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Apple Releases iTunes for Windows

Billy_D_Goat writes "Today at a special media event, Apple Computer released their acclaimed iTunes Music Store and stand alone player for Windows XP and 2000. They also announced a partnership to sell music on AOL and give away songs with special bottles of Pepsi. You can learn more and download it from here. "

1,196 of 1,691 comments (clear)

  1. Great! kind of by nocomment · · Score: 1

    Anyone tried this under Wine yet?? :-/

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  2. Did you notice the headline at apple.com? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "HELL FREEZES OVER".

    Now that's funny.

    1. Re:Did you notice the headline at apple.com? by dogfud · · Score: 1

      ROFLMAO

      disclaimer: not recommended for cube farm environs. Got several odd looks...

    2. Re:Did you notice the headline at apple.com? by laffer1 · · Score: 1

      Have you used iTunes in windows yet? Have you used a G5? I doubt it or you wouldn't say apple lies. Apple does have the first 64 bit pc for home users. AMD is still in fantasy land.. where is windows 64 bit? thats what home users use. Linux does NOT count.. my mom does not use linux. Speed on the other hand is mostly in perception. There is no way to compare a PowerPC and an Intel or AMD cpu fairly. I can see photoshop finishing faster on a Mac though. That's what end users see and thats what they care about. Thanks to AMD, end users are starting to realize bigger numbers don't mean everything. In the same regard, Apple is using big numbers to get those remaining idiots.. for example 64 bit vs 32 bit. I have the balls to post this publicly..

    3. Re:Did you notice the headline at apple.com? by juhaz · · Score: 1

      Well, if AMD is in the fantasy land, then Apple is in the very same fantasy land.

      You see, there is no 64 bit OS X for G5 any more than there is 64 bit Windows for Athlon64's and Opterons.

    4. Re:Did you notice the headline at apple.com? by laffer1 · · Score: 1

      True, but Mac OS X doesn't crash on a G5 like windows crashes on an AMD 64. Apple didn't write code for 32 processors exclusively. Every release of Mac OS X will get more support too. The version shipped with the first batch of G5's supported 64 bit floating point operations for apps and offered additional memory addressing too. Apple's hardware/software monopoly came through this time.. they don't have to wait for Microsoft to make their processor do something.

    5. Re:Did you notice the headline at apple.com? by juhaz · · Score: 1

      Umm, have you actually _USED_ Windows on AMD64 and seen it crashing (any more than it does on 32 bit x86, which is not much at all with 2k and XP), or just generally guessing something you don't actually have slightest idea about?

      I'm first to admit I haven't used it, but I've seen no indication in any of bazillion Opteron or Athlon64 reviews that it would be crashy. Feel free to point me to reliable sources claiming contrary.

      After all, those processors were designed from scratch to run all existing ia32 code perfectly, that's the whole REASON they exist and AMD instead didn't go with something totally incompatible, and they would NOT have been released until they can do that.

    6. Re:Did you notice the headline at apple.com? by laffer1 · · Score: 1

      I'm going with what MICROSOFT said about the status of Windows a few months back. I also saw some of it on slash dot. Microsoft is having problems with the floating point.. meaning when they coded it in C/C++ they picked a data type of a certain length which changes on a 64 bit cpu. Its normal to have this happen. Its called not being type safe. I haven't seen microsoft's internal release of windows on an AMD 64 chip. I certainly wouln't blame AMD for Microsofts bad programming. Hell Microsoft can't get .NET to run last I heard because of the same problem. I know there is a linux distro that runs fine.. and i'm sure linux people will get the job done first. The freebsd port even compiles now and boots. In summary, Microsoft never planned on a portable operating system. I would agree that win 2k and xp are more stable than previous OS releases from Microsoft but not that Windows is reliable or stable. If you put windows in context with any other recent OS like Mac OS X, Solaris, Linux, or *BSDs you will see that windows is in fact not that stable. Win 2k and XP are based on NT4 which i used for several years as a desktop prior to upgrading to 2000 at home and now XP. Microsoft has had time to mature this OS and now they want to throw it out the window with the next release. I think its obvious microsoft doesn't care about stability. If every other company can build on their OSes, why can't Microsoft? (Apple is building on the next operating system with OSX) Further I should not have to prove that AMD is waiting on microsoft. You can read press releases from Microsoft, AMD, and comments on Slash dot, FreeBSD (mailing lists comments on status of their port refer to windows problems) , and other sources for the info. Thats what google is all about.

  3. Download link by Anonimo+Covarde · · Score: 2, Informative
  4. Can PC users tets it and report? by Kinniken · · Score: 1

    It's been available online for half an hour. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

    --
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    1. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Jobe_br · · Score: 1

      Its sweet, seriously sweet. I have it installed and it is absolutely identical to the Mac version - down to every last detail that I've been able to find. Playlists, last played, ratings, Music Store - I can sign in with my .Mac account - everything's there. I just ripped Sting's newest CD, Sacred Love, to AAC at 224Kbps, absolutely excellent. I was getting ~14x ripping off a virtual CD driver - not sure what my speed will be off the built-in drive on my Thinkpad.

      Sweet, absolutely. Thank you!!

    2. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Erno_Rubaiyat · · Score: 1
      I downloaded and installed it. It throws QT 6.4 on as well. It installed under Win2k without a hitch. I turned iTunes on on the TiBook and my library showed up immediately. I authorized the new machine for the music I downloaded from apple and it is playing flawlessly.

      I tried out some of the functionality I am use to, visualizer commands are the same, and performed well. The machine I am running it on is a bit old so I can forgive the low frame rate (like 10).

    3. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by azzy · · Score: 1

      I'm using iTunes for windows now, it's appears to be /exactly/ the same as iTunes on the mac. I'm very impressed!

    4. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by twocents · · Score: 1

      So far so good. This is 100% odd (-:

      It's amazing, however, to note how Windows doesn't seem to handle more than one task at a time. Consolidate a library, import tunes from a CD, and open an application and see how quickly you can open a new application. Maybe XP handles this a bit better, this machine is 2000, but still...my old iMac does better.

      This is not a pure Windows bash, just something I've always noticed about using Windows and wondered how one could be confident about server issues when many apps will not let you access the application until the app is finished doing this or that.

    5. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by clifyt · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "I just ripped Sting's newest CD, Sacred Love, to AAC at 224Kbps, absolutely excellent. I was getting ~14x ripping off a virtual CD driver"

      Heh! Thats the first album I ripped as well...but I was only getting about 4-6x speeds off my Dell :(

      Sadly, I've been meaning to download one of his exclusive tracks, and it showed up in a tenth of the time it took to rip a single track. Doh! I think Apple is trying to tell me something....

    6. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by dtfinch · · Score: 1

      I've wondered about that slowdown for a while.
      My current suspicion is that it's built in to prevent using a single user version of windows as a server with third party software, based on my not noticing the problem on slower computers running 2000 server. I can't speak with any certainly on this though.

    7. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by levik · · Score: 2, Informative
      Steve Jobs referred to it as the greatest Windows app ever. This is somewhat of an overstatement, considering iTunes for Windows, while it certainly does run under Windows, is by no means a "Windows app". It is no more a Windows app than the early X-Windows based builds of OpenOffice were "Mac Apps". As it tries for some reason to mimic the appearance and behavior of iTunes on OS X, the look and feel of the UI is not only inconsistent with the windows standards, but it's also inconsistent with itself.

      Case in point: go to the Music store, and you will see an Aqua-style dropdown control showing you're at the top level. Try to pull it down, and a Windows-style list of options appears. It Apple cannot standardize the UI across ONE FREAKING CONTROL, what can you expect?!

      Some other interesting usability choices: the Maximize button actually SHRINKS the jukebox window to a Winamp-sized player. Double clicking on the title-bar, which should cause the same behavior as the Maximize button, works as Mac OS's (+) button - toggling the window size between "Optimal" and "Current".

      Interestingly, Apple went through the trouble of porting their gloved hand cursors - something I am sure we all agree was needed on Windows for years.

      I wish they took the time to put in some more confirmation dialogs instead. Like maybe it's obvious to an experienced Mac user that plugging in my iPod to a machine with iTunes will clear it of all the music... But it sure was a surprize to me. Would asking "Are you sure you wanna delete 10 Gigs worth of MP3s off your iPod?" been so hard?!

      I expected better of Apple who provide a lot of documentation explaining to PC programmers that when porting their applications to MacOS they should follow the Mac UI guidelines in order to provide an application that will be consistent with the rest that are available. I guess it doesn't apply when going the other way.

      Whatever bad sides Microsoft has, at least Office X and IE:Mac *LOOK* like MacOS apps. Sad to say I can't say the same for iTunes for Windows.

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    8. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by arkanes · · Score: 1
      This is an application issue as a rule, not an OS issue - I do tons of stuff at the same time and while individual apps may block, others are still reponsive. Looking more carefully at your post, you mention importing from a CD. Alot of systems will see slowdowns when ripping from a CD, because of IDE contention.

      Bringing this back on topic, iTunes for Windows is especially bad in this regard, although alot better than the QT player. In particular, whatever HTML renderer they're using is VERY slow, especially scrolling and resizing.

      I'm not sure why people are so excited about this thing - I prefer winamp or even WMP to this. There's far too much emphasis on "on-click" functionality at the expense of functionality.

      The intranet streaming is cool. Access to the music store is, of course, nifty. As a media player, I'm totally under-wowed.

    9. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by SweetAndSourJesus · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Steve Jobs referred to it as the greatest Windows app ever. This is somewhat of an overstatement..."

      HOLY SHIT! Steve Jobs made an overstatement?!?!

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      the strongest word is still the word "free"
    10. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Fred+IV · · Score: 1

      I wish they took the time to put in some more confirmation dialogs instead. Like maybe it's obvious to an experienced Mac user that plugging in my iPod to a machine with iTunes will clear it of all the music... But it sure was a surprize to me. Would asking "Are you sure you wanna delete 10 Gigs worth of MP3s off your iPod?" been so hard?!

      Is this a new feature for the Windows iTunes? Plugging my iPod into either my machine or someone else's has never deleted anything from it. That would defeat half my reason for owning an iPod: using it as an external hard drive so I can conserve space in my iBook.

    11. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by notque · · Score: 2, Funny

      Sadly, I've been meaning to download one of his exclusive tracks, and it showed up in a tenth of the time it took to rip a single track. Doh! I think Apple is trying to tell me something....

      Yeah, get some music taste :)

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      http://use.perl.org
    12. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by levik · · Score: 1
      I am assuming the iPod was "synced" to an as yet unfilled library of music on the computer. Because no songs were yet imported, the library was empty, and iTunes promptly assumed that this is what should be on the iPod. As I said, this may be OK behavior if you EXPECT it, but there was no indication that this would happen from iTunes. A simple confirmation dialog would have been enough:

      "You have 328 songs on your iPod. Syncing with your (empty) music library will erase them. Are you sure you want to sync?"

      How hard would that have been. And this from a company priding itself on user friendlyness.

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    13. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by __aafutm5472 · · Score: 2, Informative

      the Maximize button actually SHRINKS the jukebox window to a Winamp-sized player.

      Actually, if you look at the icon you're clicking, it's not the maximize button. It's the 'restore' button -- ya know, the one built into the Windows API?

      Thus, clicking it will togle it from full mode to small mode, the same as many other music apps out there.

    14. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by silentbozo · · Score: 1

      Get a second processor. For making life easier and making the GUI more responsive when something is bogging down, it's well worth it if you can. At the very least, you can web surf while a process takes up 100% of one of the processors. My dual Celeron 500 would be more responsive than the 1+ghz machines I was working on, and recently I invested $300 to put together a dual Athlon machine (no need for a space heater this winter!)

    15. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by levik · · Score: 1
      Because the whole interface is skinned, the exact function of the button is hard to tell from its appearance alone.

      But super easy to guess (wrong) by the fact that it appears between the minimize [_], and the close [X] buttons of a window that is not maximized.

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    16. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by levik · · Score: 1

      My point is that this shows hypocricy on the part of Apple that nobody seems willing to call them on. If MS released MSN messenger on OS X that looked like an XP app, it would get flamed. Apple does the equivalent, and suddenly this is the best thing since sliced bread.

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    17. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by arkanes · · Score: 1

      It's actually not, which you'd know if you were familiar with the Windows API. The "restore" button appears when you're maximized. It's there so you can go back to the size you were before. This button, while it mimics the appearance of the restore button, actually does something else.

    18. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by w3weasel · · Score: 1
      It's difficult to type when laughing this hard.
      Consistant dropdown menus on windows? HAR DE HAR HAR. Since MS randomly re-arranges the placement of menu options for its own apps and OS controls, third party softs have followed suit, providing random menu selections within randomly named menus. (i.e. will your preferences be accessed via the 'edit', 'tools', 'views', or 'options' menu, and will the selection be named 'preferences', 'options', 'config', or 'customize'.
      I wish they took the time to put in some more confirmation dialogs
      WIN: "Would you like to empty the trash?" => WIN:"Are you sure you want to empty the trash?" => WIN:"Emptying the trash may cause problems with your system... are you sure you want to continue?" Me: "Empty the friggin trash NOW or you will find a Penguin living in your home!".

      MS products for Mac look like MS products for Mac, There are virtually no other Mac apps that would give you a window that have all the commands available in the menus duplicated 2 or 3 times in buttons across 4 to 24 button bars.

      Apple who provide a lot of documentation explaining to PC programmers that when porting their applications to MacOS they should follow the Mac UI guidelines
      In Windoze, the lack of UI guidelines forces the software maker to 'invent'. Remember that there is a ton of functionality in this app and that this is a first release with less than 5 mos. development time.
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      Just as irrigation is the lifeblood of the Southwest, lifeblood is the soup of cannibals. -- Jack Handy

    19. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by levik · · Score: 1
      Um... The windows UI is infinitely more intuitive than the Mac UI to a certain group of people. These are the people who already know how to use the Windows UI. (Last I checked over 90% of the computer users out there.)

      Even if we assume that OS X UI is better because it's scrollbars are a translucent blue color, and it's cursors look like gloved hands instead of regular hands - and these are pretty dubious arguments - any improvements in the UI are completely overshadowed by the fact that most users are unfamiliar with it, and that it doesn't behave like the other 99% of the applications on your machine. So now you actually have to remember 2 different UI conventions and perform a context switch every time you Alt-Tab into and out of iTunes.

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    20. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by cellophane01 · · Score: 1

      I agree with that other guy.

      Short answer:
      Mac OS Interface Design : Windows Interface Design
      Good : Shitty

    21. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by levik · · Score: 1
      WIN: "Would you like to empty the trash?" => WIN:"Are you sure you want to empty the trash?" => WIN:"Emptying the trash may cause problems with your system... are you sure you want to continue?" Me: "Empty the friggin trash NOW or you will find a Penguin living in your home!".
      There's actually only one confirmation, but even 3 would better than spontaneously erasing stuff as a result of merely plugging something in. The absolute mimimum they could do is ask you if you want it to sync the first time you plug it in.
      Remember that there is a ton of functionality in this app and that this is a first release with less than 5 mos. development time.
      So what you're saying is that this is beta quality software that will have its issues fixed? I thought there were no issues?.. Hmm...
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    22. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by levik · · Score: 1

      It's not different, except when Winamp first came out, windows had no skinning capabilities to hook into - and now it does. Also, Apple is the company that always emphasizes consistet user experience - apparently this doesn't apply to someone else's users.

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    23. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Oliver+Wendell+Jones · · Score: 3, Informative

      Downloaded, installed it, imported my existing music library. It asked if I wanted to sort my music library (or something like that) and I said OK. Now all of my MP3s are sorted into a million subdirectories based on artist and album information, all files are renamed to just the track number and the song title. I had all of my MP3 files in "Artist - Song Title.mp3" format and that is now all gone.

      I then do a Windows Explorer search for all .MP3 files and move them back into my main MP3 directory and start getting overwrite questions because now two different versions of American Woman have the same file name, same for two different versions of Burning Down the House, etc.

      Other than the fact that it's fucked up my music library and I'll now have to spend hours sorting and renaming files, it's great.... Grrrr...

      --
      A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
    24. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by kalidasa · · Score: 1

      You cannot synch the same iPod with two computers. Thank the RIAA, as it was something APPL did to mollify them.

    25. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by MadBiologist · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Huh... weird... I plugged in my iPod, and it synched iTunes with it, not deleting the iPod at all...

      Was the iPod originally formatted on a mac, or on windows? There may be some compaitibility issues there... Peace!

      --
      'Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?'
    26. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Durandal64 · · Score: 1

      A group of people managing to learn a convention does not make that convention intuitive. Intuitiveness is dictated by how quickly people can pick up that convention. Put a bunch of computer n00bs in front of Macs and PC's and then tell them to find their way around, and you'll see which one is more intuitive.

    27. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by kalidasa · · Score: 1

      In particular, whatever HTML renderer they're using is VERY slow, especially scrolling and resizing.

      KHTML.

      As a media player, it grows on you. Give it a week or so before you give up on it. I can't imagine preferring winamp or WMP - maybe MusicMatch, which has one feature I wish iTunes had (the hierarhical library). But de gustibus non disputandum est.

    28. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Oliver+Wendell+Jones · · Score: 1

      I forgot to mention that after moving all my files manually, there wasn't a convenient way to clear the imported library, so I had to delete the library file and re-import my library to be able to play music again.

      So far I'm failing to see what has kept the Mac people so friggin' happy with this software.

      --
      A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
    29. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by madcow_ucsb · · Score: 1

      hmm well i don't mind that it keeps the library that way if it's all going thru a playlist anyway...

      but i see in prefs, in the advanced tab, there's an enabled checkbox about organizing your files. you might wanna disable that (I dunno if it'll work since I don't have any mp3s on my work machine at the moment).

      Now all I need is an AAC player for my iPaq so I don't have to convert anything I'd buy from the music store...

    30. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by LVWolfman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I downloaded and installed it about 12:30PM Pacific. It DOES look and feel just like on my Powerbook. I was very pleased that it didn't ask for any personal information (unlike MusicMatch). It even very nicely asked me if I wanted to import all of the AAC and MP3 files in "My Music".

      There is where success ended though. When playing music, the sound is choppy. Much like when the heads and rollers are very dirt on a cassette or 8 track tape (or the tape is creased.)

      However, the same songs play fine in Music Match and WinAMP on the same computer. (AMD Athlon 1900+, Windows XP Pro, 512MB ram.)

      I like iTunes on my Powerbook. I'd like it on my XP machine here at work. However, it looks like for at least the time being, I'll be sticking with Music Match Plus (I registered it years ago and even bought the lifetime updates.)

    31. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by levik · · Score: 1
      Intuitiveness is a subjective concept to begin with - it is determined by a person's other experiences. For example, someone who knows no Math will not find a "minus sign" button to make something smaller intuitive. Someone who's never seena floppy will be confused by 99% of the world's "Save" buttons.

      Subjectively, the most intuitive interface for any given individual is the one they are already comfortable with. Unix commands for example are not named in the most intuitive fashion objectively. However, if you were re-implementing a unix-style commandline system, you would be stupid to replace these commands with other "more intuitive" ones, because you would be forcing thousands of unix users to re-learn how to ls, cd and cp.

      The target audience for iTunes Windows is *WINDOWS USERS* who know the windows UI, and are comfortable with it (pile of shit though it might be). To them anything other than winwods UI will by definition be less intuitive.

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    32. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by levik · · Score: 1
      Well, the RIAA will be really happy now that iTunes actually erases those potentially illegal sogns from your iPod.

      Really though, what does that have to do with anything? So I shouldn't be able to sync with another computer - that doesn't mean my music ought to be erased... does it?

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    33. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by levik · · Score: 1

      So what you're saying is that their own rules don't apply to them since they have nicer looking widgets?

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    34. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Alex+Thorpe · · Score: 1

      I never look at my song files after importing them myself, or almost never. And there's an option in Preferences to turn off the track number in the file name, which I've used. So I'm happy with that aspect of it. Since every song I have has ID3 tags, I'd consider artist name on each song to be redundant.

      Oh, and I told iTunes to use my MP3 folder for its default library location when I started using it with version 1. So it never moved it anywhere, and slowly sorted out the files I had already from SoundJam, the shareware program iTunes was based on. Perhaps the current defaults aren't as friendly as with the older versions of the program..

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      "Common Sense Ain't" -Unknown
    35. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Clockwurk · · Score: 1

      I've DLed iTunes, and I also found some irksome OSXs.

      The most annoying is that you can't resize from any window edge like standard windows apps, you can only resize from the lower right corner.

      The ability to maximize the window is noticably absent. To add injury to insult, the iTunes window can not be dragged to full window size (it leaves a 1/16 to 1/8 gap on the right hand side)

      The other one I've noticed is that in the small player mode, the ovular green bar is present, but doesn't function like its large-mode counterpart, in the large version, there is a progress slider to skip to different parts of the song, its gone in the small mode. Every single media player I have ever used has a time slider and it is annoying to be missing one). The biggest UI faux pas is that the the oval is the same otherwise. A friend tells me on OSX, both mini version and large mode have the time slider. Grrr....

      Another minor irritation is the inability to tell the length and number of multiple selections. When using the basic windows UI, selecting multiple items will show that x number of items are selected as well as the size of the total selection. In Winamps playlist/file browser, the total playing time for multiple selections is given as well as the number of songs. On iTunes, selections must be added to a new playlist to see number of selections and total time of selections. On the fly ala winamp is much preferred.

      On the plus side, the ID tag labeling system is awesome. Tabbed completion should be a requirement for apps like this.

      Apple really needed to develop this as a windows app and approach it as one, using the windows UI guidelines. iTunes feels exactly like the Quicktime player; out of place.

    36. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by CapS · · Score: 1

      You don't have to reorganize your mp3s. Really. The iTunes interface gives you access to your files, by Artist, Album, Genre, etc. And you can sort/search for them every which-way. So there's no need to manually keep them in organized folders yourself--although you can do that if you really want to.

    37. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by WatertonMan · · Score: 1

      Odd. I've only used it to play MP-3's but on a 500 MHz PIII they play fine.

    38. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by JohnsonWax · · Score: 1

      Uh, you mean in the world of 10 gajillion windows apps that Mac users supposedly don't have, you don't have a utility that generates file names from ID3 tags?

      I can think of several mac utils that do that. Sucks to have a platform with so little *useful* software.

    39. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by localman · · Score: 1

      As a switcher myself, I had a hard time letting go of managing my own mp3's. Under Windows and Linux I had to do all the organizing myself, which was a total pain in the ass -- but I didn't trust any of the crappy programs to do it for me.

      When I first started using iTunes I was skeptical -- but really -- after a few weeks, you will treat iTunes like a black box and never look in your music folder again. The interface is highly optimized and customizable for organizing music. Your OS's navigation (Explorer, command line, whatever) is not. It's better. Really. Let iTunes do it's thing.

      And best of all, it does it in a way that actually makes sense -- if you look into the iTunes folder things are well organized and very human readable. Better (but different) than I was used to organizing them.

      I'm very happy so far with iTunes for windows. It works well on my 450Mhz PIII, all the features are there, the interface is pretty slick, and it shares music on my home lan with the macs.

      Very very cool.

    40. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by w3weasel · · Score: 1
      So what you're saying is that this is beta quality software that will have its issues fixed? I thought there were no issues?.. Hmm...
      you shouldn't ass-ume. I intended no such thing. When I envision how unreleased software should function, I set some pretty high standards too. When the released version falls short of my expectation, I usually can understand the reasons why these minor concessions were made, rather than rant about how they fouled the whole thing up.

      oh, and the number of dialogues for removing a file from windows, depends on the type of file you delete, such as .txt vs .exe

      --

      Just as irrigation is the lifeblood of the Southwest, lifeblood is the soup of cannibals. -- Jack Handy

    41. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You don't understand at all. It's not "Mac versus non-Mac." It's "good versus non-good." If Microsoft released an MSN Messenger version that wasn't good, they'd get abuse for it.

      Now, rather than pointing out that iTunes looks funny compared to... what, WinAmp? That last bastion of UI standards compliance? Anyway, rather than just saying that it looks funny, feel free to critique it on its merits. Say that it's ugly. (Most will disagree.) Say that it's hard to use. (All will disagree.) Say that it's buggy. (Too early to tell, but don't bet on it.) But don't say that it's bad just because it's different from what you're accustomed to. That's a bad mistake.

    42. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by nullard · · Score: 1

      If you have a large library, use the search feature. It's to the left of the Burn CD button. After doing that, how can you go back to using WinAmp? Seriously, I used to like WinAmp and it's Mac clones before iTunes. I can't stand using anything but iTunes now because of the search feature -- to say nothing about iTunes other great features.

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      t'nera semordnilap
    43. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by cellophane01 · · Score: 1

      Yep. They earned it. Heh.

    44. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by moonsammy · · Score: 1

      I wish they took the time to put in some more confirmation dialogs instead. Like maybe it's obvious to an experienced Mac user that plugging in my iPod to a machine with iTunes will clear it of all the music... But it sure was a surprize to me. Would asking "Are you sure you wanna delete 10 Gigs worth of MP3s off your iPod?" been so hard?!

      Yeah, I hear that. I actually dj'd my own wedding this last weekend, and *exactly* that problem came up. I was using my ipod (well, my wife's actually - it was part of her non-diamond-ring engagement present) and we had all the songs we wanted to play on it along with a playlist. We figured hit play, maybe shuffle the order around a bit, instant party. I was using a friend's iBook to manage the playlist, and had it hooked up and working fine *several* times prior to the reception. Then we get to the reception, I attach the iPod, and it syncs - iPod music out, iBook music in. And my friend had nothing but gangsta rap and rave music on his iBook.

      It ended up working out ok, after scrambling to borrow cds from our friends at the reception, but it very well could have been a fiasco. All this would have been avoided with one clearly worded dialogue. I love macs (and am planning to buy a new powerbook very soon) but this issue is definately what I would call a lack of user-friendliness.

    45. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by cens0r · · Score: 1

      I have a plugin for winamp that adds this feature.

      --
      Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
    46. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by clf8 · · Score: 1

      Apple was correct in not following Windows guidelines, for two reasons. First, it's a port. When you port something, you make as few changes possible to the initial code base. Keep as much common as you can, and it's less you have to change as updates and bug fixes are made.

      The more important point is that Apple is getting Windows users to use Apple software. They're not doing this so you keep using it in Windows. They do it so you realize how easy and friendly and cool it really is and hope you bite and assume the rest of their software is that way. Part of the Mac is the interface, brushed metal and all (whether you like it or not). Otherwise, outside of the cash made on selling music, what's the point???

      As for wiping your iPod drive, did it give you any warning that it was matching it to a new computer or anything like that? It's not terribly suprising though, as they had to get the databases sync'd up properly.

      The maximize button does the same thing in OS X, I agree it's a dubiously interesting use of it.

    47. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by 5n3ak3rp1mp · · Score: 1

      There's almost no certifiable reason to rip at any higher kbps than 128k since almost no one can distinguish between that and the original CD source material.

      I suppose, though, that if, down the line, you want to be able to convert from this to some OTHER heretofore unknown and as-yet-undiscovered better codec, preserving the extra tiny tidbit of audio information might be OK.

      Me, I use 112kbps, since it lets me pack tons of music in (i have 10,000+ songs) and I still can't notice a loss in quality.

    48. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Javagator · · Score: 1

      I'm running it on a 400 Mhz PII with 256 Megs of memory, Window XP, and it runs fine, even when starting up IE. The Task Manager says its taking about 20 Megs of memory and using about 15% of the CPU. Windows Media Player uses about 8 Megs and 15% of the CPU.

    49. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by MoNickels · · Score: 1

      Sorry, no, iTunes didn't rename the MP3s. They were already like that. Blame yourself for a) not naming all your files properly to begin with and b) not checking the preferences or the Read Me to know that the auto-sorting by artist and album can be turned on or off.

      --

      Wordnik, a dictionary project which aims to collect

    50. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Zagar · · Score: 1

      The reason you can't hear the sound difference is probably because you don't have an adequate sound system. FYI, there is a HUGE difference in quality from a 128kbit MP3 and a CD. With carefull listening, you will see that a 192kbit MP3 still doesn't sound just as well as the CD. With more and more people on broadband and hard disk space becoming cheaper and cheaper, music will be traded in loss-less formats. (I know you can find some loss-less albums around but it's not yet the norm)

      --
      YAFIRL (Yet another Free iPods referral link)
    51. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by GlassHeart · · Score: 1
      Steve Jobs referred to it as the greatest Windows app ever. This is somewhat of an overstatement, considering iTunes for Windows, while it certainly does run under Windows, is by no means a "Windows app".

      Try to understand the perspective that the ultimate version of Windows is MacOS X, and the best Windows app ever looks just like a Mac app, and then it'll make perfect sense. It's all the other Windows apps that are "wrong". This isn't a guy who's trying to promote Windows, you know.

      I expected better of Apple who provide a lot of documentation explaining to PC programmers that when porting their applications to MacOS they should follow the Mac UI guidelines in order to provide an application that will be consistent with the rest that are available.

      Guidelines are not religion. They exist to serve a purpose. The purpose of following Mac UI guidelines when porting to the Mac is both because Apple would like you to, and because Mac users tend to be picky about this. The purpose of not following Windows UI *cough* guidelines is to give Windows users a taste of how nice their lives might be if they were using MacOS instead. Even more obviously than the iPod, iTunes (and the music store) for Windows is a trojan horse to get you to buy a Mac.

      Why the hell do you imagine Apple would want to just give Windows one of the reasons you might actually pay for Apple hardware? iTunes for Windows will be just a little more awkward, as long as Apple is trying to sell hardware. Just because it has rabid fans doesn't mean Apple isn't a for-profit company.

      Point is, your expectations and disappointments come from the mistaken assumption that Apple is trying to build a Windows app.

    52. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by LVWolfman · · Score: 1

      I watched my boss connect his Apple formatted iPod to his PC and iTunes for Windows. Rumor had it that you could finally connect the same iPod to both Macs and PCs.

      The iPod mounted and almost immediately dialog came up that said something to the effect of "To use this iPod it has to be formatted, shall I continue?"

      Of the course the Boss DIDN'T let it continue. He's not an idiot.

    53. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by shidoshi · · Score: 1

      So... you TOLD it to sort your music... and it did... and now you're pissed. Huh.

      Anyhow, I don't see the big deal. I guess to me, sorting your music by folders of artist, then album, just makes sense, and is far more organized.

      But then again, ever since I started using iTunes, I've hardly ever had reason to go digging through the folders. And if I need to suddenly find a certain song, I can find it quickly, because of that very organization.

    54. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by LVWolfman · · Score: 1

      It works fine on everyone else's machines here... just not MINE. :-(

      The library sharing works like a champ too.

    55. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Graff · · Score: 2, Insightful
      A friend tells me on OSX, both mini version and large mode have the time slider.

      Nope, in the mini version of the window on Mac OS X there is no time slider. It sounds like it is exactly the same on Windows as it is on Mac OS X

      Another minor irritation is the inability to tell the length and number of multiple selections...On iTunes, selections must be added to a new playlist to see number of selections and total time of selections.

      Send Apple this as a suggestion. Apple has been very receptive to user suggestions. Since it sounds like a good idea and they do similar things in other applications (iPhoto, the Finder) they may add it into a future version of iTunes.

      The same goes for the iTunes Music Store. If you see something that should be changed or you want a feature or band added just send in feedback. Like I said, Apple has been very receptive to new ideas and user preferences. They have changed a number of things to suit their users.
    56. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by arkanes · · Score: 1

      I use WinCue for winamp which does all this (and more!). I do like the browse functionality as applied to the iTunes store, though.

    57. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Graff · · Score: 1
      Now all of my MP3s are sorted into a million subdirectories based on artist and album information, all files are renamed to just the track number and the song title. I had all of my MP3 files in "Artist - Song Title.mp3" format and that is now all gone.

      I don't know if the Windows iTunes is scriptable but the Mac version is fully scriptable through AppleScript. If it is scriptable then you can just script iTunes to run through your library and rename all the songs to your format. Again, it's a piece of cake on the Mac version but I have no idea how to do it with the Windows version.
    58. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by dootbran · · Score: 1
      When I first started using iTunes I was skeptical -- but really -- after a few weeks
      ...a few WEEKS.. good lord I swear it must have been the second day, I was sitting there ripping my cds and looking through the options when I noticed the "add track number before file name"

      Well I've got a car mp3 player and the files get burned in alphabetical order and so they play in alphabetical order. So I think to my self, sweet thats pretty cool... but what about those cds I already ripped... maybe I'll just redo those.

      Then I clicked the option and proceeded to shit my pants as itunes actual renamed every file I had already imported. The single greatest moment of my life. Well.. not quite but it was definitely up there as far as computer use goes.

      Anyways, you folks new to itunes will figure it out soon enough but just so you don't totally drop a load like I did, this program is awesome. Let it manage your stuff and don't give it a second thought.

    59. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by elemental23 · · Score: 1

      You don't have to reorganize your mp3s. Really. The iTunes interface gives you access to your files, by Artist, Album, Genre, etc. And you can sort/search for them every which-way. So there's no need to manually keep them in organized folders yourself

      Unless, of course, you ever want to do something with them outside of iTunes. Then it becomes a major pain in the ass.

      --
      I like my women like my coffee... pale and bitter.
    60. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by caitsith01 · · Score: 1

      Actually there are a whole bunch of programs that will do this on Windows. And yes, there are a lot of Windows apps that you can't get on Mac, so cram it with walnuts, ugly.

      I think the original poster had a valid point anyway - as a long time Windows user I also would be might pissed off to have some upstart program frigging around with my carefully organised file system.

      --
      Read Pynchon.
    61. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by caitsith01 · · Score: 1

      Instead, why don't we (a) blame Apple for making an app that behaves like a Mac app even though it's NOT RUNNING ON A MAC and (b) blame Apple some more for needlessly screwing around with directory structures etc. when this is totally pointless. If you are all correct in claiming that iTunes will abstract over the actual file organisation then what is the point of this, anyway?

      I hate to say it but it is very rare that a Windows program will make changes outside of the directory where it is installed, temporary storage and the system registry without asking for express permission, usually for every file it plans to mess with. But I'm sure the Apple way is better... I better learn to think different... different... different... Steve is my lord and master... different... I have no ability to question the judgement of the almighty Steve... different... different...

      --
      Read Pynchon.
    62. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by CptChipJew · · Score: 1

      "The look and feel of the UI is not only inconsistent with the windows standards, but it's also inconsistent with itself."

      Ever used Windows Media Player?

      Microsoft seems to have a problem with that too ;)

      --
      Vonal Declosion
    63. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by GnrcMan · · Score: 1

      Oh, the choppy sound is a common problem. The heads on your hard drive are dirty. Here's how to clean them in 3 easy steps:

      1. Use a phillips head screwdriver to remove the hard drive.
      2. Bath the hard drive in a solution of 1 part rubbing alcohol to 10 parts water.
      3. Make sure to fully dry the hard drive. If you are impatient, a hair drier set on high will do the trick.

    64. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by afidel · · Score: 1

      He probably can't hear the difference because he's tone deaf =) I have exceptionally good hearing (I've produced a couple albums) and I can guarentee you there are people that hear the difference beteween even 192Kbit MP3's and CD's (especially with a bad encoder). I personally use LAME with the -extreme preset (I've heard there are better choices in newer builds but my environment is setup and I can rarely hear any artifacts). This spits out MP3's at ~200-220Kbps VBR, and for the most part they are indistinguishable from the CD source. I also tried OOG at the best quality that the visual encoder would allow and AAC files at the top quality that iTunes for Mac would allow, both I could pick out from the MP3 and the PCM WAV file I used for testing. I use a SB Extigy with Sennheiser headphones, neither terribly expensive but both good quality.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    65. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by amsr · · Score: 1

      You can avoid this my unchecking "Have iTunes manage my music library" or whatever.

      1) Install
      2) When asked if you want to find Mp3/Music on your hard drive say no.
      3) Before you drag all your Mp3s to the iTUnes window, uncheck the option to manage your iTunes music folder, and uncheck the option to copy songs into your iTunes music folder on import.

      Now, when you drag your songs over, they will just be referenced in the location they already exist, and not re-named/sorted.

    66. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by withinavoid · · Score: 1

      The problem with this that I've noticed is....
      If you copy the same song from the same location twice it will appear twice in your libary instead of just once. So basically if you plan to use your own file structure and let iTunes use pointers to your files instead of copies, then you will have sync problems.

      It would be nice if it had 'watch folders' like musicmatch does. But I guess what they want you to do is import all your music as copies, and delete your originals. Then just use iTunes always to access your music. This is going to take some getting used to.

    67. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by lpontiac · · Score: 1
      I watched my boss connect his Apple formatted iPod to his PC and iTunes for Windows. Rumor had it that you could finally connect the same iPod to both Macs and PCs.

      You can do - but it has to be a Windows formatted iPod. MacOS can read Windows (FAT32) iPods, but Windows can't read MacOS (HFS+) iPods.

      Unfortunately, if you have a HFS+ formatted iPod, there's no way to losslessly convert it to FAT32.

    68. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by GnrcMan · · Score: 1

      Did you check the "Dolby Noise Reduction" box in iTunes? that could be your problem.

    69. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by CapS · · Score: 1

      Unless, of course, you ever want to do something with them outside of iTunes. Then it becomes a major pain in the ass.

      I'm not sure what else you'd need to do outside of iTunes, but since you can go right to the song file, it's actually pretty easy to get to your songs. There's a menu option and shortcut key in iTunes which will show the location of the song file you've selected. You can then do whatever you want with the files--copy them to a different hard disk, etc.

    70. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by tupps · · Score: 1

      The easiest way to import songs is simply drag and drop them from wherever you stored them on your HD and drop them into your library. iTunes will suck them into the UI but will not reorganise them or anything like that. Quick and simple.

      --
      Go out and get sailing!
    71. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by stingerman101 · · Score: 1

      On my PowerMac AGP 500 , I RIP, browse and play music all simultaneously, without skipping a beat. Have Mail and NetNewswire running in background autoupdating too. When it comes to multi-tasking Windows doesn't come close to OS X. I have been a both XP PCs and only one Mac, but love my Mac (been a switcher for 10 months now).

    72. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by jaypeg · · Score: 1

      Use the File: Add to Library command to add to iTunes if you don't want duplicates. If this command works the same as it does on a Mac, then you can select an entire directory filled with mp3s and it will add everything to the library without duplicating songs that are already there. A cool trick in this vein is to list your library by date added, then you can add and subtract huge amounts of songs accurately and at will -- very handy if you keep certain parts of your collection on DVDs, or pocket drive or want to move all or part of your collection between computers.

    73. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by MoneyT · · Score: 1

      Why did you want to clear the library just because you moved songs?

      --
      T Money
      World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
    74. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by PowerPill · · Score: 1

      I imagine amongst all the replies some kind heart has probably pointed this out to you already but... Your music library wasn't touched. iTunes will import all of your files to another location and use that for it's library by default. Your original files are still original. Apple already thought of this kind of predicament for you. Just toast the new library location then go to your old one select all files and drag them to the iTunes app and voila, one huge gynormous mess. =)

    75. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by fr0dicus · · Score: 1

      WTF? Next you'll be telling me that there are no windows machines with aqua GUIs out there.

    76. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by hamster+foo · · Score: 1

      If their intent is to convert Windows users by releasing apps like this, wouldn't it make more sense to make the app as pleasant as possible to use and not "awkward"? I'm certainly not going to be persuaded to switch to another OS if their applications come across as awkward.

      Apple has plenty to offer users. They don't need to resort to making the small number of apps they might release for Windows awkward to encourage people to switch, and if anything, it may have a negative impact on the perceived quality of Apple applications.

      --
      - b
    77. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by cheekyboy · · Score: 1

      Btw why does it crossfade when hitting FF to next song like winamp does.

      Also it looks better in windows using windows fonts, rather that the BIG BULKY FAT mac fonts

      --
      Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
    78. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Oliver+Wendell+Jones · · Score: 1

      Sorry, no, iTunes didn't rename the MP3s

      Bzzzzt! Wrong! I have spent hours naming my MP3 files, updating the MP3 information inside, etc. and getting all my files just the way I like them. I keep all of my music MP3s in one big directory. Why? Cause that's the way I like it.

      I don't give a rat's ass about album titles. When I want to find a song by The Rolling Stones, I want to scroll down the list to 'Rolling Stones, The' and find the song I'm looking for, I don't want to have to think 'was that on Sticky Fingers or Tattoo You?'.

      But now thanks to the JOY and WONDER that is iTunes, all of my files have been renamed without the artist's name, with an arbitrary track # in the title and sorted under several hundred subdirectories. Yippee, yeah rah!

      Did I fuck up by clicking OK? You betcha. Did Apple fuck up by not specifing 'by the way, when we say 'organize' we actually mean 'rename your files and remove identifying information and then sort everything into a zillion subdirectories where you'll never find your files'. Yes.

      Blame yourself for not checking the preferences or the Read Me

      Excuse me? This is supposed to be Apple software... designed for people who are too artistic to be bothered with something as plebian as a Readme file. Where's all the fucking grace and elegance that you apple hippies have been bragging about for 20 years?

      --
      A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
    79. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Oliver+Wendell+Jones · · Score: 1

      And there's an option in Preferences to turn off the track number in the file name

      Yes there is, it's on the Importing page of the preferences and it says "Create filenames with track number".

      If you don't allow iTunes to organize your music and leave that checked, it does not add track numbers on import.

      Pretty much anyone with half a brain is going to read that text, in that context, and believe that when I *CREATE* a new file it will include a track number in the filename. There is no reason to suspect that it will *RENAME* existing filenames to include a track number.

      --
      A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
    80. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by thedbp · · Score: 1

      So they added a little bit of wine into the cheap ass beer for flavor. It was needed.

    81. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by emmastory · · Score: 1

      Actually, iTunes will rename mp3s if you let it. I ran into the same thing when I first switched (to the Mac version). I remember having to actually listen to several tracks that had been renamed to helpful things like "-" to figure out what they were (whoever ripped them originally didn't bother getting track info first). I've since turned off the Music folder organization stuff, however, and iTunes now peacefully coexists with my own naming convention.

    82. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by tbone1 · · Score: 1
      Hm, I've been using iTunes since ... well, for two years at least. In that time I've used UltraSound and SpinDoctor and many other music apps and it's hardly been a 'pain in the ass'. It has occaisionally required a little bit of organizing by hand, generally due to my own mistakes, but hardly 'a pain in the ass'.

      --

      The Independent: Reverend Spooner Arrested in Friar Tuck Incident - ISIHAC, Historical Headlines
    83. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by allgood2 · · Score: 1

      Yes! But it would get flamed by Mac users, because not too many Mac users want a Mac app that looks and works like a PC app. :) On the otherhand, many PC users pay absolutely no attention to how an application works. That's not said to flame, and obviously not true of high-end users, but I've seen Win users go for months using an app that has a terrible interface inconsistencies, and they pretty much just blame themselves.

      Now that said, one of the first things I notice on the Mac vs PC version was the issue with the Maximize Windows. I'm just very use to Windows Maximizing the Window, and then I'll go back and adjust so I can see part of the screen beneath. It was very Mac-like and a noticeable distraction for me to be on a Win2k machine and have the application Zoom instead of Maximize. But I'm not certain how much it will bother your average PC user--I know most of the clients I plan to install iTunes on, pretty much use min and max, and if I resize the zoom to take up most of the screen, they'll NEVER notice the difference.

    84. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by allgood2 · · Score: 1

      It does give you a warning that your iPod will be overwritten by songs from your Music Library, when you choose the option to automatically sync. In fact, it even gives you the warning, if you choose ONLY to sync a single playlist, such as Purchased Music (which is what I do, so all new purchases always end up on my iPod, but playlist and the like, I manually transfer and manage.

      Not that I disagree, I think the warning should be provided again, before the sync, especially if the user library is empty.

    85. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by levik · · Score: 1

      And especially since it will auto-sync by default.

      --
      Ñ'
    86. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by allgood2 · · Score: 1

      I have to say, "What did you expect it to do, when you selected 'Organize My Files for Me'? Maybe I'm a non-typical music lover, but if I've spent 20+ hours organizing my music, exactly the way I want it, then I'd be hesitant to tell an application, ANY APPLICATION, to take over managing it. That said, in the preference pane for auto-manage Apple provides fairly comprehensive options--copy files to iTunes Music Folder, create file names with track numbers, etc. Each of these options would have allowed you to somewhat limit the 'damage' done, or provide enough insight for you to decide not to do so.

      But in all honesty, if you spent a lot of time creating a specific interface that meets your needs, why in the world did you even select the auto-manage function. You could have just selected import found .mp3, or just dragged your music folder ontop of the app to add your music.

    87. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Oliver+Wendell+Jones · · Score: 1

      My assumption (and I admit it's wrong to assume things) is that the software would sort my library information *within* iTunes, not that it would manipulate the actual files on the hard drive.

      As I pointed out in an earlier posting, the options that you mention are not intuitive nor are they conveniently located in one spot.

      --
      A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
    88. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Angostura · · Score: 1

      Have a look at the Apple iTunes support forums: It appears that a number of people have fixed this problem by going into control panels and changing the sound output options.

    89. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by erwass · · Score: 1

      I had the same exerience with Win2k. However, I was able to reboot to the last known good configuration. I was then able to run iTunes fine though it complained about not being able to access its CD/DVD drivers. I haven't tried ripping or burning a CD. I assume that won't work. I'm fairly confident that it arises from a conflict with my Adaptec DirectCD driver (that thing even kills itself if you log in using Remote Desktop).

    90. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by withinavoid · · Score: 1

      It does the duplicates whether you drag them to iTunes manually or even if you use the "Add to Library" menu item. I narrowed the problem down though. It only happens if you do not let iTunes manage your music library. If you do allow it to copy files to its home location and manage, then you do not get duplicates. I sent the info to apple to see if that is a bug or was planned.

      The problem is that I think some windows users will choose not to let itunes manage the music because it renames and reorganizes the mp3s.

    91. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by awl · · Score: 1

      I would have to disagree with you when you say that almost no-one can distinguish between 128K and the original CDs. On any reasonable sound system, almost everyone I know can tell the difference at this level.

      By reasonable sound system, I don't mean some kind of high priced audiophile equipment. If you are listening in a moving car with the windows open, then maybe most people wouldn't notice the different.

      If you genuinely can't tell the difference, then you have my sympathy for your poor hearing.

      On the other hand, using 112kbps to pack in more songs is a great compromise if it works for you. After all, the quality of the music is much more important than the quality of the sound.

    92. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by MrCam · · Score: 1

      I imported my library too, but didn't have it move my files. But I have to say I don't like the lack of file naming options. I do the Artist-title.mp3 naming too.

    93. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by MrCam · · Score: 1

      Exactly. I need the Artist-file.mp3 naming for my CD player in my car.

    94. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by stux · · Score: 1

      Windows doesn't support aliases... moving a file tends to break any references to it

      I'm not sure of any way around this

      --

      ---
      Live Long & Prosper \\//_
      CYA STUX =`B^) 'da Captain,
      Jedi & Last *-fytr
    95. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by stux · · Score: 1

      You want to have not told iTunes to keep your library sorted when you set it up. You can turn off that option in prefs.

      Incidentally, now that I have all my MP3s ID3ed nicely I untick an retick that box to get itunes to auto rename and sort all my mp3s after I go on an ID3ing mission :)

      --

      ---
      Live Long & Prosper \\//_
      CYA STUX =`B^) 'da Captain,
      Jedi & Last *-fytr
    96. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by stux · · Score: 1

      This stopped happening in mac itunes circa 3.x, I'd be surprised if it happened in the windows version now

      --

      ---
      Live Long & Prosper \\//_
      CYA STUX =`B^) 'da Captain,
      Jedi & Last *-fytr
    97. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by gryphokk · · Score: 1
      The reason you can't hear the sound difference is probably because you don't have an adequate sound system. FYI, there is a HUGE difference in quality from a 128kbit MP3 and a CD.

      If the parent was consistent with the grandparent, we are talking about AAC encdoding, not MP3 -- where 128 bit is roughly equivalent to MP3 192 bit.

      For my part, as an experienced Mac iTMS user, I installed on my work PC -- zero problems, and instant recognition of my user account at the music store. But since I'm sharing with myself from the mac, it's all good -- all libraries are everywhere.

      But, as an added bonus, other users on the corporate network have downloaded and are sharing also -- so I've got libraries coming out of my ears! or better yet -- into my ears! Of course, we can't share our purchased material, but the ripped material (all unencumbered by copyright, naturally -- we're all good little corporate citizens) is everywhere)

      --
      And you, madam, are very ugly. In the morning, I shall be sober.
    98. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by stux · · Score: 1

      (i.e. will your preferences be accessed via the 'edit', 'tools', 'views', or 'options' menu, and will the selection be named 'preferences', 'options', 'config', or 'customize'.

      And in the case of Visual C++ (which don't forget is the app the people who write this stuff use the most) all four!

      (ie preferences can be found under "preferences" "options" "config" and "customize")

      --

      ---
      Live Long & Prosper \\//_
      CYA STUX =`B^) 'da Captain,
      Jedi & Last *-fytr
    99. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by stux · · Score: 1

      The biggest UI faux pas is that the the oval is the same otherwise. A friend tells me on OSX, both mini version and large mode have the time slider. Grrr....

      Your friend is lying :)


      Another minor irritation is the inability to tell the length and number of multiple selections. When using the basic windows UI, selecting multiple items will show that x number of items are selected as well as the size of the total selection.


      I agree, and have the same issue... minor though, I have a more annoying version of the problem in Apple Mail, when I'm interested in counting how much spam I've recieved today...

      --

      ---
      Live Long & Prosper \\//_
      CYA STUX =`B^) 'da Captain,
      Jedi & Last *-fytr
    100. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by stux · · Score: 1

      Well...

      You could sync it first, then format it ;)

      That's probably do it ;)

      --

      ---
      Live Long & Prosper \\//_
      CYA STUX =`B^) 'da Captain,
      Jedi & Last *-fytr
    101. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 1
      " It asked if I wanted to sort my music library (or something like that) and I said OK. Now all of my MP3s are sorted into a million subdirectories based on artist and album information, all files are renamed to just the track number and the song title. "

      So you said yes to the prompt before you completely read and understood it. And then you complain about undesired results. Really.

      Next thing you know, people won't read their EULAs either.

    102. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 1
      "Steve Jobs referred to it as the greatest Windows app ever."

      Hah. Winamp 3 took this crown years ago ;-)

    103. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by stux · · Score: 1

      The problem is really mp3 players which don't YET support ID3 :(

      basically, manually sorting mp3s is such a waste of time

      --

      ---
      Live Long & Prosper \\//_
      CYA STUX =`B^) 'da Captain,
      Jedi & Last *-fytr
    104. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by justMichael · · Score: 1

      Although I do agree with you that it sucks that it trashed your music directory.

      Prefrences
      Advanced
      Keep iTunes Music folder organized (remove check mark)

      Would have saved you from this issue... You did go through the prefs before you cut it loose on your music, right?

      Also a quick and dirty perl script will be able to go through the structure that iTunes created and put them back the way you want them. Or you could try something like this, which I haven't used so please don't be pissed at me if it makes a bigger mess out of your library.

      My only real complaint about iTunes is that its random play isn't very random. I prefer the way winamp does this by randomizing the list and then playing it top to bottom, you are guaranteed not to hear the same song twice that way.

    105. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by ZackSchil · · Score: 1

      The iTunes burning feature supports sorting and renaming songs for MP3 CDs, even creating playlists based on folders right from the program.

    106. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by juhaz · · Score: 1

      Winamp has builtin search as "jump to song". Hit "j" and start typing, almost as nice as gecko's type-ahead find... It's quite a bit more limited than iTunes search but nevertheless I find it more convenient because a) it doesn't require me to use a %#%#&:n mouse first to get into the search box and another doubleclick to actually select song from that result list. And if it's minimized it requires even more mouse-only commands to get into library mode and then back to non-clutter.

      It's also damn slow, song-change takes measurable amount of time (around a second) on 2400+, it's instant on winamp.

      And it doesn't know to minimize completely to system tray, here I have yet another useless window cluttering my always-too-full taskbar & alt-tab list.

      This is supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread? Not impressed... not impressed at all.

    107. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Masque · · Score: 1
      I don't give a rat's ass about album titles. When I want to find a song by The Rolling Stones, I want to scroll down the list to 'Rolling Stones, The' and find the song I'm looking for, I don't want to have to think 'was that on Sticky Fingers or Tattoo You?'.
      The first few months I was using iTunes (this was iTunes 1, way back when) I missed the existence of the 'Browse' button completely. It's on the top right. Clicking it exposes a three-pane selector. Make sure 'All' is selected for Genre and Album, scroll down, find your Rolling Stones. There you go. You can even select multiple things in each list. It's tres groovy.

      Why would you attempt to manage something that relies on hordes of metadata on a filesystem that doesn't support more than 'name' and 'location'? I'm sorry for your lost effort, but I implore you to rethink spending the time to recreate it when iTunes will do exactly what you want, saving you time in the process.
    108. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by Jord · · Score: 1

      Have you tried clicking on the big eye in the upper right hand corner when you are in your library? I prefer the way that itunes navigates in browse mode compared to MM.

    109. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by JDWTopGuy · · Score: 2, Funny

      #include

      You didn't want to play songs about pimpin' ho's and killin' wangstahs at a sensetive occasion like your wedding? Sounds like it would have been "ghetto fabulous".

      --
      Ron Paul 2012
    110. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by JDWTopGuy · · Score: 1

      Crap, that was supposed to be:
      #include <humor-detector.h>

      --
      Ron Paul 2012
    111. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by LVWolfman · · Score: 1

      I found the problem with the garbled audio and iTunes for Windows.

      I have TotalRecorder installed. Once I went into the control panel and set Windows to use my Audigy directly and to only use preferred devices, the garbling went away.

      Just setting to use the Audigy isn't enough. You have to either set the "use only preferred" checkbox, or unininstall TotalRecorder.

      My knee jerk reaction was that Apple was intentionally degrading the audio when TotalRecorder was detected (because iTunes worked after I uninstalled TotalRecorder on my work computer). I'm glad that this isn't the case.

    112. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by kalidasa · · Score: 1

      My god I feel like an idiot. I have no idea what I thought that did. Mod parent up informative, mod grandparent (my posting) down stupid.

    113. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by diverman · · Score: 1

      Yeah, it's such a pain in the ass to use the iTunes interface to select the songs you want to work with manually, and drag then to your "manual" folder.

      Also, the feature that moves your files had to be turned on explicitly when I went through the installation.

      -Alex

    114. Re:Can PC users tets it and report? by EccentricAnomaly · · Score: 1

      On a Mac, you can drag and drop songs out of the iTunes window into the finder and it names them as SongTitle.mp3. It probably doens't work that smoothly on Windows though...

      --
      There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
  5. Audiobooks! by Llywelyn · · Score: 1

    As an aside, they have also added 5000 Audiobooks and cleaned up the interface. Good news all around.

    For us Mac users: The updates for iTunes 4.1 and QuickTime 6.4 are both on softwareupdate.

    --
    Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
  6. Did anyone see the requirements? by InterruptDescriptorT · · Score: 2, Insightful

    From the iTunes 4 download page for Win2K/XP:

    128 MB RAM minimum/256 RAM recommended

    OK, I know RAM is cheap these days, and most people should have at least 128MB on modern machines, but I just have to ask--why would a simple network file retrieving application (let's face it, that's all this is with a little security thrown in) need that much memory? Damn...

    --
    Karma: Excellent Birds (mostly as a result of listening to Laurie Anderson)
    1. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by 47PHA60 · · Score: 1

      It's not a web browser; it is uncompressing audio content on the fly with Quicktime and streaming to and from other computers.

      And besides, aren't those just the minimum Windows requirements?

    2. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by Elian · · Score: 1

      Because it runs on Win2K/WinXP. 128M in a Win2K machine leaves 418 bytes of RAM and some swap free for applications...

    3. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by Hollinger · · Score: 1

      The OS requires 64 -> 128. Ever tried to do anything significant with 64 Megs of RAM on an windows 2000 or XP machine, where the OS itself takes up a MINIMUM of 56 megs (56 from my my experiences working with a ProGear Webpad)?

      MCH

    4. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by Trigun · · Score: 1

      They had to code it as a Microsoft Application. That's why.

    5. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by Jobe_br · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well, it rips CDs to MP3/AAC/AIFF/WAV from CD, burns CDs, compiles smart playlists, accesses the iTunes Music Store, displays visual graphics as music is playing, etc.

      So, I'd say it does a bit more than a "simple network file retrieving application" - never mind that a Win2K/XP machine with less than 256MB RAM is going to be awfully painful (my Thinkpad had only 384MB and it was painful if I tried to actually use multiple apps simultaneously).

    6. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by TopShelf · · Score: 1

      They probably assume that if someone is running Win2K/XP, that most of that 128 MB is sucked up by the OS, IE, any background programs (chat, firewall, virus protection), and of course the media player that would play the music in question. We've come a long way since the days when moving from 8K to 16K was a big step...

      --
      Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
    7. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by calethix · · Score: 1

      My guess would be that the 128mb minimum is assuming you will have other stuff (like anti-virus software or firewalls) open using memory and that they don't expect iTunes to use it all by itself.
      I've heard talk from people around where I work saying they don't want to support anything that has less than 512 and recommend a gig.

    8. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by moosesocks · · Score: 1

      The player is only compatible with Win2k/XP.

      While it IS possible to run 2000 with under 128mb of RAM, it's not pretty, and won't run most mp3 players without needing to swap, which gives the whole system a big performance hit.

      Long and short: you could probably get by with less than 128mb on a win2k machine, but you're not going to be able to run Word or IE while listening to music.

      XP on the other hand, can barely sustain itself on 128mb, and 256mb is only marginally acceptable.

      Either way, if you're running 2k or XP, chances are that your PC has over 256mb of RAM in it.

      --
      -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
    9. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by Aqua+OS+X · · Score: 1

      Well, if you're downloading music, listening to music, burning music, looking at the visualizer, and using the EQ all at the same time.. ya, you might want to have 128megs of RAM ;)

      --
      "Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
    10. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by TrancePhreak · · Score: 1

      My two XP machines boot up and use 90MB of memory at start. This is with antivirus and a few other choice apps loaded. Win2K uses a bit more memory for most of this stuff. I run XP with the visual styles off, so that probably accounts for a large chunk of the memory you claim to be required for XP.

      --

      -]Phreak Out[-
    11. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by Alex+Reynolds · · Score: 1

      Apple gives you an incredibly powerful application for free, and you Windows losers bow and scrape to find any reason at all to whine and complain.

      Just buy some fucking memory already.

      -Alex

    12. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by fataugie · · Score: 1

      Heh,

      Just try loading a few apps on there and see how much 256 gets you. Running Mozilla, MS Money and a few other things like anti-virus and whatnot, I am bumping against the 256 ceiling and into swap-land. Time for another stick of RAM

      --

      WTF? Over?

    13. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by wonk · · Score: 1

      They're probably (correctly) assuming that you'll be running an assload of other software while listening to some tunes :)

    14. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by arkanes · · Score: 1

      It's probably actually because iTunes wants 130 megs of vram. Quicktime wants 128, and thats just preloaded libraries. They're actually taking up more memory than anything on my system except the database process.

    15. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by RexDevious · · Score: 1

      Hey, I've got a huuuuge music library (120+ GB) and I've tried every app out there for keeping it organized. The iTunes for Windows software is AMAZINGLY FAST. No comparison. There is absolutely no noticable delay in any function, whereas all my other pc programs took so long to edit a single aspect of a song that I'd spend my morning listening to the news on tv while organizing music or I'd have fallen asleep again out of boredom. If that takes 128 MB to do - so be it. The other programs available take so much time to do anything that the computer is essentially useless for any other task while dealing with large libraries of music. Heck, this thing is so convenient... I may even find myself PAYING for music again! Never thought I'd see the day.

      And yes, I have both PC's and Macs so this is all about the compatibility for me.

    16. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by Shawn+Baumgartner · · Score: 1

      Heh, Quicktime is the main reason why I can't bring myself to try iTunes yet. Quicktime is easily one of the worst apps that I have ever had the misfortune of installing, from the crappy interface to the fact that its the only video app I've ever used that doesn't keep the power save settings from killing the monitor while a movie is playing. Not quite as bad as Realplayer or whatever lame new name they're using now, but close. I'll wait for a while for the initial hype to die down a bit and then check out some reviews.

    17. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by mongoks · · Score: 1

      The requirements are somewhat steep but when you compare them to some of the bloated media center applications put out by Real, Microsoft, MusicMatch, they don't seem to be so.


      In Soviet Russia...All Our Beowulf Clusters Are Belong To You

    18. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by mr.+methane · · Score: 1

      My theory is, if you can afford a $300+/- ipod, plus the music you download, you can probably spring for a 256mb stick of RAM at best buy for $18.95 :-)

      Heck, even my kids computer has 512mb of RAM. It's so cheap these days, if it saves you one hour of "loading, please wait" over the lifetime of the computer, it's worth getting it.

