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Media (Apple) Media Businesses Music Apple

Apple Quietly Releases iTunes 4.8 169

Posted by timothy from the they're-humming-john-cage dept.
trmptblwr writes "Apple has quietly released an iTunes update to version 4.8 for Mac OS X and Windows. Release notes say 'iTunes 4.8 includes new Music Store features and support for transferring contacts and calendars from your computer to your iPod (requires Mac OS X version 10.4 on your computer).' There also appears to be a some sort of new video functionality as you can now import QuickTime movies. I speculate that this has something to do with the 'new Music Store features.'"
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Apple Quietly Releases iTunes 4.8 More

Apple Quietly Releases iTunes 4.8

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  • I wonder (Score:2, Interesting)

    by InfallibleLies ( 654694 )
    if this means the next iPod will have video?

    And maybe they're planning on releasing it soon?

    • Re:I wonder (Score:2, Informative)

      by CptChipJew ( 301983 )
      Jobs said that video on portable devices was a bad move (or something). I remember it sounded like he was implying such a thing would never happen.

      • Re:I wonder (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Keep in mind Jobs bad mouths everything up until Apple releases a product that does it 'better'. Flash based music players, and the iPod Shuffle are a great example of this.
    • Maybe they want to start selling music videos and movie trailers? Or maybe even entire movies? Maybe this is part of the alleged reason behind the Mini Mac, to create a cheap platform for playing online movies? Their new Quicktime & codec are supposed to be able to produce higher quality movies at a lower bandwidth requirements than competitors.

      Damien

      • Re:Movies? (Score:4, Funny)

        by geoffspear ( 692508 ) * on Monday May 09, 2005 @04:24PM (#12480941) Homepage
        Nah... if they were going to start selling movies, we'd be hearing rumors that Apple is buying up some big movie studio, followed by speculation that it's a plot by Jobs to get Pixar a good distribution deal, hundreds of Slashdotters screaming about how Apple will die if it branches out and becomes a media company, followed by disappointment when people find out they're actually just going to be selling movies online.
        • You forgot one thing...

          On a Mac you still can't browse the web AND format a floppy at the same time.

          --Mike

    • if this means the next iPod will have video? And maybe they're planning on releasing it soon?

      You've been able to import Quicktime files into iTunes for the last few versions. I've been ripping Quicktime files out of the Music Videos section of the iTunes store, then importing them back into iTunes to get free songs for almost a year.

      Oh, yeah... Don't steal music.
  • I mean seriously. When are they going to get around to porting it?

  • Exansion... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by kenthorvath ( 225950 ) on Monday May 09, 2005 @03:31PM (#12480240)
    Maybe it will go something like music -> music videos -> movies? One can only hope...

  • Not in software update, it seems. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BigZaphod ( 12942 ) on Monday May 09, 2005 @03:31PM (#12480251) Homepage
    Does Apple usually delay putting updates into software update or was slashdot just amazingly fast getting this news story published?

    • Re:Not in software update, it seems. (Score:5, Informative)

      by moosesocks ( 264553 ) on Monday May 09, 2005 @03:54PM (#12480575) Homepage
      Yes. this is normal procedure.

      they roll out updates to a small section of the net at a time, usually over the span of a day so that their servers don't die the instant they release a patch.

      it's not a bad idea... Microsoft used a similar scheme for SP2, but did it over the course of several weeks leaving many customers high and dry for a few weeks until they got enabled to receive the update.
      • I think that makes sense. A minor addition: If you had to have iTunes 4.8, you can download it directly now, from apple.com.

        I thought Microsoft's XP SP2 was available through downloads.microsoft.com that way too. I really don't know for sure as I didn't have Windows XP at that time.
      • Microsoft used a similar scheme for SP2, but did it over the course of several weeks leaving many customers high and dry for a few weeks until they got enabled to receive the update.

        The full install for SP2 was immediately available to everyone. The Windows Update nag was slowly rolled out.

