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iTunes 8 Available for Download Now, We Test It Out
Posted by Adam Frucci at 4:37 AM on September 10, 2008
iTunes 8, complete with fancy Genius Playlists and grid view, just went live via Apple Software Update and on Apple.com. Go grab it if you're interested, and let us know how the fancy playlists work out for you. Hit the jump for our initial impressions.
First impression: this thing takes FOREVER to install and requires a restart. I want those 20 minutes of my life back, Apple. This is a media player for god's sake.
Second impression: it's eating all of my system resources going through my 120GB of music for Genius Playlists. This had better be worth it. It's using over 300MB of my system memory and it appears that it's going to take a good hour to handle this. You've been warned.
Grid view is pretty useless as far as I'm concerned. It makes sorting through your music collection next to impossible if it's even sort of large, and when you click an album to play it you can't see the album's tracklist. Couple that with the fact that half my albums don't have art attached and you have a feature I'm guaranteed to never use.
The new visualiser is AWESOME. I love it.
Is this a bug? The icon that goes next to whatever song is playing in list view doesn't seem to appear anymore. If I'm looking at a list of songs, the only way to see which is playing is to look at the top window and then find that title in the list. That's no good. Nevermind, it's back now. Not sure what the hell was going on there.
Update: about 40% into this Genius business. It's sloooowwwww.
Ho-kay! After like 3 hours Genius Playlists are working for me. My first try was selecting an ambient track (Tim Hecker; I listen to nerdy music, OK?). The playlist it came up with was full of indie rock (a lot of The National and Interpol for some reason) and made no sense whatsoever. Strike one.
Selecting a more well-known indie pop band (The Bird and the Bee) had better results, putting up a bunch of stuff of the same genre. Andre 3000 brought up a playlist of mostly hip hop, which is good, although it had some random wildcards in there as well (Tortoise? Really?).
I think the more mainstream and well known the music you use to source the playlists, the better. Until more people use it and Apple gets more data for more obscure acts, you're going to get random results. This is because it uses metadata from the songs; it doesn't actually analyse what's going on musically. This is why the recommendations made by Pandora are so awesome. In time, Genius playlists should get more useful, but I think I'll still stick to Pandora when I want to mix things up.
As for the recommended tracks in the sidebar, more often than not I found that it recommended stuff I already have. Maybe that's because most of my music wasn't purchased through iTunes (ahem), but most of the time the "Top Songs You're Missing" were in the album I was already listening to. [Apple]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
poo
Posted September 10, 2008 8:35 AM
Something wrong with you Mac man. My install took 4 mins, didn't require restart...
James
Posted September 10, 2008 11:41 AM
If the screenshot is his, then he is on a PC...
Anthony
Posted September 10, 2008 11:02 PM
Im running Vista x64 and am using iTunes 8. I have 4GB ram installed and a modest intel C2D cpu. The friggin iTunes is idle and is consuming 1.13GB of system memory!!!
nelson
Posted September 11, 2008 1:56 AM
after Installing iTunes 8 and turning on genius I can no longer hear my music through my laptops speakers or headset. If I go to any web sight to check out a video I hear the sound clearly and my Apple tv no longer displays in the upgraded iTunes 8
Pete
Posted September 11, 2008 6:08 PM
Apple always releases new versions of Itunes before all the bugs are worked out...I'm waiting until then.
Alan Frederik Wilkins
Posted September 11, 2008 9:23 PM
I have well over 300 albums on the latest I tunes version- yesterday I downloaded I tunes Version 8 thinking that the albums would automatically be carried into the new version-it appears that they were!-but when I tried to PLAY any album-( after I'd got the album artwork etc )the tracks would not play- in other words would not open -instead a pop-up told me that they were in a file somewhere else could not play- did I want to find them--QUESTIOn- where oh where can they be-are thay lost forever, or is there a method of getting them back- or- do I and if so how do I copy them back into the library ( V 8 ) from my IPod---any ideas- moss t grateful if anyone can help me--Thanks!!!
Tom
Posted September 12, 2008 12:13 AM
I'm running Vista x64 and am using iTunes 8. I have 3GB ram installed and Intel E6850. Running Genius, with coverflow open: iTunes is using 367,864k. Now I just wish album-less songs were grouped instead of each having their own 'album'..
Liam
Posted November 24, 2008 10:09 AM
Hey guys just wondering why i cant get i tunes off the i tunes website... like i go to click download in a side box and its telling me something bout a security cert. I'm also running windows vista home basic has that got anything to do with it maybe?
please help thanx.
FlashSandbox
Posted 5:23 AM 10/9/08
@vinnyr: If you're going to be a dick, at least spell things correctly. (i.e. your/you're) You're just making the ubuntu freaks look even worse.
FlashSandbox
janvanhoef
Posted 5:23 AM 10/9/08
OK, memory usage is falling after thumbnail creation, but still stuck at 300MB. Scrolling tile view is pretty fast. picasa-fast.
janvanhoef
vinnyr
Posted 5:21 AM 10/9/08
300MB? are your joking? Thats nothing! I have 4 gigs of memory and anything less then 2 gigs of use is not that much! I just ran it on my computer... 1 minute install time, genius opened instantly, I dont know what your talking about!
vinnyr
FlashSandbox
Posted 5:21 AM 10/9/08
@MichelleDatsun: Select a song and click the Genius Icon in the lower right. BAM! New playlist off that song.
FlashSandbox
janvanhoef
Posted 5:20 AM 10/9/08
100GB library here. It's creating artwork thumbnails and eating memory like crazy. 600MB in use and just halfway. Can't to actually being able to scroll in the tile view.
janvanhoef
FlashSandbox
Posted 5:19 AM 10/9/08
Uh oh...
FlashSandbox
enchantedduck
Posted 5:16 AM 10/9/08
@oxcar17: Hahaha im glad im not the only one who looked at the visualizers first thing when i opened itunes 8
enchantedduck
thegermandude517
Posted 5:15 AM 10/9/08
NO NO NO!!!! OMG... I want to start crying... the whole thing looks pretty much the same like the old one... It is getting really really OLD!
My demand for iTunes 9: a new library system PLEASE! and less bull that bloats the software
thegermandude517
xshortx
Posted 5:12 AM 10/9/08
New visuaizer looks awesome, as predicted!!
xshortx
Inepsa
Posted 5:10 AM 10/9/08
Sorry for another post but...
Shouldn't they have done the tile view like the iPhone album artwork? Where you can flip the tile over and select a song? Would have been neat.
Inepsa
MichelleDatsun
Posted 5:09 AM 10/9/08
Ok, Genius officially sucks on my iTunes. Every time you turn it off and then on, it's requires your password and then has to sync with the iTunes store, which takes forever. It doesn't offer up any of my own songs from my library and only shows what the iTunes Store recommends, which means this whole feature is just a marketing scheme.
