[srb]

"Completely Redesigned.  For your viewing, listening, browsing, and shopping pleasure"
 
Well, kind of.
 
The new iTunes 11 has received a redesign and facelift.  While new features such as the Play Next queue and and a simplified clearer layout are very welcome, there are a few that have been removed that I now miss.
 
1.  No Cover Flow View - That is now gone and while I can certainly live without this one, it was a nice graphical diversion particularly for those with a nice ball bearing scroll wheel!
 
2.  No Artwork Window - This has also disappeared.  There is a the tiny graphic in the display and MiniPlayer that when clicked opens the separate artwork window, but the artwork window that was internal to the main program window is now gone along with the ability to toggle between Currently Playing and Currently Selected.  Sometimes I would have a song within an album that failed to get tagged with artwork and it was convenient to arrow key through the list and see the graphic change (or be missing).
 
3.  No Album Name in Mini Player - The MiniPlayer now only shows the Song and Artist but not the Album.  The only way to see the Album name is to right-click on the mini graphic and and see the Go to "AlbumName" selection in between the Go to "Artist" and Go to "Song" selections or return to the main program window.
 
4.  No Shuffle Mode setting for each Playlist - The previous versions allowed the shuffle mode setting to be independently set and remembered for each playlist, which I found convenient, but now it is a global toggled setting that affects all playlists.
 
By default, the sidebar now only appears when clicking on the Playlists heading, but can be viewed at all times with the Show Sidebar command.  The menu bar and status bar are also hidden by default but can also be enabled with Show Menu Bar and Show Status Bar commands.
 
So while I do like the new design overall, I would really like to see features 2, 3 and 4 returned.
 
Steve

[srb]

On a side note, I have implemented an "iTunes Desktop" with one-click shortcuts with custom icons to a few of my most often used playlists and radio stations.
 

 
Steve
 
 

[dburna]

I just "upgraded" iTunes 11 (I find the new version prettier but a little less functional -- see SRB's comments).  Does anyone know if it is possible to restore the auto-artwork download for newly ripped CDs?  I have figured out how to do it manually via the right-click (it's a slightly more manually intensive, but at least it works), but I can't figure out how to have iTunes import the artwork auto-magically.

Any help would be much appreciated,  -dB

[srb]

Does anyone know if it is possible to restore the auto-artwork download for newly ripped CDs?

The settings checkbox to "Automatically download missing album artwork" is located under Edit > Preferences > Store.  However, after checking the checkbox you must agree to "share details about your library with Apple" to enable it.
 
Steve

[Ern Dog]

The settings checkbox to "Automatically download missing album artwork" is located under Edit > Preferences > Store.  However, after checking the checkbox you must agree to "share details about your library with Apple" to enable it.
 
Steve

I downloaded it yesterday and was feeling cautious and skeptical about sharing the contents of my library with Apple in exchange for the album artwork.

[dburna]

Me, too.  I'm always skeptical about why companies need to have this information and what they will do with it.  If that's the price, from now on I will download my own artwork manually, thank you.

-dB

[ctviggen]

Me, too.  I'm always skeptical about why companies need to have this information and what they will do with it.  If that's the price, from now on I will download my own artwork manually, thank you.

-dB

This is complete, absolute BS.  Why would they do this? What details are they sharing? 

Along the same lines, Microsoft somehow is able to determine whether people are or are not using the new "metro" interface for their windows 8 product.  How are they allowed to do this?  It's total BS.

Then, there's Amazon, which keeps all of your buying history forever.  Google, which searches all of your emails (which is why I delete all of mine). 

When will it stop?

[ctviggen]

"Completely Redesigned.  For your viewing, listening, browsing, and shopping pleasure"
 
Well, kind of.
 
The new iTunes 11 has received a redesign and facelift.  While new features such as the Play Next queue and and a simplified clearer layout are very welcome, there are a few that have been removed that I now miss.
 
1.  No Cover Flow View - That is now gone and while I can certainly live without this one, it was a nice graphical diversion particularly for those with a nice ball bearing scroll wheel!

Is this the iPod's graphic design where the iPod selected the cover of an album, then moved the cover all around?  If so, I HATED that.  Good riddance.

[wilsynet]

Me, too.  I'm always skeptical about why companies need to have this information and what they will do with it.  If that's the price, from now on I will download my own artwork manually, thank you.

I know this may be hard to believe, but there may be a technical reason for this as opposed to some other nefarious, privacy intruding reason.

To download the album art, an efficient way to do this would be to scan your library for missing art, marshall that information as a bundle, and then send that to Apple's servers.  Apple's servers then provide the missing album art to iTunes -- but Apple's servers can't know what to provide without being sent information about what albums for which you are requesting the album art.

It has likely always worked this way, the difference now may be that 1) The record companies are insisting that Apple keep an audit log of the request and 2) Apple's own privacy experts are insisting that a user must explicitly agree to the data being shared as opposed to just doing it in the background without a users knowledge.

[wilsynet]

Along the same lines, Microsoft somehow is able to determine whether people are or are not using the new "metro" interface for their windows 8 product.  How are they allowed to do this?  It's total BS.

Then, there's Amazon, which keeps all of your buying history forever.  Google, which searches all of your emails (which is why I delete all of mine). 

When will it stop?

Microsoft is collecting data about Metro usage so they can improve it.  Google doesn't search through your email so much as it identifies key words in your mail so it can serve ads to you.  You know, so they can fund the Gmail service because Gmail is *free*.  Just like they serve ads to you when you do Internet searches.

Did you know that the telephone company keeps a log of all the calls you make?  And your ISP tracks what IP address you have?  And even though I bought an amplifier from Red Wine Audio 4 years ago, Vinnie still has a record of my purchase after all this time?

Only one answer:  Stop using the phone, stop using the Internet, stop buying things.

[jtwrace]

(which is why I delete all of mine). 

You do realize that just because you delete it and don't see it on your screen that it's still on the server at google.  Right?  This is fact.

If you aren't doing anything illegal, than what's the big deal about any of this?  The average person is on some sort of security cam 50 per day.  Who cares. 

[wilsynet]

Still on the server for roughly 60 days.  But eventually purged.

I think they used to have a vague retention policy, but its more well defined now.

http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=7401

[jtwrace]

Still on the server for roughly 60 days.  But eventually purged.

I think they used to have a vague retention policy, but its more well defined now.

http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=7401

*Please be aware, residual copies of deleted messages and accounts may take up to 60 days to be deleted from our active servers and may remain in our backup systems for an additional period of time.

I promise you that if there is a court order, they will find the emails....it's happned before!  Even recently it's been in the news...

[JohnR]

I know this may be hard to believe, but there may be a technical reason for this as opposed to some other nefarious, privacy intruding reason.

To download the album art, an efficient way to do this would be to scan your library for missing art, marshall that information as a bundle, and then send that to Apple's servers.  Apple's servers then provide the missing album art to iTunes -- but Apple's servers can't know what to provide without being sent information about what albums for which you are requesting the album art.

That may be the efficient way, but it's not a technical reason for why you can't still do it the manual way.

[wilsynet]

I'm sure you can.  Users are free to download or create their own album art; they're even free to not use iTunes at all.