iTunes 7 with iTunes Movie Store announced!

As if those spotlit "It's Showtime" Apple announcements weren't going to yield the iTunes Movie Store; just in time too, as CinemaNow and Movielink have been around for ages, Vongo's been kicking for months, Amazon's Unbox just hit the streets the other day, Microsoft's Zune video player is just around the corner, and Netflix's movie service is expected any time. With the iTunes Movie Store now available in Apple's new iTunes 7 you'll be able to download full res (640 x 480) movies at $9.99 apiece for most titles, $14.99 for new releases and $12.99 for pre-orders. The files are protected, of course, with FairPlay DRM; they'll play back on your iPod, but not much else, unfortunately, so if you want movies the iTunes way, be prepared to watch them in iTunes or to get yourself an iPod. Sadly, it seems the rumors were true of it being a Disney-only store: Apple so far has only managed to procure 70 movies for their launch, from the Disney-owned Walt Disney, Pixar, Touchstone, and Miramax studios. They're promising frequent updates, though, and they will be launching new movies at the same time that they're released on DVD. As for iTunes 7, there's plenty of good news to be had beyond the addition of movie downloads. Gapless playback (which is happenin' in all the new iPods) is the big winner, and iTunes 7 can go through your whole library and fix previously downloaded tracks to play gapless. The player has also gotten a substantial face lift, borrowing from WMP11 stylings for track listings, tossing in Cover Flow (a third-party OS X eyecandy favorite which Apple apparently bought), a good helping of whitespace and Apple's own design know-how.

[Randy @ Sep 12th 2006 2:32PM]

just download itunes 7. Automatically detects gap. my missing album art still has some missing. Other than that...MUCH better.

[Smeagol @ Sep 12th 2006 2:35PM]

Movie Store is LAME .. no DVD burning? and wtf with 680x480 .. what about widescreen? h.264 is cool.

[Nathan Ziarek @ Sep 12th 2006 2:36PM]

Guys, its CoverFlow (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/28115), the exact name that Apple gave their implementation. Also, the guy's site is down, so I'm guessing he's got a new job :-) Hope so, at least. It was a wicked cool idea and implementation.

[ben @ Sep 12th 2006 2:38PM]

great looking. no gap is cool. looks nice.

[Khamel @ Sep 12th 2006 2:39PM]

apple steals from someone else?!?

dog bites man!

[mr salty @ Sep 12th 2006 2:41PM]

My two favorite updates of everything steve pulled out of his pocket are the shuffle...way cool and finally the itunes logo gets and update to blue(love it)

if you install itunes and then got to customize there is a phone driver that is disabled, has this always been there????

[flipper @ Sep 12th 2006 2:42PM]

So a big two fingers to the rest of the world again.

[PDubNYC @ Sep 12th 2006 2:46PM]

"apple steals from someone else?!?"

Don't be a moron. They must have bought CoverFlow or at the very least licensed it. Certainly I can't see them stealing it and then keeping the name the same.

And don't start with that Konfabulator bullsh*t. There were many widget apps before Konfabulator, including Apple's own back in the day.

[Galley @ Sep 12th 2006 2:46PM]

Anyone else having capitalizatiion issues? ABBA became Abba, and AC/DC became AC/DC. WTF?

[srw985 @ Sep 12th 2006 2:46PM]

big news, ive been using itunes 7 for well over 5 minutes now.

[CommanderROR @ Sep 12th 2006 2:47PM]

well...i'f like to make a useful comment, but I can't see a single useful change apart from iPod Games here...and I don't have an iPod so...bugger that...

So..where is the movie store? I don't get any movies, TV-Shows or anything besides music and music videos here...

[ImDShhhh @ Sep 12th 2006 2:48PM]

downloaded it installed it-when i open it i recieve an error whats with that?
anybody dare to extend a helping hand?

[sketchguy @ Sep 12th 2006 2:51PM]

Just downloaded a game but can't transfer to my 5G Video iPod - it says my iPod is up-to-date. Shows Software Version: 1.1.2

Choosing Software Update informs that i'm up-to-date as well.

Anyone else experiencing this problem?

[John L @ Sep 12th 2006 2:52PM]

Will iTunes7 remove the gaps, and do the "Gapless playback" feature for existing video ipods?
or do I need new hardware to get gapless ?
or iTunes7 for gapless?

help,(logically you would think gapless would have been there since day 1)

[The Other Jason @ Sep 12th 2006 2:53PM]

Guys... Alot of the interface of iTunes 7 was "borrowed" from WMP11... It has all the functions to fix album art and the album views look like exact copies of WMP.

