iTunes 4.5 and iPod Firmware update

[Baroque]

iTunes 4.5 was released today.
Amongst the new features

- iMix - Share your taste. Publish your playlists
- Party Shuffle
- Printing - Creating Jewel case inserts
- Radio Charts - What's playing around the U.S.
- Movie trailers. Music Videos
- WAM - Convert WMA to AAC
- Apple Lossless - CD Quality Sound. Half the size.

You can download it directly from here http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ as both iTunes 4.5 and QuickTime 6.3.1 are still in the process of being pushed out to the update servers the applications themselves use.

WAM and Apple Lossless appear to be great news for audiophiles and people who have existing content in unprotected WMA which they'd like to play on their iPod(s).

Support for Apple Lossless and other things is built into the latest iPod Firmware update you can grab here.

http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/

Enjoy!

[Ginza]

Saw this on iPodlounge earlier but this has reminded me to download it.

24.4mb oof.

[Baroque]

Saw this on iPodlounge earlier but this has reminded me to download it.

24.4mb oof.

Most of that is probably language packs and QuickTime, but think of it this way, you're now also downloading the iTunes Music Store Europe client.

All they have to do now is ship the mini and flick the switch...

[Ginza]

I seem to remember Steve Jobs saying a short time ago that they are not in a rush to bring ITMS to Europe and it could be months yet.

Also i think the iPod Mini is a bit of a disappointment. There are a whole host of bugs with it and there seems to be some noise distortion / crackling when using the buttons. Couple that with it being about ?50 cheaper than a 15GB iPod when its only something like 4GB i find that incredibly disappointing and question anyone buying an iPod Mini personally.

Edit -

The 24.5MB download was for the firmware upgrade. I'm now downloading the new iTunes which is a further 20MB.

Good job iv got broadband.

[Baroque]

I seem to remember Steve Jobs saying a short time ago that they are not in a rush to bring ITMS to Europe and it could be months yet.

Looks like it's going to be this June.

Also i think the iPod Mini is a bit of a disappointment. There are a whole host of bugs with it and there seems to be some noise distortion / crackling when using the buttons.

No, there were problems with *a few* of the early units. This was rectified in manufacturing.

Couple that with it being about ?50 cheaper than a 15GB iPod when its only something like 4GB i find that incredibly disappointing and question anyone buying an iPod Mini personally.

I does exactly what it was designed to do, provide a fully featured player for people who want no more than a 1000 songs on the go. At this stage that's more people than you'd imagine as anyone who really wants large capacity player already owns one.

The 24.5MB download was for the firmware upgrade. I'm now downloading the new iTunes which is a further 20MB.

I'm on narrow band, this could take a while...

[bowser123]

Erm, maybe it's because I'm on a Mac or because I already had the latest versions up to this last release or something but the iPod stuff was 7.5mb and iTunes was 10mb.
It's Quicktime that's bigger at 33mb which is apparently necessary to have full functionality with iTunes etc.

The actual new stuff in iTunes doesn't seem that much TBH.
There's Party Shuffle that selects between 5-200 random songs based on criteria you set that's O.K. and the ability to print CD labels is O.K, even if similar software has been around for ages.
Stuff like movie trailers are just pointless IMO, I connect direct to Quicktime for them or film sites like IMDB.

Another strange addition is this:

Next to each and every song and artist is a link. Click it and it takes you to the music store where it gives info on the album and artist which is good, but it also lets you buy other material from the artist (only if you're American, of course). Kinda neat I suppose.

There also seems to be some new visualizer stuff which is nice too.


Just bring on the music store and quick. Please.

[Soi]

I don't like those little arrows at all. They clutter my Library screen, and I can't seem to turn them off. Oh well.

iTunes appears not to support WMA as such, just that it includes a tool to convert WMA to MP3. Better than nothing, but only just. Converting from one compressed format into another will lose a lot of quality. And it doesn't work for protected WMAs, so no downloading of mycokemusic and converting them.

[Bleeders]

Does the firmware update make any notable difference to the iPod?

[marcus]

Not to my ears at least.

[AllYourBase]

Well I upgraded it all and from the looks of it there aren't any real differences as such, at least the firmware update is relatively easy, downloads where very large though!

[MikeF]

Sorry for being a newb

How easy is it to upgrade the firmware and how do you do it ?

I got my ipod yeseterday and want to make sure it is upto date etc

[Bleeders]

Make sure your iPod is connected via your docking station and install the firmware mate.

[MikeF]

So its pretty much like what I did when I set it up.

Will all my songs get deleted though ?

[Bleeders]

So its pretty much like what I did when I set it up.

Will all my songs get deleted though ?

Yer, pretty much.

Don't worry, your songs won't be deleted.

[Square]

Has anybody heard any reports yet on whether the iPod firmware update affects iPod apps, like PodWorks?

I have PodWorks on my iPod. It's a fantastic tool, but I'm concerned that Apple may have done something with the new update to stop it working.