First Take: iTunes 9

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

iTunes 9 was announced today at this year's annual music event from Apple. Named the "It's Only Rock and Roll event," Apple didn't disappoint with the return of Steve Jobs, upgraded (and cheaper) iPod Nanos and Shuffles, and plenty of new iPhone app demonstrations from third-party developers. As many predicted, iTunes 9 (Mac or Windows) was also on the agenda and it received a number of cool new feature enhancements to make navigation and syncing to your devices easier. iTunes 9 is available today, but has not yet been added to Apple's software update service.

iTunes 9 has been cleaned up for easier navigation, redesigned with a new layout and a new black tabbed-menu system across the top of the iTunes Store interface. These new tabs replace the old left-side navigation to choose between categories like music, apps, movies, and podcasts. The layout for new content in the iTunes Store has been improved as well, with more browsable content in every category.

iTunes 9 photos

Along with the iTunes Store interface enhancements, Apple announced newly packaged digital content it referred to as "LPs." According to Apple, buying the full album will now give you new content, kind of like extras on a DVD. You can show songs with lyrics, explore bonus content, and check out extra content created by the musicians themselves. Additionally, you get the same new content for movies, with extras, bonus content, chapter selection, character details, and more.

The way you interact with apps on the iPhone and the iPod Touch has also been improved. Now your home screen can be interacted with visually, right inside the iTunes window, letting you drag apps wherever you want before syncing to your device. Apps can be dragged from page to page and within pages, and when you're done you can apply the changes to sync them to your device. iPhone syncing has been improved as well, with the ability to selectively sync specific artists or playlists, or sync your photos by specific albums or faces.

The new interface buttons across the top act as pull-down menus so you can drill down to the content you want.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Steve Jobs also announced that iTunes now offers Home Sharing. This new feature will let you share purchased songs across a home network. As long as all the computers on the network are on the same iTunes account, you can drag to copy songs to other computers. iTunes 9 also will automatically sync new purchases across your computers.

Overall, with new interface enhancements to the iTunes Store, a better way to organize apps on your iPhone or iPod Touch, and improvements to syncing, the new iTunes update offers plenty of improvements for iTunes users. As a free update, iTunes 9 is a no-brainer for those who use the program.

[Dima110]

Love iTunes 9.

[justwinbaby]

This new itunes is just unbearable to look at. Why in the hell would someone put a white background on this when the black was just great. I like my macbook but I'm not going to come out and tell some phony tale about how great this, because it isn't. And I'm still looking for a reason to why itunes needed this upgrade cause i'm just not seeing how this improves my experience one bit. Lastly getting rid of the shopping cart for a wish list was just dum.

[Tank252ca]

The white background was the first thing that my daughter complained about. It's absolutely ridiculous that after this many versions of iTunes you can't simply change the background colour or skin the interface. She also hates that they removed the shopping cart and force you to scroll all the way down to the bottom to access it. The only good thing in this version is Home Sharing.

Note to iTunes developers: RIght-click on background, select Properties, choose background colour or image.

It's that simple!

[jakemochas]

zune software lets you change backgrounds... i just installed it yesterday because of how much itunes 9 sucked

[saintsadvocate]

For the record, it is part of the software update.

Beware though, you need to have safari 4 to access the store. It isn't a big deal if you use windows, but with mac you need version 10.5.8 to install safari 4. I run a hackintosh, because mac's are so friggen expensive, and can't update to 10.5.8, so i miss out on itunes store and safari 4.. what a blow

[shakethebabyass]

Thank God For Zune.

[AnM16]

I agree, Zune is much better than iTunes

[JohnBisschop]

iTunes sucks compared to Zune!

[sriharsha_panja]

i love i tunes soooo much

[ivanji07]

I have my doubts...It seems like the biggest itunes ever - it's always been a memory-hog and this one I'm guessing it'll be worse; it's taken a considerable amount of time installing. I hope I'm proven wrong...and really hope it's faster than previous versions.

[henrybenryo]

why is it white?! it hurts my eyes!

[VoiceOfLogic]

please. stop whining. you're probably one that hate CAPS TOO.

