| iTunes | |
|---|---|
| [image] iTunes 6 under Mac OS X | |
| Maintainer: | Apple Computer |
| Latest release: | 6.0.1 / October 20 2005 |
| OS: | Mac OS X, Windows 2000 and XP |
| Genre: | Media player |
| License: | Proprietary |
| Website: | www.apple.com/itunes/ |
[image]iTunes is a digital Media player application, developed by Apple Computer, for playing and organizing digital music and video files. The program is also the interface to manage the music on Apple's popular IPod digital audio player. Additionally, iTunes can connect to the ITunes Music Store (sometimes referred to as "iTMS") which allows users to purchase digital music and movie files that can be played by iPods and iTunes.
iTunes is compatible with computers running Mac OS X, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. The program was initially developed on Mac OS 9, but OS 9 support was discontinued with the release of iTunes 3; in addition, no version of iTunes has supported a non-NT based Windows release such as Windows 98 or Me.
iTunes has gained and maintained a reputation for being easy to use while still providing many features for obtaining, organizing, and playing music. The program is freely downloadable, bundled on all Mac computers, and supplied with Mac OS X as well as Apple's ILife home-application suite.
Playlists can be played randomly or sequentially. The "randomness" of the shuffle algorithm can be biased for or against playing multiple tracks from the same album or artist in sequence (a new feature in iTunes 5.0). Party Shuffle can also be biased towards selecting tracks with a higher star rating.
The Party Shuffle playlist is intended as a simple DJing aid. By default, it selects tracks randomly from other playlists or the library; users can override the automatic selections by deleting tracks (iTunes will choose new ones to replace them) or by adding their own via Drag-and-drop or contextual menu. This allows a mixture of both preselected and random tracks in the same meta-playlist. The playlist Party Shuffle draws from can be changed on the fly; this will cause all randomly chosen tracks to disappear and be replaced.
The first is a binary file called iTunes Library (iTunes x Music Library in previous versions) that uses its own music library format. This both caches information such as artist and genre from the audio format's tag capabilities (for example the ID3 tag), and stores iTunes specific information such as playcount and rating.
The second file, called iTunes Music Library.xml, is refreshed whenever information in iTunes is changed. It uses XML format, allowing developers to easily write applications that can access the information (such as Apple's own IDVD, IMovie, and IPhoto or Freshly Squeezed Software's Rock Star).
This system prevents Vendor lock-in as any changes to a track's metadata except playcount, last played date, and rating, is stored in the audio file itself; with all information being available via the XML file.
Apple no longer promotes the Internet radio feature, and no mention of it appears on the iTunes website.
There has been some criticism of the quality of Apple's MP3 encoder, at least with regards to Variable bit rate encoding. In a January 2004 Double-blind public listening test of six MP3 encoders encoding at 128 kbit/s, conducted by Roberto Amorim, the iTunes MP3 VBR encoder came last.
The Windows version of iTunes can automatically convert unprotected WMA files to other audio formats, but it does not support direct playback or encoding of WMA format.
Originally with iTunes 4.0, users could freely access shared music anywhere over the internet, in addition to one's own subnet, by specifying IP addresses of remote shared song libraries. Apple quickly removed this feature with version 4.0.1, claiming that users were violating the EULA.
Music sharing uses the Digital Audio Access Protocol (DAAP), created by Apple for this purpose. DAAP has been reverse-engineered and is now used to stream playlists from non-Apple software.
Just days after the Windows version of iTunes was released, William Zeller, a 20-year-old Trinity College student, wrote myTunes, a program which allows Windows users to circumvent the iTunes restriction and download music from an iTunes shared playlist over a network. MyTunes quickly became popular and is now widely used. There also exists a similar Open source Java client, called ourTunes. Yet another approach is used by iSyncTunes. This application does not use DAAP and only depends on external interfaces to transfer music between computers. It transfers the songs, saves them on the local hard drive and creates a song list that can be imported into your local library.