    • Yes, this is normal. It always takes a few hours for releases to apear in software update. Don't ask me why.
  • No, seriously.

    qtcomponents [sourceforge.net] has not been updated in almost a year and has to my knowledge never really worked. It is open source, but according to a bug posted by an Apple developer, it uses the now obsolete SoundManager and will have to be rewritten to use CoreAudio before it'll work again.

    The other component [illadvised.com], while being even longer since it was last updated, worked great. Although it had a few annoying bugs, it was quite usable right up until QT7 landed, and now it doesn't work at all. It is not open
    • WHY? no, seriously, why another format? AAC and MP3 work fine.

    • Re:Yeah, but will it play oggs? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by PaxTech ( 103481 ) on Monday May 09, 2005 @03:51PM (#12480528) Homepage
      In this week's I, Cringely column [pbs.org] there's some talk about an unused Ogg iTunes icon embedded in Tiger. Official Ogg support could be on the horizon..

      Looking at the unused iTunes icons that shipped with your new version of 10.4, you'll notice icons for currently-not-supported ogg vorbis and Windows Media Audio (wma), as well as several others including a variety of video formats, too.

      • Re:Yeah, but will it play oggs? (Score:5, Informative)

        by geoffspear ( 692508 ) * on Monday May 09, 2005 @04:08PM (#12480739) Homepage
        The icons were there about a year and a half ago. I wouldn't count on actual ogg support being "on the horizon", as it hasn't materialized in that time.
      • there's some talk about an unused Ogg iTunes icon embedded in Tiger.

        That icon's been present in the last few releases of iTunes. It seems to have devolved into a running gag at this point. During the OS 9 era, iTunes included icons for MODs, S3Ms, and other "sound module/track" formats.

        The rationale once seemed to be that since iTunes is playing files via QuickTime, iTunes could potentially play OGG or WMA files via a new codec component provided by a third party. Apple used to encourage developers to create codecs and make them available for distribution via QuickTime Update. There has been some effort at making an OGG codec, and the the first verison of WMA (then called NetPlay, IIRC) used QuickTime hooks for the Mac version of the player.

        However, Apple hasn't done much with QuickTime Update and it appears to be going the way of QuickTime TV. (Does anybody out there use stuff like Axel, On2, or ZyGoVideo?) It seems there is no market or widespread enough interest in third-party enhancements to QuickTime...

        • iTunes could potentially play OGG or WMA files via a new codec component provided by a third party

          There is such a component [sourceforge.net]. However, QuickTime 7 broke it. I don't know that Apple is helping the project, but it seems to be aware of it. See the most recent comment on bug #1144430, "Ogg Vorbis Support Broken in Tiger," which includes comments from the QuickTime engineering group.

    • Looks like Apple's going to unleash some geek love soon:
      $ ls -l /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunes -ogg.icns
      -rw-rw-r-- 1 root admin 43825 Oct 4 2004 /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunes -ogg.icns
      (the spaces aren't really there - Slashcode likes to reformat code, defying all logic)
    • qtcomponents worked quite well for me up to itunes 4.7, now I have 400 ogg files I can't play anymore, annoying as all hell.

    • Well, here's the deal as far as I've noticed.

      Try running Jordy's and qtcomponents' plugins against ogg files. Look at the stack traces when they crash; you'll notice that they're the same. I seriously doubt that Jordy just happened to use the same function names and line numbers, so I figure he's adapted the qtcomponents code to use CoreAudio, and fixed some of the more glaring bugs. (The original was BSD licensed, so it's his perogative to not release his source.)

      But it looks like the interface that

  • iTunes 4.7.1 (and maybe prior versions as well) can show QuickTime music videos from the iTunes store, but I don't know offhand if it's making a call to the QuickTime program or processing the QT file itself. I know that there are AppleScripts that will let you save iTunes music videos to your hard drive.

    You can play a local QuickTime file with iTunes 4.7.1 but you'll only hear the audio content. Doing so also makes a copy of the QT file in your Music folder.
    • QT is a framework, accessible from any program. I think the idea here is you can now store and play video from iTunes. It makes perfect sense. Audio jukebox -> video jukebox. Why not? The catch is video consists of large files you probably can't and don't keep around on the hard drive very long. This could be just for early adopters with gigabytes to spare.

