iTunes 4.5 Released

[JGowan]

why does the "Party Shuffle" have that "3D" blue bar over the currently playing song, and the Library doesn't???

hmmm... good point. It almost seem like they missed a spot.hmmm... good point. It almost seem like they missed a spot.

The only reason I can see is that it DEFINITIVELY shows what's been played with the greyed-out tracks above NOW PLAYING "3D" bar and the plain-jane blue bar is still available to highlight and make decisions about what to do with other songs yet to be played. I guess the song playing is the "most important" and garners the respect of 3D!

 

[JGowan]

Hijacking the Video Audio

I think something like AudioHijack should work too. ;-)

I used AudioHijack Pro tonight to 'jack 2 songs from the new Video section of the store. 'Jacked them as AIFFs then converted them to AAC128 in iTunes. Added the ID info and a pic from Amazon.

Looks and SOUNDS: GREAT!

 

[fpnc]

New iTunes "breaks" Roxio's Toast v6.05

I am sorry to report that it appears that the latest update to Apple's iTunes (v4.5) has affirmed one of the common criticisms directed towards the use of digital rights management (DRM). Specifically, the latest iTunes update has broken what was previously an Apple supported and I believe legal use of Apple's DRM-protected songs. After updating to the latest iTunes I can no longer create functional audio CDs from my iTunes purchases when using Roxio's Toast Titanium CD/DVD burning software. It is, however, still possible to burn music CDs using the iTunes Player, but the latest version of Toast (v6.0.5 release only one week ago on Apr. 23, 2004) can no longer create CDs from Apple's DRM-protected songs. The DRM-protected songs get burned to the disc but produce no sound when they are played (audio data seems to be zeroed). I'm running Mac OS X 10.3.3 with the latest QuickTime Pro v6.5.1 software.

The reason this is a significant development is that some users who may have previously relied upon the Toast software to create music CDs will no longer be able to convert their iTunes purchases into standard audio CDs. I'm sure that there are a fair number of iTunes Music store customers who have relied upon Toast to create CDs because Toast has generally supported a wider range of third-party CD burners than has Apple's iTunes software. Toast also supports advanced CD feature such as CD TEXT and the creation of Enhanced Audio CDs (audio CD compatible discs that also contains video and photos). The iTunes Player does not support any of these options and as I previously mentioned some users may have third-party CD burners that do not work with Apple's iTunes Player.

So, we now have a situation where a change in Apple's DRM has at least partially "broken" a user's access to his or her legally purchased music. I can only hope that Apple and/or Roxio can correct this problem without delay.

 

[dontmatter]

Well DAMN. I don't know about the rest of the world (this can't be a good representation of mac users, we're such maniacs here-and most of the world is windoze) but itunes only spread on windows on my campus when mytunes spread...a couple months afteer both came out. People only thought it was worth downoading software, reorganizing their library, etc. if they could use it for free music...and not the legal sharing, of course, but downloading. Now, no more.

On the one hand, I can't blame apple for covering their asses. On the other hand, the listserv has been full of VICIOUS emails about the topic, people asking how they can downgrade, etc. and it seems nobody is liking itunes any more for this, those who updated or those who can't now access their libraries. Likability to windows users is really important here, and it was mytunes that sold itunes. I hope this stuff is cracked soon, so itunes can keep it's spot as the top jukebox software on campus.

I'm seriously dissapointed, because I was so excited about this update, particularly party shuffle and apple lossless, all day long. Now.... I like it, b/c I have a nice full library and like the new features, but it's sad to see apple pissing more people off at once here than I think ever have been with computer stuff...and a good number of windows viruses have been going around campus. Oh well.

Anybody wanna make a bet on how long till a new version of mytunes/gettunes will be up and running?

 

[dontmatter]

Addendum

Does anybody know (and care to enlighten) how much it's going to take for mytunes/gettunes to run on 4.5? Could somebody explain how those programs worked on 4.2, and how they don't work on 4.5?

Just thinking that if it doesn't get hacked before summer vacation, itunes is going to lose a good bit of marketshare in the college arena.