    19. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by dr.badass · · Score: 1

      why would a simple network file retrieving application (let's face it, that's all this is with a little security thrown in) need that much memory?

      This is not just the Music Store. This is iTunes in it's entirety -- Ripping/Encoding/Organizing/Playback/Burning -- everything, really. It consumes about 20-30MB of RAM when in the foreground (drops to about 5-7MB when just playing in the background). This is comparable to Windows Media Player and MusicMatch Jukebox, apps which have the same functions. (Now's a good time to point out that iTunes is a hell of a lot better than either of these.)

      That said, I'm currently running iTunes on Win2k on an older laptop with only 64MB of RAM as part of my stereo system, and it works fine for that with no other apps running.

      --
      Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
    20. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by Ilan+Volow · · Score: 1

      why would a simple network file retrieving application (let's face it, that's all this is with a little security thrown in) need that much memory?

      A really long Phish jam.

      --
      Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
    21. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by yomegaman · · Score: 1

      Too bad the MP3 encoder it ships with sucks ass, at least it did when I used to use it on my now-dead iBook a few months ago. You had to set the base bitrate at 160 kb/s in order to get the VBR mode to work half-decently, which pretty much defeats the whole purpose. The files I've made with MusicMatch using VBR at the 50% setting average about 128 kb/s and sound much better than the iTunes ones at around 175 kb/s did, to my ears anyway. Probably the AAC encoder is better, I've heard a lot of good things about it and plan to give it a shot now that it's available for Windows.

      --
      ...wearing a skin-tight topless leather jumpsuit, with cutaway buttocks and transparent crotch panel.
    22. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by erwass · · Score: 1

      Check out the Process Viewer when its running.
      iTunes
      Minimized, not playing: 6MB
      Visible, playing: 12MB

      WinAmp: 2/14MB
      MUSICMATCH 7.5: 2/18.5
      Seems like iTunes is doing pretty well in this department.

    23. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by remusrm · · Score: 1

      i got the thinkpad with 700 celeron and 320 ram, not too good eather, but is way better then the new winamp 3

    24. Re:Did anyone see the requirements? by erwass · · Score: 1

      Was it playing a song? The memory usage goes up when playing.

  7. Awesome by xjerky · · Score: 1

    I'll have to try it out tonight. I wonder if it allows Mac-formatted iPods to be read as well, like Xplay does? That would be great, since that would allow my to use HFS+ format instad, that way I can boot off of it on my powerbook.

    Plus, I hope this means that true Play Count support has arrived for PC users (you need at least firmware 1.3 for that wot work though)

    --
    A sentence you'll never see on an Internet discussion board: "You know what? You're right."
    1. Re:Awesome by cioxx · · Score: 1

      My guess is, you'd still need MacOpener for that. But if it does, it'd be excellent.

    2. Re:Awesome by Randar+the+Lava+Liza · · Score: 1
      You can have an ipod work with both Macs & PC's by formatting it with the PC updater to ipod software 2.1. You'll want to have all your music backed up first, but then when you format it PC you can use it on either platform with iTunes.

      But to use a Mac ipod on a PC, you'd still need MacOpener or something similar to read/write HFS+ drives.

      --
      Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. - Anais Nin
    3. Re:Awesome by xjerky · · Score: 1

      I'm aware of the first part. I use my PC iPod on both systems. That wasn't always true though. When I got my original 20 GB last year I hooked it up to my co-worker's Mac and iTunes destroyed my database (the songs were still there, but all of them were 0 second length). Apparently an update fixed that.

      I do have xplay, so I guess I can get by with that if I choose to switch to HFS+. How is HFS+ support in Linux so far?

      --
      A sentence you'll never see on an Internet discussion board: "You know what? You're right."
    4. Re:Awesome by FunkyChild · · Score: 1

      It does! I don't know if you need MacOpener for it - I already own it and have been using EphPod and MacOpener until now, but I was amazed. Installed iTunes, and there's my mac iPod sitting right there in the left column. Just beautiful.

  8. Other updates today by daeley · · Score: 4, Informative

    For Mac OS X users, check your Software Update, as QuickTime has been revved to 6.4, iPod software hits 2.1, and iTunes itself is now at 4.1.

    --
    I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
    1. Re:Other updates today by nahdude812 · · Score: 1

      Now for us Winblows users, tell me that there's an update available that lets us play OGG files!! *argh! As long as I've been looking forward to iTunes for Windows, it's a serious letdown that most of my existing music isn't playable. Can you play OGG's on the Mac in iTunes?

    2. Re:Other updates today by daeley · · Score: 1

      I believe so, yes. Check this page for more info.

      --
      I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
    3. Re:Other updates today by nahdude812 · · Score: 1

      I saw that page, but I believe the only thing there are Mac binaries.

    4. Re:Other updates today by CatOne · · Score: 1

      He did answer your question though, which was "can you play OGG files in iTunes on the Mac."

      Now you shouldn't be TOO upset... really it's your fault for using a fringe encoder. It's not THAT much better, and there's not much support for it (not to mention the iPod doesn't support it).

      MP3 and AAC are your options for iTunes & iPod on Mac and Windows.

    5. Re:Other updates today by arlow · · Score: 1

      In related news, the screenshot of XP on apple.com has the windows update icon in the tray... methinks apple is poking fun at m$ :>

      --

      my other lambda is a Y

    6. Re:Other updates today by unborracho · · Score: 1

      Winamp3 has always had OGG support

      --
      "You had this look that of an angel, it was such a bad disguise" --Dishwalla
    7. Re:Other updates today by nahdude812 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but it's a terrible resource hog. I've yet to see how iTunes compares, but with the music store built in, I had hoped to make iTunes my primary music player. With out ogg, this isn't a reality. Since there have been 3rd party patches released for the Mac version of iTunes, I imagine (and hope soon) there'll be something like this for Windows.

    8. Re:Other updates today by Bingo+Foo · · Score: 1

      Yes, don't expect a closed format like ogg to be available cross-platform!

      --
      taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
    9. Re:Other updates today by nahdude812 · · Score: 1

      http://www.vorbis.com/

      was that sarcasm?

  9. Target by bergerjs · · Score: 1

    Apple stated a target of 100 Million downloads by April, 2004. Assuming their Mac-user targets of 30mil, will PC users take to this as fast, getting them 70 million downloads in 6 months?

    1. Re:Target by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 1

      Now they want 100 million by the end of the year, and Pepsi is going to pay for it! http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-apple16oct16 ,1,3276726.story

      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    2. Re:Target by cgranade · · Score: 1

      Just leave it to the /.ers... After all, this is DRM minus the draconian part... they even tell you how to circumvent, if you accept slightly lower quality due to lossy-lossless-lossy transcoding.

      --

      #define DRM chmod 000

  10. I feel like a Cubs fan... by Pirogoeth · · Score: 1

    My hopes were running high, then they were crushed into the ground.

    There is no proxy support built into iTunes, so I have no access to the iTMS at work and I cannot get at my purchased music. I thought the iTMS was all web-based. Why wouldn't they think to include web-proxy support?

    I'm getting an Unknown Error (407).

    Sigh. I've been waiting for this all day and now I'm disappointed...

    --
    Happiness is like peeing yourself. Everybody can see it but only you can feel its warmth.
    1. Re:I feel like a Cubs fan... by gcondon · · Score: 1

      Hmm, that is surprising. The Mac version lacked proxy support for the first 2 point releases if I remember correctly.

      Needless to say, I was very happy when it was fixed (although there are still proxy problems with Safari & .Mac - reportedly solved in 10.3).

      Just hang in there, I am sure there will be a patch or workaround soon. Trust me, it is worth the wait.

    2. Re:I feel like a Cubs fan... by ydnar · · Score: 1

      Have you tried adjusting the proxy settings in the QuickTime control panel?

    3. Re:I feel like a Cubs fan... by Pirogoeth · · Score: 1

      Yep, but still nothing. I guess I'll just have to wait 'till I get home. (And DL the Mac version...)

      --
      Happiness is like peeing yourself. Everybody can see it but only you can feel its warmth.
    4. Re:I feel like a Cubs fan... by b-baggins · · Score: 2, Informative

      Here's how you play your iTunes purchased music at work:

      1. Authorize your work computer.
      2. Drag the purchased music files from your iTunes player to your desktop on your home pc to make a copy of them.
      3. Transfer the copies to your work PC.
      4. drag the copied files into iTunes on your work PC to import them.
      5. Delete the copied files on both machines.
      6. Enjoy your music at work.

      --
      You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
    5. Re:I feel like a Cubs fan... by Pirogoeth · · Score: 1

      I guess I should clarify... it's an authenticating proxy server, so I would need to enter a login and password somewhere.

      --
      Happiness is like peeing yourself. Everybody can see it but only you can feel its warmth.
    6. Re:I feel like a Cubs fan... by casio282 · · Score: 1

      According to the iTunes help, it cribs the proxy settings (HTTP) from internet explorer. So, ostensibly, if you've got IE set up to work with your authenticating proxy, it should work.

      I'm quite enjoying iTunes on windows, FWIW...

      --

      :wq
    7. Re:I feel like a Cubs fan... by dogfud · · Score: 1

      ???
      I'm sitting behind a corporate web proxy and getting access just fine...

      Fire up ethereal and what's going on?

  11. Re:So now by jared_hanson · · Score: 1

    I suppose they could if they wanted, but it is free.

    --
    -- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
  12. Re:Great! kind of by Kadagan+AU · · Score: 1

    Seeing as how it just came out today, I kind of doubt that many people have had a chance to yet. Sorry.

    --
    This space for rent, inquire within.
  13. Re:While I like the idea... by minus_273 · · Score: 1

    huh? of course you can do that with itunes... ive doen it many times

    --
    The war with islam is a war on the beast
    The war on terror is a war for peace
  14. Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by selderrr · · Score: 4, Informative

    it's fast on my Athlon 1700XP with 1GB Ram. But you sure need a shitlmoad of ram : in the taskmanager, iTunes itself gobs up a whopping 26MB when browsin. qtask takes another 13MB and iPodservices another 7.

    After a while (and when in bakground) those numbers drop to a more reasonable 9+4+3 so it's feasible on a lesser machine. But prepare for some heavy trashing on launch.

    Music sharing between OSX & XP works like a charm, even with dynamic playlists. I still gotta try out how my iPod responds when connected to the firewire port on the PC.

    Right now i' mgonna do a little stresstesting with iTunes+media player + warcraft, playing all together. The wife sure is going to love that sound :-)

    1. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by selderrr · · Score: 1

      wtf ? job??? what do you do all day? download the newest toys? i wish i had your life, consider yourself lucky.

      Ehm, dude it's 20:00 here. most folks don't work at that hour. Tomorrow at 7:30 I'll be on the job again.

    2. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by bbuchs · · Score: 1

      I installed it on a Win2K (P4 1.8 w/ 512MB ram) box at work, no problem at all.

      Ran home for lunch, and installed on my XP(Athlon 2400XPwith 1GB Ram). Crashed 4 times before I gave up and went back to work. Every time I popped a CD in, it hung. and hung...

    3. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by labratuk · · Score: 1

      You have to wonder where the world of bloated software has got you when you have to benchmark an mp3 playing program.

      --
      Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
    4. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by ripleymj · · Score: 1

      I'm seeing about the same RAM usage, but what's irritating me is that it is using 83-90% of the processor. On my 1.8Ghz MP3 playback usually takes 12% MAX.

    5. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by darkov · · Score: 1

      That's strange. On my Athalon 1800 running W2K it runs at about 1%. What else are you running?

    6. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by Eraser_ · · Score: 1

      To give you an idea, I installed it with everquest running in the bazaar with full textures (350~megs of ram) while installing the software. It took awhile, but it works. I havn't rebooted yet as I just had to head back to work and didn't want to wait on EQ to load again.

      (Home is 5 minutes from work, so I take a cheap lunch there daily :)

    7. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by ripleymj · · Score: 2, Informative

      Does it do some kind of initial indexing or something like that? It had been running high for 15-20 minutes and just as I hit submit on that post, it dropped to ~5% and held there.

    8. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by darkov · · Score: 1

      Possibly. If there was drawing going on that may have taken up the CPU.

    9. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by pyrros · · Score: 1

      You probably enabled soundcheck, and then imported a bunch of mp3s. On my pc this gets you 90+% CPU usage until its done, and then goes back to under 3%.

      Soundcheck scans your mp3's volume level, so that the volume level doesn't jump up and down when playing mp3s from different sources.

    10. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by Alan · · Score: 1

      Erhmm.... iTunes isn't a mp3 playing program. It does play mp3s, but it is also quite a lot more. IE: online store, browser, burning suite, internet radio, sharing, aac/mp3 file conversion, mp3/aac browsing, etc.

    11. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by muckdog · · Score: 1

      I have the same high CPU usage here, PIII 733Mhz with 256MB. Never this bad with winamp

    12. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by ripleymj · · Score: 1

      Yep, that'd be it.

    13. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by cancrman · · Score: 1

      They should have included a WMA-> AAC/MP3 converter too. A little stick in the eye for MS.

      --
      The sole purpose of the Internet is to get porn and bomb making plans into the hands of children.
    14. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by labratuk · · Score: 1

      I suppose what I'm trying to say is: I used to play mp3s with absolutely no problem back on my P233MMX, 32M mem, not even giving a thought to the machines performance. If you had told me back then that today, we would be worrying about the performance problems of something we could do easily back then(*) on a 1GHz machine with a gig of ram, I would have had a heart attack.

      Come on, people! Are we going forwards or backwards?!

      (*) - Of those features you list there isn't a single one that was not being done relatively problem free back in P233MMX days. Apart from online store. And that's simply because nobody had done it (successfully): it wasn't a matter of it being too resource intensive.

      --
      Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
    15. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by Alan · · Score: 1

      Backwards :)
      Ever noticed how your new OS or app never runs *faster* than before, or you can put it on an OLDER peice of hardware? Computers suck that way, I completely agree.

      That said, I don't recall my p233 doing cd burning or mp3 encoding/conversion, much less doing it very fast. Don't forget as well that along with the mp3 player/features/etc the required speed on the machine also relies on the OS. If it was windows 95 compatible it would probably run with the minimum specs of windows 95.

      XP/2k/OSX all have their now cpu sucking eye-candy, be it translucent menus or the crayola look of XP, and they all contribute to the requirements of the programs they run.

      Not that developers are saying "optimize? a gig of is under $100!" but that's a different discussion entirely.

    16. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by Belgand · · Score: 1

      Ah, so it's bloatware to functions mainly for them to try and sell me stuff and encode mp3s in a manner that's likely inferior to my current method of EAC and LAME? I really, really don't see the need for this.

    17. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by hondo77 · · Score: 1

      Jesus Farking Christ, people. SHUT UP ABOUT ITS SIZE! 26MB? You guys are whining about that?!? I have MP3 files bigger than that. What do you care? Too much disk space? Here's a quarter, buy an extra gig. Too much RAM? Yeah, I bet iTunes is eating up all your RAM.

      That's why we have these big machines these days, people. Big disks, big RAM, fast CPUs. So we can run big apps. Welcome to the 21st century.

      --
      I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
    18. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by LoudMusic · · Score: 1

      Music sharing between OSX & XP works like a charm, even with dynamic playlists

      AWESOME! So my mixed network at work of 55 - 60 Windows 2000 and Mac OS X computers should play nice ...

      --
      No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
    19. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by benh57 · · Score: 1

      You have over One Thousand megabytes of RAM. It is ridiculous for you to be worrying about an app using 30MB. In fact it should use as much as it can since it is in a high-RAM-availability situation. OS X, at least, uses the BSD model - it will keep as much as it can in RAM. 'Free' RAM is WASTED RAM.

    20. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by TwistedGreen · · Score: 1

      46 MB? I'd hardly call that a shitload.

    21. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by 47PHA60 · · Score: 1

      I would not worry about the RAM usage. Here are some other memory statistics from my Windows 2000 machine:

      Outlook 28,864 K
      Mozilla Firebird 29,168 K
      mcshield.exe 16,324 K
      (virus scanner)
      iTunes 20,288 K
      word.exe 9,232 K

      (Word has no file open at this time; this is after starting the app on its own.)

      Using more RAM is how a lot of apps run faster; many apps trade storage size for speed. Now, one could argue that a mail/calendar client using more RAM than a QuickTime multimedia application is silly, but when you've got a gig, what the heck are you worried about?

      And don't worry, Bill Gates (at the Etre conference, I believe) just said that 64-bit computing does not excite him because "nobody will need more than 4GB RAM." He may reverse himself when Longhorn finally ships.

    22. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by lowmagnet · · Score: 1

      Except that codec to codec conversions are generally awful. Better to start with AAC/MP3.

      --
      Heute die Welt, morgen das Sonnensystem!
    23. Re:Just downloaded it. pretty sweet by Belgand · · Score: 1

      Yeah, let's just forget about efficiency. People have bigger hard drives so I can write sloppy, bloated code and they'll be able to cram it in there... this just drives the cycle of needing bigger and bigger drives needlessly.

      No, my complaint is more a matter of feature bloat rather than specific size (26MB is kinda big though). Considering that one of the "features" is basically just a built-in store for them I'm already getting pretty suspicious. Ultimately though I tend to think that the Unix philosophy is best, make one thing do one job and do it well. I want a good mp3 player and a good ripper. Not a half-assed ripper thrown into a decent mp3 player and using a less than stellar encoder.

      Features like these just play on people's laziness and an attempt to make your program the end-all, be-all one-stop thing that they use. Typically it's not an attempt to make things genuinely better for users.

  15. ARRGH! by May+Kasahara · · Score: 1

    Windows iTunes is for Win2k and XP only?! I guess lack of Win95/98/NT support comes as no surprise, but still... that bites. No Linux version either. Ah well, there's always my iBook...

    1. Re:ARRGH! by Sporkinum · · Score: 1

      Because a bunch of us still use it. My gaming box runs 98se. Why should I go through the whole rigamarole to upgrade an OS for something not really needing it?

      --
      "He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
    2. Re:ARRGH! by Zathrus · · Score: 1

      MS has EOLed 98 (Dead as in OS 9), why should Apple support it?

      No it hasn't. End of support isn't until Jan 16 next year, EOL is Jan 16, 2005. While you can argue that that's only three months at this point, WinME has almost another year of life beyond Win98 and supporting one would be no harder than supporting the other. On top of that there's a rather huge number of people still running Win9x/ME that have no intention, desire, or capability to upgrade... I really don't get why Apple shut out that user base -- especially since it's probably a demographic that's likely to be interested in this kind of thing.

    3. Re:ARRGH! by tbone1 · · Score: 1
      Are you kidding?!?! Supporting anything win WinME is impossible.

      --

      The Independent: Reverend Spooner Arrested in Friar Tuck Incident - ISIHAC, Historical Headlines
    4. Re:ARRGH! by jesser · · Score: 1

      Because it still has 29% marketshare according to Google.

      --
      The shareholder is always right.
    5. Re:ARRGH! by b1t+r0t · · Score: 1

      Perhaps because there is some correlation between the people willing to spend money to upgrade to 2K/XP and the people willing to spend money on internet music stores? I've heard that most software purchases are within six months of buying a new computer, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a similar situation here.

      --

      --
      "Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
      "Open source is evil." - Microsoft
    6. Re:ARRGH! by shotfeel · · Score: 1

      Just a matter of semantics, but Apple didn't shut anybody out.

      What they didn't do was spend hundreds of programmer hrs and who-knows-how-many hours of testing adding up to $???? to get the latest version of Quicktime and iTunes running under an older OS that has a good chance of being on older hardware that may not be capable of running the software at anything resembling acceptible rates.

      And then they'd have to deal with the headache of everyone using those underrated systems complaining about how horrible Apple software is...

      As I see it, Apple did the smart thing.

      BTW, MS may still be supporting Win98 and ME, but does all their latest software run on those OS's? If not, why do you expect Apple to be able to do it with a brand-new software package?

    7. Re:ARRGH! by Jarnis · · Score: 1

      Anyone unable to upgrade from old POS Win98/ME setup to a modern computer is probably not in Apple's target demograhic (that being 'consumers who have money')

    8. Re:ARRGH! by QuackQuack · · Score: 1
      MS has EOLed 98 (Dead as in OS 9), why should Apple support it?

      Apple shouldn't want to force PC users to send more money to M$ to upgrade their OS, should they?

      I was so looking forward to iTunes too. The new Napster is XP/2000 only also, I guess I'll check out MusicMatch, it supports 98

      --
      By reading this sig, you agree to the terms of my sig license.
    9. Re:ARRGH! by QuackQuack · · Score: 1

      But think of how many songs you could buy with that money spent to upgrade to XP/2K!

      I've heard that most software purchases are within six months of buying a new computer, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a similar situation here.

      Personally, as much as I want iTunes, I refuse to upgrade my Windows OS (which I barely use anyway) just to use it. I'll just check out one of the iTunes competitors that keep popping up instead that support 98. I suspect many people will feel the same.

      If we won't let Bill Gates force us to give him more money, why would we let Steve Jobs force us to give Gates more money?

      --
      By reading this sig, you agree to the terms of my sig license.
    10. Re:ARRGH! by QuackQuack · · Score: 1
      Anyone unable to upgrade from old POS Win98/ME setup to a modern computer is probably not in Apple's target demograhic

      Nonsense. This has been Apples target demographic ever since the first Mac. They've tried to attract people away from PCs for years by pointing out how easy Macs are to use.

      --
      By reading this sig, you agree to the terms of my sig license.
    11. Re:ARRGH! by Zathrus · · Score: 1

      And you'd be wrong. Hell, all of my boxes ran Win98SE until under a year ago -- and an Athlon 750 w/ 512MB or Athlon 1.4GHz w/ 512MB is certainly sufficient to run iTunes (my new Athlon 2.2GHz and the 1.4 now run WinXP, but I probably would've installed 98SE on the 2.2 if I hadn't run into install issues (turned out to be bad memory)). My brother-in-law's boxes all run Win98 or Win98SE, simply because there's no reason for him to upgrade -- and since he and my sister both have 6 figure salaries with no kids and no substantial debts (my sister paid cash for her last car, which was probably about $30k) they are certainly in the "consumers who have money" category, and they're likely to be interested in iTunes as well. My other sister's PC is probably on the marginal end of running iTunes, but I have no doubt that she'd be interested in it if she could run it. I have several coworkers who would also be interested, except they run 98SE or ME as well simply because there is no good reason to upgrade. And iTunes isn't going to be the reason.

      A lot of gamers run Win98SE because it's still considered one of the best gaming OS's. It's much lighter than XP, runs all the apps and games, has full driver support, and is reasonably stable.

      Sorry, it's a stupid, bone-headed decision. Apple has probably cut out over half their target market in doing so -- and that's enough to justify the additional programming and QA expenses to make sure it works right.

    12. Re:ARRGH! by May+Kasahara · · Score: 1

      What they didn't do was spend hundreds of programmer hrs and who-knows-how-many hours of testing adding up to $???? to get the latest version of Quicktime and iTunes running under an older OS that has a good chance of being on older hardware that may not be capable of running the software at anything resembling acceptible rates. Actually, I just installed the latest version of QT under Win98SE and it runs just fine. Of course, QT has been available on Windows for years, now...

    13. Re:ARRGH! by May+Kasahara · · Score: 1
      Good looking out ^_^ Truth be told, my PC is dual-boot (Win98SE and Win2k Pro), so technically I could run Windows iTunes if I really wanted to. The only thing is that I have Win98 set as my default OS, as most of the apps-- including certain games-- I use on a regular basis work best in this OS (Win2k I only use for 3D animation and modeling apps). I've never bothered to upgrade either one of them since both these OSes suit my purposes just fine (and besides, WinXP is ugly!).

      But again, I also have a Mac running OS X, so I'm not entirely out of the loop ;)

    14. Re:ARRGH! by CatOne · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well... iTunes uses Rendezvous (aka Zeroconf) to allow machines on the same subnet to see each others' playlists. Perhaps the infrastructure for Rendezvous exists on 2000 and XP, but not on the 9x based systems?

      I'm not sure, but there may well be support for functionality in 2000 and XP that doesn' exist in the 4+ year old OS versions.

    15. Re:ARRGH! by Luscious868 · · Score: 1
      Personally, as much as I want iTunes, I refuse to upgrade my Windows OS (which I barely use anyway) just to use it. I'll just check out one of the iTunes competitors that keep popping up instead that support 98. I suspect many people will feel the same.


      While I can certainly understand your unwillingness to upgrade, I'd suggest moving to Windows 2000. IMHO it's the best OS that Microsoft has ever produced. Leaps and bounds better than 98 and I won't even bother talking about how much better it is than ME (what a POS that was). If your system can run 98 than it can probably run 2000. If you have no plans to upgrade then you shouldn't have plans to run any Windows apps that are going to be released in the future as you're going to see more and more that are not going to support 98/Me.



      I can see why they would choose to target 2000/XP and not 98/ME. First and foremost, 98 is 5 years old and ME is a complete and total POS. There are probably features in 2000/XP that iTunes needs that are lacking in 98 / ME. You've got to figure that Apple would support 98/ME if they could. They took a look and determined it was more trouble than what it is worth. Perhaps they will add support in a future release and were just in a hurry to get iTunes out the door.

    16. Re:ARRGH! by b1t+r0t · · Score: 1
      I agree. When I need to use Windows, I prefer to use W2K because it sucks the least. Even with the recent vulnerabilities which require you to install SP2, the RPC patch, and disable Windows Messenger, it still sucks the least. And it's also free of the Big Brother activiation scheme of XP.

      About the only real problem I have with W2K is making a bootable HPFS volume > 2 gigs. The installer wants to format a FAT volume (max size 2 gigs) and update it after the install is complete. In order to make a large, bootable HPFS volume, you need to install once on a different drive, format the desired drive as a D:, then start all over with the desired drive rewired as a C: drive.

      Anyhow, asking Apple to support 98/ME is like asking them to write a new program to run on MacOS 9.x, or even 8.x. The fact that many of their "current" programs (iLife) have had a 9.x version is simply because they're old enough to have started in the 9.x days. But you're still not going to find iTunes 4.1 for 9.x, just as you're not going to find it for 98/ME.

      --

      --
      "Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
      "Open source is evil." - Microsoft
  16. No I can switch... by ernstp · · Score: 1

    I'm, currently planning to replace my old iMac with a new, cheap PC.
    It has sounded really scary, until now...!
    If I can run iTunes on it that would be like a guiding light in the Windows darkness!

    1. Re:No I can switch... by zpok · · Score: 1

      Word of advice: don't do it.

      Buy a refurb Mac, a second hand or whatever. You'll regret going Windows on the cheap.

      If you have to go Windows (there are excellent reasons, like Dungeon Keeper II), at least try and get the hardware right.

      Cheap does mean cheap. IOW: you'll get double the fun for half the price: a not so nice OS on faulty parts...

      --
      I think, therefore I am...I think.
    2. Re:No I can switch... by blugu64 · · Score: 1

      I did the same thing a year ago....now I wish someone woulda shot me, Sure there's tons more software...but not as much of it (% wise) is nearly as good as most mac freeware. I plan on buying an iBook as soon as I can afford one, and forgetting this nightmare ever happened

      --
      "Personal ownership is a hallmark of conservative capitalism. And I don't believe I am entitled to anything that I did n
  17. Re:iTunes for Windows Screenshots? by Clockwurk · · Score: 1

    It is the brushed metal look, similar to the quicktime player.

  18. Re:While I like the idea... by Pirogoeth · · Score: 1

    You can burn your purchased songs onto a CD to play wherever you want. What's the problem?

    --
    Happiness is like peeing yourself. Everybody can see it but only you can feel its warmth.
  19. New iPod accessories by herko_cl · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apple also released several new accesories for the iPod. They include such things as turning the iPod into an image tank for CF cards and the much-rumored voice recorder.

    --
    No .sig for you! ONE YEAR!
    1. Re:New iPod accessories by lwells-au · · Score: 1

      The voice recorder and image attachments are both third party accessories. See: http://www.belkin.com

    2. Re:New iPod accessories by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 1
      Only Apple would have the balls to sell a cassette adapter for the car for $20. Wow. It isn't even designed all pretty like the rest of Apple's products.

      --
      Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
    3. Re:New iPod accessories by HardCase · · Score: 1
      Remarkably, tne Neuros already comes with voice (and FM and line in) recording and a nifty little FM transmitter for broadcasting your music to a nearby radio. Gee, and the 20GB version of the player is $199 - and no DRM!


      -h-

    4. Re:New iPod accessories by momerath2003 · · Score: 1

      Gee, and there's no DRM on regular music that you put on the iPod either!

      --
      I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
    5. Re:New iPod accessories by HardCase · · Score: 1

      Gee, and there's no DRM on regular music that you put on the iPod either!

      True. But I think that you missed my point. No, I'm positive that you missed my point.

    6. Re:New iPod accessories by jcbphi · · Score: 1

      None of the Apple branded products on that page are new items. The oddball objects, like the CF interface and voice recorder, are made by 3rd parties, and are not new either.

      Most of these products are simply Apple-ish enough to warrent being sold on Apple's web store (and their Brick+Morter stores as well).

    7. Re:New iPod accessories by Steath+Car · · Score: 1

      The micophone and CF interface, while not made by Apple, definitely are new.

  20. Re:iTunes for Windows Screenshots? by lithandie · · Score: 1

    go to the apple frontpage and see the screanshot there...

  21. Re:While I like the idea... by realdpk · · Score: 2, Informative

    You may want to re-read what iTunes is. You can copy the files to a CD, as a regular music CD, and then do whatever with 'em - such as conver them to mp3 for your car.

    That's what I'll end up doing, anyways. (Car mp3 players are cool ;)

  22. How do you get the iTunes for Windows to Run??? by coral256 · · Score: 1

    All I get is an error dialog: The folder iTunes cannot be found or created, and is required. The default location for this folder is inside the Music folder Nothing more.

  23. Default rip mode is AAC remember to change it by jacexpo069 · · Score: 1
    Downloaded and started ripping before reading the options carefully. The default is to rip CDs as AAC files (Quicktime 6.2 is installed at the same time). Remember to change it to MP3 (at whatever bitrate you so desire)

    Great Job Jobs.

    1. Re:Default rip mode is AAC remember to change it by feldsteins · · Score: 1

      Change it if you need to for compatibility with your car stereo/portable player. AAC is probably more efficient otherwise.

      --
      You like your Macintosh better than me, don't you Dave? Dave? Can you hear me Dave?
    2. Re:Default rip mode is AAC remember to change it by Mononoke · · Score: 1
      Remember to change it to MP3 (at whatever bitrate you so desire)
      Why?
      --
      NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
    3. Re:Default rip mode is AAC remember to change it by magnum3065 · · Score: 1

      Well as was said before, MP3 is really only usefull if you need to be able to play it on a portable device that doesn't support other formats. AAC and MPC are currently give you the best quality for the bitrate. Vorbis lags slightly behind, but I still use it since it's supported by default in XMMS and Winamp (it's also nice to know it will always remain free). MP3 has really been outclassed by the newer formats, but we need users to start realizing this and pushing for hardware to support something better. We're in a position right now where portable players are supporting MP3 since it's the most widely used and people keep using MP3 since that's what their players will play.

  24. Re:Great! kind of by atheos · · Score: 1

    I'm attempting it, but the installer keeps crashing with this error:
    1155: File F:\INSTMSIA.EXE not found

    guess I'll have to find an win32 box, and copy over the
    installed files

  25. More Goodies ... Even for Mac Users by gcondon · · Score: 2, Informative

    The new iTunes Music Store now supports gift certificates & music "allowances" for your kids.

    Plus, the catalog still seems to be growing at a healthy clip - unexpected holdouts such as the Grateful Dead are now available and Audible audiobooks are now available through the store.

    I still wish that they would keep track of single song purchases and deduct them from the album price (a kind of installment plan) but a nice feature bump nonetheless.

    I also like the headline on Apple's homepage - "Hell Froze Over!"

    1. Re:More Goodies ... Even for Mac Users by gcondon · · Score: 1

      Ha, ha ... smartass ;-)

      In case you (or others) are not aware, Audible is the tradename of the company providing the audiobooks.

      I have been using them, through their own website, for over a year and I really like their product. Books are approximately 10MB/hr at their highest encoding rate which means I can keep many books on my iPod at a time (usually 6-12 hours / book, abridged). It really makes the commute fly by.

      I wish they would offer an even higher bitrate version as the audio is still a little robotic sounding but once I get into the story I rarely notice.

      I just finished listening to Margaret Atwood's new book, Oryx & Crake - very good.

    2. Re:More Goodies ... Even for Mac Users by __aafutm5472 · · Score: 1

      I also like the headline on Apple's homepage - "Hell Froze Over!"

      Right now, several geeks are jumping for joy, as they finally will get a date with that girl from school...

    3. Re:More Goodies ... Even for Mac Users by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 1
      "I also like the headline on Apple's homepage - "Hell Froze Over!""

      Those apple marketing people are pretty smart. Think about how this phrase would be intepreted by Apple fans versus curious windows users. It's very very smart ;-)

  26. First Impressions by jokell82 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well I've been a Mac user for a while and love iTunes on my iBook, and I just installed iTunes for PC on my parent's machine. It feels just like iTunes for Mac, very polished, very smooth. I imported a bunch of songs (bad Kazaa, bad!) and they all were read in fine. It sees my shared playlist on my iBook and I can play the files from it just fine. Haven't gone up to the iBook to see if it works the other way, but it should. So far I'm very impressed with the quality of it, considering it's a Windows app.

    Now I just get to tell my family about how buying the music is better than copying it for free. ;)

    --
    I dunno who it is
    but it prolly is fhqwhgads.
    1. Re:First Impressions by InfiniteVoid · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately I've run into a few bumps when importing music.

      I've got one MP3 that sortof works on the OSX iTunes. (It can be added to the library, but iTunes can't figure out how long the song is.) Trying to add it to the Win-iTunes crashed the program.

      At work, I tried adding our shared music directory, and iTunes froze on a strangely formatted .m3u file. I renamed it to .m3u.borked and tried again. iTunes rightly ignored it this time (though I did see it flash by in the list of files iTunes was scanning) but then froze on a .jpg file. Both times it froze, the CPU was at a steady 100%, and iTunes had to be killed.

      Hopefully the 4.1.1 release will fix these parsing fatalities so that directories can more easily be added.

    2. Re:First Impressions by Chester+K · · Score: 1

      So far I'm very impressed with the quality of it

      It's already crashed once for me in the three hours I've been using it (I picked "Hide Browser" from the menu while an MP3 was playing and it bombed), and the navigation (scrolling and such) while in the Music Store seems incredibly slow -- but aside from those problems, it's pure heaven.

      As much as I hate the idea of buying a DRM'd audio format, I think Apple's suckered me in as a customer.

      --

      NO CARRIER
    3. Re:First Impressions by edalytical · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Haven't gone up to the iBook to see if it works the other way

      Yup, works both ways, flawlessly. I'm sharing my playlist with two other Windows boxes which are intern sharing their playlist with the others computers. I have been playing files off my Power Mac on both Windows computers while I play music from either Windows box on my Power Mac, just to test it out. And it works without any problems at all. Zero configuration, instant play back just like local files, completely seamless, all over 802.11b. Great job Apple.

      --
      Win a signed Stephen Carpenter ESP Guitar from the Deftones: http://def-tag.com/?r=0008781
  27. Not bad by Auckerman · · Score: 1

    The installer is painless. Couple next buttons, and three checkboxes (iTunes default media player, Quicktime default movie player, shortcut on desktop) followed by reboot. Interface is pretty much the same as iTunes for OS X. Worked with an off the shelf IDE burner in the machine. Windows users are going to be very happy.

    --

    Burn Hollywood Burn
    1. Re:Not bad by Fred+Ferrigno · · Score: 1

      Windows users are going to be very happy.

      Ehhh... looking at the screen shots, it's got the same interface as Quicktime, and knowing how many Windows users react to Quicktime, I don't know how happy they'll be with iTunes.

      Why can't they use the standard interface? Is it just about branding? 'Cause I don't give a shit about branding, I just want a program that's functional.

    2. Re:Not bad by b-baggins · · Score: 1

      Obviously you do care about branding because you're so annoyed that iTunes doesn't use the Windows branding that you're totally ignoring the functionality of the program.

      --
      You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
    3. Re:Not bad by Psychic+Burrito · · Score: 1

      You're basically right. But I think the real reason why people hate the quicktime look is because they had no choice: "you want to see this trailer for free, then you must download QT". With the iTunes music store, it's different: "We've got this nice app, please try it out, but if you don't like it, we can't force you to use it".

      So yes it's inefficient, but people can choose which MP3 locker they prefer - there's no force used.

    4. Re:Not bad by Fred+Ferrigno · · Score: 1

      Branding can and does get in the way of functionality, e.g. Quicktime. If QT were branded and functional, that's a different story.

      See, there's a problem that occurs in Windows when programmers want to re-implement the window controls to make their UI look purty. The programs just don't run as fast or as robustly as programs using the native interface API. GTK on Windows faces the same problem, as do many native programs written by people who think they can write a better UI. (In general, they are wrong.)

      It's the whole "reinventing the wheel" thing. I already have to pay the overhead costs to load those libraries for other native programs, so QT/iTunes might as well use them. And hey, maybe it'll result in a consistent interface across applications!

  28. So far so good! by caulfield · · Score: 1

    The Windows interface is very close to the MacOS interface. So far it does everything I expect it to, including plyaing MP3CDs made with the MacOS version (including pulling all the info out of the XML data file burned on the CD). It also uses Rendezvous so you can share music on your LAN (also like the Mac version).

    So far, it's two ears up.

  29. Long-term effect on Apple? by TellarHK · · Score: 1

    With the release of iTunes and the iTMS on the PC, what is this all going to mean to Apple as a computer company? One of the side effects of releasing iTunes for Windows may very well be something Apple has been hoping to do for quite some time; demonstrate to PC owners just what the "Apple Experience" is actually all about these days.

    Nobody bought an Apple machine because iTunes was the killer app, but most people that use it for managing archives of music are pretty steadfast about it being the best software for music management out there. Will people take this as a sign of Apple's quality of software development, and match that up with the quality of the iPod design for a pretty decent picture of Apple's design ethos? Could this be what Apple needs to jumpstart the market share?

    1. Re:Long-term effect on Apple? by Predius · · Score: 1

      Given what I've seen so far, I wouldn't run out into the streets proclaiming this the pinacle of software quality. The interface is a nasty cludge of Apple brushed metal on the shell, and mixed windows widgits inside. It acts like the main window is renedered by hand in a back buffer than just slapped over the designated window space instead of attempting to use the themeability of the default Windows GUI APIs. Net result, resizing is PAINFUL on a box that isn't doing anything. The plain, undecorated dialog when you hit a station in the radio tuner while it pulls down the playlist is nicely out of place as well. On the mac it just reports that in the LCD display, why couldn't this build? Nice app, but man the spit and polish once you try to do something is lacking.

  30. Re:Finally... by cgranade · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry, but a quarter of an hour is hardly a long delay...

    --

    #define DRM chmod 000

  31. Re:While I like the idea... by rlthomps-1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I guess I don't understand your complaint... you can burn these into a CD ALL YOU WANT and from there you can do anything you want to them (mp3, record them onto a *cough* tape player, whatever).

    or maybe you're just upset that there's a resonable compromise between DRM and free use rights. Come on, if you want legit digital downloads, there's going to have to be some restrictions.

  32. Alternate download site by BenFranske · · Score: 4, Informative

    If the Apple site gets bogged down it is also availible via BitTorrent at this site. It also looks like Apple is only supporting Windows 2000 and XP.

    1. Re:Alternate download site by ek_adam · · Score: 1

      I downloaded it about 15 minutes after the speech. The installer downloaded at a respectable 400k/second. I imported and am listening to Wayne Lytle's Animusic on iTunes right now.

    2. Re:Alternate download site by jdreed1024 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      It also looks like Apple is only supporting Windows 2000 and XP.

      So? It doesn't make sense for Apple, when coming out with a new piece of software, to support versions that Microsoft doesn't even support. All the 9x series are legacy now, except perhaps 98/98SE which is in "extended support" or something for a few more months.

      --
      There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
    3. Re:Alternate download site by mcdurdin · · Score: 1
      It also looks like Apple is only supporting Windows 2000 and XP.

      Now that's the best news I've heard for a long time. There are a lot of people out there stuck on the glorious Win9x/Me... if they could be encouraged to upgrade (and let's face it, Microsoft hasn't been able to do this), we may be able to say goodbye to a truly painful era in operating system support just a little bit sooner than expected.

    4. Re:Alternate download site by tkrabec · · Score: 1

      as if, I downloaded it when it was on /. and I got 1100Kb/sec granted I'm off a t3 but still. I don't think they can be /.'ed

      -- tim

      --
      TKrabec Pahh
    5. Re:Alternate download site by truenoir · · Score: 1

      The iPod requires 2k or XP as well. Always has, my brother had that problem with his first gen "for Windows" model. Apple has little reason to support older Windows revs.

    6. Re:Alternate download site by morgue-ann · · Score: 1

      Thanks!

      BitTorrent always sounded like a good idea, but I've never tried it until today. While waiting for the Apple/Akamai download, I downloaded & installed the client and got iTunes.

    7. Re:Alternate download site by brc007 · · Score: 1

      FYI: I'm getting 12.0KB/Sec from the Apple/Akamai download. and about 40 KiB/Sec from the parrents .torrent.

    8. Re:Alternate download site by atari2600 · · Score: 1

      Just installed it on Windows 2003 Standard SRV - installed great and runs fine.

    9. Re:Alternate download site by ealar+dlanvuli · · Score: 1

      I seriously doubt it was slashdot that caused the problem.

      There are news sites other than slashdot out there...

      --
      I live in a giant bucket.
  33. Re:While I like the idea... by MuckSavage · · Score: 1

    Have you even any idea about apple's drm? Unlimited cd burns, (only 10 times of the same songs in the same order) transfer it to your ipod, and I would assume other players as soon as they adopt mpeg4. And you are allowed to import those files back into any format you want.

  34. It's one plank in the wall by karmawarrior · · Score: 1
    Well done Apple. This is the kind of action necessary to balance the interests of all sides in the digital music realm. On the one side you've had the users, who want a flexible, accessible, affordable method of downloading music. On the other, the music industry is panicy because it realizes that the digital medium provides a potential to bypass mechanisms to funnel payments to music creators on a scale never seen before. There will never be a perfect balance, the iTMS's limitation of 30 second clips still makes it hard to see people being able to sample music in the ways that Napster, Kazaa, and Gnutella have made possible. While independent publishers have cut into the burden, a large proportion of iTune's revenues still go to groups unrelated to the creation of the music it funds the creation of. Many artists are concerned because they want to ensure their works are bought and used as a whole, not as individual tracks, and the iTunes system isn't always optimized terribly well for that scenario.

    But undeniably, this is a step in the right direction. The above issues, of course, need to be addressed. Solutions such as online radio may improve the ability of individuals to sample music, for example, but the RIAA has created tough conditions for low level online radio systems, keeping the medium for the most part under the heavy thumb of the cartels. This isn't, by itself, a bad thing: there's nothing to stop independent groups coming together and creating libraries of non-mainstream music that Internet radio stations can play cheaply, or without cost at all. It requires the will however, and the mechanisms to be created such that Internet radio's operators can easily find and thus negotiate directly with such libraries, avoiding the dangerous possibility of not doing so and hitting the defaults the RIAA offers.

    Creating a huge, high quality, downloadable library, as Apple has done, and making it semi-platform-independent, is certainly a single brick that can be used as a plank to build a bigger concept, a better music platform than the bricks and mortar systems of the past. Without other bricks to form those additional planks, however, that concept will never be dreamt.

    This quagmire of downloadable music services requiring a substantial ancillary infrastructure to survive will not disappear by itself. Unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.

    You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman [house.gov] or senator [senate.gov]. Tell them that online music is important to you. Tell them that the infrastructure, both technical and organizational, must be built up to ensure the long term viability of online music. Tell them that you appreciate the work being done by Apple and others to create download services but that if the rest of the system is not built you will be forced to use less and less secure and intelligently designed alternatives. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how a lack of a viable music distribution network harms all three. Let your legislators know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on their policies concerning downloadable music.

    You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.

    --
    KMSMA (WWBD?)
    1. Re:It's one plank in the wall by NaugaHunter · · Score: 1

      Many artists are concerned because they want to ensure their works are bought and used as a whole, not as individual tracks, and the iTunes system isn't always optimized terribly well for that scenario.

      I don't think that's entirely true - there are quite a few songs that say 'album only', so there probably isn't a technical reason it can't be done. It may be more along the lines of price arguments - Apple wants most of the albums to be $9.99, though there already are quite a few longer/double albums that aren't.

      Or it may be that the singles sales will prove that they only put out 2 or 3 good songs per album, and will take in a lot less money even if they appear to be more popular. This is probably also a fear of record executives, but to a lesser extent since they'll break even quicker with a dozen one-hit wonders than any of those wonders will.

      --
      R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
  35. Hehe by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

    iTunes for Mac, at least, and I am extrapolating to PC, allows purchased AAC files to be used in:

    Quicktime
    iMovie
    iTunes
    iPhoto

    I can also use it on my iPod
    I can burn audio CDs
    I have streamed it across the network
    I can burn data CDs
    I can convert/transcode to AIFF/MP3/etc

    So download the iTunes4PC and give it a shot :)

    1. Re:Hehe by Jeffrey+Baker · · Score: 1

      Use it as background music for a slideshow.

    2. Re:Hehe by Hawthorne01 · · Score: 1

      Soundtrack for slideshows, that's what.

      --
      "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
    3. Re:Hehe by nek · · Score: 1

      Use it as background music for a slide show.

  36. Service unavailable in Canada??? by JFMulder · · Score: 1

    What the fudge!?!! I just clicked on the Music Store icon in iTunes and it says that the service is unavailable in my country. What's so hard about getting my credit card info and bill me?

    1. Re:Service unavailable in Canada??? by GabrielF · · Score: 1

      What's difficult is that there are completely different distributors in Canada, so in order for Apple to sell music in Canada it needs license agreements with the Canadian distributors. Unfortunately this hasn't happened yet. Rumor has it iTunes Music Store Canada and Europe will happen early next year.

    2. Re:Service unavailable in Canada??? by skeeber · · Score: 1

      It actually has nothing to do with your cc info, it's more likely that Apple's not licensed by the labels to sell their songs outside the US.

    3. Re:Service unavailable in Canada??? by JFMulder · · Score: 1

      Don't blame me, I didn't vote for the guy. ;)

    4. Re:Service unavailable in Canada??? by Columbo · · Score: 1

      Yeah. Blame Canada Instead!

      Oh ... wait ...

    5. Re:Service unavailable in Canada??? by smartin · · Score: 1

      Get over it you filthy crybaby canuck. Boohoo, what is all this aboot, eh?

      arsehole

      --
      The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
    6. Re:Service unavailable in Canada??? by EricWright · · Score: 1

      Uh... mebbe because Apple has agreements with the RIAA... that's Recording Industry Association of America, and like it or not, an unqualified America is (almost) universally accepted to mean the USA. Most of the music available on iTMS is controlled by the RIAA. It's easier to restrict non-US access than try to figure out on a track-by-track basis who can access it.

      Of course, this entire post is ironic given my sig.

    7. Re:Service unavailable in Canada??? by perp · · Score: 1

      Even worse, Apple's site led me on. It let me choose Canada from the dropdown box on the install download page (w00t! says I), then it installs, runs and THEN tells me that the service is unavailable.

      --
      There are two kinds of sysadmins: paranoids and losers. I'm both kinds.
    8. Re:Service unavailable in Canada??? by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 1

      It's the CIRA. They're the Canadian analogue to the RIAA. They were supposed to have worked something out by SEPTEMBER, but obviously that hasn't gone through yet. I'm anxiously waiting, too.

    9. Re:Service unavailable in Canada??? by RatBastard · · Score: 1

      You can't buy music from the iTunes store, but you can still use the rest of the features. So, you are still getting a very good MP3 player with some very cool sorting functions and whatnot for free.

      --
      Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
    10. Re:Service unavailable in Canada??? by AusG4 · · Score: 1

      Oh look, another redneck with a computer!

      --
      bash-3.00$ uname -a
      SunOS panda 5.10 Generic sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-2
  37. one of the best parts : allowances by selderrr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    THis really really rocks :
    Allowance accounts and gift certificates Now you can give your kids a legal way to download their favorite songs with music allowance accounts, which give them access to the store without requiring a credit card and set a limit on how much they can spend. It's easy to set up recurring allowances which refresh every month, and you can establish different allowance accounts for each of your children. You can also buy music gift certificates -- just the thing for your favorite college student or birthday friend. A counter in the iTunes Music Store shows how much credit is left in allowances and gift certificates.

    1. Re:one of the best parts : allowances by dboyles · · Score: 1

      You know, the allowance is really just a derivative of the gift certificate. A recurring gift certificate (sounds a little better than saying you're paying for an account or subscription) sounds like a great marketing technique. There's nothing really groundbreaking about it, it's just a solid way to generate sales.

      But the more I think about it, the more I think that iTunes can be big for Apple. They seem to have done iTunes right. Combine that with the fact that the iPod is heavily cherished/desired, and Apple is set up for a great holiday season.

      And not only that, but this "hip with kids" name recognition will probably generate a lot more computer sales around the same time. Little Jimmy is dying for an iPod and could use a new computer as well? Let's get him a G5 to match the iPod, and a year's allowance of 20 songs per month.

      I know there have been a lot of "this is what's going to allow [insert company name here] to gain some serious footing in the marketplace" talk around here, but it seems to me that it might actually come to fruition for Apple.

      --
      -- "Complacency is a far more dangerous attitude than outrage." -Naomi Littlebear
    2. Re:one of the best parts : allowances by silentbozo · · Score: 1

      Actually, it's even better for Apple. Instead of having customers make one or two purchases at a time, and having card processing fees eat into that, they have people purchasing maybe $15 or $20 worth of gift certificates at a time. The relative amount taken out by fees is much less, meaning more of the gross is retained by Apple.

      All they need to do now is offically enable recording on the iPod (I'm not doing the left/right/left/right/a/b/a/b thing to enable it) and they'll have me for a new customer.

    3. Re:one of the best parts : allowances by pHDNgell · · Score: 1

      www.apple.com/ipod/

      New in iPod Software 2.1

      * Voice notes (requires 3rd party microphone, sold separately)
      * Digital photo storage (requires 3rd party photo card reader, sold separately)
      * Enhanced On-The-Go playlist
      * Improved playback performance
      * Added Music Quiz game
      * Improved backlight
      * Improved battery meter
      * New for Windows: support for AAC audio files, including songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store

      --
      -- The world is watching America, and America is watching TV.
    4. Re:one of the best parts : allowances by silentbozo · · Score: 1

      Holy SMOKES! Arrgh, anybody want to buy a nearly new Sony IC recorder? Wow, this is gonna put a dent into a lot of people's markets. :)

    5. Re:one of the best parts : allowances by fiftyfly · · Score: 1
      mmm, I have to agree though I'd take a slightly different tone - It's note that the 'alowance' is innovative it's that, on paper at least, it's such an amazingly good implementation of said certificate.

      Stuff that 'just works' is good, stuff that works and looks good and has had all the sharp edges lovingly polished off is, well, somewhat better ;)

      --
      "Sanity is not statistical", George Orwell, "1984"
  38. Do you know anything about FairPlay? by Llywelyn · · Score: 1

    You can:

    1) Play it on any three computers (that have iTunes) at a time.

    2) Burn it to as many CDs as you like.

    2a) Rerip it from CD.

    3) Put it on as many iPods as you like.

    What about these exactly do you consider draconian? The music companies are not going agree to a DRM-less system and, frankly, Apple's FairPlay doesn't get in my way at all and is /very/ fair.

    --
    Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
    1. Re:Do you know anything about FairPlay? by Laur · · Score: 1
      2a) Rerip it from CD.

      Please point to where it is expressly permitted for you to do this. All the other points you mentioned are spelled out quite clearly in the Terms of Service but this is not AFAIK.

      --
      When you lose something irreplaceable, you don't mourn for the thing you lost, you mourn for yourself. - Harpo Marx
    2. Re:Do you know anything about FairPlay? by HeghmoH · · Score: 1

      It doesn't need to be "expressly permitted". It's implicitly permitted by fair use. Since there is no legal barrier, and of course there is no technical barrier, you can do this without a problem.

      --
      Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
    3. Re:Do you know anything about FairPlay? by Laur · · Score: 2, Informative
      It doesn't need to be "expressly permitted". It's implicitly permitted by fair use. Since there is no legal barrier, and of course there is no technical barrier, you can do this without a problem.

      Not necessarily. I agree that you have a fair use right to encode any CD you legally purchase from the store to any format that you want. In this case you are not licensing anything, you are purchasing a product and can do whatever you want with it within the bounds of US copyright law. However, when you use the iTMS you specifically waive several rights, you pretty much only have whatever rights Apple assigns you. Apple specifically allows you to burn CDs with your purchases, which is great. However, those CDs are a derivative of your purchased product and so I don't think that you have the same rights as a CD purchased from a store. Indeed, the music on the CD may still be covered by the Terms of Service you agreed to when downloading the original song. While you MAY have the right to rip these CDs as much as you like, it seems far from clear from a legal standpoint. This is a major stumbling block for me and I would like Apple to address it.

      --
      When you lose something irreplaceable, you don't mourn for the thing you lost, you mourn for yourself. - Harpo Marx
    4. Re:Do you know anything about FairPlay? by Blondie-Wan · · Score: 1
      The CDs you burn from iTMS purchases are essentially ignored by Apple, AFAICT. It makes perfect sense - the music is already protected by copyright anyway, and subject to the same limitations on commercially mass-produced CDs you'd buy in a store. Apple frankly doesn't have any incentive to restrict your rights to it further; the only reason they have the DRM in the files is to prevent people from taking advantage of the even greater ease (compared to CDs) of illegally sharing music files that would exist if they were completely unrestricted.

      Can you legally burn zillions of CDs and hand them out to random strangers in the street? No. Guess what? You can't legally do that with music you buy on ordinary CDs, either.

    5. Re:Do you know anything about FairPlay? by Laur · · Score: 1
      The CDs you burn from iTMS purchases are essentially ignored by Apple, AFAICT.

      That's true but it doesn't mean that you are legally allowed to rip them. I don't care if you'll be prosecuted or not, I care if it's legal. It seems that one of the primary reasons to use iTMS rather than Kazaa is to get your music legally and ethically in a convenient electronic format. However, I will not put up with the DRM. If I am allowed to bypass the DRM than fantastic, I have no beef with iTMS. If not, and I have to break the law to bypass the DRM, than I feel that it is unacceptable to me. BTW, AFAIK it is legal to download music from Kazaa, it is only illegal to share. Same as the guy on the street handing out free copied CDs. He gets in trouble for distributing copyrighted music, you are in the clear.

      It makes perfect sense - the music is already protected by copyright anyway, and subject to the same limitations on commercially mass-produced CDs you'd buy in a store.

      My point was that the iTMS burned CDs may be subjected to additional limitations other than copyright law. The songs you purchase are covered by the Terms of Service, which prohibit bypassing the DRM. Are the derivative CDs likewise covered? I don't know.

      --
      When you lose something irreplaceable, you don't mourn for the thing you lost, you mourn for yourself. - Harpo Marx
    6. Re:Do you know anything about FairPlay? by Blondie-Wan · · Score: 1
      Given that the terms are highly precise (as most terms of service tend to be), and spell out any number of specific other things one can and cannot do, and the sheer obviousness that people are going to want to burn audio CDs of the files and then rip them to other formats, I'm certain Apple would have specifically stated one couldn't do this if they really didn't want people to do it. Yes, the terms forbid "circumventing the DRM," but honestly, I think it's clear what that means - they don't want people cracking the DRM and modding the files. It doesn't have anything to do with the CDs one might burn from those files. If one wanted to get really picky, in fact, one might provide a simple two-step justification - 1) burning the CDs is entirely permissible, and 2) the CDs one burns have no DRM, therefore ripping them is not circumvention.

      Ok, so Apple doesn't specifically provide in the ToS a definition of "circumvention" that addresses ripping CDs burned from the files. There are a lot of terms it doesn't define, and believe me, if they seriously forbade people from doing it, they'd add a simple statement to the effect of "you may not use CDs burned from the files to make MP3s, unprotected AACs, Ogg Vorbis files, etc."

    7. Re:Do you know anything about FairPlay? by Laur · · Score: 1
      Nope. That's not correct. You can't waive rights without signing a contract, or at least clicking a button acknowledging that you're agreeing to the terms of a contract. No such thing takes place when you buy a song from iTunes.

      When you click "Buy" in the iTMS you are agreeing to the Terms of Service. Check out the 1st line: " THIS IS A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU AND APPLE COMPUTER, INC. ("APPLE") STATING THE TERMS THAT GOVERN YOUR USE OF THE ITUNES MUSIC STORE SERVICE." It certainly appears that Apple believes this to be a binding legal contract.

      There is absolutely no basis in law for this interpretation. Look at it this way: let's say you buy a CD, then make a copy for use in your car. Along the way, your original CD gets scratched or stolen or something. Are you permitted to make a copy of your copy for use in your home? Yes, of course you are.

      I'm not sure where you are getting this from , care to point me to the relevant section of US Code rather than use bad analogies? BTW, AFAIK if you lose your original media (or it's stolen) you no longer have any right to use your copies.

      --
      When you lose something irreplaceable, you don't mourn for the thing you lost, you mourn for yourself. - Harpo Marx
    8. Re:Do you know anything about FairPlay? by Laur · · Score: 1

      Well, when I analyze legal documents I tend to assume that anything not expressly allowed is forbidden. You seem to be taking the position that anything not expressly forbidden is allowed. Personally, I'd prefer Apple revise the ToS to clear this up.

      --
      When you lose something irreplaceable, you don't mourn for the thing you lost, you mourn for yourself. - Harpo Marx
    9. Re:Do you know anything about FairPlay? by Blondie-Wan · · Score: 1

      Well, yeah, I think assuming anything not expressly forbidden is permissible; that's why so many ToS go out of their way to specifically limit as much as possible, or even say things along the lines of "the user has no rights to the product except as specifically permitted in these terms," or some such thing. I do think established accepted practices concerning fair use would tend to grant the user certain rights in this instance, which the terms would have to specifically deny in order for the user not to have them, and the terms don't specify that.

    10. Re:Do you know anything about FairPlay? by Laur · · Score: 1
      You are legally allowed to do anything that is not expressly prohibited by law. True?

      Yes, but in this case you are constrained not only by the law but by the ToS.

      You are not allowed to bypass the DRM. Bypassing the DRM is illegal under title 17. That's okay, though, because you don't have to bypass the DRM. Instead, everything you want to do is possible with the DRM in place.

      When a shift key becomes a tool of circumvention I have no idea what else could be. When you rip to a CD and re-encode you are doing it with the specific intent of bypassing the DRM. I honestly don't know if it is bypassing the DRM or not in our current ridiculous DMCA-laden society.

      That's like saying it's okay to receive stolen goods as long as you don't traffic in them. And it's untrue.

      No, it's not like saying that at all, since copyright infringement and theft are two totally different things. For example, theft is a crime, while copyright infringement is a civil tort.

      No, your point was to spread utterly unjustified FUD about iTunes. I don't know why, but that's what you were doing.

      No, that is NOT my intent. My intent is to have a discussion with other technologically mined people about this issue, feel free not to participate.

      --
      When you lose something irreplaceable, you don't mourn for the thing you lost, you mourn for yourself. - Harpo Marx
    11. Re:Do you know anything about FairPlay? by HeghmoH · · Score: 1

      I have never seen any convincing argument that clicking a button labelled "Agree" has the same legal power as signing your name to a document. Therefore you waive no rights when using the iTMS, and you may legally do anything with your purchases that is allowed by standard US copyright law.

      --
      Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
    12. Re:Do you know anything about FairPlay? by shark72 · · Score: 1

      "No, it's not like saying that at all, since copyright infringement and theft are two totally different things. For example, theft is a crime, while copyright infringement is a civil tort."

      Googling on "criminal copyright infringement" will yield several links to actual government sites with details on unfortunate souls who were nailed for said crime. You have to be a pretty serious pirate ($1000 or more in retail value) for copygight infringement to fall under the "criminal" category, but nonetheless, the oft-repeated "copyright infringement is civil!" /.-er chant is incorrect. The law is clear.
      --
      Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
  39. Best Windows App EVER. by jeffkjo1 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Apple.com says it best, "Hell froze over. Introducing iTunes for Windows."
    Followed by the awesome, "The best Windows app ever."

    Anyone else picture Comic Book Guy when they read this?

    1. Re:Best Windows App EVER. by sparkchaser · · Score: 2, Funny

      I will now.

    2. Re:Best Windows App EVER. by NaugaHunter · · Score: 1

      Worst. Simpsons reference. Ever.

      --
      R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
    3. Re:Best Windows App EVER. by dswensen · · Score: 1

      No, the Comic Book Guy would never have anything positive to say about anything.

