This is completely a rumor, but an awesome one. Citing a “pretty reliable” source, Boy Genius Report is saying that the next version of iTunes will add a bunch of new, highly requested features. Specificially, BGR’s source says iTunes 9 features Blu-ray support, a new way to organize iPhone apps within iTunes, as well some kind of integration with Twitter, Facebook and possibly Last.fm.
Each of those features have been talked about for some time now on the web. But as BGR notes, the talk of Blu-ray does line itself up well with an AppleInsider report from yesterday that very vaguely suggested Apple has new iMacs due shortly with features that have long been on the wish-lists of Mac owners. Blu-ray is certainly on that list, and seems like a pretty good candidate, despite Steve Jobs’ calling the format a “bag of hurt” as recently as October of last year.
More compelling may be the talk of a new way to organize iPhone/iPod touch apps in iTunes. This has been badly needed ever since it became clear that people were downloading a ton of apps to use on one device. Currently, system for managing them within iTunes is quite franktly, awful. The concept video posted at the bottom of this story shows how it really should work.
BGR says the Twitter/Facebook/Last.fm stuff from its tip was more vague, but you can imagine that if such features were integrated it would involve tweeting out or updating your Facebook status with what song you are listening to. It’s possible that for Last.fm, iTunes would build-in support for logging what songs you are playing, something which Last.fm currently does through its own software.
The Twitter angle is also interesting because of the rumors of talks between the two companies a few months ago. We were unable to confirm those rumors, but perhaps the two sides did meet to talk about something like this. Obviously, that’s just speculation.
Apple has worked with Facebook in the past to get support for uploading pictures built-in to the newest version of iPhoto. The integration is pretty slick as it also allows you to tag Facebook friends in pictures, and keeps edits made on both iPhoto and Facebook in sync.
And just imagine if Apple made a feature not only to send the name of a currently playing song to Twitter and Facebook, but if it included a link to buy the song on iTunes as well. That could mean some significant sales.
While we’re speculating, I would also love to see a Genius feature for iPhone apps, something which I talked about the need for recently.
Again, these are all just rumors for now, but we could see if they’re true or not as early as next month when it’s likely that Apple will hold some kind of iPod even, just like it does every September.
This is good news because everyone want to keep in touch with friends,customers using social media,even bloggers like me want to keep in touch with my blog readers and my friends using Facebook and Twitter so why not we celebrate this forthcoming good news?
I agree, let’s go get drinks at the bar to celebrate. First rounds on Mike Arrington.
So cool !
Let’s move for Beer…
What’s next for iTunes?
One word:
KARAOKE!
… apple has left billions of dollars on the table by ignoring the opportunity – as huge as it is obvious – in the asian marketplace ….
Which would have been a great way to introduce millions to the mac!
Of course, karoke is like most the other belated bedragled & begrudged enhancements to apple’s media platform – eg closed captions; subtitles; hardware acceleration for mpeg2, h264, ogl 3D; Dolby/3D audio; panoramas; interactive sprites & media scripting; scene recognition; media databases; etc etc …. namely, apple can get away with idolently ignoring most of the value-chain by virtue of microsoft’s (and sony’s) staggering corporate & tecnical incomptetence
Integration with twitter makes a lot of sense. I believe Twitter can find a killer business model by doing so. They will be able to find popular music when people start to tweet about their favorites. Way to go, I’ve always been a strong believer of Twitter and it’s potential. I guess I have seen this only in http://music.boilingpage.com that shows hot music among people based on what people tweet. Twitter should keep an eye on this company too.
Why would I want to tweet or post a FB status update about every damn song I listen to? My music plays 24/7. Can you imagine how pissed-off followers and friends would be at the enormous amount of updates from me?
The Last.fm integration seems very nice though.
yes, every song would be annoying, but I’d imagine there’d be a way to just do some songs manually. again, that’s all just speculation though.
If Apple made iTunes development quicker and more in-touch with user requests, it would make Songbird obsolete. I stopped using it because it couldn’t handle my massive library as well as iTunes.
Switch to classical music. Some movements, as in Mahler symphonies, can be 1/2 hour or longer. Or Wagner operas can be nearly 6 hours long. Very few twits involved there.