 

[tny]

I am sorry to report that it appears that the latest update to Apple's iTunes (v4.5) has affirmed one of the common criticisms directed towards the use of digital rights management (DRM). Specifically, the latest iTunes update has broken what was previously an Apple supported and I believe legal use of Apple's DRM-protected songs. After updating to the latest iTunes I can no longer create functional audio CDs from my iTunes purchases when using Roxio's Toast Titanium CD/DVD burning software. It is, however, still possible to burn music CDs using the iTunes Player, but the latest version of Toast (v6.0.5 release only one week ago on Apr. 23, 2004) can no longer create CDs from Apple's DRM-protected songs. The DRM-protected songs get burned to the disc but produce no sound when they are played (audio data seems to be zeroed). I'm running Mac OS X 10.3.3 with the latest QuickTime Pro v6.5.1 software.

The reason this is a significant development is that some users who may have previously relied upon the Toast software to create music CDs will no longer be able to convert their iTunes purchases into standard audio CDs. I'm sure that there are a fair number of iTunes Music store customers who have relied upon Toast to create CDs because Toast has generally supported a wider range of third-party CD burners than has Apple's iTunes software. Toast also supports advanced CD feature such as CD TEXT and the creation of Enhanced Audio CDs (audio CD compatible discs that also contains video and photos). The iTunes Player does not support any of these options and as I previously mentioned some users may have third-party CD burners that do not work with Apple's iTunes Player.

So, we now have a situation where a change in Apple's DRM has at least partially "broken" a user's access to his or her legally purchased music. I can only hope that Apple and/or Roxio can correct this problem without delay.

1. You can burn regular audio CDs from iTunes (at least on the Mac, and since you're referring to "Toast," and Roxio's Windows software is "Easy CD Creator," I would assume you have a Mac). I have made CDs that way, and they work fine in standard consumer component audio CD players.

2. Roxio will probably post an update in a few days. [speculation]

 

[slow twitch]

First Generation iPoders left in the lurch?

Thrilled to finally see lossless encoding/playback in iTunes 4.5, I downloaded it and the new iPod update. I made Apple lossless tracks from some FLAC files I had (FLAC> AIFF> Apple Lossless) and tried dragging them into my iPod. Nothing. In frustration, I headed back to the Apple site and only then noticed that iPods without a dock will not handle the new lossless files.

Anybody know if there is any technological reason for this? Or is it simply that, after a mere 2 and a half years, Apple has consigned us 1st generation iPoders to the dustbin of history?

My 5Gig iPod, BTW, bought right after they came out, is still cruising along quite nicely, thank you, on its original battery. I don't mind sacrificing a bit of quality for portability (and, yes, my 43-year old ears CAN usually hear the difference), but I was all heated up by the prospects of lossless iPod playback.
((Yes, I know I can still listen to AIFFs on my iPod, but their size causes the sound to freeze occasionally for a second or two as the HD spins up. I hoped that the slightly smaller size of the lossless files might put an end to that problem. Guess I'll never know.))

 

[JFreak]

Anybody know if there is any technological reason for this?

pre-dock ipods have different operating system version than the dock models, and if i had to guess i'd say the dock models also have more powerful cpu. the lossless algorithm likely requires more powerful cpu than aac.

i can't see that as marketing decision.

 

[idkew]

another free song up:

new avril song

 

[1macker1]

How is it that itunes knows what songs i have on my computer to know to match it with the cover art and correct link to the music store. Isn't this some type of violation. It didnt ask could it read my files!

 

[Spades]

This doesn't seem very likely. It looks like that any attempt to convert a protected file using quicktime now results in a file with no audio. Roxio probably depended on quicktime to do the conversion, so I don't see how they can fix it. This new restriction in quicktime also means that you can't use protected files in iMovie, or any app that depended on quicktime for conversion for that matter.

I don't know if this is affecting myTunes/gettunes too, but if they were using quicktime, they're probably gone as well.

2. Roxio will probably post an update in a few days. [speculation]

 

[Mac Dummy]

Apple released iTunes 4.5 today.