      Which is why he's such a popular Slashdot icon, incidentally.

  40. O Canada by immel · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, Apple's advertising campaign for this really depends on the price being under $1 US, so it may be unavalible in Canada for a while.

    --

    10 Bits= $.25
    100 Bits= $.50
    110 Bits= $.75
    1000 Bits= 1 byte
  41. Join Tracks Feature by blenderking · · Score: 1

    with a Join Tracks feature that allows you to meld two or more songs into one continuous, gap-free track -- perfect for listening to classical music, concept rock albums and extended dance mixes.

    You know, it's not a big feature, but one very nice to have to avoid the little blips that aren't intended to be there and annoy the hell out of you on continuous tracks.

    Nice!

    --
    blenderking.com over 50,000 blenders can't be wrong
    1. Re:Join Tracks Feature by nystul555 · · Score: 1

      I couldn't agree more. I'm a dj, and I mostly listen to dj music. All nonstop, without breaks or gaps. That's been a BIG pain in the butt for me on my iPod. Music like that is made seamless for a reason - the irritating pauses in between songs is a HUGE annoyance for me, and many others that listen to electronic or classical music.

  42. Yay? by sebi · · Score: 1
    The marketplace is starting to get crowded now. Just a couple of stories back the new Napster was discussed and now this. I really wonder how they will manage on the PC side of things. Name recognition, promotional partners and advertising will certainly help. No word about non-American availability, though.

    I find the inclusion of audio-books quite interesting. Up until now they advertised their partnership with audible.com on that front. An audible subscription still is the better deal if you listen to a lot of books (you can get two a month for US$ 20) but it looks like single titles are cheaper, or at least in the same ballpark.

    I am curious how iTunes for Windows fares in the look and feel and functionality departments. Seems like I must visit a Windows-using friend at some time in the future. Expect to see the return of "number of songs sold in period" press-releases from Apple.

    On an unrelated note: Did the original submitter of the story really need to link Apple, AOL and Pepsi? Are these URLs people have a hard time figuring out otherwise?

    1. Re:Yay? by geoffspear · · Score: 1

      So when sites linked to from slashdot just happen to crash 5 minutes after the story linking to them go up, that's a coincidence, right?

      --
      Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
  43. Re:Too bad it doesn't... by MuckSavage · · Score: 1

    Burn those songs to a cd, then re-import them as mp3's. Not really a pain in the butt at all.

  44. Impact by 5n3ak3rp1mp · · Score: 1

    I just downloaded and installed it on an old HP Pavilion here. Looks and operates EXACTLY like on my big-screen Mac. Rendezvous sharing works as advertised, and is awesome. Seamless with my Macs. Imports exactly the same and works fine. Playback seems static-y but that seems OS-related (?) (will troubleshoot; it's not in the data since they stream fine to the Mac) (Update: Oh, now I actually hear some static in the data now; will have to look at that more in a bit.)

    I think this thing will still be huge.

    Possible upcoming issues:
    1) Exposure to a plethora of Windoze hackers who will now come after the authorization tech that Apple uses for .m4p files (although the incentive for that might be low due to being able to burn and re-rip the audio to .m4a)
    2) Can you say "windows corporate LAN"? 400 people sharing their local tunes? d'oh! WAN people will start cursing very soon... either that or the mass email chatter of people's criticism of their coworkers' musical tastes will flood Lotus Notes...
    3) .m4a files flooding the P2P networks, starting now
    4) AAC plugins for winamp 2 and foobar2000 are already out there

  45. Re:While I like the idea... by downix · · Score: 1

    Actuall I'd just read the thing about Napster right before this, so I have a bit of baggage from that tagging along.

    --
    Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
  46. free downloads... by rm+-rf+/etc/* · · Score: 1


    Seeing as Pepsi is going to be giving away 100 million free iTunes Music Store codes (1 in 3 winners on pepsi products) in feb/april of next year, it shouldn't be too hard to hit their goal of 100 million downloads :)

  47. Apple, the Consumer Electronics Company by Spencerian · · Score: 1

    Steve Jobs is mercurial and all that, but he can read the public well lately.

    What should be interesting is not iTunes playback on Windows, or even the Music Store, but the wizardry Apple had to do to make iTunes burn CDs as its Mac counterpart. Consider: While Apple makes iTunes to work with drives that it knows are present in Macintosh systems, it has to consider the myriad of CD and DVD burners out in the PC world. Hell, even dedicated PC burning software goes nuts on PCs, sometimes.

    I'm thinking it leverages XP and 2000's advanced features for that sort of thing (thus the system requirements). I'll have to do some experimentation.

    Even if the Windows version attracts only 5% of the user base, it's still going to rock Apple's world (and its revenues).

    I would expect more cross-platform marketing and products. If Apple can't sell you a Mac, well, they'll get you a free taste of something else.

    --
    Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
  48. Re:iTunes for Windows Screenshots? by drzhivago · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes, the typical front end interface looks a lot like iTunes on the Mac, except they use more Windows-centric fonts. However, I give them kudos that the menus and configuration dialog boxes are all standard looking Windows dialog boxes rather than the crummy half Windows/half Mac dialog boxes from their Quicktime players.

  49. Their music catalog... by Lord_Frederick · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is there anywhere you can view their music selection without having to download and install the application?

  50. Re:While I like the idea... by 47PHA60 · · Score: 1

    ...you don't seem to get it. Read the docs. The only thing it won't allow you to do is play your tunes without electricity.

  51. Sssh.. by CausticWindow · · Score: 1

    Please don't mention slsk in public. It's already mostly ruined by the Audiogalaxy monkeys.

    And for those of you who don't know; slsk is for electronic music.

    --
    How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
  52. Whoa. by American+AC+in+Paris · · Score: 4, Insightful
    They're partnering with Pepsi to give away 100 million songs. No matter how you cut it--hours, number of iPods filled, Libraries of Congress--that's an assload of music to give away.

    This is just one reason why iTunes will likely kick the ass of its competitors for the Windows market--name one other player that has a promo even a tenth as big as this one. Apple is playing hardball, and there aren't many companies out there that can compete with an Apple/Pepsi combination, to say nothing of their partnership with AOL...

    --

    Obliteracy: Words with explosions

    1. Re:Whoa. by selderrr · · Score: 3, Funny

      The best part about the pepsi deal is when u try to imagine the look on John Sculley's face when he reads that shit :-)

      Although I can't imagine they did it for such glorious reason. I think they did it to spawn a flamewar about pepsi vs cocacola taste.

      Pepsi tastes like shit. No hit me with your flames :-)

    2. Re:Whoa. by Otter · · Score: 1
      The best part about the pepsi deal is when u try to imagine the look on John Sculley's face when he reads that shit :-)

      Just thinking the same thing -- wow, now Jobs is changing the world and selling sugared water!

    3. Re:Whoa. by daeley · · Score: 1

      No flames here. Pepsi is teh suck. ;)

      --
      I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
    4. Re:Whoa. by pretentiousPPC · · Score: 1

      Anyone else concerned about this new relationship w/ Pepsi?

      I mean almost exactly 20 years ago Steve asked the infamous words to the then Pepsi CEO John Sculley, "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want to change the world?". and we all know what happened after that.

      --
      Artist will always make art.
    5. Re:Whoa. by pvt_medic · · Score: 1

      Good job apple in struting its stuff in the windows market.

      --
      30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
      Score:5, Troll
    6. Re:Whoa. by mrgeometry · · Score: 1

      No matter how you cut it--hours, number of iPods filled, Libraries of Congress--that's an assload of music to give away.

      OK, how many elephants is it?

    7. Re:Whoa. by Kindaian · · Score: 1

      Microsoft/CocaCola?

    8. Re:Whoa. by suzerain · · Score: 1

      I just wanted to point out: I think you put "ass" where you should have put "shit".

      At least that's whay my Chicago Manual of Style says...

      --
      gameDB
    9. Re:Whoa. by mbbac · · Score: 1
      Pepsi tastes like shit.
      Sure. The funny thing is New Coke and Diet Coke are both based off of closer approximations of the Pepsi forumla.
      --

      mbbac

    10. Re:Whoa. by superflippy · · Score: 1

      Pepsi tastes like shit.

      I don't think you're going to get many arguments on that one. I only drink it if I forgot to bring my own drink from home, because the only vending machines in the building where I work are both Pepsi machines. Still, they have other brands (e.g. Mountain Dew) that aren't so bad, and given the opportunity to get a free song with something I'm buying anyway, this promo just might sway me.

      --
      Your fantasies contain the seeds of important concepts.
    11. Re:Whoa. by mst76 · · Score: 1

      > yeah, it's really tough to give out 100 million DIGITAL COPIES .. geeze....

      Do you realize that this is about 400 TERABYTES?

    12. Re:Whoa. by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 1
      I can't think of a better partnership. Not necessarily with Pepsi persay, but just the idea of partnering with a softdrink in general. The pricing of the songs is perfect for partnering with a drink. Twist the cap and you might win a free song. This is quite the perfect balance of price/reward for both Apple AND Pepsi. I hope the person in marketing who came up with that got a raise.

      --
      Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
    13. Re:Whoa. by TheCrazyFinn · · Score: 1

      Yeah, you can. We call it Generation Z Cola, and it's available from Loeb's supermarkets in Ontario. Taste's exactly like New Coke.

      --
      "You've got an invalid haircut" -Warren Zevon - Life'll Kill Ya
    14. Re:Whoa. by TrancePhreak · · Score: 1

      Anyone ever considered MP3.com? I mean sure, the music is free, but that's the same as giving it away. There's possibly even 100 million songs there, not to mention variety.
      Either way, this doesn't seem such a big deal to me.

      --

      -]Phreak Out[-
    15. Re:Whoa. by istewart · · Score: 1

      There is water, and there is Dr. Pepper. That is all. Pepsi is irrelevant.

      However, I may buy a Pepsi or two now, just to see if I can score some free music... damned marketing Borg.

    16. Re:Whoa. by Zoop · · Score: 1

      Pepsi tastes like shit. No hit me with your flames :-)

      No argument here. And no free music for me unless forced by dint of caffeine need--I can swallow Diet Pepsi, but that's it.

    17. Re:Whoa. by Motherfucking+Shit · · Score: 1
      No matter how you cut it--hours, number of iPods filled, Libraries of Congress--that's an assload of music to give away.
      That comes to about 42 candle trucks full of Pepsi bottles!
      --
      "BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
  53. Re:APPLE IS A MONOPOLY by MuckSavage · · Score: 1

    Not even worth it.

  54. Re:Target 100 million by lithandie · · Score: 1

    Well, considering they will be giving away 100 million songs with Pepsi starting in February, I think that might help get that number....

  55. misleading by eegad · · Score: 1

    The web page says:

    Free burning and encoding - Burn unlimited audio CDs and encode music from CDs in pristine AAC or MP3 -- with no extra fees.

    Isn't that just a tad bit misleading? Wow all the free music I could ever want and I can burn it to cd without paying a cent! Awesome!

    1. Re:misleading by Blondie-Wan · · Score: 1

      They mean, of course, that there isn't an extra fee to be able to burn CDs with iTMS purchases as there is with music from some of the other services (and also that it's a free app that will burn and encode your other, non-iTMS music - iTunes is a whole player/ripper/organizing/etc. app for all the other music you already have, not just the thing you use to access the iTunes Music Store, and you can get iTunes and use it for free, without ever having to buy anything from Apple).

    2. Re:misleading by pwynne · · Score: 1

      Not at all. It's not saying the music is free, just that once you have the music, you don't have to pay extra to burn it to a CD. That's why it says "Free burning and decoding" and "no extra fees" (my emphasis)

      Duh.

    3. Re:misleading by eegad · · Score: 1

      Yes, but it is assumed that the music is what you pay a monthly fee for. So, you have access to the music. Add to that free burning with no extra fees and you get a misleading concept. No? I consider paying 99 cents a track (or whatever) in order to burn a "burning fee".

    4. Re:misleading by SlamMan · · Score: 1

      They're comparing it to MusicMatch, a similar mp3 player/ burner on the PC side. You have to pay to get some of it better features. Like burning.

      --
      Mod point free since 2001
  56. Wrong thing to say by Steev · · Score: 1

    http://money.cnn.com/2003/10/16/technology/itune.r eut/index.htm?cnn=yes

    "Apple Chief Financial Officer Fred Anderson has said that the Windows launch of iTunes would be a Trojan horse".

    My, that certainly is a bad choice of terms for a computing product.

  57. Winamp 2.x MP4 Plug-in by Mr.+Fusion · · Score: 1

    http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jfe1205/in_mp4.zip

    I think you might have to change the extension to .mp4 for it to work.

    -Mr. Fusion

  58. installer problem with Panther dev seed by tim1724 · · Score: 1

    The installer was unhappy (wouldn't go past license agreement page) on my machine, but I'm running a Panther developer seed (not the GM, that's not on ADC yet) so perhaps I have a buggy copy of Installer.app on my machine. The command-line version of the installer worked fine, though. Just in case anyone else out there needs to use it, here's the magic invocation:

    installer -pkg /path/to/itunes4.mpkg -target /

    --
    -- Tim Buchheim
    1. Re:installer problem with Panther dev seed by fmorgan · · Score: 1

      it works well with seed 7B85. And this in ADC for everyone now (or will be soon)

    2. Re:installer problem with Panther dev seed by robbieduncan · · Score: 1

      Worked fine on 7B21 as did the iPod updater.

    3. Re:installer problem with Panther dev seed by tim1724 · · Score: 1

      I guess it's just 7B74 (or maybe just my installation) which didn't like it.. I'm glad to know it works for other people. :)

      --
      -- Tim Buchheim
  59. Don't do Windows by Kruid · · Score: 1

    Got a Mac, got a Linux server, when they released the Linux version, I'll be happy.

    --
    Your mind moves quicker than a nun's first curry. - A. Rimmer
    1. Re:Don't do Windows by yerricde · · Score: 1

      As long as the Mac has a USB connector on the motherboard, you can run Mac OS X and iTunes. Unfortunately, my Mac is too old (fall 1995) to be of use in the New World.

      --
      Will I retire or break 10K?
    2. Re:Don't do Windows by Pfhor · · Score: 1

      The sharing protocol is called DAAP, they have a source forge project up to make a daemon that can share out the libraries for it.

      That is what I really want, to be able to have a linux box sharing all my music, that my mac can retrieve, browse, and manage just like in itunes as if it was locally hosted.

      http://sourceforge.net/projects/daapd

  60. Viva la revolution by greenstork · · Score: 1

    This will change the way people purchase music. With the usability of iTunes, and the advertising blitz that is taking place, there's no looking back. Kids who win a song from a Pepsi bottle, download iTunes, buy the song, realize how cool and easy this service is, will never go back to buying CD's. there will be folks who want quality but the masses don't care, they want ease of use and iTunes delivers. Throw in the fact that AOl is fully inegrating the iTunes music store and forget about it. Everyone and the garndmother will be using this service in a few years. This will mark the beginning of the end for CD's, let hope donwload quality will catch up soon, or I won't have a place to buy music. Viva la revolution!

  61. Works Great by ericdano · · Score: 1

    I was really interested in the "Sharing" feature as my MP3/ACC library is now over 120 gigs and I wanted to set up some sorta server with RAID and be able to hear all the MP3s and stuff.

    Anyhow, Sharing from iTunes between platforms works great. Actually, both versions work great. Interesting to see that a lot of the rumor sites (www.macrumors.com for example) were predicting WMA support. But there is none. Not that I miss it or anything ;-)

    --
    It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
    I moderate therefore I rule!
    --
    1. Re:Works Great by leviramsey · · Score: 1
      my MP3/ACC library is now over 120 gigs...

      Just add a couple more gigs to the ACC library and you can host your own championship game! ;o)

      [yes, I know I'll get modded down for daring to use sports humor on /. ...]

    2. Re:Works Great by ericdano · · Score: 1

      Seriously! And sports humor? Most of these guys, like CmdrTaco, don't know what sunlight is........

      --
      It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
      I moderate therefore I rule!
      --
  62. "Hell froze over" by webslacker · · Score: 1

    Hahahaha, the online music distributor makes an appropriate joke with a music reference in their tagline.

    Too bad "Hell Freezes Over" isn't available in the iTunes music store :\

  63. I've installed the Windows 2000 version by 47PHA60 · · Score: 1

    The installer recommends that you install SP4; I'm at SP3 with some hot fixes.

    The app is completely identical to the OS X version. I have a first generation 5GB iPod and my Windows machine has no firewire, so I cannot test to see if the Mac iPod will work with this.

  64. Can you only download songs in AAC ? by ZipR · · Score: 1

    Or are mp3 versions available? AAC is worthless on my mp3 player...

    1. Re:Can you only download songs in AAC ? by adrew · · Score: 1

      It's kind of a hassle, but you can burn your downloaded AAC files to CD, then re-rip them as MP3s that'll play in any MP3 player.

    2. Re:Can you only download songs in AAC ? by nate1138 · · Score: 1

      You CAN do that, but that does not mean that you SHOULD do that. It will sound like ass.

      --
      Where's my lobbyist? Right here.
    3. Re:Can you only download songs in AAC ? by adrew · · Score: 1

      I think they should offer the AACs at a higher bitrate, 'cause I can already detect some compression artifacts in the original AACs.

      It's not too bad on slow music like Jack Johnson or something like that, but heavy metal and punk rock have some pretty noticeable distortion.

    4. Re:Can you only download songs in AAC ? by ZipR · · Score: 1

      Well then, so much for convenience and ease of use, and not having to waste cds.

    5. Re:Can you only download songs in AAC ? by rjung2k · · Score: 1

      I think it's time for you to upgrade your MP3 player -- to one that supports MP3s and AACs. ;-)

    6. Re:Can you only download songs in AAC ? by CatOne · · Score: 1

      Yeah but you can't add any rights protection to MP3 files. The downloadable AAC files have some use restrictions. They're pretty generous, but you can only use the songs on 3 computers simultaneously.

      Time to buy an iPod, I guess :-)

    7. Re:Can you only download songs in AAC ? by ZipR · · Score: 1

      Nope. I love my recorder and won't give it up. I guess it's just not time (yet) for me to be buying songs online...

    8. Re:Can you only download songs in AAC ? by shiffman · · Score: 1

      I don't think that's fair. Apple used AAC in iTMS instead of MP3 because they could support the DRM required by the record labels in AAC and couldn't do it in MP3. Which is the same reason all those other online music services use WMA instead of MP3. But at least the DRM Apple uses isn't so restrictive.

  65. First impressions by Maskirovka · · Score: 1
    Running win2k on a an Athlon 2000+ w/512mb ddr333.
    1)Looks and feels just like the mac version- everything is the same so far as I can tell.


    2)Unlike quicktime for windows, win itunes is every bit as responive as the mac version


    3) Visualizations are the same as the mac version
    4) downloaded the installer at 450k/sec. Go Akamai!


    5) Batch ID3 tag renaming as fast. almost instant for a group of 5 tracks


    6) New feature allows for one touch backup of your collection onto cds AND dvds. Just swap the discs as needed.

  66. Lossless by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

    AAC->CD is lossless, as AAC is 44KHz 16 bit, and the CD can encode that perfectly.

    CD ->MP3 is lossy, but blame that on MP3 ^^

    1. Re:Lossless by Zathrus · · Score: 1

      AAC->CD is lossless, as AAC is 44KHz 16 bit, and the CD can encode that perfectly.

      CD ->MP3 is lossy, but blame that on MP3 ^^


      Wow... that's clueless. Apples and oranges.

      MP3 is also 44KHz, 16 bit, stereo, so MP3->CD is also "lossless" (as in you won't lose anything that's in the MP3 already)

      CD->AAC is lossy as well though.

      The difference is that the bits that are tossed are different depending on the codec, and transcoding from one codec to another may introduce audible encoding errors. Of course, if you're listening in your car, on cheap headphones, cheap speakers (which includes pretty much every computer speaker setup out there), etc. then the odds of your noticing any of this is rather low.

      The grandparent poster may be technically correct in stating that there is two transcodings of the data, but he's incorrect in that this matters any more than transcoding directly from AAC->MP3. I also suspect he wouldn't be able to hear the differences if he thinks that doing this is going to cause errors anywhere on the level of "poking holes in your speakers".

      My only complaint with this service is that I'd like to see higher bitrates... like 192 kbps. Yeah, lossless would be the best, but I don't expect to see that anytime soon.

    2. Re:Lossless by BigBir3d · · Score: 1

      AAC is not lossless. If it wasn't then a CD worth of songs would be 650 megs. Think about it.

      AAC

    3. Re:Lossless by li99sh79 · · Score: 1
      AAC->CD is lossless, as AAC is 44KHz 16 bit, and the CD can encode that perfectly.

      Uhm, no AAC is still a lossy compression scheme, just like mp3 (which, i believe, is also 16/44.1). There's going to be some sound degredation going from AAC -> CD -> mp3 because the sound already took a hit from the master -> AAC conversion Apple did in the first place. However, for most of the uses of mp3 players you're hardly going to notice the difference.

      -sam

      --
      I was just here, where did I go?
    4. Re:Lossless by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

      I never said AAC was a lossless compression scheme.

      I said AAC->CD is a lossless transfer. You lose zero data (except by bugs) in the process.

    5. Re:Lossless by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

      I never said AAC was lossless. I said the AAC->CD transition process suffered no loss. I admit it may be confusing that I used the term lossless, but I said very clearly that:

      AAC->CD is lossless

      Now if you want *lossy*

      DAT->CD is lossy

    6. Re:Lossless by BigBir3d · · Score: 1

      You are missing the point. AAC file is a incomplete copy. Burning that incomplete copy to CD you don't lose any quality (as you said), but then ripping that incomplete copy from the CD and encoding it as a mp3 file brings in a 2nd layer of lossiness. You end up with a "fuzzy file" as a friend of mine says (sounds fuzzy on his $50 headphones).

    7. Re:Lossless by sl0ppy · · Score: 1

      er, dat->cd is not lossy if the dat is recorded at 44.1khz, only if it is recorded at either 48khz or 32khz.

      mp3->cd is not lossy, either.

    8. Re:Lossless by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

      I'm not missing any point. I perfectly understand that AAC is a lossy format. But in converting AAC -> MP3 you only introduce *one* generation of loss. Read the parent poster; he talks about two generations of loss into the process. Master -> AAC -> MP3 is two generations of loss, but all we've ever been talking about is AAC -> CD -> MP3. That's one generation of loss.

    9. Re:Lossless by cens0r · · Score: 1

      Master -> AAC -> MP3 is two generations of loss, but all we've ever been talking about is AAC -> CD -> MP3.

      You are an idiot. If master -> AAC -> MP3 is two generations of loss, then by definition master -> AAC must be one generation and AAC -> MP3 must be one generation. So that means that AAC -> CD -> MP3 also equals one generation as it is really just AAC -> MP3. However, where the fuck did you get this AAC file? It came Master -> AAC or CD -> AAC. Both of which have one generation of loss. So it is impossible to turn an AAC into an MP3 without having two generations of loss.

      --
      Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
    10. Re:Lossless by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1
      First downix said this:
      I hate that none of these services allow me to play the tunes I have purchased where I wish to!

      If I buy a tape, I am allowed to burn myself a CD from it in order to play it in my computer. But I am not allowed to convert these files to, say, mp3 so that I can play them in my car.

      As soon as one of these services is not so draconian with their DRM, I will join them.


      Then, realdpk said this:
      You may want to re-read what iTunes is. You can copy the files to a CD, as a regular music CD, and then do whatever with 'em - such as conver them to mp3 for your car.

      That's what I'll end up doing, anyways. (Car mp3 players are cool ;)


      To which Kenja replied:
      There are quicker ways to degrade the sound quality then converting it twice. Why not just poke some holes in your speakers?


      To summarize: downix complained you can convert a tape -> CD, but you can't convert an aac -> mp3

      realdpk corrected him, saying iTunes allows you to both burn to CD (as downix's tape->CD example) and convert to mp3 (as his aac->mp3) example

      Kenja then retorted that converting it twice caused sound quality loss.

      My reply was that from converting a downloaded AAC into CD or MP3 was only converting it ONCE

      YES I KNOW AAC IS A LOSSY FORMAT
      YES I KNOW APPLE HAS ALREADY THROWN AWAY DATA BEFORE YOU DOWNLOAD THE AAC FILE

      THAT ISN"T THE POINT

      I was correcting Kenja. There is not two levels of conversion in getting an AAC file into a CD or MP3; only one level.

      AAC->MP3 is identical to AAC->CD->MP3; and hence only one generation of loss. That's all I've ever said. I've said it multiple ways; that AAC->CD is a perfect transfer, a lossless transfer, etc.

      Everything I've been saying is in response to Kenja. There isn't a two loss conversion. It's two steps if you burn to CD, but it's only one level of loss.
  67. Re:A point and a Question... by Spodie! · · Score: 1

    19.1Mb

  68. iPod with Mac and Windows by jwinter1 · · Score: 1

    Can you now use the *same* iPod on both OS X and Windows? Before this didn't work, supposedly due to the MusicMatch software.

    --
    Anything you can do, I can do meta.
    1. Re:iPod with Mac and Windows by tuxedobob · · Score: 1

      I doubt it. My understanding is HFS+ is used Mac-side, and FAT32 is used Windows-side. (I don't think it was due to MusicMatch.) Then again, I lack a Windows machine to test this on.

    2. Re:iPod with Mac and Windows by jwinter1 · · Score: 1

      Thanks. I did a little research and this is the case; the main difference is the filesystem. However, several users said that they were able to format the iPod as FAT32 and still have it recognized on the Mac. Which seems possible, there's no legitimate reason why OS X shouldn't be able to mount a FAT32 drive, right? I lack an iPod to test this, though.

      --
      Anything you can do, I can do meta.
    3. Re:iPod with Mac and Windows by w3weasel · · Score: 1
      All you need to remember is that your iPod wants only one boss... be it a computer or you. In the preferences, you can have iTunes manage your iPod for you, or you can elect to do it manually.

      If you let iTunes do it, then only one of your machines should be in charge of managing, the other machine should be set to 'manual'

      be aware that if you manaully add songs on one machine, then connect it to the machine where iTunes is in control, iTunes will delete the songs that it did not put there.

      personally, i say manually manage, and use smart playlists to handle any automation you want

      --

      Just as irrigation is the lifeblood of the Southwest, lifeblood is the soup of cannibals. -- Jack Handy

    4. Re:iPod with Mac and Windows by AHumbleOpinion · · Score: 1

      Yes. I have the first generation Windows iPod and it works fine on Macs running MacOS X. I do have to be careful with Software Updates on a Mac, don't let it convert my iPod to Mac-only. I believe the newer models work fine on both platforms. The problem was that the older Mac iPods supported MacOS 9 and formatted their drive as HFS. Now that MacOS X is required they can use FAT32. Well, at least that's what I heard regarding the newer iPods.

  69. Insanely great by Chief+Typist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've been playing around with the Windows version for the past half hour or so. It's very well done -- and feature complete:

    1) The Rendezvous stuff for sharing the tunes works well. I can now share 80GB of music with my wife's IBM Thinkpad.

    2) My CD drive was recognized without any problems. I can rip and burn without any problems at all. Goodbye CDex, et. al.

    3) The response time on the store seems to be pretty good. The uptake on the new Windows version will probably be a lot slower than it was for the Mac version (hundreds of thousands of the Windows faithful are NOT waiting anxiously for Steve to say "it's available today".)

    4) It's kinda weird seeing the Aqua UI controls and metal skins in a Windows app, but it supports my theory that iTunes is a lead in for both iPods & regular hardware. Get them used to the way things are in the Mac world, and then get them to switch.

    Well done Apple. I'm impressed!

    1. Re:Insanely great by Frank+of+Earth · · Score: 2, Informative

      I have to admit, very nicely done. I was a little skeptical when it required a reboot on XP, but it worked without a flaw.

      The celebrity playlists are pretty cool too.. complete with descriptions on why they like the song. I already found a few songs/bands I never heard of and sound pretty cool.

      I especially like the 30 second preview of the song, which loads really fast. Im not sure if I'm actually going to buy anything, but it sure is a good way to find that song that's been nagging you in the back of the head.

    2. Re:Insanely great by Chief+Typist · · Score: 1

      Yes, welcome to the wonderful world of finding new music or remembering old music.

      I'm old school and like to get my music on CD (I've have a large collection.)

      What I find myself doing is finding a new song that I like and adding it to my Amazon wish list. It would not surprise me if a future partnership between Apple & Amazon would do this for me...

    3. Re:Insanely great by Alan · · Score: 1

      OT question about itunes and rendezvous, hopefully someone can help.

      I have a samba smb share (linux fileserver) with my mp3s on it. I also have a rev a imac that I have mounting the samba share through itunes and playing music in a different room of the house.

      Is it possible to use rendezvous so I don't have to deal with mounting the samba share and all that? IE: some way to have itunes just "find" the music? IIRC rendezvous was open sourced, but I don't know more about it than that.

    4. Re:Insanely great by jeeryg_flashaccess · · Score: 1

      Woah woah woah woah... you actually rebooted? lol

      --
      Life is like pants... fit in or you don't fit in.
    5. Re:Insanely great by mblase · · Score: 1

      Agreed -- except for a few minor accomodations to the Windows OS, iTunes for Windows is spot-on exactly like iTunes for Mac, from the interface to the customizability to the tag editing to the usability.

      This application may be a few years overdue, but IMO it's light-years ahead of every other free MP3 jukebox for Windows, and most of the commercial ones as well.

      (You know what amazes me, though? Even in jest, no one here has been whining about the lack of a Linux version yet....)

    6. Re:Insanely great by lordDallan · · Score: 1

      Actually, my understanding is that iTunes for Windows and iTunes for Mac use the same store, the same servers (tcpdump seems to verify this), and download the same files. I'm sure all of the servers are running OS X Server of course.

      I think that they are handling (what has to be) a massive load today is a real testament to the strength of OS X as a totally scalable, ready for prime time server OS.

    7. Re:Insanely great by Elwood+P+Dowd · · Score: 1

      3) The response time on the store seems to be pretty good. The uptake on the new Windows version will probably be a lot slower than it was for the Mac version (hundreds of thousands of the Windows faithful are NOT waiting anxiously for Steve to say "it's available today".)

      Yeah, but hundreds of thousands of the MacOS faithful are sitting at their PCs and ARE waiting anxiously for Steve to say "it's available today."

      So I disagree. I think their Windows launch will go over a lot bigger than their MacOS launch. They've sold at least as many iPods to Windows folks as Mac folks already. Before there was decent iPod software for Windows.

      The response time on the store is probably due to the fact that they've already ironed out all the kinks with Akamai.

      This is a grand slam home run on Apple's part. They're going to make a fucking fortune. Their stock price took a dive this morning on kindof heavy volume. Maybe the market knows something we don't know, or... maybe there's some money to be made on them right now. Dunno dunno.

      I've just been playing around with iTunes on my Win2K box, and I can't find any part of it that is less slick than on my Mac. It's RAD.

      </Apple Fanboy>

      --

      There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
    8. Re:Insanely great by Elwood+P+Dowd · · Score: 1

      Ooh. Upon cursory investigation, the dive they took this morning is on the heels of them poking the top of their 52 week range yesterday.

      I'd guess that the drop was due to folks squeamish about Apple's chances at continued success, and also the "buy on the rumor; sell on the news" rule.

      I think there's money in AAPL right now. (No, I don't hold any stock in AAPL or any other company, nor do I have savings to put there. I'm just saying.)

      --

      There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
    9. Re:Insanely great by asdfghjklqwertyuiop · · Score: 1


      Does the windows iTunes provide a way to convert the downloaded files to mp3 or wav or anything? I asked this question on a previous itunes thread but all the replies were mac software, and google results are similar. Is there any way to convert them on windows (or linux)?

    10. Re:Insanely great by glucoseboy · · Score: 1

      I've also been playing with it off and on while at work and have to agree that it's strange seeing Aqua UI controls running on my PC. It brings back that whole discussion about porting the Mac OS to intel hardware again. WinTunes looks and works like the other iLife applications, and is full of those aesthetic touches that Apple is known for. A good example of this is the graphic equilizer. Select different settings and the sliders "slide" to their new positions (instead of jump as in most other programs). It's a small, some would say silly thing, but it looks so cool. Makes the software enjoyable to use. Looking forward to seeing how WinTunes works with my iPod. Apple used to (will they continue?) ship MusicMatch with their iPods and I can say that it is a pain to use.

    11. Re:Insanely great by Graff · · Score: 1
      Does the windows iTunes provide a way to convert the downloaded files to mp3 or wav or anything?

      Well the most obvious way using only iTunes is to burn a CD of the tunes and then import the CD as MP3 or WAV. You set what format imported files take in the dropdown menu Preferences->Importing->Import Using

      This will give you AAC, AIFF, MP3, or WAV files depending on the format chosen. The MP3 files may lose a bit of quality since the music started out as AAC, a lossy format, and ended up as MP3, a different lossy format. Going from one lossy format to another tends to cause some degradation but I hear it's not much in this case.

      There's probably some software out there than can do a more direct conversion but no matter what there will always be some loss in quality going from AAC to MP3 or vice versa.
    12. Re:Insanely great by namespan · · Score: 1

      4) It's kinda weird seeing the Aqua UI controls and metal skins in a Windows app, but it supports my theory that iTunes is a lead in for both iPods & regular hardware. Get them used to the way things are in the Mac world, and then get them to switch.

      Hmmm. Yello box lives, perhaps?

      --
      Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
    13. Re:Insanely great by VisMajor · · Score: 1

      I've been using iTunes on my Mac for a while now, and while there's no built-in way to convert them I have a workaround: Burn the songs you want converted to an audio CD, and then rip them as MP3s.

      I haven't done it a lot - it's cumbersome and a little irritating, but it works.

    14. Re:Insanely great by Acrimonious+Coward · · Score: 1

      Don't worry about the stock price, Apple's price always drops on any kind of announcement, but in a few days it'll be way up.

    15. Re:Insanely great by Chief+Typist · · Score: 1
    16. Re:Insanely great by MrCam · · Score: 1

      I was thinking that too until I converted a CD to MP3 and burned it too a CD, so I can use it in my cool new Kenwood CD deck that plays in my car. The problem I found: No way to configure how files are named when converted to MP3. For my CD's for my car I like about 100 songs sorted by Artist name. But iTunes will only name the file based on track name.

    17. Re:Insanely great by bar-agent · · Score: 1

      Uh, yeah. How about Advanced > Convert Selection to MP3?

      --
      i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
    18. Re:Insanely great by asdfghjklqwertyuiop · · Score: 1

      Uh, yeah. How about Advanced > Convert Selection to MP3?

      Idunno, I don't have the program yet. Is there such a menu option? Why is everyone telling me to burn them to CD and then rip the CD I just made?

      I don't want to bother with it unless there's a simple way to convert the AACs to wav or something else.

    19. Re:Insanely great by Jayzz · · Score: 1

      No, iTunes for MacOS X is a Carbon app, which is based on classic MacOS API. Yello Box is an implementation of (sort of) Cocoa, which is from OpenStep (NEXTSTEP)

    20. Re:Insanely great by Hes+Nikke · · Score: 2, Insightful

      it burns your play lists in the order they are sorted. if you sort them by artist, you'll get a folder for each artist, and one for each album inside of that! at least thats how iTunes 3 burned the 1 CD i did that way (by accident)

      --
      Don't call me back. Give me a call back. Bye. So yeah. But bye our, well, but alright we are on a shirt this chill.
    21. Re:Insanely great by GoRK · · Score: 1

      The reboot is mainly for the iPod and CD-Burning hook-in's to the OS. It also ensures that people running the old iPod software get it out of memory so that weird things do not happen..

    22. Re:Insanely great by Johnny+Mnemonic · · Score: 1


      This application may be a few years overdue, but IMO it's light-years ahead of every other free MP3 jukebox for Windows, and most of the commercial ones as well.

      I haven't used the Windows version of iTunes, and I have no plans to. But what strikes me as interesting: Apple gives away, for free, "an MP3 player light years ahead" of others, presumably to promote the iTunes Music Store; but wait! The iTMS doesn't make any money, in fact--it still operates at a loss! So Apple doesn't make any money, there, either. So eventually, Apple hopes to drive sales of the iPod, where they do have substantial margins.

      But isn't it curious that they are basically giving away two services to make money off the third? That's more removed than typical, and highlights this as a fairly risky strategy afterall. In fact, I wonder if they backfigured the amount of Mac hardware sales that they would lose to do this; iTunes is one of the products that you had to have a Mac for to get. Now you don't, so you have one less reason to purchase a Mac.

      Is one more reason to purchase an iPod going to outweigh one less reason to purchase a Mac?

      Time will tell, I suppose. Some corollary benefits--AAC and MP3 will be improved in prominence, and therefore acceptance/use, as will QuickTime; I don't believe that iTunes for Windows will play WMA (but could be wrong). And maybe, exposure to the Apple Stores etc, and Apple Support--can you call AppleCare for help installing/burning etc with your own MP3s with iTunes for Win?

      --

      --
      $tar -xvf .sig.tar
    23. Re:Insanely great by Johnny+Mnemonic · · Score: 1


      The news is that the Apple stock declined because their profit margins slipped. Which makes no sense to me--their margins went from, like, 29% to 27%; and yet Dells' is closer to 5%, and they're a darling of WallStreet? Oh well.

      --

      --
      $tar -xvf .sig.tar
    24. Re:Insanely great by Chanc_Gorkon · · Score: 1

      NO such menu item...I see convert to AAC but not the other way around. There are a few conversion programs out there but I just burned it and ripped it....sounds ok.

      --

      Gorkman

    25. Re:Insanely great by MrCam · · Score: 1

      I know that, but having subfolders means I have to look down at the screen of my stereo to find an artist folder and I have to push buttons, rather than just playing them in order (the stereo does alpha by default) so I can't just put 100 songs with differnet artists without them getting mixed up.

      The point I like to have more control over how files are saved and I think all encoding software should.

    26. Re:Insanely great by namespan · · Score: 1

      iTunes for MacOS X is a Carbon app

      You're obviously correct, since every version iTunes at least for a while ran under OS 9... but I wonder about two things:

      (1) I don't know if the latest versions of iTunes still go under OS 9. For one thing, I think that any version (4+?) with access to the iTunes store uses the KHTML/WebCore, which I understand is OS X/Cocoa only...

      (2) Perhaps the Carbon libraries were actually a common API/wrapper to both existing legacy Mac Toolbox routines and Cocoa? If so, even a carbon app might be adaptable for Yellow Box for Windows....

      --
      Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
    27. Re:Insanely great by jsvesnik · · Score: 1

      The convert option uses whichever format you have selected as the default encoding format in preferences. Change the default from AAC to MP3 and the menu option becomes "Convert to MP3"

    28. Re:Insanely great by Hes+Nikke · · Score: 1

      at that case, if you manually sort it (uhg) it burns them with 001, 002 etc in front of each track - thats how i always do my disks, although i actually hit random at the bottom.

      --
      Don't call me back. Give me a call back. Bye. So yeah. But bye our, well, but alright we are on a shirt this chill.
  70. Re:problem with CD-ripping... by MuckSavage · · Score: 1

    You should be able to choose any one of your drives. In OS X's version, it's under preferences>burning. Sorry, don't have a pc to check it out. ;)

  71. GNU/Linux to Apple: Ford Mustand by leandrod · · Score: 1

    Noticing this is becoming more and more about Apple... sounds like what happened to the Mustang, as its first costumers grew older and richer the car grew and was tamed. Is this the fate of geeks, graduating (degrading?) from GNU/Linux on cheap Intel boxen to an Apple Macintosh?

    I love the Mac, but the machine. I still run GNU/Linux and Gnome on it.

    --
    Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
    DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
    GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
    1. Re:GNU/Linux to Apple: Ford Mustand by hondo77 · · Score: 1

      More like owners of VW Beetles grew up and could afford to get the car they really wanted (insert dream car here: Viper, Lexus, Boxster, etc.).

      --
      I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
  72. Screen Shots here by neilsly · · Score: 2, Informative

    at sly.us/iTunes-ss.

    Do your worst =)

    1. Re:Screen Shots here by adrew · · Score: 1

      Wow, those unsmoothed fonts don't look very nice, but overall it's a good effort... :)

    2. Re:Screen Shots here by Aqua+OS+X · · Score: 1

      Yup... looks like iTunes to me (only with a weird menu bar).

      Nice job Apple. It seems to be the same thing as the mac version. No more, no less.

      --
      "Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
  73. Re:While I like the idea... by theparanoidcynic · · Score: 1

    Easy enough to get other formats. Run the stupid AACs through FAAD and get a nice WAV. Of course, if you encode that to mp3 you're gonna take a quality hit but it's something.

    --
    Only in a Slashdot fantasy can a Slackware install turn into several hours of sex . . . . .
  74. Poor word choice by CFO by tbliving · · Score: 1

    The CNN article references an comment by Apple's CFO "Apple Chief Financial Officer Fred Anderson has said that the Windows launch of iTunes would be a Trojan horse for the company, spurring more sales of its popular iPod digital music players, which have also been popular with Windows users. "

    1. Re:Poor word choice by CFO by eMartin · · Score: 1

      Fine, but if iTunes had a blue interface, and Apple said something like "Windows users will get to see a blue screen whenever they want to play their music" it would also be a poor choice of words, wouldn't it?

  75. I can't believe the title on Apple's page ... by Ezubaric · · Score: 5, Funny


    "Hell Froze Over"

    That's the best laugh I've seen in a long time ... now I've gotta reboot and install it on my machine.

    --

    ----------
    I am an expert in electricity. My father held the chair of applied electricity at the state prision.
    1. Re:I can't believe the title on Apple's page ... by mrgeometry · · Score: 1

      ... now I've gotta reboot and install it on my machine.

      Bummer on the uptime, man. :-)

    2. Re:I can't believe the title on Apple's page ... by DreadSpoon · · Score: 1

      They should've saved that title for the Linux/BSD port. Those seem a lot rarer than Windows ports of GUI apps from Apple. ;-)

    3. Re:I can't believe the title on Apple's page ... by Alan · · Score: 1

      Sadly it doesn't seem to want to install under wine. Gave me an error about X:\SOMETHING.EXE missing. I admit I didn't try very hard though.

    4. Re:I can't believe the title on Apple's page ... by curious.corn · · Score: 1

      I second you... I'm still cleaning the wine i spat on my monitor... sigh ;-)

      --
      Mi domando chi à il mandante di tutte le cazzate che faccio - Altan
    5. Re:I can't believe the title on Apple's page ... by Moofie · · Score: 1

      Um, there is a BSD port. You can get it with an OS called X.

      Right.

      --
      Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
  76. apps & services by Dukhat · · Score: 2, Interesting

    With iTunes, Final Cut Pro, and iMac, Apple obviously sees apps and services instead of the OS as the key making money off of its expertise. Even Microsoft is not secure in its OS market share and is trying to lock in users with Passport and .NET. The only downside is that the user interfaces between OSes will become even more homegenous once the OS doesn't matter.

  77. Re:A nice idea but .. by mitchell_pgh · · Score: 1

    Some people are trying to obtain music through legal means or trying to show their children that stealing music isn't right. I'm not saying that iTunes is the perfect answer. The prices are still a bit high, the concept is still a bit confusing and lord knows it's hard to trust corporations today.

    iTunes Music Store is ONE WAY to do the right thing. It's going to hurt the "one hit wonders" out there... I think it's going to raise the bar on music. It's also going to give the "little guy" an option to sell music his/her way.

    Remember, you can always just pick up the CD if you don't like the service. Plus it's another free (high quality) MP3 player for Windows.

    Now if only they would make a Linux version!

  78. Do yourself a favor by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

    Grab iTunesPC; it costs you nothing, you get to use it or drop it as you like, you can buy or *not* buy on a per song basis as you like, it steals nothing from your SoulSeek, Kazaa, WinMX or Overnet habits, and you may be able to find songs on it you can't find on the other networks.

    No loss, essentially.

    You *may* find your music habits substantially improved with smart playlists, song ratings, library sharing and the jukebox... so possible gains.

  79. Rather disappointing by Ophion · · Score: 1

    My first impression is negative--they've made using XP as clunky as using OS X! Check out the glacial scrolling and window resizing.

    If one can get past "Mac" OS X's UI problems (the Mac OS was so good! Why did you. . .), then iTunes is a great application on that platform. Its functionality appears to be the same on Windows. It is just a shame that they ported the UI sluggishness to a platform on which it is not inherent.

    1. Re:Rather disappointing by lysium · · Score: 1

      Dude, I hate to say it, but if the UI is sluggish, your hardware is the problem, not the software. OS X is rather slow on, say, a G3, but if you are running anything modern it is like.....quicksilver.

      --
      Together, we will drive the rats from the tundra.
  80. Hell Froze over by net_bh · · Score: 1
    I found this hilarious...on www.apple.com

    Announcing a windows release being "hell freezing over". When can they do this for Linux?

    --
    There is no patch for stupidity

    Visit my blog

    1. Re:Hell Froze over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      When can they do this for Linux?

      Which Linux? 2.2? 2.4? 2.5? Red Hat? Debian? Sun's? Elroy's Home-Grown Roll-Your-Own Distro-of-Choice?

  81. Finally! by GatorMan · · Score: 1

    Been stuck in the stone-age with WinAmp2 and MusicMatch Jukebox. Come on guys, really, learn just a bit of user interface design skills! iTunes to the rescue! :D

  82. Screenshot! by ernstp · · Score: 2, Informative
  83. Hell Froze Over by piznut · · Score: 1

    The headline on Apple's homepage is about right.

    I, a traditionally rabid anti-mac zealot have just download and installed iTunes for Windows and used it to buy some music. It does kick much ass!

  84. Amazing that no one has noted the REAL STORY... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    iTunes is a complex Cocoa application. iTunes was ported to Windows. What's the easiest way to do this, both development-wise and especially maintenance-wise? Port Cocoa to Windows.

    Consider:

    • Before NeXT was gobbled up by MacOS X, it used to sell a version of OpenStep running on Windows NT; no doubt Apple has had a skunkworks team keeping that up-to-date just in case.
    • iTunes has a huge memory footprint on Windows. Why? Perhaps because it needs to load its own entire runtime environment?
    • iTunes only runs on modern Windows systems.
    Has anyone disassembled iTunes yet? See any symbols in it starting with NS? Enquiring minds want to know...
    1. Re:Amazing that no one has noted the REAL STORY... by andfarm · · Score: 1

      iTunes is not a Cocoa application. It's still Carbon. Carbon got mostly ported to Windows for QuickTime support. Thus, there's still no Cocoa for Windows.

      --

      TANSTAAFI: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free iPod.

  85. Direct download link by Fubar411 · · Score: 1

    http://akamaidownload.apple.com/530x3824/binaries/ iTunesSetup.exe

  86. For Linux? by dbooster · · Score: 1

    Great first step. I'd love to be able to try it! Unfortunately, I'm not going to install windows just so I can use iTunes. Let me know when they release a Linux version... (or someone figures out how to run it with Wine) -dave

  87. Bets on when? by dowobeha · · Score: 1

    Anybody have bets on when someone gets this to work in wine? ;)

    --
    I am concerned about any program, any piece of hardware, any treaty, any law that treats me as a consumer, not a citizen
    1. Re:Bets on when? by notque · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well, hell froze over just before it was released, so it can't take too long...

      Maybe you didn't hear, the Cubs lost.

      --
      http://use.perl.org
    2. Re:Bets on when? by mkldev · · Score: 1
      So I guess this means that all those girls who said they would date me when....

      :-)

      --
      120 character sigs suck. Make it 250.
  88. Which version of Wine are you using? by mcc · · Score: 1

    I know there are a couple different versions. If it doesn't work with the standard Wine it would be interesting to see if someone using the TransGaming version had better luck.

    Also: do you have quicktime installed? Does quicktime even work with Wine? I suspect iTunes may not work without it.

    I would love to test this myself, but my linux box is kind of in pieces on the floor at the moment, and I have yet to get around to emerging or testing wine..

    1. Re:Which version of Wine are you using? by kkokal · · Score: 1

      I'm trying to get it working with the TransGaming version, though without much luck.
      I get this error:

      1152: Error extracting 'E:\_isf5a0\0x00x0404.ini' to the temporary location

    2. Re:Which version of Wine are you using? by Thurn+und+Taxis · · Score: 1

      iTunes fails install on Crossover because Crossover emulates Windows 98 and not 2000

      Just edit ~/.cxoffice/dotwine/config and change the "Windows" = "win98" line to read "Windows" = "winxp". That got the install to run for me. Still have to see if it runs, though.

      --
      On stereophonic equipment, the monaural sound obtained through multiple channels will enhance your listening pleasure.
    3. Re:Which version of Wine are you using? by dowobeha · · Score: 1

      Please reply if you get any results. Thanks...

      --
      I am concerned about any program, any piece of hardware, any treaty, any law that treats me as a consumer, not a citizen
    4. Re:Which version of Wine are you using? by Thurn+und+Taxis · · Score: 1

      Hrm, it seems I spoke too soon. It gets about halfway through the install (regardless of whether you use winxp or win2k) and then hangs on "iTunes Setup is performing the requested operations." And just copying the files from a vmware install didn't work either (although it runs just fine from within vmware, natch).

      When I try to start it up with Crossover Office after just copying (using --verbose), it complains about needing iphlpapi.dll. Copying that dll from an XP install to the iTunes directory gets past that error, but generates a bunch of warnings about other dlls (maybe I need to update all of crossover office's dlls?), and then pops up a fatal error about not being able to start quicktime. Looks like it's not going to be trivial to get it working.

      --
      On stereophonic equipment, the monaural sound obtained through multiple channels will enhance your listening pleasure.
    5. Re:Which version of Wine are you using? by cscx · · Score: 1

      You probably need to map your TEMP environment variable.

  89. Error correction by Phroggy · · Score: 1

    "Use error correction when reading Audio CDs"

    That option wasn't there in 4.0, was it? Kick ass...

    --
    $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
    $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  90. Accessories by huie · · Score: 1

    There are some new accessories available as well, mostly made by Belkin. Of note are the microphone and flash card (CF, MMC, SD, SM, MemoryStick) reader.

  91. iTunes rules by hargettp · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As a long time Linux geek (Debian all the way), I switched to a PowerBook this spring and have never looked back. iTunes is a big part of that experience; having it available for my Windows machines at work is even better. Plus, it means Apple has a huge chance at continuing to be viable in the marketplace. After all, this is about selling iPods--not music.

    Anyway, having followed the launch even this afternoon and downloading immediately, I can tell you fidelity of the experience on Windows is good: everything is the same as Mac OS X. The look and feel will be recognizable as similar to QuickTime--the brushed metal look so often reviled among older Mac die-hards. Interestingly, I entered the same account information I use on my Mac at home, but that does not allow me to re-download music already purchased onto this machine at the office; if I want it here again (outside of my home network), I need to buy it again.

    The Music Store itself appears inside iTunes; it's just another bookmark, like your playlists, your purchased music, any CD you have in your drive, and any other computers on your local network sharing music through Rendezvous. You can play music off another computer with Rendezvous, but you can't add those songs to one of your own playlists, or download / copy them to your machine.

    The experience of using the Music Store inside iTunes is a little like a browsere experience, but on steriods: the interface is more sophisticated, but still based on following links for navigation, backward and forward buttons, a home page, etc. On many pages, lists of highlighted albums appear in scrollable horizontal strips of album cover thumbnails. Definitely more than a browser, more than a website.

    If you spend time with iTunes, you discover that more and more music arrives everyday. Things you didn't see when you did a search last week are now there. Over time, it starts to have the same jaw-dropping effect as Napster did in it's heyday: all the music you ever wanted, right there.

    1. Re:iTunes rules by b-baggins · · Score: 1

      You can copy your purchased music to any other computer, and as long as that computer is authorized, it will play the music.

      Drag the file out of your itunes play list to make a copy of it.

      Transfer the copy to your other machine.

      Drag the copy into iTunes on the other machine to import it.

      Delete the copies.

      Play your music and enjoy.

      --
      You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
    2. Re:iTunes rules by RalphBNumbers · · Score: 1
      Interestingly, I entered the same account information I use on my Mac at home, but that does not allow me to re-download music already purchased onto this machine at the office; if I want it here again (outside of my home network), I need to buy it again.


      No, you just need to transfer the file from your other box, it'll play on your work box as long as you've authorized it, you just have to get it there.
      --
      "The worst tyrannies were the ones where a governance required its own logic on every embedded node." - Vernor Vinge
    3. Re:iTunes rules by Blondie-Wan · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Interestingly, I entered the same account information I use on my Mac at home, but that does not allow me to re-download music already purchased onto this machine at the office; if I want it here again (outside of my home network), I need to buy it again.

      Only if you don't want to go to the trouble of copying it yourself. You can put your purchases on up to three machines you authorize to play them, and from the info today it seems that includes whatever mix of Macs and PCs you want; you can move files from one comp to another with impunity. Just copy the music you bought at home to your portable storage thingie of choice and take them with you to the office and copy them to your work PC.

      As Steve said back in March when introducing the iTMS, "We'll download it to one machine; you have to move it to the other two." If Apple let people download their purchases more than once, lots of people would opt to do it simply out of convenience, and Apple would inevitably spend tons of bandwidth serving up the same track 50 times to the same person for just one payment. Their attitude is that it's the same as any other purchase; once somebody buys a track and gets it from them, it's that customer's responsibility to keep it, put it where he/she wants, prevent it from getting damaged, etc., in sort of the same way Sam Goody won't replace your CD once you get it home and drop a bowling ball on it.

      Apple doesn't mind you copying the tracks from one comp to another (as long as you don't put them on a total of more than three, and that's why they have the DRM); they just don't want to do it for you.

    4. Re:iTunes rules by nosferatu-man · · Score: 1

      Apple doesn't mind you copying the tracks from one comp to another (as long as you don't put them on a total of more than three, and that's why they have the DRM); they just don't want to do it for you.

      You can have your music on as many machines as you like -- you just can't play it until you authorize it, and that you can only do on three machines. I thought that the rights restrictions on m4p was going to be a real encumbrance, but in practice, it hasn't been bad at all.

      'jfb

      --
      To spur "enterprise Linux," Big Bang, the distributed two-phase commit.
  92. Apple ... innovating out of the downturn by YllabianBitPipe · · Score: 1

    A while back Steve Jobs said he and Apple were going to innovate during this tech downturn and when the economy recovered they'd be well positioned. It looks like they're doing it ... G5, iPods, iTunes Music Store on Windows, Panther ...

    When is Longhorn supposed to be out? 2006? At the rate Apple is coming up with this stuff, by that time we'll have a wearable iBook with a holographic display, plus an iPod with GPS, WiFi and takes digital photos ...

  93. Re:What, no Ogg? by Aqua+OS+X · · Score: 1

    iTunes supports plugins. Mac users have had 3rd party OGG plugins for a while. Someone will develop or port one to Windows.

    --
    "Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
  94. Stability issues anyone? by Izago909 · · Score: 1

    I've been waiting for a replacement for winamp for a while now. I downloaded and installed this and everyting looks nice. Almost a perfect clone of the mac version. There is one major problem for me. Every time I try to inport my music folder it crashes almost as soon as the first song is processed. I don't want it searching my HD for media because the only audio I want in my playlist is the stuff in one specific folder and I have more audio files outside of my media folder than inside. Any suggestions?

    1. Re:Stability issues anyone? by bogie · · Score: 1

      Same here. Nobody has any input either.

      --
      If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
    2. Re:Stability issues anyone? by danielmaui · · Score: 1
      Get a Mac?

      Sorry... I couldn't resist :-)

    3. Re:Stability issues anyone? by bogie · · Score: 1

      Just FYI in my case that's what I'm doing. No files are being moved and I'm not letting ITunes organize my library. Keeps crashing though.

      --
      If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
    4. Re:Stability issues anyone? by Izago909 · · Score: 1

      I'm not importing, I'm telling it to add a folder to my library. The import function seems to look for a text file by default.

    5. Re:Stability issues anyone? by nemiak · · Score: 1

      I'm having exactly the same problem - itunes crashes on adding a folder. It seems to be different files each time. My audio files are shared over a lan using samba on linux. Does anyone have any suggestions?

  95. Safari coming soon? by Ummon · · Score: 1

    Since, Safari and iTunes both use webcore as the backend on the Mac. Does this mean we might see a port of Safari on Windows? Anybody heard anything?

    1. Re:Safari coming soon? by codemachine · · Score: 1

      Only when hell freezes over. Oh wait...

  96. Good for Apple, but bad for Mac by mactari · · Score: 1

    Just grabbed iTunes for my work box (Win2k) and it's pretty good. The menu *in* the window still wigs me out a little, and the ID3 tag editor takes an incredibly long time periodically with longer songs, but so far a pretty good port. Haven't purchased online yet, but I did browse and it's every bit as neat as on my Mac at home.

    Here's what worries me... I dig the iLife apps, but the only one I've been able to show off to friends and family and instantly get a "Wow, that's neat" was iTunes with the Music Store. People like it. It really made them wish they had a Mac. A few enjoy the iPhoto books, but everyone is impressed with iTunes, from ripping to burning to buying (and then burning and ripping and...)

    The iPod is similar. Remember when it was Mac-only (it was, wasn't it? For a second or two? Almost surreal now)? That was another reason for Windows (even Linux!) users to covet my favorite OS and hardware.

    Now my friends and fam are a download away from having a quarter of iLife, and the most desired of the group. Sales of iTMS tracks should skyrocket -- I've seen it said that Apple should expect to grab 20% of the legit online music market (AP article in local paper). As an Apple stockholder, I hope they get even more. And I'm glad iPods are the best selling mp3 players and my stock's happy iPods are the best selling mp3 players.

    My two Macs running OS X are not. What good is all of this for OS X? What does this Windows capitulation say about OS X's future? Will Apple eventually become purely a software company, a la Sega leaving the console market? Will Mac hardware go away as Apple throws their support behind the monopoly (IANAL)? Probably a bit too alarmist, but it's clear that Apple is betting on Windows software and compatiblity for short to medium-term profitability, not a crazy come from behind win for Mac OS. Sure, that's probably smart (and yes, I can see Windows users being more comfortable switching once iTunes is one of their hard core favorites, but that's a reach at best), but it's still a little depressing to see these great Apple ideas leave the Mac and sell out.

    All in all, this is great news for Apple but not such good news for Macintosh.

    --

    It's all 0s and 1s. Or it's not.
    1. Re:Good for Apple, but bad for Mac by bnenning · · Score: 1
      Will Apple eventually become purely a software company, a la Sega leaving the console market?


      I doubt it. This isn't the first time Apple has done Windows software; Quicktime has been on Windows forever, and there's even a little-known AppleWorks port that some schools use. I look at this as an attempt both to sell iPods and to combat Microsoft's attempts to "standardize" on WMA.

      --
      How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
    2. Re:Good for Apple, but bad for Mac by soft_guy · · Score: 1

      ...and the Newton for Windows. And FileMaker. And pretty much everything Claris ever did.

      And WebObjects. And *lots of other shit* that has at various times been released on Windows.

      Once you get Windows users thinking "Apple", some will at least consider a Mac for their next purchase.

      --
      Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
    3. Re:Good for Apple, but bad for Mac by cryptochrome · · Score: 1

      Exactly. Apple released ITMS for Windows because Apple HAD to release ITMS for Windows. If they didn't, iTunes and the iPod would not only have lost their lead in the digital music scene, they would have been buried by all these new competitors popping out of the woodwork taking advantage of the Windows market, if Apple didn't start playing in the Windows market themselves. That's doesn't just mean lost revenue, it means losing labels and artists to exclusive deals or fatter corporate wallets - and that really WOULD be the death of iTunes. It also keeps the iPod from getting lost in a sea of slightly better priced competitors.

      --

      ---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?

    4. Re:Good for Apple, but bad for Mac by w3weasel · · Score: 1
      they would have been buried by all these new competitors popping out of the woodwork taking advantage of the Windows market
      I think you meant to say

      they would have been buried by all these new competitors pooping out of the woodwork taking advantage of the Windows market

      --

      Just as irrigation is the lifeblood of the Southwest, lifeblood is the soup of cannibals. -- Jack Handy

  97. Re:While I like the idea... by PyromanFO · · Score: 1
    Come on, if you want legit digital downloads, there's going to have to be some restrictions.

    Or you could give your money to people who don't saddle you with restrictions.
    http://www.magnatune.com/

    So what you meant to say was "Come on, if you want legit digital downloads of songs we all have already bought several times over, there's going to have to be some restrictions"
  98. Re:A nice idea but .. by sebi · · Score: 1
    .. I'll still get most of my music with SoulSeek, Kazaa, WinMX and Overnet, and buy the rest from second hand CD shops.

    Anyone with me on this?

    Not me. I get most of my music from Juno, Substance or Vinyl Addiction. The gratification is not instantaneous, but I still don't have to move my arse. But I do visit used record stores from time to time. What a shame that the old New Order records are so overpriced (at least if they are original Factory releases)

  99. Re:iTunes for Windows Screenshots? by cioxx · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here, and here

    running on Windows 2003 Server. Memory usage is little bigger than other mp3 players, but I have 1gig of ram, so it's a non-issue.