You’re right it sounds irritating, like listening to people on the phone, in line at a store going over their shopping list.
The App organization is LONG overdue. I’d like to see optional labeled tabs by category. I had a little utility on my old Palm that could do that 10 years ago!
How much more annoying would that be than what most people tweet/fb stat about now?
I now believe you have a compulsive disorder. Two apple stories in a row is just pure lazy journalism
i could say the same for you. two nearly identical comments on back-to-back posts reeks of compulsion and lazy commenting. you might want to see a doctor.
lmao nice.
liberta, go to hell.
If only they could put some time into a linux version . . .
I really hope the improvements to handling apps are true — and I hope they include improvements to the store itself. It so half-assed — not simple and elegant — but half-assed.
Just some of the things they need to fix:
- Better discovery
- Better sharing of apps between friends
- Better feedback/communications between dev’s and users
iTunes needs to get social and fast. I’ve had an apple script installed for more than a year that tweets my songs. The biggest pain is the lack of discovery when it comes to the songs my FRIENDS listen to. I have to rely on Last.fm, iLike and WOM to learn about the music they’re listening to.
Recommendations and discovery both need a lower barrier, and integrating a SOCIAL GRAPH would be a welcomed change to the walled garden of media we’ve all learned to love.
iTunes is the most ubiquitous application on PC and Mac. If it began packaging social components, or even launched an iTunes social network, it would be the most profitable social product in the world.
I would welcome an iTunes social network with OPEN ARMS.
Concert, Music, Movies, TV and App discovery, based on popular usage and recommendations from my colleagues, friends and family.
you could always ask…..
Try iTrackmine.com
Not granular as individual song, but the rest – yes: “…Music, Movies, TV and App discovery, based on popular usage and recommendations from my colleagues, friends and family.” (no “Concert”)
Why? I love iTunes and use it on a daily basis but it’s getting bloated. They need to cut the fat and speed it up where they can, even if it means rewriting some of it’s core features. Newer versions should follow the Webkit mantra – it should get faster with each release, not slower. If that can’t be done, don’t implement anything if it can’t match the performance baseline of the current release.
@Matt, I emphatically concur. iTunes is a memory hog and syncing an iPhone with a large media library, contacts list, and genius functionality is painfully slow. It is past time to speed this app up as it is extremely bloated.
The app organization would be cool, but I am confused about the blu-ray support. Wouldn’t I want that in the DVD Player application and not iTunes?
it’s my understanding that the DVD player is not a part of Snow Leopard. DVD’s will play through QuickTimeX, and iTunes uses Quicktime to display video, so theoretically, updating one (the Quicktime kernel) would update QuicktimeX, the DVD feature in Quicktime, and iTunes (as well as Front Row) all at the same time.
Nope (at least not in the latest beta).
does it matter? by the time itunes 9 goes to the market, android phones will be selling by the millions
lmao keep telling yourself that.
ever heard of Social Features in Zune Software? They are miles ahead of iTunes. well, iTunes on Windows is so terribly slow.. it makes Zune Software feel amazing.
i’ve never seen a zune … not even in public
Well its a good thing he was talking about the software which is actually quite good and not the hardware.
Being a Mac guy, I haven’t been able to use a Zune or the software, because it’s not available on Mac. As ridiculous as the name is, I like the idea of “squirting” songs to other players to test. Seems like the iPod touch/iPhone could implement this functionality pretty easily. 3 plays or 48 hours, and it changes from a song into an iTunes store link.
The iPod didn’t really take off until it was available on both Mac and Win, so maybe MS should take a hint. It’s been proven time and again that Mac people spend more money. On hardware, on software, on music and movies, and personal technology in general. I’d bet there are more than a few Mac users out there who would go Zune to get away from iTunes, and MS could start taking their money instead of letting Apple get it all.
Jixi’s Free iTunes Money Social Network is a place where people go to receive real money to buy things from the iTunes Store.
The money is provided to the public from independent music artists, who in turn receive greater exposure for their material and absorb the money from their competitors music.
The community decides what is popular or not by sharing music with their friends and other people within the community that they feel will earn them the most cash.
