Via our news submit GristyMcFisty reports us that Yahoo! News has posted a brief review on Apple's recently launched Windows version of the iTunes music download software. In the review we can read that the installation of the software is easy and downloading and/or buying a song via the iTunes music store is very simple to do. Here's part of the review:
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The navigation scheme is carried to the iTunes Music Store, which is always easily accessible and charges 99 cents per track or $ 9.95 or more per album. Like the original Mac iTunes, Apple has enabled one-click buying. But because of licensing arrangements with the recording industry, the online store is available only in the United States.
Also impressive is iTunes' implementation of Apple's networking technology. With iTunes running on my networked Mac, and iTunes running on my networked Windows PC, both versions instantly recognized each other's music libraries so songs downloaded to one computer could be heard on the other.
Apple also has partnered with Audible.com and offers 5,000 audiobooks for sale. For $ 15.95, I purchased Walter Isaacson's recent biography of Benjamin Franklin. The process was as painless as buying a song. With the audiobook deal, Apple is offering something that competitors such as Napster 2.0 and Musicmatch lack. On the music side, the new Napster claims it will have 100,000 more songs than Apple promises at the end of the month. ITunes also offers free features that rival jukebox programs '” including Musicmatch, Windows Media Player and Napster 2.0 '” either charge extra for or can't do at all.
For instance, Windows Media Player can't encode a CD into MP3 format without an upgrade. Musicmatch allows CD burning and ripping but forces users to upgrade in order to do it at the full speed of their CD drive. And Napster 2.0 doesn't handle ripping at all; you need a separate program to transfer songs from a CD to a computer.
A pre-release version of Napster did have a better radio service that identified tracks and made it possible to skip ahead to the next song. Then again, the Napster radio service costs $ 9.95 a month for a premium membership. And Napster doesn't have an option to automatically synch with its player, the Samsung YP-910GS, or automatically generate play lists based on the number of times a song has been heard or how it's been rated. I was impressed with the Napster music store's full-song streaming '” but that's also part of the premium membership. ITunes, like the free version of the new Napster, only plays 30 second previews of songs before they're purchased. One thing iTunes can't do is play or encode songs in Microsoft's secure Windows Media Audio format, which is becoming the de facto standard for competing online music stores. Apple is sticking with the secure Advanced Audio Coding, the native format for its music store, and its Windows and Mac software also support the popular MP3 format. Though quality is very good under those formats, Apple's decision not to support WMA could limit future platform switching. Apple says its songs won't disappear. But they can't be played if you decide to dump iTunes and switch to Musicmatch or Napster. |
If you've followed the news lately you might have noticed that Apple is having a lot of success with their iTunes music downloading service. Their first Mac version was welcomed and served millions of downloads within weeks of its launch. It remains to be seen if the Windows version will be as successful as the Mac version since there is quite a lot of competition at the moment from various companies.
Source: Yahoo! News
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