iLife, iTunes 5.0, Keynote 2.0

[mainstreetmark]

Apple could fill out an iTunes5 app by my feedback alone. I must have contributed like 10 so far. Here are some recent ones:

1. iTMS radio stations. No brainer.
2. Personal radio stations that can only be broadcast to one other computer (like you at the office, so you can listen to your own music). That shouldn't piss off RIAA
3. Implement that drilldown thing that iTMS has, so you can be listening to an artist, click an arrow, and be taken to the whole list of artists.
4. Allow your iTunes to control the songs coming out of your other iTunes, like the desktop machine connected to the stereo in the other room.
5. Ditch that silly BPM thing and use a "Slow" or "Fast" choice, so you could listen to "slow music" if you wanted.
6. Have sub-genres, that reveal with a disclosure triangle. Blues, with Blues:delta, Blues:slide guitar, Blues:chicago
7. Smart Playlists, that can reference other playlists, so I could make a playlist for "Drinking Songs", and then a Smart Playlist that plays Drinking Songs that haven't been played in the last 5 days.

 

[Hes Nikke]

an iTunes 5 mockup

here is a mockup i did a few months ago:

 

[switcheroo]

Re: I'm hoping to see support for Ogg Vorbis

Originally posted by jocknerd
but I'm not holding my breath.

It would also be nice to see iTunes for Linux but I know that ain't happening.

check out Rhythm Box, an iTunes clone. no iTMS but def the best music/playlist managment software on linux


and
EasyTAG for mp3 tag editing

 

[Macco]

mainstreetmark -
I have one item to add to your list: an "Edit" mode of iTunes where the whole window turns into a sort of spreadsheet, where the song info could be edited with a single click.

 

[mainstreetmark]

Originally posted by Macco
mainstreetmark -
I have one item to add to your list: an "Edit" mode of iTunes where the whole window turns into a sort of spreadsheet, where the song info could be edited with a single click.

Excel Spreadsheet style?

 

[mainstreetmark]

Originally posted by mainstreetmark
Apple could fill out an iTunes5 app by my feedback alone. I must have contributed like 10 so far. Here are some recent ones:

1. iTMS radio stations. No brainer.
2. Personal radio stations that can only be broadcast to one other computer (like you at the office, so you can listen to your own music). That shouldn't piss off RIAA
3. Implement that drilldown thing that iTMS has, so you can be listening to an artist, click an arrow, and be taken to the whole list of artists.
4. Allow your iTunes to control the songs coming out of your other iTunes, like the desktop machine connected to the stereo in the other room.
5. Ditch that silly BPM thing and use a "Slow" or "Fast" choice, so you could listen to "slow music" if you wanted.
6. Have sub-genres, that reveal with a disclosure triangle. Blues, with Blues:delta, Blues:slide guitar, Blues:chicago
7. Smart Playlists, that can reference other playlists, so I could make a playlist for "Drinking Songs", and then a Smart Playlist that plays Drinking Songs that haven't been played in the last 5 days.

Oh yeah!

8. Being able to print a jewel case sleeve! It knows the songs, lengths and cover art. Why not?

 

[sethypoo]

I wonder what Apple could possibly add to iTunes? The ability to upload files, like that Garage Band thing they patented so long ago? Who knows, but one thing is for sure, Apple will surprise us yet again!

 

[sethypoo]

Originally posted by mainstreetmark
Oh yeah!

8. Being able to print a jewel case sleeve! It knows the songs, lengths and cover art. Why not?

Oops, forgot to read that one. Lol, sorry! Being able to print CD jewel cases would be awesome. I've already sent feedback to Apple about letting us buy a album for, say, $13 or $14 (shipping included), letting us download the album, them sending us in the mail a jewel case with the album artwork and notes. This would, of course, make for a lot of mailing costs for Apple, but I think (emphasis on think) that they might be able to get the Big 5 recording labels to help them out. Heck, they could charge $14 (shipping included) and make a little more profit.

Just an idea.

 

[CMillerERAU]

Originally posted by alset
I hope they release iTunes 5 for Win and Mac at the same time. Apple needs to show Wintel users that they are not second-class citizens at iTMS. Just think how much it bugs us to see games six months after the PC version.

