Tech —

iTunes gets a makeover, and just in time

Apple's monster of a media hub will get a new look in late October.

iTunes gets a makeover, and just in time
Nathan Mattise/Ars Technica

Today Apple announced a major overhaul of iTunes that will give the software a huge facelift. The new version features a "dramatically simplified new interface" and will integrate the media hub with iCloud so users can sync their media to all of their devices from within the iTunes software.

“We can do WiFi syncing to iTunes,” Tim Cook said at the event, "and now with iCloud, we can download content wirelessly and back up to the cloud... If you find a movie that you downloaded elsewhere, you can click it and it'll start playing it from where you left off." This feature will doubtlessly be a boon to users with multiple Apple devices.

The aesthetic choices include the ability to "click on an album, [and] it expands in place and iTunes automatically analyzes the album cover to provide a themed experience." Users will also be able to browse by artist in the left column and album on the right. In addition, Apple added a feature called “Up Next," which tells users what they're going to hear next in a playlist.

A revamped mini-player also made an appearance, which seems to fall into place with the idea that Apple is trying to pare down its giant software.

The iTunes mini player.
The iTunes mini player.
Nathan Mattise
An expanded iTunes mini player.
An expanded iTunes mini player.
Nathan Mattise

Back in June, it was rumored that Apple was in talks with artists and labels to secure deals that would allow customers to share purchased songs with their friends before requiring a paid download or subscription. Last week, it seemed that Apple was in talks to create a Pandora-like streaming service. While no streaming service has yet materialized, users can now listen to 90-second clips of songs they'd like to purchase on iTunes, and when leaving an search page, the clip won't stop playing.

Apple announced that purchases can be "liked" and shared through Facebook and Twitter, something the company's erstwhile social network, Ping, was never able to do with Facebook. The hardware giant made an attempt at building a social service into its widely used iTunes software back in 2010 with Ping, but that was a rare resounding failure. While the social network was supposed to help users discover music by giving them the ability to view and "like" music purchases, the 30-second streams of music your friends purchased just wasn't quite enough to keep people interested.

The new iTunes will have a few holdovers from Ping, though: new artist's pages look "like Apple integrated artist pages from Ping [put] into your iTunes library" our on-the-ground live reporter Jacqui Cheng noted. The artist's pages "even give the artists the ability to share photos right in your library," Apple said on Wednesday.

Showcasing Mumford & Sons in the iTunes library.
Showcasing Mumford & Sons in the iTunes library.
Nathan Mattise

App discovery will almost certainly be a part of the new iTunes setup under the hood. “We've recently crossed 700,000 apps in the store, [including] 250,000 iPad apps,” Tim Cook said. “The average customer is using more than 100 apps.” With Apple's acquisition of Chomp in February, the company will potentially have been able to integrate an algorithm that can tell what an app actually does, rather than pulling up search results based on the name of the app.

Channel Ars Technica