Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iTunes
Will we see iTunes 7 tomorrow?
The rumors are swirling, as they always do before his Steveness mounts a stage. Tomorrow, in case you aren't completely Apple obsessed, Apple is hosting a special event titled "Showtime" in San Francisco. The media has been invited, the rumormills are churning, and the Apple faithful are in a tizzy.We've heard a lot about movies in iTunes, and other rumors, but one thing that hasn't been mentioned is the possibility of iTunes 7. Apple launched iTunes 6 almost 11 months ago to the day of this event. Remember what the big feature of iTunes 6 was? That's right, TV shows in the iTunes Music Store.
If I were a betting man I would put money on iTunes 7 making a debut tomorrow. Please note that I have no insider information, I'm just looking at the available facts and building a theory.
So, if this does come to pass what features would you like to see in iTunes 7? I, personally, don't need any whizbang features, I would just like video playback to be improved.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
eric e said 4:11PM on 9-11-2006
Does anyone know what time the event starts? And who's covering it?
My toaster broke. I'm personally banking on an iToaster.
Reply
Kuutamo said 4:21PM on 9-11-2006
New look. The old "plastic" looks....well old.
Reply
olivier said 4:12PM on 9-11-2006
and please a new party shuffle that actually works and is personalizable!
Reply
shrimp said 4:15PM on 9-11-2006
I hope they change the music store's name.
And good god I hope they improve video playing.
Reply
mxz said 4:14PM on 9-11-2006
One thing bugs me though - if iTMS will offer movie downloads - what resolution will they be in? I fear they may be severely cut down and compressed and optimized for playing on video iPods and SDTV's, not hi-res 720P panels.
Reply
Jonathan said 4:46PM on 9-11-2006
Are you kidding me, there are a ton of features that should be added to iTunes, for example, there should be an option to add columns other than the genre, artist and album to make browsing your library easier. A Year column would be great!
Also, a feature to monitor any new additions would be greatly appreciated (at least on the windows version).
I couldn't care less about video. A video iPod is pointless. The beauty of the iPod is that you can listen while you look away. You can put your iPod away, in your backpack while you listen and enjoy the view. Watching video on a tiny screen is silly, even if we have the technology to do it.
Jonathan
Reply
Neil Christie said 4:19PM on 9-11-2006
Why can't people just give it a rest?
Speculating about products will not make them any more real.
But, if iTunes was to be revamped I'd like to see complete and utter separation of Music and Videos. I want two different libraries.
Reply
Tomnibus said 4:21PM on 9-11-2006
I would like to see song "ties" not joining two tracks but songs that are 'tied' together.
What does that mean?
Well, let's say a CD you own there are two songs that essentially only make sense if you play them back to back. You can tie them together. They will still be two separate songs so you can save one on a CD without the other if you wish. but if both songs are in the same play list and you randomize the playlist, those two songs will be tied in the order they were originally tied. So, they will stick together when randomized.
I submitted that as a suggestion about 8 months ago, we'll see if anyone listened.
Reply
Tush said 5:34PM on 9-11-2006
gapless playback!
Reply
mkuker said 4:25PM on 9-11-2006
Tomnibus has a great idea there. That would be perfect for the medley on "Abbey Road" or for Queen's "We Will Rock You / We Are The Champions."
Personally, I'd like the ability to sort my library by multiple criteria at one. For example, the primary sort to be by artist, then have the albums for each artist sorted by year.
Reply
stainboy said 4:29PM on 9-11-2006
automatic album art downloading, with the ability to scale and crop a la Address Book pictures. and although it's been beaten to death...yeah, gapless playback.
Reply
Klein Maetschke said 4:34PM on 9-11-2006
Here's the deal. Video playback definitely need a redesign, it sucks...
Could we see a new name? It'd be rough and weird to see iTunes go, but with a new all-inclusive media player could we see a merger of Quicktime and iTunes under a new name. Possibility.
iTunes changes --(if any)-- would certainly not be interface, or if it were, it would not be a drastic change, with new users hopping on the apple train, changing the interface of their most familiar program would be a death wish on Apple's part. and I would bet they know that.
I could see incorporating the ajoining of songs...not sure how that would work with licensing, a lot of artists don't like their songs tampered with in any form. Also, I'd love what Neil said, separate libraries of Music and Videos...I know the countless times I've let my iTunes go on shuffle, and hidden it while working on Photoshop and then 30 minutes later my system will freeze memory for about 2 minutes and then an episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air will pop up...its just not ...friendly.
Reply
AlHooter said 4:32PM on 9-11-2006
I would like them to finally open the video downloading to other countries such as Canada.
Reply
James Whited said 4:32PM on 9-11-2006
iTunes 7 could be possible. I tried to download iTunes 6 for my copy of Vista yesterday and the download link was down for a little while. I was however able to get it after a few minutes, and it works very well with Vista.
Reply
pompeyjon said 4:44PM on 9-11-2006
I would echo mkuker's suggestion; I'm anally retentive enough to make sure that my library is properly organised by artim, album and genre. I'd also like to make sure that it was chronologically ordered by album as well.
Reply
Andrea said 4:38PM on 9-11-2006
!!!!!!!!!!!!! OGG PLAYBACK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>.>
Reply
Tony Ward said 4:39PM on 9-11-2006
Personally (and Apple has gotten an email on this one) I'm hoping to be able to select an export/conversion format on the fly. It drives me nuts having to go to Preferences every time I want to create multiple formats of a file (in my case, original songs as practice tracks for other musicians, most not part of the Mac cult).
Amen on the video playback and Tomnibus' idea! Should have been that way from the start (yeah, I know it's free...)
Reply
microscope said 4:50PM on 9-11-2006
Thank you TUAW for calling attention to what REALLY needs to be announced tomorrow. iTunes is in need of some major UI improvements.
Here's what on my wish list:
-Sub playlists (look, I organize my playlists by artist, by and large, so having a sub playlist for each album would be handy)
-Drastically improved Music Store UI and functionality. The current browser mode leaves a lot to be desired - it's a drilldown navigation, c'mon. And how about an easy way to save albums to a wishlist? (Right now, when I find some obscure Album through the store, the only way for me to remember it and get back to it is by emailing it to myself via their haphazard "tell a friend" button.) Gimme a break. And while we're at it, how about subgenres, so that I can zero in on Ambient via the most basic classification "electronic."
I wholeheartedly expect a major revamp to the iTMS, but have become jaded, and expect the only addition to be "Movies." BFD.
Reply
Blair said 4:51PM on 9-11-2006
Jonathan:
Er... you know you can right-click the column headers to add tons of other categories, right?
Reply
John Hood said 4:54PM on 9-11-2006
CD Text and AAC Plus.
Reply