  100. It's also an MP3 player. by Nijika · · Score: 2, Informative
    ...now that I've gotten my smartarse remark out of the way. :)

    I've gotta say, while I'm a Mac fan. Apple likes to eat up RAM like candy. If I look at Process Viewer right now of all the crazy stuff I'm running on my iBook, the Apple software is chewing up the most (and we're talking about a calendar, and a mail program here...). I can imagine the Windows equal, done by Apple, may experience some of the same issues.

    In general, Apple == get more RAM. I think even dedicated Windows users would be a little taken aback.

    Anyone agree or am I way off base here?

    --
    Luck favors the prepared, darling.
    1. Re:It's also an MP3 player. by shotfeel · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What some might call "eating up RAM like candy", others might call using all the resources at hand.

      If you're running OS X, eventually most of your RAM will be getting used for something. It doesn't necessarily need that much RAM, but its not going purge anything from RAM until somebody else needs it -just in case it is needed again. Basically works like a cache.

      You need to open up a terminal window and run top to see what's reeeally in use.

    2. Re:It's also an MP3 player. by valkraider · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What is the point of having RAM if you can't use it? Or do you just like to see that you have 800MB free? Heck then shut the whole box down, then it will ALL be free!

    3. Re:It's also an MP3 player. by mbbac · · Score: 1

      My iBook with 384MB of RAM seems to do fine.

      --

      mbbac

    4. Re:It's also an MP3 player. by dasmegabyte · · Score: 1

      No, you're right. I imagine this is because Apple heavily optimizes their software to react to various uses with similar speed, rather than optimize a specific action. EG, searching is nearly as fast as traversing sequentially (so you're more likely to do it). One of the ways to do this is by storing data in multiple data structures...eg, store links to a heap of data in a multiple lists ordered by all the available sort methods. This reduces the time to resort the massive songlist by a wide margin at the expense of some ram. To see what i mean, fire up iTunes along side PodWorks. Try to sort each one by typing three letters. In iTunes, it's instant, miliseconds. In PodWorks, you'll be waiting about 1 second per 1000 files while it resorts the list.

      --
      Hey freaks: now you're ju
    5. Re:It's also an MP3 player. by Graff · · Score: 5, Informative
      I've gotta say, while I'm a Mac fan. Apple likes to eat up RAM like candy.

      Hmm, yes and no. The philosophy of Mac OS X (and quite a few other operating systems, especially Unix-like ones) is that you should use as much RAM as you can. RAM access is usually much faster than hard drive access, so why not fill up RAM with stuff that you might possibly need from the hard drive at some point.

      Memory management in Mac OS X goes like this: boot up, take up a good percentage of available RAM and place system stuff in there. Every time a window is created, make a backing store for faster and smoother access. If the user runs a program, load as much stuff related to that program as possible. If the user quits a program keep most of it in memory anyways, they might want it a minute later. They access the hard drive? Read into memory the next few sectors beyond what the user asked for simply because they may want them next.

      All of this fills up RAM pretty quickly and makes the operating system look bloated. Actually though, it's highly efficient. It's usually much quicker to free up RAM then it is to fill it. Even in the case where you need to page out memory (store it back on disk to make room for something else), it's still not much slower than having the memory empty in the first place. This is why having more RAM makes Mac OS X faster, it uses the extra space to be more efficient.

      To show you what I mean try launching Internet Explorer (or any other large program). Time how long it takes to launch, then quit it and start it again. Time how long it takes to launch for the second time. For IE I got 4 seconds for the first launch and then 2 seconds for every launch after that. This is because IE is now cached in RAM and doesn't need to be loaded from the hard drive to be launched.

      So again, you are perfectly right in that Mac OS X takes up a lot of RAM. However this is actually a feature. After all RAM is pretty cheap now and I think most people would trade off a few bucks to have their system more responsive. On the other hand I do know that Mac OS X does cope decently with low-RAM situations. It can run just fine on a machine with 256 megs of RAM but it will seem slower than a similar machine with 512 megs of RAM. I'd say that 512 megs of RAM works well with Mac OS X, any less you see slowdowns, any more and you don't notice much improvement under normal use.
    6. Re:It's also an MP3 player. by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 1
      "I've gotta say, while I'm a Mac fan. Apple likes to eat up RAM like candy."

      They're in league with those price-gougers that sell the rediculously overpriced RAM at the Apple Online store.

      Oh, wait...

    7. Re:It's also an MP3 player. by rabtech · · Score: 1

      Perhaps, but I think Microsoft got it right on this one. Most of your file cache is marked as both free memory and cache. Should an application request a lot of memory, the system can instantly select any part of the read-only cache and overwrite those pages as used memory now. It also marks pages available to be freed, but doesn't actually clear or free them so if it turns out that the cache manager mispredicted and that stuff really was needed, as long as the pages weren't touched by any other program the OS can just move them back into the cache pool.

      Of course all of this has nothing to do with memory management models. iTunes uses lots of memory because it uses lots of non-standard UI components and widgets, meaning it has to load lots of extra graphics and code to do what most normal programs just let the OS do (with its one copy in memory for all apps.)

      I like iTunes for windows reasonably well, but they'd get a lot more points from me if it adhered to the Theme manager in XP and the normal Windows UI design. This business of "wow people will see how cool iTunes looks and want to buy a mac!" is crap. They will only see how iTunes works totally differently than all other windows programs and be annoyed by it.

      (For example, why does Mozilla and iTunes put the Prefs menu under Edit? What the hell does changing options have to do with copy/paste and text editing operations? In Windows, that goes under the Tools menu. They are little things, but they make a big difference.)

      Also, why doesn't Apple expose Quicktime and iTunes to the COM or managed model? Why can't I write plugins for iTunes or a program that uses Quicktime on windows right from any COM component host or dotnet language? Part of Winamp's success has been in skin and plugin support.

      --
      Natural != (nontoxic || beneficial)
    8. Re:It's also an MP3 player. by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1
      The same is true on FreeBSD. If you run top on a FreeBSD box then you will see 80% or more of your RAM in use at any given time. If you're not using it for apps, it will use it for disk cache.

      WindowsNT does the same thing from the other end, and uses all of the RAM as disk cache, and the swap file as main memory, so you always have the data (either from disk, or memory) in RAM that you need at any given time (well, that's the theory at least...).

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    9. Re:It's also an MP3 player. by jred · · Score: 1
      (For example, why does Mozilla and iTunes put the Prefs menu under Edit? What the hell does changing options have to do with copy/paste and text editing operations? In Windows, that goes under the Tools menu. They are little things, but they make a big difference.)


      I've thought about this before, and it didn't make sense to me. Of course, in the event there *isn't* a Tools menu, I always find myself muttering under my breath, "C'mon, I need to edit my preferences"...

      --

      jred
      I'm not a mechanic but I play one in my garage...
    10. Re:It's also an MP3 player. by lowmagnet · · Score: 1

      (For example, why does Mozilla and iTunes put the Prefs menu under Edit? What the hell does changing options have to do with copy/paste and text editing operations? In Windows, that goes under the Tools menu. They are little things, but they make a big difference.)

      Under Mac OS, the preferences go under The application name. And if you don't get the concept in Mozilla of 'Edit preferences' as a mnemonic devices, then you don't think the same way as the developers. To me it's the wrong place for a preferences menu, but I can at least follow their 'logic'

      --
      Heute die Welt, morgen das Sonnensystem!
    11. Re:It's also an MP3 player. by FredFnord · · Score: 1

      > Also, why doesn't Apple expose Quicktime and iTunes to the COM or managed model?

      Because this would be an enormous amount of work, given how it is implemented, and there is a perfectly great way of writing plugins for QuickTime and iTunes already? (I.e. QTML (QuickTime MetaLayer) programming?)

      -fred

      --
      Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
    12. Re:It's also an MP3 player. by gumbi+west · · Score: 1
      (For example, why does Mozilla and iTunes put the Prefs menu under Edit? What the hell does changing options have to do with copy/paste and text editing operations? In Windows, that goes under the Tools menu. They are little things, but they make a big difference.)
      Eh, preferences are not a tool either. Really, the only sensical way is to put it under the applications menu (as in OS X).

      If you want to get into it, why is it that when i close the last window of a app in windows, they app closes? And why is it that a new instance (uncombinable with the first) launches when i open a file from outside the first instances... these UI decisions make _no_ sense.

      When i use my win2k computer at work i am constantly baffeled by this. I have been using it since July 2000, so i am not going to get used to it).

    13. Re:It's also an MP3 player. by Graff · · Score: 1
      I think Microsoft got it right on this one. Most of your file cache is marked as both free memory and cache. Should an application request a lot of memory, the system can instantly select any part of the read-only cache and overwrite those pages as used memory now. It also marks pages available to be freed, but doesn't actually clear or free them so if it turns out that the cache manager mispredicted and that stuff really was needed, as long as the pages weren't touched by any other program the OS can just move them back into the cache pool.

      In Mac OS X pretty much all of memory (everything except memory that is "wired") can be paged put or re-written as needed. You can read about the Mac OS X memory management scheme here. This is also true of many Unix-like systems and other "modern" operating systems.
  101. iTunes sharing for linux? by Fletch · · Score: 1

    At home I've a windows desktop machine, an OSX laptop, and an old linux file server.

    I just loaded up iTunes for windows, added my music, and enabled iTunes sharing. Now, when I open iTunes on the powerbook, my library from the PC magically appears there too.

    Does anyone know of any attempts to reverse engineer Apple's iTunes sharing protocol? It'd be nice to have an iTunes sharing daemon running right on my file server, so that my library would appear in iTunes on both my other machines, and would always be up-to-date.

    1. Re:iTunes sharing for linux? by JimRay · · Score: 1

      iTunes sharing is based on Rendezvous, which is Apple's way of branding Zeroconf.

      There's a linux port here, might be a good first start.

      I'll go ahead and warn you right now, though, that if you watch your IP packets between two computers sharing iTunes files, you'll notice that the http stream is encrypted, so that's probably a big hurdle to begin with. Best of luck!

      --
      My other computer is your Windows box
    2. Re:iTunes sharing for linux? by KaosConMan · · Score: 1

      I think this is what you're looking for: Linux box as an iTunes music server

  102. No love for 1st or 2nd Gen iPods by Scryber · · Score: 1
    The iPod integration looks great--on 3rd gen iPods. No so much on 1st or 2nd gen.

    The 2.1 software update is only for 3rd gen. Other iPods are sent to a software version 1.3 page, and any mention of iTunes or iTunes functionality are conspicuously absent. Booo!

    1. Re:No love for 1st or 2nd Gen iPods by Aqua+OS+X · · Score: 1

      What'a mean? Most of this stuff works fine with Rev A iPods. Audiobooks, AAC files, etc all play fine on those older iPods. :)

      Go get one on ebay... they're cheep now :)

      --
      "Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
    2. Re:No love for 1st or 2nd Gen iPods by bbuchs · · Score: 1

      >> Most of this stuff works fine with Rev A iPods

      No they don't. I've got a first gen. 5GB, and I'm unable to update to anything past version 1.3 of the iPod firmware. No AAC. No playlists-on-the-go.

      If you've figured out how to accomplish this, *please* fill the rest of us in.

    3. Re:No love for 1st or 2nd Gen iPods by Aqua+OS+X · · Score: 1

      Ouch. it looks like old Windows iPods don't support AAC. That blows.

      Old Mac iPods can play AAC content with firmware 1.3

      --
      "Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
    4. Re:No love for 1st or 2nd Gen iPods by soft_guy · · Score: 1

      I have a first generation iPod 20Gb. It plays audible content just fine. I've used it with the iTunes Music Store - no problems.

      I don't know what a Playlist on the Go is. (I never use playlists - I mostly browse by artist, then album and listen to the entire album. But people tell me I'm a purist.)

      --
      Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
    5. Re:No love for 1st or 2nd Gen iPods by bbuchs · · Score: 1

      hmm...

      mine was originally a Mac-formatted iPod, that I blew away and reformatted.

      Maybe I'll try the reverse. I'd really like to be able to play AAC files - otherwise, there's little point in using the store.

    6. Re:No love for 1st or 2nd Gen iPods by geoffspear · · Score: 1

      I ordered my 5GB iPod they day they were first announced, and it plays AAC's just fine.

      --
      Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
    7. Re:No love for 1st or 2nd Gen iPods by w3weasel · · Score: 1

      no on-the-fly playlists, but AAC is supported

      --

      Just as irrigation is the lifeblood of the Southwest, lifeblood is the soup of cannibals. -- Jack Handy

    8. Re:No love for 1st or 2nd Gen iPods by bbuchs · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I went ahead and reformatted the iPod as a Mac volume, and installed the Mac-version of the 1.3 firmware.

      AAC is a "go", but I wish I had the playlists and other features...

      Time to upgrade!

  103. 100% Wrong. by NineNine · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry, but you're 100% wrong on this. I'm sitting at some kind of old Pentium 2 (3, maybe?) with 128 Meg of RAM, playing MP3's, working in a few web browsers, running an anti-virus app, a firewall, serving VNC, and running a point of sale application, all while it's being used as a print server. It works fine, and the hard drive isn't going when it's just playing music (idling). I don't know what you did to that poor machine of yours, but mine runs like a champ.

    1. Re:100% Wrong. by NineNine · · Score: 1

      You are easily one of the most annoying posters on this board.

      As are you. I see more shit from "Anonymous Coward"...

  104. http://downhillbattle.org/ by like_broken_records · · Score: 1

    anyone seen http://downhillbattle.org/ theres a great itunes/napster2.0 parady.

  105. Negatives? by Carbonite · · Score: 1

    There's been a lot of gushing about iTunes for Windows today, and I really hope it lives up to the hype. What about the drawbacks to iTunes? Are there any "gotchas" that really degrade the experience? What about limitations? I'd be interested in hearing the top gripes about iTunes.

    --
    ich muß mehr Kuhglocke haben
    1. Re:Negatives? by Angostura · · Score: 1

      The biggest negative, I suspect is being currently played out in http://discussions.info.apple.com. Here a number of Windows users are complaining that it doesn't work. I think Apple may get bitten with the support issues - not because iTunes is poorly coded, but for the first time Apple will find itself trying to support people with a plethora of hardware/software combinations over which it has no control.

      This will be a shock to its systems and may garner it some bad publicity. Still, I'm sure the additional revenue will be worth it.

  106. Re:While I like the idea... by downix · · Score: 1

    home-made. Pulls music over the WiFi from the house.

    --
    Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
  107. Watched folders by clontzman · · Score: 1

    Seems to work great so far -- my only beef (and it's one that will probably keep me in WMP for the time being) is that iTunes doensn't support "watched folders" (which automatically import music that you drop within them). It's really handy when you're, err, downloading music and you don't have to reimport manually each time.

    Even my favorite jukebox of old (Media Jukebox) didn't have that as of V.9. Had to tell them bye-bye.

  108. Buffering by mcc · · Score: 1

    Audio is fairly memory-expensive, and on top of simply playing the mp3s (which if i am right it does through quicktime-- not exactly the MOST memory-efficient thing out there) it has to do a decent amount of buffering with the audio. It does this both when simultaneously playing and downloading over the network, and when using this feature (the fade-between-tracks thing).

  109. Re:While I like the idea... by Pirogoeth · · Score: 1

    What other method would you suggest for getting music from your PC to your car?

    Your options are two: Burn a CD or transfer them to a device like an iPod. If you're that concerned about wasting CDs, make sure your car player can handle CD-RWs and use those instead.

    --
    Happiness is like peeing yourself. Everybody can see it but only you can feel its warmth.
  110. Re:While I like the idea... by realdpk · · Score: 1

    Well, I'm willing to spend the dollar (er, 99 cents) to find out if it's suitable for my tastes, regardless of the holes in my speakers.

  111. Re:What, no Ogg? by fejikso · · Score: 1

    I don't know about ripping but as far as playing is concerned, some time ago I found a Quicktime plugin that lets me play ogg files in my Mac iTunes.

    I assume that the plugin is only for Mac but I suppose that it must not be very hard to compile a Windows binary. Soon, I'm pretty sure, somebody will write/port this Windows plugin.

  112. Not Nuclear Certified? WTF?!?!?! by Sporkinum · · Score: 2, Funny

    The Apple software is not intended for use in the operation of nuclear facilities, aircraft navigation or communication systems, air traffic control systems, life support machines or other equipment in which the failure of the apple software could lead to death, personal injury, or severe physical or environmental damage.

    --
    "He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
    1. Re:Not Nuclear Certified? WTF?!?!?! by geoffspear · · Score: 1

      If you're using Windows in any of those situations, you're pretty much screwed anyway.

      --
      Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
  113. Apple Stock by chia_monkey · · Score: 1

    And yet Apple stock is still down 6% today. Damn beleaguered companies. AOL tie-ins, opening up the music store to a HUGE customer base...but what does Apple know?

    --

    "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
    1. Re:Apple Stock by chia_monkey · · Score: 1

      True so true. Their 52 week high was yesterday I believe.

      --

      "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
    2. Re:Apple Stock by chia_monkey · · Score: 1

      You know what's really irksome about this? It's pretty evident that Apple Computer is not Apple Corps Ltd. I guess the breach of contract thing is a suable offense, but c'mon people. Let's stop the litigation and go about running business. Thinking back to when people were saying Apple Computer was infringing on Apple Corps copyrights and patents...please. With this logic, it's surprising Atari didn't sue Apple for Jaguar. That seems to be a more related product than a computer company and a record label...

      --

      "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
    3. Re:Apple Stock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yesterday was even more of a disgusted-laugh kind of day:

      Apple announced a $44M net profit and record iPod sales at the end of the trading day, and their stock promptly dropped almost $1 in after-hours trading.

      Microsoft, on the other hand, announced four more embarassing security holes in the sieve they call Windows, and saw their stock go up.

      Some aspects of the economy are truly straight out of Bizarro World.

      Headline from a WSJ in the near future: "MSFT Soars After Ballmer Caught Fucking Donkey"

  114. Re:While I like the idea... by Arkham · · Score: 1


    Maybe some people don't want to waste their time and money on burning CDs that they are not going to use. Of course, it's a good idea to make a backup of your songs in a format that is not going to vanish, but that's just me.


    Then convert the AAC file to AIFF, then back to MP3. Or use Audio Hijack or WireTap to save them out in any number or formats. No need to burn to CD. The net effect is the same, but you save the cost of a 1 CDR and the 3 minutes it takes to burn.

    --
    - Vincit qui patitur.
  115. collaborative filtering? by AssFace · · Score: 1

    Sorry, I know very little about iTunes - is there a system like Amazon/NetFlix/Launch where you can rate how much you like/dislike a song/album/band/genre and then have it recommend more for you?

    It seems it would do well here - but with a quick glance over the site, I don't see that they have anything like that.

    --

    There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
    1. Re:collaborative filtering? by craw · · Score: 1

      The iTunes store indicates the top ten downloads for a particular artist/band, a list of the top downloaded albums for that artist, and a top ten "Listeners also bought" list. For a particular album, there is a short list of "Listeners who bought this also bought."

      The home page of the iTunes store and for each genre has lists of New Releases, Exclusives, Pre-Releases, Just Added, and Staff Favorites. There are also a lists of today's top songs, and today's top albums.

      What's happening up there in Red Sox Nation?

    2. Re:collaborative filtering? by AssFace · · Score: 1

      [i]What's happening up there in Red Sox Nation?[/i]

      If you are asking me that, I only know from TV - I live in Bermuda now. I do hope that they make it - was hoping the Cubs would make it.

      --

      There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
    3. Re:collaborative filtering? by AssFace · · Score: 1

      oops, should have previewed that - I have spent too much time on sites that use the brackets instead of regular HTML stuff.

      --

      There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
    4. Re:collaborative filtering? by rufo · · Score: 1

      Not exactly... the closest thing to it is if you switch iTunes to "shopping cart mode" in the prefs, when you view your shopping cart there will be a "people who bought these tracks also bought...".

      --
      My English teacher once told me that two positives don't make a negative. Two words for her: Yeah, right.
  116. OGG, wheres my ogg by lamp77 · · Score: 1

    Anyone know how/if this thing can support .ogg files?

    1. Re:OGG, wheres my ogg by falcon5768 · · Score: 1

      poseted earlier in the thread, is a way for Mac (pluggin for quicktime) not sure about windows

      --

      "Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."

    2. Re:OGG, wheres my ogg by Jord · · Score: 1

      There is an ogg plugin for the Mac version. Give it a little time and I am sure one will pop up for the windows version.

    3. Re:OGG, wheres my ogg by JeffTL · · Score: 1

      Use the Goldwave shareware to batch convert them to nice, uncompressed Aiffs which you can then iTunes into AACs. Delete the aiffs.

    4. Re:OGG, wheres my ogg by Bigbluejerk · · Score: 1

      The QT plugin for Ogg files is a sourceforge project.

  117. Akamai by ProfessionalCookie · · Score: 1

    If the Apple site gets bogged down

    That's silly. Apple uses Akamai.

    1. Re:Akamai by curtlewis · · Score: 1

      Not only that, you should see the multiple strands of fiber coming into Apple. Drooooooooool!

      They have plenty of bandwidth, even without Akamai. The use Akamai for geographical reasons to improve download speeds for people that aren't in California.

  118. 6% instant market share by mach_5 · · Score: 1

    Well this should guarantee Apple with at least 6% of market share for Itune.

    with Mac OS at 3% market share
    and everyone that owns a mac installing iTunes on their work computer another 3%

    Not a bad start. (I included in both 3%'s)

  119. Wow by coolmacdude · · Score: 1

    Look at all the Windows using slashdotters coming out of the woodwork now that it sucks one notch less. ;)

    --

    -You may license this sig for only $6.99.
    1. Re:Wow by angle_mark · · Score: 1

      Well, I booted into Windows to try out iTunes and now thanks to it I can't bring myself to go back to Linux for at least a while!

  120. Not clueless at all by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

    You just reiterated my point: the parent poster was incorrect that AAC->CD->MP3 is two generations of loss. It is in fact one generation of loss:

    AAC->CD == 0 loss == lossless (just by technical definition)
    CD->MP3 == 1 generation of loss
    So AAC->MP3 by *transitivity* is 1 generation of loss

    Now, as per getting *truly* lossless data, we'd need 96KHz and 24bit audio from master; CD is not 'lossless' data, as it's been downsampled from master already, for the most part.

    1. Re:Not clueless at all by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

      Right, just like there was a generation of loss when a 96KHz 24bit stereo (or even multichannel) audio file is downsampled into a 44KHz 16 bit stereo CD.

      Generation loss according to the parent is transferring music from online stores into other formats: AAC -> MP3 in this case. We aren't talking about master to CD or CD to AAC.

  121. Don't forget new iPod goodies by mblase · · Score: 1

    New iPod accessories include a $100 media reader that lets you save digital photos to your iPod and a $50 voice recorder that lets you save memos or lectures to the hard drive and sync them directly to iTunes. Both courtesy of Belkin.

    The media reader seems overpriced to me, but a good idea for photo nuts. If I bought my high-school-age daughter an iPod in the near future, though, I'd get her the voice recorder at the same time. (I'm a viral geek; I have little use for an iPod myself, but I'd love to get her one and let her discover all the fun stuff you can do with it.)

  122. Doubtful there will be a Linux player. by crispy1083 · · Score: 1

    I imagine Apple managed to port iTunes because quite a few of the Carbon APIs were already put into Quicktime for Windows. So before anyone asks if there will be a Linux port, it's doubtful right now. There's nothing POSIX or OpenStep like that'll work with Linux. It's all Carbon, as far as I can tell.

  123. Macuser with a PC by Nexum · · Score: 1

    I am a long time Mac user with a PC too, here are a few of my comments on the iTunes for Windows software -

    - Firstly, congratulations to Apple, they have gotten 99% of the app and it's feel perfect in Windows, it's free too, what more can Windows users ask for? I forsee WinAmp being forgotten about within weeks.

    - iTunes for Windows does not scrub through songs when you drag the playhead dot in the location bar, it continues playing the song until you let go in a new place where it will then jump to. The Mac version scrubs nicely.

    - Visualisations need optimising, they are fairly unusable on my machine, being very jerky and unpleasant. (Perhaps a lot of Altivec used for the Mac version?).

    Can't find anything else at fault yet, of course you miss out on the gorgeous drop shadows, the vastly superior text antialiasing etc. in OS X. But I think this will become the de facto music app on the PC within 8 weeks.

    -Nex

    --

    This sig has been deprecated.
    1. Re:Macuser with a PC by Nexum · · Score: 1

      Forgot to mention, PC specs are Athlon 1Ghz, 256MB RAM, Radeon 8500 video.

      --

      This sig has been deprecated.
  124. Accessories!!!! by meh237 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Has anyone noticed the new accessories that you can get for the iPOD!? Voice memo recorder? Photo Card reader/writer for the IPOD? This means you can empty your 512 mg card onto your 40 gig ipod and keep shooting...!! This is awesome and makes me want the new ipod badly (Still using the old 10 gig version).

    1. Re:Accessories!!!! by eXtro · · Score: 1

      Sweet! I purchased a Fuji S2Pro. In hig hres I can get about 20 or 30 images on a 1 gig card. I was looking at all of the data vault type things that can read compact flash but they all seemed lame or of dubious quality. What I really wanted was a compact flash adapter for my iPod. This means I probably have to get the new version though.

    2. Re:Accessories!!!! by Kris_J · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but the battery in my aged FujiFilm camera barely holds enough charge to fill the card that's in there.

  125. Re:While I like the idea... by Aqua+OS+X · · Score: 1

    Good point. iTunes will burn MP3 CDs, yet it will not convert AAC files to MP3 for an MP3 disk.

    You need to burn them to audio CDs and re-rip them :/
    (I'd send some feedback to Apple...they listen. Check the menu options in iTunes. There's a feedback option somewhere)

    However, I have a feeling AAC /MP4 is going to catch on for other digital audio players. It's more open and easier to adopt then WMF, it sounds great, and Apple has already established it as the most popular codec/fileformat for DRM audio. Heck, the iPod is the most popular digital audio player, iTunes is the most popular online music store, iTunes is going to be AOL's music store, etc etc. It doesn't make sense not to support AAC.

    --
    "Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
  126. I love this but Windows version doesn't maximize.. by bladeohlsson · · Score: 1

    I was first in line to get this thing downloaded. It seems identical to the Mac version, including my biggest PET peeve on my Mac OS ( please note I am a multi OS person). The window does not expand to fill the whole screen. Am I missing something here?

    blade

    --
    http://www.ohlssonvox.com
  127. Thank you Apple! by Jugalator · · Score: 1

    I, for one, welcome our new music distribution overlords!

    Hmm, I definitely need to check this out. And prove that I will download music legally when there is a good electronic alternative out there, which this is!

    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  128. I was excited.... by /dev/trash · · Score: 1

    Then I was disappointed. Am I the only person that runs Windows 98?

    1. Re:I was excited.... by DeionXxX · · Score: 1

      The only one on Slashdot :-P

    2. Re:I was excited.... by Jarnis · · Score: 1

      Haven't you heard? the 'Best before' date on your OS came and went about three years ago.

      5 years is an eternity in the field of computers. Either you upgrade, or you cry, whine, bitch, moan and THEN upgrade... your choice.

    3. Re:I was excited.... by puppet10 · · Score: 1

      This will actually apply to XP when they just stop giving out product activation numbers. If you need to change your hardware some years after you buy it and they've EOL'ed the software good luck to you.

      --
      -------- This space intentionally left blank --------
    4. Re:I was excited.... by /dev/trash · · Score: 1

      That's funny. The OS does all I need and I can play games that I can't on 2000. XP has that activation crap.

    5. Re:I was excited.... by stux · · Score: 1

      Except run iTunes of course....

      (ps: that'd be a reason to upgrade for me if I was in your shoes ;))

      --

      ---
      Live Long & Prosper \\//_
      CYA STUX =`B^) 'da Captain,
      Jedi & Last *-fytr
    6. Re:I was excited.... by /dev/trash · · Score: 1

      well.
      if I were employed full time and I had the money to buy a new PC, yeah sure I'd get into iTunes.

  129. Brushed metal by bonaldi · · Score: 1

    I wonder if brushed metal actually has nothing to do with the various explanations Apple has given for it - for "real devices" etc - and a lot to do with cross-platform.

    iTunes looks identical to the mac version, almost, and that's a Good Thing. Quicktime was the first cross-platform windows app of note, and it's ... brushed metal. Hm.

    Got to wonder if Apple has a cross-platform plan, even if only a big-disaster-become-softco one, or one for apps with revenue streams a la ITMS. iPhoto's brushed metal, and it has a revenue stream. Safari and iMovie don't, but Safari at least could conceivably be released for Windows.

  130. Pepsi and Sculley by ProfessionalCookie · · Score: 1
    They're partnering with Pepsi to give away 100 million songs.
    Steve Jobs will be proud that he and Sculley are finally selling "Sugar Water" to "Change the World"
    John, do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugar water, or do you want to change the world?
    What a team!
  131. Doesn't seem to support Ogg and... by jhoude · · Score: 1

    ...it just crashed while importing my music library !

  132. Not necessarily... by hargettp · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I was following the launch event on an IRC channel (via MacNN), and during the course of that IRC someone asserted that Steve said the way they got iTunes onto Windows was by porting Cocoa wholesale--and called it "Yellow Box."

    That's a term Apple has used before; IIRC, in the Copeland days, Apple was offering developers it's "Yellow Box" APIs (an early version of Cocoa, I would guess--NextStep wasn't in the picture, though), which would allow them to write to new APIs but with the current Mac OS (Classic) underneath. It was basically a hosting environment, so that once the real OS was released, programs written to the Yellow Box specification would "just work."

    I can't confirm that this comment was actually made by Steve Jobs. If he did say this, and he was being serious, then I wonder if Apple now has a framework to let it deliver software on Windows? I don't know about you, I've always wondered why Microsoft never ported COM & a few other things to Mac, Linux, etc., 'cause that would let them leverage their existing codebase on new platforms. Has Apple put itself in a position to pull that trick on Microsoft? Could we see Safari for Windows soon? Or more "insanely great" software on Windows--and not from Microsoft?

    Trojan horse might be apt after all; and delivered so innocently, so out in the open at such a cozy event as a music service launch.

    1. Re:Not necessarily... by jaoswald · · Score: 1

      I've always wondered why Microsoft never ported COM & a few other things to Mac, Linux, etc., 'cause that would let them leverage their existing codebase on new platforms.

      Well, if they had, and let this secret out, what's to keep anyone else from porting their Windows apps to other OS's?

      MS is 1000% dedicated to making sure that the flow of users and applications into Windows is a one-way flow. Nothing that could possibly let something supplant Windows is going to be tolerated. Perhaps you heard of this thing called the Web, and a company called Netscape that started the idea that you could write applications that were largely platform agnostic?

    2. Re:Not necessarily... by Enrico+Pulatzo · · Score: 2, Funny

      If this is true, maybe Microsoft will release Office V.X for Mac for Windows!

      It's way nicer than Office XP.

    3. Re:Not necessarily... by bnenning · · Score: 1
      Steve said the way they got iTunes onto Windows was by porting Cocoa wholesale--and called it "Yellow Box."


      iTunes on Mac OS X is Carbon, not Cocoa. (Just verified on the new version 4.1). Apple actually does have a partial port of Cocoa to Windows; it's what the Windows developer tools for WebObjects use. A while back Apple was even pushing for developers to use it for cross-platform development (and it was called Yellow Box), but that got killed when Steve decided that OS X would only run on Mac hardware. Too bad, because Cocoa is the best API I've ever used. Fortunately GNUstep is making good progress.

      --
      How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
    4. Re:Not necessarily... by Johnny+Mnemonic · · Score: 1


      I've agreed with this perspective before--but wouldn't a port of Safari to Windows be one more way to keep "IE" only sites from gaining dominance? Which means that sites that wish to remain compliant with Safari for Windows (because Safari would suddenly have, perhaps, double the market share it has now) would also then maintain compliance with Safari for Mac--an attitude that is beginning to erode, albeit slowly.

      --

      --
      $tar -xvf .sig.tar
    5. Re:Not necessarily... by stux · · Score: 1

      The one minor problem with that... story... is that iTunes is based on the Carbon APIs, not the Cocoa APIs.

      Obvious when you consider iTunes is (was?) available for OS9.

      Course, they did port Pre-Carbon to Windows before (think QuickTime), and a simple update to the QTML media layer is all that would be required... although I would hope they would do a more native port.

      --

      ---
      Live Long & Prosper \\//_
      CYA STUX =`B^) 'da Captain,
      Jedi & Last *-fytr
  133. Re:iTunes for Windows Screenshots? by Myuu · · Score: 1

    Atmosphere! Nice man.

    --

    forget it.
  134. Indie Music by reptilicus · · Score: 1

    The other good news here is that Jobs announced that they've signed on 200 independent labels to provide music. Woo-hoo!

  135. and give away songs with special bottles of Pepsi. by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 1

    So is this a deal to bring back Scully?
    =)

  136. 100 milliion songs by ENOENT · · Score: 1

    Yeah, they're giving away 100 million copies of "The Hokey Pokey".

    --
    That's "Mr. Soulless Automaton" to you, Bub.
  137. Crashes when importing music by bogie · · Score: 1

    It crashed on me when importing my music library and I've been reading a few reports of it crashing at Ars as well. Seems like Apples has some fixing to do.

    --
    If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
  138. Re:Is it a good standalone MP3 player? by lieven_dekeyser · · Score: 1

    the mac version is an insanely great music player.
    rip mix burn!

  139. Sharing with other iTunes by teamhasnoi · · Score: 1
    Anyone know how to share your library with the other computers over a network?

    I have two macs and a PC, the PC being the 'holder of the files'.

    Not very intuitive so far.

    1. Re:Sharing with other iTunes by 90XDoubleSide · · Score: 1

      iTunes>Preferences>Sharing>Share My Music

      --
      "Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
    2. Re:Sharing with other iTunes by babbage · · Score: 1

      Is your Mac running iTunes 4.0.1? I had the same problem, and sharing wouldn't work as long as my Mac was running 4.0. Upgrading to 4.1 fixed the problem immediately.

    3. Re:Sharing with other iTunes by teamhasnoi · · Score: 1

      I did that and then realized that my pc (home) and the mac I'm on right now (work) are on different subnets, and Apple removed that a little while ago. :(

    4. Re:Sharing with other iTunes by babbage · · Score: 1

      Ouch. Yeah, that's the feature that the 4.0.1 update "fixed"... :-(

  140. #1 song by feed_those_kitties · · Score: 1
    Fountains of Wayne, "Stacy's Mom"...

    Great band, great song. Life is good!

  141. Re:While I like the idea... by seanadams.com · · Score: 1

    The fact that the compression format is a standard does absolutly nothing to help you play ITMS files on non-apple hardware. These files are ENCRYPTED and will not play except on an iPod or a Macintosh for which they are licensed. The only way to play them elsewhere is to first convert to AIFF and then possibly re-encode (even if you want AAC, heaven forfend!).

    This is not even about DRM (notwithstanding Apple's reassuring words to the RIAA). The DRM is actually extremely weak, as any DRM is. It's all about vendor lock-in, in that you can't get at the original compressed data except on Apple hardware.

  142. Re:i'd rather steal the music by zpok · · Score: 1

    "I mean .. who wants to pay for it?"

    Us stupid people who like musicians to continue making music. This pay per download thing is by far the best option for musicians so far.

    You want free music, buy a guitar.

    BTW: I sniffed your IP, one of these days I'll come around to steal your mouse. Afterall, why should I pay for a mouse? ;-)

    --
    I think, therefore I am...I think.
  143. I might try it. by dtfinch · · Score: 1

    Just to show some support, and to see if it's worth it and if they have my favorite artists. $20 is practically lunch money.

    I'll probably also see what they offer in the way of music videos.

  144. Pepsi does taste like sh*t by Aqua+OS+X · · Score: 1

    Pepsi does taste like shit.. but I'll be damned if this isn't the first under-the-cap game that will actually lead me toward a particular product.

    I could typically care less about "winning a million dollars or one of 10,000 Xboxes."

    If 1 out of 3 pepsi sodas will give me a free song of my choice, I'm game. I'll simply drink Mountain Dew and have the shakes for a few months.

    --
    "Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
    1. Re:Pepsi does taste like sh*t by geoffspear · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, Pepsico doesn't always include all of its products in its under-the-cap games. But if 1 out of 3 bottles of Code Red gives me a free song, my poor little 5GB iPod will fill up pretty quick.

      --
      Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
    2. Re:Pepsi does taste like sh*t by hondo77 · · Score: 1

      I find Pepsi goes well with Chinese food. Might be just me, though.

      --
      I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
    3. Re:Pepsi does taste like sh*t by Graff · · Score: 1
      If 1 out of 3 pepsi sodas will give me a free song of my choice, I'm game. I'll simply drink Mountain Dew and have the shakes for a few months.

      I thought the same thing but then I saw that it's only Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and Sierra Mist.

      No thanks, I don't like the taste of Pepsi and NutraSweet leaves a nasty aftertaste. I'll just keep on buying my iTMS songs with my own money.
    4. Re:Pepsi does taste like sh*t by follower-fillet · · Score: 1

      Hey, check out the tag lines on the press release:

      "Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s..."

      "Pepsi-Cola ignited Michael Jackson in the 1980s..."

  145. Looking good so far by dynayellow · · Score: 1

    Set it up on my LAN at work. My work box is an older Dell with 2000. Set up was a breeze, and I'm ripping my CDs on to it now.

    Just installed it on a workstation we use in a central locaiton. It found my computer's iTunes music file. Now we can play the music without having our CDs laying in different locations.

    Installation's a breeze. Even installed on the workstation even though it doesn't have the latest updates.

    At home I'm a Mac/Jaguar user at home--the interface looks almost exactly the same (some different fonts), and moves quickly.

  146. What'm I gonna do with all these Oggs? by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 1

    I've downloaded iTunes for Windows, and it's worth it if only for the ability to rate songs. But is there anything I can do with all my Oggs? Or am I gonna have to rip everything over again to AAC?

    1. Re:What'm I gonna do with all these Oggs? by MuckSavage · · Score: 1

      I would love it if iTunes for the mac could encode to ogg; hopefully someday soon we will have it. I know for a fact that there is a quicktime plugin to listen to ogg files through itunes:mac, so hopefully it should be easy to port that bad boy over. As for encoding, maybe there needs to be more outcry from the ogg loving community. I've found that apple genuinely listens to users.

    2. Re:What'm I gonna do with all these Oggs? by Senjaz · · Score: 1

      iTunes can play any audio media type that QuickTime can because that's what it uses. QuickTime has an extensible plug-in architecture that is well documented so go write an OGG plug-in. I'm pretty sure an OGG plug-in for QuickTime on the Mac exists already.

      The only thing you won't be able to do is use iTunes to import to OGG. But you shouldn't have to rip everything again.

      --
      Don't blame me - this .sig had steal me written all over it.
  147. I think it's only useful as a store by Glonk · · Score: 1

    19MB download? Holy bloatware batman! A full install of Winamp is 2.2MB, and it plays videos as well.

    The install is typical of the annoying Apple installs we were used to with Quicktime. It doesn't even ask you, it simply installs QuickTime 6.4. Not only that, but it adds some **** to your startup so you have a gloriously useless memory-hogging QuickTime tray icon by default.

    It's also somewhat weird how iTunes demanded access to the internet the second I opened it, even at the configuration wizard's first screen.

    It requires "special" drivers for burning to CDs and DVDs -- huh? What kind of design is this? This also requires a reboot after an install.

    The GUI seems to be remarkably inefficient, when I resize the window there is a noticable delay of when I move the mouse to resize and when the window redraws -- and it's choppy when it does so. And the CPU is an Athlon 64 3200+...

    It doesn't recognize WMA as an audio format whatsoever, which is somewhat of a pain considering 95% of my audio files are in WMA format. The least they could've done is take a couple hours and simply call DirectSound's WMA decoder, doesn't add to file size nor complicate the program. But I suppose for political reasons they want to shun MS' format and only support MP3 and AAC (no OGG either).

    The interface is huge, and virtually uncustomizable. I'm not a fan of the brushed-metal look. There is no equivalent window shade mode (Winamp) or taskbar mode (WMP) I could find, which is annoying for playing it in the background. Closest thing is you can minimize it, and then use the tray icon to do basic controls (play, stop, next song, etc). The taskbar entry is still there.

    It's a resource hog: Playing a simple 4 minute MP3 it uses 32MB of RAM and 3-5% of my Athlon 64 3200+. The exact same song in Winamp 2.91 uses "0%" of my CPU consistently and 7.6MB of RAM.

    1. Re:I think it's only useful as a store by Zed2K · · Score: 1

      Quicktime by default does it. Just select its prefs and tell it not to.

      I'm playing a 5 minute mp3 right now. Its taking up 15MB of memory and hovering around 5% of cpu. But I've also got outlook, AOL IM, msn messenger and mozilla open and running. This is on a slow-ass Pentium 4 at work (think its a 1.3 or 1.6Ghz).

      You can shrink its display down to a very small rectangle, and then grab the window and shrink it smaller to a small square.

      I like the brushed metal look. It just blends in with my desktop and doesn't stand out.

    2. Re:I think it's only useful as a store by hondo77 · · Score: 1

      ...and behind this window is the Cave-dwelling Troll, with his distinctive XBox pallor. Note his focus on irrelevant, technical trivia and his obliviousness to things you and I care about, like usability. They're mostly harmless, as long as they're not goaded into a Picard vs. Kirk debate. Day-old pizza usually settles them down, though. Let's move along to our next exhibit...

      --
      I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
    3. Re:I think it's only useful as a store by filmsmith · · Score: 1

      You're grasping at straws, son. I know it's difficult for you to believe that Apple might actually do something Innovative on the Windows platform. I didn't think it would happen either*...but here we are.

      *Didn't doubt it for a minute.

  148. Re:Great! kind of by Total_Wimp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Reading this comment reminds me of exactly why Apple has such great mind share with average home users and Linux doesn't. In a word: innovation.

    Now, before you start flaming me, please listen to my intent:

    Apple: puts out uber-cool, lickin' your chops iPod, but makes it only available on Macs (to start). Puts out actually workable online music service and makes is only available on Macs (to start). People love both of these things and buy them in hoards. Mac users have status and coolness as they're the only ones that can get this awesome stuff... at least for little while.

    Linux: Can we run this on WINE? In other words, can we take this cool stuff from another platform and try to make it work on ours. You probably can and probably will, but meanwhile you have to wait for some point in time AFTER everyone else has it. Let's face it, cool is very often about being first... about having something others don't have.

    What Linux needs is innovation. They need something that only they have (at least for a little while) that everyone else wants. That is how it will build mind share, not by saying "look, we can do it too (if you're only willing to wait a while)"

    TW

  149. Re:What, no Ogg? by Taloon · · Score: 1

    Looking on Google I found this and it has a Windows port. I have no idea how well it works, or if it works with the newest release of Quicktime, as I don't have access to it on this machine.

  150. Naaah by CrystalFalcon · · Score: 1

    More specifically, iTunes has to talk to the IMAPI (Image Mastering API) present in Windows systems, which abstracts CD burning since a while back.

    Things have changed since CD burners first appeared. It is not all that different, these days. If IMAPI says you're good to go, then go ahead and pump the data. Who knows where it'll end up? It's not your problem anymore.

  151. Default player bug? by Sporkinum · · Score: 1

    During install iTunes asks if you want it to be the default player on your system. I selected no and proceded with the rest of the install.

    Started the program and then went into preferences. There is a check box for "Use iTunes as default" and it is checked anyway. I would assume if you did not notice that and chnged some other preference setting and clicked ok, it would set iTunes as the default, even though it was not picked during install.

    Either they were clumsy, or they are just relying on people to be less aware when they are changing settings.

    --
    "He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
    1. Re:Default player bug? by mkldev · · Score: 1
      I'm pretty sure the Mac version doesn't do that, so I'd say it's a bug in the install code. Make sure you send feedback with the feedback form on Apple's website so that the right people will know about the problem.

      --
      120 character sigs suck. Make it 250.
  152. Allowances by ciryon · · Score: 1

    This could be the only way us international users can "buy" songs from the Music Store. Buy it for you kid? Bah, sell it to a foreigner and get a profit.

    I expect this to be huge on eBay anytime soon. If someone wanna sell me a song I'm very interested, haven't even had the chance to try it out..

    Ciryon

  153. Re:While I like the idea... by seanadams.com · · Score: 1

    Duh... well you can also play it on a Windows machine now using Apple's software. Not on a competeing hardware player is what I meant.

  154. Yes, in fact, I did. by mike_lynn · · Score: 1

    When Apple does requirements like that, they're 'System' requirements. You answered your own question: Most people should have at least 128MB on modern machines. Even Microsoft recommends this.

    By your logic, with all the software I've bought my machine should need several gigs of RAM. How many basic consumers do you know that will think: "Gee, when they say 128MB, that must mean 128MB _extra_ just for the software." as opposed to "128MB? CompUSA told me they put 256MB in my machine. Ok, this'll work."

    1. Re:Yes, in fact, I did. by yerricde · · Score: 1

      How many basic consumers do you know that will think: "Gee, when they say 128MB, that must mean 128MB _extra_ just for the software."

      This was actually the case under Mac OS 6-9, whose primitive cooperative multitasking designs allocated a fixed amount of RAM to each running process.

      --
      Will I retire or break 10K?
    2. Re:Yes, in fact, I did. by RevAaron · · Score: 1

      This was actually the case under Mac OS 6-9, whose primitive cooperative multitasking designs allocated a fixed amount of RAM to each running process.

      That's true, but when you'd look at the box of an app and it'd say that you needed a "Power Macintosh with 32 MB of RAM" it did not mean you needed 32 MB for just that app, but total- just like it means now.

      --

      Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  155. Nice touch by ruiner13 · · Score: 1

    The iTunes icon in the system tray lets you control iTunes, much as the dock lets you on macos x. I was wondering how they were going to do that! Nice job apple. It seems to have EVERY feature that is available on the mac side, I was not expecting that. Every setting, every option. Anyone know if the plug-ins are compatible? I wouldn't mind seeing G-Force running on it.

    --

    today is spelling optional day.

  156. Pepsi :/ by sik0fewl · · Score: 1

    Well, they had me up until Pepsi.

    Oh, wait no.. they lost me at Windows. I guess I can still buy music from work.

    --
    I remember when legal used to mean lawful, now it means some kind of loophole. - Leo Kessler
  157. The first one is free by BMonger · · Score: 1

    So if you have an anti-Apple friend all you should have to do is send them a music gift certificate for... $20 (minimum I believe)... then watch them cry as they install iTunes for Windows... :)

  158. Wow I'm impressed... by wo1verin3 · · Score: 1

    Although it doesn't work with my Napster WMAs, I launched iTunes and it had 3 items under 'shared playlist' with hundreds of audio files.

    Turns out it's picking up iTunes playlists from MACs on our network... that is kinda neat. :)

  159. Steve Jobs to Pepsi CEO by matthaak · · Score: 1
    What Jobs likely said to convince Steven Reinemund to come on board:

    Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or do you want to come with me and sell sugar water bundled with free music?

  160. Think of it this way... by reptilicus · · Score: 1

    All those music and iPod sales to Windows users will go a long way towards keeping Apple profitable, and will help subsidize lots of R&D to keep you enveloped in delicious Apple-y goodness. And stop being so elitist. So what, you can't show off to your Windows brethren and boast about your superiority? Get over it.

    1. Re:Think of it this way... by mactari · · Score: 1

      And stop being so elitist. So what, you can't show off to your Windows brethren and boast about your superiority? Get over it.

      I think you missed my point. Not trying to be elitist; far from it! I don't want to have something to show off -- I want a reason that people can understand quickly that shows why they would want to switch to a Mac.

      I want more people to use Mac OS X. Heck, I want most PC users to use Mac OS. I want to be in a less elitist position. It's not of my choosing.

      Why do I want more Mac users? Here are a few that spring to mind...

      * More secure.
      * Built on top of an OS that had networking in mind from the start, not a kludged client OS.
      * iChat videoconferencing.
      * Apple hasn't yet proven they'd illegally maintain a monopoly were they to get one.
      * Less work for me troubleshooting relatives' computers!

      But to get Switchers, you need a quick hook to sell them on. Whether it's awesome hardware (JavaOne was apparently flooded with Powerbooks) or applications that, as was well put, "Just Work" and do neat, everyday, consumer stuff, you need these exclusives to get people to Switch.

      Now that iTunes isn't an exclusive, that's one less reason I have, one less piece of leverage Mac OS X has, to win over Switchers. At a previous job, we called it "the elevator speech". If you're caught with your CEO in the elevator and want to explain why your project is mission critical, you'd better have a good 15-20 speech that'll get him interested in what you've got to offer. Same thing when grabbing Switchers. Nobody [normal schmoe] is going to wait as you show them how to use ssh on a Mac and why scp is good, but they will watch you buy an exclusive track to iTunes online and start checking their bank account for Mac funds.

      And the other reason take much longer to show. Nobody cares about security until they've lost their credit card numbers... ;^)

      --

      It's all 0s and 1s. Or it's not.
  161. Re:now lets see what M$ does by zpok · · Score: 1

    Someone forgot to take his prosac?

    There, there. See, the nurse is all female, you can stop screaming...

    --
    I think, therefore I am...I think.
  162. Re:Great! kind of by blixel · · Score: 1

    I get the same error. But it's not important enough to me to figure it out under Linux. But I do plan on checking it out on my XP laptop just to see how the store works.

  163. Re:Not clueless at all - Or is it? by iuyterw · · Score: 1

    Umm...

    I don't know a whole lot about audio en/decoding, but aren't you leaving out 1 generation of loss?

    Specifically, the loss that occured when Apple ripped these songs to AAC from whatever they rip from? (CD?)

  164. Slashdotted? Apple!? by CrystalFalcon · · Score: 1

    Good Lord, Apple is slashdotted. This has got to be a first, their site usually stands up even to the worst rushes of newly-released trailers for the next geek movie.

    I wonder what tomorrow's headlines will be.

    1. Re:Slashdotted? Apple!? by mkldev · · Score: 1
      Ouch. The graphics and media (the high volume content) are served by Akamai. which has been known to scale up to 30 Gbps (yes, that's gigabits per second) in peak load periods. I think the text bandwidth from Apple's servers verges on a gigabit per second, but I could be wrong.

      If Apple really was slashdotted, that either means that a trunk line went south or that this is the biggest download blitz in the history of the Internet. Either way, I wouldn't want to be in Apple's IT department today. :-)

      --
      120 character sigs suck. Make it 250.
  165. Re:Is it a good standalone MP3 player? by adrew · · Score: 1

    Yes.

    I have a Mac and can't understand how people get by with WinAmp or --ugh-- MusicMatch. iTunes is just so easy to use and find the type of music that you want.

    The feature that blows my PC friends away is the Rendezvous streaming. I have a G4 in my bedroom with 20GBs of MP3's and an AirPort-equipped PowerBook in the living room connected to the stereo.

    If iTunes is running on my G4, all the music and playlists on it automatically show up when I launch iTunes on the PowerBook. It's really slick...the songs start playing immediately with no stuttering or buffering.

    I was thinking about getting a SliMP3, but not anymore...I can even connect the PowerBook to the TV and show iTunes visualizations on it...cool.

  166. Re:While I like the idea... by geoffspear · · Score: 1
    If you like the artists that website offers, feel free to use them.

    Those of us who want to listen to more than 4 "rock" artists (although how they use that term to describe "instrumental electronic space pop" I'm not sure) will buy from a better source.

    --
    Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
  167. Go Apple go! by Ridgelift · · Score: 1

    From Apple's website:

    iTunes 4 is the best software jukebox in the world, with a great music store inside. With it, you can create your own personal digital music library to manage and listen to your music collection, all with drag-and-drop simplicity.

    iTunes encodes high-quality MP3s as well as pristine AAC, all in a free application. If you don't like getting charged a subscription fee or paying for additional features like fast CD burning, your digital music experience is about to get a whole lot better.


    Although I use ogg myself, frankly I hope Apple gets top spot for legal music distribution. Teaming with Pepsi is a brilliant move. Makes you wonder why Microsoft can't be this creative. Oh, that's right, someone else needed to think of it so they can steal it.

    Guess I'll be seeing Windows Media Player songs on Coke cans soon.

  168. Re: 100% CPU by Deviate_X · · Score: 1

    After quitting it often hangs using near 100% CPU, have to kill the task iTunes.exe with Task manager. Memory usage is also quite high, peaking at 52Mb.

    It also associated all my music files with QuickTime when I told it not too. Hmm...

    Is this a beta?

  169. Re:A point and a Question... by valkraider · · Score: 1

    Really? My 1st generation player plays AAC files just fine. Is there not an updater for Windows? If not - I would say go to a store where they sell Macs and let them update your iPod software from a Mac.

  170. I hope iTunes is a better than MusicMatch Jukebox by zeno_lee · · Score: 1

    I just got an iPod for my girlfriend and the software that comes with it, MusicMatch Jukebox is the crappiest thing ever offered. It does not work with the iPod. I subsequently downloaded other iPod managers, such as ephpod, XPlay, and Media Center 9, and they all work. I tried convincing her to use ephpod but she refuses. She wants to use MusicMatch because it's the official offering of Apple.

    I'm downloading iTunes right now and I'm praying that it will work.

  171. Drop in the bucket by Zimm · · Score: 1

    Compared to what Kaza gives away.

  172. Memory saver for those without iPods! by cabra771 · · Score: 1

    If you want to conserve a little bit of memory, log in to Windows as an admin, go to your list of Services running. There is a service that is installed with iTunes called iPod Service. Stop the service and set it to Disabled (setting it to manual will still allow iTunes to start it up when it starts up). Now you have freed up a little bit of memory! I'm not going to say I'm 100% sure of this fix, but it looks like it works fine for me. Running on WinXP.
    Hope this helps some of you complaining of the mem. footprint!

    --

    -my other sig is your mom
  173. Re:problem with CD-ripping... by valkraider · · Score: 1

    This hint at MacOSXHints.com has a comment regarding ripping from multiple disks. I know it is a Mac OSX site, and all that - but it might help. I dunno...

  174. Yeah, I know, MS has always been one-way by hargettp · · Score: 1

    And, sure, they've made *huge* sums of money off their operating systems. First they had the deal with IBM for DOS on every PC shipped, then they rolled out the very successful Windows 3.0 (every Windows release before that was a yawner), but it wasn't until Windows 95 that they are really started to get ahead financially with their operating systems.

    I guess I always thought that they did applications very, very well, but operating systems not as well. Hence, if they'd just made their application portfolio available *everywhere* (regardless of OS), they could absorb every desktop on the planet.

    But, hey, seeing as I would have chosen a different strategy, that might explain why it's Bill with all the billions and not me, huh? ;)

  175. AOL and Apple by chia_monkey · · Score: 1

    You gotta love the whole AOL and Apple connection. I really think this is going somewhere.

    First you've got the whole AIM integration with iChat. That seemed to be a pretty big thing back in the day. Next, iTunes signs the major labels. Hmmm...who's in there? And now today it's announced that AOL users will be able to purchase from the iTMS.

    This is big stuff. Major collaborations on a few different projects now. It makes you wonder...what's next?

    --

    "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
  176. Rendering engine? KHTML? by bmarklein · · Score: 1

    Anyone know what they're using as the HTML rendering engine for the store? The Mac version uses KHTML (also used in Safari). Did they port it, or did they just use the IE control?

  177. Re:Great! kind of by Erwos · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's not like you can just go code iTunes++ for Linux. Most of the magic, so to speak, is not in the code (which I suspect is fairly straight forward), but rather in the deals they've gotten with the record companies.

    There is plenty of innovating going on - but expecting Linux users to just ignore exciting developments on other platforms is idiotic. Why can't Linux innovate _and_ use other people's innovations? Total originality all the time is highly over-rated, if you ask me.

    -Erwos

    --
    Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
  178. iTunes 4.01 Vs. Napster 2.0 by KaiserZoze_860 · · Score: 1

    Looking at the iTunes interface... and options menu:

    1) I can encode as mp3 as an option.
    2) when burning a CD directly from iTunes I can
    choose to make an Audio CD, an MP3 CD or
    pure data CD.

    Based on these two options alone, I would be significantly more inclined to purchase from iTunes than from Napster. Score one for innovation.

  179. Re:A point and a Question... by Spodie! · · Score: 1

    Yes there's an update for the iPod for both Mac and Windows: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/win/269 25

  180. Re:Great! kind of by Frymaster · · Score: 1
    What Linux needs is innovation. They need something that only they have (at least for a little while) that everyone else wants

    • apache
    • sendmail
    • khtml
    • ssh

    need i go on with the list of things that apple has boosted from the free-n-open *nix community? turn about is not only fair play, but good for software in general and everyone!

    now, don't get me wrong. i love my quicksilver/10.2.8 rig and it is my primary machine - but don't sell the oss community short on innovation.

  181. Trojan horse theme by hargettp · · Score: 1

    It appears the trojan horse theme was picked up on Ars Technica discussions, too, although not with regard to "Yellow Box."

  182. Why rip your CDs into MP3 instead of AAC by yerricde · · Score: 1

    MPEG-1 Audio layer 3 in an MPEG container is compatible with more handheld music players than MPEG-4 Advanced Audio Codec in an Apple DRM container.

    That said, I do all my ripping with CDex to PCM .wav files and then process them from there. I'm not an audiophile, so wav -> nominally 160 kbps Ogg -> 96 kbps mono MP3 doesn't introduce any unacceptable artifacts that I can hear.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
    1. Re:Why rip your CDs into MP3 instead of AAC by Mononoke · · Score: 1
      MPEG-1 Audio layer 3 in an MPEG container is compatible with more handheld music players...
      Fair enough, for now.
      ...than MPEG-4 Advanced Audio Codec in an Apple DRM container.
      The DRM container is only there on music purchased through the iTMS. For music ripped from your own CDs (which is what that pref is for) there is no DRM.

      --
      NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
  183. Re:Great! kind of by levik · · Score: 1
    Hmmm... So Apple is popular because they get cool stuff before everyone else.

    Like Baldur's Gate... and... um... Photoshop.

    --
    Ñ'
  184. Re:While I like the idea... by mblase · · Score: 1

    But I am not allowed to convert these files to, say, mp3 so that I can play them in my car.

    You have an MP3 player in your car, but not a CD player? gripe to the manufacturer, then, and tell them you want a firmware update to support AAC files. It's not Apple's fault they can't add DRM support to the MP3 file format.

  185. Re:Win 2000/XP only by sammaffei · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...and obviously don't spend money on anything new.

    --

    Political correctness is the newest form of slavery.

  186. Re: 100% CPU by bogie · · Score: 1

    Hmm I don't have the high cpu problem, well unless I enable visuals. The whole unable to import music thing really sucks though. ITunes isn't much good to me if I can't navigate my Music Library.

    The one thing I will say is ITunes Music store is about as cool as it gets. The long previews and excellant sound quality definitely put it above and music shopping site Ive used.

    --
    If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
  187. People are running around the office... by zhrike · · Score: 1

    checking with each other, getting this installed, sharing out libraries.

    It's pretty amazing that it takes Apple to create an application for Windows that excites people in such a way.

    1. Re:People are running around the office... by MuckSavage · · Score: 1

      This is what they do.

      I never thought I'd be so excited about a piece of software being released for windows.

  188. MS security patch by OglinTatas · · Score: 1

    So how long before microsoft releases a critical security patch which "incidentally" and "accidentally" breaks iTunes?

  189. Looks really nice... by Danj2k · · Score: 1

    Shame that the iTunes music store is STILL not available outside the USA. Also, it looks nice, but Apple made some mistakes with the interface when porting it to Windows. Firstly, the button which you'd expect to be the maximise button actually puts iTunes in Compact mode. Secondly, there doesn't appear to be any right-click functionality to speak of. Thirdly, there doesn't seem to be a way to bookmark favourite radio stations (which I was expecting to be able to do with the non-existent right-click functionality I just mentioned).

    1. Re:Looks really nice... by Raven42rac · · Score: 1

      First, it is an Apple app, so that button minimizes it, try the middle one on the top left, it should have a plus sign on it, there are also a minus and an x, it should be painfully apparent what they do. Second, macs only have a one-button mouse remember? Poke around in the menus, I am sure there is a way to bookmark radio stations, I know you can on the mac version. They will release it outside the US when they can iron out the copyright laws in the EU and such.

      --
      I hate sigs.
    2. Re:Looks really nice... by nullard · · Score: 1

      I believe you can drag the radio stations into a playlist or at least copy and paste them there. I have a favorite stations playlist on my mac at home.

      --


      t'nera semordnilap
    3. Re:Looks really nice... by geoffspear · · Score: 1

      It's a resize button, not a maximize button. The behavior of the button is application-specific on Macs; in iTunes, it switches between Compact and the regular view.

      --
      Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
    4. Re:Looks really nice... by mikiN · · Score: 1
      They will release it outside the US when they can iron out the copyright laws in the EU and such.