      But it could also foreshadow the rumored iTunes subscription service which must of necessity handle temporary audio files. Such a system could
  • from the link:
    Use the new lossless encoder to import music from CDs and achieve sound quality indistinguishable from the original, at about half the original file size. Plays in iTunes and on iPod.
    Yum.

  • Any downgrades? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fname ( 199759 ) * on Monday May 09, 2005 @03:43PM (#12480413) Journal
    It seems that with every iTunes release, Apple quietly removes some useful feature to placate the RIAA. They eliminated internet streaming, disabled some plug-ins, restricted you to sharing songs with 5 computers a day, and so on. Any word yet about whether has removed any features this time?

    • Re:Any downgrades? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 09, 2005 @03:59PM (#12480645)
      They removed the ability to play music.
    • *streams some audio*

      Well, that works. What on earth are you talking about?
    • They probably "removed" PyMusique compatability again. Does anyone know?
    • I hadn't noticed that 5-computers-a-day thing, but I only have 5 computers on my home network, and I don't use iTunes to share my music, so I don't really case. I use daapd ... you'll need mDNSResponder as well. It was as simple as 'emerge daapd' on my Gentoo box ( little Celeron 333 beast ). You can share your music with as many people as you want.

      Alternatively, you might even be able to get the above setup running on OS X without too much trouble. I haven't tried it, and I imagine iTunes might get a litt
  • Just tried it out: it imports MOV files, all right, and creates a full copy of the file in the iTunes library.

    However, it doesn't (or I haven't yet figured out) play the video portion of the file in iTunes: only the audio.

    • Re:MOV import (Score:3, Informative)

      by CptChipJew ( 301983 )
      It plays the video in the album artwork display. Do you have it hidden?
      • D'oh! Sure did! Thanks.

        • Re:MOV import (Score:3, Informative)

          by confidential ( 23321 )
          in the iTunes preferences (under advanced), you can also set it to play the movies in the album viewer spot, in a new window, or fullscreen... Regardless of your choice, you can always click on the new "open in full screen" button on the bottom left corner.
    • Also, this isn't actually new. iTunes 4.7 and maybe earlier would also import .mov, and .mpg files (and maybe .avi as well? I can't remember). Anyway, it would import them to the library but wouldn't play the video - so it doesn't sound as though anything has changed on that front.

  • The Real Question (Score:4, Interesting)

    by hawkbug ( 94280 ) <psxNO@SPAMfimble.com> on Monday May 09, 2005 @03:44PM (#12480427) Homepage
    The real question is, when will there be a Windows 64 compatible version? Since XP 64 is currently shipping from OEMs, and a lot of other companies currently have 64 bit drivers and apps either out or in development, I wonder when Apple will release iTunes for it. Everything in iTunes currently works under 32 emu mode, but to burn CDs, you would need 64 bit drivers. Burning CDs from iTunes is a huge, important feature, so it's not a minor thing.
    • Just a thought:

      Apple provide iTunes for Windows to lure people over to Macs. People who have an Athlon 64 are far less likely to be switching to a Mac than others, if only for the fact that they have only recently upgraded.

      You would expect iTunes to be 64-bit ready considering Apple have the G5 in mind, so I wouldn't think it would be too hard for them to come up with an Athlon 64 port ... or at least an un-optimised one.

  • you know (Score:3, Interesting)

    by sethadam1 ( 530629 ) * <ascheinberg&gmail,com> on Monday May 09, 2005 @03:47PM (#12480472) Homepage
    You know, for a company that has gained A LOT of support and respect from the /. type, they really ought to spend the 59 seconds necessary to have iTunes support FLAC and OGG. Seriously, you know how many people they'd make happy?

    And if the iPod itself supported those codecs, I wonder how many more they'd sell to this crowd? (This crowd, by the way, being the ones who provide recommendations to the people who sign the checks to buy IT equipment for corporations worldwide.)

    • Get over yourself (Score:5, Insightful)

      by amichalo ( 132545 ) on Monday May 09, 2005 @03:53PM (#12480568)
      And if the iPod itself supported [FLAC and OGG], I wonder how many more they'd sell to this crowd? (This crowd, by the way, being the ones who provide recommendations to the people who sign the checks to buy IT equipment for corporations worldwide.)

