Eight feature requests for iTunes 11

#1 Macworld

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Posted 29 June 2011 - 05:01 AM

Post your comments for Eight feature requests for iTunes 11 here

#2 Urkel

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Posted 29 June 2011 - 05:20 AM

I'm buying into this Post-PC thing that Apple is pushing. So why is it that I need to run a computer 24/7 in order to have my itunes content available to my AppleTV/iPad/iPhone

I'm disappointed with the new time capsule because it seems natural to put an onboard iTunes server on there

#3 RobLewis

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Posted 29 June 2011 - 05:26 AM

Yes to tagging. Apple overall should play nice with the excellent XMP metadata standard in all its apps. This is one area where the "walled garden" is very frustrating.

#4 Stuart

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Posted 29 June 2011 - 05:29 AM

Urkel, on 29 June 2011 - 05:20 AM, said:

Apple are still 'ushering' in the new era of post-pc - probably the same reason why iTunes in the cloud offers music but not video yet - it's early days, have patience my friend :-)

#5 Urkel

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Posted 29 June 2011 - 05:30 AM

Some features I feel have been missing a long time:

1) Smart media storage. I like having iTunes manage my media but on my MBP I want to keep my 40GB of music/podcasts local and 900GB of video on an external. So having options as to where you want iTunes to put stuff would make sense since our libraries are far exceeding the storage capacity of our Pros and Airs.

2) ITunes manage ALL content. Unprotected AVI's, wmv and divx files all play on our computers, so why can't iTunes see them?

3) Watched Folders. If I drop in a new mov file in a folder, delete a duplicate tv show or rename an mp3 through the finder then why can't iTunes detect that rather than giving me the exclamation mark of death?

#6 Kuma

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Posted 29 June 2011 - 05:52 AM

Urkel, on 29 June 2011 - 05:20 AM, said:

as someone well before me pointed out "post pc" doesn't mean "sans pc"

#7 macnews

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Posted 29 June 2011 - 05:54 AM

YES! YES! YES to ALL! I'll join in the others mentioned by Urkel as well above - especially point #1!

#8 Stuart

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Posted 29 June 2011 - 06:20 AM

Urkel, on 29 June 2011 - 05:30 AM, said:

Re point 1, Apple obviously feel its better if you can download the files to your MBP rather than the potentially complicated way that you are requesting, 40GB local, 900GB external. It always appears to me that Apple are trying to cater for newbee customers not just nerds so the simpler the better makes more sense.

Re point 2, well they want you to use iTunes don't they? for all their digital content - it ensures compatibility with their other devices, iPod's, ATV's etc.. obvious really.

Re point 3, I thought the 'Automatically add to iTunes' folder that came with iTunes 10.x supplied what you are requesting does it not?

#9 stephen520

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Posted 29 June 2011 - 06:21 AM

For years, I've been using genre as a primitive tagging service. As a result, I have an unwieldy number of genres. Sub- and multiple-genres would be a welcome addition. But for me, keyword tagging is the holy grail of features.

#10 CaseyHenry

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Posted 29 June 2011 - 06:25 AM

How about a convenient way to share an iTunes library (including metadata like ratings, play counts, playlists, etc.) among multiple computers (or even multiple user accounts on one computer). iTunes in the Cloud is a step in the right direction, but it's half-baked. I want to have the same playlists and ratings on my MBP as I have on my iMac.

I've been using Dropbox for this purpose for a couple of years now, and it works well. I just think it's a feature Apple should build in.

#11 seasonsinthesky

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Posted 29 June 2011 - 06:29 AM

or, y'know, they could integrate full FLAC support, a "feature" that comes standard with most other pieces of playback/media library software, and which would be far more useful than the majority of requests in this article.

#12 kirkmc

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Posted 29 June 2011 - 06:29 AM

CaseyHenry, on 29 June 2011 - 06:25 AM, said:

I wrote about that last year, discussing an idea for an iTunes sever version.

http://www.macworld....nes_server.html

Macworld Senior Contributor - Macworld's iTunes Guy - Editor of Mac OS X Hints
Read my blog Kirkville, writings about more than just Macs. Twitter: @mcelhearn
My latest book: Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ

#13 k88dad

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Posted 29 June 2011 - 06:41 AM

Does the ID3 specification allow for multiple genres? I pretty much ignore genre, because a single genre is too limiting.

#14 leicaman

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Posted 29 June 2011 - 06:49 AM

Indeed, not having sub genres means iTunes is great for dilettantes, but for serious music listeners, Classical is vastly too wide to be meaningful. Or Rock. Jazz. Weird Al.

Eric

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. - Martin Luther King, Jr.