Yesterday’s Apple Music event has come and gone and with little to celebrate (maybe Jobs’ triumphant return) in my opinion. The oft-rumored iPod camera was introduced into the 5th Generation Nano which was disappointing. Most observers, including myself thought a Touch model would be the first non-iPhone model to receive a camera. Intriguing enough, the Nano’s camera will not support captured stills, only video. To me it was all a bit underwhelming.
Along with the resdesigned Nano, 64 GB iPod Touch model, and handsome iPod Touch price drops, Apple released iTunes 9 yesterday. Although there has been much written about it already – iTunes 9: Everything You Need to Know, and TUAW posts on iTunes 9, I think two new features which might prove useful to Mac mini owners are worth showcasing:
- Home Sharing – This new feature finally opens up some of the DRM walled-garden imposed by Apple at the request of the content producers. It allows you to transfer media (music, movies, TV shows, applications) from one of the Macs in your local network to up to 5 other authorized computers in your home network essentially creating a shared library. This has been a much-requested feature and now is available for all to use in iTunes 9.
- New “Watched Folder” to Automatically Add New Music to Library - Another frequently requested function is the ability to have downloaded music tracks or any other music on your system automatically be imported into your iTunes Library. Normally you would have to drag-and-drop the actual files into your Library to import them but now you simply throw them (or download them to) a folder named Automatically Add to iTunes in your iTunes Music folder and voila…they will “automagically” appear in your Library! This is a fine addition for those users constantly adding new media (maybe via legal downloads) to have the import process automated.
Are there any other features you don’t think you could live without in Tunes 9? By the way, where is the BluRay support?
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