MichelleDatsun
Inepsa
Posted 5:08 AM 10/9/08
Tile view is extremely quick and responsive. No album tiles have to load for me at all. I expected this with larger libraries.
The Genius has been looking over my files for a while now and is having some trouble I think. Maybe he does not like looking over to many files, so far the Genius does not seem all that smart.
Inepsa
saivior
Posted 5:07 AM 10/9/08
The genius playlist is taking a long time to load and I only have 4.59 GB of music... must be everybody else using it.
saivior
BasicBlack
Posted 5:06 AM 10/9/08
Genius loaded, but it keeps correcting my grammar and trying to explain uncertainty theory.
BasicBlack
Skeezy
Posted 5:05 AM 10/9/08
@PlasmaMachine: You shouldn't have too.
Skeezy
PlasmaMachine
Posted 5:04 AM 10/9/08
Ok I downloaded it from Apple.com but the only options I have are "Repair" and "Remove" iTunes.. When I open iTunes it doesn't mention anything about a new update being available or anything. Should I just wait for that?
PlasmaMachine
Rickster
Posted 5:04 AM 10/9/08
It's not showing up on itunes update or Apple Sotware update. I guess I'll just have to download from their website.
Rickster
beyondthetech
Posted 5:03 AM 10/9/08
Direct Apple links here:
iTunes 8 for Windows PC:
[appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net]
iTunes 8 for Mac OS X:
[appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net]
Required QuickTime update:
QuickTime 7.5.5 for Windows PC:
[appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net]
QuickTime 7.5.5 for Mac OS X Leopard:
[appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net]
QuickTime 7.5.5 for Mac OS X Tiger:
[appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite.net]
beyondthetech
FlashSandbox
Posted 5:02 AM 10/9/08
Genius takes FOREVER to setup. It has to analyze your *entire* library and then send that info to Apple. Blah.
I hope it caches this info in case you turn Genius off and then on again.
FlashSandbox
ttech10
Posted 4:57 AM 10/9/08
Downloading now, but in class so can't really check it out. :(
ttech10
oxcar17
Posted 4:55 AM 10/9/08
SWEET VISUALIZERS!!!
oxcar17
bms
Posted 4:55 AM 10/9/08
Are the Genius playlists going to be smarter then the knuckleheads at the genius bar?
bms
Inepsa
Posted 4:53 AM 10/9/08
It is taking quite a while to create the artwork thumbnails for my library. And is taking up tons of memory.
Inepsa
SurinaDeimachus
Posted 4:52 AM 10/9/08
Told me after installation it requires a Quicktime update too.
SurinaDeimachus
mcdj
Posted 5:47 AM 10/9/08
@ttech10:
what is this, Twitter?
mcdj
tvass
Posted 5:44 AM 10/9/08
And if my Iphone keyboard wasn't so janky, i could have spelled that correctly too.. dam it!!
tvass
Skeezy
Posted 5:44 AM 10/9/08
It took me 3 minutes to install iTunes 8 @_@ No need to update.
Skeezy
D.E.P.C.
Posted 5:44 AM 10/9/08
iTunes 8 is looking pretty bloated. I may be wrong but if I didn't have a gigantor monitor, I'd be kind of pissed.
Who knows, maybe all this isn't bloat and is functional. Maybe when I think of more features I think of Chris Farley when I should be thinking of Gov Arnnie.
D.E.P.C.
wanago
Posted 5:42 AM 10/9/08
Installed and now after a restart nothing. Windows installer comes up and now itunes says "The Folder path "Mozilla Firefox" contains an invalid character".
Soon now what? reload Mozilla, this really sucks
wanago
tvass
Posted 5:42 AM 10/9/08
A Big F U to all yall talking down to the Genuis!!
tvass
FlashSandbox
Posted 5:42 AM 10/9/08
@toreil: you could replace them in the app with clear .png files....
FlashSandbox
apeguero
Posted 5:42 AM 10/9/08
So, will it mess up my pwnd iPhone?
apeguero
SockMonkey
Posted 5:42 AM 10/9/08
No restart needed here after install. It did warn me that I would have to if I didn't close outlook first.
SockMonkey
tripplehelix
Posted 5:41 AM 10/9/08
Ahh! I'm busy downloading 2.1 for my Ipod touch and it won't let me download itunes 8 at the same time :D I've just recieved and applied a skin to my ipod from 'bestskinsever' so it's all sooo exciting :D
tripplehelix
toreil
Posted 5:40 AM 10/9/08
Why oh why can't i get rid of the itunes music store arrows!? Im liking the new features but im going to have to revert to 7.7 if i can't get rid of those circles of hell!
toreil
shinchan
Posted 5:40 AM 10/9/08
@vinnyr: Why would anyone run 5 different distro's unless it's for testing purposes?
Also, 300mb for playing music is a hell of a lot no matter how you look at it. Thank god my ipod broke and I don't have to use that resource hogging program ever again.
shinchan
joestoner
Posted 5:39 AM 10/9/08
Wow, we're all very impressed with the linux users whose OS clearly is better than OS X, what with all those great commercial-quality applications that surely are as good as Photoshop, Final Cut, or Pro Tools. Not to mention the wonderful graphics offered by the X Window system.
Your bickering and "my linux distro is cooler than yours" is the sort of stuff that keeps people away.
joestoner
ttech10
Posted 5:38 AM 10/9/08
@vinnyr: Took me about 2 minutes to install and everything on iTunes 8 is working very quick... and I'm on battery only with a regular MacBook with library size 25GB's.
ttech10
FlashSandbox
Posted 5:37 AM 10/9/08
"Is this a bug? The icon that goes next to whatever song is playing in list view doesn't seem to appear anymore"
The little speaker icon is still there...
FlashSandbox
PlasmaMachine
Posted 5:36 AM 10/9/08
Ok, I downloaded iTunes 8 via the link beyondthetech posted. That actually worked. Apple.com didn't give me the iTunes 8 setup, it gave me the iTunes 7 setup.. even though it's advertising iTunes 8. Installing 8 now.
PlasmaMachine
Crash Override 777
Posted 5:35 AM 10/9/08
It won't install for some reason...
Crash Override 777
joandrade
Posted 5:35 AM 10/9/08
Is it possible to have Genius on without an iTunes Store account?
joandrade
Late_Night
Posted 5:35 AM 10/9/08
Hmm, my iMac is handled the artwork in 2 minutes or so and no lag in the rest of my machine...the quicktime restart does suck. the genius thing is taking awhile, maybe dorks are crashing it
Late_Night
FlashSandbox
Posted 5:34 AM 10/9/08
@MichelleDatsun: That may be. I'm also having issues with some of my songs. Most work, but a few that I'd like to Genius won't work. Kinda annoying.
