Smart Playlists in iTunes have always been a powerful way to create specific playlists to meet your needs, from creating a rotating fresh playlist for syncing to an iDevice to creating a specific playlist for a party. Being able to say “give me my music that hasn’t been played in the last month, that is of at least 320kbps and is rated 5 stars” is pretty sweet.

In iTunes 8 and earlier you could create all of these multiple rules and have them applied with a ‘match operator,’ which could be ALL (all rules have to match for a track to be included) or ANY (if any of the single rules apply the track will be included).

iTunes 9 has quietly and substantially expanded the level of complexity that you can create in these rules by allowing you to create nested rules. This lets you build up substantial logic with multiple ANY and ALL match operators being applied.

Lets look at a simple example.

Here I have four individual rules:

• Not played in the last week
• Bitrate is higher than 150kbps
• Was added to my iTunes library this year
• Is Music (not a podcast, or video)

Previously this had to be an ALL or ANY. But now the rule comes down to one and four and (two or three). So it will give me all music that hasn’t been played in the last week, and has either been added this year or is higher than 150kbps.

The example above is simple but reflects the power that can be obtain from single level nesting. But wait, there’s just one more thing. Actually, there’s more than one; you can have up to five levels of nesting.

The possible combinations of logic available here are liable to do one’s head in — but I’d be interested in seeing what complex rules are being used by our readers. Let us know how you use Smart Playlists.

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Of course, there was always the option of sharing your library on your home network. This allowed you to play streaming music from one computer on others via iTunes. It works well enough for what it is, but Home Sharing does that, and much more.

Share More Media

First of all, you can share much more than just music between computers. Movies, music videos, and TV shows are all now playable on any machine in your network you authorize via Home Sharing. Authorization is simple, but requires you to have an iTunes account, and to have authorized the computer in question to play media associated with that account. Once that’s done, your Home Share libraries should appear in your source list.

Clicking on an available library brings up a straightforward list of all the media available on that library. As with Shared Libraries, you can only view Home Shares in list view, not in Grid or Coverflow. It’s inconvenient and unfortunate, but it doesn’t really detract that much from the feature’s usability that much, especially since you can still filter the library via search.

Copy and Sync

You can also break down the shared library into categories, just like iTunes’ native library is divided up. Clicking on any item in any category will activate the “Import” button, which allows you to physically copy the item to your current library with a single click.

To make it easier to find items you don’t already have, there’s a simple drop down menu in the bottom left-hand corner of the media browser window that lets you choose between “All items” and “Items not in my library.” You can also open the “Settings…” dialog to set up automatic transfer of new purchases from one library to another via Home Sharing, ensuring that your content is up to date across all computers.

One Central Location

For my own purposes, I’m much more interested in Home Sharing’s movie and TV show streaming. I couldn’t tell you why I have a problem with keeping a decent amount of hard drive space clear on any of my computers, but the fact remains that I do. It definitely doesn’t help that I can’t keep the lines clear between a dedicated media machine and a work machine.

With Home Sharing, I can use my Mac mini as I intended when I bought it: As a central repository for all entertainment media. On those occasions when I want to watch something on my iMac or on the bedroom TV via my Macbook Pro, I no longer have to transfer any files (which I invariably forget/am too lazy to delete). Media stays where it belongs, and remains accessible.

Good, But Should Be Better

So what is Home Sharing still lacking? How about the big glaring omission: the ability to share content to iPod touches and iPhones on the local network. I can’t imagine what’s preventing Apple from allowing me to view Home Share playlists in my iPhone’s iPod application as well as on other computers. If you’re paying attention, Cupertino, think about working that into iPhone OS 3.2.

If you were hoping that since Home Sharing requires you to be using one of your five account-authorized computers, you’d be able to access shared libraries on the road, you’ll be disappointed. Only computers on the same Wi-Fi network can see active shares. To get this functionality, and to be able to stream iTunes libraries to your iPhone or iPod touch as mentioned above, check out Simplify Media and its attendant iPhone apps.

My ideal vision for the future of Home Sharing? Tie it to MobileMe and have an option to keep libraries synced the way you can Address Book and iCal, make it accessible away from home from authorized computers, and introduce mobile device streaming for iPhones and touches. It’s a nice start, but those features would make it a true game-changer.

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Since upgrading to iTunes 9, I’ve used Genius Mixes exclusively on both my computer and my portable devices. Contrast this to the two or three times I ever used a Genius playlist since their introduction in iTunes 8.

Get Your Mix On

First, in case you’re like me, it’s possible you need a little help in getting your Genius Mixes set up in the first place. The key is that once you upgrade your iTunes installation, there’s one more step to take before they appear. Go to your “Store” menus, and click on “Update Genius.” Once Apple (s aapl) delivers your results, your new Mixes will appear in the source menu in the left-hand side of the iTunes window, right under the Genius atom icon.

Clicking on it should reveal 12 squares with album cover composite images that show artists representative of the content found in each mix. I say should because I’m not sure if iTunes will necessarily generate all 12 for smaller library sizes, but you should at least have a few to choose from so long as you have more than a couple artists in your collection.

