   #copyright

ITunes

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Engineering

          The correct title of this article is iTunes. The initial letter
          is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.

   iTunes
   iTunes 7 icon
   iTunes 7 under Mac OS X
     Developer:    Apple Computer
   Latest release: 7.0.2 / October 31, 2006
         OS:       Mac OS X, Windows 2000 and Windows XP
        Use:       Media player
      License:     Proprietary
      Website:     apple.com/itunes

   iTunes is a digital media player application, introduced by Apple
   Computer on January 10, 2001 at MacWorld Expo in San Francisco, for
   playing and organizing digital music and video files. The program is
   also an interface to manage the contents on Apple's popular iPod
   digital media players. Additionally, iTunes can connect to the iTunes
   Store (formerly known as the iTunes Music Store, or iTMS) in order to
   download purchased digital music, music videos, television shows, iPod
   games and feature length films. iTunes has gained and maintained a
   reputation for being easy to use while still providing many features
   for obtaining, organizing, and playing media. The program is available
   for free as a download off of the Apple website, bundled with all Mac
   computers and some iPods, and supplied with Mac OS X. It is also
   offered as part of Apple's iLife suite of multimedia applications.

   iTunes, unlike other programs in the iLife suite, is supported on
   computers running on Mac OS X and Windows 2000 or greater. Apple has
   also developed a version which runs on mobile phones such as the
   Motorola ROKR, Motorola RAZR and Motorola SLVR (although as of October
   2006 this version hasn't been updated to play songs purchased with
   iTunes 7.0). The program was initially developed on Mac OS 9, but
   support for the classic Mac OS was discontinued with the release of
   iTunes 3. There has been some success running iTunes under Crossover
   Office on Linux, which is a Wine variant.

   iTunes originally had a brushed metal interface, but version 5.0
   introduced a new, thinner interface commonly referred to as "plastic",
   "light metal" (as opposed to the heavier "Brushed Metal"), and "dark
   unified" (based on the Unified look from Mac OS X v10.4, but darker).

Features

   Users are able to organize their music into playlists, edit file
   information, record compact discs, copy files to a digital audio
   player, purchase music and videos through its built-in music store,
   download podcasts, back up songs onto a CD or DVD, run a visualizer to
   display graphical effects in time to the music, and encode music into a
   number of different audio formats.

Playlists

   In addition to static playlist support, iTunes supports 'Smart
   playlists'. Smart playlists are playlists that can be set to
   automatically update (live updating), (like a database query) based on
   a customized list of selection criteria. Different criteria can be
   entered to control many aspects of the playlist.

   Playlists can be played randomly or sequentially. The "randomness" of
   the shuffle algorithm can be biased for or against playing multiple
   tracks from the same album or artists in sequence (a new feature in
   iTunes 5.0). Party Shuffle can also be biased towards selecting tracks
   with a higher star rating. With this bias enabled, each star rating
   increases the preference for that particular song about 4% over that of
   a one-star-less rated song. Unrated songs are the least likely to be
   played. Inter-star ratings are stored by iTunes, but only affect this
   feature in the range of zero to one star.

   The Party Shuffle playlist is intended as a simple DJing aid. By
   default, it selects tracks randomly from other playlists or the
   library; users can override the automatic selections by deleting tracks
   (iTunes will choose new ones to replace them) or by adding their own
   via drag-and-drop or contextual menu. This allows a mixture of both
   preselected and random tracks in the same meta-playlist. The playlist
   Party Shuffle draws from can be changed on the fly; this will cause all
   randomly chosen tracks to disappear and be replaced.

Music library

   iTunes keeps track of songs by creating a virtual library, allowing
   users to access and edit a song's attributes. These attributes, known
   as metadata, are stored in two library files.

   The first is a binary file called iTunes Library (iTunes x Music
   Library in previous versions) that uses its own music library format.
   This both caches information such as artist and genre from the audio
   format's tag capabilities (for example the ID3 tag), and stores iTunes
   specific information such as play count and rating. This is the only
   one of the two files which iTunes reads.

