RSSApple Introduces iTunes 5
By Nate Mook | Published September 7, 2005, 1:31 PM
At a special event in San Francisco Wednesday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the fifth generation iTunes client, which brings to the table a number of new features along with additions to the iTunes Music Store. Jobs also announced that Apple has surpassed 10 million iTunes accounts.
iTunes 5 closely resembles version 4 with minor adjustments to the user interface. Playlists can now be organized into folders and a new search bar can seek out specific types of content, such as podcasts or albums. The beefed up search bar has also been to the iTunes Music Store.
A Smart Shuffle feature was added to version 5 in response to feedback that iTunes' shuffle option was not random enough. "We've actually added Smart Shuffle to make it less random. But it seems more random," said Jobs.
Within the iTunes Music Store, Apple has added user reviews - a feature that has long made Amazon a staple for online buyers. In fact, Jobs noted that iTunes accounts purchase an average of 60 songs, making the company's music store "the second largest internet store behind only Amazon."
Parental controls are also now available in the iTunes Music Store, which prevent the purchase of explicit albums. The addition comes as Apple is making all 15 albums from Madonna available for download.
Harry Potter audio books can now be purchased from Apple as well, along with a special edition Harry Potter iPod that has the Hogwarts crest engraved on the back.
Outside of music, Apple has apparently made friends with its rivals up in Redmond. Contacts and calendars from Microsoft Outlook can now be synced to an iPod using iTunes.
iTunes 5 is available for download now for both Mac OS X and Windows.
I had 4.9 on OS X and don't really know what all is the big deal about 5. Audio Books was already listed as an option, and the interface changes are really, really minor, it seems. Also already had a search box.
Am I missing something?
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|" Apple has apparently made friends with its rivals up in Redmond."
If thats the case, why don't they go one step further and introduce WMA support and perhaps support for other codecs as well (OGG etc).
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|"Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the fifth generation iTunes client"
Ok, so where are the 5 gens? :P
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|But the big question is does it still force itself to start on startup? I it still a memmory hog?
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|That was only an issue on Windows versions. I won't try and guess who's to blame for the problems iTunes has there (Microsoft, Apple, who knows?).
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|Who knows. But what certain is that Microsoft did not program iTunes 5. Apple did.
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|That is very true, just like QuickTime.
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|Yeah yeah, shuffle, reviews, yada yada. What I want to know is have they improved performance on the Windows version, or is it still a bloated hog with several unnecessary services running?
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|I agree. I love the interface, but it uses way to many resources).
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|"A Smart Shuffle feature was added to version 5 in response to feedback that iTunes' shuffle option was not random enough. "We've actually added Smart Shuffle to make it less random. But it seems more random," said Jobs."
This kind of logic is why Apple remains in the lower percentiles in terms of market adoption...
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|lol I was reading that and was thinking the same exact thing...it's just another apple "innovation"...:)
Imagine car manufacturers used that logic...
Porsche ceo "our customers wanted faster cars, so created the porsche Z type which is actually slower, but it seems faster!".
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|Not sure if that was sarcasm or not. However, statistical randomness and observational (perceptive) randomness are different. As people, if a band or song repeats to close to itself even if truly chosen at random -- it's not perceptively random enough. So they added algorithms to (ironically) program perceptive randomness. I like the change.
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|how about...now this may sound crazy and earth shatterring...they may be able implement some sort of crazy unheard of "cache" to not repeat songs for a certain amount of time or until you clear this so called "cache"...that way they wouldn't have to make it less random...
This may just be a crazy dream of mine...I believe it's doable tho', maybe someone will figure out how to implement the crazy idea of a cache into randomness.
Oh wait...it's been done already and seems to work and it's not "less random", nevermind.
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|The "Kompressor" model of Mercedes cars are usually slower (top speed) than the normal models, but they accelerate faster, so surely it seems Faster.
Going back to randomness, random is only random on a big scale, and people don't usually hear to 200 (or 1000) songs on one go. It is more like 30 to 50, so something random can appear as not being such a thing. (Randomness and statistics are closely related.).
In the end, something random to an user is a selected order, taking into account factors like artist, length, maybe even genre... i.e. something not random at all, but specifically choosen.
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|The kompressor gets to 60 about 2 seconds after most mercedes models, it barely feels faster then a corolla, I hope it doesn't feel faster then any other benz...I know you were just trying to make a point, but at least use facts...:)
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|I work for a company that makes fruit machines, and for non money winning features; if its say a 50/50 chance... we actually put the odds at about 70% to "win" on that feature. The only reason for this that when the odds are set at 50/50 ; it doesn't FEEL like 50/50 at all. 70/30 however does feel like a 50% chance of winning.
Strange, but true
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|Now, you're just using logic here, and that's ridiculous.
Since when has logic had anyhting at all to do with software development?
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|I wonder if they fixed their mp3 CD burning. Version 4 created seperate folder for for each artist and album. I just want to be able to burn 100+ mp3s and not have to scroll through countles folders to get to a song. Its a little annoying. Also their auto sorting feature needs some work. I had to disable it cause it created hundreds of folders with similar names.
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|"Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the fifth generation iTunes client". After which, Jobs proceeded to throw a chair and vowed to "kill" Google...Oops! Wrong CEO. My bad.
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|huh? is this even relevant? sorry, but you've got the wrong story, maybe you should head over to ZDnet, LMAO
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|lol
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|Relevant? Hell no.
Funny as hell? Hell yes!
Thanks, needed that one. I almost spewed coffee all over my screen. Nice.
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|yeah i needed that to..i have itunes 4.9 and want 5 but i cant download it..well i dowload it but when i go to install it i just get an error "some install files seemto be corrupted, please download a fresh copy and try again"..i have done that 10 times but still same error, can anyone else downlaod it?
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|Yeah, I'm getting that same problem. Have you fixed it yet or found a mirror for the download?
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