FlashSandbox
vinnyr
Posted 5:34 AM 10/9/08
@FlashSandbox: I actually use Ubuntu, Mint Linux, Fedora, DSL, and Suse on my Linux boxes, but I dont have ubuntu or any linux on my mac pro.
vinnyr
MichelleDatsun
Posted 5:32 AM 10/9/08
@FlashSandbox Well, for me it's not BAM. When I click the genius button on any of my songs I get an error message saying it cannot match any of my songs, which many are popular songs. I'm assuming that because my tracks may not be named the same was as they are in the store, that I get zero results. Genius is an iTunes Store marketing tool that just added another level of crap to the software, and is useless with your own library. On a personal note, I can't even believe how awful this upgrade is. It is bloated beyond comprehension and is something I would have expected from Windows Media Player.
MichelleDatsun
rudez90
Posted 5:32 AM 10/9/08
i am in looove with the genius playlists. really cool.
rudez90
FlashSandbox
Posted 5:31 AM 10/9/08
@vinnyr: Ubuntu (like RedHat before it) is the 'it' distro right now. I doubt anyone who's using ubuntu is laughing. I mean, they're going with the N*sync of linux. I've always been less pop-linux and gone with Slackware.
I'm guessing that most people aren't playing on a Mac Pro and most computers that are used day-to-day aren't full of RAM. I'd guess 1GB is the average. So 300mb is a lot to those users.
FlashSandbox
PlasmaMachine
Posted 5:31 AM 10/9/08
Ok am I missing something here?? I uninstalled my iTunes 7 because the auto-update for iTunes 8 doesn't show anything.. Now I go to install iTunes 8 after downloading it from Apple.com and it says I'm installing iTunes 7. I'm relatively new to the whole iTunes, iPod thing am I doing something wrong??
PlasmaMachine
emanresu
Posted 5:30 AM 10/9/08
at least they learned and didn't release the iTunes update on the same day as the iPhone update. remember that fun? (MS would have repeated the mistake 3 times by now)
emanresu
vinnyr
Posted 5:30 AM 10/9/08
@alexpr: same
vinnyr
DaWickedBird
Posted 5:29 AM 10/9/08
I didn't have to restart my Macbook?! :)
But it did prompt me to install a quicktime update..
DaWickedBird
alexpr
Posted 5:28 AM 10/9/08
Ok i dont get this post. It took me 30 seconds to download, and 1 minute to install, never asked me to restart.... so what are you talking about?????
alexpr
ngc6027
Posted 5:26 AM 10/9/08
Hey, I tried to install this on Vista, and it said something about the administrator having security settings in place to prevent installation. Does anyone know how to fix this??
ngc6027
janvanhoef
Posted 5:26 AM 10/9/08
Scrolling in list view is at least 5 times faster compared to 7.7. I think they've tweaked the thumbnail creation/cashing and that's why everything moves faster. Too bad you need a shitload of memory to run this.
janvanhoef
FlashSandbox
Posted 5:26 AM 10/9/08
@Waverider: Genius replaces the ministore.
FlashSandbox
vinnyr
Posted 5:26 AM 10/9/08
@FlashSandbox: First of all, Im not being a dick, I just saying in 2008 300mb isnt that much, second when you call someone an "ubuntu freak" People who use ubuntu laugh because you spent $200+ on an os that gets its ass kicked by a free os!
P.S. I did my test of itunes 8 on my mac pro, the 8 cores might explain my speed.
vinnyr
Waverider
Posted 5:25 AM 10/9/08
Wheres the ministore??? did they get rid of it????? I hope not. If someone no where to enable this feature again?
Waverider
gordeaoux
Posted 5:23 AM 10/9/08
@FlashSandbox: Maybe it's because I just woke up, but I was very annoyed that I couldn't click that OK.
gordeaoux
shifty_276
Posted 6:12 AM 10/9/08
anybody know if Apple decided to allow me to turn off Gapless Playback in this version?
I stopped using iTunes because my system always froze when it was checking for it.
shifty_276
amillians
Posted 6:12 AM 10/9/08
@okeo: My firstborn to whoever at Apple gets the new Visualizer (hell, *any* Visualizer) on AppleTV. Besides, she's been a real PITA lately, so no great loss. Although the wife would probably be upset.
amillians
vinnyr
Posted 6:10 AM 10/9/08
WOW THE visulizers actually move with the beat of the song! Robot rock by daft punk is a good song to test it on, the colors and stuff move around to the beat! I didnt know they did that.
vinnyr
Ksilebo
Posted 6:10 AM 10/9/08
Don't quite know WTF is wrong, but it installed in about a minute on my Macbook Pro that I haven't restarted in like a week.
Ksilebo
toreil
Posted 6:08 AM 10/9/08
@FlashSandbox:
Not possible is it?
toreil
kylo4
Posted 6:08 AM 10/9/08
I'm checking for updates, still nothing. What the hell.
kylo4
Stang70Fastback
Posted 6:07 AM 10/9/08
The visualizer was looking strange (some mysterious white/black orbs that looked like messed up graphics) and then iTunes crashed...
:(
Stang70Fastback
Late_Night
Posted 6:06 AM 10/9/08
Realize that when you add a new song you have to update the whole thing for Genius again. I just bought one song and updated it and i'm stucking going through the same process again.
Late_Night
vinnyr
Posted 6:05 AM 10/9/08
@johnnyabnormal: thanks for making me look at my mac pro and sighing... Why Cant I have 16 Gigs!!!! Why!!! Why cant you be more like johnnyabnormal's computer! I will never look at my mac pro the same way again because I know yours is better. (starts crying) WHY!!!!!!!!!!!
@shinchan: I have a bunch of machines that run different os's. I like ubuntu studio on my back up studio computer, Linux mint is on my laptop, all the rest are on old computers that are too slow to do anything.
vinnyr
Kymeira
Posted 6:04 AM 10/9/08
It's telling me that my iPhone with 2.0 installed is up to date. What ever happened to 2.0.1 and so on?
Kymeira
sharmanova
Posted 6:04 AM 10/9/08
Okay, is it just me or does this Genius playlist thingy rock. It IS Pandora and I love it.
sharmanova
ttech10
Posted 6:02 AM 10/9/08
@mcdj: Twitter?
ttech10
DaneB
Posted 6:01 AM 10/9/08
I have the same "only QT 7.5.5 is showing" issue. I'll try again after the update.
DaneB
strega
Posted 5:59 AM 10/9/08
I just did software update, the iTunes update didn't show but the quicktime did...off to update then play. Maybe I'll let it run during lunchbreak
strega
okeo
Posted 5:59 AM 10/9/08
Genius still doing its thing...
