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."

Comments

Another Change?

[platypussrex]

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

Re:Another Change?

[Twirlip of the Mists]

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.

Re:Disables Hymn-ed songs?

[platypussrex]

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

Re:Disables Hymn-ed songs?

[boysimple]

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....
--

Re:Other minor enhancements?

[jadriaen]

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.

Re:Disables Hymn-ed songs?

[austad]

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.

Re:Airport Express availability?

[TTop]

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.

Re:Has anyone discovered...

[happyloman]

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

Re:AirTunes

[phatsharpie]

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

Re:Good news

[platypussrex]

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.

Yes, it does.. here's how to fix:

[Otto]

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.