iTunes 11.0.3 delivers revamped MiniPlayer, security fixes

[Shawn Knight]

Apple recently released version 11.0.3 of iTunes which includes some new features, enhancements and security updates. Chief among the changes is a revamp of the MiniPlayer, a feature that was first introduced in iTunes 11 back in November of last year.

Download iTunes 11.0.3
Windows 32-bit / 64-bit | Mac OS X

The MiniPlayer can now showcase album artwork in a variety of sizes. The service will not show artwork by default – you’ll need to go into the options to enable this manually.

Other changes include a progress bar with an adjustable playhead. There’s also a new icon for the audio output button which uses a speaker instead of the AirPlay icon; it's visible even when you aren’t hovering over it.  Furthermore, the MiniPlayer can now be expanded to show an entire playlist.

Apple has implemented some performance enhancements when searching through and sorting large iTunes libraries as well. What’s more, users now have the ability to view multi-disc albums as a single album.

On the security front, Apple addressed a number of issues including a certificate validation issue on all platforms and issued fixes for some WebKit memory corruption issues. These Windows-specific issues could allow for a man-in-the-middle attack if exploited. A complete list of security updates can be found on Apple’s security updates page.

If you weren’t a big fan of Apple’s major overhaul in iTunes 11, your opinion of the software probably won’t change much with this update as it's still largely the same in terms of aesthetics.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/52616-itunes-1103-delivers-revamped-miniplayer-security-fixes.html

 

[axiomatic13]

"Apple has implemented some performance enhancements when searching through and sorting large iTunes libraries as well."

We'll see if this proves to be true/accurate. I am using iTunes to connect to a Qnap TS-459 PRO ii off of a gigabit network and performance in looking at the catalog and managing the library couldn't be worse. People always blame the NAS box but that cant be true as playback is always stutter free using iTunes or any other tool and playback is using far more bandwidth than managing the library does. Yet iTunes, compared to the built in Qnap Music Manager, is slow and sluggish to switch from artist to artist, artist to category, etc. so I will be highly interested to see if Apple has made any progress at all in something every other product on the market seems to handle without issue for the last 10 years.

 

[Guest]

Totally agree, I built a new system and re-installed MediaMonkey and it took a few minutes to add 3000 songs including artwork from my NAS( I have the D-Link DNS-323). I could listen to music while it searched as well. I did the same for iTunes and I had to let it sit there for 2 hours while it added songs before I could listen to anything. Then, I didn't even have half my artwork.
Window Media play is way faster than iTunes as well. Aside from Airplay, which I use from my Android, iTunes is horrible. It's one of the reasons I don't use Apple products.

 

[Guest]

You want slow? Try a 1.1TB iTunes database with 146,000+ tracks. It's beyond cold molasses, it's like trying to slog thru dried glue. Open the "Get Info" window to edit? 30-45 seconds to respond. Click on a track title to make a spelling change? Same wait. Playing a track while editing, your phone rings and you want to pause play? The call will go to voicemail long before iTunes responds.

It's bloated, it's old, it's tired. Apple's got the bucks to do it right, but we're still saddled with this addled great-great-grandparent.

Funny observation: Somebody at Apple forgot to program "TB"; the counter at the bottom of my iTiunes reads display reads "1,120.57 GB". Oops, guess the programming geeks never considered anyone would get that far?

 

[Guest]

Many trying to go back to 11.0.2 but can't. Seems we can no longer expand album artwork by clicking icon in main player...all we get is a small 5 x 5 " cover, before we could expand full screen. Apple Forums are trying to work around. iTunes has always been low on artwork interest, first Cover Flow and no doing away with large artwork..too bad for iTunes users who liked their artwork.

 

[Guest]

"Many trying to go back to 11.0.2 but can't. Seems we can no longer expand album artwork by clicking icon in main player...all we get is a small 5 x 5 " cover, before we could expand full screen. Apple Forums are trying to work around. iTunes has always been low on artwork interest, first Cover Flow and no doing away with large artwork..too bad for iTunes users who liked their artwork."

That's the reason I stayed on the last 10.x build. Sounds like Apple bowed to pressure to reinstate album art in Song View in 11.0.03, though.

BTW, does this site have THE MOST ANNOYING security code: A commercial? REALLY?

 

[captaincranky]

....[ ].....BTW, does this site have THE MOST ANNOYING security code: A commercial? REALLY?

Historically, many guests have annoyed the crap out of us. (*) Perhaps our log in procedure has evolved to an adaptation of the old adage, "the best defense is to offend first" , "the best defense is to be strongly offensive". I forget exactly how it goes.

(*) Please note I said, "many guests, not "all guests".

Another guest came by one evening with this revelation, iTunes is basically designed to hose Windows computers (*). I don't know how many of you plaintiffs are running Macs or PCs, but it might be worthwhile to take that into consideration.

(*) extra processes and the like, which aren't installed in the Mac version. Can't verify that on my own. I won't even go near an Apple program, let alone a piece of Apple hardware..

 

[SNGX1275]

Funny observation: Somebody at Apple forgot to program "TB"; the counter at the bottom of my iTiunes reads display reads "1,120.57 GB". Oops, guess the programming geeks never considered anyone would get that far?

Actually, I think what is happening here is Apple switched to TiB and GiB rather than the traditional Tb and Gb. 1 TiB is ~1.099Tb = 1125.38 GB. Add another 5 gigs to your collection and see what it reports.

 

[Guest]

"Actually, I think what is happening here is Apple switched to TiB and GiB rather than the traditional Tb and Gb. 1 TiB is ~1.099Tb = 1125.38 GB. Add another 5 gigs to your collection and see what it reports."

Nada: 1,125.42GB.