      The parent post doesn't even make sense in the Real World (tm). What corporate IT infrastructure is the target market for the iPod? And in that small subset of the global market, what group requires FLAC and OGG and can't "make due" with Apple Lossless, MP3 and AAC?

      As to your question about "how many more would they sell?" All I can say is that Apple sells 90% of HD based players and 68% of Flash based players according the March numbers from IDC. If the 10% and 32% non-Apple players being purchased are being purchased because of their FLAC and OGG support, then we are living in some wierd ass /. fantasy land!
      • Uh, let me make this clearer for you, since you obviously are a little slow. missed the point completely.

        Apple also makes a computer system, and it's called the Macintosh! It's really fancy, and they just released a new version of their OS, and they are trying to get into the corporate market!! Wow! Isn't that the roxx0rs?!?!?!1!

        If Apple were to gain even more popular with the crowd that implements hardware in corporations, maybe they'd sell more hardware to them. They can start that goodwill with some

        • Re:Get over yourself (Score:5, Insightful)

          by amichalo ( 132545 ) on Monday May 09, 2005 @04:15PM (#12480816)
          If Apple were to gain even more popular with the crowd that implements hardware in corporations, maybe they'd sell more hardware to them. They can start that goodwill with some simple mods in iTunes.

          What a load of crap. There are no IT managers who would support a platform change to Mac OS X if only Apple would support FLAC and OGG on the iPod. No, not one. Apple has created tons of goodwill to the OSS community - embracing OSS with contributions like Bonjour and using FreeBSD in OS X. Want proof of the good will? just checkout a website known as /. [slashdot.org] where OSS geeks fall all over themselves praising Apple daily.

          The iPod is for consumers. Be rational, not emotional, about these facts.
          • There are no IT managers who would support a platform change to Mac OS X if only Apple would support FLAC and OGG on the iPod.

            Inroads, my friend. Cause ya gotta start somewhere, and being the flavor of the week ain't so bad. How many fanboys here have begun buying IBM hardware since they became Linux's bestest big brother?

            Don't underestimate the OS X/Apple hardware marketing that can be done with "consumer products" like the iPod.

            If you doubt me, go to ANY tech trade show - Citrix, Linux, VoIP, etc.

            • The blind devotion to your position is astounding! (Score:5, Insightful)

              by amichalo ( 132545 ) on Monday May 09, 2005 @05:00PM (#12481396)
              Don't underestimate the OS X/Apple hardware marketing that can be done with "consumer products" like the iPod. If you doubt me, go to ANY tech trade show - Citrix, Linux, VoIP, etc. Nearly every vendor is auctioning off an iPod. Gee, I wonder why?

              Let me repeate, no IT manager in their right mind would base a Mac OS X vs. "Platform B" decision on wethere or not FLAC and OGG were supported on the iPod.

              The logic that iPods are given away at trade shows as support of the assertion that FLAC/OGG support would sway these decision makers is illogical. iPods are given away because they are sought after consumer electronic devices, targeting a personal market. Do you think that the bouncy balls and T-shirts given away are to appeal to the corporate IT needs of the organization? Heck no! They are to appeal to the attendees! Show me the iPod givaway that includes some sort of business related use. They don't. iPods are music players given away because they bring crowd of people who want to win one for themselves or someone in their household!

              As I said before, be logical, not emotional about this. FLAC and OGG support on the iPod does nothing to aid Apple's bottome line. It's like Panasonic supporting Betamax on their VCRs. It may be a format with some merits, but the masses have spoken, 90% of HD and 68% of flash players sold in March in the US wore the Apple logo. None of those played FLAC and OGG files and they continue to fly off the shelves!

              The limited market for FLAC and OGG players does not concern Apple. Neither Apple nor any other manufacturer can build a player that appeals to 100% of the market, and Apple has no doubt considered and rejected FLAC/OGG support.

              It isn't going to loose them any market share on consumer digital music player or with business hardware. Face it!
              • Oh my. You are relentless.

