The all new iTunes 11
Within the next few weeks iTunes on your computer will be getting a long overdue makeover. Apple has already upgraded the iTunes and App Store for your iPhone and iPad with the new iOS 6 operating system, but the final piece of the puzzle should be out any day now. Apple has announce that the new iTunes (iTunes 11) will be out sometime in October. This digital makeover will help simplify what has always been a rather confusing and cluttered application.
So whats new? The iTunes main screen has been given a complete overhaul, and it looks more like the iTunes Store than the app of old.
The whole home screen has been simplified, and one of the most noticeable differences is the lack of sidebars (those sections on the left with all of the areas that your content lives and the section on the right with store options). They’re not gone completely, however: they’re just missing from the primary view, which is the view that one would spend most of their time in.
As you’d expect, Expanded View shows you the track listing, but it also shows your star ratings, the running time, and an iCloud download button if you own tracks but don’t have them on your Mac. If the album is incomplete you’ll also see a “complete my album” link as well as individual buy buttons for the tracks you don’t own. If that gets annoying, which we’re sure it will, there’s a “Hide iTunes Store songs” option.
The MiniPlayer has been updated as well up, and it gains access to iTunes’ new Up Next feature. This is a little list icon that also appears in the main view’s status window: click it and you’ll see the next three tracks iTunes intends to play. If you don’t want to listen to what’s coming up, the MiniPlayer now has a search button you can use to find and a specific song without opening up your library.
iTunes 11 will also have deep iCloud integration to be able to access your media from all of your devices as well as resume a song or movie from where you left off on another device. It will also have track your preview history. If you preview a song in the iTunes store it will be remembered so you can easily find it when you want to buy it. In addition iTunes 11 will now make recommendations for you on other artists you may like based on the music you purchase and what you listen to most often. These are just a few of the great new changes being made in the all new iTunes 11.
With all of these fresh and long overdue changes iTunes has now simplified the learning curve by making it more intuitive and having the style of the application look more like the music player we use on our devices and the iTunes store. A very welcome change that we will be teaching here at MacInspires. Call us today at 203-531-5720 to learn more about this class and many others.
