iTunes 4.9 ahead of schedule, major launch planned

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 61
    Quote:

    Originally posted by jms698

    I find it amazing that this update is ahead of schedule. When what the last time you heard of any software development project being ahead of schedule?



    Me: never.



    What is going on here? Is Apple really becoming the complete opposite of Microsoft.




    Tiger was early, too.
  • Reply 22 of 61
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member
    CD-TEXT.
  • Reply 23 of 61
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Aquatic

    CD-TEXT.



    What's the point when iTunes automatically connects to the CDDB?
  • Reply 24 of 61
    technotechno Posts: 737member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by CrunchinJelly

    What's the point when iTunes automatically connects to the CDDB?



    It would be nice if when you burned a cd from iTunes it would include the Track info as CD-EXTRA so it displays on my car cd player. That way I can stop using Toast and do it directly in iTunes.
  • Reply 25 of 61
    macgregormacgregor Posts: 1,434member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by mrhatken

    I think podcasting audio blogs, news programs, and other free content is just a non-threatening way of getting into this space.



    I think the real goal is podcasting TV programs. It's the way TV should be done and TiVo tried to do (within the current broadcasting paradigm).





    You'll own what you download (most likely) with fair DRM.



    It's the next generation TV.



    Cheers,

    Ashley.




    Best idea in this thread!
  • Reply 26 of 61
    macgregormacgregor Posts: 1,434member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by PrettyBoyClone

    I'm still wondering when Apple enters the "pro" market for music playback. DJs love their products, but neither iPod nor iTunes have any functionality adressing this market. How hard can it be to add pitch control and mixing? Where's the proPod? Where's proTunes?



    Second best idea in this thread!
  • Reply 27 of 61
    macgregormacgregor Posts: 1,434member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Chris Cuilla

    Hmmm...well it could be that they are too busy selling millions to consumers to be overly concerned about selling thousands to the DJ market. Just a guess though.



    They probably think their resources are better directed to setting up something like this podcasting stuff which will add yet more value to the current iPod, not to mention provide another hook for ptentially millions of consumers.




    http://www.ipod-dj.com/
  • Reply 28 of 61
    666666 Posts: 134member
    ...all I want is folders for the playlists, iPhoto got it. If they don't put it in i'm going to, well, do nothing, but it's a simple and useful addition which I can't understand why it's not already implemented.
  • Reply 29 of 61
    macgregormacgregor Posts: 1,434member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by 666

    ...all I want is folders for the playlists, iPhoto got it. If they don't put it in i'm going to, well, do nothing, but it's a simple and useful addition which I can't understand why it's not already implemented.



    That's the third best idea in this thread.
  • Reply 30 of 61
    gene cleangene clean Posts: 3,481member
    What I want, is more support for other formats. I realize they have the majority of the market covered by supporting .mp3 and to a lesser extent .aac, but some people (not too many, but a significant amount) have a lot of music encoded in .FLAC or something like .mpc.



    It wouldn't be bad if they added support for at least FLAC. I realize they got their own Lossless format, but I already have more than 300 CDs encoded in FLAC (which I'm very happy with) and don't plan to do it yet again in .MP4.



    Ah well.
  • Reply 31 of 61
    coolfactorcoolfactor Posts: 2,243member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gene Clean



    It wouldn't be bad if they added support for at least FLAC. I realize they got their own Lossless format, but I already have more than 300 CDs encoded in FLAC (which I'm very happy with) and don't plan to do it yet again in .MP4.




    We all know that going from lossy to lossy causes a degration in audio quality, but if you have your music in a (near-)lossless format already, wouldn't a convert cause zero or an unnoticable quality loss? That way you could convert to mp4 or whatever.
  • Reply 32 of 61
    666666 Posts: 134member
    Yeah, FLAC & SHN compatibility would be superb, and i'm sure not very hard to implement. I'd be happy if iTunes just re-encoded FLAC & SHN to Lossless so I didn't have to do it in a bunch of other programs, like it does for WMA.