   The second file, called iTunes Music Library.xml, is refreshed whenever
   information in iTunes is changed. It uses an XML format, allowing
   developers to easily write applications that can access the library
   information (including play count, last played date, and rating, which
   are not standard fields in the ID3v2.3 format). Apple's own iDVD,
   iMovie, and iPhoto, and Freshly Squeezed Software's Rock Star are
   examples of applications that access the library.

   For MP3 files, iTunes writes tags in Unicode ID3v2.2 by default, but
   converting them to ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4 is possible via its "Advanced" >
   "Convert ID3 Tags" toolbar menu. If both ID3v2.x and ID3v1.x tags are
   in a file, iTunes ignores the ID3v1.x tags. AAC and Apple Lossless
   files support Unicode metadata, but it is not stored as ID3 tags.

Printing

   To compensate for the lack of a physical CD, iTunes can print
   custom-made jewel case inserts as well as song lists and album lists.
   After burning a CD from a playlist, one can select that playlist and,
   by clicking File > Print, bring up a dialogue box with several print
   options. The user can choose to print either a single album cover (for
   purchased iTunes albums) or a compilation cover (for user-created
   playlists). iTunes then automatically sets up a template with art on
   one side and track titles on the other.

iMix

   An iMix is a user-created playlist published in the iTunes Store.
   iMixes were first introduced in iTunes version 4.5. Anyone can create
   an iMix free of charge. iMixes are limited to 100 songs and support
   both music downloaded from the music store as well as music that has
   been imported from CDs (provided it is available on the iTunes Store).
   iMixes are public and searchable by any iTunes user. Users may also
   rate any iMix using a five-star system. iMixes are active for one year
   from their original published date. Users can publish their iTunes iMix
   to their blog, profile page or website.

Internet radio

   iTunes 1.0 came with support for the Kerbango Internet radio tuner
   service, giving iTunes users a selection of some of the more popular
   online radio streams available. When Kerbango went out of business in
   2001, Apple created its own Web radio service for use with iTunes 2.0
   and later. As of February 2006, the iTunes radio service features
   around 300-400 distinct "radio stations" (with a total of over 700
   streams, allowing for multiple bit rates), mostly in MP3 streaming
   format. Programming covers many genres of music and talk, including
   streams from online staples such as Radio Paradise, radioio,
   RauteMusik, Digitally Imported, Flashback Alternatives, and SomaFM as
   well as terrestrial stations such as KKJZ, WFMU, WMVY, and WRCT. iTunes
   also supports the .pls and .m3u stream file formats used by Winamp,
   enabling iTunes to access almost any stream using that format.

   Apple no longer promotes the Internet radio feature, and no mention of
   it appears on the iTunes website. However, it remains in the QuickTime
   7.0.4 & iTunes EULA used by iTunes 6.0.5.20.

File format support

   iTunes 7 can currently read, write, and convert between MP3, AIFF, WAV,
   Ogg Vorbis, MPEG-4, AAC, and Apple Lossless.

   Conversion is done by changing the import format in 'preferences >
   advanced > import using...' dialog box. Once you change this setting to
   the file format you need, you can convert file formats under the
   'advanced > convert to...' dialog box.

   It can also play anything QuickTime can play (even some video formats),
   including Protected AAC files from the iTunes Store and Audible.com
   audio books. In order to play other formats such as the Ogg-contained
   Vorbis or Speex codecs, iTunes requires the Xiph QuickTime Components
   to be installed. iTunes currently will not play back HE-AAC/aacPlus
   audio streams correctly. HE-AAC/aacPlus format files will play back as
   22 kHz AAC files (effectively having no high end over 11 kHz).

   There has been some criticism of the quality of Apple's MP3 encoder,
   with regards to variable bit rate encoding. In a January 2004
   double-blind public listening test of six MP3 encoders encoding at 128
   kbit/s, conducted by Roberto Amorim, the iTunes MP3 VBR encoder came
   last. The author has later acknowledged that there were serious issues
   with how iTunes was tested.

   The Windows version of iTunes can automatically convert unprotected WMA
   (including version 9) files to other audio formats, but it does not
   support direct playback or encoding of WMA format.

