Recently, Apple made some dramatic changes to the overall look of their iTunes app when they moved to version 11. This was met with an unfavorable response by the majority of users. In some cases, users are refusing to update their software to avoid the changes.
This past week, Apple released an update to iTunes 11 marked as 11.0.3. The changes are very minor when compared to the overhaul from 10 to 11, but they add some functionality that was missing from the previous iteration.
Apple decided to rework how iTunes handles multi-disc albums. Before, iTunes would display each disc in as separate albums. This used to drastically increase the number of albums you had to scroll through when browsing for what you want to listen to. Now, these albums appear as one. When you have a multi-disc album selected you see the breakdown of the entire album split into each one of its discs. I am interested in playing around with how this will work with my collection of audiobooks — most of which have more then two discs — but if I recall, used to display them together as one album. Of course, this could just be how I organized them by chapter rather than by disc.
After that, Apple set their sights on the MiniPlayer. For those of you that are all about the album artwork, you should like this small addition. Once you have started playing some music and switched to the MiniPlayer, there will be a small thumbnail image of the album art on the left hand side of the player. If that isn’t enough for you (because it is pretty small), you can click on the album art to toggle to a larger view.
A few other small things to note are the addition of a progress bar and duration of the song — just in case you want to skip to your favorite part. You may notice the disappearance of the AirPlay icon, but don’t worry, the functionality is still there. Now for those of you that are using Mountain Lion, you may know that you can option+click on the speaker icon in your menu bar to change the output of our computer speakers to AirPlay speakers. With the MiniPlayer, you only need to use a standard click to display the extra options. Now you have access to any AirPlay speakers in range and the volume for each.
Like I said earlier, these changes are minor so if you have been holding off to make the jump from 10 to 11 because you hate the looks, you will be stuck with 10 for a little while longer — until they release iTunes 12. But for anyone who is happy with the new look, I recommend getting this update since it has some useful new features.
The update also has some security components. If you are interested in reading about those you can check out the article on Apple’s website here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5766.