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Unless you’re not a total geek then you weren’t following the Macrumors.com live non-refresh needed feed of the Apple “special event” today. As mostly expected from rumors site, Steve Jobs delivered exactly what was expected in terms of the updated iPod line and the iTunes Movie store. I’m really not that interested in downloading a movie for lesser quality at $14.99 that I can purchase on DVD for less, but who cares. Apple has continually shown that they know how to bring digital downloads to the masses while everyone just plays catch up. However, I’ll keep my Netflix going since it fulfills my movie needs quite well thank you very much.

Released with all the hoopla was iTunes 7. I’m a huge fan if iTunes and have been a advocate ever since its inception, so I was one of the ones hitting refresh at the download page to get my hands on the new version.

Some of the most interesting new feature to me:

• iPod management now through iTunes, not preferences
• iTunes will now download all artwork for your music files
• Multiple libraries are supported
• Back up your music with iTunes
• Sync two iTunes library via your iPod (which now seems to relate to only purchased music, which totally sucks).
• Death to Aqua! Yea!

Some of the irritations that I’ve found:

• To change artwork on multiple files, you can no longer select all songs and drag to the artwork window (like the window says to do). Instead, you have to select all files and hit “Get Info” and add that way.
• Audiobooks will only show up in the left navigation category if the file extension is .m4b (bought from the music store). This is fucking stupid. This should be dictated by the use of ‘Genre’ tagging instead.
• Artwork feature seems to be hit and miss. At the time of this writing I’m sure the servers are being pounded, so I hope this improves over time, but I was having trouble with Beatles “Revolver”.
• Previously prominent buttons like ‘Browse’ and ‘Equalizer’ have been hidden away in the file menu to make space for new things.

The album surfing is pretty sexy and very Apple, but I don’t really know how much I’ll be leaving it on. It does remind me, however, how many files of mine don’t have artwork. If you’re feeling bold, you can replace all your artwork with what iTunes thinks you should have.