My Mixes

Individual mixes are named so as to give you an idea of what genre of music they contain. For example, some of my mixes are as follows:

• Indie Mix — Based on: Death Cab For Cutie, Rilo Kiley, The Most Serene Republic, and others.
• Hip Hop Mix — Based on: Kanye West, Common, The Fugees, and others.
• Pop Mix — Based on: Ray LaMontagne, Rocky Votolato, Adele, and others.
• Punk Mix — Based on: Rancid, Rise Against, Brand New, and others.
• Country Mix — Based on Wilco, Neko Case, Lucinda Williams, and others.

Most of my mixes look like those above. Smart, clearly defined, and pretty much how I would’ve divvied up my library if I ever bothered to arrange tracks into genre groupings. A few seem like collections of assorted odds and ends Apple couldn’t quite fit into the other categories. All are admittedly interesting, and most importantly, useful ways of sub-dividing my music collection, though.

How Well Does it Work?

Playing through these mixes, I found that Apple has indeed improved their Genius engine, since the results were much more impressive than they’ve ever been using Genius playlists based on a single song. My collection is diverse enough that I don’t always want to just turn on iTunes DJ, but a Genius Mix sets the mood perfectly for parties, for work, for working out, or just for relaxing.

Apple still needs to make some improvements before I’m completely sold, though. As of right now, you can only view your mixes in Grid mode, and only the track currently playing is visible. To see what’s coming up next, you actually have to fast forward to the next song. While it’s kind of exciting not knowing what’s in store, I’d much rather be able to see a playlist like in iTunes DJ or in classic Genius mode.

I also don’t like how you have to specifically select the playlists in your Audio settings and sync your iPhone or iPod in order to get Genius Mixes on your device. Genius should be able to analyze the content you already have on your iPhone or iPod and create Genius Mixes specific to the device. Maybe this doesn’t affect people whose libraries match on both, but my computer-based music collections far exceed the capacities of my mobile devices.

Recommendations

As for Genius recommendations, I do find that they’re much better than they were when they were first introduced. Of course, Apple’s had a year to collect data from millions of users to make things better, so it would be more remarkable if there wasn’t any noticeable difference in the returned results. Also, Genius will always be a subjective thing, so it’s hard to determine the efficacy of results beyond just the size of the catalog of artists available.

How are you finding your experience with Genius Mixes? Is Apple’s recommendation and organization engine finally worthy of its moniker?

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Also new in 3.1 is a relaxation of the API limitations! Just kidding. But there are some nice user-side improvements that make it easier to forget about all the fuss surrounding the App Store lately.

Genius

Apple’s dubiously named Genius recommendation engine comes to the App Store in 3.1. The service will check what you’ve already installed on your device and return results based on those selections. Thus far, I’m none too impressed with the mental acuity of Genius for Apps, which seems to be largely keyword-based.

iPhone OS 3.1 also supports the new Genius Mixes feature available in iTunes 9. iTunes will automatically create up to 12 playlists based on what’s in your library, without you even having to select a track as a starting point.

Home Screen

Finally, there’s a way to organize your various iPhone and iPod touch Home screens that isn’t painfully slow and liable to drive you completely nuts. With iPhone 3.1 and iTunes 9, you’ll be able to rearrange app icons visually on your computer, and then sync that arrangement to your portable device.

You can even select and drag multiple apps at once, and change the order of entire Home screens at a time, just like you should’ve been able to do from the start.

Syncing and iTunes

With iTunes 9 and OS 3.1, you should see improved syncing for all media, including new sync options like the ability to sync Faces from iPhoto ’09. Students can organize their iTunes U content, and you can now redeem gift cards and promo codes in the App Store application. You can also see how much credit is available in your account right on your device.

As mentioned above, you can now download ringtones wirelessly from the iTunes store on your device. That means it’s far easier to spend $1.29 on something that will give you at best a week’s worth of pleasure and those around you months of agony and annoyance.

Video

As seen in early builds of iPhone OS 3.1, video editing is now non-destructive thanks to a new “Save as new clip” option that preserves the original. You can also save received videos from email and MMS into your Camera Roll, making them easier to review and share with others.

Many Little Things

iPhone OS 3.1 also brings a whole host of small changes and adjustments, including a fix for that nasty icon display issue, anti-phishing measures in Safari, Voice Control access via Bluetooth headsets, phone number pasting in the Phone app, and maybe most impressive, the ability to remotely lock your iPhone with a passcode for MobileMe users.

My early hands-on experience with 3.1 also seems to indicate that general performance is much improved, resulting in much snappier, tighter OS performance overall. Bugs will no doubt raise their ugly heads, but for now, it’s all roses. Just plug your iPhone or iPod touch in and click the “Check for Updates” button in iTunes to get rolling.

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With Apple’s music oriented media event right around the corner, everyone is abuzz with thoughts about new iPods, Apple TV updates, tablet rumors and more. The one thing we can all but guarantee besides new iPods is an update to iTunes. But what will this version bring? Social aspects have been rumored, but there is still room for improvement. So, here’s my Top 10 wish list for iTunes 9.

