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Preciousss · Oct 16, 2003, 01:15 PM

iTunes for Windows launched

Apple unveils the long-awaited Windows-compatible version of its online music service.
October 16, 2003: 1:52 PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc. launched the long-awaited Windows-compatible version of its iTunes online music service Thursday, promising a wider library of songs and new features to maintain its lead in an increasingly competitive market.

"This isn't some baby version of iTunes. It's the whole thing," Apple (AAPL: down $1.88 to $22.94, Research, Estimates) Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in a presentation in which he demonstrated the new software and service.

Apple's online music service will feature more than 400,000 tracks by the end of the month and the Macintosh version of the download service has sold more than 13 million songs since it was launched about six months ago, Jobs said. _

THE MAC GOD · Oct 16, 2003, 01:18 PM

No... it isn't released... nothing on APPLE has been updated! argh!

Lew · Oct 16, 2003, 01:32 PM

It's available now: http://www.apple.com/itunes/

mamamia · Oct 16, 2003, 01:35 PM

all i can say after reading steve's presentation is holy cow that was an all out frontal assault on the digital music industry. they went absolutley crazy with the cross promotions and cross marketing and the guests and everything. insane.

lavar78 · Oct 16, 2003, 01:35 PM

I like the new album reviews in theory, but they take up a lot of space.

Preciousss · Oct 16, 2003, 01:38 PM

Originally posted by THE MAC GOD:
No... it isn't released... nothing on APPLE has been updated! argh!

Um, yes it is. Check now.

A few things: iTunes is now v.4.1, and it says you can stream music between Macs and PCs. I wonder if this is the same crippled feature from 4.0.1 (only sharing with others on your subnet).

Wow, all kinds of features (celebrity playlists and more)...Checking them out now. I'm sure lots of discussion will follow...

lavar78 · Oct 16, 2003, 01:40 PM

iTunes 4.1, QuickTime 6.4, and iPod Updater 2.1 are all available from Software Update.

schk · Oct 16, 2003, 01:48 PM

iTunes for PC is very nice, now I can stream MP3s between my Mac and PC easily (doing it right now actually).

sandsl · Oct 16, 2003, 01:52 PM

Can we have some screenshots of iTunes running on windows please?

- - e r i k - - · Oct 16, 2003, 01:53 PM

Originally posted by sandsl:
Can we have some screenshots of iTunes running on windows please?

Weezer · Oct 16, 2003, 01:57 PM

Originally posted by sandsl:
Can we have some screenshots of iTunes running on windows please?

http://www.garrysheils.com/tunes1.jpg

http://www.garrysheils.com/tunes2.jpg

Sosa · 04:04 PM

I can't help but feel ripped off! PC weenies shouldn't get to use iTunes unless they purchase a Mac! Aargggh!

I thought only iTMS was going to be Windows compatible, although offering iTunes makes more sense.

sandsl · Oct 16, 2003, 01:58 PM

Originally posted by - - e r i k - -:

I've seen that its all over apple.com

Spymac has some pics for those that are interested.

Zimwy · Oct 16, 2003, 02:03 PM

Hey,
Does anyone know if they've added back the ability to share music over the internet?

Thanks,
Gabe

-Q- · Oct 16, 2003, 02:06 PM

Originally posted by - - e r i k - -:
Image snipped...

Augh!!! It burns us...my precious...

Preciousss · Oct 16, 2003, 02:18 PM

Originally posted by Zimwy:
Hey,
Does anyone know if they've added back the ability to share music over the internet?

Thanks,
Gabe

Aaargh. Says on the download page that you can only stream if you're on the same local network.

Oh well. I've been holding off on the upgrading from 4.0 to 4.0.1 because of this. Not that i even used it much, but I was holding onto the dream of streaming music with my family who lives across the country and even outside of it.

Will hold off for a little bit on upgrading until I read more.

[How am I supposed to get any work done with all this excitement, btw?

