Apple unwraps iTunes 5
I am liking it. Seems faster and more responsive. Better graphical display, also you can minimize the minimized window to just show the buttons. Pretty sweet.
Edit: One thing I have noticed, I cannot see shared iTunes playlists from others on my network who have iTunes 4.xx, weird.
Edit: One thing I have noticed, I cannot see shared iTunes playlists from others on my network who have iTunes 4.xx, weird.
Comments
iTunes 5 includes a new Search Bar to make it easier for users to find what theyÂ?re searching for;Â*the ability to organize playlists into folders; Smart Shuffle, which lets the user change the Â?randomnessÂ? of shuffled songs; and the ability for Windows users to automatically sync contacts and calendars from Outlook onto their iPods.
The iTunes Music Store has also added parental controls and album reviews, and now features a catalog of over two million songs, making it the largest online music catalog in the world.
Â?iTunes is widely regarded as the best jukebox, with the worldÂ?s most popular online music store built right in,Â? said Steve Jobs, AppleÂ?s CEO. Â?We are constantly improving iTunes with new features like Podcasting and better searching because we love music ourselves and want to surprise and delight music fans around the world.Â?
iTunes 5Â?s new Search Bar was designed to let users find exactly what they are looking for within the catalog of two million songs, 15,000 Podcasts and 10,000 audiobooks on the iTunes Music Store, in addition to everything in their own iTunes music library.Â*
iTunes and the iTunes Music Store have a new refined look, as well as parental controls allowing parents to determine which music and Podcasts their children can access on the iTunes Music Store.
iTunes 5.0 also introduces the ability to organize playlists into folders and have greater control over random playback with the new Smart Shuffle feature.Â*Windows iPod users can now use iTunes toÂ*automaticallyÂ*sync calendars with Outlook or contacts with Outlook or Outlook Express.
Pricing & Availability
iTunes 5 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Music Store and is available as a free download immediately from www.apple.com/itunes.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
How do you do the minimised play controls?
Will I have to wait for Software Update to get it?
1. Could the new look signal a new "sleeker" brushed metal? I quite like it, but will we have to wait for 10.5 to be used through out the system...
2. Seems to be still carbon, I wonder if it is now is a universal binary that runs on Intel and PPC.
3. I was expecting more features for a major release.
4. Seems faster!
1) They did away with the title bar. Windows apps typically have an icon in the upper left corner of a window followed by the application name and possibly some other info (like the name of the open file). Apple has ignored this convention and mashed the menu into the tippy top of the window. And they've replaced the normal Windows minimize, maximize, and close buttons with their own (very small) ones.
2) The new folders are nice, but you can't Shift-select items in the "Source" pane, so you have to drag each item individually.
3) You can't secondary-click in the Source pane to bring up a contextual menu to create a new folder (or anything else).
4) They STILL bundle QuickTime with the iTunes download. Hello! I already have QuickTime, thank you. I don't need it reinstalling itself and populating my taskbar with icons.
5) They've dropped the brushed aluminum for a grey gradient.
Nothing else to report after using it five minutes.
- Jasen.
however, as they update all the songs again on both pods, they might have been doing some DRM stuff, i do not even want to know about...
Originally posted by jasenj1
I pulled down iTunes 5 for Windows and so far I'm not impressed.
1) They did away with the title bar. Windows apps typically have an icon in the upper left corner of a window followed by the application name and possibly some other info (like the name of the open file). Apple has ignored this convention and mashed the menu into the tippy top of the window. And they've replaced the normal Windows minimize, maximize, and close buttons with their own (very small) ones.
2) The new folders are nice, but you can't Shift-select items in the "Source" pane, so you have to drag each item individually.
3) You can't secondary-click in the Source pane to bring up a contextual menu to create a new folder (or anything else).
4) They STILL bundle QuickTime with the iTunes download. Hello! I already have QuickTime, thank you. I don't need it reinstalling itself and populating my taskbar with icons.
5) They've dropped the brushed aluminum for a grey gradient.
Nothing else to report after using it five minutes.
- Jasen.
1 - It's been a long time since I've used iTunes in Windows, but I seem to recall that was already the case in iTunes 4?
2 - Yah, that does kind of suck, actually.
3 - Weird; are you sure there isn't some kind of shortcut like that? Very unApple
4 - Hello! New version of Quicktime supporting HD codec. So you didn't have it already.
5 - Well, I for one am glad they're moving out of the brushed aluminum; it's been inconsistently applied in apps for some time now. Now all they need to get rid of are the candy-colored menu buttons... like they have on the pro-apps.
Full-screen view
Little window
Originally posted by jasenj1
I pulled down iTunes 5 for Windows and so far I'm not impressed.
I pretty much have the same reaction as you. It's really hard to drag the full-size window around without a title bar. It's so disgustingly gross that I wonder if this is some sort of rendering bug, and it was supposed to be reasonable.
I had the beta of Quicktime 7 installed, but it's likely that iTunes 5 required a newer version, so installing Quicktime 7 doesn't bug me... but polluting my toolbar when I *explicitly* set my previous Quicktime install *not* to is very annoying.
It would also be nice to have a quick mouse-driven way to switch between mini and normal players like exists in the MacOS X version.
was kinda pi**ed when i had to restart after updating quicktime *AND* then after installing the new itunes!!!
Same problem here! Had to restart (force quit doesn´t work)...
I´ll wait till it pops up in software update....
On the bright side, they have added a lot of things I wanted- playlist folders are handy, and the new search is very useful.
I got the error message regarding closing iTunes too when updating, but it was cured by closing iTunes! I also fell foul to two restarts however (quicktime and iTunes)
Originally posted by Engine Joe
The search bar looks the same as it always has - what's supposedly new about it?
Type in a search and all becomes clear. It now allows you to choose what content to search, and if you have browser column view enabled, the column contents now reflect search results, something that pleases me no end!
Originally posted by G_Warren
I got the error message regarding closing iTunes too when updating, but it was cured by closing iTunes!
iTunes was definitely closed here...