The new visualizer *is* trippy... Apple, pleeeeease put this on the AppleTV. That would look nice on a 50".
okeo
Lewis
Posted 5:59 AM 10/9/08
Are you getting prompted on Software Update or within iTunes to download 8? I'm not (says 7.7.1 is most recent) but was able to download from apple.com and install without incident. Mac.
Lewis
michaelportent
Posted 5:58 AM 10/9/08
I'd like to see some wildly different changes to iTunes for Apple. It's definitely gotten out of hand resource wise. When even Windows Media Player is more lightweight than an Apple application, you know something is wrong.
michaelportent
wbfisher
Posted 5:58 AM 10/9/08
Sidebar is annoying, but the playlist is fantastic. Now they just need to incorporate this with Remote and I'm happy.
wbfisher
alukard
Posted 5:57 AM 10/9/08
Vista user here btw and no restart required.
alukard
ikelleigh
Posted 5:56 AM 10/9/08
In grid view, double-click an album to see the play list, press "All Albums" to return to grid view. That simple.
What I DON'T like is that preferences seem to have been removed... most specifically the one to turn off that annoying arrow to go to the iTunes store.
ikelleigh
mcjake
Posted 5:56 AM 10/9/08
thanks for the heads up on the system memory. I will do it tonight instead of right now in the middle of work.
mcjake
alukard
Posted 5:53 AM 10/9/08
No restart here, it all went smoothly but frankly i'm not impressed with anything, same old same old.
Honestly I wish iphone was compatible with gorgeous and smooth Zune Marketplace software.
alukard
endless
Posted 5:52 AM 10/9/08
hackintosh?
anyone anyone?
endless
Camperton
Posted 5:51 AM 10/9/08
No restart is required on macs. Took 1 minute to install and 5 minutes to create thumbnails from my album art.
Camperton
PlasmaMachine
Posted 5:51 AM 10/9/08
The Genius thing is pretty cool.. Too bad the iTunes store wont let me buy anything right now.
PlasmaMachine
vinchbr
Posted 5:51 AM 10/9/08
let the bugs and complaints swarm in =D
vinchbr
johnnyabnormal
Posted 5:50 AM 10/9/08
@vinnyr: No dick measuring contest, but 16 GB here. I'm sure it will come in handy if this install is that absurd!
johnnyabnormal
Bats
Posted 6:37 AM 10/9/08
iTunes running slow on PC versus a Mac is crap. I'm running the same or better hardware as any MacHat and this thing is a behemoth. This is either lazy or stupid or both on the part of Apple.
Bats
0ctan3
Posted 6:35 AM 10/9/08
this one is definitely a DEALBREAKER. BOO iTunes 8 @Big Jim Slade:
0ctan3
okeribok
Posted 6:30 AM 10/9/08
I thought that everybody knew that iTunes for Windows sucked. Why are you complaining? It's not doing anything unexpected...
On my Mac pro 2GHz, it installed in less than a minute and made thumbnails and the genius lists in 18 minutes, on a 4,500 song library (which is more informative than mentioning the size in this case).
okeribok
EricLA2NYC
Posted 6:30 AM 10/9/08
@Late_Night: Thanks Late_Night, I'm relieved. Looking forward to checking out the new Magnetosphere. Glad people are responding so favorably. The others are okay, but I don't use them any where near as often as I do Magnetosphere -- it sets the standard in my opinion.
EricLA2NYC
buyrihn
Posted 6:29 AM 10/9/08
I'm actually liking the grid view quite a bit- it's nice for just browsing some music, when you don't know which kinda mood you're in. And the new Genius mode is working really well... for SOME music. It seems to excel at West Coast Rap so far. Whether these new playlists (the Genius ones) will shop up on my iPhone, I'm not sure yet.
buyrihn
Big Jim Slade
Posted 6:28 AM 10/9/08
just to second the motion in these comments....
When the browser (GENRE/ARTIST/ALBUM) is visible, you used to be able to turn off the visibilty of the GENRE column in the Prefs>General pane.
That option is no longer offered and it's definitely needed.
Please post feedback for the return of this feature:
[www.apple.com]
Big Jim Slade
rudeadly
Posted 6:26 AM 10/9/08
BRING BACK THE OLD ALBUM VIEW. I like to see the tracks broken up by album with the art next to it. Why is this gone!!! *whiiineeee*
rudeadly
Jkuhn
Posted 6:25 AM 10/9/08
Finally! the grid view is the one reason why i hated itunes and used WMP. 16gb touch here i come!
Jkuhn
Late_Night
Posted 6:23 AM 10/9/08
@EricLA2NYC: I had the old magnetosphere which i'm happy is still there, the new one is a nice addition.
Late_Night
strang
Posted 6:22 AM 10/9/08
WMP uses less resources? Damn I wish iPhone sync doesn't require iTunes.
strang
EricLA2NYC
Posted 6:21 AM 10/9/08
I've had Magnetosphere for months now, since it was first released. The "Apple" version looks enhanced, I don't remember seeing "swirling gas/plasma" effect in my version. For anyone who also had the older Magnetosphere, does the "Apple" version erase over the older version, or does it add a second version? I wonder if there's a way I can compare the two versions to see if they are different in case I want to keep the older version too.
EricLA2NYC
Paul D
Posted 6:19 AM 10/9/08
Mad Season FTW
Paul D
TheCardCheat
Posted 6:18 AM 10/9/08
It looks like the "Genre" category is stuck on the browser. That kind of sucks... I use the browser all the time.
Artist? Yes. Album? Yes. Genre? What for?
TheCardCheat
Late_Night
Posted 6:17 AM 10/9/08
@amillians: Amen. To the AppleTV thing, I personally have no reason to think of your child as a PITA, I'm sure she's great in light doses.
Late_Night
Steel_Pelican
Posted 6:17 AM 10/9/08
Apple apparently assigns images to your genre's when you're in grid view, and most of them are terrible. Anyone know how to change these?
Steel_Pelican
DaWickedBird
Posted 6:15 AM 10/9/08
@DaWickedBird: Took about 5-7min for the genius thing to do its thing for me. Got about 25Gb music, on a 1.66Ghz Core Duo Mac Mini
DaWickedBird
Tim Faulkner
Posted 6:59 AM 10/9/08
@ikelleigh: Oops, sorry, you're right, it's there. Nice catch. Sorry if I confused what you were saying with the "View Artwork" pane and thanks.
Tim Faulkner
Tim Faulkner
Posted 6:52 AM 10/9/08
@ikelleigh: Yeah, that doesn't really cut for two reasons: it only displays the active, when I can frequently see several albums in list view and I have tons of playlists and sources and I want that real estate in the sidebar.
@Tim Faulkner: What I REALLY, REALLY want is the 3-pane browser in Tile and Coverflow view. My library makes both of these modes pretty silly, but using the browser, I could make my large collection navigable. (And I have enough screen real estate to still fit browser, view panel, list panel.)
