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iTunes 4.5 is pretty keen
Apple released iTunes 4.5 for both Windows and Mac OSX today. I have been using iTunes for a while and I give a big thumbs up to the features and fixes that are introduced in iTunes 4.5
The biggest new feature that I am thanking my deity of choice for is the new WMA to MP3 converter. This can take non DRM track that were ripped with Windows Media Player and convert them to platform free MP3 files. Oh man I would pay money for a tool that does this and I tip my hat to Apple for giving away this. This is going to come in handy when I can make up with past Windows Media Player using days.
There also is some very cool printing wizards to make custom covers from mix CD covers from the images that you set to the albums. You can also print out a full page play list of the contents.
There also is the new Party Play list. This puts together a random play list from your music library. It can put together some very weird selections since it will mix different music styles but it works.
On my PC at work the Auto Play was disabled on my CD-rom but I was unsuccessful from turning it back on. I tried everything but iTunes would nag me every time I started the program. Microsoft Tweak UI could not even fix. When I installed iTunes 4.5 it fixed it. That was super cool.
There is also a new lossless encoder called Apple Lossless Encoder for the super high end audio freaks. But since that won't play in non iTunes programs and my MP3 CD player I am going to stick to good old MP3.
One thing that gets me is that there is still no way to have the minimized mini player stick on top when switching to another program. Also it would be cool if Apple would make more music visualization routines and it would be cool if they opened up iTunes with a plug-in system.
However Slashdot is reporting that some of the features that are not exactly on Apple's press release for this version is that the Anti-DRM lock pick programs called PlayFair are disabled when you install this version. purchased ACC tracks that have been unlocked using software tools are still unlocked but Apple is not to fond of these black market utilities. They also changed the network protocols but that will not stop the hackers for long.
Apple now sells more iPods than they do Macs and they have 70% of the legal downloaded music sales. You can now play your iTunes-protected songs on up to five computers instead of three but you can now only burn seven CDs in a row without changing the order instead of ten. That does not make sense because if I wanted to mass produce a CD made with iTunes I would just use a CD burning software package like Nero.
The Pepsi iTunes promotion sort of fell short. They only redeemed 5 million of the 100 million they planned.
It is a pretty slick program and it has become my favorite digital music software. Not to mention the nice price of free is not to shabby. I would buy an iPod if they could actually get the price down to $200.
Jake at April 30, 2004 
Nerd
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Comments
I have a fairly extensive digital music library myself. Fortunately, when I was 13 y/o I saw the light and have stuck with Mp3's for the 7 years I've been building my digital library.
I have *yet* to use iTunes, however, since I use programs like Nero for burning, MusicMatch for ID3-Tag management/ripping, and even the old AudioCatalyst for straight encoding. *shrugs*, I suppose I owe it to myself to check out iTunes about now, just to see what all the hype is about ;)
And this solid review is probably why I'm going to try it.
Posted by: Sean at May 4, 2004 12:32 AM
I can tell you why *I* didn't redeem many Pepsi caps. Because I couldn't find enough of the damned bottles! Distribution sucked. The bottles didn't show up until weeks after the promotion started, and then disappeared almost instantly. I only got to redeem around 10 caps.
iTunes is just getting better and better. If they add folders to organize playlists it will be pretty damned close to perfect, I think. (Well, I admit I would like more visualization modules too.)
Posted by: litlnemo at May 6, 2004 5:46 AM