      Yeah, and that will happen _Real_Soon_Now_ <grin>, i.e. the next time hell freezes over...
      Which it will eventually, after the EU has squeezed us for all but the very last drop of money, to coagulate in the coffers of our corrupt broadcast-media-toting European members of parliament...

      --
      The Hacker's Guide To The Kernel: Don't panic()!
  190. Great... pepsi by Kelz · · Score: 1

    When Sierra Mist came out, they did a big "1 in 4 recieves free 20oz bottle" thing. I got 20 sierra mists. I didn't win once.

    Probably will be the same thing with the I-tunes. Or maybe all those free Sierra Mists owed to me will be in the form of I-tunes. Anyway, sounds like a good promo for pepsi.

    Wow that was a bit off-topic... ummm... LINUX R0X0RZ!!!

    1. Re:Great... pepsi by stux · · Score: 1

      Did you perhaps get an old batch?

      Or perhaps you're just really really unlucky ;)

      --

      ---
      Live Long & Prosper \\//_
      CYA STUX =`B^) 'da Captain,
      Jedi & Last *-fytr
  191. Apple ported Carbon to Windows a long time ago by yerricde · · Score: 1

    iTunes is a complex Cocoa application. iTunes was ported to Windows. What's the easiest way to do this, both development-wise and especially maintenance-wise? Port Cocoa to Windows.

    As others have remarked in response to your comment, s/Cocoa/Carbon/g and this becomes true. IIRC, Apple ported Carbon to Windows a long time ago as part of the process that produced QuickTime for Windows, and Carbon was initially defined as those parts of the Mac OS toolbox that are in fact portable to another operating system.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  192. Sports? by RowdyReptile · · Score: 1

    I feel like a Cubs fan...

    What, you think a bunch of geeks are going to get a current sports reference? ;)

    --

    You want a sig? I can get you a sig... Hell, I can get you a sig by 3 o'clock this afternoon... with nail polish.
    1. Re:Sports? by lullabud · · Score: 1

      sports?! i thought he was talking about the bouncing bear episode!

  193. Re:Great! kind of by rm+-rf+/etc/* · · Score: 1


    That's the microsoft installer exe.

    You can get it at http://tinyurl.com/3ha9, but that doesn't seem to help a whole lot...

  194. is it really that much better ? by technoviper · · Score: 1

    I used iTunes for quite a while on my Powerbook, but for the most part i kept wishing i had Winamp on my Mac. Winamp 3 proved to be too bloated, in some cases a stripped down minimal player is best... so im back to using winamp 2 on my pc While itunes is a great looking app, it may not be the best choice for everyone

  195. Download link... by Chuck+Bucket · · Score: 1

    http://akamaidownload.apple.com/530x3824/binaries/ iTunesSetup.exe

    No downloading for me, I've got an iBook, but it's Linux. Now an iTunes for Linux would be news, for Windows, it was just an inevitability after the 'you have to have Apple to hit it' wore off on the accountants at aapl.

    CB

  196. Re:A point and a Question... by Blondie-Wan · · Score: 1

    That includes QuickTime 6.4, of course.

  197. Re:Great! kind of by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    need i go on with the list of things that apple has boosted from the free-n-open *nix community?

    First of all, quit saying "*nix." One: it's incredibly lame. Life is not a command line. Wildcards do not parse in English. Two: it perpetuates the legitimacy of TOG's trademark. Do we say "*eenex" for facial tissue or "*-tip" for cotton swab or "*erox" for photocopy? No. Don't say "*nix." Just say "UNIX."

    Now, with that out of the way, Apple never "boosted" anything. They've used a lot of open source stuff in their OS and applications, and they've played by the rules. They honor the licenses under which that stuff is released and they release their own stuff back in. (Go download Rendezvous sometime. It's out there, man.)

    Yes, there's a ton of innovation going on in the hobbyist community. (That's what we're talking about here; let's call a spade a spade.) But the problem is that the innovation that's going on is vastly outweighed by the sheer amount of bullshit that's also going on. Apple, on the other hand, chooses its targets wisely (usually) and fires with both barrels, dedicating money and engineering talent to coming up with excellent solutions. "Just good enough" isn't.

    Don't bother trying to compare what Apple does to what the hobbyist community does. The hobbyist community is--no offense--a million monkeys. Apple is Shakespeare.

  198. Re:What about my old mp3 collection? by Hawthorne01 · · Score: 1

    Not at all. Only music purchased from the iTunes store has any restrictions placed on it.

    --
    "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
  199. Re:Why not speak from experience? by tdemark · · Score: 1

    My next music purchase will be a huge iPod that I can store all my music on, just as soon as I find a good way to interface it to my car

    If you have a head unit with cd-changer input, but no cd changer, you can probably find someone that sells a converter to provide RCA inputs. This, for example, is used for VWs. I used it in my wife's Passat for her iPod.

    If you do have a CD changer, you can get something like this.

    It lets you switch your CD-in between the changer and 3 different RCA inputs. I got it in my car for my iPod and it rocks.

    - Tony

  200. Re:What about my old mp3 collection? by CyberBry · · Score: 1

    No. Unless you purchase songs from the music store, it operates as a simple media player (and kick-ass media file manager) like WinAmp.

    It doesn't modify your songs at all (except maybe the ID3 tags).

    --

    ----
    Bryan Samis
    http://www.thesamis.net
  201. Re:While I like the idea... by PyromanFO · · Score: 1

    My point was that you don't have to put up with restrictions to get music legitimately. It's just the industry shoving it down everybody's throats because they think they can. Well actually from the looks of it I guess they can.

  202. No more "All albums are just $9.99"? by RAZOR · · Score: 1

    If you check Peter Gabriel or Coldplay home pages in iTunes music shop, they have 10.89 or 13.99 pricetags...

    I thought in the first version of iTunes store everything was supposed to be "just $9.99".

    What's the point of buying it over there instead of getting a CD and ripping it on you own and to better format than mp3 or aac bitrate that iTunes store has?

    .

    --
    ------------ Internet? Is that thing still around? H.J. Simpson
    1. Re:No more "All albums are just $9.99"? by dowobeha · · Score: 1

      Most of the albums still are $9.99

      --
      I am concerned about any program, any piece of hardware, any treaty, any law that treats me as a consumer, not a citizen
    2. Re:No more "All albums are just $9.99"? by sjonke · · Score: 1

      They were never all just $9.99. Pricing seems to be based upon the number of tracks such that buying the full album is cheaper than buying all the tracks individually. There are albums available for the less than $9.99 too. Having said all that, I choose to buy CDs and rip both because then you don't have to bother with DRM even if it is light, and you can rip at a higher bit rate. However iTMS is great for finding and buying a track or two for a special purpose such as use in a video.

      --
      --- What?
    3. Re:No more "All albums are just $9.99"? by gsdali · · Score: 1

      In the original announcement Steve told us all that all albums would be 9.99 irrespective of the number of tracks they contained.

    4. Re:No more "All albums are just $9.99"? by sjonke · · Score: 1

      I don't recall him saying that, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible he did, just that I don't recall it. I think it's unlikely, though, because since day one of the Mac iTMS there has been a range of prices for albums, higher and lower, although most are indeed $9.99.

      --
      --- What?
  203. I don't know if anyone noticed, but... by protohiro1 · · Score: 1

    The indy labels are on iTunes! yeah. Download tracks from NOfx, Rancid, Sleater Kinney, Modest Mouse and many more! Now that is what I call a music service.

    --
    Sig removed because it was obnoxious
  204. DRM? by monique · · Score: 1

    Okay, I'll admit it -- I don't have a Mac, so I haven't really been paying attention till now.

    Is there DRM built into the music that you buy with this system? How does it work? If I copy the mp3s I buy onto my server and try to play them from another machine, will it work transparently, or do I need to use a special app or log in or something?

    --
    -monique
    1. Re:DRM? by coolmacdude · · Score: 1

      You can play it on up to three computers. To use it on another one all you have to do is install iTunes on it and authorize it (setting in iTunes menu) as an additional computer licensed to play that music. After that it will work fine, no need to login or anything.

      --

      -You may license this sig for only $6.99.
    2. Re:DRM? by zpok · · Score: 1

      You can burn it to CD as much as you like (after ten burns you'll have to shuffle the playlist).

      I imagine you can then import it back to iTunes from CD, but don't know that for certain...

      I've only used iTunes to import and burn my own (bought) CD's. It has some great preference settings to do this really foolproof and quick (like "when inserting a cd: do nothing/start playing/import and eject").

      And you can use pretty good quality settings (or even "import" in AIFF without any quality loss).

      --
      I think, therefore I am...I think.
  205. Re:Great! kind of by Total_Wimp · · Score: 1

    "-apache
    -Sendmail
    -khtml
    -ssh"

    "... don't sell the oss community short on innovation."

    Wonderful points and well taken. But I must point out that these are server products (mostly). Linux has exellent mind-share on the server, and rightly deserved. This is _because_ of the innovations you mention.

    Where is the similar inovation on the desktop? Even one hit game or one hit device would make a big difference in mind-share.

    TW

  206. Books on Tape! by ejunek · · Score: 1

    Gotta love the books on tape too...Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash Unabridged for $32. Not bad...not bad at all.

    1. Re:Books on Tape! by kadaan · · Score: 1

      Although on their information page they state "...with prices ranging from just $2.95 to $15.95 per title.". 4/10 of the top10 books on the same page are over $15.95. They're not really books on tape, since there's no tape involved ;). Which is a great idea, since carring around a dozen tapes and having to change them every hour isn't ideal. "I can carry my library in my pocket now!"

  207. Re:i'd rather steal the music by nullard · · Score: 1

    Well, at least now you have a decent player to play that music with. Playlist management and searching in winamp is a headache. iTunes makes it all so easy.

    --


    t'nera semordnilap
  208. Kind of bluky, also seperatley powered... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    A good first start, I've been waiting for this for some time - here it is at the apple store (Search for "reader" alone in Apple store if link does not work).

    It's made by Belkin, and appears from the picture to bea bit larger than the iPod itself - it also uses 4 AAA betteries. It is a six-in-one device which is nice for those people silly enough to buy a camera that does not support CF...

    What I was really hoping for was a device that would attach to the end of the iPod with minimal profile, CF only to conserve space, and use the iPod's own internal power for transfer and operation. I just bought a Nixvue Vista a few months ago, and am torn now weither I should sell that and buy a larger iPod (which I have been wanting) or just hang out for a bit and hope someone else develops a more compact system.

    One cool thing about the Belkin though is that the cable retracts into the case so at least you don't have to worry about a cable.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  209. Re:Great! kind of by quacking+duck · · Score: 1

    those are fine tools and there's certainly no lack of real innovation in the open source community, but how many Joe users are actually going to install those? I can't really think of a killer app for Linux that would drive average users to Linux.

    Browers like mozilla are no longer "cool" just because they present web stuff, they're just tools now. 100 years ago a horseless carriage was "cool" to have but the novelty wore off when they everyone could afford them. This time next year online music stores will likewise be pretty standard fare.

  210. License Agreement Fluff by ps_inkling · · Score: 1
    In addition to the usual standard disclaimers, limitations, and permitted usage (not for nuclear facilities (?), communications, air traffic control, life support machines (?), or other), there are some clauses that stand out.

    It does include MPEG-4, but I would assume you can't encode with MPEG-4 unless you license it via Quicktime.

    This one I didn't understand.

    13. AMR Notice. The Adaptive Multi-Rate ("AMR") encoding and decoding functionality in this product is not licensed to perform cellular voice calls, or for use in any telephony products built on the QuickTime architecture for the Windows platform. The AMR encoding and decoding functionality in this product is also not licensed for use in a cellular communications infrastructure including: base stations, base station controllers/radio network controllers, switching centers, and gateways to and from the public switched network.

    The iTunes software uses the GraceNote (CDDB) database lookup; remember to change your hosts file to include map the cddb.cddb.org name to freedb.freedb.org if you've a mind to.

    194.97.4.18 cddb.cddb.org

    What is Kerbango? And why would I want to use it? And why does 3Com (associated with Kerbango) feel it necessary to specifically disclaim liability for "loss of or fluctuations in heat, light, or air conditioning"? I wonder what case that came from.

    Just so you know, the last word in the agreement is "EA0197".

    1. Re:License Agreement Fluff by ps_inkling · · Score: 1
      I hate to follow myself, but if you have an earlier version of QuickTime installed on your PC, it will be replaced with QuickTime 6.4.

      I have a license for QuickTime Pro 5, and never installed version 6 because I refused to spend the additional $20 for the lastest version (isn't one time good enough? Not to mention the additional $20 for the MPEG-4 license. Grr.)

      At least that explains the 19MB download. I wonder if it nuked my MP3 codec as well -- no, still there, but I've not rebooted yet. Which codec will iTunes use for MP3, I wonder?

    2. Re:License Agreement Fluff by DLWormwood · · Score: 1
      What is Kerbango? And why would I want to use it? And why does 3Com (associated with Kerbango) feel it necessary to specifically disclaim liability for "loss of or fluctuations in heat, light, or air conditioning"?

      The Kerbango was a standalone radio (i.e. consumer appliance) that could play Internet radio stations via a phone jack. 3Com backed out of the project when initial sales interest failed to hold up and the 'Net radio scene was crushed by licensing fees.

      In developing the product, they had some central servers deployed that the radios dialed into. Apple expected 3Com to have more success on the project, so they licenced the Kerbango protocols for the Radio Tuner in iTunes early on. For the most part, the functionality is mostly forgotten by both Apple and 3Com, with most of the stations simply linking to Live365.

      --
      Those who complain about affect & effect on /. should be disemvoweled
    3. Re:License Agreement Fluff by morgue-ann · · Score: 1

      if you have an earlier version of QuickTime installed on your PC, it will be replaced with QuickTime 6.4.

      Well, I guess I'll stick with ephPod then. I use Cinestream for Windows, which after Radius changed their name to Digital Origin, sold EditDV to Media 100 who renamed it then sold it to Discreet (division of Autodesk) who promptly abandoned it. It works great for me, but I can never upgrade past Quicktime 5.

      I found the Matrix Revolutions trailer in divx, so that was OK, but this is icky. 1 Red hat & 1 XP partition are enough to keep track of. Two XP partitions will be maximally grody.

    4. Re:License Agreement Fluff by mkldev · · Score: 1
      Via a phone jack? The one I played with used ethernet. I vaguely recall hearing about them adding a modem in one of the later revs.... It was a rather cool use of embedded Linux, IMHO. But I digress.

      --
      120 character sigs suck. Make it 250.
    5. Re:License Agreement Fluff by mkldev · · Score: 1
      Probably a licensed MP3 encoder.

      --
      120 character sigs suck. Make it 250.
  211. Re:Not clueless at all - Or is it? by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

    They rip from master: Which is generally 96KHz and 24bit multichannel/stereo; so there is no CD->AAC loss.

    Besides which, the parent poster wasn't talking about CD->AAC, so that's not part of the equation. He was complaining about quality loss in transferring downloaded/purchased songs into MP3. Or in other words, AAC->CD for his car, and then CD->MP3 for his Nomad or something.

  212. Can't Start up Win2000 Now by VelvetHelmet · · Score: 1

    I downloaded and installed it. I restarted the machine at the installer's prompt and now Windows 2000 won't boot. It just hangs at the splash screen. This is somewhat frustrating.

    1. Re:Can't Start up Win2000 Now by joe_n_bloe · · Score: 1

      What does your splash screen say? "Welcome to RedHat Linux?"

    2. Re:Can't Start up Win2000 Now by Zed2K · · Score: 1

      After i installed it i got a dll missing error...do you get any error? I don't know if it was related or not though.

    3. Re:Can't Start up Win2000 Now by Selrac · · Score: 1

      OK, so it's not just me. I don't have a raid drive, and I didn't see any errors during installation. I think I have SP3. When I boot, it gets to the Windows 2000 Professional splash screen, with 'Starting up...' and a progress bar on the bottom. It gets about 75% of the way, and then stops. Argh. I guess it's off to Apple's knowledge base.

    4. Re:Can't Start up Win2000 Now by VelvetHelmet · · Score: 1

      I don't get any errors. It just hangs on the Windows 2000 splash screen with the progress bar about 2/3 completed. Can't load in safe mode and no success repairing from the Win2000 cd. It looks like I might have to reinstall.

    5. Re:Can't Start up Win2000 Now by pete_selkin · · Score: 1

      My girlfiend just had the same problem: installed iTunes, and her computer only gets partway through the startup sequence. She can't even start it up in "safe" mode. She doesn't have a RAID drive. If anyone from Apple is listening, HELP! It gives us Mac users a bad name...

    6. Re:Can't Start up Win2000 Now by ForceQuit · · Score: 1
      When I boot, it gets to the Windows 2000 Professional splash screen, with 'Starting up...' and a progress bar on the bottom. It gets about 75% of the way, and then stops.

      I guess I can add my me too. I have a Dell single P4 at home and it now hangs. My Dell dual P3 at work still boots fine. The four Macs are still okay but killing the PC is not cool.
    7. Re:Can't Start up Win2000 Now by Selrac · · Score: 1

      I finally seem to have made some progress - during the initial boot screen (the black one with text on the bottom), there's an option to press F8. I did so, and after several tries, I chose the option to use last known good configuration. The first try did not work, but just moments ago I tried again and it DID work. YAY! I'm finally logged in! Whew. I guess I should make a backup now (I really should have done it before, I know). There's several people on the Apple Support forums with the same problem. All but one of the computers appear to be Dells.

    8. Re:Can't Start up Win2000 Now by VelvetHelmet · · Score: 1

      Same problem...but I don't have a Dell. I eventually just reinstalled win2000 over the old installation.

  213. Re:What, no Ogg? by Requiem · · Score: 1

    Very.

  214. Re:Rendering engine? KHTML? by lullabud · · Score: 1

    the user-agent is supplies is inconclusive, just says itunes windows xp etc..

  215. Re:Great! kind of by zelurxunil · · Score: 1

    Perhaps some awesome game that came out only for linux...i mean not just something that looks like a game for linux, but something of AA porportions...just an idea, because as of now gamers are driving a lot of the technology.

    --

    What's another word for Thesaurus?
    -Steve Wright
  216. Impressive, but I've got two features to request by fillfox · · Score: 1
    I've familiar with iTunes on the Mac, so was delighted that the interface and keyboard shortcuts are so similar. That interface and the shortcuts are so well crafted that I can get by without right clicking my mouse just fine.

    But I've got two simple request for the next version (and I hope it is released soon).

    • A 'Always On Top' option.
    • A option to keep the icon out of my task bar, the system tray is the only place I need to see it - there is a system tray option, but it still shows up in the task bar.
  217. Re:Great! kind of by BigGerman · · Score: 1

    That is a good point. But this kind of magic is Server-Side Magic(tm). The deals with record companies may be covering which songs are available in the store, not the app. If the network protocol / API to the Store is public (is it?), writing iTunes++ for Linux will not be trivial but certainly possible.

  218. Re:Kind of bluky, also seperatley powered... by KFury · · Score: 1

    "It is a six-in-one device which is nice for those people silly enough to buy a camera that does not support CF..."

    Why is it silly to use a camera that uses another media format? CF is the largest standard on the market. SD cards are cheap, fast, high-capacity, tiny, and integrate well with my Palm.

    'Not like me' isn't a good measure of silliness.

  219. Re:Great! kind of by shotfeel · · Score: 1

    but how many Joe users are actually going to install those?

    LOL. A lot of Mac users already have and don't even know it!

  220. iTunes 4.1 vs. Winamp 2.91 by llamalicious · · Score: 1

    IMHO iTunes is seriously lacking. It may be great for Mac users, but Winamp 2.91 (not 3, 3 is a piece of crap) is still far better. Between the visualizations, window shade mode (in which you still have full control of the app) and performance (iTunes is using FAR too much CPU AND memory on my 1.6GHz P4, compared with Winamp) iTune has no place on my computer.

    What else is there to say, the winamp download was a little over a couple meg (~2MB) It plays avis/mpegs and I can playlist them like everything else, and I have plugins to play every type of file that didn't come with the default install.

    Winner: Winamp.

    I'm sure I'll find more reasons I prefer Winamp to iTunes, that's just my hours worth of mucking with iTunes. Add/Remove programs, here I come.

    1. Re:iTunes 4.1 vs. Winamp 2.91 by llamalicious · · Score: 1

      I hate to reply to myself, but I wanted to add that it probably would have been smart to make an Apple iTunes Music Store plugin for Winamp. Now *that* I would use.

    2. Re:iTunes 4.1 vs. Winamp 2.91 by banky · · Score: 1

      Smart playlists are worth it. Managing huge playlists is better, IMHO, in iTunes than any other player. If you have TONS of MP3, iTunes wins, once you get into its playlist management stuff hardcore.

      I don't ever use visualizations; I like to listen to music, not watch it. :)

      As far as shade mode, Apple seems to have decided that iconifying is the way to go. On a Mac, you can control it via the Dock menu and numerous 3rd-party plugins, which is for all practical purposes the same as WinAmp windowshade mode (whence last I used it, anyway). Synergy is an excellent menu extra for controlling iTunes.

      Because of differences in UI philosophy, you can't get the "full" experience on Windows, and on a Mac it's the little things that matter, sometimes.

      --
      ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
    3. Re:iTunes 4.1 vs. Winamp 2.91 by robi2106 · · Score: 1

      I would like to know what bit rates are supported by iTunes when you rip in MP3 or aac.

      If it as another stupid 96 or 128kbps max then forget it.

      jason

    4. Re:iTunes 4.1 vs. Winamp 2.91 by llamalicious · · Score: 1

      Way true if you're hardcore into playlists, I've got gigs and gigs, but I pick the music myself, so pl mgmt isn't a big deal to me.
      There's certain things you can control with keystrokes and the mouse wheel with the Winamp windowshade that iTunes just doesn't do. I'll have to take a look at Synergy and see what it does.
      I'm not saying iTunes is all bad, especially for my Macs, but on Windows, I choose Winamp, and of course xmms on Linux. (Its all about choice baby)

      All just opinions. YMMV

    5. Re:iTunes 4.1 vs. Winamp 2.91 by robi2106 · · Score: 1

      Excelent!

      I never claimed to be anti iTunes. My roommate has been doing the Steve Jobs dance for years and I always thought there was something good to it. He is a super intelligent guy and if he says this app is great, then I know it is.

      jason

    6. Re:iTunes 4.1 vs. Winamp 2.91 by zpok · · Score: 1

      You can go up to 320. Check out the preferences and in the import part choose "custom" or something (I use the dutch localization, so don't know the exact wording in english).

      --
      I think, therefore I am...I think.
    7. Re:iTunes 4.1 vs. Winamp 2.91 by zpok · · Score: 1

      The Steve Jobs dance?

      Erm, could you like video tape that and put it online? I bet he can beat the StarWars kid!

      --
      I think, therefore I am...I think.
    8. Re:iTunes 4.1 vs. Winamp 2.91 by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

      Winamp is a tool with it's own usage
      iTunes is a tool with a different usage

      Here's something I can do in iTunes I can't do in Winamp:

      Play all my Techno songs not played in the past three days
      Play all the songs I've never listened to
      Play the songs I listen to the most, but not the ones I've heard in the past days
      Play my favorite songs, but not the country songs
      Play all the country songs except those by Garth Brooks

      Each of those playlists takes about 10 seconds to compile. And I can generate more.

      To abstract them, I would say Winamp is akin to a playlist manager and iTunes is a music database.

      You you the Windows Explorer for navigation and file management: You use folders, hierarchies, and filenames to manage your music, and Winamp as a front end to it.

      With iTunes you use iTunes as your navigation and file management. Instead of folders, hierarchies, and filenames, you navigate using ID3 tags: Genre, Artist, Track Name, as well as ratings, playcounts, and a search feature. Not only that, but because it's a database, you can create queries; something you can do using Windows Find feature, except iTunes is optimized for music.

      Now if you're proud of the effort you put into creating your own hierarchy and file/music management system, and want to keep doing that, then Winamp is the way to go. If you want to spend zero effort in doing that, iTunes is the way to go: In creating a database, you can browse your iTunes library the same way you browse the web! You can search, browse, and sort. You can also make playlists, like you're used to, if you want.

      Really though, all my evangelizing is to one point: There is the possibility that iTunes is the better solution, but it doesn't fit with your usage model, and therefore you (not me, since I use iTunes and switched away from Winamp) lose in the comparison.

    9. Re:iTunes 4.1 vs. Winamp 2.91 by teeker · · Score: 1

      Play all the country songs except those by Garth Brooks

      Ha! Now there's a feature I like!

      --
      teeker
  221. FreeDB Spels Gud [Re:License Agreement Fluff] by joe_n_bloe · · Score: 1

    Please, if you're actually using a pay service and a pay music appliance, please use a real non-sucking service like GraceNote. Don't suffer through FreeDB. I think what happened to CDDB was terrible, but on the other hand, I have about 2000 spelling errors to correct in the titles of the 700 or so CDs I have ripped at home so far, and nevermind that no one can agree what a performer's name is. It isn't worth it. Ugh.

  222. Re:APPLE IS A MONOPOLY by lullabud · · Score: 1

    i've heard this argument before, and really winamp and xmms are the best slim trim mp3 players i've used, however, itunes is a music database which, among other things, offers dynamic playlists by genre, rating, album, artist, play count, etc. etc., so you really can't classify itunes as the same type of app as xmms or winamp.

  223. Want to know why by cubicledrone · · Score: 1

    Want to know why business is so fucked? Apple rolls out a successful service to tens of millions of new customers, and Wall Street fucks their stock price for over six percent.

    Guess they should lay off a few thousand people. That'll impress the suits, right? Hey, it's just an extra bonus discount for the smart money.

    --
    Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
    1. Re:Want to know why by Ixitar · · Score: 1

      This is the reason for the drop: Margin concerns hit Apple shares.

    2. Re:Want to know why by bnenning · · Score: 1

      AAPL almost always falls after major annoucements. It's just an instance of "buy on the rumor, sell on the news". You can blame me a tiny bit, I sold some at 24.2 yesterday in anticipation of the drop.

      --
      How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
  224. Re:Great! kind of by statusbar · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The original poster had a very good point. Why does the 'best' mp3 player on linux have to be a WinAMP clone? I would LOVE to have iTunes on my linux boxes - even without the Music Store. I can't, so I use iTunes on my Mac.

    The Linux architecture and concepts should foster experimental and new designs for software. Why do people have to duplicate existing apps? Apple didn't when they created iTunes.

    iTunes is DEAD simple to use, manages a database of your music easily, rips cd's asynchronously, burns audio and mp3 cd's super easily, and makes it easy to build playlists and browse your library, AND allows you to tweak each individual song. Did I mention it is DEAD simple to use?

    The magic, is not actually in the code, the magic is in the usability features and concepts.

    --jeff++

    --
    ipv6 is my vpn
  225. Re:Anyone tried it yet? by zelurxunil · · Score: 1

    ...maybe microsofts got a deal with some memory chip manufacturers

    --

    What's another word for Thesaurus?
    -Steve Wright
  226. Re:iTunes 4.01 Vs. Napster 2.0 by Teese · · Score: 1

    You can't burn an MP3 CD from the paid music store selections (I've tried), but you can still make Audio CD's and pure data CD's.

    This is the DRM in effect, there is no technical reason why this should be.

    Though you can, of course, take that Audio CD and rip it to MP3's, Apple claims you lose fidelity. My crappy ears can't tell the difference though.

    (I'm a fan of iTunes, just didn't want you to get your hopes up :)

    --
    "I'm a Genius!"*


    *Not an actual Genius
  227. Watch Out For Busted Import Settings! by fupeg · · Score: 1

    The VBR settings for MP3 importing says that the Stereo Bit Rate setting you choose is used as a minimum bitrate. There is also a list of VBR "Quality" settings from "Lowest" to "Highest." This seemed to imply that the quality setting determined the average bitrate used by VBR, and that the Stereo Bit Rate was just a minimum, a la Lame. I imported some songs using a VBR Quality of "Highest" and Stereo Bit Rate of 64 kbps. I noticed that a five minute song was only taking up 2mb or so, and I knew something was amiss. I played the song in WinAMP, and its average bit rate was 66 kbps. I went back to iTunes and changed its Stereo Bit Rate to 256 kbps. Now the song was 9 mb in size, and WinAMP claimed its average bit rates was 268 kbps. So I think these controls are just busted. It also doesn't look like there's much V in the VBR setting, as most songs seem to stick the Stereo Bit Rate, very rarely dipping higher or lower. Maybe that's a function of the "Quality" setting?

    1. Re:Watch Out For Busted Import Settings! by hondo77 · · Score: 1

      How did the songs sound? Did the 2MB file sound okay?

      --
      I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
    2. Re:Watch Out For Busted Import Settings! by fupeg · · Score: 1

      No, it was terrible, it actually reminded me of a scratched up album.

  228. No Dave Matthews ? by LouSir · · Score: 1

    Like him or not he's pretty popular but not one song on I-tunes. I haven't looked around that much yet but is there really that much content ? Lou Sir

  229. Re:I hope iTunes is a better than MusicMatch Jukeb by zeno_lee · · Score: 1

    Oh Yes.

    It just works.

    Good bye MusicMatch Jukebox.

  230. I've had this for a while. by nooboob · · Score: 1

    I have the same goddamn thing on my Windows PC already, minus the "convenient" store front for the majors to shovel their shit onto my hdd. It does great visualizations, available in hundreds of varieties by hundreds of artists, has literally 10,000 skins available for it and uses next to zero system resources. It's stable and easy to use. It's called Winamp 2.9

    1. Re:I've had this for a while. by CoolCat · · Score: 1

      What the hell are you talking abou?!?

      Hope for your sake that you tried to be funny...winamp isn't even close to iTunes, and I know, I used winamp for years before I switched but I've never looked back.. don't belive me? Download iTunes today and give it a few day... then come back..

  231. Re:Great! kind of by dasmegabyte · · Score: 1

    Acutally, with GPL software it's "we can do it too, if you're willing to wait a while, deal with several months of buggy and poorly documented betas, deal with a complete lack of support from both developers and vendors, deal with confusing user interfaces not so much designed as copied from other applications that don't do the same thing and teams of programmers that feud with each other over mildly different implementations that are equally lax. But when *we* do it, it'll be skinnable and run OGG files. Because really, that's all that matters."

    --
    Hey freaks: now you're ju
  232. GTunes Music Store by common+middle+name · · Score: 1

    Now we just have to wait for the GNU implementation
    of the iTunes music store :)

    Actually, I guess RMS wouldn't be too cool with
    the DRM involved in iTunes :(

    1. Re:GTunes Music Store by PierceLabs · · Score: 1

      Cool. Now we can play the 5 songs in the world with no copyrights associated with them.

    2. Re:GTunes Music Store by ebh · · Score: 1

      So much for "Happy Birthday"...

    3. Re:GTunes Music Store by magnum3065 · · Score: 1

      Well, it really doesn't matter since open source DRM can't work. For DRM to work the decrypting mechanism needs to be a blackbox. This is why the MPAA cares so much about DeCSS. If the users know how the protection works they can simply remove it.

    4. Re:GTunes Music Store by McAddress · · Score: 1
  233. Awsome.. now what about by VariableSanity · · Score: 1

    What about the .ogg format. Is that not supported... Or will their be support in the future?

  234. Hardball by cacheMan · · Score: 1
    This is in the About iTunes 4.1:

    "Important: After installing iTunes 4.1 for Windows, you'll only be able to transfer music to your iPod using iTunes. To transfer music from MusicMatch Jukebox or Audible Manager to your iPod, you'll need to first import the music into iTunes. For more information, search iTunes and Music Store Help."

  235. Content by reptilicus · · Score: 1

    Well, there are over 400,000 songs available, and 200 indie labels have just been signed up. But there are certain artists who refuse to let their music be sold this way--Madonna, the Beatles, a few others (probably including Dave Matthews, if he's not available in the store). So complain to him, and his label, not Apple.

  236. hell froze over.... by mlknowle · · Score: 1

    I like the headline on apple's main page:

    "Hell Froze Over"

    (really - check it out

  237. Re:Great! kind of by Jagasian · · Score: 1

    There is plenty of experimental innovative software for Linux. Just because you only look at the Windows-clone apps doesn't mean that is all there is to Linux.

  238. Re:Great! kind of by Vicegrip · · Score: 1

    "Where is the similar inovation on the desktop? Even one hit game or one hit device would make a big difference in mind-share."

    America's Army
    Savage
    Neverwinter Nights

    These are all hit games that run natively on Linux.

    khtml is a desktop innovation... KDE is full of other innovations that make it such a nice environment to use.

    --
    Do not spread "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" over the internet, thank you.
  239. Hmm. by someonehasmyname · · Score: 1

    Works pretty well, except that you can't close it's window without exiting like you can in OS X.

    They give you a system tray icon, but "close window" and "exit" both quit the program (stopping the tunes) and remove the system tray icon.

    How dumb.

    --
    Common sense is not so common.
    1. Re:Hmm. by zpok · · Score: 1

      "Works pretty well, except that you can't close it's window without exiting like you can in OS X."

      Please report this. Apple is a good listener.

      I couldn't care less, since I'll never go over to the dark side, but this is not standard Windows behaviour either I think, so tell them about it.

      --
      I think, therefore I am...I think.
  240. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by DLWormwood · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The window does not expand to fill the whole screen. Am I missing something here?

    The Mac OS and the QuickTime APIs have no concept of a "Multiple Document Interface" as Microsoft calls it. MDI is a Microsoft Windows exclusive concept that how MS originally got around some of Apple's early "look and feel" litigation. There is also some historical reasons for why Apple never adopted this kind of interface.

    When Multifinder was introduced to an earlier Mac OS, it was considered desirable for a user to see content from windows between applications. Macs previously used "desk accessories" to approximate multitasking before, and this UI decision helped smooth the transition. Letting applications only have window scale control, rather than the full screen, eventually allowed Apple to discontinue the DA concept in favor of microapplications.

    In addition, as the Mac OS developed, Apple started advocating drag-and-drop data manipulation. This requires that both the source window and destination window be visible for a drag operation to occur; this continued emphasis is why OS X now has the trash can in the Dock and Panther includes an "Expose" feature to make all windows visible at once.

    Mac users are accustomed to bouncing between applications readily while most Windows apps seem to be designed for exclusive, one at a time use. Other interface quirks, like floating verses anchored toolbars and the global menubar, are extensions of this differing emphasis in multitasking.

    --
    Those who complain about affect & effect on /. should be disemvoweled
  241. Puretracks.com by quacking+duck · · Score: 1
    They'd better get it together soon then. Witness Puretracks, a Windows-only download site modeled on iTunes, with individual tracks for 99 cents. Canadian. Less than $0.75 USD.

    Yes, it's WMA, probably DRM up the wazzoo, but it's available in Canada. Which means they got the licensing worked out, and CHEAPER than the US iTunes store.

    However, I'm not going to harp on Apple; I fully realize getting the iTunes store to Windows is far more important, and they have to prioritize their advances. Now that this is done though, Apple had best get their asses in gear.

  242. Re:iTunes 4.01 Vs. Napster 2.0 by KaiserZoze_860 · · Score: 1

    Thanx.

    While burning an audio CD then ripping that to mp3 is theortically possible, I don't see the benefit.

    There is an option to use mp3 encoding rather than Apples' default.

    MP3s on a data cd are what I use now and that suits me just fine. I'll play with it for a while Maybe I'll even pay for some, if for no better reason than to say that I gave a legitamate, paid model a fair chance :)

    -KS

  243. Cocoa, Carbon, and .nib by Millennium · · Score: 1

    Actually, Carbon apps can use .nib files too. They even work in OS9.

    1. Re:Cocoa, Carbon, and .nib by Acrimonious+Coward · · Score: 1

      Those "nib" files are not Cocoa nib files, they are simply an alternative resouce format for Carbon apps with a *.nib file extension.

  244. Sometimes Akamai doesn't work right by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 1

    We have 2 Akamai cache engines here at the university I work for and they usually work great. You go to download something and it comes in at like 10Mbytes/sec. However, there are times when something is screwey and it goes back to some off campus server, and is much slower.

    We don't know what causes it since we don't control the cahce engines, they just live here.

  245. Re:While I like the idea... by hoggy · · Score: 1

    Oh get a grip. If you're worried about hi-fidelity audio quality, you're not buying downloaded music.

    You know what? Most people don't give a shit.

  246. Mod Parent Up! by MuckSavage · · Score: 1

    Damn, I wish I had some mod points.

  247. weird! by programic · · Score: 1

    Ok, I've downloaded and installed it. I must say, the port (UI at least) is remarkably true to the mac version. I like it.

    Does anybody else keep going to the upper-left corner of the window to minimize it though? Am I the only one?

    --
    -- yawn. --
  248. Re:Great! kind of by gathas · · Score: 1

    Unique Linux innovation . . . TiVo! But most user's don't know it uses Linux (nor should they have to)

  249. Re:Great! kind of by jazman_777 · · Score: 1
    Let's face it, cool is very often about being first... about having something others don't have.

    And here I was, thinking uptime was the ultimate measure of coolness.

    --
    Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
  250. Re:problem with CD-ripping... by nidx · · Score: 1

    it uses whatever drive has an audio cd in it right now i am using 2 drives to rip (itunes is doing it sequentually)

  251. My Take by NaugaHunter · · Score: 1

    If they've done it right (and it took long enough so they probably have), iTunes on Windows will "Just Work". How many other Windows apps can say that? Overall, Apple has simply positioned themselves to take the lead in the growing market of legal music downloads, and even has the code base for video streaming/downloads. Like them or not, RIAA lawsuits may actually help iTunes get accepted.

    Further, it will be just one more thing that you can say is the same when someone complains about all of the Windows Vulnerabilities and you mention how few the Mac has. If they continue porting Apps, soon the only thing Windows computers will have to offer will be the headaches.

    --
    R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
  252. Re:Great! kind of by ceejayoz · · Score: 1

    These are all hit games that run natively on Linux.

    They can hardly be called a Linux desktop innovation if they run natively on Windows, too.

  253. Visual Plugins for Windows Version by bladeohlsson · · Score: 1

    Does anyone know if there will be an SDK for the iTunes for Windows version? I have put together a little page that I hope to track what happens here. It will have a list of dev tools, resources, etc.. and a listing of the known plugins that work with Windows.

    I expect a lot of cool stuff to be made for this:

    Here is the link at ohlssonvox my webpage.

    --
    http://www.ohlssonvox.com
  254. Re:Great! kind of by jafac · · Score: 1

    Regardless of the amount of innovation Linux provides, one must remember: It's a free OS written by hobbyists in their spare time. It's mere existence is of CRUCIAL importance, because it provides a vital alternative to the industry-provided monopoly OS. Could you imagine a world without Linux?

    I think Linux is just fine as it is - it adequately fills it's niche, and does not need "marketing wizards" to add flash and pizzaz.

    --

    These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
  255. Re:WARNING! It will install a HTTP server on p.368 by MuckSavage · · Score: 1

    And windows isn't? For fuck's sake. The port is for sharing. Calm down.

  256. Re:Resources vs. target audience by DavidinAla · · Score: 1

    I suspect Apple is willing to do without the ability to target the people running Win 98/ME for two reasons. First, the numbers using it will continue to head downward. Second, people who are using something that old are unlikely to be the sort of people who are early adopters of technology -- and the early adopters are a better market for the iTunes music store. So I think it makes sense for the people at Apple to target resources where they have the best potential customers.

  257. Locking Windows machine stops iTunes by TheMayor · · Score: 1

    Bah.. When I lock my XP machine, iTunes stops streaming!

  258. Funny side effect - may drive XP sales! by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    I have an older PC at home that I have left on 98 because I have a Powerbook I do pretty much everything now. But now I'm thinking it would be handy to have the PC as a central server, and share iTunes music from there... so the release of iTunes may very likely make me upgrade when nothing else would!! I wonder how many other people are thinking along the same lines, like people who really want to use iTnues but are only on 98.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  259. Re:Rendering engine? KHTML? by MuckSavage · · Score: 1

    I would think that the versions would be the same, using the same engine. I noticed that the windows version is quite a bit bigger, so along with installing quicktime, I would assume it installs the webcore framework, just for itunes. Or maybe as well for a future version of safari. ;)

  260. Re:While I like the idea... by rlthomps-1 · · Score: 1

    you don't have to put up with anything when it comes down to it. Why haven't I purchased a CD in the past six months? I'm tired of paying $18 for a disc and it's a pain in the butt to import them all into my computer.

    iTunes is a service that I like, cheap music, easy to download and I can do everything I want with the music without running into the DRM.

    If you don't like iTunes, then don't use it, obviously people like you are not their target customer. I just don't understand the smug attitude that everyone brings up on this topic. "because business X doesn't sell what I want for the price that I want they are evil and are shoving everything down our throats"

    So allow me to clairfy, comon if you want legit downloads of mainstream artists, there are going to have to be restrictions. Restrictions that don't bug me in the least because guess what? i haven't run into them yet because i'm not trying to pirate the music.

  261. Re:Great! kind of by John_Booty · · Score: 1

    What Linux needs is innovation. They need something that only they have (at least for a little while) that everyone else wants. That is how it will build mind share, not by saying "look, we can do it too (if you're only willing to wait a while)"

    What really makes iTunes (and many Apple applications) special is the interface. Building a really great interface is a real multidisciplanry task, in a lot of cases. You need great code engineers *and* great user interface designers, and you also need to spend a lot of time getting the interface right by testing it on users. That takes time, money, and a set of skills that most "pure" coders just don't have.

    It's not a knock on Linux coders- when the community puts their mind to it, they can produce some great, user-friendly interfaces. It's just not fair, though, to expect a bunch of coders to consistantly produce interfaces on par with professional user interface designers. Hell... most professional software houses like Microsoft can't even produce a decent interface. Look at Windows Media Player... it's an absolute freaking trainwreck of an interface. If you ate iTunes and threw it up, it would look like Windows Media Player.

    --

    OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
  262. Re:Great! kind of by bunicula · · Score: 1

    but those aren't the sort of innovations that the average person understands or cares about.

    anyone from a grandma to a ceo could look at an ipod and thing "wow, that's pretty/cool/sleek/whatever", but they aren't going to do that with apache 2.2.345

    it's a matter of what arena are you comparing in? if you are comparing backend innovations it's a whole different set of applications than if you are comparing end user excitement.

    apple builds a culture of cool, cutting edge people with their sexy laptops and fluid desktops.

    linux has a culture of hackers.

    windows... um... has the same culture that makes walmart and mcdonalds run.

  263. Best feature: smart playlists by sjonke · · Score: 1

    Mind you, I'm working with the Mac version, but allegedly the Windows version is exactly the same. iTunes smart playlists are what take iTunes over the top compared to anything else. Make a smart playlist with, among whatever other conditions, the condition "last played is not in the last month" and check the "Live updating" checkbox and you have a never ending playlist that doesn't repeat for a month (or whatever time period you choose.) Etc, etc. Go nuts.

    --
    --- What?
  264. Re:Great! kind of by AnonymousCowheart · · Score: 1

    uh, we've had rhythmbox for quite some time now.
    its still not a 1.0 release, but we all know that a 1.0 in OSS is MUCH different than an M$ or most other commercial 1.0 releases.

  265. Re:Great! kind of by RevAaron · · Score: 1

    Sounds like Wine or the installer can't find a newer (than you have installed or available) MS Installer DLL/exe? MSIA is the MS installer app, used by a lot of installers on windows...

    --

    Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  266. Re:Great! kind of by damiam · · Score: 1

    Try rhythmbox. It's not quite at iTunes level yet, and the UI is a blatant Apple ripoff, but it's pretty good nonetheless.

    --
    It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  267. Re:A nice idea but .. by jo42 · · Score: 1


    THIEF!!!

  268. Re:Great! kind of by Vicegrip · · Score: 1

    oops... I guess, according to your reasoning, that itunes isn't an innovation anymore then.

    --
    Do not spread "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" over the internet, thank you.
  269. Re:What about my old mp3 collection? by MuckSavage · · Score: 1

    Unless you change anything, it won't modify the id3 tag. There is an option for artwork cover, that is part of the tag I believe.

    But I think that's the only thing it would modify. I have old mp3's from back in SoundJam's days that still retain their original info.

  270. I have a serious question before trying by default+luser · · Score: 1

    Does Apple Quicktime for Windows still have that incredibly annoying "Do you want to upgrade to Quicktime Pro?" dialog every freakin time you play a movie?

    That is the #1 reason why Quicktime didn't make it back on to my box last year after a reformat.

    --

    Man is the animal that laughs.
    And occasionally whores for Karma.

    1. Re:I have a serious question before trying by zpok · · Score: 1

      Not sure, however using iTunes this is not an issue. QT is totally in the background where it belongs.

      My wife is now using it on her XP laptop thingy. Very good reception so far.

      --
      I think, therefore I am...I think.
  271. Re:Great! kind of by damiam · · Score: 1

    None of those games were first on Linux. NWN was so massively delayed we got about 50 /. articales about it. Linux apps, yes, but they're not Linux innovations, which is what the parent was getting at.

    --
    It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  272. iTunes isn't Cocoa by anti-drew · · Score: 1
    during the course of that IRC someone asserted that Steve said the way they got iTunes onto Windows was by porting Cocoa wholesale--and called it "Yellow Box."
    iTunes isn't Cocoa. It's Carbon.

    You can prove this in about 2 seconds on OSX by running this command: otool -Lv /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunes

    That's a technical delineation but in short it means that it's based on C/C++ (not Objective-C) and the Carbon / CoreFoundation family of APIs.

    The term Yellow Box is normally used to refer to Objective-C / Cocoa / Foundation, which is an entirely different API and implementation that provides generally the same services.

    Carbon and Cocoa share some of the lowest-level code in OSX, but for the most part they are entirely separate. Actually separate but equal is another way to say it -- you can do anything in one that you can do with the other.

    Yes, having two native application frameworks built into the OS is wasteful, but remember that both Carbon and Cocoa have had long lives independent of each other before they came together in OSX. Rewriting one in terms of the other would be a lot of work and a compatibility nightmare ... it's easier just to keep parallel implementations.

    Apple has had a framework to let it deliver software on Windows for a while now. It's called QuickTime, and it's got a large chunk of Carbon already ported to Win32 APIs. A lot of the other stuff that might be used by applications (CoreFoundation, for example) is already x86-savvy thanks to Darwin.

    So iTunes was ported, but almost certainly not through what is normally referred to as the Yellow Box. Unless of course they're re-using the term deliberately to confuse everyone. :-)

    Could we see Safari for Windows soon?
    I believe the iTMS content view in iTunes might be rendered with HTML, though I'm not sure. So maybe they ported their WebCore engine. Since that's based on KHTML it should also run nicely on x86 of course.

    I suspect porting Safari or other apps is not so much a question of "is it technically possible" as "would it make economic sense?"

    Remember, the only reason Apple's software is free is because they're trying to entice you to spend money in other ways, like on their hardware or their music store. :-) Making Windows and Dell/HP look better by porting Safari to their platform doesn't make Apple any money.
  273. apparently akamai sucks by cheezus · · Score: 1

    cuz I was only getting 16k/s from apple. The torrent was d/ling at ~200k/s

    --
    /bin/fortune | slashdotsig.sh
  274. Rendezvous and Virtual PC by corey18_70 · · Score: 1

    I downloaded and installed iTunes in Virtual PC. With iTunes running I can see my shared playlist from the Windows side immediately. That's the first time I've seen anything "just work" with zero configuration on a PC.

  275. Re:(SCREENSHOTS) Re:And it's about time! by mr100percent · · Score: 1

    Nice pictures. You shaved your cat?

  276. Function of OO programming / high level languages? by swb · · Score: 1

    I'm not a developer outside of some pretty ugly shell & perl scripts, but from what I've read here on Slashdot (which is a disclaimer unto itself), high level languages and APIs tend to promote lots and lots of data structures which aren't always memory efficient. Could use of all the Apple APIs and/or C++ have anything to do with this?

  277. check out the apple discussions boards by teridon · · Score: 1

    on iTunes for Windows to see some of the problems people have been seeing. Of course, keep in mind that you only hear the bad stuff on these boards. I'm a bit worried myself about iTunes truncating the filenames of my music.

    --
    I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing. -- Thomas Jefferson
    1. Re:check out the apple discussions boards by hondo77 · · Score: 1

      Why do you care about the filenames? As long as the file's info tags are fine and show up correctly in iTunes, why do you care about it's filename? Not a flame, I really am curious.

      --
      I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
    2. Re:check out the apple discussions boards by teridon · · Score: 1

      Truncating is a loss of information. Why not use the whole name?

      --
      I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing. -- Thomas Jefferson
    3. Re:check out the apple discussions boards by hondo77 · · Score: 1

      The information is stored in the file. Hence, no information is lost.

      --
      I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
  278. Re:And it's about time! by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
    Wonder when they'll release a version for Linux?

    :-)

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  279. Doesn't connect to store - Firewall issues. by FrEaK7782 · · Score: 1

    Sorry, but I'm gonna have to disagree with that whole "best windows app" statement. Considering it won't even connect, it's not that great. Obviously there's a firewall here at work. Where are the options to change the port or use a proxy server?? All I can use iTunes for is to play music I've already ripped. I've got winamp for that! Stupid iTunes...

  280. Music Sharing between iTunes/Windows? by greygent · · Score: 1

    Has anyone successfully gotten two Windows boxes with iTunes sharing running, to work?

    We can see each other in the playlist panel, but when I click on the item, it just spins, and eventually times out.

    (Yes, the boxes are on the same subnet and not crossing a router)

    1. Re:Music Sharing between iTunes/Windows? by hondo77 · · Score: 1

      Here at work we have three Windows boxes and two Macs all sharing just fine.

      --
      I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
    2. Re:Music Sharing between iTunes/Windows? by amandeep · · Score: 1

      Try your firewall settings (open port 3689) & proxy settings (iTunes oonly supports simple HTTP proxies)

    3. Re:Music Sharing between iTunes/Windows? by teamhasnoi · · Score: 1
      There seems? to be a problem with the PC? having two NICs preventing sharing. I have yet to get my PB and my PC to see each other.

      If you have two NICs, I'd bet that's it.

  281. Re:Awsome.. now what about [Ogg] by sjonke · · Score: 1

    On the Mac there is a free (opensource I think, but I'm not sure offhand) Ogg Vorbis QuickTime plugin and that allows iTunes to play Ogg tracks, but it doesn't give iTunes the ability to rip as Ogg and iTunes doesn't fully support ogg tags. I.e. it's a kludge.

    --
    --- What?
  282. Re:Great! kind of by statusbar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Please tell me - what experimental innovative software is there available for Linux? What does innovative software mean to you?

    BTW, I've been running Linux since kernel version 0.99pl15, and am running servers with RedHat 7.3/8/9, debian, and embedded linux-ppc based on YellowDog linux.

    All I see now are me-too web browsers, me-too developer IDE's, me-too office applications, me-too games, and me-too multimedia apps. Yes I know there is value in making a word processor that feels like Microsoft Word, but where are the experimental word processors that go beyond Word, GUI and functionality-wise? Word is not and never was a good GUI design. It makes me really want to write up my own...

    The innovative software that I have I've seen running on Linux was not written with Linux in mind but was originally written for Unix/X11 before Linux existed.

    Back to the iTunes topic, I installed iTunes on a WIn2000 machine. On my Mac, I ran iTunes and clicked 'Share Library'. On the Win2000 machine my Mac's music library automatically appeared in the left panel. No complex setup either. It is these little things and attention to detail that make iTunes more innovative than any music player on Linux.

    I myself am guilty of promoting complexities. Since I know how to set up NFS and Samba and Apache and Shoutcast, I would just use one of these tools on my own Linux boxes to accomplish the same thing with XMMS or X11AMP or even mpg321 with a cgi php4 script front-end with apache and the mp3 meta-data extracted into a PostgreSQL table for faster searches. All the tools are there, and as a programmer, I find it fun to implement these kinds of things - and I HAVE spent time doing this for my own system.

    Because I did it myself like this, I forget about the fact that there would be a much easier way for the end user who maybe does not have these tools or does not know how to use these tools, or does not care - he just wants his music on one computer to be played back on another computer without having to think about file sharing or audio streaming software or DNS issues or IP addresses or IP ports or protocols.

    Click on 'Share Music' on computer A.
    Click on shared music on computer B.
    Press 'Play'

    Brilliant Idea!

    --jeff++

    --
    ipv6 is my vpn
  283. Apple has not installed Microsoft's Patches! by FuzzyFurB · · Score: 1

    Has anyone noticed on Apple's main page where they picture iTunes running on WinXP, that Apple themselves has not patched their WinXP system? Take a look, on the bottom right corner of the screen you can see the icon for new paths are availble for download/ready to install/we're going to force you to reboot your system now. Lol!

    --
    Will Stokes Album Shaper http://albumshaper.sf.net
    1. Re:Apple has not installed Microsoft's Patches! by rufo · · Score: 1

      Well, nobody on Windows ever installs the security patches, so I'm sure it's just to make Windows users feel even more at home... ;)

      --
      My English teacher once told me that two positives don't make a negative. Two words for her: Yeah, right.
  284. bzzzzz... wrong by Vicegrip · · Score: 1

    Actually you're completely wrong because Savage was simultaneously released for both platforms on the same distribution CD. I know cause I bought it and it's a great game.

    They are innovative because they demonstrate it is VERY possible to target Linux as a gaming platform despite all the trolls on Slashdot who'd like everyone to believe only Windows is good for games. The innovation is in showing that a crossplatform graphics toolkit like SDL not can work, but work very well. I have no lag in any of those three games.

    --
    Do not spread "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" over the internet, thank you.
    1. Re:bzzzzz... wrong by FeloniousPunk · · Score: 1

      Actually, he's only 1/3 wrong. The other two came to Linux after they hit Windows first (100% sure in case of NWN, pretty sure in case of America's Army).

      --
      I know this because Tyler knows this.
    2. Re:bzzzzz... wrong by damiam · · Score: 1

      You're completely missing the point. The great-great-great-grandparent's point was that Apple is perceived as cool because they get many new technologies and innovations (like iTMS, 802.11g, etc.) before any other platform. As I said, none of those games was originally exclusively Linux game that was then ported to Windows. They were all Windows games that happened to have Linux ports. The only first-to-Linux game I've ever seen is TuxRacer, which is really not relevent these days.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    3. Re:bzzzzz... wrong by Vicegrip · · Score: 1

      Well, you're missing my point: which is I take issue with the bogus claim that there is no innovation in Linux. I wasn't talking about Apple's innovations AT ALL.

      --
      Do not spread "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" over the internet, thank you.
    4. Re:bzzzzz... wrong by crizh · · Score: 1

      FROZEN BUBBLE!!!!

      OMG that's an addictive game. Say thank you to the nice Mandrake devs.

      Even my wife reboots into linux to get a fix of FB now and again.

      --
      Trust The Computer, The Computer is your friend.
    5. Re:bzzzzz... wrong by damiam · · Score: 1

      So... what innovations exactly were you saying have taken place? I'm not saying Linux hasn't innovated in other areas, but I don't think that being able to play 3D games counts as innovation.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    6. Re:bzzzzz... wrong by Vicegrip · · Score: 1

      I guess it's a matter of perspective. Everybody else seems to want to tie their graphics library to their specific platform. The SDL guys decided that in order to make gaming more readily available more widely we needed a toolkit that allowed companies to free themselves from their DirectX addiction. With the publication of those three games I mentionned, we have proof that games can be targetted at multiple platforms using the SDL and this, in my books, is innovation:

      Finding a practical solution to a problem to which previously it had been maintained the solution was not possible.

      But you only have to look at all the cool things the KDE guys are doing to convince yourself of the immense work that is being done.

      --
      Do not spread "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" over the internet, thank you.
  285. Re:Great! kind of by TwoStep · · Score: 1

    That is total nonsense. Thousands of companies, both large and small have been founded becuase of Apple. Big companies like Adobe wouldn't be around if not for Apple. There are also hundreds of small Desktop Publishing companies that woudln't be around. Tons of Mac only software companies. The list goes on and on.

    Hardware like the iPod is certainly innovative, or else why would it be selling so well. It is quite a bit more expensive than many of the other products out there, but it still is outselling them. Why do you think people are buying them?

    --
    There are 10 different types of people in this world... those who understand binary, and those who don't.
  286. Re:While I like the idea... by RevAaron · · Score: 1

    Or, you could have been planning on signing up with eMusic- another organization that doesn't saddle you with restrictions. Just MP3s, do as you will.

    Except, someone boguht them. And now there are restrictions. But before that, it was looking great- the same day the news about their being purchased broke was the day I was going to signup, just got a paycheck. Pfft, assholes!@$!

    --

    Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  287. Re:Great! kind of by quacking+duck · · Score: 1

    You misunderstand. So what if we have it? Most of us sure as heck didn't install it ourselves.

    How many Windows users install their own webserver, SSH system, or html rendering engine?

  288. Re:Great! kind of by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
    I guess I don't get it...what's the big deal about iTunes? Aside from it being able to interact with the 'store' to buy music...its just an app that plays music on a computer or rips it to a format to be played.

    Plenty of applications out there to do that...

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  289. Form factor by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    I would rather have a much smaller and cheaper device that supported CF only, selfishly having only CF cameras myself. I also have to wonder if it would require so much power if it didn't have to support all formats (though perhaps there is no way to get power from the attached iPod). A smaller cheaper devices with CF only support would also sell pretty well since the majority of people are using cameras with CF card support.

    The form factor is important because if I buy the adaptor, I have to carry two devices the size of the iPod, instead of one about the smae size for my Vista. So it's a little less appealing, especially when you add $100 to the cost of an iPod.

    Even if I had a palm with SD support (just an old Palm V at the moment) and an SD card, I can't imagine I'd every want to transfer anything to the iPod for later movement to the PC - since the Palm has great syncing already.

    As to SD cards being fast and cheap and high capacity... The max size at the moment for shipping cards appears to be 512mb vs 2GB for CF. The 512MB card is $250-$438 on procegrabber, whereas as I can a 512MB CF card for as little as $80 if I go no-name. Even a 256MB SD card (the smallest size of any real value with modern 3mp+ cameras) goes for around $60+, while a 256MB CF card is $40 at the low end.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  290. Felt dirty by WesG · · Score: 1

    So I installed iTunes for Windows and it works great....

    Was it me or was anyone else feeling a little weird as the installation was going on?

    Almost felt like my Windows box going on its first date or losing its virginity...

    1. Re:Felt dirty by 0divide · · Score: 1

      nah, it's just getting treated nicely. You'll get used to it...

      (did you get the same feeling when installing QuickTime?)

      --
      ---mike
  291. Re:unknown error 407 when connecting to Music Stor by Silvertre · · Score: 1

    iTunes is suppose to use the proxy settings for internet explorer. But as far as I can tell its broke.

    I'm behind a firewall and I keep getting an unknown error 404 whenever I try to connect to anything.

  292. Ogg Vorbis plugin by friendofafriend · · Score: 1
    Is the vorbis plugin available for windows?

    All I can find is :this link for OSX

    1. Re:Ogg Vorbis plugin by ColMustard · · Score: 1

      iTunes uses Quicktime (obviously). There has been an Ogg Vorbis plugin for OS9, OS X, and Windows for a long time: Click Here

      --
      Moof.
  293. Re:i'd rather steal the music by zpok · · Score: 1

    No, I'm not naive to the practices of record labels. But most artists are very favorable to Apple's conditions.

    And tell me, how do you think downloading music without paying is helping artists?

    For every (non-millionaire) artist you show me who condones stealing his work I can show you ten who'd love to have a quiet word or two with you.

    I've helped a few artists make "some" of their work available for free, online. That's cool. They're cool. That doesn't mean they don't want you to buy their CD.

    Most artists can barely pay the rent. They love everybody who buys their music.

    Is that naive?

    --
    I think, therefore I am...I think.
  294. iTunes does not support AUTHENTICATING proxies &am by amandeep · · Score: 1

    SOCKS proxies & anything other than simple proxies.....

  295. Spendy! by meehawl · · Score: 1

    $50 for a recording mic?
    $35 for FM?
    $100 for a card reader?

    Wow! That's a lot for some clunky gadget hacks.

    I guess after spending so much on an iPod which *lacks* these basic features, Apple, Belkin et al figure they have captive, well-heeled market.

    Seriously, how many comparable music players don't have recording or FM these days? In the last few days I've seen the iRiver and the Samnsung, and they are both cheaper than an iPod and come with this stuff built-in.

    --

    Da Blog
  296. Perfect! by chrissam · · Score: 1

    Now I can finally run iTunes on VirtualPC!

    --
    Is it okay to cry "Movie!" in a crowded firehouse? --Steve Martin
  297. Re:While I like the idea... by RevAaron · · Score: 1

    You could always sing the songs.

    But then again, we humans generate electricity for our brains. Oh, fudge.