Tim Faulkner
ptzink
Posted 6:52 AM 10/9/08
Here are my early observations. Some of this may have been covered in the comments above, but I wasn't going to read every one of those things.
-My speaker icon next to my "Now Playing" song is gone as well. WTF?
-The Genius analyzing took forever
- This visualizers are cool, but I stopped using that feature back in 1999 when I was rocking Winamp. I thought everyone was over visualizers. I guess not.
- You can operate the play/pause/skip track buttons without iTunes first having to gain focus. This has been a pet peeve and I believe this is the first version you can do that in.
- Even more bloat. The install takes forever and it uses more system resources that 7.7
ptzink
nbenko
Posted 6:48 AM 10/9/08
okay, i wasn't going to grab this, but new visualizer? yes plz!
nbenko
ikelleigh
Posted 6:47 AM 10/9/08
@rudeadly: Click on the list view button... there is a little arrow on the column bar above the track names on the far left. It is probably pointing to the right. Click it and it will show the album art in list view.
ikelleigh
johnnyabnormal
Posted 6:42 AM 10/9/08
@vinnyr: If it makes you feel any better, it's not even a Mac Pro, it's a lowly G5 Quad. At least you can go up to 32 GB, mine is maxed out at 16 GB for audio related work. The upside is that those 16 GB only cost $400 since the G5 is going extinct.
johnnyabnormal
Tim Faulkner
Posted 6:38 AM 10/9/08
@rudeadly: It's kind of still there: double-click on grid-view from a higher-level (artist, genre, composer). But I agree. Seems like it would be consistent and easy to make it a checkable/viewable "column" in list view like the other meta-data.
I hope it's not too long before people figure out how to hack the "genre" icons. The defaults are kind of lame, and I'd like to create my own for custom genres I've created.
Tim Faulkner
misterwho
Posted 6:38 AM 10/9/08
For some reason I feel like I should wait for version 8.0.1. My iPhone/iTunes update experiences haven't been so rosy.
misterwho
CSX321
Posted 7:22 AM 10/9/08
@okeribok: "I thought that everybody knew that iTunes for Windows sucked."
As a software developer for, lo, these last 20+ years, I tried to make that point on here a while back and was crucified for it.
CSX321
terraform
Posted 7:21 AM 10/9/08
NO SALE
terraform
PlayerX
Posted 7:17 AM 10/9/08
If we've got the old version of iTunes, does it affect our ability to hear Podcasts? I was just trying to listen to a Penny Arcade 'cast I got a long time ago while I was having lunch, and it'd "play," but nothing was going on....
For example, the Play button turned into the Pause button, as per usual, but the track wasn't moving along and no sound was happening.
BOO!
So, now, I'm upgrading. Hope it's a) worth it, and b) that it won't kill my PowerBook G4 12" in the process... that thing sounds like it'll eat all my RAM. I've only goy 1.25GB!
PlayerX
dombutchello
Posted 7:15 AM 10/9/08
For some reason, Genius seems to have an affinity for putting Neutral Milk Hotel, Animal Collective, and Sufjan Stevens in every Genius playlist, no matter what the base song is. It's kind of amusing, actually.
As far as helping users discover new music, it's lacking.
dombutchello
StlHakusho
Posted 7:15 AM 10/9/08
211.47GB / 40,030 songs / 3,015 albums
Took about 20 minutes to install and is using up 474MB of memory while loading up the Genius sidebar which seems like it's going to take fooorever.
I'm really hoping this has a shuffle album feature and I don't understand why Apple didn't think of putting the tracklist for the album you're listening to in one of their two sidebars now.
StlHakusho
ikelleigh
Posted 7:15 AM 10/9/08
One thing I hope the 2.1 firmware fixes... the insanely long time to update apps...
Some things I like... Genius works pretty nicely actually. Kind of like an advanced Party Shuffle (which I never used). Scrolling in list view showing album art is SO much faster. Grid view looks pretty good, though I'm not sure how much I'll use it.
I hope that they update the Remote app to utilize this Genius feature. Would be fun for parties.
ikelleigh
metalgear08
Posted 7:08 AM 10/9/08
Wow. I actually REALLY like the new iTunes. Like seriously. Genius takes the hassle out of painstakingly picking songs for playlists, and the icon view is awesome.
metalgear08
Late_Night
Posted 7:08 AM 10/9/08
@gear21: It Works! If you like that song then you're really going to like it a second time.
Late_Night
gear21
Posted 7:05 AM 10/9/08
It recommends songs I already have, under the EXACT same name for both the artist and the song, no mis-spells or anything.... what up with that?
gear21
Rev. Eaton Yorke Hunt
Posted 7:52 AM 10/9/08
AVAST, Ye Men of the Sea!
If it's not a bother now - I be wundrin if me matey's pilfered playlists'll be playin sweet and priddy with this here "genius".
Rev. Eaton Yorke Hunt
Malacandra
Posted 7:51 AM 10/9/08
"Genius" did take a long time to sift through my collection, but when done it seems pretty decent at creating playlists of related content, and I like that very much.
However, there's one Epic Fail about the system they employ: the artist MUST be somewhere in the iTunes store. That's usually not a problem, but one implication is that you can't expect to find any Beatles in any of your Genius playlists.
In fact, you'll get an error that "Genius sidebar could not find matches for your specific selection..." if you choose a Beatles song...
I know - obscure band from the 60's...
Malacandra
BigPapaCherry
Posted 7:49 AM 10/9/08
I read a bunch of the comments but too not all the 126, so sorry if this was answered but..
Does iTunes 8 have folder monitoring yet?!
BigPapaCherry
Tim Faulkner
Posted 7:45 AM 10/9/08
@Osmodious: 34,000+ tunes took me about 15 minutes, and it works in the background. It's no biggy.
Not really digging the paler, 3D-ish playing icon, but that's a minor quibble.
Tim Faulkner
nXt
Posted 7:42 AM 10/9/08
This crap looks like what the Zune already has. Except when you click an artist, you can view their albums, then click the album and the track list shows up on the right side (all 3, artist, album, song list, viewable on 1 screen).
Can sort via album year, date added, genre, etc.. *yawn*
nXt
oliveboy
Posted 7:37 AM 10/9/08
iTunes for windows is a bloated, dog slow, P.O.S. Now, MORE SO!! Thanks!
oliveboy
Osmodious
Posted 7:31 AM 10/9/08
4,500 song library? Geez, I'm screwed...I've got somewhere around 52,000 songs. This is going to take a week on my machine.
OR...I could just stick with version 6.something like I've been using forever...
Osmodious
PlayerX
Posted 7:31 AM 10/9/08
@PlayerX: Yup, indeed, iTunes was preventing me from listening to my Podcasts... I installed the new one.