                Does a billboard on the highway influence you?
                Does a TV commercial?
                How about nifty applications like F-spot?
                Are you jazzed by new themes on your distro of choice?
                How do you feel about magazine ads?

                Same thing. It's called advertising. And virtually all commercial companies do it. Companies do it to create goodwill and "push" customers to examine their product. They do it to create a warm, fuzzy feeling about their brand name. They do it to inspire trust, and to establish the
                • *my* fanatic need?

                  sethadam1, you are the one confusing "advertising" with "corporate decision making", and it's okay, but just recognize the differences.

                  I'll give you that the more a product appeals to use as individuals, the more friendly we may be to considering other solutions from the same company in our business lives. But many professionals (note: 1 those _may_ decide against an Apple soltuion in their corporate infrastructure because our consumer electronics device doesn't support these obscure for
                • Oh my. You are relentless.

                  Hey, I'm sorry. I visited /. when I got home and re-read the posts and saw the moderations and I don't want you to think me a total ass. I did go a little "guns blazing" on you, and I'm sorry for taking it so far.

                  You made some really good points and I don't think they deserved to get moderated Flamebait. People on /. may be tired of the whole Ogg on iPod war, but that doesn't make your points less valid.

                  So again, sorry to go so hard on you.

    • Re:you know (Score:5, Funny)

      by dtfarmer ( 548183 ) on Monday May 09, 2005 @03:59PM (#12480641) Homepage
      they really ought to spend the 59 seconds necessary to have iTunes support FLAC and OGG. Seriously, you know how many people they'd make happy?

      Uh, both of you?

      *ducks*

    • I guess they're just not that worried in investing the 59 seconds it would take to placate both of the world's Ogg users.

      I can't blame them, really. They seem to be doing pretty well so far by ignoring these Ogg fanatics (both of which, aside from incessant Slashdot whining, don't ever actually seem to show up in real life).

      But YMObviouslyVaries... :-)

    • I was under the impression that having an OGG decoder required heavy FPU usage... (Which is why the Neuros was the only one doing it for the longest time, if not still!) I seem to recall there being an int-only decoder publicized a while back, but I don't know if that ever took off or not. Does the iPod have an FPU that's up to the challenge?
      • If not, at least iTunes does. Any machine that can decode vorbis files without iTunes I have to assume can decode them from within iTunes.
        • This is true. I have been using OGG files in iTunes for a while now, with the qtcomponents project. I believe iTunes can play anything that has a QuickTime codec... QTComponents was broken with QT7, however.
    • Seriously, you know how many people they'd make happy?
      Six.
    • (This crowd, by the way, being the ones who provide recommendations to the people who sign the checks to buy IT equipment for corporations worldwide.)

      Your company's IT dept. buys you all iPods?!? Who do I have to give my resume to?

    • Re:you know (Score:5, Insightful)

      by revscat ( 35618 ) on Monday May 09, 2005 @04:18PM (#12480874) Journal
      Why do you care, and why should I? I try to be sympathetic to all the format wars -- Real v. WMV v. QuickTime, OpenOffice v. MS Office, etc. -- and pick the side that is best for the community, but honestly on this one I just do NOT see a reason to give a crap. MP3 and M4A do everything I want. I have yet to see reasons compelling enough to justify caring about this battle.

    • Re:you know (Score:3, Insightful)

      by javaxman ( 705658 )
      You know, for a company that has gained A LOT of support and respect from the /. type, they really ought to spend the 59 seconds necessary to have iTunes support FLAC and OGG. Seriously, you know how many people they'd make happy?

      While I agree with you in principle, in reality I find that it's pretty easy to re-encode any shorten, flac, or other format audio file into something iTunes will manage ( like, oh, I don't know, MP3 ). FLAC and SHN files are for archive use. MP3s sound fine at a high enough bitra

    • iTunes uses QuickTime to decode the music, so you need to make QuickTime recognize OGG and FLAC. I don't know how to do this on windows, but on a mac all you have to do is drag a decoder into /Library/QuickTime or ~/Library/QuickTime. So quit yer whinin'. Also, m4a kicks OGGs ass as far as audio quality goes. Lossless also trumps FLAC.
    • You could go ask the MIT student who just threw a party for time travelers...

      maybe the other OGG user showed up from the future wearing a retro nerd-fit just to fit in in 2005. Here's the linky [msn.com].

