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iTunes 8 is awesome. They still need to put a face on the internet radio part of the software. It looses them money. They need iTunes to be ably to identify internet radio songs and offer downloads through a radio GUI interface, and offer the purchase of that song through the store.

I too love the new Visualizer (don't forget to hit the question mark key!), however, I wish it could analyze the beat of the music and slow its activity to the beat. I'm listening to soft and slow music and those spheres are flying as if listening to Joe Satriani.
Anyone know a way of slowing them down?

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In terms of the owner of the library, perhaps it is of little use, but for people browsing another?s library, the Grid view is another visual means to casually scan the library.

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I do not use the default genres provided by iTunes, at least not as is, and to my surprise, iTunes 8 does assign the correct stock icons. It would seem that if custom genres at least start with the standard genre names, iTunes 8 will assign the appropriate stock image. For instance my genres are essentially in the following format:
bq. genre|: subgenre1||, subgenre2| ... |,subgenre_n|
where genre is the main and subgenre_x are the subgenres or styles of the track.

The genres I use are the basics provided by iTunes?e.g., Comedy, Electronic, Gospel, Hip Hop, Jazz, Latin, Pop, R&B, Reggae, Rock, Soundtrack and Vocal, but few tracks in my collection are just the main genre. In my library you are more apt to see:
bq. Electronic: Synth Pop Electronica: Latin Freestyle Gospel: Urban Hip Hop: Electro Hip Hop: Rap, Golden Age Jazz: Fusion R&B: Funk R&B: Philly Soul, Smooth Soul R&B: Vocal Jazz etc.
The only genre not recognized in my list was Easy Listening and iTunes? Unclassifiable category for which Apple has apparently not made a generic icon. The added subgenres/styles have no apparent effect on icon assignments; of course I do have 22 Electronic icons, 3 Gospel, 33 Hip Hop, etc. I have 203 genres according to iTunes.

All those great HD shows are not available outside the US which reduces the wow factor for UK users.

The unfortunate side effect of copyright fascism. I can understand the content providers protection their property, but the whole releasing the same content at different times in different countries is ridiculous. I can understand delay that occur due to time needed for translations (e.g., dubbing or subtitling), but the last I checked, the UK is the nation from which the language we Yanks speak originated. I really do not understand this staggered release model for video content.

{quote}If you?re like me, Grid view is going to serve as a reminder that yet another aspect of your life is out of control. {quote}

Hilarious! I am long since resigned to the fact that my entire life is out of control. I know all the theory but to practice what I preach... not a chance.

"the new visualizes blow"

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For each genre, iTunes 8 matches a substring anywhere in the Genre field. Many of the built-in genres have additional entries for alternate spellings, or genres that they group into another genre (such as "dancehall", which maps to iTunes' "reggae" genre). You can view and edit the list of recognized string-to-genre mappings by opening the "genres.plist" file in the "Resources" folder inside iTunes (right-click iTunes, Show Package Contents, go into Contents > Resources). You'll need Property List Editor, part of the Xcode suite, or a binary-aware text editor such as BBEdit or TextMate.

Yes, I found that out after I posted. Should I every be bored enough, I may consider creating my own genre icons and editing the genres.plist file.

Make that when I have plenty of time and am very bored.

I don't think the issue with Genius recommending tracks you already own is due to them being from another source. It just recommended that I buy a track from the same album which I just bought from the iTunes store five minutes before. My guess is that this is a quirk that will be worked out, but in the meantime it's a bit weird.

Wow! So tell me after all this fancy schmancy stuff why I can no longer get Batanga radio on iTunes. Stopped a few months (and several updates?) back. Some of us just want to listen to the radio.

iTunes allows you to connect to Internet radio broadcasts.

From iTunes help:

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[quote]1. Choose Advanced > Open Audio Stream.
2. Enter the full URL of the file you want to listen to. For example:
bq.

Thanks. I know all that. In iTunes Radio/Latin there is a long long list of Batanga radio stations which I used to click on to connect. Have not been able to do that for months. I open a station in Firefox and when I copy and paste the URL into iTunes nothing happens. Nada. Ain't workin' and that's a fact. No me importa. Except I use iTunes less.