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oranjdisc · Jul 13, 2002, 05:34 PM

Some sites are predicting MWNY will see iTunes 3, but without any information on what could be new. I'm guessing some type of album cover viewer perhaps, where you could load in JPGs or what-have-you, more radio stations, or maybe a more "transparent" interface option that allows the player to sit in the top menu bar and not soak up CPU. Any other ideas?

Sharky K. · Jul 13, 2002, 05:44 PM

less CPU use, less CPU use oh and not forget less CPU usage. Did I already mention less cpu use?

Cocoa would be cool.

spectre · Jul 13, 2002, 05:49 PM

I would think that the main enhancement would be that it would accept new formats, particulairly AAC (the one based on mpeg 4). Hopefully it'll be a bit more cpu friendly, and maybe we'll see something we never even imagined! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

BTP · Jul 13, 2002, 06:02 PM

Some better file management, with respect to ID tags. I can't say I am doing things right, but I recently used <a href="http://www.softwarium.com/airwhisper.html" target="_blank">Air Whisper</a>, an MP3 player, and it correctly identifies all of my MP3's, where iTunes did not.

I wish iTunes would do that. I'll admit to not being the most knowledgeable about MP3 ID tags, but at least with Air Whisper, I didn't have to. What it did that I liked was put all the songs in order by artist, then a drop down to the album and then the songs under that. Perfect for iTunes and an iPod. Just my .02�.

dazzla · Jul 13, 2002, 06:44 PM

AAC encoding seems to be the best bet, I doubt there will be anything major though.

Developer · Jul 13, 2002, 06:51 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Sharky K.:

Cocoa would be cool.<hr /></blockquote>As snappy as iPhoto you mean?

OwlBoy · Jul 13, 2002, 06:58 PM

Skins? (a very debateable subject, I know... Sunce it would make it possible to have iTunes not looks like... iTunes

-Owl

King Bob On The Cob · Jul 13, 2002, 07:36 PM

Anyone determined enough already can skin iTunes....

starfleetX · Jul 13, 2002, 07:41 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by King Bob On The Cob:
Anyone determined enough already can skin iTunes....<hr /></blockquote>Not very well.
And CERTAINLY not to the extent of iTunes' predecessor: SoundJam.

Earth Mk. II · Jul 13, 2002, 07:50 PM

Another thing that SoundJam had that I can't find in iTunes was the ability to join tracks together into one MP3 file.

It seems like an odd feature, but it's helpful for TMBG's Fingertips and Rush's 2112. (which span multiple tracks on their CD's and are quite annoying when shuffled in pieces amongst 2000 other MP3s)

AAC encoding and themes would be nice as well. But I wouldn't bet on themes at all.

Mr_Solar_Wind · Jul 13, 2002, 08:08 PM

Hmm... what's to update? How about all of the new features in Jagwire that iTunes can now take part in, like using Rendezvous to share libraries of MP3s between computers on your home LAN or setting up your own audio streams with Quicktime Broadcaster... there's so many things that could be done to improve it!

Guy Incognito · Jul 13, 2002, 08:11 PM

One thing I'd like to see is support for my USB strobe lights and Firewire Disco-ball.

Earth Mk. II · Jul 13, 2002, 08:18 PM

I think that would violate fair use rights, as it would not be fair to anyone watching.

Gul Banana · Jul 13, 2002, 08:57 PM

They could call it 5 as far as I'm concerned if there was an option to not use swearwording brushed metal.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Jul 13, 2002, 10:42 PM

Rendezvous. Duh.

Michaelm8000 · Jul 14, 2002, 12:13 AM

I would like to see the playlists and library stuff to be in a drawer (same with iPhoto). I would also like to be able to use browse mode in playlists

Sine · Jul 14, 2002, 01:52 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Gul Banana:
They could call it 5 as far as I'm concerned if there was an option to not use swearwording brushed metal.<hr /></blockquote>You can take the brushed metal pattern out, it looks like metal.

jwblase · Jul 14, 2002, 03:03 AM

I"d like to see support for the latest ID features, AAC support, and some of the MP3Rage tools supported as well. (Some of the tools like Mover, Renamer, etc... are just too useful to leave out.)

ALso: I would like to see ~/Music become the proper music location, no use in the ~/Documents folder (This is *so* OS 9).

We already have a ~/Library/iApps folder. Let's see some of the iApps use it already!!!

