Is iTunes 9 Worth the Upgrade?

Just because I think Macs are a colossal waste of money doesn't mean I wasn't paying close attention to yesterday's Apple announcements--because I pretty much worship everything else this company makes. My iPod, an original video model (I guess it's an "iPod Classic" now), is still going strong after its fourth birthday, and I'll be buying an iPhone the instant AT&T extends or lets go of their exclusivity (just in case Verizon joins the party and saves me the trouble of switching networks).

Steve Jobs announced a video camera for the 5th-generation iPod nano and a software update for the iPhone 3GS, but my focus was definitely on the new features of iTunes 9:

Genius Mixes

I wish I could provide some first-hand knowledge of the Genius upgrade, but unfortunately it freezes my laptop for 10-20 minutes every time I try to turn it on. Granted, my dilapidated Dell is a bit of a laughingstock around the Savings.com office, but I was hoping this version of iTunes would be a little friendlier to older low-end machines. But hey, at least they got rid of the glitch where the entire program freezes for 30 seconds when you switch artists in Cover Flow mode! I was about to make an effigy of iTunes 8 for that. But I digress--the most common complaint about these new Genius Mixes is that the mixes themselves aren't visible or accessible. Hopefully a patch will change this.

Home Sharing

When I saw this headline I couldn't believe it. Could Apple have finally negotiated a worthwhile way to circumvent the omnipresent, impassible steel curtain of DRM? The short answer is no, because there's a huge catch. Yes, you can now physically copy your iTunes files to other computers on your network--but they need to be hooked up to the same iTunes Store account. I suppose this is cool if you use multiple computers, but if you want to share music with friends, co-workers, or even people you live with, you're out of luck, so bust out that external hard drive and do it the old-fashioned way.

iTunes LPs and iTunes Extras

If you're willing to drop several more dollars on a digital album, iTunes now includes all kinds of bonus content to make it worth your while. These LPs feature special custom display modes, live show recordings, photo albums, and have lyrics built into the filetags, which Gizmodo thinks "serve as a sort of modern-day liner notes." And if you used to lament the absence of DVD extras from movies you bought on iTunes, you'll be happy to know that they'll now come with the same kind of content in down-loadable form. All these incentives almost make me wish I acquired my media library legally!

Feel free to share your thoughts/comments/critiques on the new iTunes below!