      --Mike

  • Security fixes included as well (Score:3, Informative)

    by confidential ( 23321 ) on Monday May 09, 2005 @03:52PM (#12480542)
    from 2 seconds ago, posted to the OSX Security Bulletins Mailing list:

    -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
    Hash: SHA1

    APPLE-SA-2005-05-09 iTunes 4.8

    iTunes 4.8 is now available and, among other enhancements, delivers
    the following security improvement:

    CVE-ID: CAN-2005-1248

    Impact: A buffer overflow in iTunes could cause a denial of service
    and lead to execution of arbitrary code

    Description: The MPEG4 file parsing code in iTunes versions prior to
    4.8 contains a buffer overflow vulnerability. Parsing a
    maliciously-crafted MPEG4 file could cause iTunes to terminate or
    potentially execute arbitrary code. iTunes 4.8 addresses this issue
    by improving the validation checks used when loading MPEG4 files.
    Credit to Mark Litchfield of NGS Software for reporting this issue.

    iTunes 4.8 is freely available at
    http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ [apple.com] for Mac OS X v10.2.8 or later,
    Microsoft Windows XP, and Microsoft Windows 2000

    For Mac OS X:
    The download file is named: "iTunes4.8.dmg"
    Its SHA-1 digest is: 5a86f278f9f83192a7789ad123d5d62f67a6a316

    For Windows 2000 or XP:
    The download file is named: "iTunesSetup.exe"
    Its SHA-1 digest is: 12582d193b27991c8f069331ab12d107c569bde2

    Information will also be posted to the Apple Product Security
    web site:
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=617 98 [apple.com]

    This message is signed with Apple's Product Security PGP key,
    and details are available at:
    http://www.apple.com/support/security/pgp/ [apple.com]

    -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
    Version: PGP 8.1

    iQEVAwUBQn+6yYHaV5ucd/HdAQLYzQf/SDN1AnjwypPbB7Uu NO eR3PnBSNyV+Z1k
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    =T7Wp
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  • But this is largely what I was trying to achieve when I initially started storing videos in iTunes.

    This [macosxhints.com] was my solution (different nickname... Same dull, boring guy). I'm glad to see that Apple's taken my lead and is running with it! 8)=

  • Have they fixed basics yet? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by cornjones ( 33009 ) on Monday May 09, 2005 @04:05PM (#12480701) Homepage
    I use itunes to keep my ipod synced but it lacks some basic functionality that I keep expecting to see in these updates.

    How about an option to rescan a directory? If I drop new music in my Music folder, I have to either import that directory manually into itunes or delete everything and reimport. Ideally, I could drop the whole folder on itunes and it would find the new items. Instead, it reimports all of them so I end up w/ duplicates in my library. WTF? Similarl issues show up if I update my tags.

    Everything else I have used has a "rescan" function, why doesn't iTunes?

    • Re:Have they fixed basics yet? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by geoffspear ( 692508 ) * on Monday May 09, 2005 @04:19PM (#12480887) Homepage
      If you were using iTunes as it's designed to be used (letting it organize your music instead of importing your whole library that you're organizing yourself every time you update it, so you can sync to your iPod), you wouldn't have that problem.

      Have you requested the feature/reported it as a bug to Apple? If not, it's unlikely anyone else has, as it works for the way they expect users to be using it.

      • I'm one more person who doesn't use iTunes, primarily for this reason.
      • There's lots of basics missing, and plenty of advanced stuff.

        Is it designed to run so slow on my 1.2GHz Athlon with 512MB RAM? Why is it designed so it can't put the artist and song name on the same line when it would fit? Why can't I turn off showing the album, because I really don't care. Why can't I tell it to organize my music by genre\artist? Why doesn't the miniplayer have a bar that I can click on to jump around a song? Why doesn't it have easy to create skins and plug-ins?