1. More Stable & Efficient On Windows

This particular point doesn’t apply to me, as I am a Mac user, but I do know that the Windows version of iTunes has suffered in comparison to its Mac brethren. Though some of the programming technologies in the Windows world are not as robust as their Mac equivalents, I do hope Apple will continue to optimize iTunes as it adds new features. Currently, it’s just a resource hog.

2. Better Audiobook Support

iTunes is a great application to manage your audiobooks and Apple’s partnership with Audible makes it even easier to buy them. What really strikes me as problematic though is how cumbersome it is to sync specific audiobooks to your iPod or iPhone. At the moment, it’s either “all” or “none.” When you consider that some audiobooks have multiple files and some users have insanely huge collections of audiobooks, it really seems like an issue Apple would have refined already. Due to their length, most users listen to one or two audiobooks at a time and don’t need to bring their entire collection with them. The only solution to this dilemma is creating playlists for specific audiobooks and that’s more time consuming than it should be.

3. Better File Organization for Large Libraries

As our libraries of media content grow and grow, Apple is focused on being center stage in helping us organize it all. iTunes is a powerful application and supports a wide gamut of different file types (music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, podcasts, etc.). It would be ideal for Apple to allow users to manage those specific areas on different hard drives since some of us have iTunes libraries that are growing too fast to store on just one drive. We can work around this at the moment by turning off the “Keep iTunes organized” feature when adding new content, but a more elegant solution would be welcome.

4. Ability to Import Unencrypted DVD & Blu-ray Content

We all know there are licensing issues to work out, but since Apple feels its the company’s lot in life to manage all of my digital content, why not figure out a way to manage all of the physical content I have laying around too? If I can “find a way to decrypt my DVD” (hello VLC), then iTunes can make a copy of it. This has actually been rumored and I would love to see it come to fruition.

5. Support for HD content on iPhone & iPods

While at first this really doesn’t seem like an iTunes feature, I personally hate having to maintain two copies of content with compatible versions for my Apple TV and Mac (HD content) and my iPods and iPhone (SD content). For some cases this isn’t a problem, but I find myself watching a lot of HD podcasts and they simply will not sync. If Apple could resolve this issue, users wouldn’t have to download iTunes Store content like TV shows twice (one in HD and one in SD). They could just download the HD file and be ready to rock.

6. More Robust Tagging

There are lots of apps available (like MetaX) that give users the ability to tag their content with more useful information than what iTunes allows them to do on their own. Content from the iTunes Store features some of this useful information (like movie director, actors, etc.). Why can’t I edit this for my own content directly within iTunes? Why can’t I tag my own music as clean or explicit from within iTunes?

7. Lyric & Metadata Lookups

iTunes has the ability to lookup artwork for our own music that may be missing covers, but now that iPhones and iPods support lyrics, wouldn’t it be great if iTunes could search, download and tag your files with the appropriate lyrics? Better yet, it would be even better if iTunes could fill in missing metadata information like some third-party apps do.

8. More Robust Sharing Support

iTunes 4 brought about the ability to stream playlists to other iTunes users on a local network. This feature was hacked to allow users to stream across the Internet and Apple quickly released a patch to fix this. Since then, several vendors, first and foremost being SimplifyMedia, have risen up to provide this service again. While SimplifyMedia is great, a more ideal solution would show you your entire iTunes library, with podcasts, audiobooks, TV shows, and the like. To be honest, if Apple even rolled this out as a feature exclusive to Mobile Me users, and allowed the ability to view this content streamed via me.com, that would be enough to justify a membership to me.

9. Music Videos

Probably the smallest of all the content types in my library, music videos are just lumped together in my main library. How come there isn’t a separate section for music videos?

10. Easier Syncing Between Multiple Macs

At the moment, I sync my iPhone on my iMac, where the bulk of my media is stored (simply because it has the biggest hard drive). It would be great if I could sync my iPhone or iPods there for some content, but sync it to my laptop for contacts, calendars and iPhone apps as that content changes more frequently.

In short order, we’ll actually see what Apple announces at its media event. In the meantime, what features would you like to see added to iTunes 9?

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September 9 is indeed the day for the next official Apple press event, according to Apple itself via press invitations that were sent out today. The event will take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, CA at 10AM Pacific. That’s 1PM Eastern for those of us over here on the other coast. Other time zones will have to do their own fancy math adjustment.

The tagline for the event is “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it,” and the image being circulated with the invitation features a traditional dancing silhouette with white iPod and headphones. All of which makes it seem very likely that people expecting a tablet announcement will be somewhat disappointed, but that those looking forward to new iPod models will probably have something to celebrate.

The title is a riff on British rockers The Rolling Stones’ track “It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It).” There has been speculation that fellow British rock sensation The Beatles would finally be coming to the iTunes Store at this event, since it’s the same day Beatles Rock Band ships, but so far that remains up in the air.

Another possible reason for the September 9 date, which falls on a Wednesday instead of following the traditional Apple-event Tuesday pattern, is iTunes 9. Recently, there have been many rumors surrounding the next major point upgrade of Apple’s music and media management software, so expect to see it arrive next Wednesday, complete with added social networking capabilities and possibly additional features that take advantage of new iPod hardware improvements.

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