Just in time for the release of iOS 6 and the iPhone 5 comes iTunes 11. The software now has a more streamlined appearance, “edge-to-edge” design and a more visual-oriented feel. But you’ll have to wait until late October for it.
When you’re viewing an album grid and you click an album, it will produce a dropdown menu, much like clicking a folder in iOS. There’s also some weird new feature where artists can share new photos with you. And there are new modal menus/windows for search and play queue, which likely take their inspiration from what the streaming services (Spotify, Rdio) are doing with their apps. iCloud functionality has also been expanded to automatically push new purchases made in iTunes to iOS devices (and vice versa).
If you have iTunes collapsed into the mini player, you can now search for a new track without having to expand the app, which should prove to be an efficient tool. It’s not a complete reinvention of iTunes, but the desktop version has certainly been iOS-ified. And there’s one big question remaining to be answered: why is Apple waiting until late October to roll it out?
Image: GDGT