How is this is different than eMusic recommending music at the top of my home page when I log in? Or Amazon making its recommendations whenever I but something (Other people bought...)? Or any other such system of "recommendations", which is quite common?

Well, one difference is that with just one click you can remove the sidebar and never have to see it again. Not so with the other guys. Oh, and unlike the others I mentioned Apple's is opt-in. Unlike Apple's approach, the others make their recommendations without even asking, and there's little you can do about it.

Why is it when Apple does something it's somehow evil, yet even though other players do it much more annoyingly and intrusively no one cares? I consider this a distinctly Apple take on recommendations, and much better than the alternatives. I don't plan on using it, so it's hidden forever and not in my face.

Meanwhile, the other feature of Genius, the one for which I opted in, is kind of an "intelligent shuffle" and is surprising me with the playlists it builds. It's especially nice in that it doesn't just work on iTunes, but also on the iPod touch (with 2.1 update) and new iPods. Hopefully, it will work on the iPhone when updated to 2.1 as well.

I thought I'd turn Genius on for a couple days and shut it off. But based on the playlists it's created from my own music on my PC and iPod, I'm going to keep it around.

First it was IBM, then Microsoft, now Google and Apple. All have been very successful in markets that they created and came to dominate (mainframe, PC, search, iPod) and each have felt the tide of public opinion turn against them as their dominance grew. In reality, each of them has brought tremendous benefit to their customers and have mostly continued to do so, despite the changing climate in which they operate. IBM and Microsoft have learnt to live with this and Google and Apple are going through that most painful process right now. This is not an easy lesson to learn, but I believe their progress towards dealing with it can largely be measured by their openess about their problems. Watch this space!

@Tom

The difference here is that Amazon doesn't use info information from other stores that I buy from. Emusic doesn't get info from the cd's that I buy and rip to make it's recommendation. It only uses stuff that I bought from Emusic.

I think I purchased maybe 1% of my music from Apple/iTunes. The rest is my collection of CD's in the thousands that I have ripped (which now live in boxes in the basement) and music obtained from emusic.

If I check the box, apple has access to all that info. Hopefully it remains annonymous. If I accidentally turn it on and they find Milli Vanilli in my collection then my friends will stop respecting my taste in music.

Itunes is a bloated mess, I agree with the premise of the article in general, without regard to the "Genius" thing.

Apple has also begun to act like Microsoft in that they are ending the life of products via incompatibility-- e.g., Leopard not running on anything less than 850mhz G4; also requiring updates to ITunes for compatibility with new Ipods, and those updates requiring OS upgrades that may not even be available (for example, anyone who did not upgrade to Tiger during it's general availability, and can't use Leopard, are out of luck-- you can try to buy Tiger on ebay, but good luck paying anything reasonable.

It's a new and very mercenary Apple. I own a lot of Apple computers, and a lot of PCs and the religious differences are really starting to go away-- I can't say I'm as much a fan of Apple as I once was-- they are becoming just another computer and consumer electronics company.

I really like the new genius created "shuffle" of my music. It's working well for me.

And the sidebar with music suggestions ... great idea! I have a hard time finding music that I like. Best thing about it? It lets me preview the song and then go buy it DRM-free over at Amazon. Yeah! :)

The Pandora Project was great for music recomendations this is just Pandora without the interactivity and Apple has started to fall from their design is IT pedestal but eh..

Umm, maybe I'm stupid here, but if it uses the information it gathers to send you information that is uniquely tied to you, ie "appropriate" recommendations, how can it be truely anonymous in storing your data? It clearly connects the data to you and you only. Even without your name, it identifies you, which is NOT anonymous. It's anonymous like Free Credit Reports are free....

Why bother with building a virtual library of MP3s?
After spending your money, what do you have to show for it? A file that may not be playable in the future. "Oh, gee, the firmware update to my MP3 player has now locked me out from accessing my files, and I have to hand over some more cash to unlock 'em".

If you're buying the average 128kbs MP3, they're compressed with a 10 to 1 ratio. Yeah - 90% of the music is gone!
Most people reply: "Oh...it sounds OK to me, I can't hear the difference." That is until they hear how crummy they really are when their limitations are revealed on a high definition system.

Sure you can buy high res downloads, but again, what do you have to show for it after you spend your money? Will you even be able to play them in the future?

Speaking of the future, what are you going to archive your downloaded music files to? CD-R? We already know that it's hit and miss with them - I've had a number of 'em go bad. Hard Drive? Those are going to be obsolete very soon! Flash ROM? Those can go bad as well. Who knows if the drive format will even be supported in the future - much less the file format.

If you really care and are passionate about music, then get a good turntable (there's plenty of them being made today) and buy vinyl LPs. After you spend your money, you have something to show for it. They're already high resoultion (if they're made from an appropriate master). Besides, they're the only format that is truly archival. You can place a record on the shelf and 100 years later the "data" will still be there.

Since records are a mechanical/physical format, you can "see" the "data" (the physical modulation of the groove). You can see stereo separation, dynamics, low frequencies, high frequencies, etc.

I am fully aware of the limitations of vinyl records - I used to cut the master discs years ago. I've had plenty of experience "A/B ing" the master tape to the master disc, and if you stay within the boundries of the medium, you are rewarded with great sonics (provided the master source has 'em).

I've got records that I bought over 45 years ago, and I can still access the "data". I took good care of my vinyl (and schellac 78 RPMs) and can still enjoy them today.

Get back out and support your local music merchant, as they're the only folks who truly care and are keeping the music alive!

Huh? iTunes 8 is "more complex and cluttered"?

If you click the sidebar arrow, Genius goes away, and iTunes looks as simple as before -- it has exactly the same number of buttons as iTunes 7.

And the preferences have actually become LESS complex -- Apple removed some of the more arcane settings to simplify.

Mr. Wilcox is venting his spleen, for whatever reason, but this article makes no sense.

The Genius feature has worked admirably. I've listened to cool songs that I'd forgotten I had and really enjoyed them.

So Apple is collecting data that makes it easier for them to sell you things that you might like... and this is a problem? I'm not understanding how I lose with this.

Also, to answer people's question about how it can be anonymous and still provide results tailored to you, it's really quite simple. The anonymous data you send to Apple allows them to divine relationships and connections between tracks/albums/artists. The simplest example being that if two tracks are in the same library, that's a possible indicator that owners of one of those tracks will like the other. Multiply that by all the users and you can establish some very accurate guesses. When you use Genius, it uses the data about those connections relating to whatever track you've selected, not anything tied specifically to you. At no point in that process does anything have to be uniquely tied to you.

I'm leery of the Genius feature's privacy issues. I did turn it on at first but it did little for me so I've now turned it off. (Of course I've already handed all of my data over to Apple.)

I've noticed the interface changes, although I haven't explored them in their entirety. I'm not sure they're for no reason -- the interface was already cluttered and a lot of things were placed unintuitively, especially in the Preferences tabs. Things have maybe improved, maybe not, but I give them credit for trying.

However, there is one interface change that is a HUGE improvement that I have been hoping for for ages: you can now set the media type (movie, TV show, music video) for multiple video files at once. Yes! Thank you, Apple!