Apple Releases iTunes 12.7.3 With Support for HomePod

[Chupa Chupa]

I've just finished selling all my Sonos equipment. HomePod is the future and I'm going all in.

It may be the future, but from what Apple has shown off to-date, it doesn't look like the present. It looks like a nice Apple Music accessory, but a beta one at that. It doesn't have complete SiriKit functionality. Also HomePod's Siri doesn't work with any other streaming service OR your music stored on your own Mac. It doesn't have the same Home Sharing compatibility that Apple devices have had for years. Neither Airplay2 or the ability sync two HomePods for stereo will be available at launch or likely before summer.

So HomePod definitely will be something to watch. It has potential for those of us HomeKit loyalists. But with the limited info Apple is parsing out (why so stingy announcing all the things it can do outside of Apple Music and reading the news if it's such a "magical" product) it just doesn't seem like it's fully baked yet.

 

[gnasher729]

Either way this itunes update makes no sense since the HomePod doesn't support Home Sharing so any tracks you ad to your music library will NOT be playable on HomePod.

That would be rather daft, since that is 75% of potential customers gone. I would assume that HomePod plays at least anything your iPhone, iPad or Mac can play. (My speakers at home don't support Home Sharing, and still they play anything on my phone or on my Mac. There is no need for the HomePod to support Home Sharing).
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homepod? wont buy as it can't play non itunes store tracks and ripped mp3's

Says who?

 

[potatis]

The most interesting with iTunes is when they change the icon. I remember the previous one was red and quite nice

 

[OllyW]

Says who?

It was in this 9to5 Mac article yesterday.

So at least in regard to music and audio, HomePod does not necessitate a $9.99/mo Apple Music subscription to still function as an independent home jukebox. Users can continue to buy albums from iTunes and expand their collection of purchased songs associated with their iTunes Store account, and ask Siri to play those on HomePod.

If you add music to your home iTunes library that was not acquired through a purchase, HomePod will not be able to access it. It appears HomePod doesn’t have Home Sharing, which would enable that kind of feature.

 

[tdar]

It was in this 9to5 Mac article yesterday.

I think 9 to 5 mac has it right, but I wonder what happens if you are like me and have BOTH Apple Music and iTunes Match with your full library in the cloud.

 

[OllyW]

I think 9 to 5 mac has it right, but I wonder what happens if you are like me and have BOTH Apple Music and iTunes Match with your full library in the cloud.

It would be shocking if it didn't work with iTunes Match.

 

[tkermit]

I think 9 to 5 mac has it right, but I wonder what happens if you are like me and have BOTH Apple Music and iTunes Match with your full library in the cloud.

I'm not sure there's even a technical difference between using Apple Music and using both Apple Music and iTunes Match at this point. Seems like you're using iCloud Music Library with the exact same music matching mechanisms in either case. You might as well make an annual contribution of $25 to "The Human Fund" while you're at it...

 

[dampfnudel]

You can drag and drop ringtone files from outside of iTunes 12.7 onto your device in iTunes' sidebar, I've done it and it works fine so you don't need iTunes 12.6 for that.

I’ll have to try that on my old laptop first. I still have iTunes 12.6.2 on that laptop so I’ll just update to 12.7.x and try it. If it works, I’ll update my current laptop which has 12.6.3.

 

[Bniel71403]

I’ll have to try that on my old laptop first. I still have iTunes 12.6.2 on that laptop so I’ll just update to 12.7.x and try it. If it works, I’ll update my current laptop which has 12.6.3.

Yeah I did that and it worked me, it just puts the tones directly on the devices instead of using iTunes to manage it. It was driving me crazy because I set the Sherlock main titles as my wife’s ringtone and just could find anything in the tones that fit her personality

 

[blaichch]

For a start there is no consistent experience because different Android devices come riddled with bloatware and differing specifications. So you don't even know if the problems you speak of are Apple Music or just a really crappy Android device or a device running an old and crashtastic build.

I agree on that but I always had Nexus Phones with stock Android. With so many issues I had you can't blame Android in this case but the crappy Apple Music App for Android.

 

[BWhaler]

Anyone think HomePod is DOA?

