New iPod firmware update and iTunes 4.5 are out.

[Eug]

iTunes 4.5: http://www.apple.com/itunes/

- iMix
- Free downloads
- Music Videos
- Movie Trailers
- "Radio Charts" which lets you see the most popular songs played on real radio stations in the U.S.
- CD inserts printable from iTunes
- Importing of WMA files (non-protected only)
- Lossless AAC encoding
- Links to go directly from your Music Library, to the iTMS to get artist info, other songs, etc.


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

Changes for iPod without a Dock connector
* Compatibility with iTunes 4.5 and the iTunes Music Store
* Improved playback performance

Changes for iPod with a Dock connector and iPod mini
* Compatibility with iTunes 4.5 and the iTunes Music Store
* Improved playback performance
* Support for the Apple Lossless Encoder, to enable compressed music encoding at high quality

 

[ndee]

FVCKIN SWEET! Loseless compression!

 

[ViRGE]

Woot; thanks for the heads up, Eug.

Edit: What's this free download thing? I can't find any mention of it.

 

[Eug]

FVCKIN SWEET! Loseless compression!

Yeah, it's nice, but I don't think I'll use it much. Apparently, they're about half the size of the original file, so the file sizes are still gonna be humungous.

What's this free download thing? I can't find any mention of it.

Today's free download is brought to you courtesy of Foo Fighters.

 

[ndee]

btw, what's up with that iMix? Do we Windows user get it too?

 

[ndee]

just read about it.... stupid.

 

[saxophonoia]

Nice iTunes update. I'll have to dl that when I get home from work today.

 

[volrath]

I assume iTunes still takes about 15 seconds just to open, yes? As well as being all around slow?

Yet I still use it...

 

[MrMaster]

It has replaced Winamp as my preferred player on my desktop but works sooo slow on the laptop that I stick to winamp on the laptop.

 

[volrath]

I like winamp's speed, but I like iTunes' playlist, auto-sorting of files, and audio level adjustments.

 

[Eug]

Hmmm... I can't "buy" the free download... because I'm in Canada.

 

[zodder]

Thanks for the heads up! Will dl when I get home.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: MrMaster
It has replaced Winamp as my preferred player on my desktop but works sooo slow on the laptop that I stick to winamp on the laptop.

I'm thinking that the Mac OS X --> Windows port does slow it down.

It takes a little while to load up on my Celeron 1.4 (Tualatin) desktop with 7200 rpm drive, but it's a much faster load on my GF's iBook 1.07 GHz with 4200 rpm drive.

BTW, people are reporting that iTunes 4.5 doesn't want to share with iTunes 4.2. ie. If you want to share your libraries, all the computers have to be running iTunes 4.5.

 

[0roo0roo]

when can we buy lossless?

 

[DaveSimmons]

When will they add FLAC importing?

FLAC is open-source and royalty-free so they have no good excuse for not assigning someone to spend a week adding the import.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
when can we buy lossless?

Probably never. Or at least not in the next few years.

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
When will they add FLAC importing?

FLAC is open-source and royalty-free so they have no good excuse for not assigning someone to spend a week adding the import.

The excuse is they don't want to confuse the market, or complicate iPod support, and the fact that 99.9% of the market doesn't care about FLAC. They will never add it. However, that doesn't stop some 3rd party from adding it to iTunes for playback on computers. Dunno about FLAC, but someone has already done this with ogg. Basically all you have to do is drop in the decoder into a QuickTime directory.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
when can we buy lossless?

Probably never. Among other things, lossless audio is ginormous compared to lossy AACs, so we're talking about bandwidth costs many times greater than what Apple currently pays. If Apple sold you lossless songs, they would have to charge more, and no one is seriously going to pay more for that.

 

[volrath]

My 400mhz g4 mac and athlon 2100 opened iTunes at the same speed. ~15 seconds to open. It's ridiculous. Oh well.

You can buy lossless from allofmp3.com... if you trust them. Most people don't.

 

[vexingv]

did any of you guys update your ipods and update itunes and now have trouble connecting to the itunes music store? i was able to use the new music store for a bit, then updated my ipod. and now i cant connect...
whats the deal?

 

[ViRGE]

Everyone and their mother is hitting the iTMS right now; Apple can't keep up.

 

[ViRGE]

Also of note, Apple has upgraded Fairplay. Besides breaking PlayFair and other de-DRMing tools(why hasn't anyone broken Windows DRM yet), the new version of Fairplay is officially entitled "version 2", so the controls themselves have probably been strengthened.

 

[SickBeast]

What is the "improved playback performance" listed in the release notes? Better battery life? An EQ that doesn't distort the sound? Hopefully one of the two.

 

[prontospyder]

Thanks!

 

[Davegod]

Eug, know where I can find that ogg codec for itunes?

also what's the foo fighters free tune? that page wont load for me

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: Davegod
Eug, know where I can find that ogg codec for itunes?

also what's the foo fighters free tune? that page wont load for me

My Hero.