More Details on iTunes 9's Social Media Integration?

[ggt]

While I agree that they are probably fake, I don't agree that everyone would spend time niggling over tiny pixels, etc. from crappy screenshots. I CAN believe why anyone would think they are real. Let's not be sensationalistic....

I'll niggle over tiny pixels if I want, what do you think Apple do to make their software look so good - they niggle over tiny pixels. They would never release such crap.

For a start the pics show a Windows version of iTunes with a mac cursor, if you believe these are real you're delusional

 

[ziggyonice]

Being a member of the "Y Generation", social networking is easily one of my favorite things on the net. But I really don't know if this is the best implementation of what Apple could be doing. Sure, iTunes is used a lot on the PC side... but if I want social networking support, I want it system-wide.

They've already done it with iPhoto. Why not finish it? I want my Address Book's contacts to be synced with my Facebook friends. The same for iCal and my events. I want an easy way to update my Facebook status with one click. I want Facebook Chat + iChat.

I remember reading an article on 9to5mac about how Apple had considered implementing Facebook into Snow Leopard, but backed out.

 

[walnuts]

the application (separate from iTunes)

Its a long shot, but iChat? What about Windows? I know its crazy, but remember this wacky rumor? Maybe there was some truth to it?

 

[ziggyonice]

For a start the pics show a Windows version of iTunes with a mac cursor, if you believe these are real you're delusional

In Windows, you can change the color of the cursor from white to black.

 

[RMo]

For a start the pics show a Windows version of iTunes with a mac cursor, if you believe these are real you're delusional

You know you can change pointer schemes on Windows, right? Not that I believe the screenshots, either, but the pointer is certainly the least of my worries here.

 

[Target362]

The article also says, "again, this isn’t confirmed and some of it seems a little far-fetched, but let’s see what happens here. It’s going to get interesting."

I think they hit the mark on the "far-fetched" part, but that's just me.

Edit: PS - You can pretty much already broadcast your iTunes songs as statuses with iChat, Adium, and other programs (including some for Windows). And you can already "share" your music with yourself via library sharing, but I'm not sure that Apple would want to let you share it with friends (for legal concerns--you have to read enough "don't use this except for yourself" warnings when you share your own library as is). Far-fetched, indeed.

sharing doesn't have to mean "sharing" it can mean showing the name of the song, with a link to the iTunes page to buy and download it.

duh

 

[SFStateStudent]

We'll see iChat about the same time we see the front facing camera to go with the camera that's already on the iPhone.....

 

[Brien]

Blu-ray and last.fm would be great.

But I wonder if iTunes 9 will go intel-only?

 

[Burke]

Though these rumors may (or may not) be true, those screen shots almost certainly are not - unless somebody's got hold of the buggiest application to come out of Apple.
-The dodgy facebook and twitter icons that just don't fit right;
-The Last.fm is bold in black even when not selected, though the playlists are still in white when selected;
-The social playlist is really just a playlist; not even a smart playlist or a special playlist as you might expect;
-The "Total: 25 tracks" is cut off at the bottom in the last.fm screen shot;
-The top corner of the "About iTunes" box is unrounded with a white pixel;
-There's no shadow around the About box;
-And the 9 of iTunes 9 is in the wrong font.
-The Playback Bar at the top of the main window seems to have a darker box within it, the edge of which cuts off the edge of the change view button

I'm hoping this is a mock up and not somebody thinking they can pass it off as real!

Also, the Lucida Grande font is bolder/ in the main window, which indicates it's Mac and the sidebar appears to be in Tahoma, which indicates Windows.

 

[lolcaz]

I don't really care about social integration, or whatever, but it'd be great to have last.fm scrobbling directly in iTunes, rather than having to run a seperate last.fm scrobbler...

 

[Target362]

I can see it now:

1) Every teenage girl will have heart text and such over the jonas brothers, oh and don't got foget the annoying screaming and the fact they will cut their wrists when they (the jonna brother) come out of the closet.

2) Every teenage boy will be having wired fonts and doing the annoying as hell soja boy dance while being a poser.

3) The more mature young crowed (20 something, both male and female) will have normal fonts, with songs you'll find at your local starbucks

4) Middle age folks- not sure about them, songs from the 70s and 80s perhaps?

