iTunes 8 includes Genius feature, high def TV programs, more
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Sep 9, 2008 at 9:37am
Apple today announced iTunes 8, the next major release of its music and video player for Macs and PCs which is integrated with the iTunes Store. iTunes 8 includes the new Genius feature, which lets you automatically create playlists from songs in your music library that go together.
During his “Let’s Rock” presentation in San Francisco, Apple CEO Steve Jobs says that Genius helps music fans rediscover favorite songs in their existing music library and suggests related music on the iTunes Store they might want to add to their music collection. iTunes 8 features new ways of viewing your music and video libraries, and adds television programs in stunning high definition for sale on the iTunes Store.
To use the Genius feature, select any song, click the Genius button, and iTunes instantly creates a playlist of songs that go great together from your own library, according to Apple. You can preview the playlist Genius creates, refresh the list to choose different songs and save Genius playlists to enjoy again later. You can even create Genius Playlists on-the-go with the new iPod classic, iPod touch, iPod nano and iPhone. The Genius sidebar appears right in iTunes and recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don’t already have, based on the songs you select.
When you turn on iTunes 8’s new Genius feature, information about your music library is anonymously sent to the iTunes Store, where it’s combined with the anonymously-gathered knowledge from millions of other iTunes users and processed through Apple-developed algorithms. The Genius results, specifically tailored to your personal music library, are sent back to your computer to enable users to automatically create Genius playlists in iTunes and on your iPods, even when they’re not connected to the Internet.
iTunes 8’s new visual browsing interface displays your music and video libraries using your album and video covers, and also provides a way to navigate your movies, TV shows, iPhone apps, podcasts and audiobooks.
iTunes 8 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download. Purchase and download of songs and videos from the iTunes Store requires a valid credit card from a financial institution in the country of purchase. Video availability varies by country.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 10,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
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