Apple releases iTunes 4.0.1; ‘Net sharing killed

Apple has released an update to iTunes 4, bringing it to version 4.0.1. According to Apple’s notes, iTunes 4…

(MacDailyNews Note: the release notes don’t say the 4.0.1 update increases AAC quality)

…features superior sound quality including support for MPEG-4 AAC audio. iTunes 4.0.1 includes a number of performance and network access enhancements, and only allows music sharing between computers using iTunes 4.0.1 or later on a local network (in the same subnet). If you have an Apple SuperDrive, you can archive your song files to a DVD disc as well as burn playlists to standard audio CDs to play in your car or home stereo.

No more sharing playlists and tunes over the Internet as Apple moves quickly to thwart nascent sharing schemes.

You can download the update through the Software Update Preference Pane or from Apple’s website here.

8 Comments

  1. Birdseed, there are two main restrictions on the sharing…

    1. Cannot connect to localhost (127.0.0.1)
    2. Cannot connect to people outside of your subnet

    If you can setup a vpn server, ssh connection, etc to get your family onto your subnet, then you can share. Its just a little more effort. Apple isn’t concerned about casual sharing amongst family members or between a guy’s home and work computer… they are concerned about the rise of websites listing open iTunes music streams.

  2. Can someone tell me why Apple, instead of shutting out the feature all together, didn’t just build in the security to have a user be authorized to access the share across the net. Much like how you can only authorize 3 Macs to share the songs downloaded from the ITMS you should be able to authorize up to say, 5 Macs to listen to your stream over the net. Am I right or just off-base?

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