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Genius Recommendations Return in Renamed 'iTunes Sidebar'

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Apr 12, 2001
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With the release of iTunes 10.0.1 in late September, Apple unveiled the Ping Sidebar, offering users the ability to experience deeper integration between their music libraries and Apple's music-focused social network launched in iTunes 10. The new functionality did, however, do away with the earlier "Genius Sidebar" that had offered users song recommendations based on items in their own libraries.

As noted by MacStories, Apple late last week quietly tweaked the sidebar yet again in an attempt to offer the best of both worlds, offering both Ping and Genius functionalities in a renamed "iTunes Sidebar".


110300-itunes_sidebar.jpg


The Ping dropdown menu next to each song in users' libraries also continues to be offered, allowing users easy access to the service's functions and artist profiles.

The new iTunes Sidebar does not requires a revised version of iTunes 10 delivered via software update, as the sidebar's contents are loaded entirely from Apple's servers.

Article Link: Genius Recommendations Return in Renamed 'iTunes Sidebar'
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/11/01/genius-recommendations-return-in-renamed-itunes-sidebar/
I feel bad for the people that used the Genius Sidebar extensively but don't want anything to do with Ping. They are still screwed no matter what. It seems Apple would rather push Ping than to acknowledge that users might not want to participate in it and make it optional.
 
Alas, Genius still has no recommendations for my new copy of Taylor Swift's "Speak Now," which I confess I did buy from Amazon MP3 instead of iTunes. (Seriosuly, it was something like $4 vs $14. Did I have a choice?) Still, it can find my tracks in the iTunes store, so you'd think it'd be able to get Genius recommendations for them unless there just aren't any for some reason...

Anyway, what I'm saying is that this is slightly nicer than the previous arrangement while slightly less nice than the one before that, especially if you don't use Ping, and Genius would be more useful if it did a better job of finding my music. Does anyone know what data it looks at? Do I need to set the year and number of tracks and everything to be the exact same? (If so, this would be easier if we could still see this information in the store; alas "Get Info" disappeared when the store went all Web-looking.)
 
KnightWRX said:
I feel bad for the people that used the Genius Sidebar extensively but don't want anything to do with Ping. They are still screwed no matter what. It seems Apple would rather push Ping than to acknowledge that users might not want to participate in it and make it optional.
Click to expand...

Ah well...

But its better than nothing i suppose.

I hate to to point out the negative in the positive but anyone else notice the top line above 'iTunes Sidebar' is waaaaay too dark in comparison to the rest of iTunes' interface... looks a little sloppy IMHO.
 
The genius never could advise me to any song of one of my music genres.
(Game music (Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Jak and Daxter, ...), Stepmania music, Goa and Dance, but the kind you find with artists ParagonX9, Zero-Bass and Kr1z on newgrounds.com)

So I don't really care about the renaming.
 
Disable Ping?

Genius have never recommended me something worthwhile. Also I might be the alien here but I do not like Ping and it drives me crazy that I can't remove it from the iTunes store sidebar.
 
I have Ping turned off. Do I need to have it on to use Genius? The icon is there to start Genius but it is grayed out and not selectable.
 
The Genius sidebar was amusing but I had forgotten about it till they took it away. The last thread showed me how to get rid of the sidebar and get the arrow buttons back and directed to my library by default. I think I will just leave things as they are. Thank you Terminal and this forum!
 
Remove those bloody annoying Ping buttons next to each track:
In Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.itunes hide-ping-dropdown -bool YES

Press return, then quit and relaunch iTunes.
 
Hallelujah! I have found more good new music through the iTunes Sidebar recommendations than Ping could/would ever do. Thank you Apple!!!!!
 
I don't really care about the news, but Pearl Jam, SoundGarden, and Mad Season are all awesome!
 
MacRumors said:
The new iTunes Sidebar does not requires a revised version of iTunes 10 delivered via software update, as the sidebar's contents are loaded entirely from Apple's servers.
Click to expand...

It is pronounced, "does not require a revised version". ;)
 
Im glad that this is back, I too found alot of good music I wouldn't have even imagined I would like because of genious recommendations.
 
meh, both things don't work too good anyways, so I don't care for them....
 
MrSmith said:
Remove those bloody annoying Ping buttons next to each track:
In Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.itunes hide-ping-dropdown -bool YES

Press return, then quit and relaunch iTunes.
Click to expand...

This is the most useful thing I've ever taken from these forums. Thank you so much.
 
MacRumors said:
The Ping dropdown menu next to each song in users' libraries also continues to be offered, allowing users easy access to the service's functions and artist profiles.
Click to expand...

Any way to turn this stupid thing off? I'm not using ping and I don't want to even see any mention of it.

And it looks like this new menu replaced the old arrow button that used to be there - is there any way to get from an individual file to that artist (or album or whatever) in either the store or in the local library? I used that feature all the time, is it really gone?

EDIT: Thanks for the teminal command to get rid of the ping button. Someone mentioned a way to turn the old arrow button back on (and have it default to local library!). Could someone repost that or link to it?
 
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