Apple Releases iTunes 10.4 As 64-Bit Cocoa App For Lion

[chrono1081]

64-bit or not, there's no reason for iTunes to use 4GB RAM, so that's no benefit.
Apps can get some peformance improvements, but not generally a lot -- and the treadeoff is that generally 64-bit apps use more memory since addresses (a substantial part of data and code for most apps) are twice as large. On most 64-bit computers iTunes usally isn't hogging the CPU enough that you'd fret about the performance increases.

I'm just suprised by the excitement people have for this since in the short term 64-bit cocoa iTunes isn't going to do much for you that 32-bit carbon iTunes didn't. The real benefits will come over time because Apple should be able to spend less time maintaining it.

There is actually a TON of benefit. My machine uses around 12 gigs of ram just on common tasks, it has 24 gigs. Non used resources is wasted resources and Mac OS scales its usage of resources intelligently. Also for those of us with large libraries this is a definite benefit.

 

[Patrick J]

I can't uninstall the 10.5 beta.

When I move to trash I get: “iTunes” can’t be modified or deleted because it’s required by Mac OS X.

Any tips on how to install 10.4?

 

[germinator]

How's the AppleScript support?

Still there?

 

[tkermit]

iTunes is an experience in its own right when one is not in productivity or gaming mode.

That's true. I would actually love it if you could show just your albums in a grid when you're in full screen mode. Or if you could at least make the Sidebar disappear, as it is possible in Mail for example.

[AppleScript Support] Still there?

Of course.

 

[BugSitter]

iTunes Store Snappy!!!

The iTunes store has *always* been sluggish for me for scrolling, loading pages, etc. With this update, it's actually snappy for the first time ever -- and that's on an 11" MBA. It's more than just a performance boost.

 

[Snypod]

Wow, to my surprise the speed increase is quite noticeable on my Core i7 Macbook Pro. iTunes opens quicker than it used to. I have 10,000 tracks in my library and scrolling is now instantaneous no matter how quickly I move the scroll bar. The iTunes Store pages load drastically faster than before. All in all a very welcome update.

In Lion or 10.6?

Lion, on a 2010 Core i7 Macbook Pro with 8GB of RAM and 10,000 songs in iTunes. Things were pretty sluggish before, especially the iTunes Store, now it runs like a champ.

I'm really curious how much of the speed boost is due to 64 bit.

Any Lion users willing to take a couple minutes and run it in 32 bit mode then compare to 64 and see if there's a noticeable difference? it would be cool to come up with some sort of measurable benchmark but I can't think of one off the top of my head.

I just ran iTunes in 32bit mode and it is just as speedy as far as I can tell.

 

[brianbauer04]

I would bet that most of the performance increase comes from the Cocoa rewrite.

The performance increase that comes from 64-bit mode is because the Intel processor has 8 general purpose registers per core that can't be accessed when running in 32-bit mode. If a program does a lot of computation then you get a significant reduction in waiting around for data to be copied out to RAM and new data to copied in from RAM. iTunes probably isn't using the generic portion of the processor for decoding music, so I doubt this is what causes the performance improvement.

 

[KD35]

ever heard of spaces? i have a whole desktop dedicated to itunes

Besides the added space, does spaces help with performance/speed?
Just curious

 

[milo]

Aside from the 64/32 thing, is multicore support any better? Specifically if you are rerendering audio or video files does it use all cores or still just one?

Other apps like handbrake have scaled well up to 8 cores or so for a long time now while iTunes always used just one.

 

[briloronmacrumo]

I would have bet money that iTunes would not see a Cocoa rewrite .

Apple's own tool ( LegacyAPISurvey at Developer/Extras/LegacyAPISurvey ) shows over 200 legacy calls in iTunes 10.4. Doesn't look like a complete rewrite although they clearly had to dump Carbon's HIView to move to 64-bit.

 

[Ed91]

Who on earth needs to run iTunes full screen or "without distractions"? If there's one Apple app that's designed to be shoved into the background while it's being used, surely it's iTunes.

I agree, but that's why I LIKE this development. Full screen iTunes will have its own space in Mission Control, so it will truly be in the background working away on its own while I'm in a space where I'm actually doing something.

I hope, anyway.. I'm still stuck downloading Lion

 

[AidenShaw]

You have 64gb of RAM

64 Gibit is 8 GiByte.

 

[parkds]

Can anyone confirm whether or not SRS iWOW (3.1) works with OS X Lion and iTunes 10.4?