    --

    Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  298. Re:Great! kind of by bhtooefr · · Score: 1

    Hmm, are tissues named on the same phonetic theme as Kleenex? Are cotton swabs named on the same phonetic theme as Q-Tips? Are photocopying machines named on the same phonetic theme as Xerox? No. Do those items function in nearly identical ways to their major brand counterparts, so that they don't need a recompile (nose job, ear reconstruction, paper resizing)? Yes. Are UNIX-like operating systems named on the same phonetic theme as UNIX? Yes. Can ALL UNIX apps run on a given UNIX-like OS (for the same platform) without a recompile? Probably not. Can they be called UNIX? No. *nix doesn't just mean UNIX, it means UNIX *AND* UNIX clones.

  299. OpenStep by jkujawa · · Score: 1

    I wonder if they dusted off the old OpenStep for NT code to get this beast working on windows. It didn't take very long from the original release of the ITMS, maybe 6 months. That's insanely fast for an application of this size.

    1. Re:OpenStep by WatertonMan · · Score: 1

      Quicktime already had a fair set of the Mac API calls available. While I have no real information, I suspect that the work on making Quicktime's API better included updating those calls. I believe they then ported the rendering kit used by Safari. While I've not seen it discussed, I suspect they've got a fair segment of the Carbon API ported right now. That should help with any future Quicktime player or other products they offer.

    2. Re:OpenStep by rufo · · Score: 1

      Almost certainly not. iTunes is a Carbon application, based on the APIs that date back to 1984 and the original Macintosh. However, Apple's QuickTime on Windows has most of the Carbon API calls already in it, so it almost certainly uses QuickTime as a sort of porting layer.

      --
      My English teacher once told me that two positives don't make a negative. Two words for her: Yeah, right.
  300. Re:now lets see what M$ does by zpok · · Score: 1

    Ask my wife.

    My favorite uncle is gay though. And some of my best friends. They're sweet guys. So I don't care what you call me. If you're afraid of gays, that's fine. Must make life interesting.

    BTW: my mac isn't colored, it doesn't want me to do complicated non-nutricious things with carrots either.

    --
    I think, therefore I am...I think.
  301. hella-slow startup by hikerhat · · Score: 1

    I started it up... nothing happened. Looking at the process listing I see it, but nothing else. Then, after what feels like at least 60 seconds the gui pops up. And this is a 1.7 ghz athlon with 512M of ram.

    1. Re:hella-slow startup by hikerhat · · Score: 1

      Any time I do anything in the gui iTunes locks up for at least 30 seconds. Back to winamp for me. Maybe the next version of itunes will work.

  302. Re:While I like the idea... by anti-drew · · Score: 1
    Good point. iTunes will burn MP3 CDs, yet it will not convert AAC files to MP3 for an MP3 disk.
    Yes and no ... That's not entirely true. When burning a data disc, you're right, it won't automatically convert the files for you.

    However, if you rip in AAC but want to burn in MP3, you can manually convert a non-protected AAC file (.m4a) to MP3. For obvious reasons you can't do it with a protected AAC file (.m4p).

    To do it, select MP3 in your import preferences, then select one or more AAC files and select Advanced -> Convert selection to MP3.
  303. Re:Rendering engine? KHTML? by bmarklein · · Score: 1

    OK, since KHTML is LGPL wouldn't that mean that they would need to publish the source?

  304. Re:Great! kind of by OMEGA+Power · · Score: 1
    Apple was not 1st with either a portable mp3 player or an online music store, dumbass.

    The iPod was by far the best mp3 on the market when it first came out and iTMS is the only online music store that is worth using (at least for major label music)

  305. Re:Great! kind of by rsmith-mac · · Score: 1

    No, iTunes is still an innovation for the Mac platform; it was availible long before it was on the PC. The grandparent post is simply trying to point out that Linux needs something big like that to come out for Linux, and just for Linux, otherwise it's an innovation for all platforms it is introduced on. And in that case, why get Linux?

  306. Thanks for the heads up by alfredo · · Score: 1

    Downloading it now.

    --
    photosMy Photostream
  307. Nuff Said by havoc · · Score: 1

    DRM "enabled". No thanks.

  308. Anyone know of AAC players for Zaurus or WinCE? by RevAaron · · Score: 1

    Anyone know of any players- existing or in the works- for those of us with PDAs running Linux (a Zaurus C760 in my case) or Windows CE (incl all PocketPC, although I've a Sigmarion III)? I've no iPod, and my PDAs double as music players. I've a Mac (although now, that's moot), and would prefer using the AAC standard over MP3s, but I've not seen a player for either the Zaurus or Windows CE. In both cases, a some-what specialized player needs to be written, avoiding floating point instructions.

    Hell, the Zaurus has an ATI Imageon chip in it, which includes an MPEG4 decoder. Anyone know if that would cover decoding of MPEG4 audio, or just video? If it is the former, it'd sure be nice if someone wrote software to use that feature of the chip- Sharp certainly hasn't done much to support their own hardware on Linux. But that'd rule- low CPU usage, nice sound, small files.

    --

    Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
    1. Re:Anyone know of AAC players for Zaurus or WinCE? by magnum3065 · · Score: 1

      Well if you're set on AAC I can't help you, but if you're simply looking for an MP3 alternative, tkcPlayer for the Zaurus will do Ogg Vorbis which is about even with AAC in terms of quality. You can find it here.

    2. Re:Anyone know of AAC players for Zaurus or WinCE? by krel · · Score: 1

      On my mac, mplayer can handle m4a files just fine, but the zaurus port cannot. Perhaps someone needs to turn on .mov and aac support on zaurus?

      --
      karma: ouch!
    3. Re:Anyone know of AAC players for Zaurus or WinCE? by RevAaron · · Score: 1

      Yup, I'm already using tkcPlayer on the Zaurus. Definately worth what I paid for it, which was only $5 or $10. A nice app, uses less CPU than any of the others I've used- and the one that Sharp ships with the C760 blows. I used to use an app called GPlayer (?) for WinCE that could also play oggs. I've recently begun starting to rip in Ogg rather than MP3, now that my two platforms are covered.

      --

      Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  309. Re:While I like the idea... by Aqua+OS+X · · Score: 1

    You're right, AAC has nothing to do with the copy protection. That is simply a codec. However, MPEG4 does have a lot to do with the copy protection. (a lot of us interchange the two terms when talking about ITMS music)

    I;m fairly sure the DRM is based on an open standard that has been built into the MPEG4 spec (but, I could be wrong). As I recall, Apple chose MPEG 4 because it is an open standard as well as a standard that was taking right management into account.

    Apple's "locked" mp4 files will play on any iPod you put them on. If you own a million iPods and 1 Mac or 1 PC, the AAC/MP4 files will play on all 1 million iPods that you own. (if you don't believe me, check out Apple's iTunes site). However you're still limited to 3 computer user accounts (yet you are able to easily remove a license, or transfer a hardware license, to a new computer if you see fit).

    I see no reason why other portable audio devices that properly support AAC/MP4 could not function like, or somehow sync to iTunes like, an iPod. One does not need to authenticate an iPod... why should they have to authenticate a Rio or a car stereo?

    --
    "Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
  310. Re:Why CF? by ryusen · · Score: 1

    Simple, it gives you the biggest volume for the least price. Sure SD can integrate into your palm, better, but most high end camaeras all use CF, because of it's advantages with high res pics (stuff that are like several megs per picture, even compressed.)
    Even Sony, which is so big on their memory stick has included CF in their latest pro-sumer camera...

    --

    I believe sex is highly over rated... unless it involves me
  311. More than just the store and ripping. by Cadre · · Score: 2, Interesting
    what's the big deal about iTunes?

    Being able to easily share music over a LAN. How easy? My roommate (who runs Windows) starts iTunes and voila, he's sees my shared music. He even sees my playlists. He clicks a single button to share his music and instantly he appears as source in my list on iTunes. No mounting of disks, no mucking around with servers, it's just there and it works. Instant gratification.

    Oh yea, the interface is so much better than anything else out there (except those that are attempting to clone the iTunes interface).

    --
    All editorial writers ever do is come down from the hill after the battle is over and shoot the wounded.
    1. Re:More than just the store and ripping. by Erik+K.+Veland · · Score: 1

      I would say INCLUDING those that are attempting to clone the iTunes interface.

      --
      "I tend to think of OS X as Linux with QA and Taste", James Gosling, creator of Java
    2. Re:More than just the store and ripping. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Not to mention, it burns CDs, plays built-in radio stations, has a nice visualizer, supports tons of plug-ins (at least on the Mac version), and makes extensive use of standards (like ID3).

      Oh, and it's free.

    3. Re:More than just the store and ripping. by juhaz · · Score: 1

      Interface would be quite decent if it wasn't nearly 100% MOUSE ONLY.

      Some of us really do dislike being forced to grab that rodent for every simple thing.

    4. Re:More than just the store and ripping. by 2muchcoffeeman · · Score: 1
      (Score:-1 Lame Attempt At Humor)

      Interface would be quite decent if it wasn't nearly 100% MOUSE ONLY.

      Some of us really do dislike being forced to grab that rodent for every simple thing.


      But it's not mouse-only -- you can also use a trackball.
      --
      Prevent Windows piracy. Use Linux instead.
    5. Re:More than just the store and ripping. by darkgreen · · Score: 1

      actually, it's not - I listen to audiobooks as I go to sleep, and have a Logitech cordless keyboard that I control it with... aside from most of the "media" buttons working out of the box, standard keyboard shortcuts abound... took me a while to find out that Cmd-option left/right would actually rev and cue through the songs, though.

      --
      You don't need Geeksintraining if you're on Slashdot.
    6. Re:More than just the store and ripping. by juhaz · · Score: 1

      Well, sure there are some things that work, but not nearly anything.

      Good luck, for example toggling shuffle (impossible as far as I can tell, unless there are undocumented shortcuts) or getting to/from search bar without extensive tabbing.

    7. Re:More than just the store and ripping. by darkgreen · · Score: 1

      i agree about the shuffle (although i think it's pretty easy to add a shortcut - probably something on Macosxhints), but the search is same as safari - Cmd option F

      --
      You don't need Geeksintraining if you're on Slashdot.
    8. Re:More than just the store and ripping. by juhaz · · Score: 1

      First, it should be noted that I'm using a Windows version.

      However, ctrl-alt-f seems to do the same, thanks. Can I get back into the list to select from results somehow?

      Also, this wasn't documented anywhere, there is a bunch of shortcut keys mentioned in help file but ctrl-alt-f was not one of them.

  312. Re:While I like the idea... by realdpk · · Score: 1

    There are plenty of CDs that only have one or two songs that I even like, so rather than paying $10-20 for the disc, I'll just pay $2 for the songs I want and put 'em on one big mp3 CD.

  313. Re:Great! kind of by LamerX · · Score: 1

    Yeah right, Apple hasn't allowed you to view the source code of thier software and send in bug fixes. Thats complete BS.

    There's no incompatability at all, why don't you name one. Oh and OK i won't scream Gentoo, I'll scream SuSE, Mandrake, and RedHat, which oh, my 12-year-old sister manages to be able to run and install software on Mandrake just fine. She clicks the package and bam it installs. Most of what she wants to play with doesn't require dependencies, and if you're going to a level of needing something with deps, then whats so hard about downloading a dependant package and installing it. Of course she had to be taught a little bit, but MacOS is no better for installing. I can't count the number of time's I've put a disc in my Grandparetns Mac (which they are extremely confused about) and had it bitch that I don't have version x.xx of some stupid ass extension, or I need a certain kind of mac to do this.

    As far as for the average user, Mac offers nothing besides video editing. The average user doesn't have a firewire DV camera, or want to burn DVDs anyways.

    I don't think that the 'fucking average user' understands that when you close a window, the program is still running in the background. How the hell is that for usability. "Oh by the way even though you don't see the program it's still running on the computer, thats why when you clicked the icon, you didn't see anything. You have to go to the file menu and say new window." Average user my ass.

    You know what else, I don't want to mess around with steering and pushing pedals when I drive either. Fuck I just wanna get in my car and not even talk, just have it read my mind and go automatically where I want to go. Oh right you still have to know certain things. Training and learning is involved in everything, and I don't think computers should be an exception. Now i'm not saying that we force everyone to learn command line, but realize that there is some extent to learn. Just because linux is a little different and people are going to have to learn a few new things (clicking on an RPM).

    And since you brought up the average user, which I mentioned nothing of in my original post, why don't I point out that you can't buy dick at an average store for a Mac. There are 400x the products available for the PC. If you're talking the average user, and them not wanting to deal with stuff, then sounds like Winblows is the way to go. Becaue you know what? EVERYTHING is automatic in windows! Automatic virus installations, automatic spyware installations, automatic bugs, and security holes. See the user doesn't even have to deal with installing those. Thats what happens when you give every user Administrative priveleges on a system. So people are going to have to learn a few new things now anyways.

    You're ovbiously a moron to say that linux is archaic. It's a unix derivitive you dumbass, just like your prescious little MacOS. And If it weren't for the innovation of Linus to create free and open unicies, then Apple would never have been able to 'innovate' by taking an 'archaic' unix system and calling it thier own.

  314. like it or not by f2professa · · Score: 1

    hey gang - love it or hate it - but maybe that's not the point. Notice that there are *already* 3 pages of comments here on /. on itunes for Windows.

    That's one hell of a reception for a music app new to windows. People are taking notice. That speaks volumes in and of itself.

    --
    Someone, please shake me from this wide-awake nightmare.
  315. Re:Great! kind of by Vicegrip · · Score: 1

    And in that case, why get Linux?

    Well, I don't know.. maybe because it's a rock solid platform whose developers care about my privacy and the security of my computer?

    If you refuse to acknowledge the innovation merely on the basis that it isn't platform specific (as if this was some indication of superior innovation) just so you can invent reasons why Linux might be inferior for yourself then please, by all means, don't let me stop you; I'll just leave you with the irony of making that claim as a mac user.

    --
    Do not spread "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" over the internet, thank you.
  316. Re:Great! kind of by David+Hume · · Score: 1

    iTunes is DEAD simple to use.... Did I mention it is DEAD simple to use?


    Sorry, but "DEAD simple to use" is not a Linux value. If anything, it is a Linux anti-value. "DEAD simple to use" does not confer status.

    Now, the Linux version of iTunes would be infinately customizable, with no possible standard interface. Of course, why the average consumer would need or want anything beyond a L-Pod (Linux-Pod) command line is beyond comprehension.

  317. Re:Great! kind of by LamerX · · Score: 1

    I agree that the iPod is very innovative. They were truely the first to come up with a small portable device that carrys hundreds of songs. In fact, I totally want to buy one. But to call iTunes for Windows an innovation is a bunch of crap. It was only an obvious decision that Apple made. And for the parent to my post to call linux un-innovative is a bunch of crap too. Maybe I was just pissed off about that, and had to flame his ass. I'm just tired of the Mac-is-so-goddamn-supreme attitude of that guy. The arrogance of him saying that the thousands of thousands of linux projects out there aren't innovative just steams me.

  318. sorry i still can't get over the cat by Rick+and+Roll · · Score: 1

    wtf? you shaved your cat??? he looks absolutely ridiculous. looks to be in a worse cat than any I've ever seen, and I like cats and have seen many of them.

  319. Re:Great! kind of by statusbar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unfortunately you are 100% correct.

    Why does linux need iTunes when Linux already has mpg321, postgresql, cdparanoia, sox, LAME, cdrecord, samba, and php with apache? Just connect them up and you have an even MORE powerful system than iTunes! Amaze your computer-illiterate friends with your knowledge of arcane things!

    Meanwhile, I run iTunes and now I have more time available to post to slashdot.

    --jeff++

    --
    ipv6 is my vpn
  320. Re:Hey lamer by TheNetAvenger · · Score: 1

    uhhh.. he said "under 128 MB of RAM"..

    Do you even bother to read peoples' messages or just go directly to "Reply to This" so you can disagree with them?


    We have several Pentium 200mhz Laptops with 80mb of RAM (max configuration) running WindowsXP.

    These systems run faster than they do on Windows9x with identical hardware configurations.

    They also run WMP9 with all the bells and whistles, including being able to play full screen video with WMP7-9 codecs at MPEG2 quality.

    So if you think that Win2k or XP needs 128mb to be functional, you do not understand the OS architecture at all.

    The benefits of MORE RAM in Win2k and XP can be stated like this - you will get an additional performance boost with more RAM in 2k and XP than you would with Win9x, but with anything above the baseline level of RAM 64mb, 2k and XP are more efficient. Period.

    Just like the Win95/NT4 performance tests of 1996, if your system had over 32mb of RAM, NT4 was 20-25% faster than Win95 because it could use the extra RAM more efficiently - even though the NT OS architecture had more overhead.

    So even with only 80mb of RAM and a regular Pentium MMX 200mhz CPUs, these test systems STILL run faster than they do with Linux, FreeBSD, Win95, Win98, WinME, etc.

    Additionally when running XP, even with the 'eyecandy' of XP TURNED ON, they still perform 5% faster than Win2k with the exact same configurations.

    All tests were performed using identical Hard Drives, swapped out of the laptops, and run on an array of laptops with various Graphics Chipsets, from 2mb 2D video chipsets from Neomagic, to early Trident 3D chipsets. (All old video technology).

    Tests consist of PC benchmarking (CPU, HD Subsystem, etc), Application Benchmarking (MS Applications for the Win9x to WinXP comparisons and Open Source apps like OpenOffice for cross-platform comparisons), in addition to technicians being forced to use the machines as their daily machines for several days to assess the benchmark reliability. And the techs impressions back up the benchmark results.

    Additionally XP, Win2k, and NT4 Configurations use NTFS as the base file system which, in theory, would add overhead for things like journalling.

    The tests across the board were consistent. XP and Win2k simply run 20% faster than any other OS, with Win98 coming in second with the Web Interface disabled).

    I understand that not everyone is in the business of OS engineering and have a lab dedicated to benchmarking and testing systems, but it is just wrong to state facts that are based on propagated myths and FUD.

    128MB of RAM for Win2k and XP is a sweet spot, but in systems with less RAM (64-128mb), the Win2k and XP OSes still run faster than their predecessors (Win9x,NT4) as well as competing x86 OSes.*

    *The above statement is comparing Graphical OSes only, DOS, and *nix environments running without a graphical front end are not being compared in the above test results.

  321. Re:Great! kind of by ElGuapoGolf · · Score: 1

    You seem to have forgotten

    Apple: Puts out semi-cool web browser based on code written by those non-innovatin linux folks. (Cough, KTHML)

  322. Re:Great! kind of by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 1
    Wow.

    At least it builds now.

    Still, I have ESD and it just complains about not fiding OSS. I use ESD, and have it as my aRts back-end too.

    Pardon my ignorance. Does GStreamer play nice with ESD?

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  323. Dammit - it won't install! by EnglishTim · · Score: 1

    1628: Failed to complete installation.

    Bloody InstallShield.

  324. The store doesn't work on my PC by callipygian-showsyst · · Score: 1
    I have a Pentium 4HT with 3 GB of Ram (faster than a single G5, btw!).

    Task manager reports that there are 2.6GB of memory free. No other application has trouble starting. But iTunes says there's not enough memory!

    My guess: it's a signed/unsigned problem with measuring the amount of ram: mor than 2GB and it's going negative.

    I'm also a bit worried about the server it puts up if you enable sharing. I suspect that the port (3389 IIRC) will start getting portscanned a lot. Good thing my firewall blocks it.

    1. Re:The store doesn't work on my PC by fpg888 · · Score: 1

      I'm having the exact same issue, but I only have 1 gig of RAM. What gives?!

    2. Re:The store doesn't work on my PC by craw · · Score: 1

      There seems to be a problem accessing the iTunes store if you are using the Norton firewall program. People are reporting getting the memory msg.

      Check out the Apple Discussion web site for more details. Select iTunes, then iTunes for Windows.

    3. Re:The store doesn't work on my PC by callipygian-showsyst · · Score: 1
      What goes on in the minds of Apple engineers?

      Hey! I can't connect to the internet through the firewall!

      Well, then, we'd better put up an OUT OF MEMORY MESSAGE.

      That's THINKING DIFFERENT for you!

  325. Re:(SCREENSHOTS) Re:And it's about time! by domninus.DDR · · Score: 1

    sorry but, that cat looks horrible. you might have just ruined the whole concept of feline pets for me.

  326. Ogg Vorbis support in iTunes for Windows by metrom · · Score: 1

    There is this project witch makes this Quicktime plugin.

    http://qtcomponents.sourceforge.net/

    Download oggvorbis.qtx and put it inn your C:\WINDOWS\system32\QuickTime folder.

    The plugin is very bad.
    -very slow
    -eats your cpu utilization up to 100% for 2 sec. every time you load a track.
    -vorbiscomment - no support for chars like oaea etc.
    -vorbiscomment - no tracknumber support?
    -vorbiscomment - no year support?

  327. It isn't NutraSweet by TheEternalVortex · · Score: 1

    The artifical sweetner used in Diet Pepsi (and Diet Coke, for that matter), is aspartame, which is IMO much better. They also say it's addictive. That might be so, but I can't stop drinking Diet since I've started.

    1. Re:It isn't NutraSweet by Graff · · Score: 1
      The artifical sweetner used in Diet Pepsi (and Diet Coke, for that matter), is aspartame, which is IMO much better.

      NutraSweet is the brand name for aspartame. They are basically exactly the same chemical. No addictive properties in it, but it has been shown to break down into formaldehyde in conditions that exist for the soda bottles being shipped to stores. Formaldehyde is a nasty toxic substance that is used to preserve corpses and puts nice gaping holes in your liver.

      Sugar on the other hand is perfectly digestible and is readily converted to useful chemicals in the body. Sure, if you eat too much you can get fat and a ton isn't healthy but if you don't pig out on it then it is perfectly safe. If you are a diabetic and can't have sugar then just have water or tea, both are way better for you than any kind of soda anyways.

      IAAC (I am a chemist) and have done some research into aspartame. I don't trust it mainly because it got through a loophole in the Food & Drug Administration's regulations and so it was accepted with minimal testing and regulations. At least saccharin was properly tested and its very low incidence rate of cancer is known. The same goes for Splenda and several other sugar substitutes. Don't trust aspartame/NutraSweet, they are liable to find out it turns your brain to green goo after 20 years of eating it.
    2. Re:It isn't NutraSweet by cens0r · · Score: 1

      It also gives me severe migrane headaches and causes my mom to loose conciousness... scarey stuff... I'll stick to sugar thank you very much! But most soda only offers high fructose corn syrup. Now that I'm away from Texas I can't get the real sugar Dr. Pepper. So I try to stick to the whole foods brand soda.

      --
      Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
    3. Re:It isn't NutraSweet by Graff · · Score: 1
      It also gives me severe migrane headaches and causes my mom to loose conciousness... scarey stuff

      Yeah I've heard anecdotal stories about those side effects also. I'm not the kind of person who overreacts to health issues but I'm careful with stuff like this for the simple reason that as a chemist I am exposed to a lot of nasty stuff. My liver is already in danger from all the toxins I work with daily, I don't need to take chances with chemicals in my food. I don't pick through things but I also try to keep it simple.

      I watch out for stuff like MSG, aspartame, etc. simply because why take a chance? I don't need these things and there are plenty of alternatives to them. Keep it simple with the stuff you put in your body and you can't go too wrong.
    4. Re:It isn't NutraSweet by LMariachi · · Score: 1

      FYI, sodapop that's marked "Kosher for Passover" (not just Kosher) is made with real cane sugar. Tends to be hard to find though, and impossible outside major cities.

    5. Re:It isn't NutraSweet by cens0r · · Score: 1

      I live in a jewish neighborhood and they have lots of it.

      --
      Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
    6. Re:It isn't NutraSweet by Rand+Race · · Score: 1

      Aspertene gives me a raging mellon-ache as well.

      And what is up with Dr. Pepper changing taste dramatically from bottler to bottler? I drove from Atlanta to Indianapolis for the F1 race a few weeks back and every stop along the way the Dr. Pepper tasted different.

      I do love the ingrediants though: high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar? You can get away with and/or statements on an FDA approved ingrediants list?

      --
      Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
    7. Re:It isn't NutraSweet by cens0r · · Score: 1

      Pretty much every soda will taste different due to regional bottling plants. They're still allowed to use different combinations of sugar and/or corn syrup. The best soda's are the original coke classic (can you get this anymore) that had beet sugar. And the original Dr. Pepper that had cane sugar (only bottled in waco tx).

      --
      Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
  328. Re:here's a tip for ya by f0rtytw0 · · Score: 1

    The same thing happened to me and it totally fucked up my stuff with out so much as mentioning it to me. All it said it was doing was adding my mp3's to the list and said nothing about creating new directories and moving EVERYTHING around. Now I am more or less forced to use itunes. Fixing this could take me months

    --
    this is the most important sig ever! In your face 446154!
  329. Re:APPLE IS A MONOPOLY by strstr · · Score: 1

    "It even has over 50 radio stations."

    50? Big deal; iTune's has over 350.

  330. Re:A point and a Question... by valkraider · · Score: 1

    So then the problem is simply one of file format? I wonder what that could be, since the Windows iTunes supports AAC on FAT partitions - you would think that it wouldn't be a problem with the iPod. Or maybe is it just that they have not released an update program for the Windows (FAT) iPods? If that is the case, then I wonder what the HFS is giving the iPod software that FAT can't provide?

    And now that WiniTunes is out - could you convert your iPod to HFS and thus get the new software version as well? Of course you would need a HFS kludge for Windows to access it outside of iTunes though...

  331. Re:While I like the idea... by cens0r · · Score: 1

    Actually if you read the terms of their agreement closely, I think you'll find that it is illegal to do whatever you want with that CD. For instance rip mp3's from the CD created from the bought AAC's.

    --
    Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
  332. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by boomgopher · · Score: 1

    ...Apple started advocating drag-and-drop data manipulation. This requires that both the source window and destination window be visible for a drag operation to occur

    True, but in Windows, you can drag the data and hold it over a taskbar button, and that app will become active. So drag and drop still works with maximized windows.

    --
    Your hybrid is not saving the environment. Its purpose is to make you feel good about buying something.
  333. Re:Great! kind of by ceejayoz · · Score: 1

    The iTunes Music Store is/was an innovation by virtue of being the first successful pay-to-download music store. The fact that it is available for multiple platforms, in this case, has nothing to do with it.

    America's Army and NWN, on the other hand, are just games - there are plenty others. They're not firsts, and they're not (arguably) bests. Thus, I don't consider them innovations like I do the iTMS.

  334. Re:iTunes for Windows Screenshots? by tempest303 · · Score: 1

    Hell yeah, I'll second that!

  335. Re:Great! kind of by ceejayoz · · Score: 1

    If you refuse to acknowledge the innovation merely on the basis that it isn't platform specific (as if this was some indication of superior innovation) just so you can invent reasons why Linux might be inferior for yourself then please, by all means, don't let me stop you; I'll just leave you with the irony of making that claim as a mac user.

    Given the way you trumpeted them as "inovation[sic] on the [Linux] desktop", the fact that they're not platform specific does matter.

  336. Innovation? nice, but.... by mr.+methane · · Score: 1

    Maybe my perspective is different since I usually run Linux as a server platform, and I greatly value stability over features. I recently noticed that one of my linux machines has an uptime of 371 days -- and this is a box accessed by a dozen people, running an SQL database, web server, etc. etc...

    I *love* itunes, and just hope I don't go overboard with it.. but maybe it's time for a "workstation" and a "server" branch of linux? one for ease of use and all the great features you like, and another for the rock-of-gibraltar stability and predictability that all the server folks love?

  337. But the artist still get almost nothing by JustAnotherReader · · Score: 1
    On National Public Radio today a representative from Apple was talking about the fee structure.

    99 cents per song is distributed thusly:

    • 80 cents to the record companies who have done essentially NOTHING except allow a form of sales that requires them to produce no physical product.
    • 19 cents is split between the artist and Apple.
    And yet they keep quoting the 10 Million Downloads In the first 3 months statistic. That means 8 Million $$$ to the record companies and $1 Million to be shared among every one of the artist

    So don't start thinking that the record companies might not actually be total bastards just because they're letting you buy somebody else's songs for a dollar a song. They're just as evil as ever.

    On the other hand, if a band can set up it's own independent record company and then promote their music on their own, then they'll get both sides of the fee structure and make 90 cents per song instead of 10 cents. So once again, the way for a band to actually make money from their talent is to stay as far away from record companies as possible.

    1. Re:But the artist still get almost nothing by shark72 · · Score: 1

      "80 cents to the record companies who have done essentially NOTHING except allow a form of sales that requires them to produce no physical product."

      Oh, please. CDs typically take a lot of time and a lot of effort from a lot of people to produce. Look at the "thanks to" section of most CD's liner notes to understand the scope of CD production. The dozens or perhaps hundreds of people who helped make a typical album generally not do so for free. To use but two examples, the session musicians and producers are often unionized and have families to support, thus don't have the option of working gratis so that you can pay less for music. They are just two groups of people whose wages are recouped through the 80 cents that goes to the record company to cover their cash investment.

      "On the other hand, if a band can set up it's own independent record company and then promote their music on their own, then they'll get both sides of the fee structure and make 90 cents per song instead of 10 cents."

      "If." That's the key word. Successfully setting up and running a record label is very tough to do; it takes lots of time and it takes lots of money.

      --
      Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
  338. haven't seen complaints about the SELECTION yet by Artifex · · Score: 1

    Where's all my favorite 80s songs and groups?

    Try finding the artists "Taco" or "Men without Hats" or the song "Amadeus."

    Come to think of it, try finding current songs. Found "Omnibus" yet? How about any album by the Chemical Brothers?

    This app is cute, and I like the radio feature. However, as an on-demand store, it's not very comprehensive, unless you like Justin Timberlake or whatever else sells a bazillion copies at Wal-Mart.

    Where's the obscure stuff? Where's the exclusive, otherwise-out-of-print or not-sold-in-the-U.S. selections that will keep me from going to P2P networks? I'd be happy to pay for these things if I could find them for sale. Anyone listening?

    --
    Get off my launchpad!
    1. Re:haven't seen complaints about the SELECTION yet by gerardrj · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You are 100% correct. Since launch the iTMS has been biased toward the music that the majority of those who are on-line purchase and listen to. You can apply the 80/20 rule to this in all probability; 80% of the people will tend to listen to about 20% of the music available.
      Hence, when you launch a service, you make the most profit by first including the 20% of content that will encompass most of your sales. You later fill in the remainder to satisfy the others.

      In the five or so months since iTMS has been on-line, they have grown from 200,000 songs to 400,000 songs, and this isn't the BuyMusic method of accounting, you can purchase each and every song Apple counts.
      They've just started getting the indie labels on board and set up to submit tracks, 200 according to Steve's presentation. The indies were tripping over themselves to sign up when the meeting was held a few months back. Why wouldn't they? Apple provdides the hardware, submission is free, Apple handles all billing. Since each music company is apparently responsible for encoding and submitting the tracks, the rate of increase should be greater in the future. The next 200,000 tracks may well be added within the next two months.

      There's plenty of "obscure stuff" on the store, or do you perhaps consider Andy Griffith's 'Fishin' Hole' to be main stream music?

      --
      Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
    2. Re:haven't seen complaints about the SELECTION yet by silkySlim · · Score: 1

      What are you talking about? Right there on the iTunes homepage, they just added Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Mack Daddy" album. Open your eyes, man!

    3. Re:haven't seen complaints about the SELECTION yet by rufo · · Score: 1

      If you find anything missing from the iTunes Music Store, make sure you request it via the "Requests & Feedback" link on the left side of the home music store page, near the top. I've requested a few albums via the form and a few weeks later Apple had added them to the iTunes library. Of course, by then I had already bought one of them, and for the other I didn't really want to buy it via iTunes since it comes with a DVD if you buy the physical disc. Still, for most of my music I buy it off the iTunes Music Store if they have it. I'm a lazy fuck, and one-click convience works for me. ;)

      --
      My English teacher once told me that two positives don't make a negative. Two words for her: Yeah, right.
    4. Re:haven't seen complaints about the SELECTION yet by Artifex · · Score: 1
      make sure you request it via the "Requests & Feedback" link


      ah, thanks for telling me about that feature, and that it does seem to actually work for you. I'll try it out.
      --
      Get off my launchpad!
    5. Re:haven't seen complaints about the SELECTION yet by Artifex · · Score: 1

      Good response. I'm just complaining, because they do have a ways to go to really be an alternative to the trading networks.

      I try to be a good citizen about the whole music sharing thing, and only download when the selections cannot be bought locally. However, those often happen to be the only things I get in my head as wanting to buy. I don't know if you know or like 80s pop music, but the examples I mentioned are standards played everytime radio stations have "retro weekends" - so you'd think that they really aren't that obscure. If the record companies aren't biting at the free hardware and stuff that you said they were offered, they really suck.

      In the meantime, I do love the net radio feature, like I said. I'm all over the ambient and electronic stuff right now. Too bad there's not a version for Win98, so I could set it up for my parents, who would also want music gift certificates from me at Christmas-time, I'm sure...

      --
      Get off my launchpad!
    6. Re:haven't seen complaints about the SELECTION yet by rufo · · Score: 1

      No problem. Obviously there are no guarantees (for all I know, they were both heavily requested and that's why Apple added them), and I think I may have even requested Chemical Bros. at one point, but at least some of the time it does work.

      --
      My English teacher once told me that two positives don't make a negative. Two words for her: Yeah, right.
    7. Re:haven't seen complaints about the SELECTION yet by craw · · Score: 1

      The selection at the iTunes store has about double since its inception (as the other poster pointed out). You should have seen the comments about missing artists/bands back then (e.g., Beattles?).

      Some of the problem is in the licencing agreements with the record companies and the individual artists. There are a few songs that I would buy but they're not available. The album that has the song only has a partial selection.

      Time to buy your parents a new computer.:-)

      I don't know about the Windows version, but check out the music videos (QuickTime) that are available for some artists (e.g. Cheryl Crow). The audio is not the best (tho not too bad).

    8. Re:haven't seen complaints about the SELECTION yet by gerardrj · · Score: 1

      I do understand, I've been baffled myself at the lack of 80s music on iTMS. Mind you, there is quite a bit, but not as much as you might think. The "80s crowd" would seem to be a prime audience for the iTMS, we're old enough to have enough disposable income, and sentimental enough about the music at this point to spend a butt load to DL it.
      Of course, I've read post from about every genre about lack of selection: jazz, classical, soundtracks, metal, punk, indie... etc.

      My guess is that the 80s will be getting filled in fairly soon and fairly completely now that iTMS has hit "critical mass".

      --
      Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
  339. Re:While I like the idea... by JudgeFurious · · Score: 1

    Oh man you just completely fucking nailed it. The people who are digging around trying to find something to bitch about iTunes are exactly the ones who have absolutely no intention of actually patronizing any legitimate download service. They want free as in beer and they will talk all day about how the artists are exploited and the record labels are crooks (both of which happen to be true) but when it all comes down to it they just want the keys to the vault handed to them with no restrictions. Nothing less will do.

    They're not the people anyones trying to sell music to because they're not the people who will pay any money for it. Anything proposed is unreasonable. 99 cents is unreasonable, any format that drops a single bit (even if it's undetectable by human ears) is unreasonable. If the software isn't made available to whatever 0.003% market share holding operating system that they use it's unreasonable. Common sense is simply unreasonable.

    Maybe if they came out with a service that had every track ever recorded for a penny a track (with ten for one pricing on weekends!) and no restrictions, that let you download it in a lossless format and you only paid on the honor system some of these people would use it.

    Probably not though. I certainly wouldn't count on it. The only thing that approaches how unreasonable the RIAA can be is the demands of the gimmie something for nothing crowd.

    Go ahead, Troll me. Like I give a shit.

    --
    Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
  340. iTunes in 3 easy steps (trust) by filmsmith · · Score: 1

    1) Launch iTunes
    2) Listen to music
    3) There is no step 3!

  341. Re: no real worries here.... by King_TJ · · Score: 1

    Realistically, the Apple "iApps" are what I'd call strictly "gateway" products. They're inexpensive to own for Mac users, easy for anyone to get started with (and in many cases, eventually grow out of), and generate a lot of positive press for Apple.

    By releasing the iTunes portion for Windows, they're just creating one more "bridge" to get people hooked on Apple products, software and services.

    You won't see them releasing iDVD for the PC, or even iPhoto. The most the Windows crowd is going to get is the iTunes portion of the suite - because it makes all those people potential Apple Music Store shoppers. (By contrast, Apple's service to get prints made of digital photos in iPhoto is actually done by a 3rd. party.)

    I don't think Apple really has their sites on competing with sales of PCs running Windows anyway. I mean, yes, they want to sell to the folks who are tired of their Windows experience, and want something different/new/better. (They did run all those "switcher" ads, after all.) But even Apple management themselves have been quoted as saying they'd "like to see Mac sales in the 10% to 15% range of computer sales". They're not making an effort to convert the "masses". They want to be an upscale minority alternative product - but hopfully one with enough sales and profit margin to make their business a very comfortable/long-lasting one.

    Apple doesn't sell at WalMart. They don't do "deep discount" offers via mass mailings like Dell tends to do. They won't even build a retail store unless it's in one of the shopping malls catering to the wealthiest people in a given community.

    There's no "selling out" going on here at all. Merely a few "tokens" thrown at Windows users to make money from use of Apple services, if they won't buy/use their systems themselves.

  342. Not such a dumb idea as you'd think. by phillymjs · · Score: 1

    iTunes was ported for profit. Safari would not be worth the trouble.

    iTunes was also ported, at least partially, to slow the adoption of WMA. On the surface, Safari for Windows seems like a dumb idea, but consider:

    -Microsoft not only abandoned the Mac browser market, but also is flat out ignoring cries to improve the standards-compliance of the Windows version now that they own the Windows browser market.

    -One of the biggest remaining gripes about Safari is that a lot of lazy web developers code for IE exclusively, and ignore complaints from users of other browsers or lock out non-IE browsers from even loading the IE-specific sites.

    If the most standards-compliant, most security hole-free, and easiest to use browser for Windows was a modest download from Apple.com, perhaps we'd see the Microsoft balkanization of the web come undone, and the web would return to the way it was imagined: platform-agnostic.

    That would benefit the Mac platform-- Apple would sell more Macs because willing people previously unable to switch because of that Windows-only web site they had to use as part of their job would then be able to.

    I'm neither for nor against Safari for Windows, I'm just pointing out that there are reasons why Apple might do it.

    ~Philly

  343. iBook Trounces PC by VeloDrax · · Score: 1

    My 800 MHz iBook can a rip a CD to iTunes faster than my 2.2GHz Celeron PC. I felt bad about how slow Microsoft Word performed on the G5, according to PC World, until now. I'm off to create all sorts of iTunes benchmarks comparing Macs to PCs...now we'll see who's fastest after all.

    1. Re:iBook Trounces PC by JoJoFine · · Score: 1

      hey i found the problem!!! you're using a crappy pos celeron

  344. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by nemiak · · Score: 1

    MDI is a UI abomination

  345. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by Josuah · · Score: 1

    True, but in Windows, you can drag the data and hold it over a taskbar button, and that app will become active. So drag and drop still works with maximized windows.

    That is less intuitive that just dragging to where you want something to go. Like one text selection in one application to somewhere in a body of text in another application. Or photos in iPhoto to clips in iMovie.

    Plus, I can never get drag-and-drop to do what I want it to do in Windows. It always does something unexpected with the content, document, or whatever I am dragging. The destination doesn't seem to be aware of what it is receiving unless you tell it.

  346. Re:iTunes does not support AUTHENTICATING proxies by martinX · · Score: 1

    I'm using iTunes on XP while sitting behind a very restrictive firewall and I can't get out. Mind you, I can't get out with anything (e.g. WMP, Real, QT Player although QT movs embedded in a web page are fine, Music Match track name lookups ) except a browser. If iTunes uses anything besides port 80, that could be the problem.

    --
    When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
  347. Re:Great! kind of by nordicfrost · · Score: 2, Funny
    On my Mac, I ran iTunes and clicked 'Share Library'. On the Win2000 machine my Mac's music library automatically appeared in the left panel. No complex setup either.


    I just wish I was a big enough computer wiz to get sound in Debian under a 2.4 kernel. But nooo...


    My newx computer purchase will be a Mac.

  348. Not Impressed Yet by MrEnigma · · Score: 1

    Not really impressed with it yet. Grabbed it at work this morning, went to add around 30,000 mp3's....it worked for awhile and promptly crapped out on me.

    --
    GeekWares - Buy and Download Today!
  349. Re:In other news, Winamp 5 Beta got leaked... by JoJoFine · · Score: 1

    WOW all i can say itunes just met its death. winamp 5 looks like it'll be dominant at its final release. winamp 3 is was a joke

  350. Does it install QT? by Winterblink · · Score: 1

    Just a quickie question for you guys who've completed the installation, does it actually require Quicktime to be installed? I'm not a big fan of QT at all, so I'd rather not bother if it's going to piggyback on the install.

    --
    "I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
    -Hoban Washburn
    1. Re:Does it install QT? by JoJoFine · · Score: 1

      ya i actually think it requires qt installed in order to work

  351. Re:While I like the idea... by blugu64 · · Score: 1

    I think I sort of agree with you. I find these DRM terms pretty darn good. The prices a tad high for me (as I'm in college and you guys know how that goes), but if I weren't in college I think the prices would be fair(Speaking on which I wonder if I can get a student discount on the iTunes Music Store!). I know some people as you were describing, who will not pay a dime for a song if they can get it free, "legal niceties or not"(heard that somewhere). You do raise a very good point, mod up!

    --
    "Personal ownership is a hallmark of conservative capitalism. And I don't believe I am entitled to anything that I did n
  352. Is Internet Explorer rendering the store? by easyfrag · · Score: 1

    Anyone know if its IE thats rendering the Music Store in the Windows port? And if not...

    1. Re:Is Internet Explorer rendering the store? by WatertonMan · · Score: 1

      It's not. People checked. It sounds like they've ported WebKit over. I suspect that they've done a lot of foundational work that will presumably carry over to future products.

    2. Re:Is Internet Explorer rendering the store? by WatertonMan · · Score: 1

      Webobjects is the server side of things, isn't it? Webcore is the display side on the client. (I may well be wrong -- but that's how I understand it)

  353. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by FattMattP · · Score: 1, Insightful
    The Mac OS and the QuickTime APIs have no concept of a "Multiple Document Interface" as Microsoft calls it.
    That's fantastic but MDI has nothing to do with maximizing a window. The point he was making is that Apple isn't following the windowing conventions of the target window manager. Mac users bitch and moan when Windows apps are ported to the Mac but don't follow the Mac UI look and feel. Now Apple ports Mac software to windows and windows users bitch that it doesn't work like a windows app (and rightly so). Oh well, ya can't please everyone. (and how hypocrytical of Apple)
    --
    Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
  354. Two examples: by grolschie · · Score: 1

    APT:
    apt is innovative. Can you update every single piece of software on your machine in one hit on a Mac or Windows pc? Ahhh nope. With apt (and provided you only install apps with apt - not a problem there), you can.

    X Windows:
    You aren't stuck with a default Window Manager with Linux (yes with MacOS X you can change WM also nowdays) - you can use any that you like, and installation in most cases is trivial (not quite so easy with Mac OS X).

    Neither APT or X Windows are compulsary, and I consider these as innovated in comparison to other OS's.

    1. Re:Two examples: by statusbar · · Score: 1

      Those are not that unique.

      Apple Software Update updates all of my built-in software, including this iTunes update. Tell me, does apt update the nvidia driver automatically too? My redhat 8 box is a pain in the butt whenever I have to update the kernel, I have to manually (well, scripted) recompile alsa and nvidia in runlevel 3. If apt can do that for me, I'll install debian on that box instead.

      As for X Windows and different WM's, that's not so special. Windows has alternative window managers too, and XFree86 runs on Windows AND Mac - I use them constantly.

      I think GLADE qualifies as a decent linux innovation. I like designing GUI's with Glade much better than MFC/Borland Builder/Mac IB. What else?

      --jeff++

      --
      ipv6 is my vpn
    2. Re:Two examples: by FlowerPotAdmin · · Score: 1

      Tell me, does apt update the nvidia driver automatically too?

      I dunno about apt, but Gentoo's portage system does.

      --
      -Justin
      That's enough posting for now lads, there're trolls afoot.
    3. Re:Two examples: by bursch-X · · Score: 1
      X Windows:
      You aren't stuck with a default Window Manager with Linux (yes with MacOS X you can change WM also nowdays) - you can use any that you like, and installation in most cases is trivial (not quite so easy with Mac OS X)

      Huh? Go to Apple's X11 download page. After the download the disk image will be mounted automatically and the installer will launch automatically. Install. Double click the X11 icon. Run X Windows.

      Now, that wasn't too hard was it? And with Panther even the download won't be necessary any more.
      --
      There are two rules for success:
      1. Never tell everything you know.
    4. Re:Two examples: by fupeg · · Score: 1

      Please do not try to claim that X Windows is an innovation of Linux. X Windows is from Unix. I was running it on Sun and SGI workstations more than ten years ago. X Windows is just another of Linux's borrowed ideas.

    5. Re:Two examples: by Darren.Moffat · · Score: 1

      Linux didn't invent or invovate X Windows. X Windows existed for years and years before the first line of code of the Linux kernel was ever written.

      The fact that X Windows isn't compulsary isn't an inovation in Linux either other UNIX systems hadbeen doing it for years before Linux the first line of Linux code was written.

      [ In case you wonder this flame was brought to you
      on a Linux system with X Windows where I choose to
      change settings of the default window manager ]

    6. Re:Two examples: by grolschie · · Score: 1

      Tell me, does apt update the nvidia driver automatically too?

      For those who use Debian, it sure does: http://packages.debian.org/...

      As for X Windows and different WM's, that's not so special. Windows has alternative window managers too, and XFree86 runs on Windows AND Mac - I use them constantly.

      Sure, aha, right....Can imacs running Mac 0S 9.2 (very common still) run a different WM? Is X Windows a no brainer to install on OS X? Really? Are WM's as trivial to install as in *nix? FYI, Cygwin runs X Windows over the top of the Windows WM. Can you run it INSTEAD of the Windows WM? Or is there another method?

    7. Re:Two examples: by statusbar · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the debian/nvidia info.

      As for the WM, it depends on what you are calling a window manager. Different widgets on the non-client areas of application windows? Virtual desktops? Different file browsing/exploring schemes? Windows and Mac have supported these for AGES. Hardly anyone uses them, though.

      X Windows IS a no-brainer to install on OS X. Really. I surfed to apple's X11 page, clicked download, ran the installer, and now I have an X11 icon to click, and can run gimp, gnome, and koffice locally on the mac.

      XFree86 on cygwin gives you all the capabilities that running XFree86 on Linux does, except that windows is slower on the same machine.

      All I am saying is that configurable widgets on non-client areas of application windows and virtual desktops is not really an innovation.

      --jeff++

      --
      ipv6 is my vpn
    8. Re:Two examples: by AndyElf · · Score: 1

      Neither is such a great innovation (more an improvement), and I would generally agree with the parent -- there is a lot more "copying" and "catching-up" than real "innovation" (although there is a certain amount of it, but I can't think of anything really striking). There are also thing like "improvement on ideas" -- that is definitely there, but largely because when one walks a path that's been walked on before it is easier to improve. With little legacy background it is easier to make changes.

      And, please, everyone's favorite PV of "I can use any of these 42 WMs" on *NIX -- that is not the point of using/running *NIX.

      --

      --AP
    9. Re:Two examples: by giblfiz · · Score: 1

      mod parent up.

      Apt is definitly a linux inovation, Xwindows is more of an old unix standby, so I don't think that really counts.

      And for all of those who have been saying that the OSX and Windows have software updates I would like to remind you just how old apt is. Its sort of unfair to discount our inovations because someone has got around to copying them.

    10. Re:Two examples: by giblfiz · · Score: 1

      Apple Software Update updates all of my built-in software, including this iTunes update.

      Are you implying that for software to be innovative it has to remain uncopied? apt was around long before the apple software update.

    11. Re:Two examples: by fupeg · · Score: 1
      Original post:
      Please tell me - what experimental innovative software is there available for Linux? ... The innovative software that I have I've seen running on Linux was not written with Linux in mind but was originally written for Unix/X11 before Linux existed.
      Response, titled "Two Examples":
      X Windows: You aren't stuck with a default Window Manager with Linux (yes with MacOS X you can change WM also nowdays) - you can use any that you like, and installation in most cases is trivial (not quite so easy with Mac OS X).
      My response simply states that his second example is not an example of something innovative done by Linux, but just another case of Linux cloning an existing technology.

      Also, it is not accurate to say that X-Windows has been overlooked by Microsoft and Apple. I run X-Windows everyday on my WinXP laptop using Exceed. No, that's not Microsoft technology and it's not free, but it is done very nicely and easily installed on any NT based OS. On the other hand, Apple provides their own free X11 client. So while Linux may rely on X-Windows, it didn't invent it and is just one of many OSes that support it.
    12. Re:Two examples: by superdan2k · · Score: 1

      In the case of apt, you aren't making a fair comparison. Apt works because there is a central repository for open source software...to get something similar on the Mac would require thousands of third-party vendors to cooperate on a single platform for delivering upgrades. Where the Mac (and Windows) have an advantage over apt is that neither of them require a recompile when upgrading to a new version of software. It's a binary patching job, something apt doesn't do. (At least not that I'm aware of. I didn't become a *nix junkie until OS X got me hooked.) Furthermore, this "innovation" seems to me to be about useless -- who on God's Green Earth wants to update everything at once? I know that there are certain upgrades I pointedly avoid, simply because I know that it will change the software in a way that is a hinderance to my workflow or my usual mode of operation. (I avoid upgrading to Canadian citizenship from U.S. citizenship, for example, because Canadian Mountain Dew does not have caffeine in it, and would be detrimental to my workflow.)

      As for X Windows being able to change the windows manager -- big deal. There's no such thing as a self-consistent GUI anymore. Not in X11, Windows, or Mac. All WMs, including XP and OS X, are easily skin-able, which should really be all you need to do, anyway.

      And back to the apt argument...fink, on OS X, does the exact same thing.

      My $0.02, anyway.

      --
      blog |
    13. Re:Two examples: by statusbar · · Score: 1

      Good point.

      NetBSD had a similiar system too, right?

      --jeff++

      --
      ipv6 is my vpn
    14. Re:Two examples: by grolschie · · Score: 1

      In the case of apt, you aren't making a fair comparison. Apt works because there is a central repository for open source software...to get something similar on the Mac would require thousands of third-party vendors to cooperate on a single platform for delivering upgrades.

      Is that "not fair" because they cannot compete? I don't see the difference between this and the current situation where 3rd parties who allow Microsoft to distribute their proprietary WDM drivers. Perhaps the difference is the limitation of the licensing of many apps on these platforms. For, many the licensing wouldn't allow distribution from such a repository.

      Where the Mac (and Windows) have an advantage over apt is that neither of them require a recompile when upgrading to a new version of software.

      I am not quite sure what you mean by having to recompile. Any recompiling is down by the distribution and placed in binary form on their ftp server for download. apt also has an option to download the source code and compile locally (great for those who believe in cpu optimization compiling).

      Furthermore, this "innovation" seems to me to be about useless -- who on God's Green Earth wants to update everything at once?

      Personally, I find apt extremely handy (the main reason for not using other dists), because I can have all my software updated (new versions, security fixes, bug fixes, etc) while I sleep (I am stuck with dial-up). That way I can have security updates asap, and the advantage that the bug fixes provide asap. Having everything in one repository also has the advantage of minimalizing the chance of file dependancy and compatibility issues.

      However, with my Windows machine, I have to visit WindowsUpdate, nero.com (often), etc, to update my system and most used apps, and also use the LiveUpdate from my Nortons to update my antivirus and firewall, etc. That to me is a clear advantage. Some of these can be automated, some cannot. The central repository for apt and apt itself is very innovative. Whether it's the software design, or the concept, it's still innovation.

    15. Re:Two examples: by konmaskisin · · Score: 1

      bsd in general

      cd /usr/ports/somepackage ; make all ; make install

    16. Re:Two examples: by konmaskisin · · Score: 1
      "in the case of apt, you aren't making a fair comparison. Apt works because there is a central repository for open source software."


      not a requirement ... FreeBSD ports system fetches source from all over the place.

    17. Re:Two examples: by grolschie · · Score: 1

      Good point. I have plenty of different urls in my /etc/apt/sources.list

  355. finally a TOLERABLE Visualization by linuxlover · · Score: 1

    I just fumbled with it for a couple mins on winXP @ work. One cool thing I liked is that 'Visual Effect' with Apple and orange electric lines...really sweet.

    The default vis-effect in Media Player makes me dis-oriented. (I don't know if any good replacement viz-plugins are available. But if the default is crap, it definitly leaves a bad taste about the App)

    1. Re:finally a TOLERABLE Visualization by soliptic · · Score: 1
      For the best viz I'm aware of on Windows, get yourself Winamp 2.91 + Milkdrop.

      All my housemates agree that Milkdrop looks nicer on my PC with generic gfx card and monitor than iTunes viz looks on my housemate's Dual G4 with TFT flatscreen - its awesome.

  356. Re:In other news, Winamp 5 Beta got leaked... by JoJoFine · · Score: 1

    only thing from your list winamp5 beta is missing is the music store and i refuse to pay 99cents for DRM music i cant play on other programs

  357. Re:Great! kind of by prockcore · · Score: 1


    Click on 'Share Music' on computer A.
    Click on shared music on computer B.
    Press 'Play'

    Brilliant Idea!


    Yes it is, but it's not apple's idea. ZeroConf is an open standard invented by the IETF.

  358. Sight seen on apple's website... by EaTiN+cOfFeE+bEaNs · · Score: 1

    "Hell froze over. Introducing iTunes for Windows. The best Windows app ever." ...sounds about right to me...

    --
    No TiVo and no caffeine make me something something...
  359. w2k itunes Out of memory? by Flamesplash · · Score: 1

    I just installed itunes on my w2k machine and whenever i try to do things with the music store, ie create a login or bring up their main site I get an out of memory error. I have 256MB ram with 1GB virtual memory and I usually hover about 300MB memory usage, nothing else complains though.

    Any idea?

    --
    "Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
    1. Re:w2k itunes Out of memory? by fpg888 · · Score: 1

      I'm having the same problem with XP. I have 1 gig of RAM. No idea why it's happening.

    2. Re:w2k itunes Out of memory? by fpg888 · · Score: 1

      I just disabled norton and now it works.

    3. Re:w2k itunes Out of memory? by Flamesplash · · Score: 1

      Ha, I don't have norton but I think it may have been my mcafee virus scan or my pop up blocker :P

      --
      "Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
  360. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by madcow_ucsb · · Score: 1

    Yeah I really wish they'd figure that out in windows. Half the time I drag something into, say, a word doc, I end up with an icon in my doc. When I double-click it, then it opens the embedded thing in the other app. Now I as a user would expect to see a printable representation show up there.

    And as for dragging over the taskbar button - I didn't even know you could do that till about a year ago. Frankly it had never occured to me to try.

  361. Except by Snaller · · Score: 1

    Different from what we are accustomed to is bad - we don't wanna to be able to take the car apart, just be able to start it.

    --
    If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
  362. Re:Great! kind of by DF5JT · · Score: 1

    " I can't really think of a killer app for Linux that would drive average users to Linux."

    I can: mplayer

    Show me something like that on a Mac or on XP.

    streaming audio, streaming video, encoding all kinds of formats, playing virtually all available audio and video formats.

    And all you do is type "mplayer "

    Now that's a killer app and it's cool.

  363. blah by mantera · · Score: 1


    this is just a digital storefront

    For someone who's not interested in buying music from itunes this software offers me very little; it's quite limited compared to many windows offerings. For example, winamp is a much better player of music, windows media player is a better organizer of files, and realone offers a lot of online content and i would argue beats itunes in terms of having that "apple" look.

    It hardly offers anything new, except perhaps the AAC conversion, which is debateable whether i'd be interested in considering ogg vorbis or xvid, or even windows media 9.

    1. Re:blah by Kevinv · · Score: 1

      So you're saying it takes 3 windows apps to beat one Mac app?

    2. Re:blah by mantera · · Score: 1

      what i'm saying is that other than being the best way to access the itunes it fails to offer anything else of value. Go over to betanews and see winamp 5, now that's a truly wonderful player. I have it running on my machine now and it's absolutely lovely. Each one of those players i mentioned is better than itunes at anything other than accessing itunes.

  364. Having my cake and eating it too by Tenzen01 · · Score: 1

    So I downloaded the iTunes software today and started playing around with it. This thing is great! I got so tired of dealing with endless searching on P2P services for the songs I wanted, dealing with slow and incomplete downloads, and you could never count on the quality...

    Now I can quickly search, find what I want, and download a good quality song fast! I then started to wish I could convert the songs into MP3 format so I could copy them onto my Web based MP3 Server, and my Nomad Jukebox portable player.

    At that point I broke out my Apple AAC file encryption cracking tool (a 3 inch male-to-male stereo connector cable that I used to short-circuit my Headphone jack to my Line-in jack) and then ran Audiograbber to capture and encode to Mp3 all at once. Audiograbber has this great feature to automatically break the catpure file up based upon breaks in the audio feed.

    Now I can download from iTunes and yet have mp3's too.

  365. My Review by ljavelin · · Score: 2, Informative

    OK, I just did it... I tried iTunes for the first time.

    My Sister has a Mac and has used iTunes since the spring - and she has told me on several times how much she loves it.

    I don't own a Mac (or an iPod), but for my sister to give a glowing review is a rarity - so I figured I'd try the windows version when it came out.

    I'm a 20% Windows user. The other 80% of the time I'm a linux guy, with Linux on my main machines at work and at home. But I also have a Windows 2000 PC at home for things like Visio and Microsoft Money [blush].

    So I fired up that w2k machine and then fired up Mozilla and downloaded the iTunes for Windows software. The download was uneventful. I fired up the installer.

    The installer is much like any other Windows installer - a license agreement and some basic questions about the install process, and you're good to go. I did have to reboot after the installation, but hey, I'm used to that with Windows.

    After the reboot I fired up iTunes. I checked out the internet radio stuff (very easy to use), and then I went right to the iTunes store and started poking around. I did some searches for some stuff I'd expect them to have (Pink Floyd, Beck, etc)... and found everything that I was looking for.

    The search feature was very easy to use: basically, you just type what you're looking for and it gives you a sorted result set. Pretty basic stuff.

    From there I "previewed" some of the results. Simply clicking on a line item plays a portion of the song. It was good quality, and they had a nice fade-in/fade-out.

    From there, I decided "what the hell" and downloaded Beck's latest album. The price was $9.99, which is a bit cheaper than the cheap stores.

    iTunes asked me to log in or to set up a new account. Of course, I chose to set up a new account. It asked me for some very basic information - the biggest thing being my credit card information.

    Then the download began. It was fast and uneventful.

    After the download, I figured I'd burn the Beck album on a CD. Usually this is a pain in the butt for me, since I have crappy manufacturer-provided CD burning software.

    This is where iTunes was INCREDIBLE. It opened my CDR drive and asked me to insert a disk. I did. From there, it told me to click "burn". I did. And then it burned the album.

    It was way easy. You have to ask why other software is so much more a pain in the butt.

    15 minutes later the CD was done, and iTunes gave me a little "ding!". I popped the new CD out of the drive and played it in my regular old CD player. Flawless.

    That's all I've done so far.

    It's impressive how simple iTunes is and how well it works. It doesn't do amazing things - but it does what it does very very well.

    Now I see. iTunes is simple and elegant. I'm going to try to download the same music off the net and see how well I do. Although I've downloaded music off the net before, it has never been so freakin' simple.

    I hope Linux developers take heed of Apple's progress in simplicity. I'm not an Apple fan, but I must say that iTunes is on the top of the heap so far.

    Now I wish there was an iTunes for Linux.

    1. Re:My Review by ColMustard · · Score: 1

      This post made me laugh. You are raving about how easy it is to burn a CD? Being a Mac user forever, I guess I take basic stuff like that for granted.

      --
      Moof.
    2. Re:My Review by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      I, too, used to care where my MP3's were on the HD. That was before any good jukebox software existed. Once iTunes (Mac) came out, I soon stopped caring. It's so easy to manage MP3s from iTunes, that doing it by the file system is pointless.

      But if you insist on continuing to do it through the file system, just get MP3 Rage and let it batch rename and organize everything. That will take all of 10 minutes of your time.

    3. Re:My Review by aaronvegh · · Score: 2, Insightful
      If you're not an Apple fan after that experience, I don't know what'll convince you. What impressed you so much about iTunes would blow you away at the OS level. Spend some more quality time with your sister, and while you're at it, try out her Mac! You'll be amazed.

      This is the best move Apple could've made: a truly viral move into the Windows world. Excellent work Apple!