        Why can't it play hi
    • I don't get duplicates when I tell iTunes to "add folder to library" and point it at my itunes music folder. Widows XP for me; perhaps the mac version works differently?
      • If the folder contains .m3u files, iTunes appears to import the files pointed to by the playlist as well, regardless of whether or not that file has already been added. Many people have playlists in each directory, or at least playlists that also include most files in a particular library, so importing everything (including the playlists) seems to duplicate files. I suspect this is tripping a lot of people up.

    • How about an option to rescan a directory? ... Ideally, I could drop the whole folder on itunes and it would find the new items. Instead, it reimports all of them so I end up w/ duplicates in my library.

      As others have pointed out, the File > Add to Library ... menu item is the rescan function that you seek. In the preferences, under the "Advanced" tab, uncheck "Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized", and when you use the Add to Library ..." menu item, the files will get added to the library list

    • Doing what you tried hasn't reimported the whole library for me since, oh, I don't know, iTunes 2.04. I just tested it and it works perfectly as expected (I also have iTunes set to manage my library)

  • Closer, closer ... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kitzilla ( 266382 ) <paperfrogNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Monday May 09, 2005 @04:54PM (#12481320) Homepage Journal
    Closer, closer Apple edges to distributing video entertainment (DVD-quality movies, music videos, streaming video pay-per-view) via iTunes.

    Won't be long now. This follows the introduction of the new H.264 video codec in Quicktime 7. Apple has pretty much all the pieces in place to begin content sales to early adopters.

    You didn't think those 30" cinema monitors were just for pr0n, did you? ;-)

  • iTunes vs QT Pro (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Bulln-Bulln ( 659072 ) <bulln-bulln@netscape.net> on Monday May 09, 2005 @04:57PM (#12481356)
    Funny, you need to buy QT Pro in order to play videos full screen, but OTOH Apple releases iTunes 4.8 with *fullscreen* video support for free.
    The same is true (since a long time) for audio encoding: Need QT Pro for the "Export" feature in QT, but the "Import" feature in iTunes is free.

    I like Apple, but IMHO the guy, who's responsible for the QT Player frontend (not the QT backend, which is cool), is quite stupid.

    What's next? iTunes 5.0 with video encoding support?

  • AppleScript (Score:3, Informative)

    by pudge ( 3605 ) * <slashdot.pudge@net> on Monday May 09, 2005 @05:22PM (#12481685) Homepage Journal
    I want to be able to select a file (or files) in iTunes and open it in QuickTime Player or VLC. So, I wrote this, and save it in ~/Library/iTunes/Scripts/. Select one or more files and select the script in your iTunes scripts menu.
    tell application "iTunes"
    set myfiles to location of selection
    tell application "QuickTime Player"
    activate
    open myfiles
    end tell
    end tell
    Also save a separate version with "VLC" instead of "QuickTime Player". Also works with any media file in iTunes. including MP3s etc.

  • Psychologically interesting (Score:5, Funny)

    by biglig2 ( 89374 ) on Monday May 09, 2005 @05:27PM (#12481754) Homepage Journal
    Let me tell you a story.

    Once upon a time I was upgrading iTunes from 4.5 to 4.6. While the upgrade was running, there was a knock at the door. I went to open the door, and who was there, but Steve Jobs! Steve said "Mr. BigLig? Mr Rufus T. BigLig?" "That's me Steve", I replied. And then he kicked me in the nuts.

    Well, not exactly. But I did have an "iTunes Music Library file unknown error (-50)" every time I used iTunes from then on. Tried everything - see here [ipodlounge.com] for details. It hit about 0.01% of users, and the fix was basically "suffer in agony until 4.7".

    And now 4.8 is out, and like a fool, I'm downloading it as I type.

    And that, Best Beloved, is how Steve got his Reality Distortion Field.

  • I've known for a while that the Total Annihilation game disc is also an audio CD with the games soundtrack encoded as red-book audio. Previous versions of iTunes wouldn't read the game disc as an Audio CD, but when I started 4.8, I had my TA game disc in my drive, and iTunes showed it as an audio CD, that could be ripped.

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