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New iTunes 9 to Include Social Networking Features?

by Terrence O'Brien on August 11, 2009 at 04:00 PM

We're used to Apple rumors flying ("What will the new iPhone bring?" "When'll they finally release a tablet-style Mac?"), but we've been a bit surprised that the rumor mill is now grinding over an innocuous piece of software that most of us have only come to begrudgingly accept: iTunes.

On the more pedestrian side of things, it's expected that iTunes 9 will bring support for Blu-ray playback, something that should make media junkies who also happen to be Apple fanboys very happy. But we're more interested in the supposed integration with social networking services like Twitter, Last.fm, and Facebook.

According to the Boy Genius Report (BGR), that integration will not come in the form of built-in features, but will involve integrating iTunes with an as-yet-unannounced social application from Apple. The app is expected to function somewhat like Yahoo!'s OneConnect or the recent Facebook acquisition FriendFeed, gathering all of your various social networking accounts into one place. The new social app will supposedly let you broadcast what music you're spinning, share it with friends, and update your status across various networks.

The social features of the new iTunes sound interesting, but we'd be much more excited if Apple spent time turning iTunes into a better media manager. How about reducing the memory footprint? Or introducing some legitimate way to pull songs off our registered iPods in the event our hard drives crash? Just a thought. [From: Boy Genius Report and TUAW]

Tags: apple, itunes, media, top

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