Big news, guys! Apple’s lumbering behemoth that is iTunes may finally be approaching death door. In the wake of some sleuthing, the 9to5Mac’s Steve Troughton-Smith discovered something very interesting. According to his ‘research’, the next version of macOS (10.15), would launch with separate music and podcasts app along with a redesigned TV app. Meaning, Apple will take an ax to the iconic iTunes App and chop it in little pieces. *Evil laugh*
Here’s a Little Backstory
iTunes, the ultimate media management software that everyone loves to hate, was launched in 2001. Two decades ago, it allowed users to digitally organize their music collections and add new music to iPods. And the Wi-Fi syncing blew our minds (when ripping and burning CDs was still a thing!). Sadly, the endless repurposing done to include all manner of media soon crippled Apple’s 2001 media revolution, which is just too bloated to be sustainable in the present century. So you see, it’s only logical to make separate, more Apple worthy apps that can efficiently and elegantly handle the users’ media. Especially when you look through the lens of breaking up the monolithic iTunes app. Yeah, I’m not an iTunes fan!
Here’s another exciting news
The new apps will run using Marzipan, Apple’s technology for porting iPad apps to the Mac. And in terms of functionality, the apps will most likely be similar to this year’s version of iOS.
According to the recent findings, the icons for the Podcasts and TV apps will sport familiar imagery, stylized with macOS’ round design.
Claims have been made that accompanying the new apps will be a redesigned Books app.
“The new Books app will have a sidebar similar to the News app on the Mac, it will also feature a narrower title bar with different tabs for the Library, Book Store, and Audiobook Store. On the library tab, the sidebar will list the user’s Books, Audiobooks, PDFs and other collections, including custom ones.” The report says.
Honestly, you had me at audiobooks!
And as far as Apple TV app goes, Cook has already confirmed the arrival of the TV app on Mac at Apple’s Showtime event in March. And once the app is out, users will be able to access the ‘revolutionary’ TV+ streaming service, rent or purchase movies and TV series, and spend some dough on TV subscriptions.
The move makes a lot of sense from Apple’s and our point of view. iTunes comes with a lot of baggage (and bloating) and is ancient. So, breaking it up would give Apple freedom to start anew.
And for those of you wishing for iTunes’ demise might want to wait before popping the champagne corks just yet. Apple decided to keep the app around a little bit longer. That’s because it’s the only way to sync and interact with the legendary iPod and iOS devices.
