iTunes 7 is here!

[72930]

I havent read all of the gazillion replies to this, but of the few I have, my favourite new feature has not been mentioned; You can now burn to DVD as well as CD. By the way, i love the new interface, but do not like CoverFlow view. Also, does anyone know the new abbreviation because iTS looks rubbish against iTMS, but thats only my opinion, and I am a switcher, so I doubt I count for much. The new (or very old-like) icon is growing on me, at first I hated it but now I'm not so sure, now most of my dock has blue in it: finder, mail, iChat, iTunes, Microsoft messenger, iMovie, iDVD, Quicktime, Pages (ish), Keynote (kinda), Skype, Acqlite and Word.

 

[Axeon]

I wonder if Apple is trying to streamline the look of the consumer-Mac apps using the color blue. Finder, Mail.app, Safari, iTunes, iDVD, iMovie, Quicktime, and Spotlight are all blue now. Only iWork and iPhoto aren't.

 

[balamw]

I havent read all of the gazillion replies to this, but of the few I have, my favourite new feature has not been mentioned; You can now burn to DVD as well as CD.

I've burned plenty of data DVDs from iTunes 6. That's how I back up and also how I archive podcasts.

B

 

[Project]

Wow, you can drag the COVERFLOW artwork to your iPod to add it, or to playlists etc. All the associated tracks with that artwork get added.

ITs these small little details that keep me loving iTunes.

 

[milo]

Weird. Here's what I get for Shrek 2.

That is strange, especially since I also have shrek 2 and it gave me the right one.

One bummer about 7, and it looks intentional on Apple's part - they took out the option for shuffles "Keep this iPod in the source list". Not huge, but still annoying since that was a useful feature and now there's no way to tweak the list or even see what's on your shuffle from the mac when it's not plugged in.

 

[Jetson]

This already exists. Check 'Get Info' and turn on 'gapless album' this is distinct from iTunes ability to recognise which tracks should play as gapless.

Thanks bluejacket!

I tried your tip and it works great

 

[bosrs1]

How do you disable the "mini store" in iTunes 7? The little option button they used to have is gone...

 

[zen]

How do you disable the "mini store" in iTunes 7? The little option button they used to have is gone...

View menu > Show/Hide ministore.

Took me ages to find it - I wanted to turn it on so I could check my library against the iTMS to make sure the artwork downloads were working!

Shame some of the buttons have done - took me ages, again, to figure out where the burn CD button had gone!

 

[balamw]

One bummer about 7, and it looks intentional on Apple's part - they took out the option for shuffles "Keep this iPod in the source list". Not huge, but still annoying since that was a useful feature and now there's no way to tweak the list or even see what's on your shuffle from the mac when it's not plugged in.

Yeah, I was actually hoping they'd extend that feature to the larger 'Pods, I can never remember what I sync to my wife's Mini and she rarely syncs it, so I keep forgetting to add certain tracks she wants to her playlists...

Not a big deal for Shrek in particular for me since I downloaded the artwork at home from the old website, but the copy I had at work didn't have any artwork...

B

 

[powerbook911]

I must say that iTunes 7 is making me enjoy my music more than ever.

I find the new interface fantastic. Furthermore, the speed of the program has improved incredibly. I couldn't be happier. iTunes 7 is a nice treat.

 

[A.T.]

Slow Importing

Is anyone else experiencing problems when importing a CD into iTunes 7? I now takes over an hour to import a 50 minutes CD. It's driving me crazy.

A

 

[MacinDoc]

Is anyone else experiencing problems when importing a CD into iTunes 7? I now takes over an hour to import a 50 minutes CD. It's driving me crazy.

A

Chances are, there's a scratch or smudge on your CD if it's taking that long. Take the CD out of the drive and have a look.

