Major upgrade to the media player

Platform : Windows 2000, Windows XP

Type: freeware

Manufacturer: Apple

Size: 34.9MB

Rating: 5

Verdict: Excellent audio and media player, now with a huge library of music in the iTunes Music Store and the addition of TV, video and movie downloads (US only)

System Requirements:
QuickTime 7.1.3 (included within iTunes installer)

It's been long coming, but this is the major upgrade to iTunes and the iTunes music store. Mainly due to the inclusion of full movie downloads (currently US only) and other improvements.

The popular iTunes has been one of the best audio players on the market. However, its vast music store now gives holders of the video iPod the opportunity to preview and download music videos, TV programmes and now full movies, all at very reasonable prices.

If you want to share your music, iTunes will look for other copies running across a network and you can then listen to other people's music. An Internet radio option is available for broadband users.

Video support comes in the form of an embedded QuickTime player which supports all the video formats that QuickTime supports (AVI, MPEG, Flash etc.). Note that QuickTime 7.1.3 is included within the iTunes installer.

Audio can be encoded in the Apple Lossless format, which lets you import music into iTunes at half the original size with no loss of quality. Podcast support is included so that you can subscribe to podcasts from within iTunes and have them automatically synced to your iPod.

Version 7.0 contains a number of improvements in addition to the provision of full movie downloads (currently US only). You can now flip through your cover CD artwork as if you’re skimming through your CD collection. Better still, if you’ve imported your music from your audio CDs, iTunes 7 now enables you to download cover art, free of charge. The interface has had an overhaul, with different categories and the ability to navigate through your media collection. You’ll also find a graphic view of your iPod contents, so you can see how much space is taken up you’re your video, audio and podcasts.

Note that the Mac OS X version is available to download from the Apple iTunes website.