JB

Oh yeah... Make it a proper Cocoa/Carbon app, and not a 95% Carbon app.

[ 07-14-2002, 03:06 AM: Message edited by: jwblase ]

nforcer · Jul 14, 2002, 03:10 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Earth Mk. II:
Another thing that SoundJam had that I can't find in iTunes was the ability to join tracks together into one MP3 file.

It seems like an odd feature, but it's helpful for TMBG's Fingertips and Rush's 2112. (which span multiple tracks on their CD's and are quite annoying when shuffled in pieces amongst 2000 other MP3s)

AAC encoding and themes would be nice as well. But I wouldn't bet on themes at all.<hr /></blockquote>You could always open these files in QuickTime, copy and paste the parts that are needed to complete a track, save it as AIFF then convert that to mp3 within iTunes, (or just save as .mp3 from Quicktime player, which I believe exists the older version (read: 5.0.2) but I'm not sure) as a workaround. Inelegant, but workable.

The features of SoundJam that I truely miss in iTunes are supports for funky formats like .it and weird mod variants. It's like they were purposely crippled along with skins, as even in the older versions for Mac OS 9 they remain non-existant :/

Group51 · Jul 14, 2002, 04:20 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by dazzla:
AAC encoding seems to be the best bet, I doubt there will be anything major though.<hr /></blockquote>Does AAC encode quicker than MP3?

OreoCookie · Jul 14, 2002, 04:30 AM

Don't know if it's any faster, but the files sure are smaller.

OreoCookie · Jul 14, 2002, 04:33 AM

Don't know if it's any faster, but the files sure are smaller.

LiveMan · Jul 14, 2002, 05:47 AM

There is a lot to fix in the interface :
- the top left lightning of the window border !
- the ugly bottom buttons ...
- graphite version

Of course, giving it a simple standard Aqua interface with a true toolbar would be awesome.

Sven G · Jul 14, 2002, 08:32 AM

Besides AAC, it would also be *very* nice if iTunes 3 had full and native Vorbis support: today's implementation (with the Ogg QuickTime component) is good, but sofar only rather partial, as you have to manually add a .mov extension to the files, etc., in order for iTunes to recognise and play them.

I really hope that the QT component (at SourceForge) open source development team and Apple will actively collaborate in order to give a full Ogg Vorbis option to iTunes and iPod users - besides full AAC support, of course...

Nebagakid · Jul 14, 2002, 10:41 AM

Well, first of all, they should add sound effects to all the buttons, so when you press buttons you hear a 'ZAP!" or a "BWONGGGGGG!"

that would be stupid though, so

maybe some more advanced customization.

Remember, this app may be for consumers but also cheap people who dont want to purchase Toast use this, and they want the same "awesome-a powah!"

KidRed · Jul 14, 2002, 11:12 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by oranjdisc:
Some sites are predicting MWNY will see iTunes 3, but without any information on what could be new. I'm guessing some type of album cover viewer perhaps, where you could load in JPGs or what-have-you, more radio stations, or maybe a more "transparent" interface option that allows the player to sit in the top menu bar and not soak up CPU. Any other ideas?<hr /></blockquote>mpeg layer 4.

Guy Incognito · Jul 14, 2002, 11:31 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Nebagakid:

Remember, this app may be for consumers but also cheap people who dont want to purchase Toast use this, and they want the same "awesome-a powah!"

<hr /></blockquote>Miiiistah Spaaaahkles...awesome-a powah!

[ 07-14-2002, 11:31 AM: Message edited by: Guy Incognito ]

mark9939 · Jul 14, 2002, 12:59 PM

How about radio stations worth listening to & .mp4 playback.

OwlBoy · Jul 14, 2002, 03:11 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by mark9939:
How about radio stations worth listening to & .mp4 playback.<hr /></blockquote>hmm that first one is a matter of opinion...

Also Apple don't make the streams

... here are places that list everyone of the streams you will find in the Radio tuner along with more.

<a href="http://www.shoutcast.com" target="_blank">http://www.shoutcast.com</a>
<a href="http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Music/Sound_Files/MP3/Streaming/Directories/" target="_blank">http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Music/Sound_Files/MP3/Streaming/Directories/</a>

-Owl

P · Jul 14, 2002, 04:06 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by OreoCookie:
Don't know if it's any faster, but the files sure are smaller.<hr /></blockquote>It's usually slower to encode, actually.