Sound processing

   iTunes includes sound processing features, such as equalization and
   "sound enhancement" ("sound improvement" in some languages). There is
   also a feature called "Sound Check" which automatically adjusts the
   playback volume of all songs to the same level. Like "sound
   enhancement", this can be turned on in the 'Playback' section of
   iTunes' preferences.

Music sharing

   iTunes Library songs can be shared over a local network using the
   closed, proprietary Digital Audio Access Protocol (DAAP), created by
   Apple for this purpose. DAAP relies on the Bonjour network service
   discovery framework – Apple's implementation of the Zeroconf open
   network standard. The DAAP specification has not been published by
   Apple, but the protocol has been reverse-engineered and is now used to
   stream playlists from non-Apple software (mainly on the Linux
   platform).

   DAAP allows shared lists of songs within the same subnet to be
   automatically detected. When a song is shared, iTunes can stream the
   song but won't save it on the local hard drive, in order to prevent
   unauthorized copying. Songs in Protected AAC format can also be
   accessed but authentication is required. A maximum of five users may
   connect to a single user every 24 hours.

   Originally with iTunes 4.0, users could freely access shared music
   anywhere over the Internet, in addition to one's own subnet, by
   specifying IP addresses of remote shared song libraries. Apple quickly
   removed this feature with version 4.0.1, claiming that users were
   violating the End User License Agreement.

Video

   On May 9, 2005, video support was introduced to iTunes with the release
   of iTunes 4.8. Users can drag and drop movie clips from the computer
   into the iTunes Library for cataloging and organization. They can be
   viewed in a small frame in the main iTunes display, in a separate
   window, or fullscreen. Before version 7 provided separate libraries for
   media types, videos were only distinguished from audio in the Library
   by a small icon resembling a TV screen and grouped with music in the
   library, organized by the same musical categories (such as "album" and
   "composer"). iTunes relies on Quicktime and is therefore incompatible
   with some common video formats, including WMV.

   On October 12, 2005, Apple introduced iTunes 6.0, which added support
   for purchasing and viewing of video content from the iTunes Music
   Store. The iTunes Music Store initially offered a selection of several
   thousand Music Videos and five TV shows including most notably the ABC
   network's Lost and Desperate Housewives. Disney channels shows were
   also offered ( The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and That's So Raven) 24
   hours after airing as well as episode packs from past seasons; since
   that time, the collection has expanded with content from numerous
   television networks. The iTunes Music Store also gives the ability to
   view Apple's large collection of movie trailers.

   As of September 12, 2006, the newly-renamed iTunes Store offers over
   200 television shows for download, including, most recently, additions
   from Discovery Channel, Comedy Central, MTV, and FOX. Additionally, a
   catalog of 75 feature-length movies from Disney-owned studios was
   introduced.

   As of October 2006, movies and TV shows are only available to U.S.
   customers, with the only video content available to non-U.S. customers
   being music videos and Pixar's short films.

   Video content available from the store used to be encoded as 540 kbit/s
   Protected MPEG-4 video ( H.264) with an approximately 128 kbit/s AAC
   audio track. Many videos and video podcasts currently require the
   latest version of Quicktime, Quicktime 7, which is incompatible with
   older versions of MacOS (only v10.3.9 and later are supported).
   Starting September 12, 2006, the resolution of video content sold on
   the iTunes Store was increased from 320x240 ( QVGA) to 640x480 ( VGA).
   The higher resolution video content is encoded as 1.5 Mbit/s Protected
   MPEG-4 video ( H.264) with an approximately 128 kbit/s AAC audio track.

Plugins

   iTunes supports visualizer plugins and device plugins. Visualizer
   plugins allow developers to create music-driven visual displays (iTunes
   includes a default visualizer, G-Force, licensed from SoundSpectrum).
   The visualizer plug-in software development kits for Mac and Windows
   can be downloaded for free from Apple. Device plugins allow support for
   additional music player devices, but Apple will only license the APIs
   to bona fide OEMs who sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Podcasting

   Version 4.9 of iTunes, released on June 28, 2005, added built-in
   support for podcasting. It allows users to subscribe to podcasts in the
   iTunes Music Store or by entering the RSS feed URL. Once subscribed,
   the podcast will be downloaded automatically. Users can choose to
   update podcasts weekly, daily, hourly, or manually.

