At WWDC 2019, while Apple announced the new macOS Catalina desktop system, it also announced that iTunes will be split into three applications:music, podcastsavideountil now media player software released in 2001 gradually began to withdraw from the stage of history.
As the music market has shifted from digital music only to streaming music subscription services, the overly bloated features of iTunes have also hindered the development of Apple’s streaming services to some extent.
In macOS, the functionality of managing iOS/iPadOS devices in iTunes is transferred to the macOS Finder. The podcast part was split into a separate podcast app, audiobooks were merged with Apple Books, and the video part was split into a separate video app.
The most essential music part is replaced by a dedicated music program. Of course, Apple still retains the traditional digital content purchase part (iTunes Store), but it needs to go into these spin-off applications to make purchases.
The benefits of splitting are really obvious. On the one hand, the streaming media business can be developed separately, such as support for lossless streaming media and spatial audio in Apple Music, which is completely unimaginable in the age of iTunes; Compared to Atmos, Dolby Vision and other new technologies.
Looking at it today three years later, this split has laid a solid foundation for the development of Apple’s streaming media service.
But on Windows, for various reasons, iTunes is still the only choice for iOS/iPad OS users and even users of Apple’s various streaming media services. For Apple Music users, there is not even a dedicated official Windows client, either continue to use the antiquated iTunes software in the “digital music store era” to listen to streaming music, or use a third-party client – in fact , these first The third-party software is often a shell of the web version of Apple Music, which is still far behind the native client application in terms of experience.
In October 2022, Microsoft officially announced that official Apple clients such as Apple Music and Apple TV will log into the Microsoft Store. On January 12, 2023, Apple will put Apple Music and Apple TV on the Microsoft Store, and the “retirement” of the Windows version of iTunes will officially enter the countdown.
安裝 Apple Music / Apple TV / Apple Device for Windows 11
Although Apple Music / Apple TV / Apple Device is already on the Microsoft Store, Apple also said that the standalone apps currently on the shelves are all “preview versions” The stability of iTunes has been tempered for decades.
If you have requirements for software stability, it is best not to try it lightly; and after installing the above three applications, you will no longer be able to start iTunes – if you want to continue using iTunes, you need to completely remove the above three applications.
In addition, Apple did not put these three apps fully on the Microsoft Store in the whole region, but only on the Microsoft Store in the US region, so we need to open “Settings” in Windows 11, select “Time and Language” – “Language and Region”, select “United States” in “Country or Region”, and then you can easily download it on the Microsoft Store. And currently only supports Windows 11, not Windows 10.
Apple Music for Windows 11 experience: close to “perfect body”
Thanks to the modern system UI design provided by WinUI 3, the interface of Apple Music for Windows 11 fits very well with the system interface of Windows 11, and the design even accommodates Microsoft’s Fluent Design design system itself, which made me think it was Microsoft’s self-official Practical Design.
In fact, from the interface alone, there is not much difference between Apple Music for Windows 11 and the music on macOS. If you have used music on macOS, it should be extremely easy to get started.
Compared to the original menu bar on iTunes, the Windows version of Apple Music puts the menu entry in “···” in the upper left corner, and then clicks “Install” to install Apple Music . In fact, the setting The project is not much different from the music on macOS, divided into “General”, “Playback”, “Limited”, “File” and “Advanced”.
Among them, in “General”, you can enable whether to synchronize the media cabinet, whether to enable automatic downloads, and whether to always check if the download is available. For accounts in regions other than countries, you can also check the iTunes Store in the “Display”, so that even if you don’t subscribe to Apple Music, you can still buy digital music in the iTunes Store – just like buying and download music on iTunes before Same.
In “Playback”, you adjust settings mainly related to playback, such as whether to set the balanced volume, whether to set fade in and fade out, whether to enable lossless music , set streaming and download quality, etc.
If there is video content here, you can also choose playback quality and download quality, etc., but this is a little different from the macOS music program. The Windows version of Apple Music cannot install spatial audio, so Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio are not supported.
The “Restrictions” setting is largely equivalent to the previous “Parental Control” setting items on iTunes; “Files” is to set where the media folder is, whether to keep the music media folder organized, and whether to add to the library is to copy the file to the music media folder. The “advanced” function is mainly to record the usage data and ask if the data should be sent to Apple and so on.
Judging from the use of Apple Music streaming media, the playback and user experience is quite good. The only drawback is that it does not support displaying lyrics like the music program on macOS. This may be officially added in a future version update. item function.
Apple TV for Windows 11 Experience: Barely Useful
Compared to the near perfection of Apple Music for Windows 11, the Apple TV for Windows 11 experience isn’t quite as good. Previously, if you wanted to watch Apple TV on Windows, you could only play it through the browser web page, but the appearance of the official standalone application seems to bring the experience to a higher level.
Like Apple Music, we can also perform a series of settings on Apple TV. The contents of the settings are similar, and the playback quality can basically achieve the same experience as the video app on macOS. The only thing is that it is The cool thing is that it cannot support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos included in self-made plays.
Therefore, in order to get the best viewing effect from Apple TV +, the ideal choice is still the hardware under the current Apple ecosystem.
Apple devices for Windows 11: too raw device management
In addition to the above streaming media services, there is another scenario for using iTunes on Windows: managing iOS / iPadOS devices, such as manually upgrading the iOS / iPadOS system, backing up the device system, managing and synchronizing the media cabinet, etc.
If you want to remove iTunes in the future, you must launch a tool application specifically for controlling iOS / iPadOS, namely Apple Devices, which is launched specially by Apple for Windows.
But once you actually start using it, you will find that Apple Device management functions are actually very simple, although from the interface point of view, it includes system upgrade and device data backup functions in device management, as well as photos simultaneous, music, movies, TV Programs subpages.
But in fact, after clicking each tab, it will prompt that the library is not opened, but when you open the Apple Music or Apple TV application, you will see that these two applications cannot control iOS applications / iPadOS as music or video on macOS For the corresponding content in , the only functions that can be used are device system upgrade and data backup. Obviously, in terms of device resource management functionality alone, the preview version currently on the shelves is far from perfect.
In addition, Apple Devices cannot manage the file data in the application in iOS / iPadOS, so if you have the habit of transferring files to an application in the iOS / iPadOS device via the desktop, Apple Devices cannot on currently satisfy you at all • your usage needs.
epilogue
Although Apple fulfilled its promise, it officially launched a standalone Apple Music/Apple TV program for Windows users, and it is likely to accelerate the process of replacing the Windows version of iTunes.
But whether it comes from the logo of the preview version or the comparison of the final specific functions, it is not difficult for us to find that Apple still has a long way to go in order to say goodbye to iTunes.
Of course, we can still see Apple’s ambitions and ideas in these independent apps, and cross-platform to provide its own services for users of other platforms is also a trend of Apple’s future development. The “post-iTunes” era apps will ” this will also be gradually improved in the future.
This article is from WeChat public account “Minority School” (ID: sspaime), author: chemical tone 2, editor: waychane, 36 krypton authorized to publish.
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