Apple iTunes 11.0.3

Apple's iTunes has long been an unparalleled source and player of music and video. The application had remained largely the same for over two years until the arrival of iTunes 11 (free), which marked a major rebuilding in features, interface, and underlying code. Not only does the iTunes 11 player have a clean new look and improved features, but so does the embedded iTunes Store. A big thrust of iTunes 11 is the inclusion of more iCloud features, jibing with Apple's iOS-and-Mac cloud syncing service. The latest minor update brings improvements to the recently redesigned and more powerful mini-player and a couple of other tweaks.

Here's what Apple has to say about what's new in the iTunes 11.0.3 update:

• New MiniPlayer.?MiniPlayer now includes a beautiful new view that showcases your album artwork. In addition, a progress bar is now built right into MiniPlayer.
• Improved Songs View.?You can now enjoy your album artwork while?in Songs view.
• Multi-Disc Albums.?Albums with multiple discs now appear as a single album.

Hardly as earth-shattering as some recent updates, but desirable stuff nevertheless. Let's take a look at these along with all the other music and video goodness Apple's player and store has to offer.

iTunes still has all those extras we've gotten used to over the years, including iTunes U, podcast playing, Genius, Home Sharing, the equalizer, the visualizer, a book store, and movie and TV show rentals as well as purchases. Another recent minor update adds something classical and jazz fans have been waiting for forever: a Composers View. One thing iTunes no longer shows any sign of is Apple's ill-fated music social network, Ping.

Installing
You can get iTunes for Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 in addition to Macintosh OS X version 10.6.8 or later. I tested the new iTunes on both Windows and Mac OS X. It's an 83MB download for Windows?slightly larger than version 10, which was already on the portly side. By comparison, Windows Media Player weighs in at just 12MB, and WinAmp is 11MB. (The Mac installer for iTunes is even larger, at 198MB.) The installer makes iTunes your default player for music files, but you can uncheck the box for this if you prefer an alternative like Windows Media Player or WinAmp. I had to close Outlook for some reason for the installation to proceed.

On first run of the updated app, after agreeing to the updated license agreement, I was offered tutorial videos explaining new features. A privacy option asked me to share details with Apple so it could display album covers and even artist photos from concerts and studio sessions. This choice also enables iTunes' new store recommendations, since poor old Apple really needs you to buy more and more content.

Interface
The interface seems even more trimmed down and muted than before, if that's possible?and it looks great. Even the standard app menu is gone in the Windows version (not Mac though), replacing it with a square icon in the extreme top left. (You can re-enable it if you like from the newfangled menu, however.) The AirPlay button is still there, so you can throw whatever you're playing to a home entertainment system attached to an Apple TV or one that supports AirPlay natively. You also get basic play/pause, fast-forward, and reverse controls, as well as a volume slider, and a search box along the top of the program window.

The left-hand sidebar is gone, but you won't miss it at all. Switching among Music, Movies, TV Shows is faster than before using the button at top left. It drops down choices for these media types. To get the new Classical choice in the Music view, you'll have to go into the Preferences dialog's Views section, and tick the first option, Composers. Switching between your library and the iTunes Store is no done using a button on the right. Next to the dropdown is a cloud icon for iCloud that's merely an indicator of whether iCloud is connected or actively downloading.

Clicking on an album drops down a panel the full width of the program window showing tracks, timings, album art, and play options (shuffle, repeat, and so on). You can also add album tracks to any play list or to Up Next (see next section) from here. In a slick design touch, the color of this panel is based on the album cover, so each will usually have a different shade. A button in this tinted area also lets you see related music available on the iTunes Store.

Up Next
A key new feature in iTunes 11 is Up Next. Accessible from a bullet-list icon next to the top-center song information area, it shows you a list of songs are on deck to be played. You can move or remove upcoming songs with the cursor. A clock icon takes you in the other direction chronologically, showing the list of songs you've already listened to. A new context menu next to song entries includes choices for Add to Up Next, as well as simply Play Next, and adding to playlists. Unfortunately, the Play Next and history lists didn't work for Internet radio stations such as SomaFm in my testing.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/U9po12iTxl4/0,2817,2368917,00.asp

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