Installation was simple and we upgraded a number of Macs in the office without having a single problem. Is iTunes 8 worth upgrading to? We think so. The only other changes we could find were that under the hood, Apple has silently removed the ability to hide the iTunes Store arrows in the track lists, as well as the Genre column in Browser mode: this was previously possible through Preferences, but not any more. The final new feature worth a mention is that HD movies are now available through the iTunes Store, whereas previously you had to own an Apple TV to order and download them. The only drawback is it shows up just how many of your albums have missing artwork, and you're going to have to spend ages tracking it all down if you want your music library to look nice. It's visually very similar to the way events are shown in iPhoto '08.
ITunes's 3D Cover Flow was always more of an eye-candy feature than anything genuinely useful, but the new Grid View in iTunes 8 is both beautiful and practical. In theory, the situation should improve as more user data is uploaded to Apple, but we certainly found many tracks in our music collection that Genius couldn't deal with.
However, because Genius works by knowing what songs go well together based on other people's tastes, you'll find that it simply doesn't work on the more obscure music tracks in your collection. While Playlist recommendation software isn't an original idea, and there are many plug-in programs for iTunes that do essentially the same job, having it integrated within iTunes itself means it's a more natural fit, and won't keep breaking every time Apple updates its software. If you like the Genius playlist it suggests then you can save it, or click Refresh for a different selection. To help make its selections, Apple is relying on the vast army of iTunes users whose data it has already sampled. It's a great way to rediscover songs you'd forgotten you own. Simply play a song, click the Genius button and iTunes will create a playlist out of songs that it thinks would go well with your chosen song. It has a second string to its bow – you can also set Genius to use its recommendation technology to create playlists out of the songs you already have in your iTunes library. If that was all there was to Genius then we'd be justifiably underwhelmed at the blatant consumerism, but While this 'Amazon Recommends'-style hard sell might sound alarming to some, it's easy to turn the Genius Sidebar off should you find it too annoying, or the recommendations simply too tempting. All the tracks recommended can be previewed and bought directly from the Genius Sidebar meaning you don't have to load up the bloated iTunes Store, which is a relief, but we still found having to wait for all the links to load slightly effected the smooth running of the program.
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