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iTunes 4.5 best features are unannounced

The Slashdot: Apple Releases Major iTunes Update discussion includes the following gems (unattributed, because I'm lazy):

Lastly, and this is a feature of the entire music library, not just playlists or Party Shuffle, the same "arrow" icons that show up in the iTMS when you search for a song are present in iTunes. This means you can click an arrow for a song name, album, or artist and it will launch a search on iTMS. But say you don't like that feature? Well you can of course turn it off in preferences, but you may also hodl down "option" and click it. The result? it searches only YOUR library, not the iTMS.

You can now use other playlists as criteria for a Smart Playlist. Create one playlist that is a combination of several other playlists.

Posted by Adam on April 28, 2004 3:12 PM |

Comments

I'm using Doug's Applescripts (http://www.malcolmadams.com/itunes/itinfo/itunes45info.php) to sync my iPod with my iTunes so I can publish my "Two Week Window" playlist. There is also great info over there about the hidden features and how you can unlock them with applescript.

Posted by: david | April 28, 2004 6:22 PM

I, too, have made a couple of iMix lists. What script do you use to sync from your iPod to your iTunes? Beats, Grooves, and Beats, and Pre-Grunge WHFS, which may not be strictly accurately named.

Posted by: sudama | April 29, 2004 10:26 AM

Playfair no longer works on your files once you download this version. If you were contemplating de-DRMing your collection of ITMS files, do it BEFORE you upgrade. After you upgrade the new version rolls through your library and re-encodes all your files to be Playfair2 DRM-ed. Files stripped of PlayFair DRM before upgrading play fine after.

Just FYI.

Posted by: Anonymous | April 29, 2004 10:51 AM

Wow: it's possible to reverse the behavior of the new arrows throughout iTunes so that they filter your library rather than jumping to the music store by default. Powazek: Out of Tune.

Posted by: sudama | April 29, 2004 11:30 AM

I don't think iTunes 4.5 does anything to your files; I think with the update, Apple has probably hidden the fairplay key a bit better than it was before. I expect that the Quicktime 6.5.1 update has something to do with making it more difficult to defeat fairplay as well.

Posted by: sudama | April 29, 2004 11:54 AM

That great tip is from Sven, via Derek Powazek. For those of you without the developer tools:

The file is: /Users/whoeveryouare/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist

and the text to add is:

<key>invertStoreLinks</key>

<true/>

Posted by: david | April 29, 2004 12:39 PM

Here's a script that will flip the action of the link arrows:

Flip Arrow Link Action

Posted by: Doug Adams | May 5, 2004 7:38 AM

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