   Users can select podcasts to listen to from the Podcast Directory, to
   which anyone can submit their podcast for placement. In this directory,
   Apple maintains four "official" podcasts: Podfinder (with Adam Curry),
   Street Official Real Talk (interviews with hip-hop artists), iTunes New
   Music Tuesday, and Apple Quarterly Earnings Call. The front page of the
   directory also displays high-profile podcasts from commercial
   broadcasters and independent podcasters. It also allows users to browse
   the podcasts by category or popularity.

   The addition of podcasting functionality to a mainstream audio
   application like iTunes greatly helped bring podcasting to a much wider
   audience. Within days after iTunes 4.9 was released, podcasters were
   reporting that the number of downloads of their audio files had
   tripled, sometimes even quadrupled.

Video podcasting

   Version 6 of iTunes introduced official support for video podcasting,
   although video and RSS support was already unofficially there in
   version 4.9. Users can subscribe to RSS feeds through the iTunes Music
   Store or by entering the feed URL. Video podcasts can contain
   downloadable video files (in MOV, MP4, M4V, or MPG format), but also
   streaming sources and even IPTV. Downloadable files can be synchronized
   to a video-capable iPod, and both downloadable files and streams can be
   shown in Apple's new Front Row Media Centre application.

Synchronizing iPod and other players

   iTunes can automatically synchronize its music and video library with
   an iPod every time it is connected. (The OS X version of iTunes can
   also synchronize with a number of other digital music players; the
   Windows version will only support the iPod.) New songs and playlists
   are automatically copied to the iPod and songs that have been deleted
   from the library on the computer are also deleted from the iPod.
   Ratings awarded to songs on the iPod will sync back to the iTunes
   library and audiobooks will remember the current playback position.

   Automatic synchronization can be turned off in favour of manually
   copying individual songs or complete playlists; however, iTunes
   supports only copying music to the iPod but not from it, which has
   inspired third party software for the latter purpose. It is also
   possible to copy from the iPod using ordinary Unix command line tools,
   or by simply enabling the "show hidden files and folders" option under
   "folder options", then copying music from the iPod drive to a local
   disk for backup.

   When an iPod is connected that does not contain enough free space to
   sync the entire iTunes music library, a playlist will be created and
   given a name matching that of the connected iPod. This playlist can
   then be modified to the user's preference in song selection to fill the
   available space.

   iTunes supports a number of other popular portable music players with
   some limitations, most notably the inability to play music purchased
   from the iTunes Music Store. Supported players include a number of
   NOMAD players from Creative Labs, some players from Rio Audio and
   Archos, and the Nakamichi SoundSpace 2 device. Other manufacturers may
   also offer integration by way of a device plugin. A number of third
   party programs have been created to help a user of iTunes to
   synchronize songs with any music player that can be mounted as an
   external drive.

   Though iTunes is the only official method for synchronizing with the
   iPod, there are other programs available that allow the iPod to sync
   with other software players.

   As of iTunes 7 purchased music can be copied from the iPod onto the
   computer. The computer must be authorized by that iTunes account.
   iTunes currently allows up to 5 computers to be authorized on one
   account. It does not allow you to transfer imported music files between
   computers. This may be necessary to back songs up, transfer songs to a
   new computer, or restore music after a disk failure using an iPod as
   the backup source. A number of shareware or freeware applications exist
   that complement iTunes.

iTunes Store

   Version 4 of iTunes introduced the iTunes Music Store from which iTunes
   users can buy and download songs for use on a limited number of
   computers and an unlimited number of iPods. Songs purchased from the
   iTunes Store are copy protected with Apple's FairPlay digital rights
   management (DRM) system. As of February 22, 2006, over 1 billion songs
   have been downloaded since the service first launched on April 28,
   2003.