Social interest, relevancy, demand and most importantly engagement in regards to digital media are the most effective monetization principles.
Currently http://www.Free...sMoney.Ning.com is in a very nascent stage, however the growth is happening in leaps and bounds.
@FreeiTunes
http://www.Free...eMoney.ning.com
Well, this might make me want to open iTunes again. I dont think I have since spotify happened =D
what good is software when it is tied to only one platform? at least iTunes is on both Win and OS X.
It wasn’t during its early years! So MS isn’t doing anything wrong, though I’m sure you’d just say MS is now copying Apple.
And the Zune Social is something I applaud MS for doing. At least they’ve tried to do something different with the market. It hasn’t been successful but at least they’ve tried a new concept.
I would think that the millions of Windows users out there don’t really care if its tied to just one platform.
The only reason theres a windows version of iTunes is because Apples hand was pretty much forced to do a Windows version, do you think the iPod would be anything without it?
I’m sorry but the Zune software is far beyond iTunes on windows.
Why can’t they spend some damn time improving te performance on Windows. Oh wait I probably know the answer to that.
Let’s hope this is for real and not just another rumor that stays just a rumor.
It would be too cool!
Hollym
http://www.thessayist.com
MG is an apple agent. Two post a day to praise apple and then two post a day to bash ms . You the man!
Go Away
I saw twitter in the title and I could bet to anyone out there that MG was behind this. Pay-per post? loser.
This is pretty sexy.
Blu-ray, Twitter-this, Facebook-that… pah!
The one essential feature that is STILL MISSING from iTunes, and which I probably won’t see in my lifetime is…. watched folders.
+1 for this. Watched folders are very important as I download new music all the time, but in iTunes I have to add the files manually.
Ah, but if you were buying your music through iTunes that wouldn’t be a problem.
That’s probably their rationale. They want iTunes to be their easiest method to add songs, with CD-ripping a close second. (Because CD’s were so prevalent back when iTunes debuted.)
I suspect they had to fight the music-labels on CD-ripping ..probably if they added mp3’s from any old source they’d be having even more heated negotiations. (The music labels, of course, view all mp3’s as being pirated material.)
Since iTunes support from other legitimate sources (eg: Amazon) seems to be almost a requirement for competitiveness, I don’t think there will be much incentive for Apple to implement the “watch folders” feature.
I’m thrilled about the App sort possibility. ( would have built it a while ago if apple didn’t restrict access) But as long as they keep that linear flow the problem isn’t solved. There’s a better way to do this without the hassle if locking every piece you don’t want moved. Flow should be an option not a default.
Despite the iTunes improvement, the app laucher on the iPhone remains the worst app launcher I have ever used on any device.
Page after page of similar looking icons, accessable only by scrolling? WTF?
Why can’t I group similar apps into a folder on the first page?
I thought all Apple fans blindly accepted that they didn’t need Blue-ray. What gives?
Maybe you should read the whole sentence rather than ignore it:
“Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It’s great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we’re waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace.”
Where did you get that silly idea? The forums I hang out on are full of people who really want BR on Macs.
How about an additional iTunes program that just syncs with iPods and plays music. No store, no social features, just a basic, lightweight music player.
What about us that just want a music player without the bulky add-ons we won’t use?
Um.. WinAmp3, WinAmp5, MacAmp, Songbird, Realplayer, Windows Media Player, Audion (great Mac player), VLC, Foobar2000, KMPlayer, ModPlugPlayer, SIDPlay. (Last two being very niche and retro.)
There’s not a shortage of great media players out there. All you have to do is look.
I meant one that doesn’t make you cringe to use.
You can turn off iTunes Store in the Parental tab in the app’s prefs. Further, any social stuff aside from library sharing is presently rumor. If you don’t want to share your library, that’s also a Prefs checkbox away from eliminated.
I’m not saying I use iTunes this way, but it’s possible.
My version of the story: http://www.sach...on-and-soc.html
“DESPITE? Steve Jobs’ calling the format a “bag of hurt” as recently as October of last year.”
