A completely redesigned player with a remodeled store and iCloud features. Everything you love about iTunes just got better.
iTunes is the portal on the Mac and PC to Apples iTunes and App Stores as well as all of our Music, Movies, Podcasts, and TV Shows. iTunes has looked and acted relatively the same for the past few years allowing us to sync all of our content with our iPod’s, iPhone’s, and iPad’s, and has only seen incremental updates with each new version number. Those incremental updates have seen support support for new features such as iTunes Match, Podcasts, iCloud, etc., but never something that really brought all of the features that people love on their iPhones and iPads to the Mac and PC.
With iTunes 11, Apple looks to close the gap between iOS and OSX even more. Welcome to iTunes 11.
Redesigned Player
The player window in iTunes 11 has been completely redesigned. It may look familiar but it is far from the player window that we had in iTunes 10.
Menu Bar
At the top of the window you’ll notice the menu bar with has different tabs that will take us into different views. The far left menu is a drop down menu that will allow us to navigate our iTunes Library giving us access to our Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, iTunes U, iBooks, Apps, and Tones. Click on one will bring us to that section of our iTunes Library and allow us to view the files in that section. In the middle of the menu bar are different fields that we can narrow down what we are seeing, this menu bar will be different per section in our iTunes Library and will sort in different ways in each section. On the right hand side of the menu bar is our iTunes Store button which will take us out of the player and bring us into the iTunes Store.
Library View
In the middle of the iTunes window is our Library view which is where we will do most of our navigation. This is where our Album Artwork is displayed and the lists of our music and files are seen. Depending on the view we are in is what will be displayed. In the Songs view there is just a list of sorted songs that are in our iTunes Library, the Albums view displays the Album Artwork per album, the Artists view displays artist icons, the Genres view displays artists and albums broken down into their genre, the Videos view only shows music videos, the Playlists view only shows playlists, and the Radio view displays all radio stations that can be accessed through iTunes.
There is a new look in the Albums view called Expanded view which is completely new to iTunes 11. When an Album is clicked on iTunes 11 will expand the album and show all of the songs and artwork below the Album Artwork square above. From here you can being playing the album and even shuffle or add songs to the new Up Next Queue. There is even the ability to search other songs and albums from the current artist selected on the iTunes Store without having to leave the Expanded view by clicking on the In The Store button above the artwork. You can even see recommended songs right in the expanded view as well. This will make finding new music even easier than before.
Mini Player
The new Mini Player in iTunes 11 is even better than before. When the Mini Player is enabled it takes us less space than before but can also do more as well. Moving the cursor over the currently playing song will bring up the playback controls and allow you to play/pause, skip, and stop the current song. Clicking on the list button will bring Up Next list down so you can even select the song that you would like played next. You can even search your iTunes Library from the Mini Player now as well.
Remodeled Store
If you’ve ever used an iPhone or iPad that is running iOS6 you’ll be right at home when using the newly remodeled stores in iTunes 11. The iTunes Store has been redesigned so that it looks and works the same wherever you’re shopping. It has the same top banners that the iOS iTunes and App Stores have and then below the banners are the usual New This Week and What’s Hot sections and on the right hand side are the Top Charts. The iTunes 11 Store also features the History that was introduced with iOS 6 and syncs across your devices. If you preview a song or movie it’s saved in your history so you can quickly purchase it once you’re ready.
iCloud Features
With iCloud being at the heart of every iOS and Mac device it makes sense for iTunes 11 to use more iCloud Features that ever before. With iCloud you can access all of your content on all of your devices at any time. With iCloud and iTunes 11 you can now stream all of your purchased content on iTunes without actually having to download it to your computer but if you’re going to be offline you can just download it with just a single click. Another great feature is the ability to pick up where you left off on any device. What that means is that if you start a movie or song on your iPhone or iPad you can continue right where you left off when you get on your Mac or PC and vise versa.
iTunes 11 Is Here
Without a doubt iTunes 11 is the best version of iTunes to date. It is the most responsive version that we’ve had, it feels and works like it should. The best part is that it’s easy to use and anyone will feel right at home after just a few minutes with iTunes 11.
What are some of your favorite features of iTunes 11? Let us know in the comments sections below.