]

Drakino · 02:52 PM

Image 1, iTunes Visuals
Image 2, Sees my 2 Mac iTunes libraries
Image 3, About iTunes, and the store
Image 4, encoding preferences
Image 5, mimimized mode

geekwagon · Oct 16, 2003, 02:27 PM

Looks like iTunes for Windows doesn't support proxies. I can't get to the iTMS on my PC at work, but I can from my Powerbook which is sitting 6 inches away and plugged into the same network port. I scoured the preferences and found no mention of proxies.

So I guess most people won't be able to buy music while at work. I guess that we should be actually working, anyway

Aiglos · Oct 16, 2003, 02:30 PM

Originally posted by Sosa:
I can help but feel ripped off! PC weenies shouldn't get to use iTunes unless they purchase a Mac! Aargggh!

I thought only iTMS was going to be Windows compatible, although offering iTunes makes more sense.

Now now... play nice with the PC weenies.

At least they get a taste of how software should behave when done right. I think this is a very smart move on Apple's part.

Drakino · Oct 16, 2003, 02:32 PM

Looks like iTunes for Windows doesn't support proxies. I can't get to the iTMS on my PC at work, but I can from my Powerbook which is sitting 6 inches away and plugged into the same network port. I scoured the preferences and found no mention of proxies.

It does, set one in the "Internet Options" control panal. Keep in mind, iTunes does not support autoconfig proxy setups though, only manually specified ones.

Drakino · Oct 16, 2003, 02:34 PM

/drool

Just realised I can now have iTunes visuals on my 27 inch monitor that is attached to my media PC in the living room, without having to plug in my Powerbook.

Apple did an excellent job in the port. This is going on all my PCs as their MP3 player tonight.

Big Mac · Oct 16, 2003, 02:46 PM

Mwwaaa - now PC users can experience the horrors of brushed metal! Oh wait, the already experience much worse horrors with Windows, and they don't seem to care. Never mind. . .

Like Preciousss I too put off upgrading iTunes because it would lose the extra streaming functionality. It's really too bad that Apple had to remove the feature. Oh well it's not like I have (or will have) anyone to stream to anyway. I wonder if my version of iTunes still works with the new store. Guess I'll have to fire it up and find out

jasong · Oct 16, 2003, 02:55 PM

My mini-review

1. Installation was a million times faster on my PC than on my Mac. OS Xs installation routines just suck.

2. it looks a bit freakish on Windows, the fonts are just wrong, the scroll bars are OS X (I understand why they did this, but it is weird all the same), the pulldown menus are just bizarre (look like OS X, work like Windows).

3. Rendezvous works in iTunes for Windows, it is amazing. I just open iTunes and there is my music from my Mac. I am getting everyone in my office to "switch" so we can just share our music.

4. The sound card in my PC sucks

5. CPU usage is a little better in Windows than on Mac. Visualizer sucks on my PC (I have a useless video card though Rage 128 Ultra).

6. I'm impressed.

-- Jason

Horsepoo!!! · Oct 16, 2003, 02:57 PM

How long will it take MS to come up with hidden OS hacks that will drop iTunes' stability and make Apple look bad?

geekwagon · Oct 16, 2003, 03:17 PM

Originally posted by Drakino:
It does, set one in the "Internet Options" control panal. Keep in mind, iTunes does not support autoconfig proxy setups though, only manually specified ones.

Ahah, that did it. Here we use an autoconfig script that balances the load between several proxy servers. I set it to one of the servers manually and now it works.

kman42 · Oct 16, 2003, 03:28 PM

osnews.com says that window resize sucks. True?

kman

S|ntax · Oct 16, 2003, 03:39 PM

Originally posted by kman42:
osnews.com says that window resize sucks. True?

kman

very much so.

Lew · Oct 16, 2003, 03:40 PM

Originally posted by Sosa:
I can help but feel ripped off! PC weenies shouldn't get to use iTunes unless they purchase a Mac! Aargggh!

