iTunes 8

[Saya]

http://gizmodo.com/5047409/itunes-8-available-for-download-now-we-test-it-out

Apple just released it today. Anyone tried it yet?

The Genius playlist thing sounds pretty cool...

[origami_mustache]

Genius is useless for me and my pirated music collection :(

[Saya]

I kinda like iTunes 8. The genre view is pretty nice too, but they need to add more different genre thumbnails (it is possible to add custom made ones). The new version seems to run a lot smoother than 7.

The gathering information thing by Genius takes real long so far. I have to admit I have a pretty large library and my music is stored on an external server, so maybe that's why it takes such a long time. I think it's been runnning for two hours now and I'm 3/4 through. :lol:

[Saya]

Genius is useless for me and my pirated music collection :(

Hmm, iTunes just finished the Genius organizing. And itt works pretty smooth with my downloaded music.

Did you tag the songs correctly?

[Ezee E]

What is this Genius organization?

[Saya]

What is this Genius organization?

It's a playlist creation tool basically. When you have selected a song you can click a 'genius' button and it will automatically create a playlist with similar songs. It's really handy when you just want to create a fast playlist and you can customize the playlist to however you want. And I think Genius will only get better in time because it analyzes the libraries of all iTunes users that use this option.

The genius thing also recommends music based on that song that you don't already own.

This is all optional though, you don't have to use Genius.


Genius Playlists
Meet Genius: a brilliant way to create perfect playlists. Play a song, click the Genius button, and iTunes creates a playlist of other songs from your library that go great together. Genius playlists help you discover songs in your library you never knew you had — and rediscover forgotten favorites.

Genius Sidebar
While you reacquaint yourself with the music you already own, let Genius introduce you to new music you’ll love. As you select songs in your library, the Genius sidebar displays songs from the iTunes Store that go great with it. The Genius sidebar won’t recommend songs already in your library, and you can preview and buy recommended songs directly from the sidebar.

http://i35.tinypic.com/wvco7a.png

[Kurosawa Fan]

I downloaded it and am running Genius right now. It's been going for an hour and isn't finished yet.

[Saya]

I downloaded it and am running Genius right now. It's been going for an hour and isn't finished yet.

Yeah, it takes a while. It took about 3,5 hours to complete the genius thing for me.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Yeah, it takes a while. It took about 3,5 hours to complete the genius thing for me.

Was it worth it?

[Kurosawa Fan]

Mine just finished. Took about 1 hour 20 minutes.

[Saya]

Was it worth it?

I like it. I tried it on a bunch of songs and the created genius playlists weren't bad at all. It's really fast and I know this is gonna be great for parties. :)

Also, definitely try out the new visualizer. I think it's called magnetosphere or something. It looks great.

[Saya]

I don't like that Apple has removed the option from the preferences panel to remove the links to the iTunes store (the ones that appear as an arrow next to a song).

[Kurosawa Fan]

Whoa. It just crashed while I was checking out the visualizer. I've never had iTunes crash on me before. Hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

[Saya]

I love the grid view, but I don't like the white borders around the thumbnail images. I really hope Apple will fix this with a patch in the future.

Here's an example of those borders:

http://i34.tinypic.com/21j4pio.png

And it's not the album artwork that has those lines, because I don't see them in coverflow view.

[MadMan]

Ah, so that's what iTunes was trying to force me to update to yesterday. I will when I have time.

[Kurosawa Fan]

I really like the Genius feature. It's put together two great mixes for me thus far. I approve.

[Winston*]

Holy shit, this thing uses up a lot of memory. How do I change back?

Also, no way am I touching that Genius feature. Don't really trust Apple knowing the makeup of my library.

[Saya]

Holy shit, this thing uses up a lot of memory. How do I change back?

Uninstall iTunes and download an older build and install that. I think that should work.

[Saya]

Oh and I think you will have to add all your music to iTunes again though.

Or maybe you could export the libary of iTunes 8 before you uninstall it. But I don't know if an exported libary from latest version is compatible with older builds though.

[Winston*]

Hmm. Seems like too much work. Guess I'll just stick with 8. But seriously Apple, this is a program that plays music, there's not reason it should take up that much memory.

[MadMan]

How much memory does it take up? Sooner or later I will have to download the stupid thing I suppose.

[Saya]

How much memory does it take up? Sooner or later I will have to download the stupid thing I suppose.

There seems to still be a huge difference in memory usage between running it on a Windows pc or Mac.

I think the memory usage depends on your setup and the size of your music library. I use an external HD to store my music and access that wirelessly. I think this setup would use more memory than if you have stored your music locally on your pc. But it seems that after iTunes is up and running it uses about between 150-200 mb for me (with Genius turned on).

I'm on a Mac btw.

[Skitch]

Downloading now...

[Winston*]

Seems to have calmed down a bit now, also uses less memory if you change from grid to list view.

[Sven]

Seems to have calmed down a bit now, also uses less memory if you change from grid to list view.

Grid view is the worst.

Genius, on the other hand, is positively brilliant. One may even go as far as to call it "brilliant".

[Winston*]

Grid view is the worst.

Genius, on the other hand, is positively brilliant. One may even go as far as to call it "brilliant".I'm tempted to click it on to check it out, but no, I must stand strong.

[D_Davis]

I'm running Genius now...it's collecting my info.

[Saya]

Seems to have calmed down a bit now, also uses less memory if you change from grid to list view.

Yep, it's probably the thumbnails that require so much memory. Maybe it will use even less memory if you remove the artwork in list view.