Apple's iTunes 9 rumored to have Blu-ray, social media support
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."
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."
Comments
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.
perhaps someone can explain that math to me
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
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.
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!!!!
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.
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.
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€.
Oh and find a way to block the Palm Pre again. Vampires.
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.
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 !
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.
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.
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.
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.