The Apple Announcement

So the big Apple announcement was really several announcements, wasn’t it? There’s the new iPod nano (1000 songs, really really thin), the new version of iTunes (5.0), the car manufacturers that will have iPod connectivity (Acura, Honda, Audi and Volkswagon). But the  "big" announcement was the new cell phone/iTunes player: the Motorola Rokr E1. The phone is basically a cell phone with an iPod Shuffle built-in. Cool, I guess. And here I was thinking we were getting a color iPod that played videos. Darn. For more about the Apple announcement, head over to Lee Hord’s blog.

His blog also has a review of iTunes 5.0, too. He mentions installation problems, but I can certify that I had none here. So what’s new with 5.0? A lot, actually! There is a new search bar that makes finding things easier. You can filter the view in the iTunes library, Purchases playlist, and iTunes Music Store to show only specific kinds of items (such as songs, podcasts, or audiobooks). Nice! You can use the new "Smart shuffle" option to adjust the likelihood that iTunes plays multiple songs in a row by the same artist or from the same album. Parental controls have been introduced. You can add lyrics - if you know the words to a song, enter them in iTunes and view them anytime. Some iPod models will show them as well (I would think it’s all models but the Shuffle, as long as they have the updated software). What would be even nicer would be if iTunes automatically downloaded the lyrics, but still, it’s cool. You can synchronize your contacts and calendar from Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. (Wow! Playing nice with Microsoft?) There are probably other new features too. The only problem I’m having is that the iTunes download came with a new version of QuickTime. The new version either has no option to remove the icon from the system tray. Or maybe the option is very hidden. All I know is that it’s not where it used to be. (Help!) However, overall, the iTunes upgrade was worth the download.