iTunes 11

Today Apple have released the latest version of their music software and it's called iTunes 11. iTunes 10 has been around for a while, since 2010, and although it's undergone some progressive changes it was still very similar in terms of general layout to iTunes 7. New features like iTunes in the cloud often felt like they were added on.

In iTunes 11 the user interface has been completely redesigned. The interface makes better use of your screen real estate. The main view is all your albums represented by their album art and the album name and album artist just below. This is a great view for browsing through your library. If you fancy creating a playlist the interface is far better. You get much more room to see and organise all your playlists as the sidebar which they used to sit in has been hidden. If you miss the sidebar in iTunes 11 just click View > Sidebar, but it's really not needed anymore. If you drag any song/album/artist you can drop it into a playlist. The list of your playlist pops up whenever you drag anything. It's easy to drop onto your iPod, iPhone or iPad in this way too.

The new store lets you listen to 90 second previews whilst browsing around at your next potential purchase. A handy "recently previewed" list is great to keep on top of what you might like to purchase. Having used iTunes 11 for an hour or so I have to say that I'm impressed. The slick new interface makes listening music fun again, especially the "Up Next" feature which allows you to cue tracks to a now playing playlist on the fly, a bit like iTunes DJ in the previous version, but a lot better.

Once you update to iTunes 11 your library gets updated but this was painless enough. Some of the new features require you to share the album details of your library with Apple, but this was an easy decision to make as an iTunes Match subscriber. The new features include showing you galleries of artist's and links to related music.

For the full list of the new features click read more below.

From Apple:

Introducing the new iTunes. With a dramatically simplified player, a completely redesigned Store, and iCloud features you'll love—this is the best iTunes yet.

• Completely Redesigned. iTunes makes it more fun to explore and enjoy your music, movies, and TV shows. You'll love the beautiful edge-to-edge design, custom designs for each album, movie, or TV show in your library, and getting personal recommendations any time you click In the Store.

• A New Store. The iTunes Store has been completely redesigned and now features a clean look that makes it simpler than ever to see what's hot and discover new favorites.

• Play purchases from iCloud. Your music, movie, and TV show purchases in iCloud now appear inside your library. Just sign-in with your Apple ID to see them. Double-click to play them directly from iCloud or download a copy you can sync to a device or play while offline.

• Up Next. It's now simple to see which songs are playing next, all from a single place. Just click the Up Next icon in the center display and they'll instantly appear. You can even reorder, add, or skip songs whenever you like.

• New MiniPlayer. You can now do a whole lot more with a lot less space. In addition to showing what's playing, MiniPlayer now includes album art, adds Up Next, and makes it easy to search for something new to play—all from a smaller and more elegant design.

• Improved search. It's never been easier to find what you're looking for in iTunes. Just type in the search field and you'll instantly see results from across your entire library. Select any result and iTunes takes you right to it.

• Playback syncing. iCloud now remembers your place in a movie or TV show for you. Whenever you play the same movie or episode from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple TV, it will continue right where you left off.