Full FeedAppletell Review - iTunes 8
Format: Download
Developer: Apple
Macintosh System Requirements: Intel, PowerPC G5, G4 or G3 processor (videos from iTunes require 1.0GHz PowerPC G4 Processor or better, HD Videos from iTunes require 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor or better), 512MB RAM, 1GB for HD videos (all videos from iTunes require at least 16MB VRAM), broadband Internet to use the iTunes Store, Mac OS X v10.4.9, Quicktime 7.5.5 and 200MB free disk space
Windows System Requirements: 1.0GHz Intel or AMD Processor (videos from iTunes require Intel Pentium D Processor or better, HD videos from iTunes require 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor or better), 512MB RAM (1GB for HD Videos), a DirectX 9.0-compatible video card with 32MB of video RAM (64MB recommended), a Quicktime-compatible audio card, broadband Internet to use the iTunes Store, Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later or 32-bit editions of Windows Vista (64-bit editions of Windows Vista require the iTunes 8 64-bit installer), Quicktime 7.5.5 (included) and 200MB free disk spaceReview Computer: Apple 13” MacBook, 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB RAM, 64MB Integrated VRAM
Price: Free
Availability: Out Now
Official Website: www.apple.com/itunes
It’s finally here. The latest installment of the app that changed the way we listened to music has officially been announced. At Apple’s Let’s Rock event, the first item on the docket was this new piece of software. With new features such as Genius and HD TV Shows, many changes have been made to the system. Some of them are great, some of them are okay, and some of them just plain suck.
When you first open iTunes 8, the most obvious change has to do with the user interface.
Grid View
One of the new features of iTunes 8 was the addition of a view mode. This new view is called Grid View, and for that, I have mixed feelings. I really like how the view mode looks overall, and I like the iPhoto ‘08-esque hover view. Another plus to the new view mode is that it seems to be closing the gap between the iTunes UI and the iPod Touch/iPhone UI, which I happen to like a lot. Although Grid View looks great on the outside, it is what’s on the inside that isn’t so great. The way you select and play music isn’t as easy as you’d think. When you mouse over the image of the album, a “play album” button pops up. Clicking that works fine, but only if you’re okay with listening to the album from the start and skipping through. To see all the songs on the album, you double click the album icon, but for some reason, that doesn’t always work for me; it sometimes just starts the album from the opening track. When I think “grid view,” words such as “ungainly,” “rushed” and “unpolished” come to mind. It would be perfect if Apple made it so that when an album is clicked, it flips and expands the song list, like in the iPod version of Coverflow.
iTunes Genius
Another notable new feature is the iTunes Genius. At first, I had some apprehension about the Genius. My dislike for the feature stems from when I was watching the Let’s Rock Keynote stream, and saw the demo during the Stevenote. When he was demonstrating the feature, he created a Genius playlist using a song by Elvis Presley. Later on in the playlist, I noticed a song by The Doors. Huh? If I was ever in an Elvis mood, I highly doubt I would want to be hearing the Doors. Also, when creating my own Genius playlists, I encountered two such situations. The first was when I made a playlist using “Being Bad Feels Pretty Good” by Does it Offend You, Yeah?. Some of the songs that came up included “Icky Thump” by The White Stripes and “Karma Police” by Radiohead. In another situation, I made a playlist from “Hard to Beat” by Hard-Fi. This selection came up with the likes of “Dirty Harry” by The Gorillaz, “Hoppipola” by Sigur Ros, and “Great DJ” by The Ting Tings. Now, I am not saying I don’t like that music (I have it in my library, don’t I?), but rather that I don’t want to listen to that music at that moment. I think that the Genius feature is a great idea, but it won’t be seeing any use by me. It may be intuitive, but it’s not quite intuitive enough for me to hand it over full reign of my music.
NBC on iTunes
I think this could be one of the better features of iTunes 8; NBC has finally wizened up and allowed Apple to put their shows on iTunes. Although I am not one to purchase TV shows on a regular basis, I like the security of knowing I will never miss another episode of The Office, Heroes, or Battlestar Galactica. One cannot survive on Lost alone.
iTunes Visualizer
The final notable new feature ois the addition of a new iTunes Visualizer. The rumors were confirmed when iTunes 8 was released, and users were greeted with the redesigned version of Magnetosphere.
Overall, iTunes 8 is a great app. Some things could use some touch-ups and refining, but other than that, iTunes 8 plays your music better than ever before.
