Filed under: Audio, Software, Video, iTunes, Reviews
Walkthrough: iTunes 7's big new features
In case you missed it, one of the big announcements of today's It's Showtime events was iTunes 7, a major update that brought changes on nearly every front. Organizing, shopping, syncing - everything got a lot of attention from Apple's software engineers and, as you'll see throughout this walkthrough, a lot of polish has been applied to make this one of the most significant updates in recent iTunes history. First up are some of the basics: there has been a simple change to the iTunes
This should offer a good overview of just how much the iTunes UI has been updated and polished, though impressively without any major or unsettling changes. Dan Lurie noted that it all has a very 'web 2.0-ish' feel, and I tend to agree. Since the iPod was a major player in today's events as well, I figure changes to the iTunes + iPod relationship are as good a place to start as any.
Managing your iPod just became a whole lot easier
You can see what Mr. Jobs meant when he said you can now interact with and configure the iPod right from within the iTunes interface, instead of having to clunk around in the preferences. Underneath the display panel at the top of iTunes are now a series of tabs when an iPod is selected, offering the familiar options of choosing whether to sync the iPod, which podcasts to sync, etc.
TV show syncing now has its own configuration options, including '5 most recent' and '5 most recent unwatched.' I'm sure these will be welcome options to those chronically addicted to more than a few iTunes TV shows.
Also at the bottom of the iPod panel is a much-improved space meter that delineates between music (blue), video (purple), 'other' (orange - I guess this is any files/folders and possibly photos you have on the iPod) and, of course, free space (white). In an interesting change to Apple's fundamental UI behavior, they have added dedicated 'Cancel' and 'Apply' buttons in the bottom right of the iPod configuration panel, allowing users that last minute chance to decide whether they really want to commit a change.
New ways to view your library
The new viewing options for the individual library entries in the Sources list (Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts and Radio) are really, really slick. As a clever touch, the List view, pictured below, shows album covers on the left (which iTunes can now grab automatically from the store for all your non-iTS purchases), with a list of each song, artist and album name (somewhat redundant) for each individual album. TV Shows works the same way in that it organizes episodes by season. Very, very well done.
The new Cover Browser, the third option of the new view buttons just to the left of the search box, is really a sight to behold.
This features definitely steps on CoverFlow's toes in a big way, and I'm sorry to say - it's done a bit better. A scroll bar at the bottom of the cover browser is easier to click and drag with, and the animation is incredibly smooth and, dare I say it, sexy.
[Update: we have since learned that CoverFlow was actually bought by Apple. So instead of having their toes violated, it sounds like they came out on top with a good chunk of change. Good show.]
Unfortunately, I was surprised to find that these new view buttons don't work for podcasts. They're still listed and organized in the iTunes 6 fashion.
All the rest
There are plenty of other big changes in iTunes, ranging from a UI bump to the preferences, the ability to toggle displaying any of the media sections in the Sources list (which, oddly, no longer has any kind of name/heading), parental controls that allow disabling various sections and the purchase of various content based on PG/TV rating, a new dedicated Store menu for managing your account and purchases, and an appetizing new "Transfer Purchases from iPod" option under the File menu, finally allowing users to sync (at least some of) their music between computers with nothing more than an iPod and a cable.
There has to be plenty more in this major update, but this is the rundown of the big stuff for now. We'll be sure to post even more goodies as we uncover them.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Edwin said 3:23PM on 9-12-2006
Apple bought Coverflow so it's not like they're really stepping on anyone's toes.
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Dave said 10:34AM on 9-13-2006
too bad I STILL can't set up the columns the way I WANT them. The track name is STILL glued to the far left side. Why can't they make it moveable like the rest of the colums? It's not that hard. Really.
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Freemdoom said 3:25PM on 9-12-2006
According to SteelSkies website:
"We are pleased to announce that all CoverFlow technology and intellectual property was recently sold to Apple. It has been incorporated into the latest version of iTunes."
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Nate said 3:26PM on 9-12-2006
So is this a preview of what all of Leopard will look like (new scroll bars, new look on selected items, new button styles)?
If so, I can't wait.
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Andrew said 3:31PM on 9-12-2006
From the CoverFlow website:
"We are pleased to announce that all CoverFlow technology and intellectual property was recently sold to Apple. It has been incorporated into the latest version of iTunes. Please visit www.apple.com/itunes"
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Larry said 8:51PM on 9-12-2006
How about a way to access Windows-based ipods through iTunes running on a MAC?? I've got 28GB on my Windows machine sync'd to the ipod, but can't see/mount-in-iTunes that same iPod on my MacBook because of the NFTS structure or whatever that is. Fix that, Apple! (or make the iTunes file sharing work perfectly seamlessly, like allowing coverflow view for playlists on other computers - does it??)
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Richard Flynn said 3:58PM on 9-12-2006
The available fields when editing the info on multiple items have been increased. Also, there's now a 'Video' tab in the (single-item) Get Info dialogue box - here you can mark videos as TV shows/Music videos as well as fill in some basic show/season/production no/episode/date information. Not as many fields as are allowed for by Lostify, but it's a start for those Handbraking TV shows from DVDs...
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Liam Parkinson said 3:29PM on 9-12-2006
got to agree with you nate, if osx 10.5 has the iTunes UI it will be sweet, although it would be nice to have the blue colour back for the scroll bars
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Benjamin said 3:34PM on 9-12-2006
It also appears that you can manage multiple libraries on external and internal hard-drives (http://www.apple.com/itunes/jukebox/sourcelist.html). Found under the "Library" heading. I don't know about you guys, but I am super excited about this, since my music (media?) library far surpasses my Macbook's internal hard-drive. But as of now, I can’t figure it out. Why can’t they just have two libraries (an internal and external)?
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bangfalse said 3:37PM on 9-12-2006
Did anyone else notice that the new List view is stolen directly from Windows Media Player 11? Or am I the only one who notices when Apple copied Microsoft?
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a said 3:35PM on 9-12-2006
anyone able to play the games on their 5G iPod?
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Kirk Van Gorkom said 3:35PM on 9-12-2006
Another welcome change is the ability to tag imported videos as TV shows complete with Season and Episode nubmers. Now we won't have everything not purchased from iTS jumbled together in the "Movies" category.
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Matt said 3:46PM on 9-12-2006
And I still can't access the music store from 10.4.+ behind my company's proxy server, which means I still cant authorize my work computer to play purchased tracks. I can from our mac that has 10.3 though, so I dunno what to do. Apple has been no help. Anyone got any ideas?
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Indiana said 3:36PM on 9-12-2006
Where is the equalizer & where the visual effects button? I want them back!
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tblaze said 3:41PM on 9-12-2006
Does the album art slider blur out for anyone else when in the "CoverFlow" view?
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TX2Step said 3:42PM on 9-12-2006
There is now a download status when you download anything from podcasts to music.
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Jansperus said 3:46PM on 9-12-2006
I was just on Windows Vista and I noticed that too, bangfalse. It's definitely one of the few features I preferred of Windows Media Center.
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Adam Turetzky said 3:48PM on 9-12-2006
Perhaps it's just me, but the new UI in iTunes 7 looks very WindowsXP-ish and lacks any of the lick-able candyesq Aqua glassy touches.
I don't really care for it. It looks "flat".
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jc said 3:48PM on 9-12-2006
How do I get artwork for the covers not supplied by iTunes?
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michael said 3:48PM on 9-12-2006
Hurrah, hurrah! The XML format now records Skip Count and Last Skipped time/date.
This will give us a lot of options to improve the smart playlists, and with any luck, Apple will be taking that data into account in the algorithm that handles shuffle...
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