Seems late, expensive, single purpose, only Apple ecosystem, and is burdened by Siri.

I am lucky enough to be able to afford a bunch of these for my home. I am an Apple Person—I’m here at Macrumors. And I literally can’t think of one reason to buy this, even for curiosities sake. Sonos with Alexa works amazing, and the sound is fantastic.

 

[Loge]

It would be shocking if it didn't work with iTunes Match.

Indeed it would, but it is already shocking that it doesn't work with locally stored (not from iTMS) music.

 

[rctlr]

What about some of us with 12.6.3 which kept the App Store and more importantly for me continued to give me the option of restoring my ringtones to a new iPhone (which is what I did with my new X three weeks ago) that were customized by a third-party app that would’ve been broken in 12.7.x? The third-party app was purchased on the App Store, not jail broken. I don’t need the App Store in iTunes, but I would like to keep my ringtones and the ability to restore them to a new iPhone in the future. Apple could also come out with its own ringtone customization app, but I guess it still wants to sell ringtones.

Plug in iPhone. Select Tones from the sidebar and drop them into the window. It will then sync them to your phone.

 

[ToM7]

And there's no clue on a new iTunes 13 version

 

[ScottyTheMenace]

Probably wishful thinking, but does anybody know if Apple has fixed the album/song rating debacle where the suggested ratings are treated as literal ratings in smart playlists (introduced in, I think, 12.4 and still present in 12.6.3)?

This is by far the most poorly conceived and executed feature I've ever seen. Not only is the concept absurd (Why does it follow that one 5 star song makes an album a 5 star album? Have they not listened to any soundtracks or 80s albums?) but the fact that the software doesn't distinguish between literal and suggested ratings is exceedingly sloppy. They can fix it by simply getting rid of the suggested rating altogether since it's absurd.

 

[Shirasaki]

Probably wishful thinking, but does anybody know if Apple has fixed the album/song rating debacle where the suggested ratings are treated as literal ratings in smart playlists (introduced in, I think, 12.4 and still present in 12.6.3)?

This is by far the most poorly conceived and executed feature I've ever seen. Not only is the concept absurd (Why does it follow that one 5 star song makes an album a 5 star album? Have they not listened to any soundtracks or 80s albums?) but the fact that the software doesn't distinguish between literal and suggested ratings is exceedingly sloppy. They can fix it by simply getting rid of the suggested rating altogether since it's absurd.

Apple has abandoned star rating altogether. If a new user don't have a rating before, the star rating option wont even come up. I doubt Apple will even bother fixing this "debacle".
But the difficulty of "loving a song" in iOS 11 also makes the music app experience absurd.

 

[ScottyTheMenace]

Apple has abandoned star rating altogether.

I hadn't realized this. I guess I won't ever be updating iTunes then.

Apple has lost its way badly. They used to make the complex simple. Now they just make simplistic eye candy.

 

[yurc]

This may be dumb question, but seriously i don't know too much about Homepod ripple outside there. From my quick searching, Homepod required iOS device to function.

I'm not subscribe to Apple Music. My music source was ALAC ripped and kept for years.
So, with this updates can I play my iTunes music library in my Mac to Homepod? Is this possible?
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The most interesting with iTunes is when they change the icon. I remember the previous one was red and quite nice

Still used it too, for replacing pig icon from Spek (some light software for quick checking spectrum)

 

[Cmd-Z]

Apple has abandoned star rating altogether. If a new user don't have a rating before, the star rating option wont even come up. I doubt Apple will even bother fixing this "debacle".
But the difficulty of "loving a song" in iOS 11 also makes the music app experience absurd.

Sorry that's not correct, star ratings for songs are alive and well in the latest iOS (for on-device music, not Apple Music). In iOS you do have to enable it (Settings>Music>Show Star Ratings) and then you can rate songs. Granted, the rating process is goofy as hell, you have to tap the "..." elipses, then tap "Rate Song", but it does work. Why you can't simply tap the artwork to bring this up is beyond me.
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Probably wishful thinking, but does anybody know if Apple has fixed the album/song rating debacle where the suggested ratings are treated as literal ratings in smart playlists (introduced in, I think, 12.4 and still present in 12.6.3)?