Dan

You know hell really froze over when apple releases iTunes 5 for Windows then waits 4 months to release it for Mac.

 

[ITR 81]

I would say new effects for the effect screen. Maybe way to add your own skins easier then whats currently out there. To me those would be nice add on's has I heard PC users asking for this as well.

 

[danielgrenell]

mmm, itunes 5, sounds sexy. i use keynote 1.1.1 now, i love it, i wonder what 2.0 will bring? will i have to pay for the upgrade?

 

[jcdenton]

Re: End of Appleworks?

Originally posted by ITR 81
You could call it something like Apple iWorks or something like that.

Nope, you couldn't -- Apple still needs the education market

iOffice, maybe.

 

[MOM]

Originally posted by JoeRadar
Word processor. Word processor. Word processor.

A long time ago Word for the Mac supported EPSF -- create an figure in Canvas, export it to EPSF, put it in Word, and get beautiful output on your printer.

Not anymore. Microsoft has decided to, for all practical purposes, kill support for EPSF and PDF.

Apple has partly corrected this with Keynote, now they need to give us basic Word Processor to replace MS Word.

(I have tried Nisus a the current AppleWorks, and they are lacking)

Yes, Yes, Yes. Both MS and Apple are to blame here. MS for what you mentioned. I just ran into this problem a few minutes ago. Can't copy and paste from Appleworks into powerpoint-only creates a mess. Can't import a pdf saved from Appleworks. (But, it works great in keynote).

Now its Apple's turn: Appleworks droped the EPSF export from the drawing program which left you no way to import into Word 2001 (or any other app) without turning the text into bitmap. Caused me all sorts of headaches with old files. Also, Appleworks won't import ClarisDraw. Here I am in OS10.3 and I still, even today, have ClarisDraw open to access old files to use in a presentation.

Apple, please do for Appleworks what you did with keynote. Please, Please.

 

[freddiecable]

G5 optimized iMovie, iDVD etc. I want a general speed increase!

and, I would like to be able to export DV-material from iMovie with "chapters" without export directly to iDVD...

 

[Phil Of Mac]

Re: End of Appleworks?

Originally posted by ITR 81
Next will probably be spreadsheet app and a database app.

Yeah, Apple doesn't make a database app already...

http://www.filemaker.com/

 

[backspinner]

1. songtexts!
2. spreadsheet program

About the spreadsheet: I think that this will be a safe route to expansion in the office arena. Keynote is a professional application that people are willing to pay for. It is also mostly a stand alone program, which documents you don't send all the time to other people. I need a spreadsheet program for my work a lot, also as a stand alone program for my own calculations and graphs. They could develop that safe without real excell compatibility. Actually, I don't think that reading excell files is as hard as reading word files. As long as they get the numbers and calculation correct it is already a good job.

 

[GregA]

Originally posted by mainstreetmark
1. iTMS radio stations. No brainer.
2. Personal radio stations that can only be broadcast to one other computer (like you at the office, so you can listen to your own music). That shouldn't piss off RIAA
4. Allow your iTunes to control the songs coming out of your other iTunes, like the desktop machine connected to the stereo in the other room.

#1 - I don't use the radio stations built into iTunes so maybe I don't understand... what's the difference between iTunes Radio and what you're suggesting?

#2 - interesting. On a related note, iSync brings 2 macs pretty close together. A single address book, common Safari bookmarks, shared documents, common calendar. Why not sync iTunes?

I know it's not feasible via .Mac servers - but to the user it could look the same, look "synced" (maybe sync the playlists and song names). Then stream the audio (if the song isn't available locally) between machines, which iTunes 4.0 originally could do.

#4 - nice idea. It would also be nice to have 2 devices set to play simultaneously.

I do like the rumour of "loans". email a friend saying "you've got to hear this new song it's great" and send them a copy that lasts a few plays.

How about downloading music video clips?

 

[rdowns]

Re: Pay

Originally posted by fuge
Does anybody think the rumored upgrades will cost anything?

I don't think that would go over very well in the Mac community. Apple is still smarting over the free iTools to .Mac switch.

If Apple does decide to charge, I'd like to see a .Mac professional that costs a bit more than the current fee and includes free iLife upgrades. Of course, that would force Apple to upgrade them annually.