Reports of how long it takes to install it are greatly exaggerated. PBG4 12" FTW!
PlayerX
LifesSweetDrug
Posted 7:27 AM 10/9/08
:O :O :O
I am amazed to find someone else who like's Kyuss, Mad Season and Screaming Trees.
I shall now worship you. *Bows down*
LifesSweetDrug
wanago
Posted 7:27 AM 10/9/08
The only way I can now start iTunes is if I first get a itunes weblink and it eventually launches itunes. I cannot open itunes by clicking on the icon at all.
wanago
clayton620
Posted 8:12 AM 10/9/08
I just ran software update for my imac and it said my current version of itunes (7.7.1) was the most recent version. Anyone else have problems with this? I live in Dallas
clayton620
Sketchee
Posted 8:10 AM 10/9/08
@gear21: It's funny because my bf always hates using my ipod in the car because things are sometimes misspelled. His are organized perfectly for this.
Itunes really needs spell check using it's artist database. Of course why would they do that when you should just buy songs from the music store and have them perfect. ... But seriously, the program is bloated enough without that but it would be cool if they could do it efficiently
Sketchee
vinnyr
Posted 8:08 AM 10/9/08
@johnnyabnormal: i wish i could afford 16 gigs of ram for the current mac pro, upgrading from 2 gigs to 4 costs 500 bucks, thats $250 a gig!!!!!
vinnyr
bodah
Posted 8:06 AM 10/9/08
My God this is taking FOREVER
bodah
Timooo
Posted 8:04 AM 10/9/08
Why does the grid view in the screen of this article give the artwork rounded edges? Mine are just squares on my iTunes.
Anyway, Genius bar sucks. Thank god I only have like 2000 songs, so it took like a couple of minutes without any notable hassle.
But I like the grid view, it's stylish. But I usually only use coverflow to navigate through my music, so I don't really care about it.
Timooo
Willnz
Posted 8:03 AM 10/9/08
@Tim Faulkner: Yeah, I'm thinking (hoping?) that because iTunes can't access the song files (which are on an unconnected harddrive), it can't access the Artwork. Isn't Artwork from iTunes embedded differently or something>?
Willnz
Darragh
Posted 8:02 AM 10/9/08
I really don't like it. Album Art Grid view is unusable for me for a couple of reasons:
-It sorts albums by album artist name first, and then alphabetically by album. There doesn't seem to be an option to simply sort it alphabetically by album, which is how I've been used to viewing my music in all my years using iTunes.
- It's far too unwieldy for use on libraries of anything approaching a large size. I have 7,710 songs, which seems to be too big for the system to handle (not in terms of iTunes' ability to physically handle the volume, but in terms of how user-friendly it is to use).
- The actual user interface when using this view is a serious flaw in its design. It takes far too many clicks to start playing the song you want. I could live with an "Coverflow on an iTouch" style system, whereby clicking on an album cover would cause it to move more to enlarge and flip around, revealing the album's tracklist.
Then, on top of this, my favoured view in iTunes 7, the album art list view (album art on the left, track listing on the right) has been altered as well. While there used to be a very aesthetically-pleasing gap between the last track on one album and the first track on the next, this is now gone, making it look like a dodgily-formatted Excel spreadsheet.
I'm disappointed, is what I'm getting at, I guess. Apple really need to pull back a little from their obsession with "innovation" with a program like this, and start to focus a LOT more on refining what they've already got, with a view to making the experience as intuitive as possible for the end user.
The visualiser IS lovely, though.
Darragh
PlayerX
Posted 8:01 AM 10/9/08
@PlayerX: I just noticed Software Update only gave me version 7.7.1... downloading version 8 now. We'll see how it goes!
PlayerX
Tim Faulkner
Posted 8:00 AM 10/9/08
@Willnz: None of my artwork disappeared, and almost none of it is from iTunes.
Tim Faulkner
Willnz
Posted 7:57 AM 10/9/08
Thoughts:
1) Seems to have removed I lot (around half) of my Album Artwork. I'm hoping this is because my songs are on an external harddrive which isn't connected at the moment, as it seems to only be showing artwork which is available from the iTunes Music Store. Can anyone confirm this?
2) What's with the "Compilations" as an artist? Why does Apple feel the need to change things like this? Reminds me of the idea of putting numbers at the end alphabetically. It just doesn't make sense.
3) Genius sidebar is completely pointless. Genius playlists are actually quite cool, even if they throw up some surpsrises now and again.
4) Grid view is ok, but I can't see myself using it. I tend to use Cover Flow in Party Shuffle (where I listen to songs) and List View in Library (where I find songs).
Willnz
gear21
Posted 7:55 AM 10/9/08
Genius should have some kind of feedback on its recommendations for it to work better... kind of like "love" and "ban" on Last.fm
gear21
MatchzMalone
Posted 7:53 AM 10/9/08
I just realized my io9 account worked here...
So, Ive found that my Smart Playlists... OWN the Genius Playlists that are being provided for me. I am currently chronicling my experience on my website, but yeah I'd agree that pandor is definitely more useful.
MatchzMalone
contempt
Posted 8:40 AM 10/9/08
Has anybody run into issues with jailbroken/cracked apps loading through itunes? Want to be safe before I update. Also, any noticeable backup speed differences syncing the iphone. Obviously 2.1 on Friday but wondering if this update helped.
contempt
DePaulBlueDemon
Posted 8:30 AM 10/9/08
@clayton620:
I experience this as well. Just go to Apple's site and manually download iTunes 8.
DePaulBlueDemon
JDBishop5
Posted 8:30 AM 10/9/08
On sign in I find a prompt that says, 'This person record requires harvesting.'
I click 'continue,' and I get 'The person record requires harvesting.'
Over and over and over and over...
No explanation. NOTHING!
WTF?
JDBishop5
Tim Faulkner
Posted 8:30 AM 10/9/08
@Darragh: Yeah I don't like Album Artist, Album for Album sorting. Hopefully a hack for that will emerge quickly.
Tim Faulkner
PlayerX
Posted 8:28 AM 10/9/08
@clayton620: Go to the iTunes website and download it. Software Update did the same to my PBG4.
PlayerX
DePaulBlueDemon
Posted 8:28 AM 10/9/08
So far I have not had any luck with Genius. It gathers my current song list (sloooowly) and then attempts to send it Apple at which point it stops and is unable to complete the process. I guess Apple's servers are getting a workout. However, I don't anticipate getting much use out of this anyway so it's not a problem.
DePaulBlueDemon
PlayerX
Posted 8:27 AM 10/9/08
@PlayerX: Installed version 8... still only took a minute.