Gankdawg · Jul 14, 2002, 05:02 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Developer:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Sharky K.:

Cocoa would be cool.<hr /></blockquote>As snappy as iPhoto you mean?<hr /></blockquote>LMAO!!!

I would vote for more CD burner model support. I have a 32X/10X/40X Sony CD burner and am using the hacked driver from <a href="http://www.xlr8yourmac.com." target="_blank">www.xlr8yourmac.com.</a> It works, but when buring an audio CD, iTunes sucks anywhere from 70% to 90% of the CPU!!!! So much for multitasking.......

And yes, I have emailed this suggestion to Apple.

Bouba · Jul 14, 2002, 06:11 PM

You can try yourself to encode it: just export a cd track to aiff
open it in quicktime 6 and export it as mp4. (use the options to set the audio quality)

according to many sources, 128kps is cd quality, that is much better than the current mp3. And also, it takes less cpu power to decode it.

Compression is about the same time as an mp3 but i'm not sure if it was accelerated by altivec when I tried it.

also, you can't read directly this .mp4 file in itunes but if you rename it to .mov, you will be able to. WARNING: this is very unstable, it will freeze os 9 readilly when you will try to do something else and under os X, you might loose quicktime support until you restart the computer.

Drizzt · Jul 14, 2002, 06:26 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Gankdawg:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Developer:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Sharky K.:

Cocoa would be cool.<hr /></blockquote>As snappy as iPhoto you mean?<hr /></blockquote>LMAO!!!

I would vote for more CD burner model support. I have a 32X/10X/40X Sony CD burner and am using the hacked driver from <a href="http://www.xlr8yourmac.com." target="_blank">www.xlr8yourmac.com.</a> It works, but when buring an audio CD, iTunes sucks anywhere from 70% to 90% of the CPU!!!! So much for multitasking.......

And yes, I have emailed this suggestion to Apple.<hr /></blockquote>That's the same for everyone because iTunes' decoding the MP3 to a CD track live.

surfacto · Jul 14, 2002, 07:06 PM

I'm slightly concerned that they will introduce some kind of restrictions on material that can be copied, like in the latest Toast update. Would Steve do such a thing to us?

Millennium · Jul 14, 2002, 07:17 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by surfacto:
I'm slightly concerned that they will introduce some kind of restrictions on material that can be copied, like in the latest Toast update. Would Steve do such a thing to us?<hr /></blockquote>Although I suppose I shouldn't put it past him to try it, I don't think he will. It would break with their stance on DRM up to this point.

Leia Shoots Like a Girl · Jul 15, 2002, 02:15 AM

I would love it if Apple changed the interface from silver to glossy white like the iPod.

CarpetFluff · Jul 15, 2002, 05:33 AM

I'm sure there are lots of minor things that would be nice to add, but all I can think of at the moment is the addition of folders in the playlist menu. I have playlists that I use on my iPod and playlists I use at home and I'd like to be able to differentiate between them visually.

I would also love for iTunes to monitor my litening habits and create a 'most popular' or 'greatest hits' playlist automatically. Also it might be nice for songs in the main library to have a tiny icon or change colour to indicate that the song is also on your iPod or was at the last update, if you're browsing your main library you often can't remember if you already have a certain song on the pod.

pabloEskimo · Jul 15, 2002, 08:44 AM

i'd like to see an option to play tracks of a mix cd seamless, so i don't hear the clicks between the tracks anymore (you can set the crossfade to 0 seconds, but it's still not the same as a mix cd played on a regular cd player) ... i'd love to have that feature on the iPod as well...

The Jackalope · Jul 15, 2002, 10:50 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by BTP:
Some better file management, with respect to ID tags. I can't say I am doing things right, but I recently used <a href="http://www.softwarium.com/airwhisper.html" target="_blank">Air Whisper</a>, an MP3 player, and it correctly identifies all of my MP3's, where iTunes did not.

I wish iTunes would do that. I'll admit to not being the most knowledgeable about MP3 ID tags, but at least with Air Whisper, I didn't have to. What it did that I liked was put all the songs in order by artist, then a drop down to the album and then the songs under that. Perfect for iTunes and an iPod. Just my .02�.<hr /></blockquote>Hey...thanks for pointing out Airwhisper here. I downloaded it and really like it's small footprint, in cpu usage and on screen real estate.