Appletell Rating
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I wonder why the reviewer is having such a hard time double-clicking an album art to view it’s tracks. I have never once had a problem doing this ever since I downloaded iTunes 8. I LOVE the new grid view, especially the one click play option when your cursor moves over the art (why didn’t Steve mention this in the event?). And it’s great now you can play a selected album knowing it won’t go onto the next album when it finishes, unlike in coverflow or list view. And like I said, it works perfectly for me.
on September 10, 2008 at 03:27 PM - LINKHowever your review is a bit short. How about how the grid display works with TV shows and Podcasts, showing the amount of unwatched episodes and automatically playing an unwatched episode with one click? A massive improvement in my book.
It’s a shame you have had to comment negatively on the grid view because of your experience with it (which of course you must do), when I have the feeling not everyone will have this problem.
The double click issue is still present, but I think it may be partially due to my mouse. My mighty mouse is fairly old and worn, and thus may be inhibiting clicking. This may be the issue, but I’m not 100% due to the fact that it still happens (albeit not as often) when I’m using the trackpad.
on September 10, 2008 at 04:13 PM - LINKForgot to add this- I don’t have any TV Shows/Podcasts/Movies that I could test the grid feature with. I find that if I am going to own a movie or a season of a TV show, I would rather have it on a DVD so that it doesn’t take up space on my already limited (80GB) hard drive.
on September 10, 2008 at 04:17 PM - LINKWhat about other users on other computers Mark? Has anyone else you know experienced this?
on September 10, 2008 at 04:17 PM - LINKNot that I know of.
on September 10, 2008 at 04:25 PM - LINKTo be honest, I really don’t understand HOW it could be playing the album by you double-clicking the art in grid view. I have tried and tried, with differing double-click speeds from super-slow to super-fast, to replicate your problem. I simply CANNOT start playing the album by double-clicking its art in grid view, even if I wanted to!
on September 10, 2008 at 04:46 PM - LINKThe only way I can is when I click the play button that appears over the art, or if I double-click to see the tracks then double-click a track to play.
You really ought to investigate your problem further, then perhaps re-edit your review if you find the problem is something other than iTunes 8.
I’ve eliminated possibility of it being the mouse’s fault. I used iTunes with the trackpad, and a friend’s newer Mighty Mouse, and still, about half the time, it plays the album from the start instead of going to the song list. The only thing that I can think of now is a software glitch, but from what I’ve heard, it’s obviously not very common.
on September 10, 2008 at 04:55 PM - LINKYes it must be some sort of bug. In fact, I experienced a bug myself, which has since been rectified-
on September 10, 2008 at 05:12 PM - LINKWhen I click the play button over an artist art, it played the tracks in the proper sequence as they are listed. Yet, when I first clicked an album art to play, it played the tracks shuffled, even though the shuffle button was not showing active. I tried several times swapping from artist to album view and couldn’t understand why it was shuffling the tracks in album view when I didn’t want it to. So I activated shuffle, played an album, and it played in order. Then I took shuffle off, and tracks have been played in the proper order ever since.
Perhaps you ought to report your problem to Apple, as it must be a bug, or perhaps post on their forum.
It would be nice to know if anyone else out there has had the same problem as you or I. It’s just a shame your problem seems a little harder to solve than mine.
I’ve noticed a coulple of bugs right off the bat and pretty major ones (for me) at that.
1. Now, when I’m playing music through iTunes, the information display at the top of the window is all jibberish. Can’t read anything it’s doing anymore.
2. When I drag and drop music to my iPhone, the album art doesn’t move with the song files.
You’d think that Apple, in their haste to get out their gadgety updates to unjailbrake iphones and ipod touches would at least get around to making sure that they didn’t break anything in the process.
Pretty pissed at the inconvenience.
on September 11, 2008 at 10:29 PM - LINKOh, and I almost forgot.
3. I can no longer view my iphone music in itunes in anything other than list mode. Can’t see album art on things I copied over previously. Can’t use the new Grid View or the Album Art with song detail view.
These are some pretty big flaws. Did Mac hire project manager cast offs from Vista or something?
Software companies don’t seem to care about testing anymore.
on September 11, 2008 at 10:33 PM - LINKGD MF Itunes 8 just wiped my entire Phone plus deleted 3 movies I had JUST rented and moved to the ####### phone! WTF is this ########??
And I thought Microsoft made POS software!?!?
on September 13, 2008 at 11:13 PM - LINKThere are two main reasons that double-clicking on the album artwork in cover flow and the new “Play Album” doesn’t work. I like you assumed it was either a freak accident or my mouse. But it controlled by two other features:
1. Make sure ALL the songs on that album are “checked”. If you like me use the check boxes to control what goes onto my ipod you will noticed that it will not “Play Album” when the album doesn’t have all the songs checked.
2. Make sure that you don’t have the “repeat 1 song” option in the lower left-hand corder (the blue ellipse icons with a “1"on it).
on September 24, 2008 at 10:35 AM - LINK