[NewsPoster]

Obscured somewhat by news of the hurricane and flooding and its own executive reorganization, Apple has revealed that it is delaying the update of iTunes to version 11 until some time in November. The previous release schedule was announced during the iPhone 5 announcement in September, and was reportedly to be delivered by the end of October.

Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr claimed that "The new iTunes is taking longer than expected and we wanted to take a little extra time to get it right. We look forward to releasing this new version of iTunes with its dramatically simpler and cleaner interface, and seamless integration with iCloud before the end of November." Improvements to the new version of iTunes demonstrated at the iPhone media event include a better layout, simpler playlist creation, increased performance, tighter iCloud integration, an all-new mini-player, and a full-window interface. Minimum system and hardware for the update have not yet been unveiled. The "source list" has been dropped for the first time in iTunes' history, following a number of other Mac apps that have abandoned the left-hand content list style. The mini-player gets its own dedicated button at the top right of the main window rather than using the familiar green "intelligent resizing" button (iTunes was the only Apple app that did not use the green resizing button in the normal fashion). Integration of songs stored in iCloud or iTunes Match, as well as the iTunes Store, are more subtle and now include services such as nearby concert notifications for artists in a users' library.

[Kees]

Well, hopefully they consider these changes carefully. To me, the album cover art, expanded view combo they are touting on the website sounds like a terrible way to browse, unless you're collection consists of, say, 50 albums or less

[Charles Martin]

Kees: as with the current iTunes, there is always more than one way to browse, and I don't expect iTunes 11 to be any different in that regard.

Second, hate to break it to ya but ... most non-nerds DON'T have more than 50 or so albums in their collection.

[pairof9s]

Originally Posted by chas_m 

Second, hate to break it to ya but ... most non-nerds DON'T have more than 50 or so albums in their collection.

Really?! I'd say most non-nerds have AT LEAST 50 albums/CDs...you know, there was music before MP3s came out. Plus when considering iTunes catalogs songs by album, whether you have the full album or not, then the point is quite relevant.

[Kees]

Kees: as with the current iTunes, there is always more than one way to browse, and I don't expect iTunes 11 to be any different in that regard.

Well, I can only hope you are right, but if you look at the screenshots, there no longer is a way to change the view settings through a button of sorts. Maybe as a menu item, but that's not very Apple like.

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Second, hate to break it to ya but ... most non-nerds DON'T have more than 50 or so albums in their collection.

I find that very hard to believe, sorry. I have no real evidence to back it up, other than the people around me. But I wouldn't classify most of them as nerds, while most of them certainly have quite a bit more music than that.