Its nice though that they decided to finally upgrade their software so they could try to sell people more DRMed crap.

[Martin @ Sep 12th 2006 2:54PM]

Ok, I'm confused - Movie Store "Movie" for $14.99 that you can't burn and only watch on your computer and an iPod??

Are DVD's that expensive in the States?? that you have to go to iTunes? - I think the price needs to drop big time before this takes off.

[Brandon @ Sep 12th 2006 2:57PM]

Is Apple Software Update being included in the windows version of iTunes a new thing?

[John Hummel @ Sep 12th 2006 2:58PM]

The DVD burning thing is what I'm curious about, but it looks like that's a total no-go. Too bad, because that was the selling point for me.

[Wayne @ Sep 12th 2006 2:58PM]

Well I downloaded the Windows version iTunes 7 and installed it. Unfortunately it does not work. An error screen pops up.

[KimlovesMark @ Nov 11th 2006 9:50PM]

It happened to me too. Windows 2000. Just becuase they have an upgrade, doesn't mean it is better. My connection won't work. I have hughes.net, took off Zone Alarm. It worked before the upgrade was installed. Check fo r your anti virus, etc. that might prohibit iTunes from working. Unable to login/sign on.

[PeterRoach @ Sep 12th 2006 2:58PM]

I'm expecting that there will be a firmware update soon. My only gripe about my iPod up until now has been the lack of gapless playback

[The Incredible Hulk @ Sep 12th 2006 2:59PM]

Hulk SMASH itunes 7 and iTV!! Movies overpriced!! Hulk can buy DVD and transcode without DRM for less. Hulk love dolby digital surround sound. iTunes movies no have dolby digital!!! Arrrrrghhhhh!! If plan is to use ipod and iTV to watch downloaded movie on big screen with 2 channel sound, Hulk SMASH plan to bits!!! Hulk always say, "Audio is 50% of Audio/Video"

-Hulk

[Jeff @ Sep 12th 2006 2:59PM]

I told you guys (in an earlier topic) not to get your hopes up about the movie store. I agree, it's really not better (and in some ways worse) than Amazon Unbox. Not coincidentally, Netflix's stock is up today.

iTunes 7 in general, though, looks great. And I don't know about anybody else, but I'm jazzed about the iPod improvements. Lower prices, bigger capacities, tougher casings - what more could you really want?

[Joe @ Sep 12th 2006 3:02PM]

What is this "no gap" stuff everyone is talking about?

[Alric @ Sep 12th 2006 3:04PM]

This is great! Does this mean widescreen DVD quality versions of Battlestar Galactica without having to wait for the DVDs, or hunting the HD versions?

[Will K @ Sep 12th 2006 3:05PM]

They'd better update the 5g iPod firmware now...I want games on my iPod damnit!

[cheinonen @ Sep 12th 2006 3:10PM]

The Album Art function worked for me, provided the iTunes store had the album, of course. So if you have some albums they don't sell (Radiohead, Beatles, etc...) then you still get to do those manually. However, I'll install at home instead of work and it'll probably pull down a lot more updates for me.

[Henry @ Sep 12th 2006 3:17PM]

I'm getting the Error -50 too.

[CommanderROR @ Sep 12th 2006 3:17PM]

ahem...can somebody tell me why there are no movies or shows in my itunes? I live in Germany, but I doubt that has anything to do with it...

[Billy Goats @ Sep 12th 2006 3:22PM]

Where did the equalizer button at the bottom go?

[Michael @ Sep 12th 2006 3:22PM]

Why does it show every album 20 times in Cover Flow?

[disciple83 @ Sep 12th 2006 3:28PM]

For Joe:

"No gap" means that the 1-2 sec. pause between tracks, in theory, has been removed.

iTunes 7 has copied WMP, the enhanced iPod almost caught the ZVM through software upgrades and price drop, the shuffle gets an "easily lost in laundry" downsize, the Nano looks to old dead relative for fashion tips, iTV copies every other wifi media router. Movies can't be played out of Apple, and they aren't WS. Anyone else think Steve ripped off the world, again?

