I’m sure there are still quite a few non-iTunes users out there, and that’s not a bad thing. Some people just don’t dig it; for a long time I didn’t. Now, though, I honestly think it’s the best media player. For me, at least. With Apple releasing the newest iteration of it yesterday at their “Lets Rock” event, there was a lot to look forward to. I was expecting a full-fledged update, it being iTunes 8, not iTunes 7.8. If its given a new, single-digit number, it had better be quite an update. How does it fare?

For the most part, it’s same thing. I’m honestly quite surprised at how little has been changed from the previous release (7.7.1) to iTunes 8. The main interface is literally exactly the same. The only difference aesthetically is the new grid view, which I have to admit is amazing. Grid view is a fantastic alternative for cover flow; in fact, it’s almost a perfect middle-man between list view and cover flow. Grid view sorts albums, artists, genres, and composers as tiles in a… well, grid. While browsing albums, artists, and composers, album art is displayed. Browsing genres displays the cool little pictures Apple made instead of album art for each genre. One of the reasons grid view is really cool is that it makes iTunes darker. The background in grid view is dark gray, and the scrollbar turns to shades of gray, too. Not only that, but it enhances browsing as well, by letting you control iTunes predominantly with the keyboard, instead of with a mouse/trackpad. It’s very reminiscent of controlling finder in column view, which I find particularly pleasant. You can change the size of each tile in grid view from very small to very large, a large range that is sure to please anybody. In short, grid view makes using iTunes more fun.

Another new feature in iTunes 8 is the “Genius” feature. It has two functions: first, to get you to buy songs from the iTunes store; second, it’s a playlist maker. The first function turns on a Genius sidebar. It’ll show you songs that are like the song you’re currently listening to that you can buy from the iTunes store. Or, you could hit the Genius button while listening to a song, which will create a playlist of similar songs from your library. This feature also appears on new iPods. The Genius button and sidebar are both great little enhancers to a tired application, and also serve to make iTunes more enjoyable to use.

The last new upgrade is the new iTunes visualizer, which used to be Flight 404′s Magnetosphere visualizer. While the new visualizer is undeniably entertaining, fascinating, and “trippy” (nice one, Kevin Rose), a detailed look at it reveals that it’s slightly lacking in variety. There are a noticeable, set number of different animations that the new visualizer is able to produce. Sure, with the color difference, the variety is boosted a bit, but with this visualizer you will definitely recognize some repeated patterns, and that’s just if you watch like fifteen songs. This is a problem that happened pretty much never with the previous visualizer, but fortunately Apple seems to have predicted that and has included all of the old visualizers (“classic”, “lathe”, “jelly”, and “stix”). Though it’s slightly limited, the new visualizer is seriously impressive and fun to watch.

While I’m still disappointed that it looks the same besides grid view, iTunes 8 is a worthwhile and refreshing update to an aging (but remarkably encompassing and functional) entity. Amongst the aforementioned updates, the information “get info” or “properties” fields for songs are different; takes some getting used to, but it allows for more detailed customization. Each user has his/her favorite period of iTunes, but iTunes 8 is likely to be a new favorite for probably a majority of fans.