PlayerX
Tim Faulkner
Posted 8:23 AM 10/9/08
I wish their was a preference to disable the (x Albums, y Songs) second line in tile view. Maybe someone will find a terminal hack for it. Please?
Tim Faulkner
Tim Faulkner
Posted 8:19 AM 10/9/08
@gear21: If you have dupes, why doesn't it make sense that both songs would appear under the same recommendation standards. But you have dupes, what's up with that?
Tim Faulkner
PC+Mac Coexist
Posted 8:18 AM 10/9/08
Genius has been amazing for me so far. Picks a playlist perfectly.
PC+Mac Coexist
mruler360
Posted 8:56 AM 10/9/08
I'm surprised. Somebody besides me has a kaiser cheifs album.
mruler360
Tim Faulkner
Posted 8:54 AM 10/9/08
I'm also thinking grid view should have breaks with each letter, make it more navigable for large collections by providing cues when scrolling.
Tim Faulkner
endless
Posted 8:47 AM 10/9/08
btw:
working on hackintosh just fine:
kalyway 10.5.2
d975xbx2
q6700
bfg 8800GT
endless
MFlick
Posted 8:46 AM 10/9/08
I LOVE THE UPDATES! i have been rediscovering music in my library that the genius has recommended!
MFlick
StlHakusho
Posted 9:18 AM 10/9/08
Oh sure, iTunes for Windows may be bloated, but it's not a problem because we can have super fast computers for pretty cheap prices compared to the Mac users. So handling bloated software isn't an issue for us.
StlHakusho
matt buchanan
Posted 9:18 AM 10/9/08
@mruler360: That's actually my library, for better or for worse.
matt buchanan
Tim Faulkner
Posted 9:43 AM 10/9/08
@Malacandra: Thanks for that. That's perfect, particularly sorting Album view by Album Title first. Thanks again.
Tim Faulkner
Malacandra
Posted 9:39 AM 10/9/08
@Tim Faulkner: it does.
Or, should I say, that's an option. CTRL-Click (or right-click) on the Albums/Artists/Genres/Composers tabs and you'll see the option" "Group Artists" (or Genres, depending on which you clicked on).
It provides a divider for each letter, and some of the tabs provide stats, like number of artists for that letter, number of songs, etc.
The right click (CTRL-Click) also provides some sorting options for Albums.
Malacandra
stokessd
Posted 9:38 AM 10/9/08
Genius is to Pandora as McDonalds is to fine dining...
Sure, at first blush it sort of works like pandora, but make a few playlists and look at them. If you have eclectic tastes that span many genre's you'll find oyur playlist is often crap. I'm not sure what it's doing at times, it's not analyzing the music like pandora or some of the 3rd party "smart playlist" tools.
I see more bloat with nothing compelling.
Also somebody please explain to me why I'm syncing a calendar,addresses, bookmarks, email and pictures through my music playing program when I've got iSync sitting right next to it. How is using iTunes as a sync conduit intuitive? Apple please fix this. And when you are fixing that, make iTunes small and streamlined again.
stokessd
KStrike155
Posted 11:16 AM 10/9/08
So mine just finished all of the Genius stuff.
I must say, it worked VERY well. I have a very diverse library. It ranges from Miles Davis and Coltrane to Massive Attack to Dream Theater to 2Pac. I chose a song by Lemon Jelly, a not-well-known "electronic" (? they can't even define themselves) band from England, called "Homage to Patagonia". It made a great playlist out of that with many different artists, but a similar style (although nothing can compare to Lemon Jelly's style... one in its own).
Choosing Dream Theater's "Pull Me Under (2007 Remix)" made a similarly impressive list. I can't wait to see what this turns into once everyone hops on board.
On another note, my iTunes is using LESS CPU and RAM than before. Playing a song, it's currently at 75MB. While it was doing the Genius stuff it hovered around 400MB, though. But, people, that's the be expected when doing something like that!
All in all, I think a pretty good release. It's a *little* bloated, but seriously it's really deep.
Brian
KStrike155
OMG! Ponies!
Posted 11:06 AM 10/9/08
Genius is slower than snot in loading up a 15000 song library on a VAIO Core2Duo T8100 2.1GHz, Vista 3GB RAM. Processing the albums took a while and iTunes has crashed once already.
It's bloated. Big and slow and bloated. I miss iTunes 7.7.1
OMG! Ponies!
Alessandro
Posted 11:58 AM 10/9/08
Anyone here also noticed that the new grid view is really made for a touch tablet (probably macbook touch??). The interface is pretty the same as iphone/ipod touch. I would like to know your opinion...
Alessandro
OMG! Ponies!
Posted 12:16 PM 10/9/08
Genius is about as genius as a Mac Genius. I randomly clicked on Ill Communication. iTunes told me I was missing "No Sleep Till Brooklyn". I clicked on "License to Ill" and played "No Sleep Till Brooklyn".
Genius is telling me I'm missing "No Sleep Till Brooklyn". iTunes FAIL
OMG! Ponies!
OMG! Ponies!
Posted 12:11 PM 10/9/08
@alexis: Grid view is obnoxious. Bring back the column with the album art thumbs on the left.
OMG! Ponies!
HotFootMcCook
Posted 12:11 PM 10/9/08
I'm screwed if Genius requires pretty mainstream tunes.
And good choice in music, Adam! The National, Radiohead, Death Cab, Sigur Ros, Explosions in the Sky, Broken Social Scene, NIN, RATM, etc.
A *hi5* for you sir. And nice write up of the new version. Sadly, it is probably even slower on Windows D:
HotFootMcCook
Benitocarmona
Posted 12:53 PM 10/9/08
Crashed my pc when open
Benitocarmona
Ike_Skelton
Posted 12:43 PM 10/9/08
Sounds like "genius" is what would happen to Pandora if Pandora were a person who got hit in the head with a brick. It doesn't even analyze the songs??? Apple, you just made the list.
Ike_Skelton
Ike_Skelton
Posted 12:37 PM 10/9/08
WTF?! You have to have an iTunes account to get "genius" working?!? Eat me Apple. iTunes sucks. It won't even updated my library when I modify a song in my music folder, or if I add a new CD to my folder. Piece of shit. This is why I didn't use iTunes for the last 3 or 4 years. It looks like shit on my beautiful Vista too. I though Apple was all about being pretty and what not?
Ike_Skelton
Kaiser-Machead on the Edge
Posted 1:07 PM 10/9/08
@OMG! Ponies!: I'm glad they didn't get rid of that. This thing would be unusable without it.
@Ike_Skelton: You have to have an account to be able to snag artwork from Gracenote as well. You don't need to give them a credit card. Accounts can be made for free, so I don't see what all the fuss is about. I will agree about the file updating. If it tracked folders that would be much much much MUCH nicer.
