iTunes 11 has been completely redesigned from the ground up. Development of iTunes has been stagnant the last few years so Apple needs to get this one right. Has Apple nailed it or is the new iTunes a mess? Read on to find out.

Features

iCloud integration has also been tightened. Every track you've bought in iTunes will now show up in your music library, whether or not it has been downloaded. Click on it to download the album. User can now also stream directly from the cloud instead of having to download the track first. This also applies to all your TV and movies that were purchased in iTunes. There's also a dedicated tab for iTunes Match, Apple's music matching service to make all of your tracks available across devices, if they're available in the iTunes store.

The iTunes store has also gone through a redesign with featured content up top. Top lists are still there and are easier to browse. iTunes 11 will also allow you to access the iTunes store content from your music library, suggesting similar artists and tracks, without having to take you to the iTunes store.

Usability

New in iTunes 11 is the "Up Next" feature, which is basically a fancy name for your queue. Add songs to your queue from wherever you are in the interface. You don't need to manage a playlist to arrange and rearrange the tracks to your liking.

Creating playlists is much improved. Instead of having to jump in and out a playlist to add and arrange tracks, playlists now have a dedicated pane on the right where you can manipulate tracks without having to jump around the program.

The mini player has also been completely redesigned and is actually useful now. The mini player has gotten smaller but utilizes that small space much better than previous versions. Player controls will show up with you hover your mouse over the mini player. There's access to search and your Up Next queue can be manipulated from the mini player.

Devices now show up as a button at the top right. Clicking on it will take you to a detailed page where you can manage everything. Choose what you want synced, manage your apps, and even play music directly from your iOS device. Everything is easier to read and comprehend in the device tab.

Quality

Conclusion

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Initial setup of MyTunesRSS involves setting up a server using the IP address of the computer that contains your music. Once connected, the user interface is like a stripped down version of iTunes showing you your tracks and categories such as the 25 most played, best rated and most recently added. You can browse your whole library by album, artist or genre, plus you can access your playlists or create new ones.

To play tracks, you can either download them or play them directly in MyTunesRSS. If they will play in Flash format, you can play them directly in the MyTunesRSS player but anything that won't play in Flash will require a plugin. Alternatively, you can download an entire playlist in M3U or XSPF format and play them in any application that can play them such as iTunes or VLC Player. If you're a Last.fm user, it can even continue to scrobble your tracks as they play.

There's even a theme creator in MyTunesRSS to give your own touch to the app's interface but this requires knowledge of how to use the remote API, which isn't particularly easy if you're a beginner to XPI. The main downside of MyTunesRSS is the fact that it's written in Java and as a result, it can run rather sluggishly. Note that in addition, this trial is limited for a period of 30 days.

MyTunesRSS is a simple but powerful program that can help you access your tunes over a network or wherever you are in the world as long as you have a decent internet connection.

Download MyTunesRSS 4.1.3 in Softonic

Would you like to sing along to your favorite bands without making a fool of yourself because you don't know the lyrics? LyricsFetcher can help you with that.

This application scans your iTunes or Windows Media Player music library and searches the Web for the lyrics to all your songs. It has an incredibly high success rate, with songs from different styles and in different languages.

All you have to do is launch LyricsFetcher and let it scan your music. The initial setup might take a while, depending on the size of your library, but once all your songs are loaded in LyricsFetcher, adding new ones is just a question of using the File > Reload utility.

LyricsFetcher is very fast in finding lyrics, and though you can't really see which databases the program uses, in our tests all lyrics seemed accurate. And in case it doesn't work for a specific song, the program includes a "Search" button that lets you manually search for those lyrics. Once found, all lyrics are automatically added to the file's tags without any extra user intervention.

LyricsFetcher is probably the fastest and easiest way to get the lyrics to all your favorite songs.

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Do you have iTunes? Do you have an iPod? I guess you don’t have an iPod, otherwise you probably wouldn’t be reading this. I have iTunes, I don’t have an iPod, but I wanted to be able to sync my MP3 player with iTunes, regardless of what brand it was… and so iTunes Sync was born.

In just a few easy steps you can synchronize any iTunes playlist with any MP3 player that shows up as a drive letter in Windows. You can use either a standard playlist or a dynamically updating smart playlist to synchronize your MP3 Player. It's as simple as 3 easy steps:

• Setup a playlist in iTunes that you want to sync to your MP3 player
• Configure your MP3 player in iTunes Sync by giving it a name, selecting an “identification file or folder” and selecting a playlist from iTunes
• Now just click Synchronize and watch the magic happen!

