Comments on: iTunes 8.1 "Coming Soon": Faster, More Genius-y, Rip to iTunes Plus

By: Ravenscar

Ravenscar — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:50:10 +0000

iTunes Killer: http://www.mediajukebox.com/

By: Ravenscar

Ravenscar — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:47:52 +0000

I've got 8.1 and I have turned all bs off, and it's still a slug, too much bloatware, safari sucks too. iTunes is installing and pinging all the time, drives me crazy. No offense, but apple is rotting. It's no fun at all. I used to love everything from apple, but now i turn and never return.

By: Rene Ritchie

Rene Ritchie — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:54:01 +0000

Stop making fun of the size of my shuffle! Fixed, thanks all!

By: ramasaurus

ramasaurus — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:18:15 +0000

Its not an 8GB shuffle, its a 4GB one. Please correct it. Thanks !

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:47:31 +0000

There are a number of things you can do to improve iTunes' initial load time.

In Store:

Select "Turn Off Genius" if not needed

In Edit/Preferences:

Sharing: uncheck "Look for shared libraries" if not needed
Apple TV: uncheck "Look for Apple TVs" if not needed
Devices: uncheck "Look for remote speakers connected with Air Tunes" if not needed
Devices: uncheck "Look for iPhone and iPod touch Remotes" if not needed.

I did all but the last item, as I use my iPhone and the Remote app, and my iTunes 8.1 initial load time is now about 4 seconds.

Machine specs:

Intel C2D E6600 @ 3GHz WD Raptor 74GB HD 2GB DDR2-800

-phil

By: rpv

rpv — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:20:11 +0000

Is out! downloaded, installed, no problems!

By: sting7k

sting7k — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:06:19 +0000

@icebike, you know that has always been what I thought was wrong with the iTunes store when ever it lags or hangs for no reason. I just never put it together, it responds to the back/forward buttons on my mouse and behaves like a browser.

One of my friend's got a new Dell Studio XPS about a month ago with an Intel Core i7 processor and 8GB of RAM. The thing is so fast it boggles the mind, high end games can be played at the highest settings with everything turned all the way up. Yet iTunes still hangs and can be sluggish at times, takes nearly 10 seconds to launch I would say. Other programs (including the Zune software) open nearly instantly after your mouse click.

By: icebike

icebike — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:02:39 +0000

@Sting7k:

I’m just wondering if Apple is gonna force Safari 4 on me now as well.

My bet is yes, because iTunes embeds much of Safari into anything to do with the Itunes store. In fact, I would imagine any speed improvements in iTunes are solely due to Safari fixes, with perhaps the sync issue that caused ridiculous multi-hour syncs being fixed as well.

Itunes takes over 10 seconds to launch on my Quad processor high end HP workstation with 4gig main memory. Its the slowest application I have on this box.

Any speed up will be appreciated.

By: zeagus

zeagus — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:57:39 +0000

Firefox 3.1 will have the speeded up java engine as well, so hang in there. A late breaking bug has held it up for another round of beta.

By: sting7k

sting7k — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:52:09 +0000

@iphone 3G, no I do use Firefox as my main browser. But the last time Windows iTunes users had to "upgrade" iTunes there was a nice surprise, Safari 3 was also installed on my computer without my consent. I'm just wondering if Apple is gonna force Safari 4 on me now as well.

By: iPhone 3G

iPhone 3G — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:40:53 +0000

@sting7k

you use safari??? firefox all the way

By: firesign

firesign — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:34:21 +0000

i already rip at 320 kbps aac. you've been able to customize rip settings in itunes for ages. but yeah, speed improvements for itunes for windows would be very welcome. and as far as safari 4, so far i love it on the mac. in windows, not so much with the love. i don't know why you'd want safari in windows anyway.

By: zeagus

zeagus — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:20:03 +0000

8gb? Seeing into the future, sir?

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:08:51 +0000

I also noticed the latest update for the iPhone app, Remote has some mention of 8.1.

By: Mart

Mart — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:05:04 +0000

Speed improvements for the win!

And at every update I keep hoping for the ability to rate my songs directly on the Apple TV (just like I can do on my iPod)... Didn't happen in the last ATV update and I realize iTunes 8.1 won't help me with that...

By: rpv

rpv — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:49:52 +0000

perhaps an iphone firmware coming along, Google Location, Volume control on Apple's headphones support are long overdue....

By: Rene Ritchie

Rene Ritchie — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:39:18 +0000

I'm really digging Safari 4 right now. Might move to it full time. FAST!

By: Manuel R. Ciosici

Manuel R. Ciosici — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:38:34 +0000

iTunes on Windows runs very slow, so speed improvements are welcome.

By: sting7k

sting7k — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:20:14 +0000

Well speed improvements had better be right, right now iTunes is the only thing that causes my laptop to grind to a halt for several seconds. And browsing the store sometimes is so sluggish you would think I was using dial-up.

Only question is will this update also force Safari 4 onto my computer?