I guess my old Inspiron must be secretly snorting some magical Pink-Bunny cocaine, because it actually handles the new iTunes like a champ. My collection isn't that large, just shy of 10GB, and the genius function actually works for me, same on the Macbook. I don't know if I can believe the folks that said they didn't need to restart, because I certainly did.
I agree that grid view is useless. When I enter the album and then backtrack back into the grid, I fucking hate that it doesn't take me to where I was and I have to scroll around to find it again. I keep it on the list view, which actually runs better than the previous version of iTunes right now. Grid view is only good for doing full album manual syncing with your iPod, but is piss poor for media playback.
Kaiser-Machead on the Edge
ptzink
Posted 1:46 PM 10/9/08
Okay, so the "Genius" playlist feature only recognizes music that is in the iTunes store evidently. So no Beatles GPs. I have no problem with Apple wanting to push you to buy music from the iTunes store (never bought a song from there myself), but if your going to have a feature, find a way to make it valuable to the user as well as profitable to your bottom line. "Dumb" playlists definitely have nothing on Pandora. Good try though Apple.
ptzink
Gearz1701
Posted 1:33 PM 10/9/08
Mine installed with no issues, but I did install the "64 bit" (not really 64 bit but that's ok) version. It took about 5 minutes to install on my computer, no restart required, but it only took 5 minutes to render the album thumbnails for a 6614 song library. The Genius list is lame since it's not very useful or affective if it recommends stuff I already have. Otherwise this update isn't all that major.
Gearz1701
ReynaldoRiv
Posted 1:32 PM 10/9/08
It Downloaded and fully installed in less than 4 minutes... I don't see what the problems are...
ReynaldoRiv
OMG! Ponies!
Posted 1:28 PM 10/9/08
It took a while to set up. 15,000 songs (1100 albums) all pretty much catalogued.
They need to separated the Genius Store from Genius Playlists. The "Songs You're Missing" just begs to be mocked for its gross inaccuracies.
I really don't like the grid view. Coverflow is laggier. Syncing is quicker. I'm still not registering any firmware updates for my iPod classic or my iPhone 3G.
It seems bloated. Cupertino needs to take BART field trip to find out how the Google boys strip down software to run quick.
And while they're at it, improve the look of iTunes overall. Chrome looks phenomenal. The glass frame looks sharp. That's the sort of extra that makes a program "feel" good. Staring at the same looking program that runs a little sluggish on a high-end system is a real bringdown.
OMG! Ponies!
FeliciaTubertus
Posted 8:23 AM 10/9/08
you guys are all on crappy Windows PC's Im running a 2.2 GHZ macbook Pro with an intel core 2 duo processor, and it flew through the wizard set up (2 minutes tops) and i didnt have to restart. I have a 100GB library as well. PC's suck.
FeliciaTubertus
Tim Faulkner
Posted 2:12 PM 10/9/08
@ptzink: We have to wait and see. The system updates every week. Maybe we are only receiving info on the store because that's all the info they had before today. Next week they will have the combined music libraries of millions beyond what is in their store.
Tim Faulkner
Chris2812
Posted 2:44 PM 10/9/08
as you might know, hitting ctrl option command 8 all at the same time inverses you display, black is white, blue is orange, purple is green and so on... doing it while watching the visualizer make it twice as awesome.
Chris2812
aamith
Posted 2:41 PM 10/9/08
this is terrible. it runs fine, loaded my 31000 songs in about 30 mins. genius is fine, some very strange choices in here, but it will probably get better with time. but! it's using 640mb of memory? ummm...that's too much! i can't use itunes in the background with lightroom and cs3 running if it's using that much of my 4gb.
aamith
D.E.P.C.
Posted 3:11 PM 10/9/08
iTunes 8 is using 1.11 GB of memory! WTH!
D.E.P.C.
JazzmanSA80
Posted 3:08 PM 10/9/08
I think it stands to reason that the Genius playlist really only has a good chance of being effective with a large library- a 3 or 4 thousand song minimum.
My results were mostly good with a 4000-ish song library.
JazzmanSA80
AUAnonymous
Posted 4:12 PM 10/9/08
I didn't have to restart. Maybe it's because I'm on Vista...
AUAnonymous
Vestan_Pance
Posted 6:37 PM 10/9/08
You folks who've installed iTunes 8 - do you actually like it? From the comments posted it seems to me that it's a bit of a disappointment?
Given that I have a 180Gb library, complete with artwork, I'm thinking this is going to take me all day to install and configure...
Vestan_Pance
JDBishop5
Posted 8:00 PM 10/9/08
I'm in China. I downloaded the software and it works fine. No problem thus far. Then I tried to turn on the genius. It wanted my account info. I gave it 'em. I said I'm in China and I USE ENGLISH!!! As soon as I did that, BANG, everything is in Chinese and there is no obvious way to turn it back to English. Nice. REAL nice.
JDBishop5
bishara
Posted 9:35 PM 10/9/08
my thoughts:
-can't remove the store link arrows
-import settings are gone!
-grid view is nice
bishara
surfjim
Posted 11:16 PM 10/9/08
The new visualizer is the BEST part of this update. Hands down.
surfjim
kkdigger
Posted 10:08 AM 10/9/08
I used ZiPhone to unlock my iPhone to T-Mobile. Does anyone know if it is safe to install iTunes 8?
kkdigger
kkdigger
Posted 9:15 AM 10/9/08
I used ZiPhone to unlock my iPhone to T-Mobile. Does anyone know if it is safe for me to install iTunes 8?
kkdigger
WaldenJebbus
Posted 7:16 AM 10/9/08
I don't care how long it took to install, what DOES work better is backup! For the past month or so, syncing my iPhone (V1) would take so long that I'd kill the backup just to get the phone to sync up. Now, it syncs and backs up in just a few minutes or less. FYI: I run iTunes in a VMware VM with relatively no problems. mike
WaldenJebbus
actionofmann
Posted 6:51 AM 10/9/08
stop ripping into the new itunes because your computer is too outdated and underpowered to handle it... it has nothing to do with the software it has to do with your hardware! i installed the new itunes on my intel based imac in less than a minute, and took less than 5 to update the genius list with a 3000 song library... don't rip into a program solely because your computer is incapable of handling it.
i tunes visualizer is pretty sick nasty btw
actionofmann
netariabhajan
Posted 6:25 AM 10/9/08
I'm finding this to be a fairly lame upgrade: I can't get rid of the "Genre" category in my browser, nor can I seem to turn off those obnoxious iTunes Store arrows.
If there's a logic behind the "Genius" tool's selection of similar music, it's not easily revealing itself.
So basically Apple qualifies this as a major upgrade because:
1) they've taken away preferences that I actually used, and prefer were still there
2) there's a new visualizer
3) they've re-branded the Kafka-esque mini-store
Wow, now if I could only get AT&T to ac