 

[DMann]

Aqua

Sigh. I don't know why I bothered downloading this -- I should have known by now that every new iTunes update consists of useless eye candy, a few nice but nonessential (for me) improvements, an uglier interface, and a whole lot of new hassles. I thought I was safe by saving iTunes 6 apart so I'd have it to go back to if necessary, but now it sounds like even that might be a hassle because of library changes?

The video playback is totally screwed for me. First of all, I have no actual movie-movies in iTunes and never will. I have maybe a dozen TV shows, most of which are freebies, and I never watch any of them more than once. The videos that I do watch are video podcasts and music videos. None of the latter have been downloaded from iTunes -- most are WMVs converted to MOVs, and still mislabeled because iTunes automatically assigns them as movies and I haven't yet manually relabeled them all as music videos.

So, in iTunes 6, I could listen to my morning playlist, which alternates news podcasts with songs. Some of these are videos, some aren't. A track would come on and go to full screen, so I can watch it while still wandering about the house getting ready for the day. If I needed to do something on the computer, all I had to do was click anywhere on the screen, the video would shrink into the artwork pane but keep playing, I could do whatever, then click on the button to make it go back to full screen.

Now, when a video goes to full screen, it has that ugly slider plastered over it, a slider that I'm not going to use for anything under half an hour, which is most of my videos. To get my screen back, I have to click once to get back the slider if it's already faded (which it doesn't do quickly enough), then click again specifically in the little box on the slider. Once the video has shrunk, it DOESN'T KEEP PLAYING. Only the audio does, the video doesn't. Maybe it's too hard for the Apple guys, but I for one am perfectly capable of watching a video and fiddling with my to-do list at the same time when they're two inches apart on my screen -- there is no reason to lose the video feed. And when I'm done, it now takes two clicks instead of one to get back to full screen.

Please, please someone tell me there's a way around these annoyances.

Please, bring back Aqua!

 

[A.T.]

Re Slow imports

It's been happening with every CD I've tried to import since upgrading. There are quite a few experiencing the same thing, as I checked the Apple iTunes discussion forum.

The last CD I imported took an hour and a half!

 

[DMann]

Bring back Aqua

i didnt like it too much either.... the first thing i saw whas the iPod window, and to me it just looked like the screenshot of a peecee program.
though there may be more options, and their layout seems to be easily understood, it looks a little crowded....
dont like too much of the colors used - the variations of grays.
i just think that the look of things look like as if the designers got lazy with their job.
I'm sure, though, that i'll get used to this change, and will eventually grow to like it, but for the time being, i dont like it too much =/

edit: thnx, balamw.

by the way, i dont like the icon either. they went back to how it was in the old days. ugh!

Please, bring back Aqua - more elegant, and provides the feel of 3D.
Why regress to mediocre flatness when we have OS X and Core Graphics?

 

[MacinDoc]

It's been happening with every CD I've tried to import since upgrading. There are quite a few experiencing the same thing, as I checked the Apple iTunes discussion forum.

The last CD I imported took an hour and a half!

That's strange, it's importing at 10-12X speed on my iMac.

 

[MacinDoc]

Please, bring back Aqua - more elegant, and provides the feel of 3D.
Why regress to mediocre flatness when we have OS X and Core Graphics?

Yes, the icons and scroll bars in iTunes 7 are remarkably...Windows-like!!!

 

[DMann]

I'm with you. The new iTunes looks so dreary. It makes me tetchy.

Why reinvent the wheel? Aqua GUI is superior!

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, the new interface looks nice! As for this being a sneak peak of Leopard, I have to admit it....compared to the new glass UI in Vista....Im kinda diggin the glass interface over this.

Flat vs. 3D elegance!

Before:

Steve Jobs introduces OS X and announces that the all of the buttons and controls in OS X look so good, you'll want to walk up to the screen and lick it. (Seriously, that's what he said).

After:

Steve Jobs announces iTunes 7 and after seeing the buttons and controls, I want to walk up to my screen and hurl.

