iTunes 8
Yesterday, I installed iTunes 8 and have mixed feelings towards it. There are a couple of changes to the interface, but other than that, I do not notice much of a difference between this version and the previous iteration.
The first thing that I noticed is that the bar that used to run across the bottom of the window showing the album art and suggestions has been removed. The next layout change that really stands out is that there is a bar running vertically on the right-hand side. This bar is divided intor two sections; the top portion gives suggestions for music that you may be interested in from the artist that you are currently listening to and the lower section recommends music from all artists in the genre that you are currently listening to.
However, this panel which, for the most part, replaces the now missing horizontal bar also has an interesting added use. If you allow its plug-in to share information about your library with it’s database, it will generate playlists of similar music on the fly. I have not really had a chance to play around with this functionality much, and I normally either listen to an album straight through or bounce around between a lot of different things, so this feature isn’t all that useful to me. I see how this could be of tremendous benefit for someone trying to make mix CDs for their car or plan music for a party though.
My biggest complaint is also related to this new panel. As it is now vertical, it leaves less room for columns of information and now several of my album titles and song names end in ellipses.
Finally, this may just be my imagination, but it seems like overall the quality of the music playback has improved. As I said, it may just be my imagination – or maybe there is a sporadic short forming in my headphones – but is sounds like some of the audio processing code on the back-end may have been updated.