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A tour of Apple's iTunes 11 (pictures)

A look at some of the new features and visual changes in Apple's 11th iteration of iTunes.

Josh Lowensohn
Josh Lowensohn joined CNET in 2006 and now covers Apple. Before that, Josh wrote about everything from new Web start-ups, to remote-controlled robots that watch your house. Prior to joining CNET, Josh covered breaking video game news, as well as reviewing game software. His current console favorite is the Xbox 360.
Josh Lowensohn
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1 of 17 Josh Lowensohn/CNET

A quick look around iTunes 11

Apple's newest version of iTunes arrived today, just a day ahead of the company's self-imposed deadline.

Its crowning feature is a redesign that Apple promises is simpler than previous iterations. Seen here is the new album view, which expands out to show tracks much like a folder in iOS or OS X pops out.

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2 of 17 Josh Lowensohn/CNET

Starting up

Before starting off, Apple asks if it can see some of your library information to serve up recommendations and album art. There are also arrows showing you where the company's moved stuff around to.

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3 of 17 Josh Lowensohn/CNET

The new mini player

Apple's revamped its mini player with a bunch of new options that let you search and manage entire playlists without hopping back to the full version of the program.

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4 of 17 Josh Lowensohn/CNET

Song title on mini player

When a new song starts, the mini player will pop up with the title. This happens here on the Mac, instead of through Notification Center.

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5 of 17 Josh Lowensohn/CNET

Searching on the mini player

Apple's added search to the mini player so you can find tracks, playlists, albums, and artists from your library. It splits up those results automatically.

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6 of 17 Josh Lowensohn/CNET

Contextual options on the mini player

Once you've found an item from the results, you can dig a little bit deeper without jumping back to the full-sized player. This includes things like giving it a rating, and adding it to existing playlists.

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7 of 17 Josh Lowensohn/CNET

AirPlay control through the mini player

If you're using your computer as a control device with a setup of AirPlay speakers, you can toggle and control them from the mini player in a tidy little menu.

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8 of 17 Josh Lowensohn/CNET

Genre browsing in iTunes 11

While not as slick as the new album view browser, hopping through genres is a lot like going through files in OS X's Finder.

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Viewing a season of a TV show in iTunes 11

TV shows you've bought off iTunes get their own, store-like display pages.

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More of the new album view

More of the new album view, this time browsing another users' shared network library.

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Movie art and info from a movie in iTunes 11 library

Detail of a movie purchased off iTunes.

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Apple's revamped storefront

Apple's new revamped storefront pages look very similar to what you've seen on iOS devices since the iOS 6 update in September.

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iTunes store browsing history button

Apple's added a new history tool that lets you quickly jump to iTunes store content you viewed going back weeks.

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Browsing tracks on an attached iPhone

As usual, you can play content off an iOS device that's plugged in. In this case, it's the music library on an iPhone.

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15 of 17 Josh Lowensohn/CNET

Apple's slightly revamped iPhone management screen

Apple's given its device info screen a bit of a polish. Seen here is the new look for an iPhone 5 that's plugged in.

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16 of 17 Josh Lowensohn/CNET

Nifty new gift card scanner

A non-advertised feature is a new tool that will use your computer's camera to scan gift cards and apply the amount to your iTunes account.

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17 of 17 Josh Lowensohn/CNET

Gift card scanner doesn't work on all things

You need a gift card with a box around the code -- like from Apple -- so it doesn't currently work with promo cards from places like Starbucks.

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