You can configure as many different MP3 players as you need and synchronize each one with the different iTunes' playlists. Amazing! Magic! Technology!

Download iTunes Sync 1.5.1 in Softonic

com audiobooks). Setup is incredibly easy, and the simple Apple Remote and elegant user interface are a snap to use. Want to enjoy more funny videos on your Apple TV?

Apple TV Video Converter is what you need. It provides a helpful service for users of the Apple TV. Owning it, you can transfer all regular video formats to Apple TV, like AVI, MPEG, MOV, WMV, MP4, 3GP, MKV, FLV, RM, VOB, DivX, XviD, etc.

The video output quality is superb and conversion process is high speed. Moreover, Apple TV Video Converter packs more editing features into an attractive interface, such as video cut, movie crop and video effects adjustment.

With Apple TV Video Converter, the digital media is no longer trapped on your computer. Transfer your video collection to Apple TV, and enjoy the brand-new digital entertainment life in your living room.

Apple TV video converter gives you access to an easy-to-navigate world of entertainment! Support regular audio video inputAVI, MPEG, MOV, WMV, MP4, 3GP, MKV, RM, FLV, VOB, DivX, XviD, etc.

Video Audio output Apple TV H. 264, MPEG-4, iPhone iPod H. 264, MPEG-4, MP3, M4A, WAV Support Batch ConversionConvert multiple video files at one time, making your conversion much easier.

Crop and Customize Video Frame SizeYou can customize video frame size according to the scale of cropped video. Video CutEnable you cut unwanted video segment, only remain your favorite video episode.

Apply EffectsApply effects like brightness, contrast, saturation, grey, emboss, and old film. Support video aspect ratios such as 16:9, 4:3 and full screen.

Download iOrgsoft Apple TV Video Converter 3.3.8 in Softonic

WhiteCap works with most media players out there, including the more popular iTunes, Windows Media Player or Winamp. The free version has a few limitations but you can still choose from a number of wave shapes and backgrounds. You'll only have one color scheme to work with though. From the settings menu you can adjust frame rate width and height and sound response scale.

If you pay for the Gold or Platinum versions of the program, you'll be able to save up to five presets.

Apart from the setup menu, which is really easy to use, I was well impressed by the effects themselves. The morphing wire frame effects really flow and manage to capture the essence and rhythm of different tracks really well.

Although the free version has its limitations, WhiteCap is an impressive visualizer for iTunes. Kick back and enjoy!

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IM Lock controls and blocks access to Instant Messaging and peer to peer services that put your family at risk from internet hazards. Blocks all popular services: MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, AIM, Skype, eMule, iTunes, and many more.

Also controls web browsing. IM Lock is continually updated to detect and block new programs as they are released. Easy setup and administration.

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Turbo Service Manager is a tool that allows you to easily change your Windows services.

This is not a task manager, as services are simply executions that are set up to happen without the user's intervention. One example is Windows Update, which runs automatically. If you would like to see which operations are happening like this, Turbo Services Manager allows this and more.

Services can be grouped however you wish to view them, by clicking the headers, just like you would in iTunes. Where Turbo Services Manager is very different to iTunes is that you can damage Windows quite easily by stopping the wrong process. Do not make changes to Windows Services unless you know what you're doing! For users that do understand services well, this is a neat and fast way to stop things, or experiment a little with setups.

With its neat and intuitive interface, Turbo Service Manager almost makes changing Windows Services too easy. This makes it a useful addition to the expert Windows user's utility armory.

Download Turbo Service Manager 1.1 in Softonic

SpeedyiTunes is an accelerator for iTunes. The program simply installs an icon in your task bar and claims to download iTunes music and videos up to 10 times quicker. In reality, you might find it's less than half of this although it depends on your broadband setup.

It includes speeded-up connections to shared bookstores, Podcast subscriptions and probably the most useful feature - radio streams. In fact, this was the best feature by far in that radio streams seem to be much more reliable and quicker with SppedyiTunes. The problem is however is that you never know whether it is genuinely speeding up the connections or its your own connection that fluctuating (known as bandwidth flapping.

However, if you are not satisfied with the speed of iTunes, SpeedyiTunes could be the solution you've been looking for - or at least - make your connections to the radio more stable.

Download SpeedyiTunes 2.6.0.88 in Softonic

Desk Hedron is another attempt at enlarging cramped desktop real estate by giving you up to nine depsktops you can rotate between.

This is just an EXE file, so there's no need to install it. This gives it the advantage of being small and quick to use, but also partly explains why it's so simple. Double clicking the .EXE file will plant a while rectangle in the system tray, and when clicked, your desktop will shrink back, and using the cursor keys or mouse wheel you can rotate to a new clean desktop.