On October 2005, Apple introduced iTunes 6.0 which added support for purchasing and viewing of video content from the iTunes Music Store. iTMS offers Music Videos and five TV shows including most notably ABC's Lost and Desperate Housewives 24 hours after airing as well as the collection from past seasons. iTMS also gives the ability to view Apple's large collection of movie trailers. Format for purchased Videos is 128 kbit/s Protected MPEG-4 video (H264).Visualizers
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iTunes supports visualizer plugins and device plugins. Visualizer plugins allow developers to create music-driven visual displays (iTunes includes a default visualizer, G-Force, licensed from SoundSpectrum). The visualizer plug-in software development kits for [ftp://ftp.apple.com/developer/Development_Kits/iTunes_Visual_Plug-ins_SDK.dmg.bin Mac] and Windows can be downloaded for free from Apple. Device plugins allow support for additional music player devices, but Apple will only license the APIs to bona fide OEMs who sign a Non-disclosure agreement.Podcasting
Version 4.9 of iTunes on June 28, 2005 added built-in support for podcasting. Users can subscribe to podcasts in the iTunes Music Store or by entering the feed URL. Once subscribed, the podcast will be downloaded automatically. Users can choose to update podcasts weekly, daily, hourly, or manually. Apple maintains four "official" podcasts: Podfinder (with Adam Curry), Street Official Real Talk (interviews with hip-hop artists) iTunes New Music Tuesday, and Apple Quarterly Earnings Call. The front page of the directory also displays high-profile podcasts from commercial broadcasters and independent podcasters. For information on the podcasting feature .Vodcasting
Version 6 of iTunes introduced official support for Vodcasting, although video and RSS support was already unofficially there in version 4.9. Users can subscribe to RSS feeds through the iTunes Music Store or by entering the feed URL. Vodcasts can contain downloadable video files (MOV, MP4, M4V, MPG), but also Video On Demand streaming sources and even IPTV as demonstrated by the people who introduced the Vodcast term. Downloadable files can be synchronized to the new iPod, and both downloadable files and streams can be shown in Apple's new Front Row Media Center application.Synchronizing iPod and other players
iTunes can automatically synchronize its music and video library with an iPod or any other supported digital music player every time it is connected. New songs and playlists are automatically copied to the iPod and songs which have been deleted from the library on the computer are also deleted from the iPod. Ratings awarded to songs on the iPod will sync back to the iTunes library and audiobooks will remember the current playback position.
Automatic synchronization can be turned off in favor of manually copying individual songs or complete playlists; however, iTunes supports only copying music to the iPod but not from it, which has inspired third party software for that purpose. It is also possible to copy from the iPod using ordinary Unix command line tools.
When an iPod is connected that does not contain enough free space to sync the entire iTunes music library, a playlist will be created and given a name matching that of the connected iPod. This playlist can then be modified to the user's preference in song selection to fill the available space.
iPod owners in US markets are taken to a one-time page within the iTunes Music store when first connecting it to their computer. This page currently offers a free album sampler from Lava and Atlantic Records where either the whole album or individual tracks can be downloaded. An album sampler from Universal Records was previously available and may still be accessed via a special link on the web.
iTunes supports a number of other popular portable music players with some limitations, most notably the inability to play music purchased from the iTunes Music Store. Supported players include a number of Nomad players from Creative Labs, some players from Rio Audio, and the Nakamichi SoundSpace 2 device. Other manufacturers may also offer integration by way of a device plugin.
Though iTunes is the only official method for synchronizing with the iPod, there are other programs available that allow the iPod to sync with other software players, most notably the Ml iPod plugin for Winamp, that allows users to manage their iPod content through Winamp, and provides functionality not available through iTunes, such as the copying of music off of the iPod.
Some complain that the tight integration of the iTunes Music Store with iTunes makes the sold music inaccessible to users who use operating systems other than Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows such as the Linux operating system, for which no version of iTunes is available. These complaints have resulted in the development of a number of alternative player software as well as published hacks or workarounds that allow customers of the iTunes Music Store to use the audio software or operating system software of their choice. The most notable of these hacks is PyMusique, which Apple has made several unsuccessful attempts at blocking.
Others complain that their purchased music can only be easily played in iTunes or on an iPod (though they can "burn" the tracks to a compact disc). This has led to the development of software such as Hymn, which decrypts purchased music so that it can be played anywhere, or even shared.
There are currently iTunes stores available in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, and Australia.
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