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Apple Releases iTunes 4.6

sinclair44 writes "Apple has released iTunes 4.6. The new version 'includes support for playing your music wirelessly using AirPort Express with AirTunes. It also includes a number of other minor enhancements.' The update is also available in Mac OS X's Software Update."

27 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Another Change? by platypussrex · · Score: 4, Informative

    They are also reporting over on the Apple Discussions that the problems with sharing large (somewhere over 50 gig) libraries has been fixed.

    1. Re:Another Change? by Twirlip+of+the+Mists · · Score: 5, Informative

      The mark was under 50 GB; I'm not sure where it was, but it was related to the number of tracks, not the size of the library. When iTunes 4.5 came out, my library on my home machine was 42 GB and 11,000+ tracks. I had the problem.

      And yeah, I can confirm that 4.6 has fixed it.

      --

      I write in my journal
    2. Re:Another Change? by seedman · · Score: 3, Informative

      I can confirm that iTunes does in fact fix the 6000+ track bug with sharing. Also, it appears that only the machine hosting the library has to be updated to fix the bug.

      In my own testing, I found that connecting to a iTunes 4.6 shared song library of 13000+ tracks over my 100mb LAN from a machine running iTunes 4.5 or 4.6 takes about 10 seconds. Connecting to the same shared library over standard (11mb) Airport takes about 13 seconds.

      --
      "The things you see when you don't have your over-voltage cattle prod, a shovel and a sack of lime..." -- BOFH
  2. Re:Disables Hymn-ed songs? by platypussrex · · Score: 4, Informative

    Have not used Hymn so can't verify, but another poster on the same thread claims to be playing de-DRMed songs just fine in 4.6

  3. Re:Disables Hymn-ed songs? by boysimple · · Score: 5, Informative

    My hymn-ed songs do not play. They say :

    This computer is not authorized to play "I Woke Up Screaming"
    This song was originally purchased using the account "myaccountname@mac.com"

    So they do seem to be checking something. And calling out those who share hymn-ed files. Not sure how the macrumors fellow is getting his to play....
    --

    --
    My life is dedicated hosting
  4. Re:Other minor enhancements? by jadriaen · · Score: 4, Informative
    Plus, it was a previous 'minor enhancement' that changed the licensing terms of already-purchased music via the iTMS (to the significant apprehension of many people).

    It might be interesting to note that the changes in the licensing terms are only for the newly bought songs in 4.5, i.e. for the songs you already purchased before upgrading to 4.5, the old terms still apply.

    That aside, nothing changes in the licensing terms from iTunes 4.5 to 4.6.

  5. Re:Disables Hymn-ed songs? by austad · · Score: 4, Informative

    They are probably checking for the non-standard id3 tag info which lists the account it was purchased under. The old version of Hymn didn't put that in, but the new one does.

    The people still able to play are probably playing files de-drm'd with the older version. If you grab the new version of Hymn, just try ripping out the portion of code that inserts that tag in the new file and I bet it will work just fine.

    I've purchased much more music since Hymn came out because now I can play it on my linux box at work without having to burn cd's or do a lossy->lossy conversion.

    --
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  6. Re:AirTunes by platypussrex · · Score: 2, Informative

    From what I've read you'll be able to stream to each of them, but not at the same time. If what I've read is correct then the audio output will only be sent one place at a time... which includes the host computer, so if you stream to a stereo, you won't have speakers working on the computer at that time.

  7. Airport Express availability? by stu_coates · · Score: 2, Informative

    Oh great, iTunes 4.6 is out, but now Apple are having problems fulfilling orders for the Airport Express units that make use of the new features. I ordered 2 on Monday (from the UK Apple Store) with an estimated ship time of 3 days. Received an email this morning telling me that it's going to be mid-July before they will be available.

    Anyone know a reason why? Too many orders? Problems with the unit? Announced too early?

    1. Re:Airport Express availability? by TTop · · Score: 4, Informative

      All the press stuff I saw on the release day said it would be mid-July. And when I made my order, it said expected delivery was July.

    2. Re:Airport Express availability? by stu_coates · · Score: 3, Informative

      That wasn't on the page on Monday, and 3 days was the availability. Here's a copy of the email received this morning notifying me of the change in availability:

      Dear Apple Store Customer,

      Thank you for shopping at the Apple Store.

      We received your order for an AirPort Express Base Station.
      Unfortunately we cannot meet the previously estimated ship date for this product
      and we now expect to ship your order in mid-July.

      Your business is very important to us, and we apologise for any inconvenience
      that this change may cause.

      If for any reason you would like to discuss your order, please contact us at
      Freephone 0800 39 10 10 or uk.consumer@euro.apple.com.

      Answers to many post-sales questions can be found at the Apple Store
      Customer Service website: http://promo.euro.apple.com/promo/help/uk/consumer

      Kind regards,
      The Apple Store
    3. Re:Airport Express availability? by falcon5768 · · Score: 2, Informative

      ummmm it doesnt ship till July.... guess you missed that part

      --

      "Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."