[Sedated @ Sep 12th 2006 3:29PM]

I don't know if anyone noticed this, but the new album view (not CoverFlow) is actually similar to how iTunes printed playlists with albums? They just made it so they could fit the columns, but the general design is the same...at least in my opinion.

[mdl @ Sep 12th 2006 3:31PM]

Just my $.02-
I also purchased a game but can not load it on my 5g. The games section says I need an update, the summary section says I am up to date.
It appears there is no coverflow view from the ipod, only the main library-true?

[Paschal @ Sep 12th 2006 3:34PM]

The artwork works on your own library if you are logged as iTunes customer!! What guarantee I have that Apple is not sneaking in my library if I choose to update artworks in my current personal albums? At least Windows Media Player offer this option without any login :-)

[Jeremy Smith @ Sep 12th 2006 3:37PM]

So I attempted to download album art for all of my albums, and there appear to be three problems.

1. iTunes is missing a LOT of covers (shouldn't be a suprise, since they probably only have covers of albums they sell, which isn't the widest selection out there)

2. Albums that have "Various Artists" don't appear to be handled well, as it thinks each song is a different album, even thought the album name is the same, with only the artist being different.

and the worst of all...

3. There doesn't seem to be any way to manually add in album covers that are MISSING! i.e. all the covers are encrypted! Or am I missing something obvious??

[idude135 @ Sep 12th 2006 3:42PM]

In order to play Games, you must check for updates:
HELP -> CHECK FOR UPDATES

If you see the album cover several times, you may need to streamline your tags or sort by album.

[8etty @ Sep 12th 2006 3:43PM]

..and it installs and plays flawlessly on windows X64..finally! big hug to the one programmer who thought 'bout us 0.00004% X64 users

8

[Euan @ Sep 12th 2006 3:46PM]

Hmmm, I thought there was going to be multiple libraries. Boo.

[Kevin @ Sep 12th 2006 3:54PM]

If you play a video on iTunes 7, and expand the video screen you'll notice transparent controls pop up when you click on the new window. Looks like something that would be used on the eventual widescreen iPod when it does arrive...just my observation.

[Jared C. @ Sep 12th 2006 3:58PM]

The servers all seem to be overloaded. It is VERY slow. Downloading artwork works great... I am very pleased...but am curious about the ipod firmware...will the new firmware allow us to play those old videora files without skipping (I am still on firmware 1.0)

[Jim B. @ Dec 23rd 2006 9:27PM]

Did you every get a response on the videora issue. I too am very cautious for the same reason.

[Joshua @ Sep 12th 2006 4:01PM]

What happened to the visualizer button???? I loved being able just to easily click it in the corner :-(

[foQ @ Sep 12th 2006 4:03PM]

iTunes 7 has been installing for over an hour. Anybody else having this problem? It's kind of funny to watch it go through its "Verifying Install" process so slowly. I've got no songs on my laptop anyway, just wanted to play while I'm at work.

[peyote @ Sep 12th 2006 4:03PM]

nothing bout widescreen. i hate 4:3 non-native. anything that was created in 16:9 should be sold in 16:9 & just allow option to zoom-in to make 4:3. anything less is deplorable in this day & age of HD everything. i'm able to compromise screen resolution as long as i get wide format. for the price w/o mandatory native screen format, it's a rip-off. i'm a mac-nut too, but give us the native wide format or bug someone else.

[Euan @ Sep 12th 2006 4:05PM]

Hmmm, it's a little thing, but I really did prefer the green notes rather than the blue.

[Phillip Lamb @ Sep 12th 2006 4:10PM]

Well, I dunno if anybody else is having this problem, but I just grabbed iTunes 7.0 for winXP and it's got a slight problem. It doesn't play anything. Something tells me this isn't a cool new feature.

[skylar @ Sep 12th 2006 4:12PM]

Random songs in my 80 GB iTunes library have (!) icons and iTunes says it cannot find the file but I can easily browse to it. After a couple exits/restarts most of the (!) are gone but some are still there. What the hell!?

[primetime4 @ Sep 12th 2006 4:17PM]

The browse by album cover feature sounds identical to the option available on the Sony Vaio Pocket. I smell another lawsuit.

[James Stringer @ Sep 12th 2006 4:17PM]

iTunes 7 is freaking ugly, its like ms paid them to make it look crap. and if they dont update the 5g ipods im going to be pissed. if new zealand had a freaking iTunes store i could get a account and use the free artwork. arrr im a pirate