[X4U] New iTunes 5 - cool skin dude!

[eleventhvolume]

> But what's really compelling in this new version of iTunes?  I'm
> asking, seriously, to evaluate whether I should upgrade or not.
Here's my reaction, copied from my blog:

First post:
First impressions? Window dressing rather than anything like properly
rethinking the interface in light of the vastly increased demands made upon
it (the ability to add folders in the sidebar seems something of a cop-out,
at least on first impressions - though if they start enabling folders in the
sidebar of iPhoto I'll be a happy man. At least for a moment or two anyway).
(...) alternatives based upon the existing OSX interface, though Coverflow
does a gorgeous sidestep to this way of proceeding. There's still loads of
wasted space in iTunes 5, the cd cover window remains an afterthought. The
search does seem to finally work satisfactorily (I could never work out why
it didn't before, reminded me very much of searching Windows and never
getting anything back). iTunes 5? More like iTunes 4.95.

Second post:
I stick to my view that it's lacking a proper rethink, but there are a
couple of fascinating (but ultimately frustrating) changes to the new
version that are accessible via 'get info'. It's possible to tick a box to
'remember playback position' which means returning to that track starts play
from where you stopped. Great. Secondly there's a tab on this dialogue box
called 'lyrics'. It's possible to add any text to the box and much more text
is allowed here than in the 'comments' box. This improvement presents the
opportunity to add the names and instruments of players, something that
should have been there from the start. So what's the frustration? It's only
possible to do this one track at a time. If more than one track or an album
or an artist is selected neither of the aforementioned options are
available, thus making the functionality effectively useless.

Cheers, Colin.