5) Seniors - Good old songs from the old days.

note, there are seniors who use social networking. My grandmother has a myspace AND a facebook account and shes only 64.

 

[MacFly123]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of this social network trend that everyone's moving to. On Facebook, I update my status if I want people to know what I'm listening to - sometimes I don't care to share it.

And if it's a standalone app, that would be great - another app I don't have to open.

As long as it's a separate app that I can switch off/delete I really don't care. But I don't want iTunes to get more bloated with even more pointless features than it has already. And I don't want social networking shoved down my throat, especially if it can get me on the wrong side of the RIAA's ****** stick, albeit unknowingly.

Hmmmm, this Social Network thingy sounds a bit to me like a sort of Synergy type thing, as seen on the Palm Pre.

This is something that Apple is getting left behind with in the iPhone OS in my opinion. My brother has just got an HTC Hero, and Android does a similar thing. It's very cool and useful. I see Nokia are doing similar things with the N97 also.

Of course it's all supposition at this point, but if they introduced a service to amalgamate all your social networking accounts this seems like it could be the next step?

I think it makes sense that this product is a new app for iLife that will aggregate all social media: Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, YouTube, etc. I think that would be a good addition to iLife. It makes NO SENSE to put that stuff in iTunes. iLife '10, that is my prediction!

Having said that, I am REALLY NOT A FAN of all this social online crap either. I can see some benefits to it in keeping in touch with loved ones etc. but there are a lot of negatives in my opinion: Narcisistic lack of connection with reality enabling people to do and say things they wouldn't normally do in real life. Security and personal information that can easily be put at risk.

All this stuff like twitter is really being shoved down the worlds throat and the media makes it seem so desirable and trendy, but I am not convinced that people really like it that much. Maybe part of a bigger agenda to get information and personal things about people online where everything can be tracked! Who knows, but i don't like it! (Eagle Eye anyone?)

I was thinking about this just a few days ago... when is Apple going to re-write iTunes in Cocoa? Isn't iTunes mostly Carbon still (since it was ported from Mac OS 9)? I thought they were phasing out Carbon and converting everything to Cocoa... am I wrong?

This isn't surprising if true. Part of the survey they gave to mobileme subscribers included reference to social networking.

I don't really care about this feature myself. Maybe if they included something like that Netflix theater that the xbox has.

They've been doing it kind of slowly. Despite what a lot of people think there is no real magical advantage to having a cocoa app over a carbon app other than 64bit if your app is something like photoshop and the fact that carbon is going to be depreciated someday.

An iTunes rewrite would be nice! Aren't there a lot more benefits and APIs in Snow Leopard that will be for Cocoa only?

 

[jdechko]

I can see it now:

1) Every teenage girl will have heart text and such over the jonas brothers, oh and don't got foget the annoying screaming and the fact they will cut their wrists when they (the jonna brother) come out of the closet.

2) Every teenage boy will be having wired fonts and doing the annoying as hell soja boy dance while being a poser.

3) The more mature young crowed (20 something, both male and female) will have normal fonts, with songs you'll find at your local starbucks

4) Middle age folks- not sure about them, songs from the 70s and 80s perhaps?

5) Seniors - Good old songs from the old days.

note, there are seniors who use social networking. My grandmother has a myspace AND a facebook account and shes only 64.

I'm not sure where I fall on your list. Can you help me out? Male, 27, Married with kid. Like Rock, Alternative, Classic Rock (Yay 70's), some metal. Hate Facebook, like Twitter.

Thanks.

 

[Target362]

Having said that, I am REALLY NOT A FAN of all this social online crap either. I can see some benefits to it in keeping in touch with loved ones etc. but there are a lot of negatives in my opinion: Narcisistic lack of connection with reality enabling people to do and say things they wouldn't normally do in real life. Security and personal information that can easily be put at risk.

All this stuff like twitter is really being shoved down the worlds throat and the media makes it seem so desirable and trendy, but I am not convinced that people really like it that much. Maybe part of a bigger agenda to get information and personal things about people online where everything can be tracked! Who knows, but i don't like it! (Eagle Eye anyone?)

Truth is, its the kids who are making it a bad name. If we ban kids from social networking, social networking may be better.

