iTunes for Windows: Slick.

Well, I booted into Windows for a change this morning to try iTunes 4.1 for Windows. The installation was fairly much standard and one reboot later I was all set to go. I'm pretty impressed with the job Apple did with the conversion.

While the Aqua-like look within iTunes for Windows doesn't look quite as good as it does in Mac OS X (IMO, but I guess you hope it wouldn't, otherwise all of Apple's work on Quartz would have been for naught), it looks very nice. Most everything works the same, save some adjustments to make it act like a Windows app (like a different configuration window that is less iconic).

The really amazing part was getting my iTunes Music Store music onto the system. It was absolutely painless. I went into my Mac's iTunes preferences, enabled music sharing (shares the music within your subnet), and presto all of the purchases appeared in a folder named “Timothy Butler's Music” on iTunes for Windows. After that, it was just a matter of typing in my Apple Account's username and password to authorize the computer and the music started playing! Impressive!

(And, as if you wouldn't have guessed, the music sounds much better on the PC with its SB Live! driving a 5.1 Logitech speaker system than the iMac's two little built in speakers.)