Right clicking the rectangle allows you to add more desktops. You can open whatever you want on any desktop, though when you change desktops processes don't stop. If you have iTunes playing, you'll continues to hear it even if you're on a different desktop.

The graphical effect when changing desktops is attractive without being intrusive - flicking between desktops is quick and smooth. Unfortunately Desk Hedron doesn't support multi-monitor setups, and unlike Apple's Spaces, you can't pre-assign certain applications to specific desktops.

Despite lacking options, Desk Hedron is a lightweight program that can help clear up your cluttered monitor.

Download DeskHedron 1.0 in Softonic

Free WMA MP3 Converter transforms annoying WMA audio files to Mp3 format so you can play them in iTunes. You’ll appreciate how easy it is to search for WMA files, select the bitrate, one of the 3 sample rates available and start converting. The whole process is fairly quick and is presented to you in a little pop up window, which can be minimized to tray. The tag editor is where you can add information such as title, artist or genre. You can batch convert as many files as you want. Once the operation is complete you can check file size and duration of the file and make sure the conversion has been successful.

The majority of audio file converters support all audio file types and can convert to dozens of audio formats in a large range of bitrates and sample rates. Free WMA MP3 Converter is only useful for one type of conversion. This program is great if you have loads of music files in the Windows Media format and are looking for a quick way of converting them to the more common MP3 format. If you’re looking for a versatile audio converter however you should turn to Xilisoft Audio Converter, Switch Free or AudioConvert. And Free WMA MP3 Converter only works one way, so if you’re looking to turn MP3s into WMA, check out Free MP3 WMA Converter.

Download Free WMA to MP3 Converter 1.16 in Softonic

DOT.TUNES allows you share your iTunes music securely with friends, family and clients across the internet.

Publish any number of Artists, Albums, Playlists or even your entire iTunes Music Library with 1-Click, then listen to your music via your web browser, Sony PSP or web enabled phone. You can even stream your tracks to your website or MySpace page with our custom flash player.

Why pay to podcast when you can publish your own radio shows, TV programs or music mixes directly to your loyal fans? DOT.TUNES liberates you from the middleman, allowing automatic distribution of your audio and video creations to iTunes users with one-click podcasting. Invite your audience to your server and keep them in the groove.

DOT.TUNES is also the perfect remote control for your home iTunes/AirTunes setup. Use any computer, PDA even a web enabled mobile phone as a remote control for iTunes. Choose what song will play from across the room, another room or even from outside. Free yourself from the range-limitations of bluetooth & IR remotes.

Download DOT-TUNES 3.0b1 in Softonic

IMterrupt controls and blocks access to Instant Messaging and peer to peer services that waste time and compromise computer security. Free trial version available - sets up in less than a minute. Blocks all popular services: MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, AIM, Skype, eMule, iTunes, and many more. Also controls web browsing. IMterrupt is continually updated to detect and block new programs as they are released. Easy setup and admin.

Features:

• Keep your employees and students focused on their work
• Protect your organization against inappropriate web use
• Protect your computers against virus threats
• Prevent illegal downloading
• Save your network bandwidth
• Get Control!

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This Internet radio player tries hard to please but proves too problematic to warrant praise. Maybe you can use this if you want a station search engine.

I downloaded and installed this nifty sounding tool with high hopes but from the word go things were obviously going to be a struggle. Trying to search for some music I liked, I was presented with zero results. So I tried a search for music I don't like, which again landed me with a dreaded duck egg result. So I had a look at the program webpage and saw that I wasn't alone with this problem. Actually there was a separate setup file that I had to download to fix this problem, which kindly offered to install loads of adware on my computer. I declined.

This time I managed to get a list of very similar looking radio stations, but on scrolling through them the song now playing told me that they were in fact individual stations. A strange and not very practical feature became apparent when trying to play stations. Hit the "Tune In" button and up pops my copy of iTunes to duly take care of streaming of channel!!

What's more, the now playing display is rarely right so it should be taken more as a general guide as to the type of music you are likely to hear.

A major feature of this program is the recorder, but unfortunately it don’t live up to its elaborate name: "Super Duper Fluper Recorder". During a two minute recording of a single track the software created nine separate files.

BOOMBox Internet Radio Player is a very promising idea but the execution of that idea is very rough around the edges, to say the least. I can recommend it as a radio station search engine but as a player and recorder it doesn't make the grade.

Download BOOMBox Internet Radio Player 1.0 in Softonic