I thought only iTMS was going to be Windows compatible, although offering iTunes makes more sense.

Remember that some of us Macheads also have PCs. I like the idea of storing my music on the 3x20GB disks in my Dell and streaming them to my PowerBook over AirPort

gator · Oct 16, 2003, 03:41 PM

Anyone having trouble accesing iTMS via Windows iTunes? I'm getting an error saying "We could not complete your request. There is not enough memory available. There was an error in the Music store. Please try again later."

Otherwise, excellent port... everything works as expected.

iDaver · 03:53 PM

What file formats does Windows iTunes support? WMA? I assume it won't encode WMA but surely it plays WMA, AAC and MP3?

FTrain · Oct 16, 2003, 03:47 PM

What am I doing wrong?

FTrain · Oct 16, 2003, 03:48 PM

Sorry for that last post. I can't get iTunes to read WMA files. Am I just doing something wrong or is that not possible?

Thinine · Oct 16, 2003, 03:49 PM

Anyone know of a way to get iTfW to work with a Rio Sport? My roommate just got one and it doesn't show up like an iPod would. Anyway I can get it to work at all?

midwinter · Oct 16, 2003, 03:50 PM

Originally posted by FTrain:
Sorry for that last post. I can't get iTunes to read WMA files. Am I just doing something wrong or is that not possible?

It's most likely not possible. I would imagine that iTunes just plays Quicktime compatible file formats.

Cheers
Scott

FTrain · Oct 16, 2003, 03:53 PM

Then is there any way of converting the WMA files over to MP3? I'll step back from thinking only of myself here for a minute and predict millions of simpleton Windows users downloading that amazing iTunes thing they've been hearing about and then not being able to listen to any of the songs they already painstakingly imported from their CD collections.

That won't breed user loyalty.

midwinter · Oct 16, 2003, 03:56 PM

Originally posted by FTrain:
Then is there any way of converting the WMA files over to MP3? I'll step back from thinking only of myself here for a minute and predict millions of simpleton Windows users downloading that amazing iTunes thing they've been hearing about and then not being able to listen to any of the songs they already painstakingly imported from their CD collections.

That won't breed user loyalty.

I don't think that there is, since WMA is a proprietary format and is pretty much ONLY used by Windows. It's only in the most recent versions of of WMP (which seems pretty good) that it forced users to rip songs in WMA format.

doh. Spoke too soon:

http://www.wma-mp3.com/

But you have a good point about the WMA thing. It would be pretty cool if it offered to convert the songs for you. Or at least let you know it won't play them.

Cheers
Scott

RooneyX · Oct 16, 2003, 04:07 PM

19.1 MBs? Is that with debug code?

chingwei · Oct 16, 2003, 04:10 PM

Has anyone tried playing a CD or importing from a CD into AAC? I can't get it to work on my PC...when I try to play the CD, it kind of hangs, and no sound comes out. And when importing, it will appear to be doing something, but the resulting files/songs are of 0:00 length, and there's nothing in them (50kB)...

Could just be my machine...any suggestions?

I have DMA enabled on my drive, with Digital Audio Extraction enabled, and I've installed Adaptec's ASPI layer too...

Deestar · Oct 16, 2003, 04:22 PM

Originally posted by RooneyX:
19.1 MBs? Is that with debug code?

I think its because you get Quicklime 6.4 as well, when you download itunes for Windows.

See apple download page"QuickTime 6.4 (included)"

RooneyX · Oct 16, 2003, 04:57 PM

Originally posted by Deestar:
I think its because you get Quicklime 6.4 as well, when you download itunes for Windows.

See apple download page"QuickTime 6.4 (included)"

Noticed now. I'm running it on XP on VPC and it's too slow to talk about. VPC is shite.

simonjames · Oct 16, 2003, 05:22 PM

This is a real dumb question but here goes.

