iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store for iPhone
Our weeks of obsessively checking for iPhone updates were rewarded today with software version 1.1.1. There are several changes, like a new Calculator icon (it now matches that of the iPod touch) and additional text message alert sounds.The big news for iPhone users, however (those that survived the update, that is), is the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. Here are my impressions after spending a few minutes with it.
Look and Feel
Upon first launch, you're brought to the main screen. I had an excellent Wi-Fi connection and the store came up very quickly. Across the top are three buttons: "New Releases," "What's Hot" and "Genres." Below that are two banner ads and a scroll-able list of top releases. Flipping through the list was snappy, though it did take a second or two to draw album art towards the bottom of the list.
At the very bottom of the screen are four icons: "Featured," "Top Tens," "Search" and "Downloads."
It feels much snappier than I expected. The album art is nice and big and everything is quite legible.
Purchasing Music
I touched The Shepard's Dog by Iron & Wine (I intended to buy it anyway) and got a listing of the album's tracks. Tapping any title launches its 30 second preview almost immediately, just as tapping the price tag reveals the "Buy now" button.
I bought the album, and was prompted for my iTunes Store password. The selected music seems to "jump" down into the "Downloads" icon, and a small, red indicator slowly flashes red, indicating the number of tracks remaining.
Again I was amazed at how quickly it downloaded: 3MB and 4MB songs were taking 3 and 4 seconds.
Once the download was complete, a button for the newly-created "Purchased" playlist appeared in the upper right hand corner. Clicking it quit iTunes and launched the iPod software, where my music was ready to play. The whole process was fast and dead simple. Apple obviously contemplated (and nailed) every last detail.
Synchronizing with iTunes
Again, this was laughably easy. With my iPhone connected to my Mac, I launched iTunes and started a sync. iTunes saw and imported the new music. It also created a new, "Purchased on Dave's iPhone" playlist. Other Features
- Live search: iTunes begins searching as soon as you start typing, which is pretty cool.
- Top Tens: Quickly jump to the top ten songs across genres, or view the store's over all top ten downloads.
- Download Extras: If an album contains extras, like a digital booklet or a video, it's described beneath the list of album tracks.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dan said 4:13PM on 9-27-2007
I'm getting "Could not play preview" messages when trying to preview anything. Anyone else?
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Luigi193 said 4:13PM on 9-27-2007
Thats SWEET!
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WillGonz said 4:25PM on 9-27-2007
Ok the first few times of deleting e-mail was cute. Now it is time consuming to delete 100+ e-mails out of my mailbox. There is no select all and delete. Still not ready for real business use.
Can't wait until someone else makes a device this cool with open source.
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Noah Kronemeyer said 4:36PM on 9-27-2007
If you get the "Cannot Play Preview" message, just try again. If it's still not working, check your WiFi signal strength if you are on that network.
You can also click any web-links that lead to the iTunes store in the Safari browser, and you'll be taken to your iPhone/Touch iTunes Store. This is helpful if you want to download the free single of the week to your iPhone directly w/o having to wait till the next time you sync w/ your computer.
Cheers!
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jonathan ober said 4:30PM on 9-27-2007
downloading now. not worried about iBrick, since i dont hack. don't have custom Ringtones either...oh well.
maybe this will persuade me to download from the iTunes store instead of purchase CDs.
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Dasutin said 4:34PM on 9-27-2007
Can you download Podcasts?
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jonathan ober said 4:35PM on 9-27-2007
WillGonz, do you have your email set to update all the time, or just on Manual? I have found that if I set it up to manual then it only downloads mail that I haven't opened from my gmail account. It's a lot better than getting every single message and having to go through them twice.
Try it.
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Bob said 4:36PM on 9-27-2007
Sorry, no podcasts. There has also been an update for the iPod Touch. Now at version 1.1.1. The screen issues are being reported as fixed or at least better. (I can verify!! Yay!)
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Bala said 4:51PM on 9-27-2007
Just a stupid question: Does the *Wi-Fi* Music Store only work when you are on a Wi-Fi network or does it work even if you are on an EDGE network?
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Dan said 4:58PM on 9-27-2007
VERY NICE! Installed update and immediately purchased an album to test. Like butter easy!
Downloaded a 14 song album and it was on my iPhone in under 4 minutes. Docked and songs came over to iTunes as expected! Great feature that I'm sure I'll use from time to time.
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NewMexiKen said 4:59PM on 9-27-2007
Given this update, the hacking issues, the price drop, and all that's happened, is the iPhone as-is a good buy? What do people think? What do the experts think? I realize this is highly subjective, but with bluetooth add-ons and, in my case a VzW contract, it's still an expensive outlay, and I'd like an assessment.
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jason said 5:07PM on 9-27-2007
I just downloaded the update, and right away, 1 problem.. My speakers are totally imbalanced!!! My left speaker (as you're looking at the phone) is really loud, almost distorted, and my right speaker barely has any noise coming out of it. I checked the sound with a video, several songs, and song previews from the store...all of them goofy.
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Donald Burr said 5:08PM on 9-27-2007
Does anyone know whether the WiFi Music Store respects and uses any iTunes card credit balances in your account?
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nkatz said 5:18PM on 9-27-2007
@12 - Are you talking about the physical grills on the bottom edge of the phone? Only the left one is a speaker to begin with. The right one is the mic, if I'm not mistaken...
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nkatz said 6:36PM on 9-27-2007
@12 - Are you referring to the two grilled openings on the bottom edge of your phone? Because only the left one is a speaker to begin with. The right one is the mic, if I'm not mistaken...
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Susan said 5:40PM on 9-27-2007
@ 13 I ordered a 99 cent song using the wifi store and checked later on the computer. The song was purchased using the store credit in my account (the current total credit appears next to your user name and it had dropped by a little over one dollar).
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nkatz said 6:38PM on 9-27-2007
Sorry for the double post, folks... :(
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eriq said 7:21PM on 9-27-2007
when i try to purchase something i get a pop up stating "No account information found. Please connect to iTunes to configure your account". Well I connected to iTunes but I see nowhere to configure this, this computer is authorized, I'm downloading a season pass episode as we speak so the iTunes software on the computer certainly knows I'm configured. How do I make it notify the iPhone?
Any ideas?
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matto said 8:04PM on 9-27-2007
@12+14
you are not mistaken... one is a speaker, the other the mic...
Always been that way...
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Michael Mendoza said 8:26PM on 9-27-2007
@9 - Sorry, I asked the same question at Engadget and they said you cannot connect to the iTunes store with EDGE/GPRS, you need to use Wifi. If I get different results (d/l the update right now) I'll give you more information.
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