September 4th, 2008
Leaked in iTunes 8.0: Genius
It may have gotten lost in the end of yesterday’s particularly long-winded fortune teller piece, but the Oracle of Cupertino, ahem Kevin Rose, posted a pretty convincing-looking snippit of a document proclaiming to be “What’s new in iTunes 8.”
It goes like this:
iTunes 8 includes Genius, which makes playlists from songs in your library that go great together. Genius also includes Genius sidebar, which recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don’t already have.
With iTunes 8, browse your artists and albums visually with the new Grid view; download your favorite TV shows in HD quality from the iTunes Store; sync your media with iPod nano (4th generation), iPod classic (2nd generation), and iPod touch (2nd generation); and enjoy a stunning new music visualizer.
If true, the Genius feature is a brilliant idea by Apple to capitalize on the popularity of music recommendation services like Pandora and Last.fm. What makes it different is that Genius is rumored to recommend music from your existing iTunes library, potentially re-introducing you to music you haven’t heard in a while, or possibly, never at all. Where it gets good for Apple (and its shareholders) is that the Genius service will also recommend music from the iTunes Store in hopes that you’ll buy it.
I’m not sure what to make of the grid view thought, it sounds kinda like that funky start page in Google Chrome. Last, and arguably most interesting for TV junkies, is the addition of High-Definition (HD) television programs, which were previously only available in Standard Definition (SD).
And let’s not forget about the rumored new visualizers. It’s about time Apple did something with them frankly.
(Image credit: MacRumors forum member swinneyn)