  8. Re:Disables Hymn-ed songs? by iansquared · · Score: 3, Informative

    Verified on Windows XP.

  9. Re:Has anyone discovered... by happyloman · · Score: 4, Informative

    It is supposed to have fixed the crashing on radio stations and sharing of large libraries problems

  10. Re:AirTunes by phatsharpie · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, AirPort Express only allows you to broadcast on one set of speakers (one AirPort Express station). AirPort Express can broadcast any audio out from iTunes. It works by compressing whatever audio is coming from iTunes using the Apple Lossless Codec and sends it to the station where the "stream" is decompressed, thus no audio degradation is incurred.

    Here are some explanation:

    http://homepage.mac.com/craigamiller/iblog/C6726 60 861/E1786577583/

    -B

  11. Re:Reverse engineering the broadcast protocol by crazney · · Score: 2, Informative

    It will likely just be DAAP with the abillity to push music up. For DAAP see my iTunes website

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    stuff
  12. Mod Parent Down -1 Bullshit by Phil+Wilkins · · Score: 1, Informative

    Not even particularly funny bullshit either.

  13. Re:A nice feature to have by tonydiesel · · Score: 2, Informative

    You should easily be able to do this. You can map some (maybe all) of the function keys to do anything you want. So, you could conceivably write an AppleScript to do what you wanted and then map the function key to it.

  14. Re:Compliations... by evilskull · · Score: 2, Informative

    Just turn it off in preferences. It's called "Group compilations while browsing".

  15. Re:Good news by platypussrex · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just read a post on the Apple Support forums from an Apple Employee who says that it will be possible to send different streams to different AE boxes under Panther by starting multiple instances of iTunes under fast user switching and letting each one stream to a seperate box (assuming your bandwidth can take it). Sounds pretty cool to me.

  16. Yes, it does.. here's how to fix: by Otto · · Score: 4, Informative

    Temporary fix:
    Open the Hymn'ed song in a hex editor.. Look for "geID" or something with "ID" as the last two characters there. I'm not sure if it's always the same or not. Anyway, change this to "xxID" and save it. Then try the file in iTunes again.

    Or wait for a new Hymn to remove the ID entirely.

    Or just don't install 4.6. It doesn't add a whole heck of a lot of functionality except for compatibility with that new wireless access point/stereo output thing they've got coming out.

    Frankly, this was an *extremely* stupid move by Apple. What's the point? Look, people can crack the DRM, okay. But the programs tried to be nice by leaving the ID in there. The point was to enable fair use, not to enable file sharing. By leaving the ID in there, it makes it extremely easy to figure out who illegally shared their purchased music. People using it for fair use purposes wouldn't be sharing the music, and so they have no worries about the ID being there or not.

    This "fix" by Apple just makes it HARDER for them to actually catch anybody sharing music. Because now a new version will be created to remove the ID as well, and thus make files that are indistinguishable from normally ripped and encoded ones. Now somebody shares music, and there's no way to track them down. How STUPID can Apple be? Seriously? This is just freakin' preposterous.

    --
    - Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
  17. MP3s still work fine by Vandil+X · · Score: 2, Informative

    I still say the best way to de-DRM iTunes purchases is to burn then to an Audio CD-RW, then rip back as MP3s. Grab the album art from WalMart.com and you're all set.

    --
    Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
    1. Re:MP3s still work fine by harkabeeparolyn · · Score: 3, Informative
      Audio degradation is insignificant if you rip back at a high bit rate.

      Hardly any time is wasted. CD-RW's can be burned and ripped while you're doing something else.

      No plastic is wasted, CD-RW's are reusable, supposedly thousands of times.

      The metadata (song title, album title, genre, etc.) isn't lost in the burn/re-rip cycle. iTunes stores the data on the CD somehow.

  18. Re:A nice feature to have by quasipunk+guy · · Score: 3, Informative

    I recommend Synergy.

    It works very well and is cool looking to boot

  19. Re:AirTunes by wedding · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's the way I read it as well, but I was (am) hoping to see an option for multiple sets. The ability to pump to multiple room sets would make it considerably more valuable to me.

    As it is now, I probably won't buy one. I've got an iPod with a dock wired to the MD input on my stereo. Not much improvement to have to walk back to the iMac just to switch playlists. No, I haven't forgotten the wireless components, it's just not quite what I need.

  20. Re:A nice feature to have by Gkeeper80 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Get your hands on a bluetooth enabled cellphone like the Sony Ericsson line and you can use Salling Clicker to change the iTunes album, song, volume, and most other things too. It will pause iTunes when you receive or make a call and can be set up to pause when the bluetooth device is out of proximity (ie when you leave). Comes with plenty of default scripts and is extensible with AppleScript. Seems like the prefect combination of devices

  21. Re:Has something changed? by harkabeeparolyn · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've got three accounts logged in, all playing different songs under iTunes. Terrible racket, but I can verify that it works. iTunes 4.5.