Although Apple’s vast array of iTunes Store content is now consumed and accessed predominantly through mobile devices, the iTunes app is still an integral part of the entire infrastructure. It saw some drastic changes with version 10, which has since been fine tuned into a more functional version 11, and today, iTunes 11.1.1 has been released for both Windows and Mac. Aside from a few bug fixes, there really isn’t all that much else to write home about, but it’s certainly good to see Apple pushing the remedial update now, rather than merely waiting for a more noteworthy release to bundle it into.
It goes without saying that, if you’re running an earlier version of iTunes, you should go ahead and grab this latest update. Although iTunes 11 isn’t as fledgling as, say, iOS 7, it is still a piece of software that is constantly being updated and improved, so minor issues and kinks will crop up from time to time.
Obviously, the main event was the recent release of iTunes 11.1, which brought, among other things, iTunes Radio to the fold. Having been announced back at this year’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June, the feature places great emphasis on the growing interest in new music discovery, and with many streaming services already offering various different ways for consumers to enjoy their favorite tracks, Apple’s sheer catalog alone should stand iTunes Radio in very good stead.
With iTunes 11.1 only having been released just over two weeks ago alongside iOS 7 final, this was never going to be more than an incremental update, but nevertheless, it’s still worth checking out if you run iTunes on a Windows PC or an OS X powered Mac.
Having got stuck into iTunes 11 on both of the major desktop platforms, I have to admit that I’ve been impressed by some of the new features, and the general functionality feels a little more user friendly. Content is as easy to locate and consume as it has ever been, and although, iTunes being iTunes, it does feel rather bloated and heavy, it’s still a marked improvement on iTunes 10.
You can grab the newly-released version by firing up the Software Update utility on your PC or Mac, or pasting Apple.com/iTunes into your browser.
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