And why, oh why was the visualizer button removed? Did it look...too good?

This new GUI is FAR from lickable, let alone likeable.

Look at the jaggies on the itunes 7 icon when you apple-tab. Bleah. Did they switch graphic designers or what?

What ever happened to the lush, high-end graphics we've so become
accustomed to?

I hate it. Gimme back my iTunes 6

At least give us a choice in appearance prefs to return to
iTunes 6 themes.

We're not the only ones who think so.

Dissecting iTunes

Why must we humor XP? Bring back Aqua.

I like the features iTunes 7 offers, but the look of iTunes 6. I'm also interested in the answer to iGary's question.

The look of iTunes 6 far surpasses the chinciness of 7.

IMO the new sliders fit better with the understated Tiger Apple menu icon, Spotlight icon etc. The traditional bright Aqua look began disappearing from OS X when Tiger was released. In fact, if you take away the obligitory red/yellow/green window controls, there isn't much of the early Aqua-ness left in iTunes 7.

Personally, I like it. I remember being disappointed when the iTunes 6 gunmetal interface was released, moving away completely from the brushed metal theme. But I recently used iTunes 4 on a friends PowerBook, and it looked absolutely hideous!

True, the brushed metal was hideous indeed, but the 3D elegance
and motion of Aqua sliders is much more attractive and pleasing
to the palate IMHO.

I don't like the GUI either. I like my shiny blue "pill" scrollers. Gunmetal makes it look like a linux program. The buttons have lost their shine. The flip catalogue of albums is great, though. Only I've lost some of my artwork.

I hope leopard doesn't unify this theme into all of the iLife apps.

Please, no! Bring back the GUI which separates OS X from the rest.

WTF have they done?? I think I'm going to overwrite the new control buttons with the old ones.

Can you do that easily with hacking the @#$#@ out of it??

ugghhh. You can call it whining. I call it telling it like it is. Before and after.

Love the 3d Aqua crystal reflection on the buttons.
The flat and fuzzy look is fine for Linux... bring
back the Aqua elegance.

Right on. You can tell at a glance, with the old style, that the FWD and REW buttons are not being used, and all the buttons are easier to see, which is the point of having buttons in a visual interface in the first place.

Function and beauty all at once.... no reason to compromise.

For gods sake, what a bunch of whiners.

It's a neat sleek user interface and I really like the changes. It looks less cluttered, and more importantly easier to use. Everything has nice clear spacing - and the move away from Aqua which has been with us forever is NOT a bad thing.

Aqua looks a little outdated now, and I like the fact that Apple are experimenting with new design ideas. I hope iTunes is the template that affects the rest of the OS.

Aqua is far from being outdated. It offers 3D elegance in a flat
environment, pleasing to the eye, and functional to a greater degree.
At teh very least, give us a choice.

iTunes 7 is ugly.

And so is its icon.

OOOOgly without Aqua.

The graphics aren't that bad aside from the grey scroll bars. I do miss the equalizer button tho.

Flat, grey, and lifeless.

 

[toughboy]

Again as I stated before... Apple is really starting to dabble in the 3D interface. The album art is a good example of this. Granted its a rip off of someone else's idea...No idea of the name of the app but I was playing around with it a few months back that did exactly this. *shrugs* Whatever. It makes me wonder if there is any serious GUI updates for 10.5 that we have yet to see.

Apple didn't "rip off" anything.. They paid an intellectual property owner for its work and bought it.. Google "cover flow" and see yourself..

 

[inlimbo]

I'm sorry for your problems and I'm not saying iTunes 7 does not have any bugs or couldn't do with some fixes: I'm just debating the validity of an article that brands the update "a lemon" on the basis of the sentence I quoted which is statistically and by pure logic simply untrue.

This said, my videos would neither play nor import until I updated Quicktime to 7.1.3: after the update everything is very smooth and playback is way better than the last version.

