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Video: iTunes 9 Home Sharing and iPhone app management
Sure, sure, the kids are all excited about iTunes LP and their fancy "lyrics" and "album art." You know what we're psyched about? Finally being able to manage our iPhone apps directly from iTunes 9. It works pretty much exactly as you'd expect, although we were able to make it do some minorly wonky things -- and we're psyched about the AutoFill-esque music sync feature that fills any remaining space on your phone with music.We're also pumped about the new Home Sharing feature in iTunes 9, which lets you transfer content between five different machines directly without screwing around with network shares or USB drives. We've seriously been waiting for a feature like this since iTunes sharing was first launched -- it also works exactly like you'd expect, and we think it'll make managing media across multiple machines much, much easier. Videos after the break!
iTunes 9 breaks Pre media sync... what did you expect?
Here we go again: round umpteen of the fight to break and re-enable Pre syncing with iTunes is now underway thanks to the release of iTunes 9, and we're sure there's plenty more where this came from. Endlessly amusing to casual observers, yes, but Pre customers are the ones losing out -- sure, Palm might be able fix this in a jiffy (especially since they continue to tout compatibility with the Pixi), but meanwhile, media sync's out of the picture once more. Stay tuned for more on this as it develops.
iTunes 9: App Management
One of the great new features in iTunes 9 is app management; I've been begging for this one (among other things). We can now organize our pages (and pages) of apps right in iTunes, no more dragging jiggly icons across 9 or 10 screens. I'm ecstatic (and wondering what took so long). From Apple's website: [...] it's easier to organize all the apps on your iPhone or iPod touch, because now you can do it right in iTunes, right from your computer. Shop the App Store on your computer, iPhone, or iPod touch. Then go to your iTunes library to arrange (and rearrange) your apps and add (or delete) Home screens. iTunes automatically syncs your new Home screens with your iPhone or iPod touch. %Gallery-72338%
iTunes 9 bringing iTunes LP functionality, 'beautiful new look'
Ready to pay more for the same music? Good! We've just spotted some new "Deluxe Version" albums in iTunes, which apparently are part of the "iTunes LP" experience in the upcoming iTunes 9, if the album blurbs are to be believed. The albums pack in bonus material like art, videos and additional recordings. Sounds just like Cocktail to us, and we're sure Apple will be explaining it all soon enough.Update: It's more or less official now, complete with a non-working "Download iTunes 9" button and everything. Apple's mainly touting the new interface for the store in this blurb, but we know it's just a front for taking more of our hard-earned cash and putting it in the hands of starving musicians. The nerve.New features mentioned: Improved store navigation, including persistent navigation menu. Full window iTunes store. For times when that sidebar is just too much. Previews from anywhere in the store -- don't have to drill down to preview. iTunes LP includes lyrics, liner notes, video, photos and "more." iTunes Extras. It's like DVD extras, but with iTunes. Not clear if it includes director's commentaries, but let's hope. Update 2: It's now official, and Apple has fleshed out some more functionality. Genius Mixes. It's like Genius Playlists, but it plays forever like a radio station. App management, letting you set up and arrange your home screens on the iPhone and iPod touch. You can drag and drop to move certain apps or whole pages of apps. Home sharing enables file transfers between up to five local computers of songs, videos and even apps. You can send items in the iTunes Store as gifts, add them to a wishlist, and publish them to Facebook and Twitter -- look who's getting all social all of a sudden! It's available today. [Thanks, Dev] %Gallery-72295% %Gallery-72301%
Will Apple announce anything for HD snobs today?
Sure, it is The Rock n' Roll event, but an HD snob can only hope there will be something for everyone in today's event. It isn't like there haven't been any rumors either. First up was the Blu-ray support in iTunes 9, then there was the updated Apple TV and the most recent is from a Harmon Kardon press release where we learned that the latest Bridge III iPod / iPhone dock and AVR 2600 and 3600 receivers can "play back HD video from iPod or iPhone products." You'd think at least one of these would have to be true -- especially with the Zune HD hitting the streets in less than a week. Personally we have our hopes up for Manage Copy support in iTunes, but we admit that we are just dreaming.
Blu-ray support coming with iTunes 9?
Take this rumor with a fairly large grain of salt and please hold your "bag of hurt" comments until the end. Boy Genius claims he's got it on word from a "pretty reliable source" that the next big iTunes revision will include better organization options for your iPhone / iPod touch apps, something vague concerning integration with Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm, and... Blu-ray support. To be fair, the HD disc format wars are all but over at this point, and the most recent Final Cut Pro actually lets you burn video directly to a third-party BD drive, only to have to play the discs on another, non-Mac device. This is all pretty sketch at the moment, and we doubt the boys in Cupertino will be showing their hands until just after the eleventh hour -- let's not forget, also, that iTunes is also available for Windows which does have other third-party Blu-ray playback software. In possibly related whispers, AppleInsider has offered some none-too-descriptive hints at possible iMac refresh with some improvements catering to the "semi-professional audio / video crowd." Between this and talk about a tablet, we can't wait for the next Apple press conference, if only to subside all the rumors for a few months. Update: Our resident HD expert Ben Drawbaugh has chimed in on the matter, hypothesizing that this might be referring to support for Managed Copy, a digitized (and DRM restricted) copy of the film that you would save onto your local hard drive. But in that scenario, it still doesn't behoove Apple to add that to iTunes unless it was looking to put Blu-ray drives on its own machines, which makes this (still very faint) rumor all the more interesting. Read - Apple iTunes 9 details, Blu-ray, app organization Read - Apple's next iMacs rumored with compelling new features