The newest version of iTunes offers several new features.

- iMix - Share your taste. Publish your playlists
- Party Shuffle
- Printing - Creating Jewel case inserts
- Radio Charts - What's playing around the U.S.
- Movie trailers. Music Videos
- WAM - Convert WMA to AAC
- Apple Lossless - CD Quality Sound. Half the size.

iTunes now has over 700,000 songs in the iTunes Music Store.

I heard that now in iTunes 4.5 you can only burn a playlist to CD 7 times instead of ten and only non- copy protected WMA can be converted to AAC. That means no songs bought from Napster 2.0 or the Walmart music store can play in iTunes.

 

[Mac Dummy]

Downloaded it, some observations:

First thing I noticed... Every song / artist /album in your library has that arrow to the right of it - and if you click on it, it searches the music store for that song. Interesting... Option Click goes to it in your library

"Windows Media Player 9 or later must be installed to convert unprotected WMA files" -> PC only I guess.

Printing covers is pretty easy - File -> Print, it gives you a preview. I had a playlist with about 55 songs, and it shows the first 25 on the print and then "and 30 more..." Plus it prints "Printed with iTunes" at the bottom. It even has a bleed, crop and fold marks!

This party mode thing... I was hoping to just put iTunes in Party mode, and someone could double-click on a song and it would be added to an 'on-the-go' type playlist. Cause thats what most people do, just double click on it, cause they want it. What this does it pick random music from your choice of a source (any playlist or library) and will show 0-100 upcoming songs along with 0-100 already played songs. If you have those selected to something more than 0, and you delete something in the playlist, it just adds another. If you have it at 0, you have to add your own songs. there is an option to play higher rated songs more often.

I guess the point is that you can have it choose from a playlist or your library and see whats coming up, remove something if you don't like it, or rearrage it, all without disturbing any existing playlist.

iTMS - I was hoping that based on the long load time it would say "Your country is now supported" (Canada) but no - Just a long load time for the first time. the one free song a week is cool, but you still have to have an account of course.

The iMix allows anyone to publish a playlist to iTMS - and Steve already has a playlist that is rated 5 stars out of 5 with 100,000 votes, and so it is at the top. You have to have an account to vote on an iMix

Lastly the movie trailers are cool, its an easy way to see new trailers and browse them - except that they still remind you you are in a store and there are things to buy (soundtracks).

All in all a decent upgrade, but nothing spectacular in my books, the only feature I may use is the party shuffle.

Enjoy the new toy.

And as a PS. there is a new iPod update:

iPod Update 2004-04-28 supports all models of iPod and iPod mini introduced before April 28, 2004. This update is required to take advantage of new features in iTunes 4.5 and the iTunes Music Store.

Changes for iPod without a Dock connector
-Compatibility with iTunes 4.5 and the iTunes Music Store
-Improved playback performance

Changes for iPod with a Dock connector and iPod mini
-Compatibility with iTunes 4.5 and the iTunes Music Store
-Improved playback performance
-Support for the Apple Lossless Encoder, to enable compressed music encoding at high quality

Let the rumours begin "All models introduced before April 28, 2004" So what about the ones introduced after or on this date?

Microsoft makes a version of Windows Media Player 9 for Mac too. You can get it here. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/software/Macintosh/osx/default.aspx

 

[jmerk]

"stop being lazy..."

rower has posted the link for you, i did about 50 posts ago, as i am sure others have.

stop being lazy and read the thread.

idkew: not to get too acerbic but i DID read through many of the 10 pages of posts. i'm sorry that i missed yours but being that it didn't have a title, why would i have focussed on that post? i generally try and skim the posts and pick out things that are interesting or of value.
the fact is, i have a fairly good idea of what i'm doing and i wrongly assumed that any quicktime update would be on the quicktime/downloads page. i looked there and i also looked at support/downloads and found the new itunes update but not the quicktime update so i was confused and frustrated. i also ran software update numerous times to no avail. apparently, the obvious place to look is quicktime/products because that is intuitive...?
also, if you saw that i replied to "Porchland"'s post regarding something very specific in reference to Radiohead and iTunes, isn't it possible that i DO read posts and just missed the posts with the Quicktime link?

