MW Tokyo - Keynote Bright Spot: iTunes Updated

by , 7:00 AM EST, February 22nd, 2001

Perhaps the best bit of news to come from last night's underwhelming keynote speech was that iTunes, Apple's music player/organizer/burner, has been updated to version 1.1. While there does not seem to be an changes to the iTunes program itself, it does now support more than 25 third-party CD-RW drives, including many of the most popular models. According to Apple:

Apple today announced iTunes 1.1, an update to its popular iTunes music software, which includes support for more than 25 third-party CD burners from popular vendors such as Iomega, La Cie, QPS and Sony. Since its debut at Macworld San Francisco last month, iTunes has been downloaded more than 750,000 times.

Exclusively for the Mac, iTunes lets users import songs from their favorite CDs; compress them into the popular MP3 format and store them on their computer's hard drive; organize their music using powerful yet easy to use searching, browsing and play list features; listen to hundreds of Internet radio stations; and watch stunning visualizations on the computer screen.

Users can create custom music CDs on Apple's new line of iMacs with CD-RW drives, the new Power Mac G4 Cube line with CD-RW drives and the Power Mac G4 line with CD-RW or combination CD-RW/DVD-R SuperDrives, or by using any of the third-party CD burners listed on www.apple.com/itunes.

iTunes is available for free. You can find more information at the Apple Web site.

The Mac Observer Spin:

While picking through the rubble of Jobs' keynote, we did find one nugget of good news; the update to iTunes. While iTunes has taken some heat for not being a feature complete MP3 player (i.e. no equalizer) no one can deny that the simplicity of the program is highly appealing. Now that support has been added for a gaggle of third party drives, iTunes will become even more popular.

Leave it to Apple...iMovie, and now iTunes, have been huge hits. When the cost of the SuperDrive decreases enough to shoehorn one into a mid-range machine, iDVD is likely to have the same impact.

Apple