KidRed · Jul 15, 2002, 01:21 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by surfacto:
I'm slightly concerned that they will introduce some kind of restrictions on material that can be copied, like in the latest Toast update. Would Steve do such a thing to us?<hr /></blockquote>What's this? Toast will limit what can be burned? How so?

Gankdawg · Jul 15, 2002, 02:12 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Drizzt:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Gankdawg:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Developer:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Sharky K.:

Cocoa would be cool.<hr /></blockquote>As snappy as iPhoto you mean?<hr /></blockquote>LMAO!!!

I would vote for more CD burner model support. I have a 32X/10X/40X Sony CD burner and am using the hacked driver from <a href="http://www.xlr8yourmac.com." target="_blank">www.xlr8yourmac.com.</a> It works, but when buring an audio CD, iTunes sucks anywhere from 70% to 90% of the CPU!!!! So much for multitasking.......

And yes, I have emailed this suggestion to Apple.<hr /></blockquote>That's the same for everyone because iTunes' decoding the MP3 to a CD track live.<hr /></blockquote>Actually, with my stock 8X/4X/24X Apple CD-R (made by Sony) drive, there was no problem with multitasking. I could burn a music CD, surf, check email, etc. and iTunes just worked. It was only after I upgraded my burner and used the hacked driver that iTunes started hogging my CPU. And yes, I know, I am using a hacked driver so that could be part of the problem, but the bottom line is that it seems like sometimes Apple doesn't want us to upgrade our components....

Northform · Jul 15, 2002, 03:54 PM

Someone already mentioned AAC, but don't forget about Ogg Vorbis. It turned 1.0 a few days ago (site not updated, but it is there in the CVS).

sadie · Jul 16, 2002, 06:03 AM

Audio editing, including chopping, splitting and merging tracks.</li>
AAC, Ogg Vorbis, etc formats</li>
Sub-playlists</li>
Intelligent browsing, so that a track whose Artist is "Eminem feat. Dido" will show in the lists for both Eminem and Dido.</li>
ID3 integration into the finder
</li>

That's my wish-list.

SwarmyCurve · Jul 16, 2002, 06:39 AM

Of course, apple should dump off the brushed metal look. Its really tired at this point, IMO.
More then just additional formats, I would like to see some new features integrated into the shrunken window version of iTunes. Not just next/previous song, pause etc... There should at least be an icon to click which would bring a listings of your playlist. Somewhat like audion...
The interface is still the reason why I dont use it anymore. Brushed metal does not look good at all against the themes I commonly use (Underling, Milk etc).

petrol · Jul 16, 2002, 05:10 PM

The thing that drives me crazy about just shuffling my library and playing is the volume difference between the files. Some old recordings or bootlegs are a lot quieter than a nice, shiny-new track ripped at a high bitrate. I would love iTunes to be able to compensate by upping the preamp on quiet tracks.

Is there even a way to do this without losing the dynamics in a song? Maybe doing realtime compression and normalization?

phil.

jarinteractive · Jul 16, 2002, 05:27 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by petrol:
The thing that drives me crazy about just shuffling my library and playing is the volume difference between the files. Some old recordings or bootlegs are a lot quieter than a nice, shiny-new track ripped at a high bitrate. I would love iTunes to be able to compensate by upping the preamp on quiet tracks.

Is there even a way to do this without losing the dynamics in a song? Maybe doing realtime compression and normalization?

phil.<hr /></blockquote>If you do a file:Get info on a track then go to the options tab, the is a volume adjustment slider.

-JARinteractive

Earth Mk. II · Jul 16, 2002, 05:46 PM

Ooh! that reminds me... Auto-limiting on the pre-amp would be *very* nice

fmalloy · Jul 16, 2002, 05:52 PM

CD-R support. My CD-R (Smart and Friendly, TEAC OEM) can now burn in the Finder, but not supported in iTunes. Does that make sense?

petrol · Jul 16, 2002, 09:31 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr /> If you do a file:Get info on a track then go to the options tab, the is a volume adjustment slider. <hr /></blockquote>Right, but what I really want is for iTunes to adjust them automatically. I have enough MP3s that I don't want to go through them all to get the balance right, and I add new ones too often. I haven't looked at iTunes from a developer standpoint, but I assume it's not something that a third-party application or module could handle.

It's a feature that might get me to buy an iPod, if it would work there, too.