Those familiar with Steve Jobs logic knows that this means he has already decided to include it.
iTunes on Windows is one of the worst apps I have to use (though it is tons better on my Mac). It takes ~15 seconds to get to the overview screen of my iPod every time I click on it.
I finally had to clear all my songs about a year ago and start over because I had added so many songs that it was just too slow to use, taking about 5 seconds any time I clicked (I am just now starting to get to that point again with 8040 songs).
I also think it is dumb I have to download the whole thing again when I want to upgrade. At least it doesn’t put the stupid Quicktime icon back in my task list anymore, which is an improvement.
I love my iPod and some of the features of iTunes but it is an application that just feels slow and bloated so what does Apple do? Instead of fixing all the problems they add the ability to Twitter what song I am listening to? Crap.
Happy user of Atunes . Its opensource, works great on PC and you can connect via last.fm
The single most important improvement to itunes should be its ability to perform reliably on Windows. It’s a worst piece of software on my PC, and could easily win a prize of “worst media player on PC”. A high school kid with a C++ book in hand could write something that works more stable. People understand why Apple keeps it this way, but that’s not the right way to compete.
While scrolling the list to this form I noticed that I’m not the only one. Sorry for the repeat. My hope is that somebody at Apple reads TC. They obviously don’t understand things from the first read (as we may judge by Google Voice story), so I think a repeat wouldn’t hurt.
So let me reiterate the points: all my friends who have iTunes on PC are pissed at Apple in the same way. They do not think “Oh, Windows sucks”, they think that Apple is arrogant and ignorant. Nice way to build brand!
Last, but not least, could somebody at Apple watch Apples acclaimed 1984 ad?
“The single most important improvement to itunes should be its ability to perform reliably on Windows. It’s a worst piece of software on my PC, and could easily win a prize of “worst media player on PC”.”
Yep. I hate the way it seems to freeze, while it is doing stuff that you are not informed about. Task Manager reports it using CPU, but what the heck it is up to is a mystery.
This seems consistent with Apple’s attitude that its customers are best kept on a “need to know” basis when it comes to their software and devices.
The inability to explore the file structure inside my iPhone is infuriating. Do they think that I am too stupid, as a mere user, to have this ability, lest I screw something up?
The iPhone is my first Apple-made piece of hardware. Does the Apple software for the Mac treat users like morons too?
At this point, I have no desire to find out. The brain-dead limitations of the iPhone are enough to make me assume that only computer-illiterates become Apple fans.
Another twitter post?
Blu-ray on iTunes is really not a big deal, and certainly not at all useful. There’s a tiny market for these disks, and and even tinier one for use on computers. 15-20 inches really doesn’t do justice to a Blu-ray. HD video is more than enough for iTunes/iPods/iPhone at present.
I would love for apple to add FLAC support to iTunes and the iPod but sadly that will never happen. ALAC is way too closed of a format.
I like the Last.fm integration, makes sense!!
Looking forward to App organization.
see some tasty itunes 9 screenshots here
http://tobiasbi...uen-funktionen/
I am an Itunes addict I should admit… I look forward to new updates spend more time on the store than on the net. There are just so many functions that I wish they would add, I will not ramble on and on about it since it would be too long.
A basic need that I am having right now is the ability to upgrade standard definition shows to HD for a fee, and also the ability to complete a TV season, since it’s cheaper to buy the entire season than each episode individually a lot of times, just like the ” complete my album” feature , when you have bought a song you have the choice to buy the whole album and previously purchased content, counts towards the purchase of the album I wish they would add this feature.
let me know what you guys think.
Hey looking for a more organized approach at apps?
Check out the new site that just launched called Appboy. It’s an app site with a more social approach. People can comment, vote and share apps. Developers can promote their apps with their own viral url which becomes their personal appstore, and users can submit ideas which the community votes on to get developed or not. Its cool site, got a great review here http://bit.ly/10ct7D. If your a developer you can add any app to the site in seconds, its been creating a lot of buzz http://www.appboy.com.
Learn how it works here: http://appboy.c...m/how-it-works/
Yes, finally, a better way to manage apps for our iphone/ipod. Anyway, the download link for iTunes 9 is still not yet available. Hope it comes soon.