While the timing is mainly meant to support the new, ridiculously small iPod Shuffle, iTunes 8.1 adds a few other cool features along with some buggy bits. As always, you can head to Apple's download site if you're installing your first copy of iTunes, or open your existing copy and head to the Help menu, then "Check for Updates" to upgrade. Here's the full list of changes in iTunes 8.1, some of which aren't easy to visualise:
Tagged With itunes 8
iTunes 8 has added simple under-the-radar feature that allows you to quickly and easily tag any file in your iTunes library as an audiobook and move it into the Audiobooks section of iTunes and your iPod. The simple trick? Just right-click a track and select Get Info, head to the Options tab, and then select Audiobook from the Media Kind drop-down menu. The file will instantly leave your Music library and head straight for your Audiobook library. To mark multiple files at once, just select them all and go through the same process. The only remaining step is to tick the Remember Position checkbox if you haven't already, and your tracks should now have easily found their way to your Audiobooks section, and even better, they should work like an audiobook. Finally. Thanks Brett!
Mac OS X only: By default, when you have iTunes set to automatically organize your music library, it saves the files in an /Artist/Album/Track # Song Title.mp3 format. But, if you don't want that track number stuck in the beginning of your music file names automatically, a quick preference change in iTunes 8 will remove it. Macworld explains that you can fire up Terminal, and type the following commands: defaults write com.apple.iTunes create-filenames-with-disknumber -bool FALSE defaults write com.apple.iTunes create-filenames-with-tracknumber -bool FALSE
Then, uncheck iTunes' "Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized" preference, apply, and then re-check that option. At that point iTunes 8 will rename all your music files sans track number prefix. Of course, a backup to your collection before letting iTunes do its thing is prudent, just in case the big rename goes awry. How do you name and organise your music? Or do you not even think about it? Let us know in the comments. Prevent iTunes 8 from adding track numbers to filenames
Despite iTunes' success, most people—especially those averse to DRM—still don't buy music there. The last thing we need, then, are shortcuts to take us from our music library to the iTunes Store with a single errant click. Since you can no longer disable these links in the iTunes 8 preferences, weblog The Glitch highlights how to tweak iTunes 8 in both Windows and OS X to remove the track arrows that—when clicked—take you to the iTunes Store. All it takes is a simple Terminal command in OS X or editing the iTunesPrefs.xml file in Windows. I still prefer to keep the links around, but I remove their iTunes Store functionality and instead point them at my own library. (E.g., clicking the link next to an artist will filter all songs by that artist.) Here's how that works.
