Tag Archives: 9

iTunes 9 Review – A definite improvement

As most of you will already know, the Apple conference on the 9th of September brought a lot of news to iPod users. As well as the new iPod Nano and “new” iPod Touch (I can’t say it’s new, all they’ve done is made a bigger size), Apple also released the new iTunes 9. Sadly I wasn’t able to get it right away as I’m going through small problems with internet bandwidth, which also explains why I haven’t been able to post reviews on the new iPod Touch/iPhone firmware yet – don’t worry I will get round to it as soon as I get my unlimited bandwidth back which, as far as I know, should be next week.

Anyway, as for the new iTunes, I am surprised to say that I’m actually very impressed with the new release. The new features aren’t ground breaking, but the new performance upgrades have finally arrived.

The new iTunes packs new features such as Home Sharing, which allows you to share your music between other computers in your home, and a brand new redesigned iTunes Store. Both of which work very well. I haven’t checked out the Home Sharing yet but from what I’ve read online it looks very good. The new iTunes Store is certainly very tidy and works very efficiently and I much prefer it over the previous version.

But I’m happiest about the much smoother performance. The load-up time has improved dramatically and actually browsing through the application is much more speedy.

What used to be a misery is now much easier to use and much less time consuming. I still don’t think iTunes is brilliant, but the new version has definitely made syncing my iPod much less of a chore.

Well done Apple, this is a big improvement.

If you’d like to download the new version, open up iTunes and click Check for Updates in the Help menu. Otherwise, you can head over to apple.com and download a copy from there for free.

Have you tried Windows Live Messenger 9 Beta?

Recently I was told Microsoft has launched a public beta for WLM 9. So I decided to check it out and see what had changed.

And as far as I am aware, Microsoft has generally concentrated on the interface (at long last) and has made some massive improvements.

Here are some of my favourites:

  • You can now post links on your personal message.
  • You can now add a theme to your conversation windows specific to you.
  • You can now make a custom sound that people hear when you sign in.
  • The What’s New footer shows what people have recently done on their accounts.
  • You can now sign in on multiple computers without affecting users (this feature can be disallowed if preferred)
  • You can now edit your personal message whilst what you are listening to is showing.

If you haven’t tried it yet, download the beta at http://download.live.com/messenger