, Pink featuring Indigo Girls, Pink Featuring James T. Moore, etc., etc.).

Maybe it will also finally let you display "Episode Number" in the column view for TV shows.

[Restalot]

.mac is down... I wonder if it is related.

[DeaPeaJay]

Originally Posted by danielandrews

I also hope they fix the UI inconsistency in Leopard (inactive iTunes windows are the same color as active ones, as opposed to a lighter shade as with other apps), but I'm not counting on it.

Personally, I *would* count on it. I doubt Apple hasn't noticed the inconsistency. Perhaps the scroll bars will go back to their aqua look too. The rest of leopard has them. A shame too, since I like the scroll bars in iTunes more than the aqua ones.

[Delfoniq]

OK, I know that the link below is slightly irrelevant, but I just could not resist spreading the word.
http://www.news.com/8301-13579_3-980...tag=nefd.pulse

[mazzy]

Originally Posted by bdkennedy1

Can someone explain why we need better management of duplicate songs and videos?

I wasn't aware that my duplicate songs and videos had a problem.

Thee dupe management needs to be better where you can maybe check a box to find TRUE dupes and not simply the same song title. For instance I also have alot of jazz box sets loaded into iTunes by Miles, Coltrane and so on. Some albums might have several takes of the same songs which are very different styles, lengths and so on. Or maybe live versions. I would want to keep all of those

When I click show dupes, I would love the option to skip those and just show dupes of the exact recording that I might have already loaded in or have several from different albums (collections, greatest hits albums, etc.) Basically that are the same title, time and year. Then I would be able to remove easier than sifting through the many "so called" duplicated iTunes presents to me.

[Galley]

Originally Posted by caliminius

I wonder if there's any chance it might provide better support for songs with multiple artists. This has bugged me since I made the switch from Windows Media Player (back when I owned a PC) to iTunes. With WMP, if a song had multiple artists you just put a semicolon between each and they song and album would appear under each artist. iTunes makes multiple artists into different artists and this is horrible when synced to an iPod when you end up with 12 different listings for the same artist (Pink, Pink featuring Indigo Girls, Pink Featuring James T. Moore, etc., etc.).

Maybe it will also finally let you display "Episode Number" in the column view for TV shows.

Amen, brother! iTunes really needs a "Featured Artist" tag.

[Superbass]

When will iTunes finally support FLAC? Now that 1 TB external discs are affordable, that means 3000 albums can be encoded to FLAC on one disc... Why can't apple drop it's attempt at making Apple lossless industry standard and go with (by far) the most popular lossless codec out there?

[iMat]

Don't know if it has to be in the iTunes update or in the FrontRow one.. But I would like my Mac to allow me to watch the pics from Aperture!!

Currently Front Row shows no pics (since there aren't any in iPhoto). But I cannot access my Aperture Library from FrontRow on the Mac, whereas I can on AppleTV (sync options in iTunes allow me to select which library).


Then, if Apple wants, they might also remember there are users outside the US which might love to complain about the crappy quality of video BUT ARE CURRENTLY CUT OFF THE VIDEO STORE ALLTOGETHER.

If you implement 720p video then I promise I will not complain

[EagerDragon]

And is likely to tighten things a little to make it harder to hack the iPhone.

[EagerDragon]

Originally Posted by Restalot

.mac is down... I wonder if it is related.

Probably not, .Mac goes down quite often, LOL.

[caliminius]

Originally Posted by Galley

Amen, brother! iTunes really needs a "Featured Artist" tag.

iTunes has the Album Artist field but that confuses the crap out of an iPod if a song is flagged with an Album Artist that is different than the Artist, it disappears in the Artist AND album lists on the iPod. It does show up if you browse the all songs though.

Likewise, the Sort fields cause the same sort of issue only it seems even pickier. Have some songs set to Artist sort as "Pink" and the artist set to "P!nk" and forget to do that on every song and you end up with 2 entries for P!nk on the iPod. Except stupidly, both lists contain all songs for that artist not just the sorted songs.

[Nicnac]

Just when I thought iTunes was going to skip a week asking me to update to the latest version...
Feels like a windows update world.

[bostonguy]

Originally Posted by mazzy

Thee dupe management needs to be better where you can maybe check a box to find TRUE dupes and not simply the same song title. For instance I also have alot of jazz box sets loaded into iTunes by Miles, Coltrane and so on. Some albums might have several takes of the same songs which are very different styles, lengths and so on. Or maybe live versions. I would want to keep all of those

When I click show dupes, I would love the option to skip those and just show dupes of the exact recording that I might have already loaded in or have several from different albums (collections, greatest hits albums, etc.) Basically that are the same title, time and year. Then I would be able to remove easier than sifting through the many "so called" duplicated iTunes presents to me.

Something else I'd like to see with dupe detection is when I have multiple albums (regular album, compilation, etc) that have some duplication of songs on them. Sometimes I like to listen to a particular album, maybe due to memories of its' song order (or whatever).

It'd be great if I could have a single song file that was listed as a track in both albums, without having to do something like create a playlist for each album. I'd just like a way to not need to have multiple copies of the same song on my hard drive, taking up space, just so I can keep album track listings complete!

(Or is there an easier way to do what I'd like, and I just haven't figured it out yet?)

[SteveLV702]

I bet you a $1,000,000,000.00 they still haven't added Support for Window XP and Windows Vista 64bit which is LONG OVERDUE.

[McDave]

I just hope they sort out the task prioritisation in iTunes - I can't stream to AppleTV while converting a video and what's with the annoying dialogues shutting out other functions. I'm sure I need to know when something's buffering or writing tags but not to the exclusion of doing anything else (especially as iTunes has the ability to provide task info in the display).

McD

[randu]

7.5 is out for Windows and Mac. I have just downloaded both.
Randy