Apple releases iTunes 7.7 : A review

iTunes is Apple’s media player, media organization and sync software. Apple released iTunes 7.7 recently on 10 July, adding support for the iPhone 3G and the iTunes App Store.

This latest version of iTunes is required for the iPhone 3G, Firmware 2.0, App Store and MobileMe.iTunes is available for free download. Get the latest version here:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
(System Requirements: Mac OS X(10.4.7 or later) or Windows
File Size: 48MB)


Whats new ?

The App Store:
iTunes Version 7.7 contains support fo making downloads from the App Store. The app store will have Applications and games for the iPhone and iPod touch. However the highly awaited store has not yet been launched as I write this post. One of the most awaited applications is the all new remote application…

The Remote application:
The iTunes users can utilise the new Remote application for iPhone or iPod touch to control iTunes playback remotely. The iPhone/iPod touch remote application will be available as a free download from the App Store.
According to Apple:

" The new Remote application for iPhone or iPod touch to control iTunes playback from anywhere in your home — a free download from the App Store."

The software is a 50MB download.

iTunes 7.7 support:

iTunes 7.7 is available for Mac and Windows. The iTunes Music Store offers Windows users the same online music store as Mac users, with the same music catalogue, the same personal-use rights, and the same 99-cents-per-song pricing.
However, iTunes runs slower on windows and eats away lots of system resources. However there is no such problem on Mac.

iTunes Store:

The iTunes store has been enormously successful and has gained wide popularity. One can Shop the itunes store for music, TV shows, applications and audio-books. One can also download free podcasts from the iTunes store 24*7.

• Music: it has More than 8 million songs for 99¢ each with music from all five major music companies and more than 600 independent labels.
• Movies: Rent from $2.99, buy from $9.99.
• Music Videos: More than 11,000, from 99¢ each.
• TV shows: Over 20,000 episodes.
• Applications: Hundreds of apps for iPod touch and iPhone.
• Audio-books: More than 35,000 titles.Podcasts: 100,000 and counting. 100% free.
• iPod Games: lots of games at $4.99 each.

Other older Features :

Media management: iTunes keeps track of songs by creating a virtual library, allowing users to access and edit a song's attributes. iTunes supports ripping from CDs.

Library views: three different views for the music library

File format support: iTunes can currently read, write, and convert between MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG-4, AAC and Apple Lossless. The Windows version of iTunes can automatically convert but doesn’t support direct playback of WMA. It is well known to support a large number of ‘audio’ formats for playback.

Sound processing: There is a feature called "Sound Check" which automatically adjusts the playback volume of all songs to the same level.

Video support: iTunes did not come with video support initially. But with each new version, video capabilities are getting further enhanced and it has improved a lot. However, I still prefer VLC player for playing my video files as iTunes is still no match for VLC (click here to view my review of VLC player).

Smart Playlists support: Smart playlists are playlists that can be set to automatically filter the library based on a customized list of selection criteria.

Integrated Audio and video Podcasting support: Apple's iTunes player is also considered the dominant podcatching client. It also lets us manage podcasts on iPod.

Synchronizing with iPod and iPhone the moment it connects, can also sync with Apple TV.
Integration with other applications like iWork and iLife and Garage-band.

iPhone activation: Since the introduction of the original iPhone, users could use iTunes to activate their phone through their mobile carrier. However, a worldwide crash of iTunes’ authentication servers on the day that the iPhone 3G was released has caused major issues.

iMix: It is a user-created playlist published in the iTunes Store. Anyone can create an iMix free of charge.

Internet radio supported

Plugins: iTunes supports visualizer plugins and device plugins.


Finally….
Well since iTunes is easily available for windows, it has become a must have, not only because of the popular Apple tag behind it but also because of so many unique features and audio-format support it provides the user. Apple is expected to also released the 2.0 Firmware and App Store shortly, as well as launching MobileMe. Moreover the iTunes store which guarentees 24*7 entertainment has gained incredible success and all that it has in store is another big attraction towards iTunes.

VLC Media Player : A review

VLC Media player is simply incredible .... I have been using it for more than an year now and it has never let me down ... the best thing is that it plays just about any file format you wish to ... it really does ... even in this pathetic era where everyone is trying to develop a new format of audio/video.

And the other great thing about it is that it is opensource and free to use !!!

The popularity of this player is well reflected by the 89 million downloads {wow !} reported on its website as of now. { The current download rate is 1.1 downloads per second ! }

Presently the latest release is version 0.8.6h. This is a bugfix release.
You can download the player right here right now:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ {9 MB }
or you can have the source code here:
Source-code

The interface of the VLC player appears really simple as compared to some of the other players available i.e. Windows Media Player and Real Player etc. But do not get deceived by its simple looks ... it is compact but highly loaded and fully featured as i shall elaborate below :

Positives :

1. It is a Cross-platform open source media player with a very simple user- friendly interface; The setup file size is small and download and installation is easy and free.
OS supported: Win95/98/98SE/Me/2000/NT/XP/Vista/OS X/linux{various versions}
However in the upcoming versions, the support for older OS will be dropped.
2. Plays most formats : As i said above, a whole lot of formats are available these days and most players play only certain formats and display error messages for the rest. But VLC plays most audio and video foramts. Infact there are so many formats i cant mention them here. So you can get the list on here -
supported formats: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html
Running DVDs of any kind is really easy and the playback quality is very good too. According to a review at sol4.net :
"....It not only plays them with support for menus etc regardless of the drive used for playback....VLC bypasses the drive, ignores the region setting on the disk and retrieves the encryption keys as it plays the title....."
3. Plays incomplete video files too: Well if there is any part of the file which is playable then vlc will play it. I have experienced this a lot. I download lots of TV series from the net and occasionally i have files which are corrupted but still vlc plays a part of it. But when i try to play the same file in other players they completely refuse to play it.
4. Lots of skins : you can modify your vlc and give it a Windows media player look or an OS X look. Download skins here : http://www.videolan.org/vlc/skins.html
5. Other common features include a graphic equaliser, adjustment of video colours and options to take a snapshot of the screen while playing a video and the ability to increase the volume to 400% level { with notable loss in sound quality}. Also, the hotkeys are really helpful once you get used to them. eg. ctrl + up to increase volume upto 400% mark.
Lots of option for the advanced user are available in the preference window but the normal user never needs to disturb those settings.

Negatives :

1. When i run videos in the player and try to simultaneously perform other operations on my computer {why would i do that? :) } then sometimes my CPU gets overloaded and the colour theme of my PC automatically changes to vista-basic theme to save memory...
No i am not using an antique machine but the fact is that CPU overloading has been a problem with earlier versions of VLC and they have not completely sorted out the problem in the latest version as well.

2. The all too simple interface can be a bit problematic initially if you are used to working with some other player which have some features more user friendly than the others like creating playlists. However once you get used to the hotkeys things do get a lot simpler.


SUMMING UP ...
Even if you dont use VLC player as your default media player because of its not-so-inspiring looks, it is still a must for your PC as a fall-back player because of its ability to run a great variety of formats. while i Tunes gives a fair competition when it comes to playing audio files, when it comes to playing video there is hardly a player so diverse as VLC player. And it keeps improving with each version update. The next version 0.9.0 is going to be released soon ...

screenshots: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/screenshots.html

advanced users: http://www.videolan.org/doc/play-howto/en/play-howto-en.html