I believe the point was getting at why hasn't the software always been re-optimized as new features have been added.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iTunes 8.1 Now Available for Download
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I believe the point was getting at why hasn't the software always been re-optimized as new features have been added.
Jayomat
macrumors 6502a
SeaFox
macrumors 68030
I don't think there's such thing as "lossless" pre-recorded music. Every medium has it's dynamic range and every recording device has it's limitations. It is impossible to get a recording of a performance that is equal to your ear hearing it live.
It's not. It's called hype. And making up for lack of many new features. I think iTunes is at a point where it's almost "done". Except for responsiveness and bug fixes the program is complete. People are complaining about "bloat" in iTunes 8, that's Apple trying to find a way to get you to upgrade to the next version when there really is no big reason to anymore. iTunes does what it's supposed to do at its core (play music files and transfer them to and from iPods/Phones) very well. So Apple has resorted to adding rather dumb features (cover art grid view? WMP11 had it and Apple was telling us Cover Flow was better), and renaming and trying to spice up existing features (like "Party Shuffle" = "iTunes DJ"). Party Shuffle itself is a rather hacked "feature". I had a Smart Playlist that did the same thing but better before it came along.
Does iTunes need anything else? Yes. But not those things Apple is adding. It needs better video playback features, like support for subtitles for crying out loud, that goes for iPods/iPhones, too. Support for more media formats/containers (classic Apple "NIH" syndrome there). If they wanted people to realize we're not in the MP3 player storage Dark Ages anymore (like when the iPod first came out) they could have just upped the default Import bitrate. No need to take a pre-existing set of settings and give them a new name and try to raise it to a feature bullet-point.
It's hype, kid. 😉
Can anyone tell me if Apple restored the ability to hide those damn little arrows that show up on your library on every column and take you to the iTMS? In version 7 you could turn them off, but in version 8 the only way to do it was to disable the iTMS completely from the Parental Controls.
Jayomat
macrumors 6502a
Morod
macrumors 68000
See here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_bitrate
Short answer: Stick with Apple lossless if you can.
Morod
kas23
macrumors 603
VBR is a way to make an mp3 file smaller, but still maintain a high quality of sound. In contrast to CBR, the kbps changes during the song that has been encoded using a VBR. The VBR will use a higher kbps on particular complex parts of a song, while dropping the bit rate during simple parts of a song (like silence). For example, a 320 kbps constant bit rate song with be 320 kbps even during relatively silent parts of a song. Some people think that is wasteful, so a VBR will drop the kbps during these parts. In effect, you get a smaller file size, or as some put it, a higher ratio of quality to size. The actual sound quality between a VBR and a CBR is supposed to be humanly unperceivable.
cecemf
macrumors regular
Sounds great thanks, but the changes of rates do it create a compatibility problem with hardware players ? (PS3, Media boxes)
Do I have to reboot for this version too?
I swear, when I switched to Mac it was because I didn't have to reboot every damn day.. yet I have yet to get a recent update that didn't require me to reboot and the last I downloaded before the recent Airport updates was an iTunes update that required a reboot.
I swear, when I switched to Mac it was because I didn't have to reboot every damn day.. yet I have yet to get a recent update that didn't require me to reboot and the last I downloaded before the recent Airport updates was an iTunes update that required a reboot.
Morod
macrumors 68000
Is this a serious post - of course coding can always be improved. Everything gets better in time - there is always room for improvement and tweaks. If we waiting for software to be utterly perfect it would never, ever get released.
podiki
macrumors regular
No, still Carbon, although there are some new Cocoa classes for handling Cocoa windows in the app that weren't there in 8.0.X, so they must be using some new Cocoa features somewhere.
Also there is a new backend process called iTunesAUSHelper.
I disagree. There is plenty of room for improvement.
