Apple iTunes

Originally SoundJam MP, Apple iTunes is the proprietary media player owned by Apple Inc. and still serves as the default media player for millions of music lovers worldwide. The recent iTunes is the 10th version which even features a 99-cent rental for TV shows and Ping which is a Facebook styled social network for music-oriented people, support for iOS 4.2 (operating system for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad) and streaming support for Apple TV.

Apple iTunes has been squeezed with too many features. Few of them are below:

Visualizations

Good support exists for visualizers and even available through web.

Media management

iTunes manages all song tracks using a virtual library and the users can edit the attributes easily. Though it do not automatically tracks any changes in the actual files and users need to manually edit any library entry if the file/folder has been modified or deleted. However there are several 3rd party add-ons which solves this problem.

Audio Ripping

It provides support for ripping from Audio CDs in a much easy manner.

Support for formats

Apple iTunes supports the following formats for playback and track conversions: MP3, AAC, MPEG-4, WAV AIFF & Apple Lossless audio. It also supports audio files and few video formats which are supported by Quicktime, though a limited support for VORBIS and FLAC is there.

File Tagging

File tagging is supported using ID3v2.2, ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4.

The Genius feature

Using this feature, a playlist is automatically generated from the library of the user based on the selected song. This is done using the rating system and the user must have an iTunes store account as the information is synchronized with the Apple’s database.

Music Library sharing

Music Libraries in iTunes can be easily shared on the local network, however it will only stream the song when played, but not save it to the local disk. This way it even stops unauthorized copying.

Playlists Management

Smart playlist automatically categorizes your music tracks based on a selection criteria specified and this playlist can even be published over the iTunes store, which is called iMix. Shuffling is also possible though the tracks with higher ratings are usually selected first during this.

Enhanced Sound processing

Apple iTunes provides for various sound-enhancement features such as Equalizer, Sound enhancement and cross fading, a volume normalizer called “Sound check”.

Video playback support

Videos can be viewed in a separate window or even full-screen using iTunes. It even provides for purchasing of any video tracks through the iTunes store.

Support for PDF/ePub

Initially the support for ePub was provided however later on, PDF functionality was also added to the app called iBooks.

iTunes Store

iTunes store, now called iTunes Music store is a much renowned place to purchase and download songs from various creators.

Content sharing over iTunes

The service provides for direct viewing of university lectures, demonstrations and tours and distributing them directly.

Pod casting with iTunes

Being a dominant Podcasting client, with Apple iTunes users can easily subscribe to any pod cast using its RSS feed or through the iTunes Music store.