With the release of iTunes 9, the ubiquitous media app once known as Sound Jam has made several evolutionary steps. While multi-account computers are now accepted by the general public, application support for the reality of home use is lagging behind. Witness iTunes libraries. I have several accounts on my machine. Let’s say I buy some music in one account. When another family member loads up iTunes in their account, even on the same computer, they can’t access this music unless they somehow obtain a second copy of the files. There are workarounds: I could leave iTunes running with the iTunes sharing option turned on, but look, that’s frankly stupid.

What is needed is some way to have a common iTunes library that multiple users can access simultaneously. You can do this with the music files themselves, but not with the library – there’s no way for two people to simultaneously work on a library (add songs, etc.).

This will likely require a reworking of the way iTunes handles this data, but it’s important.

While we’re at it, the same goes for photos and apps like iPhoto.

Apple just updated Snow Leopard to 10.6.1. Grab it via Software Update (Apple Menu -> System Preferences -> Software Update -> Check Now). As usual, you’ll need to restart after installing.

I am typically one to blindly install any Mac OS update without a second though. Snow Leopard was no exception, although I did do a staggered install across several machines to make sure at least one of them was working. Overall, everything seems to be working fine. Several software packages needed upgrading, so if you haven’t already switched to SL, I recommend combing through your Applications folder and making sure everything is up to date (since many programs now prompt for auto-updating, it may mean just making sure you’ve run everything recently).

A more important item to review prior to updating is hardware. Many hardware manufacturers are tardy in delivering the needed drivers. My CanoScan LIDE 35 scanner has drivers promised “within a few weeks”, but they are not ready yet. Many other devices are “mostly compatible” but still need some tweaking.

Snow Leopard is an interesting update from a user’s perspective. Many of the changes are subtle performance changes and depend on new versions of software. On the other hand, there are significant rewrites to much of the underlying architecture, so there are more compatibility issues than with most updates. It’s sort of the worst of both worlds in that regard, but future updates that take advantage of its features will be nice.

There are enough small improvements, however, that it’s worth upgrading now provided there are no major incompatibilities with software or hardware you depend on.

Apple traditionally updates their iPods around this time of year, and I suspect that Apple’s event scheduled for 9/9 will be no exception. This is what I expect we’ll see:

• New iPod Touch: This will be the most iPhone-like iPod to date, adding a camera and a microphone. I expect we’ll see a video-capable microphone. Essentially, it will be an iPhone without cellular connectivity. This model should also have the faster processor used by the 3GS. I don’t think we’ll see an OLED screen this year. It’s reasonably likely that the high-end model will have 32 GB capacity.
• New iPod Nano: We’ll see a switch to a widescreen format to mimic the display of the iPod Touch/iPhone. I don’t think it will be a touchscreen model – the clickwheel will be retained. Expect to see a camera added, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Nano have still-only capability (no video). I also expect a low-end model that will essentially replace the shuffle, perhaps without a camera.

The future of the Classic is a little less clear. Flash memory is still not cheap enough to allow for the >100 GB capacity of the Classic model, so I think it will probably stick around for another year.

The Shuffle has less of a purpose and I expect to see it disappear.

The rumored iPad/Tablet will not make an appearance.

I don’t think Steve Jobs will be on stage for this one.

One option you can activate in the Security control panel is the ability to lock the screen with a password when the screen saver is activated or the computer goes to sleep.

This is particularly useful for laptop owners, but is overall a quick way to lock up without having to log out. Many (myself included) left this feature turned off in Leopard because it was just too slow to respond after waking from sleep, but it’s much more speedy in Snow Leopard.

One quick way to dim the screen (and secondarily activate this feature) is to press control-shift-eject. Great for when you need to leave your desk in a hurry.

If you’ve recently updated to Snow Leopard, you may want to check that you’re running the most recent version of Adobe’s Flash plugin. As Apple’s installation doesn’t include the latest version, you should probably just hit this link to get the newest version, which includes some security fixes. Some have commented that this is a failure on Apple’s part, but I think the problem here is that Flash does not seem to have any sort of auto-update feature. As much as I detest Adobe’s slow and clunky updater, I think it’s use here would have been appropriate.

In the process of moving, I’ve also finally had the opportunity to switch to Verizon FIOS from Comcast. The speed increase is dramatic, and I’m currently seeing rates of 25 Mbps down and up to 20 Mbps up…an order of magnitude better than with Comcast.

Since my Comcast service terminated prior to my billing cycle being over, I ended up with a credit on my account. After receiving the first bill, I figured Comcast would either send me a check or credit the card they have on file. When I received a negative bill for the second time, I called them up to see what was going on. The rep told me that they were “waiting for me to return the modem” which is funny since I’ve owned my own modem for years, since Comcast was not charging me for a modem over the past 5 years, and since someone had already come to my place to collect all the equipment.

It’s been forwarded to their “research” department.

I’m feeling even happier about the switch.

Update: Comcast called me, apologized, and they say they are working on fixing the problem. I’ll update the post when I’ve confirmed they’re refunded the balance.

Update 2: Comcast made the rebate. Not bad.