At work I have to use a PC so this morning I download iTunes for windows. What I got was a ".dmg" file and when I double click on it windows asks me for an application to open the dmg file - what do I need to do? I checked Apple's site and there is no mention of this

RooneyX · Oct 16, 2003, 05:33 PM

Originally posted by simonjames:
This is a real dumb question but here goes.

At work I have to use a PC so this morning I download iTunes for windows. What I got was a ".dmg" file and when I double click on it windows asks me for an application to open the dmg file - what do I need to do? I checked Apple's site and there is no mention of this

Wrong file. It's supposed to be an .exe

eevyl · Oct 16, 2003, 05:34 PM

Originally posted by simonjames:
This is a real dumb question but here goes.

At work I have to use a PC so this morning I download iTunes for windows. What I got was a ".dmg" file and when I double click on it windows asks me for an application to open the dmg file - what do I need to do? I checked Apple's site and there is no mention of this

You downloaded in fact iTunes for Macintosh. Take care you check "Windows XP" before downloading.

simonjames · Oct 16, 2003, 05:38 PM

I think there may be a glitch with the Aussie site - I re-downloaded this time from the US site and all went well

thanks for the immediate and helpful response

cheers

Simon

kman42 · Oct 16, 2003, 05:57 PM

Hilarious censorship!!!

This isn't an iTfW specific comment, but I didn't want to start a new thread.

Check out the Stones biography. The name Dick is replaced by D**k. It probably happens on the whole site. I just thought it was funny that they auto-edited it.

kman

Moonray · Oct 16, 2003, 06:10 PM

Originally posted by kman42:
Hilarious censorship!!!

This isn't an iTfW specific comment, but I didn't want to start a new thread.

Check out the Stones biography. The name Dick is replaced by D**k. It probably happens on the whole site. I just thought it was funny that they auto-edited it.

kman

Culture there you go.

-

DVD Plaza · Oct 16, 2003, 06:32 PM

Originally posted by Big Mac:
Mwwaaa - now PC users can experience the horrors of brushed metal! Oh wait, the already experience much worse horrors with Windows, and they don't seem to care. Never mind. . .

I absolutely despise brushed metal, but I have got to hand it to Apple - the brushed metal they've done on iTunes for Windows is freaken awesome! Sorry to say it puts OSX to shame - it's far more refined/smooth (not coarse/rough/in your face like BM on OSX) and even has a distinct titlebar (which has active AND inactive states!!!).

Come on Apple - you've now proven brushed metal can look nice, give us the same on OSX!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'mDaMac · Oct 16, 2003, 07:30 PM

There must be a bunch of Windows users on ITMS. I tried buying a few tracks and the DL speed was the slowest I've ever encountered; even slower than at launch. How is it for everyone else? IMHO, iTunes for Windows is a very good idea. Let Windows users get a taste of Mac software, show them how well it integrates with Apple hardware (iPod), then when they're hooked show them just how much better everything is on the Mac - how seamlessly hardware and software should interact.

clebin · Oct 16, 2003, 08:01 PM

Originally posted by DVD Plaza:
I absolutely despise brushed metal, but I have got to hand it to Apple - the brushed metal they've done on iTunes for Windows is freaken awesome! Sorry to say it puts OSX to shame - it's far more refined/smooth (not coarse/rough/in your face like BM on OSX) and even has a distinct titlebar (which has active AND inactive states!!!).

Come on Apple - you've now proven brushed metal can look nice, give us the same on OSX!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hmm... I have to say the overall look of the MacOS X app is far better for me. I'm not sure the big deal about brushed metal, apart from a few apps unwisely using it (Finder, Address Book) I think it looks 'proper smart'

Chris

Spliff · Oct 16, 2003, 08:03 PM

iTunes for PC seems to have an extra pane (for genre) in the browse library view.

Notice the three view panes in browse mode?

I can't find this in the Mac version, so I'm assuming it's Windows-only.