Download.com Review of iTunes

Download.com Review of iTunes

Apple's iTunes used to be simply a versatile jukebox program that brought Mac users into the digital-music world, but new features that tune up its jukebox and the much-ballyhooed iTunes Music Store push it over the top. Seamless integration with the iPod, smart playlists, CD burning, and label printing create an 800-pound gorilla. New on the scene is Party Shuffle, which keeps a queue of songs at the ready that you can rearrange. Also new is iMix, which lets you publish playlists on the iTunes Music Store. iTunes supports MP3, AAC, AIFF, WAV, and a new format called Apple Lossless, which gives you uncompressed audio quality with files half the size. The Rendezvous sharing feature lets you see and play the playlists and music libraries of other users on your network.

One unfortunate quirk is how iTunes handles unprotected WMA files. We would prefer the program just play those files, rather than re-encode them into AAC format. Regardless, iTunes continues to be one of the best jukeboxes available.