 

[(L)]

SOCIAL?! That Word Shouldn't Even BE In iTunes.

Apple Has Made Its Killing With Its Simplicity And Its INTELLIGENT Designs. I Think That Sharing Playlists And Gifting Music Is As Far AS It Should Go.

BUt This Idea About Shifting Most Used Apps TO The Front, GREAT!

Please don't do that.

 

[hamis92]

Those pictures are as fake as they can possibly be. For example, in the first picture, the 9 of the "iTunes 9" text is not using Myriad Pro but maybe Lucida Grande. What else is wrong in that pic is that the last.fm text in the sidebar should be white when it's selected - here it's black.

Did not read the whole thread, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who would want Apple to rethink iTunes. Isn't this the same app that used to be a fast and light music jukebox a few years ago? Today the name just doesn't describe it at all, as it does videos, TV shows, apps and whatever.

 

[Target362]

As long as its an option like the genius list is, then it shouldnt be a problem

perhaps a custom installation, so we can chose to install this or not.

 

[Target362]

Those pictures are as fake as they can possibly be. For example, in the first picture, the 9 of the "iTunes 9" text is not using Myriad Pro but maybe Lucida Grande. What else is wrong in that pic is that the last.fm text in the sidebar should be white when it's selected - here it's black.

Did not read the whole thread, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who would want Apple to rethink iTunes. Isn't this the same app that used to be a fast and light music jukebox a few years ago? Today the name just doesn't describe it at all, as it does videos, TV shows, apps and whatever.

So it should eb renamed to Front row or media center?

 

[MacFly123]

Truth is, its the kids who are making it a bad name. If we ban kids from social networking, social networking may be better.

Haha, ya but if you did that, social networking might very well fall flat on its face! Kids these days need to GET OUT, EXERCISE, INTERACT, FOCUS. I could go on; and i am not old by the way lol! There are just a lot of problems being caused by our modern culture today.

 

[Target362]

Haha, ya but if you did that, social networking might very well fall flat on its face! Kids these days need to GET OUT, EXERCISE, INTERACT, FOCUS. I could go on; and i am not old by the way lol! There are just a lot of problems being caused by our modern culture today.

True true. I sure miss the 90s.

 

[hamis92]

So it should eb renamed to Front row or media center?

Well, I'm not suggesting that Apple should change the name as it is so well-known, but instead I'm just playing with the idea of dividing iTunes into separate apps: audio (iTunes), video (QT), and mobile apps (some new Sync Center maybe?).

EDIT: Of course not everyone would like this and I'm not even sure if I would, but if they indeed did something like this they would need to pay a great amount of attention to integrating these apps with each other.

iTunes is clearly music-related name - it's all about your tunes.

 

[ColeSQ]

Well, I'm not suggesting that Apple should change the name as it is so well-known, but instead I'm just playing with the idea of dividing iTunes into separate apps: audio (iTunes), video (QT), and mobile apps (some new Sync Center maybe?).

EDIT: Of course not everyone would like this and I'm not even sure if I would, but if they indeed did something like this they would need to pay a great amount of attention to integrating these apps with each other.

iTunes is clearly music-related name - it's all about your tunes.

I'm with you and personally have groaned about this for a long time. Why is there a nice, focused app for calendaring, another for mail, another for addresses, calculation, etc. but yet all this stuff is globbed into iTunes.

What made iTunes so elegant in 7 years ago was its simplicity. Now there's too much junk all rolled together. I want to organize music, movies, books, and apps separately because I don't think about all of them at once. Just like the iPhone: there's an app for that. Task orientation.

 

[RMo]

sharing doesn't have to mean "sharing" it can mean showing the name of the song, with a link to the iTunes page to buy and download it.

duh

Just in case you aren't being sarcastic, they use the word "broadcast" when talking about sharing, so I don't think that's what they meant.

 

[synth3tik]

No iTunes you are NOT songbird.

 

[zw-gator]

iTunes is slow? Even on my G4 Powerbook it's fast and the interface is hardly bloated.

Check out Foobar for windows if you want to experience a non bloated iTunes like app.

Even winamp is less bloated than iTunes

I shouldn't be experiencing ANY lag when opening or using iTunes, but I do.