The bit about multiple libraries is very misleading on Apple's part: you cannot have multiple libraries and span them across different drives. Each library needs to reside on a single drive and, as other posters have explained, you need to quit and relaunch to change library. Which makes this a non-feature IMHO.

Thanks Synapple! I installed the latest QuickTime update and that fixed my importing problem.

I agree. I think it is very misleading re multiple libraries.

Apple didn't "rip off" anything.. They paid an intellectual property owner for its work and bought it.. Google "cover flow" and see yourself..

How much do you think they paid for that? I guess it made that software developer a pretty penny

 

[Kashchei]

I apologize if someone has already made this point, but is anyone else bothered by initial "Loading iTunes Library" routine that occurs after starting the program? I have around 60 Gb of music in my library and loading this library takes a bit of time. iTunes 6 didn't do this, so this new update seems to be a step backwards in at least one respect.

 

[MacinDoc]

Why reinvent the wheel? Aqua GUI is superior!



Flat vs. 3D elegance!



This new GUI is FAR from lickable, let alone likeable.



What ever happened to the lush, high-end graphics we've so become
accustomed to?



At least give us a choice in appearance prefs to return to
iTunes 6 themes.



Why must we humor XP? Bring back Aqua.



The look of iTunes 6 far surpasses the chinciness of 7.



True, the brushed metal was hideous indeed, but the 3D elegance
and motion of Aqua sliders is much more attractive and pleasing
to the palate IMHO.



Please, no! Bring back the GUI which separates OS X from the rest.



Can you do that easily with hacking the @#$#@ out of it??



Love the 3d Aqua crystal reflection on the buttons.
The flat and fuzzy look is fine for Linux... bring
back the Aqua elegance.



Function and beauty all at once.... no reason to compromise.



Aqua is far from being outdated. It offers 3D elegance in a flat
environment, pleasing to the eye, and functional to a greater degree.
At teh very least, give us a choice.



OOOOgly without Aqua.



Flat, grey, and lifeless.

Trying to break the record for most quotes in a single post?
Seriously, though, I hate the icons and scroll bars, but at least the iTunes icon itself looks nice...

 

[autrefois]

does anyone know the new abbreviation because iTS looks rubbish against iTMS, but thats only my opinion

Good question. iTS won't work as well, it's like the word its/it's. iS wouldn't work either IMO.

One could argue for iTMMS, iTunes Music & Movies Store, but apparently Apple did not think this would sound good.

I think we should keep calling it iTMS!!

 

[Don't panic]

Good question. iTS won't work as well, it's like the word its/it's. iS wouldn't work either IMO.

One could argue for iTMMS, iTunes Music & Movies Store, but apparently Apple did not think this would sound good.

I think we should keep calling it iTMS!!

as in iTunes Media Store?

 

[fetchmebeers]

Help

A bit off topic, but does anyone know if search function is compatible with the 'old' 5gen ipod video?

After upgrading to ipod software version 1.2, I've been able to enjoy most of the features that I thought to be only compatible with the new 5gens including seamless music playing, faster scrolling, and a slight change in font.... and stuff.

But what about search function? Does the new software 1.2 provide that function as well?

Well at first I thought not, but while I was frantically scrolling all the way from top to bottom I noticed some random alphabets popping up intermittently; like the letter P, A and sometimes random numbers(if I remember correctly, it was a combination of the figure 1,2,3...)... and since I only recently purchased this old 5gen, I'm not really sure if this is a hopeful sign of the existence of search function of any sort or these kind of random appearance of words happened before I updated to 1.2 as well....

not sure on that one, and also cannot really say that I understand what those random letters meant.... they didn't do anything in effect, rather they just popped up out of nowhere and merely disappeared within a 1-2 second period; I tried to revive it by scrolling again, but it didn't happen soon, it was a day or to later that I again spotted those random letters....

So anyone, care to help this poor n00b out?? Thanks in advance!