Slashdot Mirror
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."
One poster in the macrumors forums claims that songs de-DRMed through Hymn no longer play.
Can anyone verify?
They are also reporting over on the Apple Discussions that the problems with sharing large (somewhere over 50 gig) libraries has been fixed.
I'd place good money on there being changes that support the upcoming UK/European version of iTMS rumoured to be announced next week.
I'm curious to see how AirTunes works with multiple speaker sets. If I can pump the same playlist to the stereo in my front room, my bedroom, my living room and the one outside, then Apple has just sold 4 Airport Express boxes. The cost of four will be much less than the cost (dollars+personal time) of running all that wiring and getting the speaker sets to all work well.
Can't wait to get my hands on this tonight!
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.
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.
It is supposed to have fixed the crashing on radio stations and sharing of large libraries problems
So I've just checked iTunes 4.6 and it appears to NOT break iTunes sharing, unlike last time.
I've updated my iTunes webpage to mention this.
Anyhow, one really cool feature that it seems to add for that AirTunes stuff is the ability to 'push' music upwards, rather than just pull down. This will allow one to control remote devices (what music is playing). Now I just can't wait to get my hands on an (Australian) AirPort Express device to reverse it. I can already think of a tonne of applications for this.
stuff
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.
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.
In case you haven't noticed it, the new iTunes has support for trailers, an although this is just a small departure from their current feature set, I bet they are just fine tuning the backend technology to support a full video on-demand service. In a few months, you'll be using iTunes to buy a movie for $9.99 and stream it to your Airport Express II to watch it in your own home theatre. I can't wait.
Originally posted here.