      --
      You can have my one-button mouse when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
    4. Re:My Review by stingerman101 · · Score: 1

      I never even thought about were the tracks are stored on my Mac, there has never been a reason to work outside of iTunes to manage my tracks. On my wifes Compaq using WMP9 and a Creative Muvo 128 MP3, we are always having to jump between explorer and WMP to copy tracks to the MP3 and even to find tracks is a pain as over time the ended up in different places. I downloaded iTunes for Windows for her and the first cool thing was now she can see my entire music library and play it and I can see hers. It works great and is a lot more elegant than WMP9 IMO for what we do. I like the fact that I can encode in MP3 and burn MP3 as well. Too burning is so easy as is ripping. Apple did it right for the common user. most users who have found some faults with it, seem to be the kind that like to fiddle with the underpinnings. Being in the computer industry since the PC industry started, I like things to just work, I hate wasting my time on poor implementations. Congrats Apple!

  366. Re:Great! kind of by statusbar · · Score: 1

    So then why doesn't any Linux music player programs support this??? And why does Apple's?

    --jeff++

    --
    ipv6 is my vpn
  367. Re:Great! kind of by momerath2003 · · Score: 1

    Yes, but it's up to Apple to implement them in such a useful way.

    --
    I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
  368. Re:Great! kind of by auntfloyd · · Score: 1

    Now UNIX refers to a set of unwritten API and user interface conventions.

    What is "unwritten" about POSIX? And UNIX does have UI conventions: Motif. It's just that that convention sucks.

  369. We call it alt-tab by caitsith01 · · Score: 1

    And it lets us windows lusers 'bounce between applications' just as readily as any Mac user.

    Frankly I prefer a GUI that let's ME decide if I want an app to fill the whole screen or not. If I want things to be tiled or cascading or whatever then *I* can make that choice. Think different, yall.

    I also kinda feel Apple should conform to the Windows standard if they want to release Windows programs. Everyone else does, it's not about conforming to the Evil Empire's laws, it's about usability. Why do I need 99 applications that behave one way and 1 that does it's own thing simply because people on another system with a different version of the program like it to be different.

    Let's put it this way - would you like it if someone released a major app for OS X that was forcibly skinned to look like Windows 2000 and only allowed Windows-style document handling? Or would you choke on your lattes with rage and indignation?

    --
    Read Pynchon.
    1. Re:We call it alt-tab by curious.corn · · Score: 1

      Ok, frankly you should remove winamp from your pc now! WMP? Oh, I suppose that shold go too...
      I'm afraid you're simply feeling the pain of using a cool user friendly GUI while jumping into microsoft app hell ;-)

      --
      Mi domando chi à il mandante di tutte le cazzate che faccio - Altan
  370. Re:Great! kind of by lovethedj · · Score: 1

    Umm... you certainly are "free" to study the OS X kernel (also known as Darwin), or Quicktime Streaming Server or Rendezvous...

    I personally believe Apple has made good use of the open source concept - the issue is that one of Apple's best assets is the IP behind user experiences, UIs, and making things simple - this is the stuff they aren't going to give away for free - and shouldn't - its what makes Apple, Apple.

    Try and copy/paste text between all of your Linux apps... its hard enough just between, say KDE apps, and pretty darn impossible between different GUI frameworks... what percentage actualyl works?

  371. 99 cents is too high by caitsith01 · · Score: 1

    I'm not going to pay 99c per track for no album art and no physical disc. Plus let's not forget that the distribution cost to Apple is relatively miniscule compared to the cost of shipping a bunch of physical objects around the world. Nonetheless, for a reasonable length CD - 10-12 tracks - this doesn't really work out any cheaper.

    I think something in the order of 20-30c a track would be reasonable. Let's also remember they're trying to compete with free.

    --
    Read Pynchon.
    1. Re:99 cents is too high by Kevinv · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They're competing with free pretty darn well considering they've sold 13 million songs (with a library of only 250,000) so far.

      Personally I agree that .99 is too much. Most likely this won't go down until the RIAA method of collecting and distributing monies to artists is changed. With e-music (my preferred service) changing to a 3 cd per month limit (for $10 each month) the Apple Store is looking better to me (except for the rights restrictions)

    2. Re:99 cents is too high by caitsith01 · · Score: 1

      They have made a remarkable number of sales, but as I understand it the numbers are falling quite alarmingly.

      We'll see how iTunes is faring in 12 months, I think that will give a fairer picture of whether they have a good model in place.

      --
      Read Pynchon.
    3. Re:99 cents is too high by LemonYellow · · Score: 1

      No, the numbers appear to be accelerating. Cut the FUD.

    4. Re:99 cents is too high by Villageidiot9390 · · Score: 1

      I honestly wish that people would quit bitching that 99 cents a track is too high because they have to compete with free. iTMS is a legal service, while kazaa, edonkey, etc, if you download mp3s from those services, then it is ILLEGAL. For one, there is Album Artwork, you just have to enable it in iTunes. And if the physical disc means that much to you, burn it to cd. They are what, 10cents a disc nowadays and most modern computers come equipped with CD-RW drives. 20-30 cents a track would put apple right out of business. They have to pay credit card processing fees, pay fees to the labels, and pay the artist as well. They don't get as much as you would think that they would after all of this. So quit your bitching, slashdot wanted a system for downloading music at a resonable price and they got it. Now they are still bitching. Some people will just never be happy.

    5. Re:99 cents is too high by Chiron+Taltos · · Score: 1

      First, Apple is not competing with free. The categories are: Legal and Illegal. Apple is competing with the Legal digital music sites. Your "free" sites are Illegal. Second, let's remember you do not know how to run a business. Something which is rather obvious from your naive, simple comments on cost and pricing.

      --
      CT

    6. Re:99 cents is too high by clf8 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you're going to buy and entire album, I still consider CDs to be your best bet. It may cost more, but you get quality and all the nice physical medium. BUT, for a song or two off an album, it's no doubt the way to go. Worst case, you buy a couple of songs off the store and later buy the whole CD later. Of course, then it would be nice to be able to sell those two songs you bought to someone else, but whatever.

    7. Re:99 cents is too high by MuckSavage · · Score: 1

      Most, if not all, credit card companies won't authorize transactions for less than 99 cents. It doesn't make them any money.

    8. Re:99 cents is too high by Kevinv · · Score: 1

      Apple accumulates credit card purchases and sends them at the end of the day, so if you make 4 $.99 purchases they bill you at one shot for $3.96.

      And I guess Apple does enough business that the companies don't whine too much about 13 million $.99 charges.

    9. Re:99 cents is too high by stingerman101 · · Score: 1

      A copy of coffee in New York costs me 1.10 now at the local store and I piss it out within the hour. 99 cents is cheap since I don't have to buy a whole album where only two or three songs are good. I used to have a personal rule that I wouldn't buy a CD unless I liked three songs on it, besides Linkin Park, Frida, AND Norah Jones, I have not purchased any other CD's lately. With iTunes Music Store however, I have been buying tracks left and right. Listening to genre's I never would have experimented with otherwise. So how much does a track cost you, when you buy a whole CD for only the couple of tracks you really want? 99 Cents couldn't be cheaper! And, I bet you in one one years time, the cost will be 1.09 and I'd still be happy to pay it for the luxury of choosing what I want.

    10. Re:99 cents is too high by caitsith01 · · Score: 1

      First, let's remember you're a big jerk.

      Second, they are competing with free. Just because it's illegal doesn't mean people don't do it.

      Third, I do run a business, pal. But don't let that worry you. I'm sure it's obvious to a business savant like yourself that the *only* effective price level for selling music on-line is in the well known '99 cents or above' category.

      --
      Read Pynchon.
    11. Re:99 cents is too high by caitsith01 · · Score: 1

      Good point - I guess I was looking at it from the perspective of someone who would never dream of buying a single. Most of the music I listen to would be worthless to me as a bunch of single tracks.

      Maybe they just need to add better discounting for albums or larger volume purchases. I mean, $4-8 for an album is much more reasonable than $10-$20 depending on the number of tracks.

      --
      Read Pynchon.
    12. Re:99 cents is too high by caitsith01 · · Score: 1

      "A copy of coffee in New York costs me 1.10"

      Using the cost of living in NY as the basis of a realistic discussion about pricing is not a good start IMHO.

      "So how much does a track cost you, when you buy a whole CD for only the couple of tracks you really want?"

      Well, I would say you should be looking for better music if you have this problem.

      --
      Read Pynchon.
    13. Re:99 cents is too high by caitsith01 · · Score: 1

      "20-30 cents a track would put apple right out of business."

      You don't know that. Neither does Apple, unless 20-30c is lower than the actual unit cost to them of selling a track, which I strongly doubt.

      If they lowered it to 25c a track they might find they have 50 million users downloading 10 tracks a week. Even if their profit was only 1c a track they could make $5 million a week.

      Obviously I just made those numbers up, but I don't believe that it is necessarily unprofitable to lower prices because of the nature of the demand for on-line music. My point with saying they were competing with free was meant to be that the closer you get to free the more of the millions of Kazaa users are going to be willing to pay for the service.

      And they DO have to compete with Kazaa, even if it's illegal. Illegal does not mean 'not real.'

      --
      Read Pynchon.
    14. Re:99 cents is too high by Villageidiot9390 · · Score: 1

      How much apple makes per song If Apple only makes about 35cents a song, then 64cents is going to the labels. Therefore, just to breakeven, Apple would need to sell music at the price of 64cents. And not necessarily compete with KaZaA, just prove to the standard everyday user that buying music legally is better than downloading music.

    15. Re:99 cents is too high by Chiron+Taltos · · Score: 1

      I didn't say you don't run a business. I said you don't know how to run a business. History is littered with businesses which have failed from people who didn't know what they were doing.

      --
      CT

  372. Re:Great! kind of by statusbar · · Score: 1

    That is the key, isn't it.

    Apple is researching user habits and asking the users what they want to do, and then uses the appropriate technology to do it.

    --jeff++

    --
    ipv6 is my vpn
  373. Re:Great! kind of by Ilan+Volow · · Score: 1

    Considering how hostile the linux community tends to be towards interface designers, it's really not surprising that most of the Linux desktop applications that are turned out are unusable crap.

    UI design has always been extremely devalued in the Linux community. It is seen as nowhere near as important as something technical like kernel hacking, and this can be clearly seen in the amount of resources spent both in manpower in the developer communities (e.g. Debian) and in money by Linux distribution companies, like Red Hat. Red Hat spent $650,000,000 buying out a technical company like Cygnus, and then their programmers tell me their software is so unusable because they don't have the money for a usability department. And to think this company actually thinks it deserves a piece of the desktop pie. Until Red Hat spends $50,000,000 to buy out the Nielsen Norman Group, their software shouldn't be used on anything that runs outside of a server closet.

    Even if an interface designer manages to get his foot into the door of an Linux project, the crap he or she is put through by Linux coders makes them so ineffective at changing the course of the interface development that it's pointless to join the project in the first place.

    To begin with, in order to make a really good, consistent, integrated user interface, you have to design the UI before any major coding is done. Technical decisions influence the UI, and you can never totally abstract it away. Too often, a technical decision is made before the UI is designed, and then when the UI is 'grafted' on in the form of a front-end on top of the technical stuff, it's just too out of sync and there's no really integrated feel like some of the Apple apps have.

    Linux desktop software would be so much better if the folks designing it would just figure out the user interaction first and then write the code. But this conflicts with the traditionalist unix
    ideology on software development, so it's not done. In fact, pretty much any tenet of UI design that clashes in any way the The Unix Philosophy gets thrown out, no matter how much it might improve the UI. And there's damn nothing the interface designer can do about it because he or she doesn't have the ability to code and change it back.

    And then there's the issue of the coders' geeky preferences outweighing the user interface designer's knowledge and experience. If there's a button that's just not working out in some location and the coder feels its perfectly okay there, guess what happens? The button stays there. Or maybe it's just that the coder doesn't want to put in the 2 seconds of work to change it, and tells the interface designer that if he wants to change it, he can damn well write the code for it himself. And again, if the user interface designer can't code, then the unusable design is just gonna stay that way. If anyone reads the GPL, they will see that they are permitted to modify the software and make it better. If they read the fine print, they will find this freedom only pertains to programmers.

    Especially in light of all this stupidity, I think it's perfectly fair to expect Linux coders to consistantly produce interfaces on par with professional user interface designs, as they keep trying to convince CIO's and IT managers to force desktop Linux as a replacement for Windows in corporations and schools. If Linux coders want to declare themselves "only hobbyists" and refuse to take blame for their bad designs, then they need to go back to the server closet they came from. The desktop needs developers serious about providing excellent usability to end users. It doesn't need volunteers.

    Just so no one accuses me of having an anti-programmer bent, I should also add that part of the reason why Apple succeeds where Linux fails is because the mac users have a culture of criticizing unusable software. They will not take an ounce of crap from developers and will vocally express their opinions about the software they use. Contrast this

    --
    Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
  374. Re:(SCREENSHOTS) Re:And it's about time! by bursch-X · · Score: 1

    Hmmm. I'm afraid you misinterpreted the term "shaving your pussy"...

    --
    There are two rules for success:
    1. Never tell everything you know.
  375. Re:Great! kind of by clarkcox3 · · Score: 1

    Actually, AppleTalk had all of the main features of ZeroConf back in the 80's. ZeroConf was actually patterned after AppleTalk.

    --
    There are no tiger attacks in my area and it's all because this rock I'm holding keeps the tigers away.
  376. Re:Great! kind of by CptChipJew · · Score: 1

    It was Apple's idea to take ZeroConf and apply it to sharing music.

    THAT is brilliant.

    --
    Vonal Declosion
  377. Re:here's a tip for ya by caitsith01 · · Score: 1

    "Stop being such a control freak and you'll learn much more about good software"

    Ahem... 'good software' wouldn't make major (unneccesary) changes to a file system as a default option IMHO. And if it were about to do so on an OS where such behaviour is quite out of the ordinary, it would need to go to extraordinary lengths to make it clear to users that this is what is about to happen. I think it would be a characteristic of 'good software' that the bigger the amount of fcuking around with a system you are about to do, the louder you ask for permission to do so.

    I'm just glad I became aware of this now, before I installed this software and let it eat my MP3s.

    --
    Read Pynchon.
  378. Decent, but not best-of-breed by koreth · · Score: 1
    If I were looking at iTunes as a WinAmp user, it would probably seem absolutely amazing. But although it's a pretty nice app and reasonably powerful, I'm not sure I'll be able to bring myself to switch over from Media Jukebox, which I've been using for the last couple of years, because its playlist management is a lot less powerful than I'm used to.

    MJ has had the "make a playlist out of query parameters" feature for years, but takes it further: you can define custom fields in the database and search on them (though to be fair, iTunes already includes the things I used those custom fields for.) More importantly, its notion of (non-dynamic) playlists is much more flexible -- you can use a song's presence on a static playlist as a query parameter for a smartlist. I've come to think of playlists as a way of attaching attributes to songs. It's a much more flexible, nuanced way to represent things like genre, where multiple values can easily apply to a song.

    How is that useful? Well, for example, I have a playlist of background music for dinner parties. If I'm serving Mexican food one night, I can whip up a quick smartlist that says, "Play all the songs on both the Dinner playlist and the Latin playlist." Or better, if I decide I only want instrumental pieces, "Play all the songs on both the Dinner playlist and the Latin playlist, except ones on the Has Lyrics playlist."

    As far as I can tell, other than putting lists of keywords in the Comments field and doing string searches, there's no way to do flexible user-data-driven queries like that in iTunes. You can add a song to a playlist, but the playlist is a data sink -- you can't leverage it for anything else. (If I'm wrong about that, please clue me in!)

    MJ also has a robust plugin interface for audio codecs, rip/burn capability, a built-in sound editor if you want to make a mix CD with fancy effects, ReplayGain support (same as iTunes' volume leveling), and supports downloading to a variety of portable MP3 players. The latest incarnation can also manage libraries of video files.

    Other than the selection at the iTunes Store, I don't see a single thing iTunes gives me that I haven't already been enjoying for years with my existing software.

    1. Re:Decent, but not best-of-breed by Bigbluejerk · · Score: 1

      iTunes has smart playlists. Lots of customization is possible. http://www.apple.com/itunes/smartplaylists.html A new website has sprung up for sharing smart playlists for iTunes: http://smartplaylists.com/

    2. Re:Decent, but not best-of-breed by koreth · · Score: 1

      I agree that it has smart playlists, but they are limited in scope by the fact that they can only query the specific fields that Apple has predefined in the software. How would you do my "dinner, Latin, no lyrics" example with iTunes? It's about a ten-second operation in MJ, and after a couple hours playing with iTunes, I still can't see any way to do it there short of using a text field to keep lists of keywords.

    3. Re:Decent, but not best-of-breed by Bigbluejerk · · Score: 1

      Okay, I see what you mean. In iTunes, you would have to add "No lyrics" to the comment fields of those songs (select all of them and 'get info' to change them).

      Submit your criticisms as feedback and maybe Apple will implement them in a future release.

      http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunes.html

    4. Re:Decent, but not best-of-breed by Kevinv · · Score: 1

      Yeah the ability to make a playlist based on other playlists is much needed (I'm hoping there is yet another iTunes in Panther that adds it, this update doesn't).

      Combining two playlists is easy since you could make a new list, select all the songs and drag & drop them to the new list to add them. But saying "pick all songs from list a that aren't in list b" would be cool.

      Media Jukebox seems to support more audio formats (no AAC yet, probably a license fee for that,) I really want OGG support on my iPod.

      The 3 advantages iTunes has over Media Jukebox are:

      a) iPod support (Media Jukebox supports a lot of players but I didn't see that listed)
      b) iTunes is free
      c) Apple Music Store

    5. Re:Decent, but not best-of-breed by X86BSD · · Score: 1

      That's because MJ is trying to compete *against* Apple. And after today all the other music services are going to have their nuts crushed in a vice. It's game over. They were all given notice today. Life support will only keep them around for so long.

    6. Re:Decent, but not best-of-breed by wilko11 · · Score: 1
      You can probably do what you want, but it isn't as nice as it should be -
      Your iTunes library is available in XML format, have a look in
      C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes
      It would be pretty simple to write some code to generate static playlists based on the contents of other playlists, but it would be nice if Apple provided it "out of the box". Feel free to request it here - if enough people want it, it may happen.
    7. Re:Decent, but not best-of-breed by koreth · · Score: 1
      iPod support isn't built in, but there is a plugin for it (currently in beta, according to the MJ website -- see their player plugins page.) Free is nice, but unless it's free as in speech with source code I can fiddle, that's not a big concern for me -- I was happy to pay for MJ given how much I use it. The Apple Music Store is definitely slick, though. Hopefully MJ's developers will see fit to release a QuickTime plugin to play the iTunes files -- if they just launch the existing embedded QuickTime player (the same one Web browsers use) I can't imagine there'd be a licensing issue.

      Meanwhile, it's possible to play AAC files without loss in MJ by converting them to raw PCM (burn to a CD-RW if need be) then compressing them with Monkey's Audio or FLAC. Not exactly compact or elegant, but converting from AAC to MP3/OGG probably results in files that don't sound so great. For me that's a bearable process as long as I don't start buying huge numbers of tracks.

      Actually, I find that now that I'm using iRate Radio my inclination to purchase music is pretty low -- there's enough good stuff for free out there (legal, even) that unless I want a specific song, I'm happy to let iRate supply me with a steady stream of new music.

  379. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by ColMustard · · Score: 1

    Why you would want a single application to take over the entire screen is beyond me. It must be a Windows-user thing.

    --
    Moof.
  380. How much more wrong could you be? by LMariachi · · Score: 1

    The answer is none. None more wrong.

  381. Re:Great! kind of by bursch-X · · Score: 1

    ZeroConf was first and foremost started by an Apple Employee. Yes the IETF got behind it very early, but after all it's Apple's baby, even if they call it Rendezvous.

    --
    There are two rules for success:
    1. Never tell everything you know.
  382. For those songs I just can't get on Kazaa... by Powercntrl · · Score: 1

    I'm gonna be perfectly honest, free is still better than 99. iTunes has a great selection of current airplay singles and that's why I'm not ignoring them altogether... A good copy of a new song is notoriously hard to get due to OverPeer and the like releasing fscked up copies with skips, loops, beeps and swooshes.

    There's still a much greater selection of older stuff on Kazaa, not to mention parodies, amature remixes and other crazy home-made stuff that shows up on Kazaa. (Eminem vs Brittany Spears, Ghostbusters vs Michael Jackson's Bad, MMMBurp, Hummer Girls, all the Budwiser American hero ads, etc.)

    --

    ---
    DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
  383. Re:Er, why? MS doesn't play by apple's law.... by caitsith01 · · Score: 1

    Hey, those 'applications' don't even behave correctly on a Windows machine :(

    I think anyone who is actually keen on the Windows system as a serious environment will have replaced iExplorer with Mozilla and replaced Media Player with Winamp 2.7x in about 2 seconds flat.

    --
    Read Pynchon.
  384. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by FattMattP · · Score: 1
    Apple has ported an application with a universally lauded user interface to Windows with nary a change to be seen. Windows users now have the opportunity to use one of the finest user interfaces currently available. They've got no business complaining that it's lame because it doesn't suck in the ways they're accustomed to. Learn to do things in a better way.
    Your better way isn't my better way. I expect all the applications to be consistent in their appearance and function when I use a computer.
    --
    Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
  385. Re:Rendering engine? KHTML? by bnenning · · Score: 1
    The Mac version uses KHTML (also used in Safari)


    No, it doesn't. iTunes gets custom XML from the store (a WebObjects app, of course) and uses it to build a UI. You can run ethereal or another packet sniffer and watch the transactions.

    --
    How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
  386. Questions by caitsith01 · · Score: 1

    1/ Does anyone know if iTunes communicates information about your music collection to Apple or anyone else (e.g. the RIAA)?

    2/ When you buy a song can you download it again the future if it gets deleted somehow? Can you download it in multiple formats?

    3/ How does the ripping quality compare to CDEx and co?

    4/ Do you have to install Quicktime (personally I hate QT because it doesn't behave like a windows app and it comandeers my web browsers and file formats, stupid POS)?

    5/ What's the deal with AAC on Windows?

    6/ Do you have to wear a black turtleneck and jeans to make it work correctly?

    --
    Read Pynchon.
    1. Re:Questions by LVWolfman · · Score: 1

      1/ Does anyone know if iTunes communicates information about your music collection to Apple or anyone else (e.g. the RIAA)?

      I haven't checked this yet... but my Kerio personal firewall should make it easy for me to find out. I can then monitor the port used with one of my packet sniffers. Will investigate and try to post the results to this thread this weekend.

      2/ When you buy a song can you download it again the future if it gets deleted somehow? Can you download it in multiple formats?

      You can only download in AAC format. Yes, you can download it again and again and again... provided you don't change your credit card billing address to a non-U.S. one.

      To get other formats, simply burn the song(s) to a CD and rip them back into your favorite format.

      3/ How does the ripping quality compare to CDEx and co?

      So far, the ripping (using iTunes for Windows for this) is just fine. You have your choice of ripping to AAC (the default), MP3, Wav and AIFF at up to 320kbps.

      4/ Do you have to install Quicktime

      Yes, QuickTime 6.4 is required, and is included in the installation program. You have no choice in the matter.

      5/ What's the deal with AAC on Windows?

      Seems ok to me. Just another standard. I have my iTunes set to use MP3 by default though.

      6/ Do you have to wear a black turtleneck and jeans to make it work correctly?

      No, but it'll make you into a cooler, more hip and superintelligent person.

  387. Re:Great! kind of by hobbesmaster · · Score: 1

    Of course, without the first type of people out there, there would be nothing to read on /.

    Something to think about.

  388. Re:Great! kind of by bursch-X · · Score: 1

    Actually digital video on personal computers more or less started with QuickTime a loooooong time ago. If you bother to write plug-ins you can get about any thinkable codec to quicktime, it also plays flash movies does interactive stuff, now supports dolby 5.1 audio etc.

    (and there's VLC for the Mac and Mplayer OS X)

    --
    There are two rules for success:
    1. Never tell everything you know.
  389. Re:Great! kind of by bursch-X · · Score: 1

    Yes, like a fully workable and intuitive GUI based OS, plug-and-play self configuring networking (AppleTalk), on-board Ethernet, laser printers, on-board digital 16 bit audio, thorough support in software and hardware for USB, Gigabit ethernet on all laptops, FireWire (400 and 800), wireless networking (AirPort), 64-bit personal computers.

    Yes most of those things were available for PCs around the same time add-on AS OPTIONs. They wouldn't work properly most of the time and would suck (until years later they finally got it right on the PC). Apple had all of the above (and more) first, as a standard on all machines.

    --
    There are two rules for success:
    1. Never tell everything you know.
  390. Re:Great! kind of by KrispyKringle · · Score: 1
    You are right to criticize Linux for ease of use. But I don't think that equates to innovation. Making GUI's more comfortable, making controls more intuitive, that's not innovation. I am not denigrating those very real acheivments, but they aren't particularly revolutionary.

    Linux made popular, and for many, pioneered a new method of software development. It even created an entirely new enterprise, you might say, service industries like RedHat who function with the profit margins and innovation of software companies. Linux is also very popular among schools, research instutitions, and labs. When someone needs a custom solution (i.e., an embedded Wireless AP that can work with our existing authentication system without buying an expensive ReefEdge or similar), they often turn to Linux (as I did in the above example).

    Linux has not pioneered great things for the desktop or user interface. And coincidentally, Linux accounts for a miniscule fraction of the desktop market. But that does not mean Linux has not innovated.

  391. Re:Great! kind of by bursch-X · · Score: 1

    And while doing so slapping on a incredible clean and simple interface onto it (which is what makes Safari special) and fixing about two years' work of bugs while they're at it, and giving that back to the community. Sounds cool to me.

    --
    There are two rules for success:
    1. Never tell everything you know.
  392. Holy crap! by Genady · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Started playing with iTunes, hit the volume keys on my Microsoft key board and iTunes intercepted the call and changed it's volume. I didn't even install the drivers for the keyboard (it's plugged into the PS2 port at the moment) tres cool.

    --


    What if it is just turtles all the way down?
  393. Re:Great! kind of by starseeker · · Score: 1

    "All I see now are me-too web browsers, me-too developer IDE's, me-too office applications, me-too games, and me-too multimedia apps."

    Well, that's what there is demand for. Consider the position of desktop linux developers - they are by and large out to win over an audience used to another system. Computers are possibly the most inertia driven product on the face of the earth - after putting effort into learning an interface, people don't want to learn a new one, particularly for something productivity related. And brilliant design, which is what usually creates new products, is equally rare in free and commercial software. The genius of free software is its freedom, not any particular app. To the people who use it, the value of freedom is apparent and in many cases all powerful. This bias is not to be expected in general.

    "Yes I know there is value in making a word processor that feels like Microsoft Word, but where are the experimental word processors that go beyond Word, GUI and functionality-wise? Word is not and never was a good GUI design."

    And yet people use it the world over. If you want a bad design for an interface look at my old college's Peoplesoft database interface. Word serves reasonably well as a word processor, given the expectations of it's users.

    If you want an experimental word processor that goes beyond Word, I suggest you take a look at Lyx or TeXmacs. They won't feel intuitive at first to anyone trained on Word, but for some jobs are far more powerful.

    "It makes me really want to write up my own..."

    There. You have it in a nutshell. The genius, power, and value of Free Software. Guess what? If you don't like what's out there, you CAN write up your own. The tools are there to support you, for Free. Knock yourself out. Amaze us all. Create the Linux killer app. Even if you decide not to, the point is you CAN. That's what makes Linux different. That's why it's worth fighting for.

    By the way, I personally find Fluxbox very innovative as a GUI, not for what it adds but for what it knows not to add. That combined with gkrellm make for a desktop not found on any commercial system, but one I use on an every day basis.

    --
    "I object to doing things that computers can do." -- Olin Shivers, lispers.org
  394. Re:Great! kind of by Malacandra · · Score: 1

    Are you saying that Photoshop didn't show up on the Mac first? Interesting

  395. Re:Impressive, but I've got two features to reques by zpok · · Score: 1

    "But I've got two simple request for the next version (and I hope it is released soon)."

    Then go on and request!!!!!!

    Don't tell us, tell them, they actually listen...

    --
    I think, therefore I am...I think.
  396. Dell D800 - high res lcd by fpg888 · · Score: 1

    ARGH! Why couldn't they figure this out! On the D800's high def display, fonts are generally set at 150% so you can actually read them. Well, this application doesn't take high def lcd monitors into account.

  397. Oh please... by Jerk+City+Troll · · Score: 1

    I am not sure what the hell you're thinking, but let me see if I can sort it out.

    Reading this comment reminds me of exactly why Apple has such great mind share with average home users and Linux doesn't. In a word: innovation.

    Don't get me wrong either, I love Apple. Their products are very good. But what exactly does Apple "innovate"? They have shiny computers (check). Their hardware is good (check), but they don't make it--they just put it together. MacOS X is mostly pre-existing technologies (yes, even Quartz), but the dock is cool, so I'd call that "innovation", maybe.

    Now, let's look at how you're pitting Apple, a big company with who knows how many paid engineers, versus... an operating system kernel. "In this corner, we have a huge, heavy-duty bulldozer! In this corner, we have a spark-plug! Who will be the victor?"

    Apple: puts out uber-cool, lickin' your chops iPod

    Are you about to tell us Apple is a better innovator than Linux because Linus Torvalds doesn't make hardware?

    Linux: Can we run this on WINE? In other words, can we take this cool stuff from another platform and try to make it work on ours.

    This is where your post comes to it's highest climax of stupidity.

    You're claiming Linux (an OS kernel) is not "innovative" because someone else decided not to write software for it? Why not say that Apple lacks innovation because they aren't supporting a very viable platform. Frankly, you're an idiot.

    Worse still, you then go on to tell us that Linux doesn't innovate because there are open source projects out there that write interoperability software. This world you live in must lack tools for intercommunication and interoperability between things... that must suck. On this note, I can guarantee you that Apple has a few libraries of their own for porting applications to Windows from their platform.

    You probably can and probably will, but meanwhile you have to wait for some point in time AFTER everyone else has it.

    And that's "our" fault?

    Let's face it, cool is very often about being first... about having something others don't have.

    Okay, Mr. Cool, need I remind you how many things the open source community had before the commercial world had it? For example, many X11 GUIs had highly flexible themeability for years before WindowsXP was released. Just because Microsoft's marketing spin said it was "innovation" doesn't make it so. There's plenty of examples, but they're more technical. Guess who Microsoft steals a lot of their stuff from. Guess what Apple based OS X on? Think before spouting off. Open source has had a lot of firsts. Most people don't realize though.

    Lucky for us, we're cool because we've had a stable operating system long before most consumer-range industry players. We probably will always have one "before" Microsoft does. ;)

    What Linux needs is innovation.

    "Linux" has got lots of it.

    They need something that only they have (at least for a little while) that everyone else wants. That is how it will build mind share, not by saying "look, we can do it too (if you're only willing to wait a while)"

    Personally, I've found that Windows is still doing a lot of catching up. When I'm at work, I miss my Linux box. It works and works well. Windows just kind of, well, sputters along. It's very inconsistent, the user interface sucks, and it chokes on many of my daily tasks.

    I'm not sure if you noticed yet or not, but open source does have lots of things other people want that isn't offered by Microsoft. Security, stability, integrity, etc. Is that innovation enough for you?

    Blah. Why do I bother with Slashbots?

  398. I wanted to like iTunes by Control-Z · · Score: 1


    iTunes has problems. If you read the forums, people are reporting that iTunes REARRANGES your existing MP3 files into it's own directory scheme. Is that rude or what? Granted there is an option to turn it off, but what a bad default setting if you don't catch it!

    For me, .99 a song is still too much money. But maybe I could live with that.

    But it also won't download or let you create MP3 files from music you download from them. I've got a car player with a 40GB hard drive that only supports MP3 and WMA files. I'm sure there's a way to make MP3s out of the AAC files, but I have a particular dislike for artifical hurdles like that. Computers are supposed to make things easy. The majority of portable music players do MP3, why support Windows if you're not going to support the players that Windows people use? Yeah I know, "copy protection", "DRM", mumble mumble... Well I don't give a shit about copy protection, I want to listen to MY music WHEN and WHERE I want to listen to it.

    But the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back is that iTunes only supports Win2k and WinXP. I run Win98SE (same installtion for 2.5 years on a heavily-used gaming/Internet machine.) I'm sure it's easier for them to only support 2k/XP, but there's no technical reason it couldn't run on Win98SE. I'm not changing OS's to run iTunes, that's too much to ask.

    1. Re:I wanted to like iTunes by gamgee5273 · · Score: 1

      Well, I have an opinion contrary to all of the items you list, but the Win 98 one is the most important (I run a help desk, so this one is big for me): MS drops support, other than web-based, for Win 98 in mid-January. Why should Apple even bother to support it for three months? I understand that you heavily use the machine, but you can't ignore the fact that 98 is over five years old.

    2. Re:I wanted to like iTunes by hastings14 · · Score: 1
      Actually, that rearranges feature is off by default. You have to go into "consolidate library" under "Advanced" for that to happen, and its off by default. Even then it warns you before it rearranges anything.

      I have to admit, though, it is a convenient feature for arranging all of your MP3s by artist.

      I agree with you about Win98, but I guess they can't support everything...

  399. Re:While I like the idea... by Rich0 · · Score: 1

    Now all we need is a virtual CD burner - it would look like a drive to software, and would dump ISO files. That would cut out one of the hoops - having to waste a CD to get to MP3.

    There are programs out there to emulate a CD-ROM drive - but I'm not aware of any CD-RW emulators.

    I'm not sure this is even possible on linux - again, you can simulate reads using a loop device, but I don't think you can use cdrecord on a loop pointed at a 700MB file.

  400. My impressions by NeoSkandranon · · Score: 1

    Installed, rebooted
    QUicktime takes 14 megs of ram (up until now I'd been avoiding installing QT at all)
    iTUnes itself takes over 20 megs of ram
    iTunes crashes when i try to add my mp3 folder to its library. So far I can't find any actual support on apple's website. Must be because it never crashes on a mac, so no support is needed...

    --
    If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
  401. Re:Great! kind of by quacking+duck · · Score: 1
    mplayer; Show me something like that on a Mac or on XP

    Sorry to burst your bubble that quickly, but mplayer exists for Mac OSX. I use it often, along with VLC.

    mplayer's undeniably an awesome app, but since Windows already has a plethora of media players and encoders, mplayer isn't the killer app that'll drive Joe user to Linux. Furthermore, mplayer can't play anything that players on Windows can't, except perhaps formats Joe's not going to come across anyway (if it's available in ogm or ogg, it's probably also available somewhere in divx, mp3 and wmv/a).

    iTunes by itself isn't a killer app, it's just another audio player. iTunes with its music store integration can be considered killer, because it offers something a lot of people want (legal downloads at reasonable cost), doesn't choke them with DRM that's too restrictive, and presents it in a fairly intuitive package. Better yet, people can stream their collection to others on the network.

    All fine and good, but of course no one's going to rush and buy Macs for it, because it's now available for Windows. It will, however, almost certainly drive iPod sales up even further. Not coincidentally, the iPod is another killer product from Apple. With the brand name in mind, the potential to lure new Mac customers is there as they look at what else Apple produces on the theory that they might have something else worth buying.

  402. Re:Do the math by Aqua+OS+X · · Score: 1

    Bottled Soda is usually about a buck in San Francisco (it depends were you get it though)

    But hey, I'm going to drink caffeinated soda anyway. I might as well get a free CD for every 30 soda's I'm going to finish. Moreover, I'll probably just get a bunch of bottles at Costo or something.

    --
    "Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
  403. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by greggman · · Score: 1

    Because seeing all those other windows behind the one window I want to concentrate on is a distraction. It's like in the real world I often clear my desk of clutter to concentrate on one thing. Maximizing a window to fullscreen does that instantly for me.

    It also gives me maximum working space instantly.

    Two things which make me more productive.

  404. iPod Preferences Option by Slur · · Score: 1

    In iTunes you can set the iPod's preferences to automatically sync or to manage it yourself. If it's set to automatically sync then it will sync to whatever computer it's connected. Now you know.

    --
    -- thinkyhead software and media
  405. mmm Pepsi by amsr · · Score: 1

    100,000,000 Songs? Pepsi just started to taste a whole lot better.

  406. Re:Great! kind of by statusbar · · Score: 1

    Good points.

    Basically, I am wondering WHY there aren't more people trying to write the Linux Killer App. We have more people working on and contributing to Linux/GPL'd software than any other platform.

    iTunes is one good example of really simple concepts done right, and it is innovative... And there is no reason that I can tell for linux people to not have designed it first...

    --jeff++

    --
    ipv6 is my vpn
  407. Re:Impressive, but I've got two features to reques by fillfox · · Score: 1

    Thanks, I just did.

  408. Re:In other news, Winamp 5 Beta got leaked... by teamhasnoi · · Score: 1
    The way the reviews of WA 5 look, you'll be paying more than that to rip your own mp3s.

    Doesn't sound all-inclusive to me.

  409. Re:Great! kind of by statusbar · · Score: 1
    The reason iTunes has done so well is because they got some good deals with record companies

    I use iTunes ALL THE TIME and I can't use the iTunes music store because I am in Canada, and it is still the hands down most innovative music player/burner/ripper on ANY platform. Yes, ANY platform, I've used them all.

    --jeff++

    --
    ipv6 is my vpn
  410. Re:While I like the idea... by mcubed · · Score: 1

    Probably not though. I certainly wouldn't count on it. The only thing that approaches how unreasonable the RIAA can be is the demands of the gimmie something for nothing crowd.

    While no doubt you're using exaggeration as a rhetorical device, I think you're mischaracterizing the demands many of us would make on a download service we'd use, whether for pay or not. I've no interest in paying for something and then having to demonstrate that I have paid for it time-and-time-again in order to make use of it. I really don't care how "seamless" doing so is, nor how easy it is to get around -- it remains an irritation that I would rather avoid. I've no interest in paying for digital audio of demonstrably lower quality than I can buy on commercial CDs. I really don't care what percentage of the population can't tell the difference, I care only about whether I can tell the difference and how convenient it is for me to know when that might be. I've certainly no interest in paying $10 for less fidelity than I can get for $8 or less by buying used CDs, which are plentiful both locally and online.

    I don't think that everyone who greets iTunes's introduction to Windows with a great big 'ho-hum' falls into the gimme-something-for-nothing crowd. Is it really unreasonable of consumers to expect substantial cost savings from digital distribution? If one is willing to accept the reduction in quality inherent in all commercial services to date, is it unreasonable to expect even more substantial cost savings? Is it unreasonable to want access to files in one's preferred format, without having to burn & re-encode those files? How exactly does that make iTunes more convenient and a better value proposition than buying unencumbered, uncompromised CDs for less money than you'd pay Apple?

    Obviously, there are plenty of people who find that iTunes suits their needs, and that's great for them, great for Apple, and one hopes that it might be good for the recording industry. But saying that people who don't are as "unreasonable" as the RIAA doesn't make any sense.

    Michael

    --
    "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality;..."
  411. Re:sharing... by mantera · · Score: 1

    what sharing does it offer

  412. Re:What about my old mp3 collection? by zpok · · Score: 1

    And importing and organizing your collection is painless I might add...

    --
    I think, therefore I am...I think.
  413. SDK?!?! by CaptScarlet22 · · Score: 1

    The question that I have, is...

    Will Apple release a SDK for iTunes for Windows???

    I know they have an SDK for the Visual Plug-in's, but how about the rest??


    CS...out

    --
    It's left blank because I have nothing to say to you punks!
  414. A bigger problem by chundo · · Score: 1

    I agree with you, but I think there's an even bigger problem. One which none of these services seems to address:

    What happens when you get a new computer?

    Apple's "loose" DRM is all well and good, but what happens when the computer I have is hopelessly outdated, has been upgraded as far as it can be, and needs to be replaced? I've yet to see a DRM solution that accounts for this. At best, your music library will now view your new primary computer as a "secondary" one with limited rights. And you can never get the rights back that the primary computer had.

    Seriously, with the speed that technology becomes obsolete, and the long period of time that a lot of music stays relevant (Beatles? Beethoven?), it's ridiculous to tie a media library to a specific machine. It's inevitable... sooner or later, you're going to lose control of it.

    But on the flip side, if they did provide a tool to transfer your songs to a new "primary" PC, it could easily be abused and render the DRM completely useless. So what other options are there?

    That's why I refuse to buy DRM songs, and will not sign up for iTunes no matter how hyped it is. Not because of the limitations on it - I'm fine with only using it on three computers, and not being able to share it with others (Heck, I already do that). I won't use it because I know, at some point down the road, my library will become inaccesible to me, and I will have to start over again. And that's unacceptable.

    I hope I'm missing something. I hope somebody's actually addressed this problem. But I've scoured the web, and I suspect I'm right - and that's bad for everyone. Bad for the consumer who just lost their music library, and bad for the music store who now has an extremely pissed off customer on their hands, after finding out they've wasted a lot of time and money building a media collection they can't take with them.

    -j

    P.S. Please don't suggest I burn them all to CDs and re-rip them on a new computer. When you have several thousand songs, that's neither acceptable nor feasible.

    1. Re:A bigger problem by Pathwalker · · Score: 1

      Apple's "loose" DRM is all well and good, but what happens when the computer I have is hopelessly outdated, has been upgraded as far as it can be, and needs to be replaced? I've yet to see a DRM solution that accounts for this. At best, your music library will now view your new primary computer as a "secondary" one with limited rights. And you can never get the rights back that the primary computer had.

      Well, when you want to get rid of your old system, you use the handy "Deauthorize Computer" option under the "Advanced" menu, and then authorize the new computer. Problem solved.

      With Apple's system, there is no "Primary" PC - all three authorized systems are equal.

  415. Have you *used* the damn thing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yes, it definitely makes since to have double clicking on the title bar not suck in the usual way (switch between a windowed position and a full-screen view) and instead work very usefully (switching between my windowed position and Apple's specially chosen windowed position)

    I'm so glad Apple's around to tell us these things. Lord knows what I was thinking, wanting to see more of the iTunes listbox by making the window bigger. Silly me.

    Anyway, it's obviously far more efficient for me to manually drag the window to the top of the screen and then manually drag the window borders to something approximating the full screen. Lord us Windows users have been stupid not following these tricks of the Mac users.

    Good thing they only allow me to resize it from the bottom right. It sure would be confusing if I could resize it from one of the other corners, or by grabbing it anywhere along the border.

    What? We shouldn't need the make the window bigger? Oh. It's obviously my fault for not having a 22" display. So sorry.

  416. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by Jimithing+DMB · · Score: 1

    I realize you truly believe what you are saying, and I understand where you are coming from having used Windows since the 3.0 days as well as OS/2 2.1 through 4.0 and various Linux desktop environments. However, I must point out that you're really just fooling yourself into believing that maximizing windows is a normal and productive thing. I know this because I've been there.

    I've been using Macs since the 10.1 days and absolutely love the UI. The OS X UI is built with multitasking in mind. Windows have drop shadows and sort of blend in with each other. Documents reside in their own toplevel windows. Toolbars and palettes may be placed anywhere on the screen.

    One of the big problems with the Microsoft UI is its focus on rectangular boxes butted against each other. A typical MS application must be maximized in order to use it because the menubar, toolbar, and other UI elements are in fixed positions usually to the top and sometimes left of the document area.

    On the mac you have ONE menubar. It stays at the top of the screen. It only takes up a small amount of space which is shared between applications (no wasted space having a menu on each window). In addition, the toolbars and floating palettes for an application are only shown when that application is active. Because of this, it's possible to stagger document windows since they are free from extraneous controls and only show the document.

    Windows sort of blend together due to the shadow effect so it's less distracting to have document windows staggered on top of each other. If you really must concentrate on one thing, you can use the "Hide others" choice from the application menu (the one displaying the application's name in bold).

    I suggest that you get a Mac and give OS X a try for a few months. Forget about your old ways and really learn the new system. I guarantee you'll be surprised. Nearly everything about OS X becomes second nature very easily. After having used OS X for a while, I find it difficult to work with Windows machines. I am used to the computer working sensibly, and Windows simply doesn't. I'm amazed at how much I've already forgotten about the Windows UI! Never in my life did I forget how to use Windows, even after having used OS/2 and Linux and what not. But after having used OS X my eyes have been opened to the Microsoft UI and frankly, all I see is ugliness.

  417. Re:Great! kind of by dbrutus · · Score: 1

    And since Apple got access to ZeroConf at about the same time everybody else did, why are they leading the way in popular implementations that actually work?

  418. proxy proxy proxy goose by Cadre · · Score: 1
    So for anyone that was clinging on to that version but wants to integrate PCs into the iTunes party, there doesn't seem to be a choice but to upgrade iTunes to 4.0.1 or 4.1 and lose the 'net sharing capability.

    Na, just download one of the many Rendezvous proxies out there.

    --
    All editorial writers ever do is come down from the hill after the battle is over and shoot the wounded.
  419. Re:Great! kind of by LnxAddct · · Score: 1

    Open office did expand on word. Open Office gives you crazy control over 3d effects that microsoft never even dreamed of and it also has that word completion feature which I ignored at first but now I find that it is great. I mean you just type and it starts completing your words that you already used for you. That's innovative, granted these features are probably available in Star Office, it is better then MS Word. Not to mention the GUIs are better and you can save files as PDF, try doing that in microsoft word, last time I checked it was impossible (at least without some third party plug in). Those are just some of the bonuses of using Open Office over Microsoft Word. Oh yea, and OOo doesn't consistenly annoy you to register and threaten to take away your ability to use the product that you payed for until you somehow contact Microsoft and they tell you that eventhough you may have payed for it weeks ago, only now is it ok to use it as much as you want because they told you it was ok and they gave you as special key, mind you, you payed damn good money for that product and they still dictate when you can use it. -Steve

  420. Re:Great! kind of by McAddress · · Score: 1
    iTunes is DEAD simple

    sigh ... here we go again with rumors of Apple dying.

  421. Re:here's a tip for ya by f0rtytw0 · · Score: 1

    I should be able to script it except for a few things. It was fairly messy to begin with and I was slowly organizing things. Too slowly it appears =(

    --
    this is the most important sig ever! In your face 446154!
  422. Re:i guess AAPL are ignoring they are being sued by J-Hawker · · Score: 1

    They'll settle. Apple Corps will just get a sweeter deal for distributing the Beatles on ITMS. Maybe some cash as well. People just want to get paid.

  423. Re:Great! kind of by motox · · Score: 1

    Why does apple need Gcc , apache when they have Visual C++ and IIS ?

    Apple stop taking and start giving.

  424. Re:Great! kind of by statusbar · · Score: 1

    Apple has Visual C++ and IIS??? I don't think so.

    Apple IS giving.... Konqueror on linux is better because of Apple's work on it.

    --jeff++

    --
    ipv6 is my vpn
  425. Damn Zealots.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    why not fill up RAM with stuff

    So when Windows uses up all available memory, that's "bad", but when OS X does it, that's a "feature".

    Damn zealots, get of my lawn (shakes fist). :)

    1. Re:Damn Zealots.. by Graff · · Score: 1
      So when Windows uses up all available memory, that's "bad", but when OS X does it, that's a "feature".

      I have no idea how the memory management of Windows works but it's a pretty modern OS so I assume it is using many of the same tricks Mac OS X is using. If it's filling up memory with stale data and not moving the stale data because of memory leaks, poorly optimized code, etc. then it is a bad thing. If however it is able to utilize that memory well and catch stuff for speed and efficiency then it is a good thing.

      So if those zealots are saying that Windows is bad without examining what it is doing and how it is working then they are just plain wrong to do so! One thing I do know is that Mac OS X is not simply wasting RAM, it is actively caching stuff and improving responsiveness by doing so. I would hope that Windows does similarly... :)
  426. Not available in Canada! by prototype · · Score: 1

    What a rip. Here I download it to try out the service. Install. Configure. Reboot.

    "The iTunes Music Store is not available in your country yet. You will be able to browse music and listen to previews, but you won't be able to purchase music unless your billing address is in the United States"

    Great. That's one program I'm now uninstalling. Too bad Apple, just lost a customer. Wish you had told me first about this.

    1. Re:Not available in Canada! by X86BSD · · Score: 1

      If you didn't live under a rock you would have known that. It's NOT APPLES FAULT CRACK HEAD! Blame the recording industry for making licensing so GOD DAMN HARD! It's the same story why it isn't available in the UK or anywhere else either. THE RECORDING INDUSTRY CONTROLS THE LICENSING STRINGS! NOT APPLE! Jesus people blame the right people mmmkay??

  427. Re:and give away songs with special bottles of Pep by krel · · Score: 1

    I'm sure Steve's just itching to shake hands and have a casual friendly lunch with Scully.

    --
    karma: ouch!
  428. slow window resizing! by jchristopher · · Score: 1
    I just installed iTunes for Windows on my computer. It suffers from quite a bit of lag when attempting to resize the window. I find this highly amusing - no other program on my Windows laptop suffers from this problem!

    Very similar to the GUI lag that I've seen in various OS X releases. I used to think it was the slow hardware, but now it's pretty clear that it's just Apple's bloat.

    It is 2003 - there is NO excuse for a program to lag when I do something as simple as resize the window!

  429. this is great...got a list? by rollthelosindice · · Score: 1

    Steve said it was 200 indie labels, but i couldnt read the list from the screen, and i havent found a list of labels anywhere. Anyone have a link to the full list?

  430. Re:Great! kind of by levik · · Score: 1
    Not sure about how true this other stuff is, but I do have a personal experience about how 'included' airport is into every laptop apple sells.

    This spring I went to the Soho apple store to buy an iBook for a friend of mine. I wanted the 14" model with the 900Mhz G3 and an airport - one of the models listed on the site. The reps told me on the phone they had them in stock and all I had to do was come in to get one.

    When I got there though, it turned out that the airport card was packaged separately. While the price for the laptop and the airport card came out to what the site quoted, it turned out that for the price I got two separate boxes.

    Is it easy to install the card, I inquired? The reps told be a horror story of somebody coming in this morning with a fried laptop they bought the day before - caused by static while doing the very same thing. Deciding not to risk it, I asked if they could do it for me...

    I had after all just dropped 1600 dollars on the purchase - the least they could do was present it to me in a way in which it was advertised. But they told me that they would have to charge me $30 and take one to two hours to do the job. Now call me crazy, but that doesn't sound like "standard on all machines" to me.

    I ended up putting the card in myself - it was not as hard as they had led me to believe, but I did wonder how many people were taken for the 30 dollar ride - just for sticking what turned out to be a glorified PCMCIA card under the keyboard.

    And while I'll give you guys firewire, I wish to remind you that Microsoft and Intel were two of the companies who came up with USB. Apple was not one of them.

    --
    Ñ'
  431. RIAA/Apple Deal by cutopenthesky · · Score: 1

    I'm a music industry student and was wondering if anyone knew or knew where to find information regarding the deals between Apple and the RIAA. I'd be interested to find out exactly how much Apple makes out of the $1/song and the rest of the money distribution.

    1. Re:RIAA/Apple Deal by Bigbluejerk · · Score: 1

      I read somewhere today (but can't find the link now) that the record companies get 80 cents of every 99 cents. Apple and the artist split the remaining 19 cents.

    2. Re:RIAA/Apple Deal by piscoBandito · · Score: 1

      No, not exactly...

      Apple does get around $0.19, the remaining percentage goes to the record companies and is divided per the band's (or "artist's") contract in the company. The artist ends up getting the same percentage out of the sale as if you bought the CD in the store, possibly a little more since most record companies are cutting out distribution fees for albums/tracks sold online.

      Basically, the artist is still being screwed, but no more screwed then if you had bought a CD from the store. Of course, how much an artist is screwed is dependent on the contract they have with their label - so you can still boycott the RIAA and download music (legally) if you really want to and you think the cost/quality/convenience is worth it.

    3. Re:RIAA/Apple Deal by shark72 · · Score: 1

      Huh? The RIAA is a trade group for the recording industry. The deals that Apple made to distribute music were made with the rightsholders: producers, distributors, publishers, composers, performers and the like.

      By comparison, let's say I'm a member of Alpha Psi Omega, or perhaps the Rotary Club, or a Book of the Month Club, or some other organization to which I pay money. If you and I work out a deal to buy my bicycle, it would not be correct to say that you'd made a deal with Alpha Psi Omega or the rest simply because I'm a member -- odds are, none of those group have ownership of my bike.

      --
      Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
    4. Re:RIAA/Apple Deal by WatertonMan · · Score: 1

      I don't have the link (it maybe somewhere else here) but I believe that the record companies get .80 and then .18 is split between Apple and the artist. Yeah. Hard to feel sorry for the record companies. They are *gouging* and the digital revolution is happening despite their efforts and not because of it.

  432. iTunes? uWish! by TikiGawd · · Score: 1

    I might have been interested in iTunes if the damn thing would play OGGs. My entire music library is encoded in OGG format, thus it's almost completely worthless to me.

    I installed it on my mom's laptop because she'd expressed an interest in buying music online. After showing her how to use it, I stuck around a while to watcher her play with it and answer some "NegaTech Mom" type questions. By they time I lef, she'd already bought like $50 worth of tracks! D:

    Though the interface is purdy, how about letting me MAXIMIZE THE DAMN WINDOW?!?!

    Thank you.

    1. Re:iTunes? uWish! by X86BSD · · Score: 2, Informative

      Cry more n00b! Stop using a useless format *no one uses* Get over it. You made a piss poor choice encoding your tune's in a format that is going nowhere. This is like bitching because you recorded all your movies on betamax tapes and now you cant play them on todays VCR's. What a coke head you must be.

    2. Re:iTunes? uWish! by Pathwalker · · Score: 1

      On OS X you can add Ogg/Vorbis support to iTunes by adding an Ogg/Vorbis component to QuickTime. I would assume that you can do the same thing under windows.

      Try looking here for more info.

      I've heard it works well - at least on OSX.

      I've never tried it myself, as something about Vorbis audio (even at high bit rates) sounds odd to me, so I stick with high bit rate AAC, and sometimes uncompressed audio.

    3. Re:iTunes? uWish! by Rick+and+Roll · · Score: 1

      I should just stay out of this, but I can't believe you just called Ogg proprietary. Ogg is in fact an open format, not a proprietary one.

    4. Re:iTunes? uWish! by zpok · · Score: 1

      So you'd like to maximize the window and have OGG support?

      Please report this (link directly to the feedback page).

      --
      I think, therefore I am...I think.
  433. Slick, REAL slick by crymsan · · Score: 1

    Well, I installed iTunes on a XP machine. People are complaining about cpu usage. Well on the 1.8Ghz machine I was using iTunes was using 0 cpu. That's right 0. and only 14 Megs of memory. Boys and girls 14 Megs of memory is not that much.

    All and all this program rocks. So easy to use and show to all my friends who otherwise only use kazzaa to play music cause most of the other programs are to hard. And even those who use winamp Love iTunes Way more.

    Yes it has it's flaws, but for Apple's first MAJOR windows application to be released in years, the first revision is pretty dang good.

  434. Re:In other news, Winamp 5 Beta got leaked... by Hooded+One · · Score: 1

    Not a leak -- it's officially released.

    And a helluva lot better than crappy ports of Apple software. If I were interested in the iTunes store, I might keep the program, but being slow as shit, insisting on a Mac interface on the PC, and installing and activating the iPod system service without asking me are too many marks against it.

  435. Fake errors and weird behavior... by TheRealStyro · · Score: 1

    I want to really like iTunes, but these fake memory error messages are a real pain. If I leave AdSubtract and Norton AV active then iTunes states it has some memory error. Turn off filtering - same error. Turn off NAV - same error. Close out AdSubtract - iTunes is able to work. Reactivate AdSubtract and iTunes loses what little mind it has. I even added the addresses iTunes uses (from router logs) and it still doesn't work right. Guess its time to start sending hourly complaints to Apple....

    Guess all I can do is close out Adsubract and NAV then only use iTunes. Can't surf and use iTunes at the same time = big minus.

    --
    1. Re:Fake errors and weird behavior... by stingerman101 · · Score: 1

      ADSubtract is messing with Apples HTML engine that comes with iTunes for Windows.

    2. Re:Fake errors and weird behavior... by allgood2 · · Score: 1

      Adsubtract mucks with HTML code, iTunes back in is pretty much HTML--well XML, but anyway its pretty much a specialized web browser. I'd report the issue to AdSubtract as well as Apple. But it's most likely AdSubtract will need to release an update.

    3. Re:Fake errors and weird behavior... by TheRealStyro · · Score: 1

      Yeah, AdSubtract also causes problems with Stamps.com. But with just stopping the filtering works for Stamps.com.

      I'll report it to both companies and see what happens.

      --
    4. Re:Fake errors and weird behavior... by zpok · · Score: 1
      --
      I think, therefore I am...I think.
  436. Fix for some importing problems. by bogie · · Score: 1

    Make sure you can see which song it stops on, ie put the progress bar at the top of th screen before the Crash message covers it. Then move any file that won't import out of the path. This is waht worked for me.

    --
    If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
    1. Re:Fix for some importing problems. by Izago909 · · Score: 1

      I did that, I ended up moving at least 50 files and it still keeps crashing. Out of 6000+ files I'm thinking I will have to move to many.

  437. Re:Great! kind of by EelBait · · Score: 1

    Huh? Visual C++ and IIS are Microsoft's. Did you smoke some really bad crack or something?

  438. Re:Great! kind of by EelBait · · Score: 1
    While you're at it, list 3.5" floppies, CD-ROMs, multiple-monitor support, ADB (a precursor to USB), the GeoPort (cloned by MS vis-a-vis the WinModem), TrueType (invented by Apple, licensed by MS), integrated email, digital signatures, encrypted networking (all under the AOCE project in 1992), TCP/IP (way before MS). And, don't forget A/UX!

    Indeed, Apple is The Innovator of the computer industry. Rarely do they get credit for being so.

  439. Why are you upset? by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

    It did exactly what you told it to.

    It was polite enough to ask if you wanted it to sort your music library; when you said YES it went ahead!

    On a different note... why do you have to rename all your files and reorganize all of them? What's wrong with a hierarchical structure based on artist-album + track number-track name?

  440. Re:In other news, Winamp 5 Beta got leaked... by Hooded+One · · Score: 1

    On my 750 MHz Athlon even just dragging the window is laggy. A lot of people are experiencing problems like this. Like I said, Winamp3 is more responsive. I've used iTunes for Mac, and while I'm not a fan of the general interface, it works a *lot* better than on the PC.

    The fact that it's impossible to maximize the window is another major annoyance, and a stupid one to even exist.

    I also am one of those people who would love nothing better than for brushed metal to be made a crime punishable by death. I'll admit this is just a matter of preference, but if you're going to have a non-default UI, at least have the decency to allow it to be skinned to the user's choice.

    *mumbles something about the existence of the ? key*

  441. Re:Great! kind of by EelBait · · Score: 1

    Though it is true that Intel published the USB standard. It was Apple who first shipped an OS and computer that supported it (iMac, 1998). It wasn't until Windows 98 (August) and later that MS finally got something stable with USB. There were some early USB patches for Win95, but they didn't work with all devices and were very unstable. MS's USB support was completely rewritten for Win98.

    It was Apple who drove USB with the printer and other peripheral vendors. MS had little to do with USB. USB was mostly an Intel creation.

  442. Voice Recorder? by Dominic_Mazzoni · · Score: 1

    Could anyone find out more information about the voice recorder? I'm curious what the quality is like. What I'd really like is to be able to hook up my own microphone to it...so it could completely replace my Minidisc recorder. (I want to use it to record music.)

  443. Re:Great! kind of by EelBait · · Score: 1

    Not true. There are many open-source projects funded by companies with full-time employees. IBM has contributed quite a bit to Linux. Does IBM not pay their employees during their Linux development time?

    Get real.

    Open Source is not at all merely about spare-time hobbyists but rather people and companies contributing software engineering and development effort in a non-proprietary way.

    I agree with the rest of your post that its existence is important as an alternative to the monoculture of Microsoft's monopoly. But, do not minimize the amount of energy devoted to OSS development as "hobbyists in their spare time."

  444. mod up parent by harveyswik · · Score: 1

    I've been wanting this feature for a while.

  445. Re:Great! kind of by EelBait · · Score: 1

    Damn. I wish I had some mod points for you. You hit the nail on the head.

    Considering how hostile the linux community tends to be towards interface designers...

    This is a huge insight that I'm sure will be lost to most Linux programmers. Why do you think this is? Why are most Linux programmers so antagonistic towards good interface design?

    One of my worst experiences with OSS is with Open Office. The interface is horrible and for anyone accustomed to productivity software, its user interface is wrong for just about any platform it runs on.

  446. Re:Great! kind of by EelBait · · Score: 1

    Indeed, Microsoft wouldn't be around today if it weren't for Apple: AppleSoft Basic for the Apple IIe (1977), Word for the Mac (1983), MacBasic (1984), MultiPlan (1984), MultiChart (1984).

    Apple kept Microsoft alive during the '70s and '80s.

  447. iTunes - poor sound quality? by Greenrider · · Score: 1

    I just installed windows iTunes, and I was shocked to hear how "muddy" the tone was when compared to playing the same song through Winamp. I tried the "sound enhancer", which helped a little, but I'm weary of what it's really doing to my music.

