iTunes 5 packed an overall
peppiness and a refined,
cleaner mini player, but was
surprisingly light on new
features--and fittingly was the
first numbered upgrade that
didn’t come with a new color
for the music note in its icon.
highlight of the pack was a new Search
Bar that made quick work of rummaging
through the store’s two million songs,
rounded out by Smart Shuffle, playlist
folders, parental controls, AAC VBR
importing and Outlook syncing.
iTunes 5 ditched the
outdated brushed-metal skin
of its predecessors, and the
thinner, sexier look filled
many a forum with praise
and criticism
Better known as iTunes 4.10, the fifth
version of iTunes was mostly a
disappointment. Rumors about TV
show purchases and movie rentals that
had swirled in the days leading up to
the event failed to materialize.
Steve Jobs - "We are
constantly improving
iTunes with new features
like... better searching
because we love music
ourselves and want to
surprise and delight music
fans around the world."
iTunes 6 (Oct. 12, 2005-Sept. 12, 2006)
Arriving in tow with new iMacs and video
iPods, iTunes 6 brought serious changes to the
store, adding online gift options, customer
reviews, "Just For You" recommendations and
some 2,000 music videos and Pixar shorts, all
priced at $1.99 and formatted for new iPod’s
2.5-inch color screen.
TV show downloads with iTunes 6,
priced at the same $1.99 as the
far-shorter music videos. Just five
Disney shows were available at
launch-"Lost," "Desperate Housewives,"
"Night Stalker," "That's So Raven" and
"The Suite Life" -more than a million
videos were purchased inside of three
weeks,
Before the end of the year, NBC Universal had
signed up, followed shortly by MTV, Showtime, Fox
and CBS, and soon iTunes 6 had done for TV what
iTunes 4 did for music, cramming more than 220
shows onto its shelves within 12 months.
THE SYNERGY iTunes 7 (Sept. 12,
2006-Sept. 9, 2008)
Packing two new navigation views--a
list mode dotted with album artwork and
an officially sanctioned version of
Steel Skies’ Cover Flow--iTunes 7 put
the emphasis back on iTunes as a
music player, starting with the debut of
the MiniStore, which strengthened the
marriage between the two segments.
Everything from the Source list to
iPod integration received an overdue
makeover, and Apple even fixed the
age-old microsecond of silence that
iTunes stubbornly inserted between
joined tracks.
With users already downloading more than a
million videos and TV episodes each week,
iTunes 7 made the logical leap to movies,
adding some 75 near-DVD quality titles from
Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Touchstone
Pictures and Miramax Films at launch and
growing to more than 2,500 films from nearly
every studio over the course of its two-year
upgrade cycle.
iTunes 7 had well grown into its role as the center
of the digital hub, with iPhone, iPod touch Apple TV,
movie rentals, the App Store, and a slew of nanos
and shuffles all landing on its watch.
19 software updates
iTunes 8 (Sept. 9, 2008-Sept. 9, 2009)
The centerpiece of iTunes 8 was the
Genius feature, an underrated playlist
tool that combined the controlled
randomness of Smart Shuffle with the
queue capabilities of Party Shuffle
(iTunes DJ after 8.1) to transform your
Library into a personalized radio station.
optional Genius Sidebar, a mildly
intrusive strip of song recommendations
culled from a mix of your favorite songs
Minor tweaks elsewhere improved
upon the broad refinements
introduced in the prior release, and
Apple dumped the Search Bar in
favor of a return to field-specific
exploring.
An enhanced grid mode replaced album view
with an iPhoto Events-like scheme that
grouped albums and artists into interactive
mini widgets.
Taking a break from its
relentless tide of
upgrades, the store was
mostly left out this round
of enhancements, but
iTunes 8 did usher in
high-definition content
iTunes 9 (Sept. 9, 2009)
Speed improvements are noticeable
throughout, particularly when using Cover
Flow, which can now handle speedy
scrolling with only the slightest bit of lag.
a new white
background, giving the
grid a clean, bright look
a new Home Sharing feature that
finally lets your trade music with
friends and family members.
Beginning with a personalized welcome note,
sensible layout, enhanced album pages with
quick view windows and previews that borrow
cues from the mobile iTunes Store.
Digital PDF booklets bundled with album purchases,
iTunes LP--while currently limited to just 12 albums
and saddled with nonuniform pricing (Jay-Z’s pre-order
costs $16.99 while Pearl Jam’s costs $9.99)--is poised
to rekindle the creativity and connection that’s all but
been stripped away by MP3s.