Filed under: iTunes, Software Update
Apple announces iTunes 7
Scott nailed it right on the head ladies and gents: one of the big announcements of today's event was a much-updated iTunes version 7, bringing a slew of new shopping, organizing and playing options to Apple's media software. As of this writing, Apple hasn't made the new software available yet, so we're going to recap the announcement to help you stay on top of the essentials. Here's a rundown of what's new:- The iTunes Music Store is now, simply, the iTunes Store. While removing 'Music' from the title certainly helps move the store's branding into the multi-media monster it has become, it sounds like they're stuck with the 'iTunes' (music related) branding
- Album & Cover Flow views - you can now view your library by album art covers, or use a snazzy 3D 'cover flow' (you mean, like CoverFlow?) to really show off
- New Source organization - each media type gets its own library and source, offering much easier access and organization
- Gapless playback - MP3, AAC and Apple Lossless files that are one cohesive album can now sound like one
- 640 x 480 video resolution for TV and - as everyone predicted - movie downloads from the likes of Disney, Pixar, Touchstone, Miramax. Movies adopt the same usage rights as TV shows (i.e. - no burning)
- Integrated iPod management - you can adjust what media is synced to your iPod from within iTunes, instead of having to clunk around in the preferences. We haven't seen what this looks like yet, but it sounds like a much better idea for obvious reasons
- Transfer purchases via iPod - now when Engadget and MacRumors reported this, it sounded like the entire library was transferable between registered computers. This feature, taken from the actual keynote slide, makes it sound like this will work only for iTS purchases
- Download manager - begin listening to and watching your media while it finishes downloading
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Jordan Burgess said 2:24PM on 9-12-2006
The logo's note has changed colour from green to blue! :O
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davo said 2:25PM on 9-12-2006
got it - and its freakin wckd!
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Chris G. said 2:26PM on 9-12-2006
iTunes 7 is available for download if you go to the iTunes download page.
The installer is completely redone. Looks like there is now an "Apple Software Updater" that runs in the background, making sure your iTunes, iPod firmware, and QuickTime are all up-to-date.
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Matthew said 2:27PM on 9-12-2006
Can't wait for iTV!
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Nathan Ziarek said 2:27PM on 9-12-2006
I think the new icon is uglier than the old one.
I just hope this guy got paid: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/28115
Other than that, great Keynote! I like the fun ones that still manage to shock (even if we knew most of this before hand)
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Austin said 2:28PM on 9-12-2006
My iTunes 7 Download is in progress!
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Jack said 2:28PM on 9-12-2006
I take it you have to have purchased music from itms to get album art... if I rip a CD, can I still get the art from ITMS?
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arnvid said 2:32PM on 9-12-2006
It seems the site from Coverflow is down, so maybe Apple didn't just rip them off.
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ryan said 2:31PM on 9-12-2006
I finished my download of iTunes 7 and the disk won't mount. Did anyone else have this happen? I'm trying again...
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Luis Tsukayama said 2:34PM on 9-12-2006
When you install it, if you click on "customize" there's something called.... tatatatata:
"iTunes PHONE driver"!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Nathan Ziarek said 2:32PM on 9-12-2006
@Jack -
I imagine all songs in your library are eligible for album art, otherwise it wouldn't be a new feature, would it? It was my understanding that you have to have an iTunes account (probably so they can track usage) but it'll work on non-iTMS tracks. Wonder how 'fuzzy' the look up logic will be?
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jason said 2:32PM on 9-12-2006
yea you can, wow if you have a lot of music, it takes a bit of time for itunes to analyze your collection.
to bad software update isnt showing anything as an update yet.
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fp said 2:34PM on 9-12-2006
it's good to have a new version of iTunes.
but....It seems that apple stopped the discount on all the ipods for students:(
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Boris Shubinsky said 4:12PM on 9-12-2006
Seems like the iTunes site is getting overloaded. Took a while to load on my cable connection
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MacWebHosting said 2:36PM on 9-12-2006
I too had problem mounting the downloaded .dmg from Apple. In the end, I mounted it through Toast - and then installed :)
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Dustin said 2:37PM on 9-12-2006
Ah, Apple went all retro with the blue music notes? I had to start iTunes in Classic to see that sweet blue hue; no more I guess.
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Miguel Iglesias Marques said 4:27PM on 9-13-2006
I like the new interface :D
And the album cover stuff works quite well...
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Austin said 2:39PM on 9-12-2006
WHOAHWHOAWHOAWHOAWHOA!!!!!!!
when installing iTunes, click "Customize" when choosing what installation. you'll find the option: "iTUNES PHONE DRIVER"!!
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Nick said 2:40PM on 9-12-2006
I was curious to see if they'd release a firmware update for the older 5G 30/60gb photo ipods so they could enjoy new games and features and apparently iPod software updates are now available through iTunes. hmmm...
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Luigi said 2:42PM on 9-12-2006
Its awesome, but its saying i dont have the right quicktime...
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