    Anyone know what's going on?

  448. Re:Great! kind of by EelBait · · Score: 1

    Really?

    Open Source Projects at Apple.

    Feel free to download the source code to the OS. They have an x86 version available as well.

    Or, you can download a forked project at OpenDarwin.

    By the way, OS X is based on FreeBSD and the Mach microkernel from Carnegie Mellon University, not Linux. Unix was open-source long before Torvalds learned how not to crap his diapers. Indeed, IBMs mainframe source code was open to their customers as well.

    Closed-source is a Microsoft invention.

  449. Re:Great! kind of by EelBait · · Score: 1

    Good points.

    If anyone has boosted anything from the OSS community it is Microsoft:

    • The WinSock library is a rip-off of BSD sockets
    • Active Directory is a rip-off of Kerberos
    • C# is a rip-off of Java
  450. why pay? by Rick+and+Roll · · Score: 1

    If you're geek enough to care that much to buy iTunes, you should be geek enough to have a few friends that can give you a cracked copy of WinXP. Use that. BTW, if the BSA wants to come looking for me, I only run Linux.

  451. Re:Damn ACs.. by scottgfx · · Score: 1

    NT and XP are not based on DOS. I'm a Mac Zealot and I know that much. Go back to your telnet session.

    --
    It's mandatory to wash your hands before returning to the land of Dairy Queen.
  452. Re:Too bad it doesn't... by MoneyT · · Score: 1

    And also completely unsecure, thus making the RIAA have a shit fit a shut down the iTMS.

    --
    T Money
    World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
  453. Re:DOLLAR IS AN AMBIGUOUS CURRENCY by edgar_is_good · · Score: 1

    You must be another one of those Canadians complaining about ITMS, right, because I _know_ you don't mean $3000 US. My 1 GB RAM, 80 GB HD, Radeon 9600, 802.11g, bluetooth enabled, DVD-R/CD-RW, + goodies (like backlit keyboard) was $2500 (of course I bought the extra 512 MB from someone other than apple). PS I love Canada and visit frequently. Merely a comment on frequency conversions.

  454. I have been checkz0ring eyeTunez out the past hour by L10N · · Score: 1

    I do not consider myself a Macuser, or a windows user. I do not owe allegiance to any one school. All computer schools of thought have made great advancements and massive blunders. I think of computers as devices. Some devices get me hot and excited. A bling bling old school vette in kick ass condition makes me wet, its true. I have personel taste in things. I am NOT a zealot though because I think I can get more for what I need by being open minded and making good picks. Once was that was a Mac back in the day. Then quickly a Windoz box had to be used to get shiznit done. Now I have a windows heavy network but it is home to a G3 OS X box, another G3 MacOS 8 box, Mandrake 9, Windows 98 on an old tiny shit box, 95 on a really old laptop... My wife uses Win2k for her main beast until she buys her new Dell this week or next. And I use a Dell running Xp sp1 with lots of upgrades added on, PLUS my newest toy, a Sony Vaio laptop. It rocks and completes my needs. Anyway, I wanted to say all that shit, sort of like the calling of the generations on the Klingon home world. I use devices I don't worship Dells, or Suns, or Apples. So I feel my little test of the windows iTunes service is balanced and fair. I thought it was very solid and I am very pleased. As part of the test I bought an album. Heh maybe the name was ironic... A Farewell to Kings by Rush. My only concern is that I own a Rio Cali. What am I to do with this AAC format? Found some converters but have not played with them yet. Any advice is welcome. I bought my Cali at BestBuy with the 3 year plan, so I can trade it up for an iPod if I wish. What say you? I am too lazy at this late our to use formating or spellcheck...so this comes to you raw... thanks. L10N

    --
    "What we do in life echoes in eternity." Maximus Decimus Meridius
  455. Re:The only thing you can sniff is my balls by zpok · · Score: 1

    yeah, you really lived the life, you know what you're talking about. that much is clear. And you really know your artists.

    I suppose you're a pizza gubbling, porn-site visiting code-pusher, either unnaturally clean or stinking sloppy. You can have either a hump, 2inch glasses or a s-s-stutter. No way you get a girl, unless you're helping her save the world.

    If you are not a code-pusher, give me your profession, I'll stereotype it in under two minutes, and I know I'm right, I've seen it on teevee...

    BTW glad you're laughing, wouldn't want you to take this serious. But boy, if I'm the one being confused, what do they call what you are?
    There's a preview button for a reason...

    --
    I think, therefore I am...I think.
  456. Very well done.... by neutrick · · Score: 1

    That's all I can say. It's my default player now on my XP box. Thanks Apple. Substance and style. Now to upgrade to one of those shiny Al laptops....

    1. Re:Very well done.... by zpok · · Score: 1

      That's easy. Pawn your kids or check out refurbs on the apple website. They also come with the 3 year extended warranty plan.

      BTW take that warranty, we're talking portable, right?

      --
      I think, therefore I am...I think.
  457. Re:While I like the idea... by dcmeserve · · Score: 1
    Come on, if you want legit digital downloads, there's going to have to be some restrictions.

    Isn't the threat of lawsuit enough?

    I mean that seriously -- the whole lawsuit/accountability angle really is the proper way to go about it. F**king up everyone's ability to enjoy their digital entertainment, or even just placing stupid hurdles in the way, is *not*.

    --
    "Orthodoxy is unconsciousness" - Orwell
  458. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by rabtech · · Score: 1

    The Mac OS and the QuickTime APIs have no concept of a "Multiple Document Interface"

    And MDI has nothing to do with maximizing or not maximizing a window; it relates to whether a window can have child windows contained totally within the parent window as a subspace. Asshat.

    --
    Natural != (nontoxic || beneficial)
  459. iTunes = Beautiful sound quality! by neutrick · · Score: 1

    It's now my default player on my XP box. Sounds like you have you're EQ enabled for more low boost and high end in Winamp. When iTunes is first installed the EQ is enabled - but set flat by default (might as well not be enabled if you leave it at that setting - Apple should have just left it off). That could be one point, and / or you might have enabled "sound check" (analyzes the volume of all tracks within a playlist to create seemless audio levels between each track), which of course can make some tracks sound quieter than usual when played within an "unchecked" audio player. I'm not sure what the hell the "sound enhancer" does within iTunes (other than coloring up the track - which if you like the result, leave it on - it does nothing to your audio - just adds an effect)... I always thought it was some low freq boost....

    1. Re:iTunes = Beautiful sound quality! by Greenrider · · Score: 1

      so, I've actually got the EQ and all effects turned off in both Winamp and iTunes, and there is still a very noticeable difference in audio clarity.

      anyone have any ideas on why this might be happening?

  460. Re:Great! kind of by cheekyboy · · Score: 1

    So much for multiplatform code....

    Why couldnt it be done in java if java is soooooo great!!! or is java really just crap for apps, and only good for servlets and nothing else??? perhaps little games.

    What else is there???? well nothing, .net is no option, they could have made it in mozilla, but that is half asses on platforms and always gets flushed to VM and it takes ages to come back to REAL MEM.

    What happened to Nexts/ or Apples NextStep open platform fundation classes that worked in windows/solaris ages ago, they could have made it all work in windows/linux and be sweet.

    --
    Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
  461. Re:here's a tip for ya by cheekyboy · · Score: 1

    Well yeah doofus, I do want to know where/how etc my mp3s are..

    1. I store all my mp3s on my file server, a linux box with http access. so B) i can access the files in a convenient folder/archieve from any where or to any one.

    2. I dont want to be LOCKED into IT all the time, if I want, I do want to use winamp (for its cooler AVS) to play and display the mp3s on a big tv. I still want to find my mp3s in my original folder layouts.

    ok

    --
    Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
  462. Re:Anyone tried it yet? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

    Does the memory usage go down again after a while? If it does, then they are using some kind of garbage collection, so memory is not freed when the machine is busy (i.e. rendering a new page), which would be sensible. If not, then it's a memory leak, and you should file a bug report.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  463. Re:XP/2K only -- DRM by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1
    It uses some kind of driver for something to do with ripping CDs. If you don't reboot after installing (I've always tried skipping reboots since MS classified having to reboot for a software upgrade / installation as a bug) then it tells you that it can't find the drivers, and won't let you rip from CD.

    I believe WinME supports WDM drivers (not sure about Win98. I've never really used the 9x/ME series), so if there's sufficient demand Apple may release a WinME version.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  464. Re:Great! kind of by Stackster · · Score: 1

    The magic, is not actually in the code, the magic is in the usability features and concepts.

    So, while most of us implement usability features and concepts by writing them in some kind of code (such as C++ and COBOL), Apple instead just pours some UF&C-enriched MacMagic iSprinkles (tm) over the binaries to get their look&feel...

    --

    There are 010 kinds of people. Those who understand octal, those who don't, and 06 other kinds of morons.
  465. Re:Great! kind of by RexxFiend · · Score: 1

    People are writing Linux Killer Apps all the time. The Beauty/Weakness of open source is these apps can be relatively easily ported to Windows/Mac/Whatever because the source is open. Therefore Linux killer app does not mean Linux lock-in. Sorry.

    Also it strikes me that the reason the Linux community would have trouble creating an i-tunes service themselves would be lack of money/clout to talk all the different record companies into contributing. An-open source i-tunes clone would be useless without the clout of someone like apple serving the music to it. Writing the software is the easy part.

    --

    A crash reduces
    Your expensive computer
    to a simple stone.
  466. Re:Great! kind of by lvdrproject · · Score: 1
    Come on, you guys are supposed to be computer nerds. Programmers and scripters and stuff. l33t hax0rz.

    That being the case, you should know that '*nix' doesn't really make sense. Not in strict wild-card format, anyway. Given a list of 'UNIX *AND* UNIX clones', the wild card '*nix' would return only one result -- UNIX. (And not even that would be returned, unless you capitalise it 'Unix'.) Linux has a 'u' in it, so it wouldn't be returned. And i'm not aware of any other UNIX clones that have the so-called 'nix' thing. Unless maybe you count QNX. Which wouldn't be returned either.

    We could all just say 'POSIX-based systems'....

  467. Re:JUST LIKE A LINUX NUT by Ohreally_factor · · Score: 1

    I like it just fine, as it gives me evidence that you are an idiot.

    --
    It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
  468. Re: window media 9 does the same... by cheekyboy · · Score: 1

    Windows Media Player 9 does the same, I can view my files in the same artist/album order under a tree.... so whats new?

    Btw Itunes crashed on my 'import' of 1000+ mp3s.

    TWICE!!!!!

    --
    Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
  469. Re:Great! kind of by Textbook+Error · · Score: 1

    Yes it is, but it's not apple's idea. ZeroConf is an open standard invented by the IETF.

    Actually, it was "invented" by Stuart Cheshire, when he was working at Apple (I put invented in quotes since this wasn't just pulled out of the air in an afternoon - but he was instrumental in setting up the IETF group that hammered out the standard, and did a lot of the groundwork to get to that point).

    --

    Nae bother
  470. Re:In other news, Winamp 5 Beta got leaked... by JoJoFine · · Score: 1

    if its EXACTLY like it is on the mac then it obviously is extremely overrated.

  471. Re:Great! kind of by AndyElf · · Score: 1

    well, apache is not an innovation -- if you remember the history, it's a-patch to NCSA httpd...

    ssh is not linux innovation -- check the history book as well...

    can't see anything terribly innovative in khtml as YAHRE (yet-another-html-render-engine)...

    --

    --AP
  472. damn its buggy by cheekyboy · · Score: 1

    Another bug.

    1. I have this one mp3, Dj Scribble - Silence.mp3 and it always crashed when importing that.

    2. I have 956 songs in my techno list, and adding more stuff to it takes 3 seconds per mp3, must be some real shit ass code to be that slow, surely a linear crappy poorly coded search of 1000 items would take .01 second on 1.8ghz. Unless this is written in basic.

    3. When I installed it I told it NOT TO be the default player, but later it IS THE DEFAULT player.

    4. occasional lockups of GUI.

    5. crossfade not as good as winamp, and there is no crossfades when hitting FF button, like winamp.

    6. I hit the EJECT button by mistake, (tooltips are slow) and it took its time ejecting, but the GUI was dead, no multithreading....

    7. cpu usage, damn its only an mp3, its using 16% to 27% playing mp3s , IDLE pc is at 5% Winamp used virtually 0%. Explorer was using 2%

    8. apples visualizations do look damn ugly tho, compared to the beaut stuff in winamp.

    --
    Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
    1. Re:damn its buggy by Oliver+Wendell+Jones · · Score: 1

      Turn on the 'Safe Sound' feature (I think that's what it's called) where it will try to normalize your audio levels from song to song. Then watch your CPU utilization climb to 85% - 95% while it goes through your list of MP3s. I let it get half way through before I stopped it. When I tried again later it started back at the first song again... doesn't it save it's findings? Do I have to let my PC come to a screeching halt every time I start iTunes?

      I've also noticed that it doesn't seem to remember your display settings from instance to instance, so if you turn off columns you don't want to see, dont' assume they'll still be off when you restart iTunes.

      --
      A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
    2. Re:damn its buggy by Angostura · · Score: 1

      This appears to be a one time optimization/comparison carried out when you first create the library. Let it finish and utilization sits at about 2-5%

  473. Re:Great! kind of by Sillypuddy · · Score: 1

    Apple has always been good at taking existing technology, make it easy/better/simpler and use their marketing skills to sell tons of them.

    Sure you can always take a bunch programs and link them together to make something that functions the same, but it's never going to be simple to keep it up and you have to still find legal means to get music

    -joe

  474. Won't install under XP Pro? by CrazyTalk · · Score: 1

    I installed it at home and it works fine (better than fine, actually), but at work the installation program hangs. Are there firewall issues in the installation? All I was planning on doing with it at work (really!) was for playing music, so you'd think anyone would at least be able to install it.

    1. Re:Won't install under XP Pro? by allgood2 · · Score: 1

      do you have administrator permissions at work? I had it stall on me when doing a Win2k installation, but I was running as joe blow user. When I logged backed in as admin, and ran smoothly.

    2. Re:Won't install under XP Pro? by CrazyTalk · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I do. I can access most anything, but services like Kazaa, Morpheous, etc. are blocked so I'm assuming this one is to.

    3. Re:Won't install under XP Pro? by zpok · · Score: 1

      Works fine with my wife's toshiba (XP Pro). Even after all those pesky security updates. She logs in as admin.

      Please report this (link directly to the feedback page).

      --
      I think, therefore I am...I think.
  475. Re:Great! kind of by bhtooefr · · Score: 1

    I said PHONETIC theme. UNIX, Linux, A/UX, HP/UX, AIX, QUNIX (now QNX - they didn't want to get sued!), etc.

  476. WARNING: iTunes may HANG UP W2K on startup! by Redshift · · Score: 1

    Well I am not impressed. I installed iTunes for Windows onto a W2K-Pro box and it hung up cold on startup (halfway along the blue progress bar). I could not reboot using safe mode, command mode, last good profile or anything.

    I remembered the Roxio fiasco and unplugged my old CDRW drive (an IomegaZip 8x4x32) and W2K rebooted happily. Uninstalled iTunes, replugged the CDRW and all was well.

    1. Re:WARNING: iTunes may HANG UP W2K on startup! by zpok · · Score: 1

      Is this due to your CDRW drive or iTunes?

      btw: Please report this (link directly to the feedback page).

      Only takes a minute and Apple are real good listeners. They provide great driver support on the Mac, so I guess they might be able to do the same for your perif.

      --
      I think, therefore I am...I think.
  477. Re:Great! kind of by follower-fillet · · Score: 1

    > On my Mac, I ran iTunes and clicked 'Share Library'.
    > On the Win2000 machine my Mac's music library automatically appeared in the left panel.
    How does it implement Rendezvous on Windows? Could iTunes be a covert way to get Rendezvous more common on Windows and thus more useful?

  478. OS X Memory management (It's also an MP3 player.) by Herbmaster · · Score: 1

    The philosophy of Mac OS X (and quite a few other operating systems, especially Unix-like ones) is that you should use as much RAM as you can.

    This is a great philosophy until, of course, you've used as much RAM as you can and then you decide you want to load something new. It's perfectly reasonable to base your design on a user doing something like running a really small process over and over again - like, say, /bin/ls. But no one is ever going to quit Internet Explorer and start it again over and over, unless they're doing a benchmark to demonstrate how strong Apple's VM system is. Unfortunately, Apple chose to write for the synthetic benchmark rather than writing for a realistic usage case, I think.

    A much more realistic case is that I'm using my memory loading web pages in Safari, I've got email going, itunes has been loading and playing mp3s for the past few weeks, etc., and then I decide I want to play a game. None of the game's data is cached, because it hasn't run recently. So the VM now has to scramble to find 200 MB of pages. Ideally the process of freeing unnecessary pages would be very fast, but it seems in practice (circa 10.2.x) it's going to have to swap a lot of stuff to disk first, which basically makes the whole process take twice as long as it could have if we had kept an ample supply of free memory available. OS X seems to have no problem finding "important" things to put in memory which can't be instantly freed, until there's very little free memory left.

    Another complication of this is that it's pretty easy to fill up your root partition with swapfiles. Incidentally, this is terrible for disk performance. Like, making the system so slow that the cursor stalls for 10 seconds at a time. make -j comes to mind. And it's not particularly diligent about cleaning up swapfiles that are no longer used, which may not make any difference to the VM system, but it does to the filesystem, which still has to consider the disk space as in use.

    One probably-related issue that comes to mind is that freeing memory seems to really take a long ass time even if you don't need it. The most glaring example of this is quitting Safari. Safari tends to "leak" memory (I don't know that it really does or if it actually has a legitimate use for tons of memory) over time/page loads, and occasionally I decide to quit it. Quitting Safari tends to stall my entire system for 10-30 seconds. [System: 500mHz G4 and over 500 MB of memory, YMMV] I really don't understand why this should be necessary. It seems to me that freeing all of a processes memory ought to be as simple as marking a lot of pages as dead, and it also seems to me that this entire process ought to be asynchronous with everything else since there's obviously nothing depending on those pages any more.

    --
    I'm not a smorgasbord.
  479. Re:Great! kind of by statusbar · · Score: 1

    As I said in a previous message, there is a lot more to iTunes than the store. I can't even use the store because I am in Canada, and I love iTunes, and I want an app like it or better on Linux! What features would you put into a linux music player program to make it even better than iTunes? You are right. THAT is the hard part. The software is the easy part.

    But no talks with record companies are necessary to make a better app.

    --jeff++

    --
    ipv6 is my vpn
  480. ditto by boomerny · · Score: 1

    also a Mac user for years, and a consultant for NYS which is all Windows, when I tell people at work that computing does not have to difficult they shrug and say 'typical Mac user'. Well, there's a reason I use Mac exclusively at home, it just works.

  481. Ogg Vorbis Support by britrock · · Score: 1
    For those of you, who like myself have converted all their MP3s into Ogg Vorbis, you're in luck.

    http://qtcomponents.sourceforge.net/

    Download the windows version, and copy the file into c:\windows\system32\quicktime, then restart iTunes and you'll be able to play Ogg Vorbis files.

    Enjoy.

    1. Re:Ogg Vorbis Support by zpok · · Score: 1

      I heard quality was not so good. Any first hand comments?

      btw only out of interest, am not into Ogg (except of course the exhaulted Miss Nanny)

      --
      I think, therefore I am...I think.
  482. How's the speed? by nullard · · Score: 1

    What's the speed like on those searches? iTunes is instantaneous and I haven't seen anything like it (although I heard that BeOS had a similar system). If there's a way to get actual manegable playlists on pre XP/2k machines, I'd like to know. I use iTunes/Mac at home and iTunes/XP at work, but every once in a while I use an older OS and would like a good playlist management system.

    --


    t'nera semordnilap
  483. Re:Rendering engine? KHTML? by LemonYellow · · Score: 1

    I'm sure they would be only too happy to publish the source of KHTML. It wouldn't mean that they'd have to publish the source to iTunes though, if that's what you're getting at.

  484. YAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOO ! by a1z26b2y25 · · Score: 1

    My credit card company will have to bill me for extra postage. At 99 cents a download, I will be using up a lot of paper.

  485. Re:Great! kind of by firewort · · Score: 1

    Which was inspired by the seamless functionality of AppleTalk, an Apple invention.

    ZeroConf is not revolutionary, it's evolutionary. But then, most ideas have to come from somewhere.

    --

  486. Re: window media 9 does the same... by CapS · · Score: 1

    Btw Itunes crashed on my 'import' of 1000+ mp3s.

    It's likely that you have some corrupted mp3s which are causing it to crash. A brief look at Apple's Discussion forum, in the iTunes for Windows forum seems to point to this as the problem.

  487. Re:Son, you're all confused by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

    ARGH

    When did I *EVER* say master->AAC was a perfect copy?

    NEVER

  488. Re:Can PC users test it and report? by 5n3ak3rp1mp · · Score: 1

    I know about lossless codecs. People bittorrent lossless-encoded concerts and stuff all the time. Perhaps in 20 years when we all have 50 terabyte drives, lossless codecs will be the norm. Until then, I'll stick to much more manageable lossy formats, just like all my pictures are in JPEG and I don't seem to mind. (incidentally, JPEG2000 is awesome.)

    re: 128kbit MP3 and CD- Duh. I was talking about 128kbit AAC. 128kbit MP3 is crap.

    re: 192kbps: DVD audio, as I understand it, is 192kbit. So much for an audiophile DVD system. So I never encode above 192 since I think the extra fruitiness it provides is not provably worth it (a matter of preference I guess)

    If you want to talk about lossy, the digital encoding process itself is lossy, when going from analog. You chop up a theoretically smooth signal into sampled bits. 44KHz will sound better than 22KHz, but I suppose 88KHz would be even better, you know?

  489. Excelent program, but... by LinuxTek · · Score: 1

    I installed iTunes on my WinXP machine at work, and some co-workers did too. Rendezvous works like a charm, and all I can say are good things for iTunes...

    Except it doesn't work with a proxy! I tried to go to the apple store with the iTunes software and no luck. There's no way to configure a proxy.

    Or maybe is that my crapy SysAdmin uses MS ISA and has the proxy authentication set for NTLM auth only.

    That's the only gripe I have about iTunes.

    --
    Signatures are supposed to be funny?
    1. Re:Excelent program, but... by TeddyR · · Score: 1

      Nope... doesnt work with proxy...

      if you want the next version to work with proxy, my suggestion is to click on help | provide itunes feedback... and fill out that form....

      If they realize that there are many windows users with admins that have networks behind proxies for whatever reason, they may code it into their next version.... [in this case it is advantageous to them so be able to make more sales.....]

      --

      --
      Time is on my side
  490. XML Library export by jeffhot · · Score: 1

    iTunes for Windows can output both playlists and the entire Library as an XML file. Who's gonna be the first to make an app that can convert this into something nice like a neatly formated HTML page? Or of course there is always the possbility of taking it further and making an app that will let remote users search and copy the music files (assuming they weren't bought from iTMS). Whatever, someone needs to make something cool that uses this.

    1. Re:XML Library export by Kevinv · · Score: 1

      Mac version automatically keeps an xml file next to the library with all the info. Has since 4.0 first came out I believe.

  491. iPodService.exe by cens0r · · Score: 1

    Anyone have any idea how to remove this service? Both it and the iTunesHelper.exe are loaded at startup now. I know I don't need the former, because I don't have an iPod. I have no idea what the iTunesHelper does, so I probably don't need it either. No information in the help, and as far as I can find no options to disable them.

    --
    Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
    1. Re:iPodService.exe by piznut · · Score: 1

      The iPod service can be controlled in the Services control applet under administrative tools. I think it is launched from the iTuneshelper app, because it was already set to manual start when I went in to stop it. I set it to "Disabled" just to be sure it doesnt start.

      The iTunes helper I think just causes iTunes to load faster..or something.

      You can keep it from starting by removing the iTunesHelper key from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run

    2. Re:iPodService.exe by Kevinv · · Score: 1

      iTunesHelper is most likely a system tray icon program (or an auto-detector for when a cd is inserted). You can keep it from starting via the registry change some else mentioned.

      iPodServices should be stopped from automatically starting by setting it to Manual in the Services control panel (nt/2k) or the Services section of the Computer Management program under Administrative Tools (xp).

      iPodService doesn't start automatically on mine and I've got it set to manual, but it does start up if I launch iTunes (and doesn't shut back down). I set it to disabled and it doesn't seem to affect iTunes.

      iPodService did seem to slow my computer down a lot, especially internet browsing. Shutting it off fixed the problem.

  492. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by FattMattP · · Score: 1
    Then buy a Mac.
    I don't want a Mac. You go buy a Mac. I was just pointing out Apple's hypocrisy.
    --
    Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
  493. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by RHS+Bomber · · Score: 1

    Double click on the title bar to maximize the window.

  494. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by FattMattP · · Score: 1
    And I was pointing out that no such hypocrisy exists.
    Nonsense. The hypocrisy exists. Just because you fail to acknowledge it doesn't make it not so.
    Wanna give it another go, or are you willing to accept defeat now?
    This isn't a contest. There is no victory or defeat. It's just two people discussing their opinions on computers and operating systems.
    --
    Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
  495. iTunes under Wine? by Clith · · Score: 1
    Does Wine or one of the other Linux Windows compatability libraries allow you to run Windows iTunes on Linux?

    For extra points, how about under one of the BSDs?

    --
    [ReidNews]
  496. New malloc APIs? by Clith · · Score: 1
    Hm, it's almost as if we need new, "cosmetic" APIs for memory allocation. e.g. use malloc() (or calloc() etc.) for normal, really needed memory. Then use " cache_malloc() (or cache_calloc() etc.) for memory that can be purged at a moments notice.

    Then, at the very least, all these wonderful GUI memory-meters could show how much RAM is *really* being used. As it stands now, I don't think there's any way to tell, is there?

    I guess you could use how long a page has been swapped out as an indicator, but that's not quite correct enough, is it?

    --
    [ReidNews]
    1. Re:New malloc APIs? by JamieF · · Score: 1

      Well, I think the expected Unix way to do stuff like this is to just lean really hard on the kernel's disk cache. If you don't *have* to have it in RAM 100% of the time, use a decent algorithm / data structure that lets you know where exactly it is on disk, and ask the OS for it every time you need it. If you need it a lot (which could vary based on user activity), it'll be in cache anyway, so no biggie. (Whether you have to have it in RAM is a judgement call that could be made based on performance testing.)

      But, you get into trouble when using a 1600x1200x32-bit screen that needs 8MB just for a single frame buffer. Add double-buffering and backing stores for every window and all of a sudden you're talking about a lot of memory required just to draw a bunch of windows on the screen. (Don't forget that gorgeous desktop wallpaper!) Open 20 fullscreen windows, and what do you expect is going to happen? Oh my god, why is it taking 160MB? (The /. chorus chants "bloat! bloat! bloat!") Well, because it has to, unless you want to wait as every window is redrawn from scratch every time you move something.

      A side note: I've noticed this on Windows particularly, but it probably applies to OS X as well: minimize windows as much as you can; it makes your system more responsive. It sounds dumb, but using [Windows]-D often means that moving or minimizing a window doesn't result in 50 overlapping windows (and/or the apps they belong to) needing to be un-swapped so they can be redrawn now that you've minimized the topmost window. I'm not sure which apps choose to repaint "from scratch" vs. which ones just keep a private bitmap of what's supposed to be in the window, but subjectively, it seems like a lot of apps have gone in the "keep a private bitmap" direction instead of repainting every time. If so, that means the developers have chosen to use memory instead of CPU, which backfires if the window has to be repainted from a bitmap that's been swapped out. Or maybe it's just that the application code is swapped out and needs to be swapped back in before it can repaint the window... anybody know more about this?

    2. Re:New malloc APIs? by lowmagnet · · Score: 1

      A stroke from the brush does not guarantee art from the bristles.

      --
      Heute die Welt, morgen das Sonnensystem!
  497. Browsing iTunes Music Store via web by Clith · · Score: 1

    Well, it's more like a search than a browse, but you can sort of see what they have by using the iTMS Link Maker. It lets you search by artist, album and song name.

    --
    [ReidNews]
  498. Does this mean KHTML runs on Windows? by joeykiller · · Score: 1

    iTunes on my Mac uses WebCore, which is Apple's version of KHTML. [Perhaps KHTML already does this but I ask the question anyway:] Does anyone here know if iTunes for Windows means that Apple has modified KHTML to compile and run on Windows, and whether the modifed code is available anywhere?

  499. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by ShavenYak · · Score: 1

    Plus, I can never get drag-and-drop to do what I want it to do in Windows. It always does something unexpected with the content, document, or whatever I am dragging.

    That used to drive me nuts, too, until I re-trained my fingers to always drag with the right mouse button. Then, you get a pop-up menu from the receiving application so you can tell it what to do with your stuff.

    --

    Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
  500. Re:Great! kind of by stux · · Score: 1

    Hahahhaha

    FUNNY

    Yes it is, but it's not apple's idea. ZeroConf is an open standard invented by the IETF

    You see, its funny because ZeroConf is apple's idea. It was invented by Apple and submitted to the IETF (or whatever it is you actually do to turn your idea/standard into an IETF standard.

    Apple called it Rendezvous

    --

    ---
    Live Long & Prosper \\//_
    CYA STUX =`B^) 'da Captain,
    Jedi & Last *-fytr
  501. Simple ... de-authorize the old computer by nether · · Score: 1

    You can do it from the computer, or you can send e-mail to iTMS support and they can de-auth it for you.

    No problems.

  502. Re:OS X Memory management (It's also an MP3 player by JamieF · · Score: 1

    The Safari leak you describe is something I experienced too: Use it heavily for a few hours (lots of open windows, lots of downloads, lots of tabs), then close all windows. Run "top" in Terminal. It's taking 1GB of memory (including swap), whoa! Quit, and it can take 30 seconds or more. Ouch.

    OTOH, force-quitting it takes about 1 second. So, I wouldn't blame the OS - blame Safari for having a crazy memory leak that makes it take a long time to gracefully shut down (and at 100% CPU, thrashing the heck out of the swap volume, so basically the Mac is ultra slow for the time being). Force-quit or kill -9 gets rid of it much more quickly.

    Now that you mention it, I haven't encountered this problem in the last couple of weeks. One of those "delete these preferences files" articles from www.info.apple.com seems to have made it go away permanently.

  503. *important* iTunes - fixing poor sound quality by Greenrider · · Score: 1

    so after digging around the Apple support forums, I discovered that I was not insane to think that the iTunes sound quality was noticeably worse than the quality from other audio programs.

    here is the fix, which you should look into even if you don't think anything's wrong with the quality - go into the quicktime settings in the control panel, go to "wave out" and change it from DirectSound to waveOut - windows preferred, or waveOut - [name of your soundcard]

    The problem is that quicktime (which iTunes uses as its MP3 engine) uses the directsound driver instead of sending the audio directly to your card. somehow this extra layer of software tomfoolery mangles the audio, giving it an "underwater" muffled effect. Try it and see if you can notice an improvement in your sound clarity.

  504. Re:WARNING! Subliminal Messages!! by Trurl's+Machine · · Score: 1

    Can someone look, if this is also the case if an iPod is connected?

    Indeed. I have a 15 GB iPod connected. I constantly hear repeating whispers saying "buy Belkin Voice Recorder, Griffin iTrip FM Transmitter, Belkin iPod Battery Pack, InMotion iPod speakers" etc.

  505. Re:I have been checkz0ring eyeTunez out the past h by zpok · · Score: 1

    Well, if you're going to burn an audio CD anyway, you could re-import them with any setting you like.

    Check out the preferences pane on this (or properties or whatever it's called in XP world). You can import CD's using AIFF without compression and mp3 and AAC from 64 to 340 or something mhz.

    That should do the trick. Apple said there would be quality loss, but I can't see this being anything but FUD. Have imported a ton of (bought) CD's and they all sound great in iTunes.

    --
    I think, therefore I am...I think.
  506. Re:Apple-only aac support by zpok · · Score: 1

    Please report this (link directly to the feedback page).

    Chances are you're not the only one with the same complaint. I think it's acceptable behaviour for a first gen. app, but if you don't complain, next update won't be better for you.

    --
    I think, therefore I am...I think.
  507. Re:Great! kind of by ernst_mulder · · Score: 1

    Neither is the idea of using a compiler to write software for a computer. iTunes ios a complete rip-off! They even used icons on buttons which has been done before. And MP3 isn't an Apple invention either. Totally unoriginal, this iTunes. The mouse wasn't even invented by Apple!

    Taste the brushed-metal irony in this message?:-)

  508. Re:sharing... by Kevinv · · Score: 1

    Sharing is: No file copying, up to 5 people on local LAN can connect and listen to any song they want (end-user picks) from the playlists you've allowed to be shared.

    Finding shared music is via Rendezvous (sp?), a zero-configuration protocol that allows service discovery on the local LAN with no configuration.

  509. Re:Great! kind of by zpok · · Score: 1

    Those are the hardest discussions to have with programmers:

    "Hey, we noticed you have a 5-click process on this function. Turns out it's a much needed function. We want it done in one click. And that click should be in the most logical place imaginable."

    Then duck, run, leave the building...

    Apple is so cool because in the end their design principles are all about the user. That sounds like so much marketing crap, until you've spend a day, week, month and in the end years on a mac.

    The difference cannot be expressed in MHZ or fruity colors. It's about all the time, frustration and heart-ache saved compared to other systems.

    Not to say they're perfect or holy. They're a company, so one way or another, you pay for their profits. But they do put you in the driver's seat.

    Linux: I love it, in a philosophical way. Won't ever fiddle with it. Don't see why. Hated fiddling with PC's to get the most basic things running, now why would I enjoy that on Linux?

    The strength of linux is also one of its greater weaknesses. All those distro's and crazy projects out there make it pretty hard to get those real user-friendly things implemented.

    One click updating, installs, consistency in all apps, console-less apps with real gui's that don't try to hurt your eyes...
    You don't get that in the average Linux build, it's not for that audience.

    It would be nice to have one distro that would really focus on the desktop. And I wouldn't mind if it would be a "me too" OS-Application bundle, at least to begin with.

    But a project that's all about the average user. It would be great experience for programmers who are interested in what makes users tick, and it would be very interesting in itself. It would also be a significant step towards Linux on the Desktop. The more the merrier.

    For many people - especially in underdeveloped countries that would mean A LOT.

    I would love to see a bunch of free programmers do that instead of Sun or whoever.

    Cheers, rant over.

    --
    I think, therefore I am...I think.
  510. Linux Innovation by JThundley · · Score: 1

    Not to mention that Linux software developers usually end up porting their software to Windows after it has been made successful. Take Apache, Nmap, and Gaim for example.
    I'm still torn whether this is better for the Linux community. It introduces Windows users to free and good software. Apache for Windows keeps them from running IIS, yet it doesn't get them to switch to Linux.

    Space out with me on this for a bit.

  511. Re:Great! kind of by juhaz · · Score: 1

    I myself am guilty of promoting complexities. Since I know how to set up NFS and Samba and Apache and Shoutcast, I would just use one of these tools on my own Linux boxes to accomplish the same thing with XMMS or X11AMP or even mpg321 with a cgi php4 script front-end with apache and the mp3 meta-data extracted into a PostgreSQL table for faster searches. All the tools are there, and as a programmer, I find it fun to implement these kinds of things - and I HAVE spent time doing this for my own system.

    Well. There you have it. Most of Linux users are geeks and programmers of at least some skill. They want to twiddle around and quite a few probably prefer the malleability of those solutions to maybe bit easier but inflexible software.

    And because they are mostly developing for THEMSELVES, not for Joe Users, that's what you end up getting.

  512. Re:Great! kind of by Drishmung · · Score: 1
    Misleading. Take a look at the people driving the ZeroConf effort. Start at the ZeroConf page maintained by Stuart Cheshire who describes himself as Wizard without Portfolio, Apple Computer, Inc..

    Read up where ZeroConf came from.

    Note though, that Apple does not own ZeroConf. It's now out into the IETF space where anyone can scrutinize, comment, criticise and suggest improvements. And this IMHO is a Good Thing.

    --
    Protoplasm. Quiet Protoplasm. I like quiet protoplasm.
  513. Re:While I like the idea... by Chump1422 · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure how Apple is f*cking up your ability to enjoy your entertainment.

    1)You can listen to the songs you buy anywhere you want. Home PC? No prob. ipod? No prob. Burn them to a CD? Basically unrestricted.

    2) You can listen on multiple computers -- either by sharing or by authorizing multiple computers.

    What can't you do? Give music away to millions of people you don't know. Is that really why you buy entertainment products? I doubt it.

    There aren't any real hurdles placed in your way to use these files as you see fit. Please define the problem again.

  514. Re:Great! kind of by VonSnaggle · · Score: 1

    Where are my mod points when I need them....

    This is pure flaimbate, and I guess I'll bite....

    Tabbed browsing is one of the best inovations yet......

    --
    if common sense was common, wouldn't everyone have it?
  515. Re:Great! kind of by VonSnaggle · · Score: 1

    flamebait....

    where is the damn spellcheck for comments

    --
    if common sense was common, wouldn't everyone have it?
  516. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by lordDallan · · Score: 1

    Well overall I agree that MDI was mischaracterized by the original post. I'd suggest you might get more people to consider that fact more seriously by omitting the word "Asshat" from the end of your reply.

    Now if it was a tinfoil Asshat....

  517. Re:Great! kind of by JDWTopGuy · · Score: 1

    Why do you need a life, when you have a brain?

    Oh wait, you don't have either of those! Nevermind.

    --
    Ron Paul 2012
  518. Re:Great! kind of by JDWTopGuy · · Score: 1

    +1, Insightful!

    From now on the proper wildcard is: *{i,I}*{x,X}

    Clearly the advantages are great. This matches unix, linux, AIX, and posix in any case. However QNX and BSD don't match, therefore: we must use more search strings: *{i,I}*{x,X} QNX *BSD

    (Thankfully BSD distros always have the BSD part capitalized, and QNX is always capitalized.)

    Furthermore, an SQL implementation: SELECT ALL FROM OPERATING_SYSTEMS WHERE ( OS_NAME LIKE '%BSD' OR OS_NAME LIKE '%i%x' OR OS_NAME LIKE 'POSIX' OR OS_NAME LIKE '__X' );

    As you can see, my SQL only matches lowercase "i" and "x" for brevity. Therefore I added POSIX and as a special case, and QNX and AIX should both be matched by '__X'.

    Maybe we could just use SELECT ALL FROM OPERATING_SYSTEMS WHERE ( OS_TYPE LIKE 'POSIX' );

    Don't mod me funny!

    --
    Ron Paul 2012
  519. Re:Great! kind of by Anomalous+Cowturd · · Score: 1


    Tabbed browsing is one of the best inovations yet......


    Yes, and it was invented by Opera, on Windows, over 5 years ago. What was your point again?

    --

    Java: the bastard demon spawn of C++ and Ada

  520. Media Center / Jukebox by meehawl · · Score: 1
    Smart playlists are worth it. Managing huge playlists is better, IMHO, in iTunes than any other player. If you have TONS of MP3, iTunes wins, once you get into its playlist management stuff hardcore.
    If like me you do indeed have a mammoth collection that demands clever smartlisting, you owe it to yourself to read this comment, which explains how iTunes' playlist features, while reasonably advanced, are still quiote behind Media Center's amazing flexibility.
    --

    Da Blog
  521. Re:Can PC users test it and report? by JDWTopGuy · · Score: 1

    This is OT, but how is support for JPEG2K? When will it be viable to put together a webpage with JPEG2K pictures?

    --
    Ron Paul 2012
  522. Garbage by FredFnord · · Score: 1

    It uses 64 bit pointers.

    It does 64 bit arithmetic.

    It has parts of the OS optimized for 64-bit calculations. (And 128-bit calculations, with Altivec).

    So the reason you're saying that the OS isn't 64-bit is because some of it has 32 bit code in it? Well, then, Apple doesn't have a PowerPC OS yet, because some of Classic still runs 680x0 code.

    Give up. It may or may not be the first, but it sure as heck is a 64-bit machine.

    -fred

    --
    Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
    1. Re:Garbage by juhaz · · Score: 1

      PANTHER does. It's not even out yet if you haven't noticed. But why bother with the facts?

      I never claimed it wasn't 64-bit machine, but right now, today, it does not have even partially 64-bit OS. Trash and yell all you can but that doesn't change. That nor stupid "it's not ready" -denials don't manage to get 64-bit Linux to vanish in puff of logic from this Earth either.

      Frankly, I couldn't care less about who was first, everyone knows BOTH Apple and AMD are latecomers to 64-bit desktop/workstation market. I only responded to this because the guy was belittling AMD for being in "fantasy land" while it's perfectly usable for running 32-bit code in real world (and faster than existing x86 processors at that) and has had real 64-bit OS for a long time whether or not Mac zealots acknowledge that OS as "ready".

      Both are good machines, and both are still somewhere between fantasy land and here, and will be for a while. That's it, nothing is going to change it, now let the stupid flames STOP

  523. 100 Million copies of the same song? by bubble7 · · Score: 1

    As I listen to the discussion of how Pepsi is going to be giving away 100 million songs with their promotion - I started getting nervous about the ambiguity of the launguage which keeps being used. They keep talking about giving away songs, but they don't say that the user can choose what song they get. So - maybe the Pepsi giveaway isn't giving each person a $.99 coupon. But instead it's going to let everyone download a specific song by the an artist Pepsi is currently promoting. ?

    I hope not. Giving away 100 million copies of the same Beyonce song (or whatever) just doesn't seem as cool as letting me download any song I want.

    (Sorry if this has been posted before.)

  524. Windows standards? Wow, not bad! by FredFnord · · Score: 1

    But I have a better one:

    Microsoft Works.

    Easily my favorite. It's even ahead of Military Intelligence and Airline Food.

    (Shamelessly stolen from some online comic strip or other.)

    -fred

    --
    Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
  525. Not so much on the Mac by FredFnord · · Score: 1

    It's not such a big deal, window-wise, on the Mac. I'm running this on a 400 mHz G4 with about a zillion windows open, and 256 megs of RAM, and minimizing windows doesn't speed it up much, because all the compositiing is being done on the video card... all the window contents are already there.

    -fred

    --
    Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
  526. You, sir, are full of eye candy by FredFnord · · Score: 1

    I have seen several machines with minimal amounts of memory that poeple here have upgraded to XP or Win2k. I'm not sure what you do to make them run faster than Win95, but I have the suspicion it involves halluninogenic drugs, because it's sure not the case on the machines I've been using.

    -fred

    --
    Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
    1. Re:You, sir, are full of eye candy by TheNetAvenger · · Score: 1

      I have seen several machines with minimal amounts of memory that poeple here have upgraded to XP or Win2k. I'm not sure what you do to make them run faster than Win95, but I have the suspicion it involves halluninogenic drugs, because it's sure not the case on the machines I've been using.

      Yep you got it, we pay people around 100K a year to test and work on hardware and OSes, and then we supply them with massive amounts of shrooms so they are always high and giving us wrong answers for the hell of it.

      lol

  527. Re:WARNING! It will install a HTTP server on p.368 by dmdimon · · Score: 1

    C'mon! Who are 'known for quality windows software'?

    And where you get this: ' and they treat their own folks who work on windows stuff like CRAP.' - like CRAP.

    By the way, I personally (using MacAnalisys) CAN'T see that 'HTTP server on p.3689' not on XP, nor W2k adv server, nor OS X 10.2.8

    How exactly you find it? Accidentally? ;)

  528. Uh... yes. by FredFnord · · Score: 1

    Hence his statement that if you see .nib files, that doesn't necessarily mean that it is Cocoa.

    Sheesh.

    -fred

    --
    Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
  529. ...huh? by FredFnord · · Score: 1

    I suppose it's possible that there is someone off in some corner of the company that gets treated like crap, but I never met him when I was there.

    I did meet plenty of the QuickTime boys and girls, and despite the fact that they all have both Macs and Windows machines on their desks, and every line of code that they write has to be cross-platform (with the exception of the lowest of the low level stuff, and the QTML interface layer), they were treated pretty well.

    -fred

    --
    Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
  530. True, it's not a contest, but he's ahead on points by FredFnord · · Score: 1

    You said:
    > I expect all the applications to be consistent in their appearance and function when I use a computer.

    You must be a terribly, terribly disappointed person, if you're truly a Windows user. It was only two years ago that it was observed that in three different programs in the Windows Office suite, selecting a chunk of text and then hitting the backspace button DID THREE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT THINGS.

    So... is there some hypocracy there? I'm not sure I'd call it hypocracy, I think I'd call it *revenge*. Apple is tired of having their HIG ignored by masses of companies. They're trying to show Windows users what Mac programs are like, and at the same time poke a little fun. You can call it hypocracy. But if that's hypocracy, then the death penalty is too: we don't want people killing other people, so we kill them.

    -fred

    --
    Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
  531. Re:here's a tip for ya by diverman · · Score: 1

    What default option? He was ASKED if he wanted to do it and said yes. I remember that question as well during installation, and said NO. I had no such problems.

    -Alex

  532. Re:Damn ACs.. by diverman · · Score: 1

    That's an ssh session, thank you very much! :P ;)

    The first program _I_ opened when I got my Mac (switched 2.5 years back), was Terminal. It made everything feel right. :) heh It was a heck of a lot easier to see what was under the hood and how the system worked. Then I explored more with the GUI's to see what they did. :)

    -Alex

  533. Re:While I like the idea... by dcmeserve · · Score: 1
    I'm not sure how Apple is f*cking up your ability to enjoy your entertainment.

    Perhaps I used too strong a word for it to apply to Apple. Though it certainly does apply elsewhere.

    Take the MiniDisc format for example. We'd all have probably been using them 5 years ago instead of messing with CD-ROMs if Sony would have just made computer drives that could read the music disks, and not hobbled digital transfers between disks. But instead you have a near white elephant of a format that is dying a slow death. Probably would've had multi-GB disks that you could buy for $5 by now if there had been demand. And there would have been demand if there had been freedom.

    Back to Apple...

    1)You can listen to the songs you buy anywhere you want. Home PC? No prob. ipod? No prob. Burn them to a CD? Basically unrestricted.

    2) You can listen on multiple computers -- either by sharing or by authorizing multiple computers.

    Well, these are still impediments. Annoyances that require you to put in needless extra work if you don't want to work strictly within their system. And of course there's the impediment that you must have an Apple computer (or now Windows), along with special software, in order to get access to it. There's no technical reason why it couldn't work with a regular browser.

    What can't you do? Give music away to millions of people you don't know.

    Uhh, I think you still can. You just described how to get around the barriers.

    And that's my whole point: technical barriers don't solve the problem, just interfere with legit uses. The answer is a legal and cultural one.

    --
    "Orthodoxy is unconsciousness" - Orwell
  534. Re:Great! kind of by statusbar · · Score: 1

    You totally missed my point! Why didn't the open source people design a killer mp3 player before? What was stopping them? What is stopping them now from making an even better mp3 player than iTunes without porting it? All the base tools are there, pre-installed on most Redhat 9 installations.

    I use iTunes ALL the time, almost as much as I use gcc and pine.

    Sorry, the original version of iTunes ran on Mac OS 9, which is NOT a BSD kernel. And the BSD kernel calls (open,read,write,ioctl,connect,etc) are a miniscule part of iTunes, it is not even relevant which kernel is was designed on. What is more important is the GUI API that it uses.

    --jeff++

    --
    ipv6 is my vpn
  535. Re:Great! kind of by statusbar · · Score: 1
    Well, that is what I asked YOU!

    What does innovative software mean to you?

    --jeff++

    --
    ipv6 is my vpn
  536. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by vonFinkelstien · · Score: 1
    Maybe that explains why there is so much clutter on my desk, but I still manage to get work done.

    It's because I use a Mac!

    You wrote: Because seeing all those other windows behind the one window I want to concentrate on is a distraction. It's like in the real world I often clear my desk of clutter to concentrate on one thing.

  537. Re:Great! kind of by Jagasian · · Score: 1

    I am sure that no matter what evidence is presented to you, you will claim that it is not innovative. Point is that all acheivements are based on previous works. This applies to the sciences, maths, and software too!

    Linux has a few innovative package management systems, such as apt and portage. Gentoo's portage is probably the most innovative in that it does depenency analysis and system specific optimizations. Of course it takes ideas from apt and BSD ports, but like I said...

    DDD is a relatively innovative debugger with all the power of code trace debuggers, but with added graphical output modes, that make your C++ linked lists look like linked lists during debugging. It makes it really easy to see a bug when a pointer isn't handled correctly.

    Innovative programming languages such as Mercury and Haskell.

    There are plenty of other innovations, many not directly visible to the end user. My favorite innovation is the concept of free software. Yup, that comes from the FSF and the BSDs... but the Mac and Windows crouds don't have that, and that is huge!

  538. Re:Great! kind of by EccentricAnomaly · · Score: 1

    Thanks for turning the years of pain into a good belly laugh!! I got over the disappoinment that my machine had a windows modem and I had to buy a new modem, I got past the fear of guessing the frequencies on my monitor when I set up X.... but I couldn't get past the frustration of trying to get the @#$@#$@!! sound card built into my motherboard to work.

    Linux is great for starving students, save a ton of money and learn a lot about computers... but now I have a real job and I can afford a Mac. And my Linux experiences make me appreciate it sooo much more :)

    --
    There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
  539. Re:Great! kind of by starseeker · · Score: 1

    "Basically, I am wondering WHY there aren't more people trying to write the Linux Killer App."

    Because a Killer App is a really HARD thing to think up and write. Especially think up. Particularly when people have had twenty+ years to figure out what they want to do with PCs. Most of the problems people want to solve with computers have been identified now. Visicalc was a killer app because it made a pencil and paper job almost infinitely simpler. Same with word processors replacing the typewriter. A killer app arises when some great need is addressed that has not been addressed before. Photoshop, for example, with its graphics manipulation. But ask yourself, what problems are out there today that benefit from the virtual, wipe and undo environment of the computer? Databases, spreadsheets, typewriters-plus, graphics, sound, movies. Those fields were the killer app fields, that drove people to a product. The ones where annoying real world methods/products were replaced by something MUCH better.

    Now it is much harder to create a killer app. What do people want to do in a computer that they can't? Not a whole lot - an industry has worked for a very long time to provide them with what they want. The next killer app would probably need to create it's own demand, for something totally new. That is one of those problems like grand master level chess - only a very few minds can think of such solutions. Rare in all fields.

    If you want my personal read, I think the next "killer app" type effect might not be a single program so much as a system built from the hardware up to be secure. If you look at computers today, security is the main thing that people don't have and want. So if someone figures out how to provide it, there might be a great rush to it. But that problem is of an altogether different scale, and while there may be ways to address it in theory they would take hundreds of full time, professional computer scientists on staff somewhere. But that's just another stab in the dark prediction, not a visionary view of the future.

    --
    "I object to doing things that computers can do." -- Olin Shivers, lispers.org
  540. Re:Great! kind of by statusbar · · Score: 1

    Why are you assuming what I would think?

    I already posted that I believe Glade is innovative.

    Haskell is not a 'linux' thing.

    DDD is cool, I like it.

    OGG is innovative.

    XMMS and X11AMP and every other mp3/ogg player I tried on linux is NOT innovative.

    My point is... Why? An easy to use music player should be easier to design than glade!

    --jeff++

    --
    ipv6 is my vpn
  541. Re:JUST LIKE A LINUX NUT by GlockToTheHead · · Score: 1

    I like it just fine, as it gives me evidence that you are an idiot.

    Not quite, you see what the grandparent post was doing was calling the great grandparent poster a faggot since the great grandparent poster poster had called the great great grandparent poster a "a pimple faced Linux zealot" when in reality the great great grandparent poster used Windows 2000 as stated in the post in question. Clearly the AC was trying to illustrate how much of an idiot the great grandparent poster by using his own tactics against him.

    Apparely you are the idiot here since you were too fucking dense to realize that.

    Now do us all a favor and put a glock to your head and remove your stupidity from society.

  542. Re:Great! kind of by LamerX · · Score: 1

    So there you go. Apple again is non-innovative in thier open source thing.

    "Wow, open source is hip, lets pretend to be hip and cool by making some useless fork of our OS open."

    Oh yeah Darwin is some real great open source software. Yeah everyone is using it now. I'm not talking OSX i'm talking about the real, open Darwin. How useless is that crap. YAY i've got an OS with shit for software.

    Lets contribute bug fixes to Darwin, so that Apple can fix thier fucked up OSX problems and then resell it in a package that I don't get for free. In fact, its so not free that I have to pay for a fucking upgrade. Oh yeah pay $100 for fuckin 10.3, because my original OSX was fucked up in the first place.

    Oh yeah Apple contributes a little bit of stuff to KHTML. Wow how generous.

    Apple just started this to jump on the bandwagon and use some other peoples stuff. If they could have taken the open stuff and put it in thier os without contributing back they would have. Its all part of thier corporate strategy.

    Since Apple is so open, how about the source to the iLife apps?

    Apple's 'Open Source' policy is nothing but a corporate front. How about them releasing some code that wasn't already based on an open system.

    Oh an BTW, it wasn't just based on FreeBSD, but also netBSD. And who gives a rip if they were out before Linux? Linux was out before OSX so quit blabbing on about nothing. You haven't proven your point and won't prove it because your point is invalid.

    An Error of Type -2 has Occoured. User is a moron.

  543. Re:Great! kind of by ainsoph · · Score: 1

    Linux schminix. Apple invented Open Source. RMS just stole the idea from Woz and Jobs.

    That LamerX dood needs to get facts straight.

  544. BTW!! by ainsoph · · Score: 1


    Did ya see that video of Jewels where she flashes her boobs and like the guy is like all over her?

    NOW THAT is Open Source!!!!!

  545. Re:Great! kind of by westyvw · · Score: 1

    This guy is on crack. BSD is so cool. You can make stuff out of it and not give back! Thats the american way!

    No wait. The American way is to help out, like raising that barn or making a bake sale that helps out the neighbors. Oh I get it, We need to buy something thats just an idea in someones head. No thata not it, what will we do?

  546. Re:Can PC users test it and report? by 5n3ak3rp1mp · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's still pretty new. I did some tests in QuickTime on this OS X box here, and it seems pretty neat. I haven't tried loading the image in a browser, though. You'd have to Google it. It's still coming around.

    It's great because it 1) uses wavelet compression and 2) has two modes, lossy and lossless and 3) the lossy compression is an order of magnitude better than regular JPEG.

  547. that's what DAV and Zeroconf do too by konmaskisin · · Score: 1

    no "complex set up" either.

  548. Re:Great! kind of by bhtooefr · · Score: 1

    However QNX and BSD don't match
    What do you mean QNX doesn't match? If you use the original name for it (QUNIX, or Quick UNIX), it does!

  549. of course apple stole the idea by konmaskisin · · Score: 1

    like most commercial companies they poopoo'ed the Internet.

    They'll use the innovation of others, repackage, make it work only on OS/X and Windows and look real innovative while trying to corral the technologie and make it proprietary.

    I don't care cause any music apple puts on its server likely sux anyway.

  550. It's no good -- bye bye iTunes by MMHere · · Score: 1

    All I wanted to do was see what music they have available. They clutter up my system with several unnecessary pieces of bloated software, then REQUIRE a credit card # to simply browse what is available?

    iTunes is NO GOOD:
    ------------------

    (1) They require a valid credit card # before you can even begin to browse the "store." How about I give you that number when/if I find something I want to buy.

    This would be like The GAP requiring you to hand over your credit card when you cross the threhold of their B&M store. When you give it to them, they swipe the card and copy all the info from it. When you leave, they keep the info but give the card back.

    BLECH!

    (2) Apple installs a bunch of stuff that is unnecessary on my system:

    (2a) iPod Service appears in my services list, with an executable at \Program Files\iPod\bin.

    I don't have an iPod, I don't need one. I don't want this "service" running. So I nuked it

    (2b) a "qttask.exe" appears in my QuickTime folder and is set to run at startup (with a registry entry in HKLM/software/microsoft/windows/currentversion/run ).

    I don't need that crap, so I nuke it as well.

    (2c) Another app set to auto-run at startup (same reg key) is "iTunesHelper.exe" in the iTunes install folder. Why do I need this _always_ running even when I'm not using iTunes?

    So I nuke it as well.

    Ah things are a bit more comfy now.

    So I run the iTunes application again.

    (3) It re-installs all this shit I just disabled, puts back the registry keys, re-installs iPod Service, iTunesHelper, and qttask.

    So I nuke them all, and set the NTFS permissions on all files involved to read-only (I nuke the fuckers permanently).

    I run iTunes again. No weirdo apps/services any more, but they still want my credit card info before they will let me browse the store!

    This sucks.

    So I nuke the entire f\/cking iTunes installation, and burn the installer. Apple has not gotten any better at making software, IMHO.

  551. Re:OS X Memory management (It's also an MP3 player by Graff · · Score: 1
    The philosophy of Mac OS X (and quite a few other operating systems, especially Unix-like ones) is that you should use as much RAM as you can.

    This is a great philosophy until, of course, you've used as much RAM as you can and then you decide you want to load something new.

    Not exactly true. It's actually not that slow to page out to the backing store. The backing store is usually a contiguous space on the hard drive and so a page out is pretty quick, hardly any seeking is needed. Not only that but there are probably a ton of pages that are not "dirty" (have changes and need to be written to the backing store before being paged out) and can be just dumped without writing them to the backing store. Most times a page out is pretty quick and painless.

    A much more realistic case is that I'm using my memory loading web pages in Safari, I've got email going, itunes has been loading and playing mp3s for the past few weeks, etc., and then I decide I want to play a game. None of the game's data is cached, because it hasn't run recently. So the VM now has to scramble to find 200 MB of pages.

    Again, most of those pages probably don't need to be written to the backing store and so they will just be dumped from memory without writing to the hard drive.

    Another complication of this is that it's pretty easy to fill up your root partition with swapfiles. Incidentally, this is terrible for disk performance.

    Swapfiles are 80 meg files. I've rarely seen more than 1 of them on my system at a time, although I've heard of some people having 2 or 3 after running a ton of memory-intensive applications. As long as you have around 380 megs of RAM or more you probably won't see too many of these. I'd recommend 512 megs of RAM as a good solid baseline for Mac OS X, it only costs about $90 for top-quality RAM.

    One probably-related issue that comes to mind is that freeing memory seems to really take a long ass time even if you don't need it. The most glaring example of this is quitting Safari. Safari tends to "leak" memory (I don't know that it really does or if it actually has a legitimate use for tons of memory) over time/page loads, and occasionally I decide to quit it. Quitting Safari tends to stall my entire system for 10-30 seconds.

    Freeing memory really should not take that long. That sounds like some sort of bug in Safari, probably a problem with the program shutting down gracefully. It may be creating a ton of class objects (thus the memory leak) and is failing to close those objects properly. When the program closes it then tries to close out those objects creating a logjam of sorts. This probably doesn't have much to do with the memory model of the operating system, it is most likely application-related. I would report your problems to the Safari programming team, I'm sure they would love to fix problems like this.
  552. Re:True, it's not a contest, but he's ahead on poi by FattMattP · · Score: 1
    You must be a terribly, terribly disappointed person, if you're truly a Windows user. It was only two years ago that it was observed that in three different programs in the Windows Office suite, selecting a chunk of text and then hitting the backspace button DID THREE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT THINGS.
    That's one program out of millions. Care to share the context of when the delete key was being pressed? It could be that was the best and expected action for the context in which it was used. An example would be that pressing the delete key on a cell in a spreadsheet deletes the cell rather than deleting the last character displayed in the cell.
    So... is there some hypocracy there? I'm not sure I'd call it hypocracy, I think I'd call it *revenge*. Apple is tired of having their HIG ignored by masses of companies. They're trying to show Windows users what Mac programs are like, and at the same time poke a little fun.
    Ahh, I see where you are coming from now. You feel that Apple's attitude is "we are right and we need to share it with everyone and convert them as they don't know that we have the better method." This would be analogous christians feeling that they must "save" everyone and show them that they know the only true way to accomplish something. I find this type of attitude uncomfortable because it doesn't take into account the fact that people may have made their choice based on things that are not immediately obvious or important to the person insisting upon "helping" the user.

    Meanwhile, I look at it from a different perspective. I take the attitude that one should treat others as you would like them to treat you. If Apple and Apple users want people who port their software to the Mac to follow the Apple guidelines then it's equally important that they make the effort to do the same when porting to another operating system. Even Microsoft, who you seem focused on here, has followed Apple's guidelines when porting Office to the Mac. Cooperation works both ways.

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  553. Re:I love this but Windows version doesn't maximiz by fbg111 · · Score: 1

    while most Windows apps seem to be designed for exclusive, one at a time use.

    No, most Windows apps are designed for Alt-Tab use, or at least taskbar task-switching use. You maximize all your app windows, then rapidly toggle through them with Alt-tab (or if you're a noob, with the Taskbar buttons). Both multitasking paradigms are more efficient than Apple's "dig through a pile of haphazardly stacked windows to get to the one I want, repeat as necessary" design. That's why Windows users are so peeved about such a seemingly minor thing as iTunes not maximizing.

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