    Oh, and now i'm thinking about it, a quicker way to change what format you want to encode to, like an arrow drop down box when you right click, instead of just the preference set for import.
  • Reply 33 of 61
    sopphodesopphode Posts: 135member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by coolfactor

    We all know that going from lossy to lossy causes a degration in audio quality, but if you have your music in a (near-)lossless format already, wouldn't a convert cause zero or an unnoticable quality loss? That way you could convert to mp4 or whatever.



    FLAC isn't near lossless, it is 100% lossless. xACT and FLACer can do batch conversions to AIFF, which can then be converted to Apple Lossless in iTunes .
  • Reply 34 of 61
    Makes you wonder what is going to be in iTunes 5.
  • Reply 35 of 61
    sloanlosloanlo Posts: 13member
    I'm thinking a video store will be a major part of iTunes 5.
  • Reply 36 of 61
    louzerlouzer Posts: 1,054member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Sopphode

    FLAC isn't near lossless, it is 100% lossless. xACT and FLACer can do batch conversions to AIFF, which can then be converted to Apple Lossless in iTunes .



    Yeah, but why did Apple have to bother making their own lossless format, when there were already several out there? And why can't they just add support for it. Geesh. Who wants to auto/batch/manually convert 300 albums, anyway? Esp. if there isn't a valid reason to need to do it. Hell, we're not talking about music in WMA-encrpyted format or anything.



    Even if it ended up being "We can do it in itunes, but the iPod will need to have them auto-converted to AppleLossless or something, like it does to sync the shuffle.



    And while we're complaining, OGG support would be nice too.



    And, how about direct bit-torrent and Limewire support. So we can go fishing for some new music, download it, and have it immediately installed and ready to play in iTunes! Now that would be a boon of automation, more so than the boring world of podcasts!
  • Reply 37 of 61
    andersanders Posts: 6,523member
    Apple made their own loseless format because of airport express.



    And podcasting is the best thing that have happened to iTunes in a long time, even more than ITMS
  • Reply 38 of 61
    chris cuillachris cuilla Posts: 4,825member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Louzer

    And, how about direct bit-torrent and Limewire support. So we can go fishing for some new music, download it, and have it immediately installed and ready to play in iTunes!



    Because the recording industry would come after Steve Jobs with an axe...and wouldn't stop until there were a thousand "little Steves". That's why.
  • Reply 39 of 61
    louzerlouzer Posts: 1,054member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Anders

    Apple made their own loseless format because of airport express.



    And podcasting is the best thing that have happened to iTunes in a long time, even more than ITMS




    What in the hell does airport express have to do with their own format. Are they completely and utterly incapable of figuring out how to send FLAC or some other existing lossless format over the airwaves? It certainly has nothing to do with encryption. And the file sizes are relatively the same. Its just Apple again re-inventing something rather than using an existing standard.



    And, umm, don't think so on the whole podcast more important than iTMS. Might be your opinion, but unless sales of podcasts outsell music, its not even close.



    BTW, to Chris Cuilla, bit-torrent support was a joke.



    But if you think about it, it would be sweet, wouldn't it!
  • Reply 40 of 61
    sopphodesopphode Posts: 135member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Louzer

    What in the hell does airport express have to do with their own format. Are they completely and utterly incapable of figuring out how to send FLAC or some other existing lossless format over the airwaves? It certainly has nothing to do with encryption. And the file sizes are relatively the same. Its just Apple again re-inventing something rather than using an existing standard.



    The lossless world is a jungle of different formats (flac, ape, shn, wv, etc) and there is no single format that is the standard (like mp3). I think it's likely that Apple's original plan was to go with MPEG-4 SLS 'Scalable Lossless Coding' which is fully backwards compatible with AAC, but as that format took years to complete (it still isn't finalized) and its closest rivals such as MS and Real all made their own codecs, they just decided to make their own format that they could have full control over and put in their MPEG4 container (.m4a). This way they can optimize it for high performance on the iPod and AE from the ground up and don't worry about steep licensing fees.



    Just my 2¢
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