First Impressions of iTunes 10 and Ping

Apple held its media event this afternoon, and released new iPods, a new Apple TV, and also announced a new version of iTunes, dubbed iTunes 10. My first thought was regarding the version number after the name, as I somewhat expected it to be changed to iTunes X, following the lead of Mac OS X and QuickTime X. QuickTime, of course, jumped from version 7 to version “X”, but the Mac OS made it all the way to version 9.2.2 before being dubbed “X” for version 10. Since SoundJam MP was already a couple of versions in (v2.5.3) when it was purchased by Apple to become iTunes, this is one MP3(!) player that has really gone the distance. Perhaps Apple found that average people get confused by Roman numerals and didn’t want to risk any negative effect?

Taking a gander at what appears to be the new icon for iTunes (upper right image in this post), I noticed that the familiar CD has been removed, with only a round badge adorned with a blue gradient left encircling the beamed pair of eighth notes. Although iTunes will still rip CDs to your computer, it seems as though most people these days are getting their music through online digital music stores, so it makes some sense to remove the CD graphic.

According to a number of sites, Jobs’ words were, “iTunes 10 will be available for download today.” Upon visiting the download site, it becomes apparent that he must have meant “later today”. People in the U.S. are also experiencing this, so it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with being in Canada. Perhaps later this evening it will become available for download.

Update: iTunes 10 is live.

The fact that users can’t connect their Facebook accounts is a big plus in my book, and I am very grateful that Apple isn’t requiring that they be linked. Sure, it may be a hassle to add people manually, but after hearing about Facebook’s “onerous terms” for the deal I’m glad Apple didn’t give in.

Ping itself seems to not “see” the music you have in iTunes that didn’t come from Apple (CD Baby, Jamendo, Amazon, Audio CD, etc.), which is (for me) a major issue that will hopefully be resolved in a software update.