i guess that all of this brings up a good point about message boards...it would be great to be able to search "titles" of posts or bodies of posts for relevant information. since that is not the case, i'll have to rely on my ability to skim since i actually have to work while i'm at my job.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Microsoft makes a version of Windows Media Player 9 for Mac too. You can get it here. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/software/Macintosh/osx/default.aspx

Yes, MS makes a version of WMP for Mac OS, but have you read my earlier post about why WMA->AAC conversion is not possible on the Mac? If you haven't, look - you'll see that even having WMP 9 for the Mac isn't enough.

 

[Rower_CPU]

How is it that itunes knows what songs i have on my computer to know to match it with the cover art and correct link to the music store. Isn't this some type of violation. It didnt ask could it read my files!

If you have this box checked, then yes, you gave iTunes permission to connect to the internet.

 

[1macker1]

So this was going on with 4.2 but not as noticable. I thought it only went out and checked when you put in a cd. I give Safari and IE permission to connect to the internet, but not permission to read my files.

If you have this box checked, then yes, you gave iTunes permission to connect to the internet.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

So this was going on with 4.2 but not as noticable. I thought it only went out and checked when you put in a cd. This I give Safari and IE permission to connect to the internet, but not permission to read my files.

Yot forgot that iTunes doesn't go through Safari when it connects to the internet, just like Software Update. The permission is separate from Safari and IE. If you don't like the iTMS links or don't use the iTMS at all, you can turn them off in the preferences. There doesn't seem to be any (easy) way to block iTunes from making the links, though

 

[Wash!!]

You are to paranoid

Yot forgot that iTunes doesn't go through Safari when it connects to the internet, just like Software Update. The permission is separate from Safari and IE. If you don't like the iTMS links or don't use the iTMS at all, you can turn them off in the preferences. There doesn't seem to be any (easy) way to block iTunes from making the links, though

All itms does is check the playlist to see if the song you put there are in the itms library if is not then it exclude them from the list before publishing them, it has happen several times I have a lot of songs and albums that are not in the itms so if i put 20 songs it cuts them down to what ever songs they have...

Any way how did you think they were going to know if they have the song or not, call you up and ask you?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

All itms does is check the playlist to see if the song you put there are in the itms library if is not then it exclude them from the list before publishing them, it has happen several times I have a lot of songs and albums that are not in the itms so if i put 20 songs it cuts them down to what ever songs they have...

Any way how did you think they were going to know if they have the song or not, call you up and ask you?

I'm not the paranoid one (I don't even USE iTMS); I was just trying to help the poster I quoted. As it turns out, iTunes determines whether to put a link to the iTMS by your songs by checking to see if the song's ARTIST, not TITLE, is in the iTMS library. The links are useless to me because the artists of all my songs would never be found in the iTMS anyway - most of my music is from video games or downloaded off of http://www.modarchive.com/.

 

[slow twitch]

There doesn't seem to be any (easy) way to block iTunes from making the links, though

Try `Little Snitch` http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/
Great app!

 

[iMan]

Stripping DRM not possible

I heard someone say that Fairtunes and Playfair no longer works to strip the AACs of the DRM.. anyone to confirm this?

 

[themadchemist]

Downloaded it, some observations:

First thing I noticed... Every song / artist /album in your library has that arrow to the right of it - and if you click on it, it searches the music store for that song. Interesting... Option Click goes to it in your library

I hate this feature! Anyone know how to turn it off?!

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I hate this feature! Anyone know how to turn it off?!

It's annoying - there is a checkbox in the General section of iTunes preferences for these links; uncheck it and the links go away. Simple as that. (Of course, if you have the iTMS disabled in the music store tab, this particular checkbox is disabled, because changing its value would have no effect.)

 

[chabig]

How is it that itunes knows what songs i have on my computer to know to match it with the cover art...

It doesn't match cover art. The cover art is stored on your machine--it's part of the song file.