 

[Token]

word processor

I wonder why Apple would choose to change the name of it's word processor?

1. Because it will not be based on the same code base.
2. Because it will be a single app, not an office 'suite' like Appleworks.
3. The name stinks from a marketing perspective. It will rather be something like iWord/iWrite or 'Apple Final Word' ;-)

More 'probably facts':
It will not be free, now that all cocoa apps can use word documents. Maybe it will even be marketed as a 'Pro' app?
It will integrate nicely with pdf, keynote, services, etc.
It will include 'standard' Word features for professional writers, like footnotes, headlines, and probably some 'new' tricks..
It will be fast and smooth compared to MS Word.

 

[GregA]

Re: word processor

Originally posted by Token
1. Because it will not be based on the same code base.
2. Because it will be a single app, not an office 'suite' like Appleworks.
3. the name stinks from a marketing perspective. I will rather be something like iWord/iWrite or 'Apple Final Word' ;-)

More 'probably facts':
It will not be free <snip> Maybe it will even be marketed as a 'Pro' app?
It will integrate nicely with pdf, keynote, services, etc.

You don't think they'll do a bundle - with "KeyNote, FileMaker, & Final Word"? (love the name! the name AppleWorks is outdated)

Whatever they do it has to work well with MS Word docs (does the new reader in Panther work well?). Though I know MS won't try to help - I hope they work with all the other word programs to come up with a common file format (OpenOffice, Lotus WordPro, WordPerfect).

Hopefully their word processor will do web pages, I'd love it to do web sites.

 

[backspinner]

Re: word processor

Originally posted by Token
It will be fast and smooth compared to MS Word.

It will let you save documents with more than 30 characters in the file name

 

[mainstreetmark]

Originally posted by GregAussie
#1 - I don't use the radio stations built into iTunes so maybe I don't understand... what's the difference between iTunes Radio and what you're suggesting?

Apple has digital versions of all songs it sells, obviously. It also has sales data. So, for each genre, you could have a "Top Sellers" station, a "Newest" station and a "Staff Picks" station, each with a Buy link.

#2 - interesting. On a related note, iSync brings 2 macs pretty close together. A single address book, common Safari bookmarks, shared documents, common calendar. Why not sync iTunes?

The size of the data involved? My library crossed 10 Gigabytes today - I wouldn't want the same 10G on another mac, potentially, especially if the macs are several miles appart. That SHOULD be iPods job, but I don't have one.

 

[mainstreetmark]

Re: Re: word processor

Originally posted by GregAussie


Hopefully their word processor will do web pages, I'd love it to do web sites.

That whole concept leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I've had to clean up Word-produced HTML, which is the WORST HTML you can ever run across. DreamWeaver even includes a program to remove all that crappy HTML.

If Apple has a "Save as HTML...", it better be standard stuff.

 

[JoeRadar]

Re: Re: word processor

Originally posted by GregAussie
Whatever they do it has to work well with MS Word docs ... Though I know MS won't try to help

One of the major problems with staying compatible with Word is that you need to be bug-for-bug compatible as well.

For example, Word supports captions for figures and the ability for figures to float to a position on the page (e.g., top of the page), both important features for professional papers, reports, etc. But Word cannot support (and often crashes when) using both of these features together.

If Apple did supported this correctly, then Apple would break MS Word compatibility.

 

[JoeRadar]

Re: Re: word processor

Originally posted by GregAussie
I hope they work with all the other word programs to come up with a common file format (OpenOffice, Lotus WordPro, WordPerfect).

I think this would be critical. The old troff and TeX stuff was great -- open, well documented standards.

Although, today I suspect a format would be based on XML. (Apple went this way with Keynote).

Hopefully their word processor will do web pages, I'd love it to do web sites.

A new XML format for word processing documents could be a superset of XHTML. You would inherit a lot of existing tools, such as CSS editors; organizations could even use one set of CSS standards for both web and document publishing, ensuring a consistent look.

And with a little more work, the word processor could output clean XHTML that closely mirrored your original document.

With virtually every country other than the US embracing open standards (and open source) as official policy, I think the time is right to break with the Word-standard format.