   Those who use an operating system other than Mac OS X or Microsoft
   Windows such as Linux cannot use music purchased from the iTunes Store,
   since a Linux version of iTunes is not available. This has resulted in
   the development of a number of alternative player software as well as
   published hacks or workarounds that allow customers of the iTunes Store
   to use the audio software or operating system software of their choice.
   The most notable of these hacks is PyMusique, which Apple has made
   several unsuccessful attempts at blocking. Software such as Hymn and
   SoundTaxi have also been developed that decrypt purchased music, to
   allow it to be played or shared on other programs. However, this
   software is illegal in some countries.

   iPod owners in U.S. markets are taken to a one-time page within the
   iTunes Store when first connecting it to their computer. This page
   currently offers a free album sampler from Lava and Atlantic Records
   where either the whole album or individual tracks can be downloaded. An
   album sampler from Universal Records was previously available and may
   still be accessed via a special link on the web.

   There are currently iTunes Stores available in the United States,
   United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece,
   Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Canada,
   Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, and Australia.

   In 2006, a controversy erupted about a French draft law aimed at
   reinforcing the protection of works of art against "piracy", or illegal
   copying; some clauses of the law could possibly be used to request
   Apple to provide information about its FairPlay system to manufacturers
   of competitor players.

   The MiniStore feature was added in iTunes version 6.0.2. It adds a
   small window to the bottom of the main window, which can be turned on
   or off. When the user selects an item in their library, information
   about that particular item is sent to the iTunes Store, and the
   MiniStore shows related songs or videos. Initially, the MiniStore
   caused controversy because people feared it could be used as spyware.
   Apple clarified that the MiniStore didn't collect any information from
   users and later made it opt-in.

   iTunes version 7 integrated "Cover Flow" technology, which allowed
   shoppers to view for album art through a 3D rollover interface.
   Originally created by steelskies.com for Mac OS X, the company was
   acquired by Apple Computer in 2006.

   On September 12, 2006, the Store began offering movie and game
   downloads. To reflect the changes and to emphasize it as more than just
   an online music store, the iTunes Music Store was renamed as the iTunes
   Store. Apple announced on the same day that iTunes had become the first
   digital music store to be in the top 5 sellers of music in the U.S. It
   is currently in 5th place.

Gracenote

   iTunes uses the Gracenote interactive audio CD database to provide
   track name listings for audio CDs. The service activates automatically
   when a CD is inserted into the computer while the iTunes application is
   open and an Internet connection is available. Track names for albums
   imported to iTunes while not connected to the Internet can be obtained
   later when connected, by a manual procedure. For any album loaded into
   iTunes for which there is not an existing Gracenote track listing, the
   user can choose to submit track name data to Gracenote.

Integration with other applications

   On the Macintosh, iTunes is tightly integrated with Apple's iWork suite
   of applications and the rest of the applications in iLife. These
   applications can access the iTunes Library directly, allowing access to
   the playlists and songs stored within (including encrypted music
   purchased from the iTunes Music Store). Music files from iTunes can be
   embedded directly into Pages documents and can supply the score for
   iDVD, iMovie and Keynote productions. iTunes is also integrated with
   Front Row (Front Row reads its info from iTunes and iPhoto). In
   addition, any song exported from GarageBand, Apple's music-making
   program, is automatically added to the user's iTunes music library.
   iTunes' Artwork.saver is a screen saver included in Mac OS 10.4 that
   displays album artwork as a screen saver. iTunes.widget is a Dashboard
   Widget that controls iTunes. The development of Senuti for Mac OS X
   allows iTunes to be integrated so the iPod and iTunes can transfer
   songs to each other. Moreover, iTunes can be scripted, using
   AppleScript for Mac OS X or using the Apple-provided SDK for iTunes on
   Windows via Visual Basic, JavaScript, or C.

