Apple Announces iTunes 7, Movies, Set-Top Box

necro81 writes, "As anticipated, Apple announced several additions and upgrades to its iPod and iTunes lineup. The iPod now comes in an 80 GB model, with a $50 price drop for the 30 GB model. The 2nd generation iPod Nano harkens back to the iPod Mini with metallic, multi-colored shells (though as diminutive as ever) and comes in an 8 GB model. The Shuffle has been completely redesigned and shrunk down to the size of a matchbook. All of this comes with the release of iTunes 7, which includes support for downloading full-length movies from iTMS." All 75 movies initially available are from Disney-related studios. The new iTunes will download cover art for all the songs in your library, no matter where you got them from, as long as you have an iTunes account. (A confirmation dialog says: "Information about songs with missing artwork will be sent to Apple. Apple does not keep any information related to the contents of your music library.") There's a new album-cover browsing view of your library. And Steve Jobs gave a sneak preview of a project code-named iTV: a Mac Mini-like wireless set-top box. Engadget has a blow-by-blow of Steve Jobs's presentation.

Comments

I liked the old nano...

[rtilghman]

While the capacities of the new one are nice, the design isn't nearly as sleek or sophisticated as the original nano design. It's a shame, I kind of detest Apple in general as fan-boy garbage (Rio Karma baby), but I did like the polish of the 1G Nano.

-rt

Re:I liked the old nano...

[JWW]

Lack of WiFi doesn't bother me. What would you use it for? Syncing?

If I'm close enough to sync I can plug in. I need to charge anyway.

WiFi would be cool for sharing music, but the music industry would never allow THAT.

Re:I liked the old nano...

[pdxmac]

You can.

Gapless Playback!

[blackmonday]

Gapless Payck for iPod! Wonder if they will update the 5th gen with this?? Please???

Re:Gapless Playback!

[Golias]

Gapless is what's been keeping me from upgrading as well. I've got an old black-and-white 20GB iPod which I've been using the hell out of for years now (I've burned through two batteries on it, and was planning on buying yet another in a few months.)

Color screens did not make me want to replace it.
Nor did photos.
Nor did putting the buttons on the clickwheel.
Nor did the longer battery life.
Nor did videos.

But gapless playback? They hooked me. I RAN to the Apple Store over my lunch hour, only to be told to "check again tomorrow", which I most certainly will do.

The sweet thing about this is, since it also plays videos and a smattering of time-killer games, I can sell off both my old iPod and my souped-up PSP to friends who want them, and just about break even on the upgrade! w00t!

THey also added gapless playback

[antifoidulus]

As well as an overhaul of the iTunes interface. One of the weirder things they added though was the "explicit" warning to music bought from the music store that is well, explicit.

But perhaps most shocking and sacrilegious: they changed the color of the music note! It is blue now! How could they destroy tradition like that!

iTV

[Damek]

Looking forward to this - but the big question will be, can you import video, or does it all have to come from iTunes Music Store? Namely, will Apple support via iTunes, just as they do for CDs, importing DVDs? Because a set top box that can only play video from an iTunes-bearing computer is relatively useless in comparison with Tivo/DVR/EyeTV/whathaveyou. Combine your standard cable company's DVR box with EyeTV and you can get any video you want on your Mac mini. No need for an "iTV" then. I guess if they just want to make it easy for people to get their iTunes videos onto their TV screen, that'll be good for most, but I would hope they at least provide some advanced functionality.

Re:iTV

[amper]

But, since you can absolutely import any video you wish (including, say, ripped DVDs) into iTunes

As yet, I have not seen anything telling us definitively whether or not we will be able to rip copys of previously purchased DVD's for playback on an iPod. Should this capability exist, *then* I'll get excited. As it is, I can't see paying 10-15USD for a movie that's less quality than a current DVD.

After all, as SJ has been telling us all for years, why would anyone want to watch a movie on a 2" screen?

Give me full DVD quality and full 5.1 sound at that price (along with the requisite output capability from the iPod), and now you're on to something.

No movie burning? Meh

[Dark Paladin]

That was the make or break for me. I could deal with a $10 movie price as long as I could burn the movie to DVD and watch it on TV.

Without it - sorry, folks, but I'll wait.

Lovely!

[Toreo asesino]

There's some much appreciated updates in iTunes, speaking for myself at least...the album art was something I had to do in external programs (Tag & rename for instance).

But, I've noticed the installer mentioned something about a "Software updater" (or equivalent in English) for iTunes & QuickTime - have they finally solved the full-install download for each version revision I wonder? I guess we won't know for sure until there's an update.

Re:Another Settop Box

[mblase]

Interesting that they did a preview of a product they're not ready to formally announce yet. Rather uncharacteristic

It's been pointed out that the only reason most iTMS users would buy full-length movies online is so they could watch them on their TV set. Since DVD burning isn't an option (yet?), Apple had to announce their intended set-top box to give the movie announcement some real weight..................

Perfect for the digital family

[nursegirl]

Movies/Shows/Music can now be shared between 5 computers, unlimited iPods and as many iTVs (or whatever) as you buy. It just makes so much sense for people with home & cottage to be able to bring a bunch of movies to the cottage without having to pack up DVDs. Once this moves up to HDTV standards (bandwidth is probably the only reason they haven't yet), then this could just end the format war before it started.

Also, you can backup movies downloaded from iTMS onto DVD, it just isn't a DVD-player readable format. So, they've even thought about that touch. Now just to decide how long to wait. Second edition? Third edition? It's always hard to tell with Apple products. Just when will they hit that sweet spot?

Student discount

[NemosomeN]

Did the student discount apply to iPods? I'm almost 100% certain it did, but it seems it doesn't anymore. I was just looking at iPods last night...

Myfairtunes6/7?

[Darthmalt]

does anyone know if myfairtunes6 still works with the new version of iTunes?

Well, I've found a bug in iTunes 7

[cpt kangarooski]

There is a problem with the scrollbars. OSX scrollbars can normally either have both arrows clustered at the bottom right, or one arrow on either end. The preference to change that is in the Appearance control panel.

But there is a third option, which you generally have to set via the terminal, for double arrows at both ends. This has worked in everything AFAIK until now. iTunes 7 appears to have the arrows at the bottom right by default, and only changes to the arrows at each end if that is set. It doesn't honor the double arrows at both ends setting, instead defaulting back to double arrows only in the lower right. And since it apparently doesn't use the standard arrows, like pretty much everything else, this is relevant.

This is pretty minor, but annoying, especially since if I couldn't have double arrows at both ends, I'd have single arrows at both ends, but since I won't change the global setting (since everything else still works with it), iTunes uses the double at one end arrows, which I hate.