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September 6, 2007

itunes

iTunes 7.4: what is it good for?

Posted Sep. 6, ’07, 8:17 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | iTunes

iTunes 7.4As updates to iTunes go, 7.4 whelms in an underly sort of fashion. The marquee feature might be ringtones, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find any in the iTunes Store or your personal collection, as Apple hasn’t rolled them out yet. You can always turn on the Ringtone column in the Music Store (right-click on the column headers and check off Ringtone), but you won’t see any little bell icons for your auditory amusement.

Ringtones aren’t the only new functionality in 7.4. Apple’s also revised iTunes’s video playing capabilities, thank heavens. If you choose to play video back inside the iTunes window, it will now blackout the entire window to show you a video, instead of just playing in the postage-stamp sized frame in the bottom left. Smart money’s still on viewing in a separate window or in QuickTime, if you ask me, but some will appreciate it, no doubt.

And for those Ratings fiends among you—and I know you exist—, iTunes 7.4 lets you not just rate individual tracks, but albums as well. You can either do that by switching to the “grouped” view (the middle view button), or by enabling the Album Rating column (right click on any column header. And this is kind of cool: if you’ve rated individual tracks on an album, it looks like iTunes will actually calculate the album rating for you, based on those ratings (you can override it, if you feel like it).

Finally, 7.4 brings one last improvement for those who’ve spent a little too much time with their volumes cranked to the max. The new version of iTunes now supports displaying closed captioning on video, where available. Go to Preferences -> Playback and check off “Show closed captioning when available.” At last! Movies I can read. My librarian (and hard of hearing) parents will approve.


5 Comments

Jeff Author Profile Page said:

What's it good for? Not much if you don't watch movies or want to buy overpriced ringtones.

September 6, 2007 9:08 AM
Michael Long Author Profile Page said:

IIRC they also changed the iPhone music playlist sync window, as my playlists now show up under the folders in which they're placed in the sidebar.

September 6, 2007 9:23 AM
Kate Marshall Author Profile Page said:

"The new version of iTunes now supports displaying closed captioning on video, where available."

Hurrah!

September 6, 2007 9:38 AM
Sahil said:

Wow, the verbosity is ridiculous. Was this post meant to be self-deprecating? Keep up the great work, but chill with the thesaurus.

September 6, 2007 10:51 AM
sdk said:

"If you choose to play video back inside the iTunes window, it will now blackout the entire window to show you a video, instead of just playing in the postage-stamp sized frame in the bottom left."

Y'know... If you click on the frame that's playing the movie, it shows up in a new, resizeable window.

September 6, 2007 11:46 AM

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