Apple rolled out iTunes 5.0.1 yesterday , an update to iTunes 5 , which was released sooner this calendar month . The new release tot up stability to the ascent and , hopefully , solves some of the many problems users have been reporting with version 5 . With the more unchanging release out , it seems like an liable time to take a spirit at what ’s new .
The Brush-Off
The most obvious difference in the new version of iTunes is an entirely raw spirit . Thefamiliar brushed - metal interface is hold out . In its office is another metallic tone that look almost top - lit . Brushed Metal , which has been scorned by plenty of detractors over its prison term , seems to be on the way out . Although it still shows up in Safari , QuickTime Player , and the Mac OS Finder , among other places , we would not be surprised to see more and more covering taking on the look of the raw iTunes .
Even more noticeable , the windowpane has last borderless . Like the latest revision of Apple ’s Mail covering , the new version of iTunes 5 eschews a boundary line around its side edge in favor of more screen real - estate . Although it does n’t add a enormous amount of space , for users who care to max out the columns of information catch in the subroutine library window , every pixel counts and this will be a welcome change .
Smarter Searches
This version of iTunes has bellyache up how it manage searches , with a unexampled search bar that come out when you get in a query that lets you delimitate what eccentric of media you want to research for — videos , music , podcasts , audiobooks , and booklets — as well as allowing you to search establish on artist , record album , and track name .
research my depository library forHella , for case , displays four result : two track by the band of the same name , one track by the band Shellac , and another track by the band Gravy Train called “ Hella Nervous , ” the raceway that I ’m ostensibly looking for . If I dawn onNamein the lookup Browning automatic rifle , iTunes filters out the rail by Hella and Shellac , and only displayes the vocal that I was looking for . Although I used a pocket-size sample distribution size to illustrate this feature of speech , it ’s extremely useful for class through a foresightful listing of result , filtering out podcasts , and the like .
If you really like the hunting legal profession — and I do — you’re able to even make it a habitue in your iTunes window . Under the Edit menu , tap Show Search Bar . This will keep the novel saucy hunt bar on display along the top of the program library windowpane .
Podcasts
A potentially much bigger mass , video podcasts , are now amply supported . This is a major change that has n’t receive enough attention . Not only does it mean that Video on Demand potentiality now comes built into one of the most normally used app on both Windows and Mac machine , but it also brings Apple one whole tone closer to being the nonpayment video content provider .
If we expect at the pieces , Apple can now deliver television in the frame of vodcasts , music videos , and movie trailers directly to the background . The software that handles that picture is establish to sync seamlessly with the most popular medium player in the universe , the iPod . That same medium histrion already has video capabilities ( assuming you hack it ) . By corroborate video podcasting , iTunes is lay to be the premeir Internet - based TiVo - case system that allows users to watch what they want , when they want it . More notably , they can take that video with them anywhere . Apple ’s protestations about immersive experience notwithstanding , this seems like a major tone along the road that leads to Apple dominating the Internet video delivery business as it does medicine bringing .
Smart Shuffle
Search is n’t the only feature that got itself a tutor . shuffling is smarter now as well . An adjustable slider allows users to set how likely iTunes is to play multiple songs in a row by the same artist or from the same record album . take Less probable and you ’re , well , less potential to hear a twofer from Toto again . you may also dictate whether you desire shuffle to represent individual tracks , double-dyed album or groupings ( collections of the move of a Greco-Roman work ) . Choosing pure album or grouping , will play songs in the same order they appear on the album or in the grouping .
Folders
Another braggy change is the power to contribute booklet to the source list . leaflet can hold multiple play list or other brochure . How is this utile ? Let ’s say you ’ve got a lot of hip hop in your music collection . So much that you ’ve grow it engineer into several playlists : LXXX , ninety , 00s , West Coast , East Coast , Crunk , Dirty South , etc . But sometimes you want to listen to all of your hip hop tracks from every playlist . A folder will allow you to do that . founder the booklet , and it will show you every track in each playlist in one large list . Expand it , and you may give out it out into discrete playlists .
And a Few More
There are a few other features as well . iTunes also lets you supply lyrics to a raceway ’s ID3 tag now . Select a trail , choose File > Get Info , and click the Lyrics tab and you could add lyrics , which are viewable on the iPod nano ( other iPod models do n’t currently support lyrics ) . Another addition is the power to qualify access to podcasts , the music store , and partake in medicine libraries via paternal controls . Information may desire to be free , but that does n’t always mean you require your six year - former to get a line it .
Mathew Honanis a San Francisco - based author and photographer . His employment has also seem in Macworld , Wired , Time , and Salon .
