iTunes 10

Windows/Mac: If you were hoping for a totally redesigned, less twiddly iTunes 10, you're out of luck. But Apple added a social tool, Ping, for following artists and friends' tastes and tracking concerts. And your music list looks a bit tidier, too.
Better Use of Your Album Art

iTunes 10 Gets a Streamlined Interface, Adds a Social Network for MusicIf you just want to use iTunes to manage your music, it can still do that. And now your album list, instead of showing the same album name listed over and over next to songs from that album, will show the album art from that disc in that column instead (at a minimum of five or more album tracks). And the iTunes icon itself has dropped its note-on-a-CD scheme for a more modern, Apple-app-like look.
Ping Is a Music-Focused Social Network in iTunes

Ping is the big new thing in iTunes 10, though. Ping is, as Apple CEO Steve Jobs described it, "like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes." Right off, it's helpful to know that it's entirely optional, like iTunes' Genius recommendation feature. You can either make yourself entirely open to the public, accessible only to approved friends, or off the Ping grid entirely.

iTunes 10 Gets a Streamlined Interface, Adds a Social Network for MusicYou can follow artists on iTunes to see, at a minimum, where they're playing concerts and when they've got new music or videos out, but if they're sharing other things—photos, other tracks they like, free content—you'll get that, too. You can also bring in friends to follow your own music choices, and follow them back, but it appears that Ping mainly tracks music purchases, not the tracks you're playing or previewing. For example, Ping features a top 10 list of music the people you're following are buying from iTunes, but—at least from Jobs' presentation—it doesn't sound like it offers any help when it comes to what your friends are actually listening to. So it's a lot less open than, say, Last.fm, and contained entirely inside iTunes, or your iPhone or iPod touch. It doesn't appear to be accessible at all via a web browser.

iTunes 10 Gets a Streamlined Interface, Adds a Social Network for MusicOne more small thing we noticed: iTunes has moved its close/minimize/restore buttons to the side of its window, at least on an OS X demonstration.

iTunes 10 was actually a small part of today's Apple music event. You can read up on all the new iPods, the much-improved iPod touch, and the total Apple TV revision at Gizmodo's complete Apple event coverage.

iTunes 10 will be available today for Windows and Mac systems.

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Apple Announcement September 1

Apple Announcement September 1 Includes New iPod Touch 4th Generation, iTunes 10, New iPod Nano, and Apple TV- Another successful Apple event happened in Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco California. As usual, Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO delivered another speech revealing some of the new technological advancements developed by his company, Apple Computer, Inc.

Here are some of the keynotes in his speech announcing some of the newest Apple products such as iTunes 10, Apple TV, and iPod Touch 4th generation among others.

New Apple Stores – In his opening speech, Steve Jobs revealed that three new apple stores have been opened. The first one is located in Paris, near the Opera in which Apple spent 18 months just to restore it. The second new store is located in Shanghai, China and the third store is located in London, in Covent Garden.

New iOS 4.1 – Steve Jobs also introduced an upgrade to the iOS, the operating system software that Apple is using in its mobile devices. Accordingly, the upgrade to iOS, 4.1 fixes a lot of bugs in the previous versions including performance problems with the iPhone 3GS and the promixity sensor. In addition, a new development called high dynamic range (HDR) photos which allows camera to take three pictures simultaneously, and from there creates the best shot from a combination of the three will be available in the next iOS update.

iOS 4.2 for iPads – Come this November, Apple will be releasing iOS 4.2 which will be all about iPad, Apple’s innovative tablet PC which will include wireless printing.

New iPod Nano – Steve Jobs announced the new look of the iPod Nano. Accordingly, it will be smaller this time as compared to the previous versions. Aside from the size, Apple also replaced the “wheel” to make it a touch screen. The new iPod Nano will be available at a retail price of $149 for the 8GB version and $179 for the 16GB version. If you’re curious on how the new iPod Nano looks like, below is a sample photo of it.

New iPod Touch 4th Generation – Moving on to the widely expected New iPod Touch 4th generation, the new iPod Touch is now much thinner than the previous version and will have a feature available in iPhone 4 called Face Time that allows users to chat face to face using the newly installed front-camera. Aside from that, it will also have a back-camera and a retina display. The new iPod Touch 4G will cost $229 for 8Gb, $299 for 32GB, and $399 for 64GB and will become available next week.

iTunes 10 Update: There will be a new feature for iTunes which will become available in iTunes 10. A social music network called Ping, much like the famous Twitter, will allow iTunes user to follow and unfollow artists and friends, and see what music friends are listening to. Damon Darlin said that the layout of Ping will look like the same as Facebook, the number one social networking site nowadays. One of the best feature of Ping available in iTunes 10is that you can now buy songs right from someone’s mention of the song.

New Apple TV and Its Box – Steve Jobs also showed the new version of the Apple TV Box, about the size of two iPhones side by side and much smaller than the previous version of it. The new Apple TV will now cost just $99, a huge drop from the previous price of $200 and users can now rent tv shows as low as $0.99. Initially, shows from ABC and Fox will be available for the new Apple TV.
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