Recent version history

   iTunes was developed from SoundJam MP, a popular commercial MP3
   application distributed by the Macintosh software company Casady &
   Greene. Apple purchased the rights to the SoundJam MP software and
   hired the three programmers who created SoundJam. The first release of
   iTunes was very similar to SoundJam MP with the addition of CD burning
   and a makeover of the user interface as well as removal of SoundJam's
   recording ability and capacity of using skins. Apple has added a number
   of significant features in subsequent versions of iTunes.
     * 5.0 — September 7, 2005
          + Refined look (more compact)
          + 'LCD' display at top now displays artist and song together
          + Ability to group playlists in folders
          + Search now has Search Bar for refining search results. It
            duplicates the Spotlight bar in Mac OS X 10.4 Finder:
               o Search all music, audiobooks, podcasts, and videos, etc.
               o Search all artists, albums, and songs
          + Automatically sync calendars and contacts with Microsoft
            Outlook and Outlook Express (contacts only)
          + Smart shuffle (with adjustable 'randomness')
          + Support for the playback and creation of Variable Bitrate AAC
            files
          + Parental Controls to limit children's access to podcasts, the
            iTunes Music Store, and sharing features
          + Lyrics tab in track info box
          + Each song has the option to remember playback position and to
            skip it in shuffle mode
     * 5.0.1 — September 20, 2005
          + Bug fixes
          + Bonjour for Windows removed from installer bundle after DNS
            conflict problems
     * 6.0 — October 12, 2005
          + "Videos" added to Sources list
          + Supports purchase of video content through the iTunes Music
            Store
          + Can transfer video files to fifth-generation iPods
          + By purchasing music with 6.0 and further versions, iTunes
            Music Store account is upgraded, blocking the Hymn DRM removal
            utility
     * 6.0.1 — October 20, 2005
          + Bug fixes
     * 6.0.2 — January 10, 2006
          + Bug fixes
          + MiniStore in library (mini view of related products in itunes
            store)
          + Convert Home Movies to iPod compatible files in iTunes
          + AirTunes Enhancement to allow three separate audio streams
     * 6.0.3 — February 15, 2006
          + Bug fixes
          + Performance Improvements
     * 6.0.4 — March 1, 2006
          + Addresses stability and performance issues related to Front
            Row
     * 6.0.4.2 - March 3, 2006
          + Fixes problems that some users have with playlists only in
            version 6.0.4
     * 6.0.5 - June 29, 2006
          + Adds Support for syncing Nike+iPod workout data to
            nikeplus.com, to easily track progress, set training goals,
            and challenge others. New Nike Sport Music area on the iTunes
            Music Store to download workout mixes, Athlete Inspiration
            playlists, Nike podcasts.

     * 7.0 - September 12, 2006
          + Support for Movies downloaded from iTunes Store
               o Higher Video Resolutions (640x480)
          + Selectable User Interfaces and track listings
               o Cover Flow view for album art
               o Download Manager
               o Missing Album Art available for download from iTunes
                 Store
               o Improved full screen video playback with onscreen
                 controls
               o iPod Manager (iPod Updater is now built-in instead of
                 being separate software)
          + Updated user interface
          + Improved Ratings and Parental Controls
          + Multiple Libraries and Library Backup commands
          + Gapless playback
          + Transfer of purchased content from iPod to computer
          + iPod Games
          + Improved Search
          + New data fields: "Album Artist", "Skip Count", and "Last
            Skipped"
     * 7.0.1 - September 27, 2006
          + Stability and performance improvements with Cover Flow, CD
            importing, iPod syncing, and more.
          + Resolved some compatibility issues with the Remote Desktop
            Protocol
          + Resolved compatibility with Windows Live Messenger and
            Computer Calls on PC's
     * 7.0.2 - October 31, 2006
          + Added support for 2nd generation iPod shuffle.
          + Fixed various stability and performance issues found in iTunes
            7 and 7.0.1

Interface screenshots

   iTunes 1 Mac OS 9

                       iTunes 1 Mac OS X

                                        iTunes 2 Mac OS 9

                                                          iTunes 2 Mac OS X

   iTunes 3 Mac OS X

                       iTunes 4 Mac

                                        iTunes 4.7 Windows

                                                          iTunes 5 Mac

   iTunes 6 Mac

                       iTunes 6 Windows

                                        iTunes 7 Mac OS X

                                                          iTunes 7 Windows

   iTunes 7.0.2 Windows

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