Not a "dumb" feature
Party Shuffle ≠ iTunes DJ
Agreed
No, it isn't. Party Shuffle ≠ iTunes DJ
THANK YOU APPLE!!!!!
i have a very large itunes library. 40K+ songs. I used to be a DJ and about 7 years ago converted everything I own to high bitrate mp3s, at least 192 full stereo, most 256. We're talking roughly 1500 CDs. ever since itunes 7, loading my library has been abysmally slow. every search action takes forever. 8.1 has finally answered my prayers and has loaded significantly faster! this is great!!!!
here's a few informal benchmarks i tried:
time from clicking in the dock to library window showing:
8.0= 20.3 seconds
8.1= 7.2 seconds
search results for "Nine Slip" as a shortcut for Nine Inch Nails's The Slip
(this was tested by typing out the query in text edit and then pasting it into itunes' search box)
8.0= 2.9 seconds
8.1= 1.1 seconds
VERY satisfied with this upgrade. so far no issues or problems.
i have a very large itunes library. 40K+ songs. I used to be a DJ and about 7 years ago converted everything I own to high bitrate mp3s, at least 192 full stereo, most 256. We're talking roughly 1500 CDs. ever since itunes 7, loading my library has been abysmally slow. every search action takes forever. 8.1 has finally answered my prayers and has loaded significantly faster! this is great!!!!
here's a few informal benchmarks i tried:
time from clicking in the dock to library window showing:
8.0= 20.3 seconds
8.1= 7.2 seconds
search results for "Nine Slip" as a shortcut for Nine Inch Nails's The Slip
(this was tested by typing out the query in text edit and then pasting it into itunes' search box)
8.0= 2.9 seconds
8.1= 1.1 seconds
VERY satisfied with this upgrade. so far no issues or problems.
Snow Leopard will have a default gamma of 2.2 instead of 1.8, so it looks like they're making everything lighter to compensate for that.TuffLuffJimmy said:
Also, the speed increase is probably indicative of what's to come in Snow Leopard.
Optimizing mature code = hard
Optimizing software and improving algorithms is a science and an art. If it weren't, OS 10.0 would run as fast as Tiger on the same hardware (It doesn't). I suspect this speedup is part of the optimization efforts going on in Snow Leopard. I may be weird, but even with few new features, I'm more excited about Snow Leopard's arrival than I was about Leopard's.
Optimizing software and improving algorithms is a science and an art. If it weren't, OS 10.0 would run as fast as Tiger on the same hardware (It doesn't). I suspect this speedup is part of the optimization efforts going on in Snow Leopard. I may be weird, but even with few new features, I'm more excited about Snow Leopard's arrival than I was about Leopard's.
hellomoto4
macrumors 6502a
Except unlike you, not everyone listens to all their music while sitting in front of the computer all the time. Some people actually leave their cave on occasion 😉 ...and at 20-30mb per song... Well, for any on the go use, frankly that's a joke.
haravikk
macrumors 65832
Was improved performance not meant to be one of the additions as well? Anyone noticed if syncing with their iPod is any cleaner for example? I don't have a working iPod at the moment to test with, but it used to be that when the iPod was syncing it would lock-up iTunes completely which meant I almost always ejected it as soon as iTunes opened, as it would do this any time a song on the iPod came up in Party Shuffle, or DJ as it's now called.
nope - it's incredibly fast now, loads as other web pages under firefox/safari 4 on my mac - definite improvement.
Everything about it seems much more responsive and faster. Great update. Zero issues.
St first glance, syncing 6G iPod (160GB) is much faster on my older iMac G5. It used to take about 5 minutes when there were no changes, and just now it seemed to take about 15 seconds... Need to double check though.
edit:That may have been because it was on manually manage mode... I was hoping for a firmware update so that I could play lossless files properly even when the screen goes to sleep (as I'm pretty sure they fixed this identical problem on the iPod Touch).
edit:That may have been because it was on manually manage mode... I was hoping for a firmware update so that I could play lossless files properly even when the screen goes to sleep (as I'm pretty sure they fixed this identical problem on the iPod Touch).