December 17, 2012
Good news with the holidays rapidly approaching. You can now send both gift amounts and individual gift items directly from iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch (iOS 6 or later required). To gift any amount from $10 to $100 (which you can schedule for delivery for up to a year in advance) scroll down to the bottom of the main page in the iTunes and App stores and iBookstore, tap Send Gift, then pick a theme (holiday, birthday, and so on) as well as an amount. You can now also give friends and family individual albums, movies, TV episodes or seasons, music videos, and apps. To give individual items, navigate to the item in the store and tap it, then tap the Share button on the upper right and tap Gift. You can schedule delivery for individual items for up to 90 days in advance.
December 10, 2012
In iTunes 11, we squeezed more features into an even smaller MiniPlayer than ever before. Now not only can you play your music without taking up much space on your screen, but you can also see, add to, subtract from, and change the playlist order whenever you want, all without going back to the main window. The MiniPlayer displays the graphic for whatever is playing plus access to the controls for seeing and adding to the playlist (and yes you can drag items within the playlist to rearrange them). And if you hover over it you'll discover the standard back-pause-forward audio controls plus an AirPlay icon. Explore. Enjoy. It's like having a little DJ hanging around unobtrusively, always ready to respond to your mood.
December 3, 2012
iTunes has been completely redesigned to make it easier than ever to browse and organize all that entertains you. You can now use the whole window for each section of your library--music, movies, TV shows, and so on--by selecting among them with the pop-up control on the upper left and then using the menus across the top to focus in as desired. When you're viewing your library, clicking an album cover or poster produces a view of its contents in place and lets you even drill down further to see related content on the store, all without losing your overall view of where you are. And, as appropriate, the view will automatically switch to the best format for that material -- Artist, for instance, produces a graphical artist column on the left and the contents for the currently selected artist on the right, while Songs and Playlists each switch to a text list view that makes it easier to manage them. When you connect one of your devices to your computer, it will appear under the Devices button on the upper right, and if you select and open it you'll find a much better and easier to use view of the content on the device. The Library/iTunes Store switch in the upper right lets you move directly between your library and the store. For more details, watch a short video of all of these features and more.
