iTunes 8

On the Let's Rock event held on September 9, 2008 at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, Apple unveiled their latest iPod line up and iTunes version 8. This latest version of iTunes can be downloaded from Apple's website or through the software update utility though Vista users have experienced issues after installing iTunes 8.

Version 8 introduces iTunes Genius and grid view. Genius basically is a feature that let's you pick a song and upon hitting the Genius button, iTunes will create a playlist that has the same attributes with the song that you chose. This can let you rediscover 'hidden' songs or songs you haven't listened to for awhile. Downside is if you have a small library the Genius playlist won't seem so smart.

iTunes 8 also has the Genius sidebar on the right side which recommends songs that you don't have in your library so that you can purchase them from the iTunes Store.

The other new major feature is the addition of the grid view. You can view your collection by their album art (if present) and let's you arrange them by album, artist, genre, and composers. You can adjust the size of the icon with a slider on the upper right corner. This is also a good way to find songs or podcasts that you may want to delete from your library.

The one added feature I am most thankful for is the ability to automatically download recent episodes of podcasts that I listen to most often. It used to be an all or nothing option. Now, each new episode is download automatically when before I had to manually click the 'Get' button each and every time a new episode is available.

For more on iTunes 8 you can read iLounge's Instant Expert: Secrets and Features of iTunes 8 and Macworld's iTunes 8 review.