Steve delivered another keynote. Yes, this time there was ‘one more thing’ and ‘one last thing’. One more thing was full movies via the iTunes store (not for us folks in Europe though, yet… *sulk*). One last thing was a set top box to be released in 2007. Looks pretty (doesn’t everything from Apple?) but will it deliver the goods?
What I did do almost immediately having watched the transcript of the keynote with Dan and Ashleigh via iLounge and MacRumors was download iTunes 7. The promise of gapless playback between tracks was too much. Anyway.. what’s changed in iTunes 7?
- The icon now has a blue musical note instead of green.
- The scrollbar is no longer aqua blue, it’s now kinda a dull grey with shading. This is the same on Windows and Mac versions.
- The layout of the left hand organisation pane has changed and frankly looks much better. At a glance you can spot music from video from iPod games.
- A new view has been added to allow you to browse your collection by album cover. This works quite well and coupled with the album art updates that are pushed from the iTunes store makes for a presentable way to browse your collection. Appears to be a bit of a rip off of CoverFlow, which is indeed the name of the feature. However, a quick glance at the website tells us that IP of CoverFlow has been purchase by Apple. I looked in the About file for iTunes 7 and found no reference to it though.
- Gapless playback works, to a degree. There’s still a slight stutter when listening to imported CD’s of mixed music. This is most notable on dance music mixes. I had to turn off crossfade feedback in order to hear what gapless playback really sounds like. iTunes 7 took about 5 minutes to go through my entire collection to analyse the tracks for gapless playback.
Upon connecting my iPod to the newly installed iTunes 7 I was informed of iPod updatev1.2 of iPod v5 firmware which told me it was for Bug fixes and support for iPod Games purchase from the iTunes store. So what’s new on my iPod having updated?
- Well for a starter the iPod now appears under a new ‘devices’ label in iTunes 7. This view has several tabs of information but now presents the storage space on the iPod and categorises it as Audio or Other or Free. Each tab breaks down exactly what you want to sync to your iPod, so within Music you can select all music and playlists or just certain playlists. This will likely prove useful if the settings are on a ‘per iPod’ basis as it’s likely I’ll be getting a new black iPod Nano to go with my iPod with Video.
- The iPod menus themselves appear unchanged.
- I can’t for the love of me find the new ‘searching‘ feature that Steve demo’d in the keynote. Is this part of this firmware update? In the demo on Apple’s website it appears under Audiobooks. Not for me it doesn’t.
- Gapless playback on the iPod is present. Atlast the iPod now does what my Archos Jukebox Multimeda 20 did 3 years ago (and that did video 3 years ago too, albeit on tiny, tiny screen).
So although the keynote itself was a bit of a let down (no video iPod, no iPhone [did we really expect one?], and set top box that is somewhat akin to a Media Extender due next year) the new iTunes 7 and update for the iPod firmware have delivered some new stuff for free, which is always good.
 A tremendous review of iTunes 7’s features is available at iLounge.
2 Comments
Ah, I wondered if gapless playback was in the firmware. I had intended to check myself, but the Mini insisted on reformatting my iPod with a Mac filesystem before updating. Hence, I’m waiting for 6000 songs to copy over.
A bit odd that the search stuff is missing though…
And, unable to resist, I’ve bought Zuma. Hmm…
My inevitable, inescapable post can be found on Is There Food now, btw.
Yeah had a long play with the iPod last night and no searchy thing. It’s not asthough it’s in the list of menu items but not selected to display either.
You’ll have to let me know what Zuman is like.
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[...] Visit original post by Gary [...]
[...] I commented previously on the lack of the search functionality that Steve demo’d with the launch of the new 5G iPods in firmware 1.2. Well threads on the official Apple forums have confirmed this for me. This has been labeled ‘a disgrace’ by some and although I’m a wee bit disappointed it’s not a show stopper. Only the newly released 5G iPod have the search functionality. Whether Apple will release a 1.3 firmware with it in for the older models, who can tell? I think something should be forthcoming though as two other main issues seem to be present. [...]