On Wednesday, Apple unveiled iTunes 9, an update of the extremely popular multipurpose media player, iPod and iPhone management program, and music, video and app store. iTunes is the #1 music retailer in the world, available in 23 countries. Over 85 billion songs have been downloaded from the iTunes store, and there are over 100 million active iTunes accounts.
The new version of iTunes has several compelling new features. Some of these are specifically related to the iTunes Store, but many also improve the day-to-day iTunes experience. New features and enhancements include:
- iPod touch and iPhone app management is finally available in iTunes 9. Steve Jobs said “The biggest thing we’re doing is allowing you to manage your apps in iTunes.” Under the applications tab, you can now arrange your iPhone/iPod touch home screen and move apps around directly via iTunes. So long coming, so great to see. This is a boon to people with pages of installed apps, as well as people with a touch of OCD who group their apps alphabetically (Kali…)
- Home Sharing. Turn on this feature and you can finally copy songs, TV shows, apps and other media purchased from the iTunes Store with up to 5 computers in your home or business (assuming they’re on the same network and are all authorized to play media from the same iTunes account). You’ll be able to see all the computers you can share with, and you’ll be able to copy their contents. Transferring music or other media between computers happens via simple drag and drop.
Even with the limitations listed above, Home Sharing is a very welcome addition to iTunes. For most people, it is a much better solution than manually copying music files to different computers with a flash drive, or setting up a complicated networked hard drive/Apple Script solution.
- iTunes LP. These are interactive, high quality enhanced digital liner notes. iTunes LP features full screen images, with lyrics, photos of the band, liner notes, and videos (kind of like DVD extras, but for albums).
- While iTunes 9 retains much of the classic iTunes look, the design of the iTunes Store has been improved. Steve Jobs says it is “Cleaner. New artist pages, new movie pages. It’s a much cleaner layout.”
- iTunes 9 finally allows users to keep a wishlist of future purchases and gifts.
- You can now share information about music from iTunes directly to Facebook or Twitter.
- iTunes 9 now supports Genius Mixes. Steven Jobs said that people have submitted over 27 million libraries, which is over 54 billion songs. Steve Jobs said “They’ve enabled us to make Genius playlists. Well, we’re applying that same tech to something new called Genius Mixes.” This creates a sort of digital genius DJ that plays endless mixes of songs from your library that should go great together. You click on a Genius Mix, and it will go on and on and on. “It’s like a great radio station.”
- Improved Syncing. Apple says “iTunes brings new, more flexible ways to sync your media from your computer to your iPhone or iPod. And it’s easier to organize all the apps on your iPhone or iPod touch, because now you can do it right in iTunes, right from your computer.”
iTunes 9 is free for Mac and PC. Note that on a Mac, you’ll need OS X version 10.4.11 or later; Mac OS X version 10.5.7 or later is required to play an iTunes LP or iTunes Extras. You’ll also need Safari 4.0.3 to access the iTunes Store. Support for HE-AAC requires QuickTime 7.6.4, Mac OS X version 10.5 or later and Safari 4.