Thanks!

iWOW does not seem to run when iTunes 10.4 is running in 64bit mode. When you force iTunes 10.4 to launch in 32bit mode you get an error, but the plugin is running only you don't have an ability to access the control panel for it.

 

[Navdakilla]

The iTunes store has *always* been sluggish for me for scrolling, loading pages, etc. With this update, it's actually snappy for the first time ever -- and that's on an 11" MBA. It's more than just a performance boost.

That's really good to know, thanks

I have found itunes to always be sluggish on whatever computer I run it. (even a souped up gaming rig that I have).

 

[PurrBall]

I can't uninstall the 10.5 beta.

When I move to trash I get: “iTunes” can’t be modified or deleted because it’s required by Mac OS X.

Any tips on how to install 10.4?

sudo mv /Applications/iTunes.app ~/.Trash

 

[TsMkLg068426]

So are they going to have iTunes 64 bit for Snow Leopard or not?

 

[OddyOh]

Aside from the 64/32 thing, is multicore support any better? Specifically if you are rerendering audio or video files does it use all cores or still just one?

Other apps like handbrake have scaled well up to 8 cores or so for a long time now while iTunes always used just one.

Yeah, does anyone know if 64bit helps with converting files?

 

[Jodles]

Sorry if this has been mentioned, but is it just me that has no scrolling with inertia in iTunes 10.4?

 

[franswa za]

What does this make iTunes now? Faster? More reliable?

2x quicker to bug

hopefully AFTER dev's 10.5beta some of the bugs shall be addressed..

we live in hope

 

[franswa za]

I can't uninstall the 10.5 beta.

When I move to trash I get: “iTunes” can’t be modified or deleted because it’s required by Mac OS X.

Any tips on how to install 10.4?

why uninstall?

do not, wait for a general release of 10.5

 

[hazmatzak]

Question: With me only having 3GB of RAM, will I notice any performance increase with the 64-bit version of iTunes?

Maybe. If everything else you're running is 64-bit Cocoa, running a 32-bit app requires that you load 32-bit libraries. That takes time at first launch and occupies memory. By making iTunes 64-bit Cocoa, it will load faster if the libraries were already loaded by something else, and use less memory, which helps across the board. You can check the Kind of app in Activity Monitor. (Non-GUI 32-bit apps usually don't use a lot of memory or huge libraries.)

If it's the only thing running, 64-bit CPU modes and the 64-bit ABI are better in several ways, perhaps enough to counter the fact that the programs are larger, and the way that affects caches and such. I hesitate to state a blanket rule of thumb about that; too many variables that change on a regular basis.

 

[fronheiser]

Since installing Lion this morning, I have been unsuccessful installing the further updates. I have tried 4 times, been on the phone with Applecare, repaired permissions in Disk Utility... can anyone help me?

Image

I've had the exact same issue on one of my four machines.

I had 3 updates in Software Update. I was able to install the other 2 individually and I still can't update iTunes.

I even downloaded the .dmg from the Apple website and I get the same error message.

I'm stuck. I hope someone finds and posts a resolution.

 

[franswa za]

So are they going to have iTunes 64 bit for Snow Leopard or not?

no...

just about everything in/of snow leopard is NOW perfect, stick with it or...

change to a new? buggy (@ first) OS

 

[scottwaugh]

I'm on 10.2.2 on Snow Leopard....they are horizontal on this version. IIRC they were made vertical for 1, maybe 2 releases before changing back.

I've got iTunes 10.3.1 (in Snow Leopard) and they're vertical there (not horizontal).

So it seems that's the big benefit of going 64-bit - we're back to horizontal Max Min buttons, yeah! ;-)

Have a good one.

I wonder why they made it Lion only? Wasn't like they re-architected 64-bit Cocoa for Lion.

 

[citi]

I doubt it will be a "lot" of people. I would think that there are very few people who are still holding on to old Rosetta apps or have some esoteric peripherals that won't work with Lion. There will be some people in that group, but a lot, no.

Crazy talk.

Avid Pro Tools is not ready for Lion, Serato Scratch for DJ, not ready for Lion. I'm willing to bet there are a lot of people in my boat that will not be ugrading right now.

Having said that, I have two other MACs that will get the update tonight.