Apple iTunes 4.7.1

Apple iTunes 4.7.1 REVIEW DATE:  01.27.05   Total posts: 2
By Michael Kobrin
If GarageBand 2 is the most-improved app in the iLife '05 suite, iTunes is the one that remains the most the same—but we still think very highly of it. Version 4.7 has been shipping for several months now; it included a host of new fea-tures mostly geared towards keeping up with the release of Apple's other products and new developments in the Apple iTunes Music Store. Version 4.7.1, shipping with iLife '05, added support for the iPod Shuffle and the ability to sync photos with the iPod Photo as well as some minor performance enhancements. Aside from support for the new iPod Shuffle and the ability to sync album art and photos to iPod Photo, the most significant update seems to be in the area of DRM: You can now authorize up to five PCs to play tracks you've bought at the iTunes Music Store. Other items some users may find handy is the new Lossless Encoder, which retains uncompressed CD-quality sound at half the file size, and the ability to find and delete duplicate songs in your library. iTunes also now lets you print out CD jewel-case inserts and create Party Shuffle mixes—automatically generated continuous queues of music from your library or playlists. The rest of the enhancements are mostly tied to the iTunes Music Store, including Artist Alerts that notify you when the store adds new tunes by your favorite performers; iMix, which lets you post your own playlists at the store; and Library Links, which you can click on for more information about items in your library. But if the improvements are small, that's only because iTunes was already one of the best music players out there (along with Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 and Musicmatch Jukebox 10). Aside from support for the iPod Shuffle and photo syncing with the iPod Photo, version 4.7.1 fixes a buffer overflow vulnerability and lets you find and delete duplicate songs in the iTunes browser window. It also lets you search iMixes by title in the iTunes Music Store. Where other apps in this suite have inherited some features from iTunes, we'd now like to see the reverse in iTunes—such as views of our music akin to those of photos in iPhoto. We'd also like to see a bit more in the way of browsing and organization flexibility, which is one area where Musicmatch Jukebox 10 wins out.