iTunes gets cloudy with 10.5 update

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 12 October 2011 07:16

Your IT - Home IT

 

Apple has paved the way for tomorrow's debut of iCloud and iOS 5 with the release of iTunes 10.5. The Windows version also addresses multiple security vulnerabilities.

 

With iCloud and iOS 5 due for release tomorrow followed by the iPhone 4S on Friday, Apple has pushed out a new version of iTunes to support new features of those products and services.

 

The headline feature of iTunes 10.5 is support for iTunes in the Cloud, a change to the iTunes Store that make purchased music and TV shows available to the customer's devices providing they have an Internet connection. It also allows purchases to be redownloaded at a later date, though there is no guarantee of the indefinite availability of any item.

iTunes 10.5 also supports syncing with iOS 5 devices, and provides automatic synchronisation with an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch whenever the device and the computer running iTunes are on the same Wi-Fi network.

The previously announced iTunes Match feature has yet to be implemented. This extra-cost aspect of iCloud scans songs in an iTunes library, and those that are available from iTunes are made available to the owner's other devices at 256Kbps AAC, regardless of the quality of the copy in the library. Any tracks that aren't available from iTunes are uploaded to iCloud.

iTunes in the Cloud works with up to 10 devices using the same Apple ID. iTunes Match is a US-only service, at least initially, and costs $US24.99 per year.

iTunes 10.5 requires Mac OS X 105 or later, or Windows XP SP2 or later. It is available from Apple's web site, or through Software Update (Apple Software Update on Windows).

The Windows version includes an extensive list of security fixes that either do not affect Mac OS X or that have been addressed previously. One of the issues (in WebKit) was reported in 2010.