This is by far the most poorly conceived and executed feature I've ever seen. Not only is the concept absurd (Why does it follow that one 5 star song makes an album a 5 star album? Have they not listened to any soundtracks or 80s albums?) but the fact that the software doesn't distinguish between literal and suggested ratings is exceedingly sloppy. They can fix it by simply getting rid of the suggested rating altogether since it's absurd.

I would agree that "Album Rating" is a silly concept, but it does have limited use for me. I rate all my songs individually, but with a large library it is sometimes hard to find a "great album" to load up from iTunes.

I don't mind the concept so much, but Apple's implementation leaves a lot to be desired. Album Rating is supposed to be either (a) an average (gray star) rating for the album based on the ratings of individual songs, or (b) a hard-set (blue star) rating set by you, regardless of individual song ratings. What Apple continues to screw up in iTunes/iOS is that a hard-set blue Album Rating is (occasionally) applied without my doing. For any unrated songs on such an album, they "inherit" a rating based on the bogus Album Rating. What I've determined is that this happens only when I rate a song from my iOS device and sync back to iTunes -- but not always, and it happens to mp3's as well as AAC-ripped CDs and iTunes purchases. Song rating changes made in iTunes never seem to apply a blue Album Star rating, unless you intentionally do so.

I've submitted feedback to Apple for the last 2 years about this bug. For now I just review my Recently Played smart playlist and look for blue Album Rating stars (there shouldn't be any, I only expect the gray Album Ratings).

 

[ScottyTheMenace]

Album Rating is supposed to be either (a) an average (gray star) rating for the album based on the ratings of individual songs, or (b) a hard-set (blue star) rating set by you, regardless of individual song ratings. What Apple continues to screw up in iTunes/iOS is that a hard-set blue Album Rating is (occasionally) applied without my doing. For any unrated songs on such an album, they "inherit" a rating based on the bogus Album Rating. What I've determined is that this happens only when I rate a song from my iOS device and sync back to iTunes -- but not always

I see the same "hard blue star" problem, too. Very irritating.

My biggest beef with album ratings is not they exist (I'd actually really like to use it) but that the "suggested" ratings are treated by iTunes as explicit ratings, which makes no sense. If you have dozens of smart playlists based largely on song ratings like I do, this literally breaks these playlists. If I don't rate something, neither should iTunes. You either have to be super diligent and rate every song and every album or choose one or the other. I choose song ratings and then "Love" albums to great a "favorite albums" smart playlist.

 

[Arran]

So HomePod definitely will be something to watch. It has potential for those of us HomeKit loyalists. But with the limited info Apple is parsing out (why so stingy announcing all the things it can do outside of Apple Music and reading the news if it's such a "magical" product) it just doesn't seem like it's fully baked yet.

You know, I miss Steve's honesty.

He unashamedly described the early iterations of Apple TV as a "hobby". A lot of people ridiculed him for it, but he chose those words very carefully. He proactively got out in front of the detractors and completely neutralized any criticism. He knew how to set the right expectation for a new, unproven product.

I bought two model 1 "hobby" ATV's at some ridiculous price and had absolutely no regrets. My HomePod, OTOH, was returned after three weeks of mixed results. The sound was awesome, Siri was impressive, but HomeKit Hub wasn't even half-baked. Apple should never have listed it as a feature.

 

[Alan-in-CO]

What about some of us with 12.6.3 which kept the App Store and more importantly for me continued to give me the option of restoring my ringtones to a new iPhone (which is what I did with my new X three weeks ago) that were customized by a third-party app that would’ve been broken in 12.7.x? The third-party app was purchased on the App Store, not jail broken. I don’t need the App Store in iTunes, but I would like to keep my ringtones and the ability to restore them to a new iPhone in the future. Apple could also come out with its own ringtone customization app, but I guess it still wants to sell ringtones.

I'm in the same position, and it won't let me download the update. But, I think this is the update for keeping your apps. I've downloaded it, but haven't tried it. It's version 12.6.4. Hope this helps!

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208079