[thestonegodsrock]

Still high cpu i have have a 2.20 ghz dual core processor with 2gb ram yet i cant load a page of firefox without itunes making crackling noises as all my cpu is being used! just playing a song itunes uses 20% CPU

also huge bug their task bar player dosen't work or respond since the update

they need to sort ot the resources used and task bar player problem!

[xaukael]

iTunes like most fancy players with fancy GUIs are a waste of CPU resources therefore a waste of time, I have a zune but only use the software to put music on the device. For just playing music I use foobar, almost no processing power rather than 20-50%

[Stled247]

2 gigs of ram? You mean you have the bare minimum? And your running firefox...also memory killing software. Try upgrading your ram or maybe running chrome.

[banj0smah0mie]

hmm. I have a 3 ghz pentium 4 with a gig of ram and iTunes works a dream.

[madonna915]

Somehow The glare from itunes is kinda hurting my eyes I had to lower the brightness of my laptop I never had this problem before...

I really like the home sharing feature it really saves time when transferring songs form itunes

[carloscalvo2010]

please me the itunes 9 download of the page the apple.com i have problems with software

[robertaffleck]

I find it annoying that iTunes arbitrarilly installs an Outlook Add-in without allowing me to accept it or not. Not nice Apple!

[ssfdre38]

I have the new iTunes 9 for Win vista and when i first opened it up it was white and it was burning my eyes for me i like the metal look they should keep it on the Win version as well as the mac

[VoiceOfLogic]

babies. my God.

[JusSayenzall]

Not babies. I happen to agree that the white background is absurd. I use iTunes in the dark and on a 30" screen, this new background lights up my room. Not a baby, just want the option to keep things as they have been.

[mohsas]

That is Great The Home shearing Features is been what we are waiting 4
Coz this saves and make great deal with our time, and the movies and songs is 4 the whole Family.
Thanks to iTunes9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999

[atomD21]

Ah yes, home shearing... for when the sheep get just too woolly. Thank you Apple, you've thought of everything!

[Xpress Music]

very nice!!!!!!!

[bighaich]

it's all very interesting

Was hoping this update would solve my problem I have been having. When syncing, iTunes just stops responding and I have to open task manager to kill it. Have to change the compatibility to XP to get it to sync properly. Have Googled and found lots of people with the same issue, but no fix. Any suggestions from the folks here?

[Stled247]

Back up. Then reformat. Sounds to me like a few botched files somewhere that might not even be iTunes related.

Thanks for the suggestion, but already tried it. Worked the very first time after the install, but after that it started freezing again. Don't really feel like formatting every time I need to sync haha.

[billwink3156]

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[DHSmd]

FIRST WISH: The app arrangement function is a huge improvement, but it needs more.

User should be able to configure the iPhone while it is off-line, then connect and synchronize it.

One problem with the current setup is if the phone suddenly loses USB connectivity (which mind often does) during configuration changes, those changes are lost. In addition, the entire system that requires the iPhone to be attached during ALL setup changes is just cumbersome.

[be4ugo2]

apple hasnt listened to my feedback either; and yes i like the metal page rather than white. however, i did like the old method of downloading, now it seems i have to sit at the laptop and wait for it to happen...........and im confused about syncing once again. why cant you just sync one catagory without waiting for your intire ipod touch to backup and reload. seems like you could just update your applications without the other hassle, right or am i missing something

[RichardGPruettJr]

Thanks to all who commented on the New Itunes update. After reading all your comments I decided that I would not download and install it. I don't use iTunes except to buy. I am using Windows Media Player and even with it I don't like some of its features. It is hard to make Favorites lists for me anyway. I like the Visualization that I use with it. Since the line below this says I can't advetise I won't say what I use but it is better than the Visualizations that came with WMP. I will say this Gee, may the FORCE be with you! ;)
Rick

[theobstruction]

Wow, now I can share a song across a network. Amazing. I've only been doing that for the last 12 years now with regular mp3s and anything I buy from the Amazon store using other media programs. What will Apple think of next, a mouse with a second button, or maybe a scroll wheel?

[jp7794]

X2