The Windows version of iTunes 7 comes bundled with Apple Software Update, “to easily update iTunes and other Apple software.”
Leaving it checked (the default setting) adds an “Apple Software Update” item to the Start menu. The application looks like this:
Anyone know what “other Apple software” might include? After an (admittedly very quick) glance through the online iTunes 7 overview, I can’t find any mention of this at all.
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I actually wish iTunes and QuickTime were bundled in my Mac download. Until something gets fixed, my iTunes 7 upgrade appears to have killed my ability to view videos purchased through the iTunes Store (nee iTunes Music Store).
— Brian 
That is because you need to update QuickTime too. I don’t see QT’s update yet though.
After digging a little further, I found that the QuickTime update is available for download, but it’s not showing up in Software Update.
— Brian
> That is because you need to update QuickTime too.
/me mutters something about how Macs are so easy to use because Apple controls everything.
— Mark
It should not matter. You run Linux now. :-)
As for “other Apple software”: Quicktime & Bonjour?
— Marten
So to run any worthwhile application you need to run Windows?
— Bob Jones
QuickTime is available via Software Update now.
> /me mutters something about how Macs are so easy to use because Apple controls everything.
I know you feelings on Apple, I don’t understand that comment though. QuickTime is the engine that drives almost all multimedia on OS X, it seems logical that an update was required. I am pretty sure there has been for every iTunes release. And Apple does control everything and that is why it is *easier* to use than Linux or Windows. But at the same time the user has a lot of power.
I suppose it could check for Bonjour updates as well.
— Jay Thrash
> it seems logical that an update was required
To play 640×480 video instead of 320×240? I’m pretty sure the previous version of QuickTime could do that already.
— Mark
There’s QuickTime, a few AirPort tools for Windows, and, as Jay said, Bonjour. So there are things to update, even if QuickTime and iTunes seem like the only things to carry this right now.
— Jesper
Interesting questions that I have not yet been able to answer:
- Is ASU-for-Windows available as a separate download?
- The ASU preferences window says “You can select to check for updates automatically. If you do, ASU will notify you when an update is available.” The default option is “weekly” (among “daily”, “monthly”, and “never”). What service or background application performs this check? I see no new services in my Services list beyond iPodService.exe and iTunesHelper.exe.
— Mark
Sorry, that should read “I see no new services in my Services list beyond iPodService, and no new processes in my process list beyond iTunesHelper.”
— Mark
Just maybe the ‘other updates’ might be OS X 10.5
Would you consider that viral if you updated to a better operating system? PC Users could even purchase it from the iTunes music store!
— Chris
It wouldn’t make sense for ASU to be available separately at this stage. Imagine people downloading it to get updates for that AirPort configurator thing and not getting them.
— Jesper
Another candidate for update would be the iDisk mounting utility for Windows.
The QT update showed up in Software Update a couple of minutes before iTunes here. I guess they use som akamaiy thing for their updates too, so if they release two updates at the same time (or within a short time span), they might be arrive in the wrong order some places. Not that I really know how Akamai’s distribution works…
— Sverre
> What service or background application performs this check?
It’s inside Control Panel->Scheduled Tasks
It’s inside Control Panel->Scheduled Tasks
Wow, that’s, like, totally the right thing to do. (Essentially) no daemon, just a cron job. Sweet.
— Dan Ridley
It refers to iPod software update (which is integrated into iTunes now).
How about QuickTime, Bonjour, Bootcamp (maybe) and not to mention future ITunes? From here it looks like Apples version of Windows (err Apple) update :-D
— Mskadu
I would love to see Safari for windows, then something to sync my book marks between Mac and PC like you can in Firefox.
You are missing the obvious – this is the bests mechanism for Apple to upgrade “Boot Camp Apple Drivers for Windows.” As it is now, the video card in the new iMacs throws errors (in Half-Life 2, at least – but that’s all that matters), and burning a new CD in OS X is a cumbersome process by comparison.
Uh, best mechanism, not bests mechanism. Sorry for the typo.
@Antony: you’re absolutely correct, it uses the Scheduled Tasks feature. That’s so intuitive, it never occurred to me.
@David: that’s brilliant (Windows drivers on Mac hardware). It’s so obvious once you say it. They want to bring the Apple experience to Windows users (once they buy Apple hardware, of course). Software update is a necessary piece of that (and of course there’s no open update infrastructure to build on, so Apple had to build their own).
— Mark
Also, with Apple’s iTV device on the horizon, Apple needs a way to push out drivers to Windows users (I presume iTV will support Windows, if only for the sake of pushing sales from the iTunes Store). Furthermore, it’s a way for Apple to bring a small part of the Mac experience to Windows users (that software update UI is basically identical to the one that’s part of OS X), and to reinforce the idea that with Apple, stuff just works. Hopefully, it will be less cumbersome than Windows Update.
On a related note, we need a new acronym for the Store. iTMS doesn’t really cut it any more…
Zach, in reference to the Monty Python’s Flying Circus opening, I propose “iT’S… the iTunes Store”.
— Jesper
They could have just changed it to “iTunes Media Store” and left it iTMS.
— William
Mark, a little OT but watch out. The album artwork is now stored separately from your songs in yet another proprietary format: .itc. Unless you embed the artwork in your songs’ ID3 tags, you’ll lose the images if you switch players. If you solely rely on CoverFlow for your artwork in OS X, you’ll also break the iTunes screensaver.
To top all of that there have been numerous complaints about distorted audio with the Windows version. Caveat user.
Oh, I don’t actually use iTunes. I just installed it to see what shenanigans they were up to this time. I uninstalled it right after I took those screenshots. I didn’t even get as far as testing the podcasting support to see if their pathetic support for web standards had improved since version 6.
I store my album art in a cover.jpg file in the same directory as the music files. I use albumart to retrieve them. The cover.jpg files are automatically picked up by my music player (Amarok) and also by the Apache module I use to browse and stream my music collection over our home network (mod_musicindex).
— Mark
Mark: There is an existing driver update infrastructure – Windows Update. Of course, that would require WHQL certification of the drivers Apple provides, which may give lie to their claim Boot Camp is unsupported. Of course, Vista x64 will require signed drivers, but it appears any commercial entity can sign their drivers without interference from Microsoft.
— James
Yeah, so no one’s thinking along the lines of an iLife roll-out for Windows? Seems like an obvious step to me.
Apple wouldn’t release software update just for iTunes, QuickTime, and mini-apps like Bonjour’s Windows services. There has to be other software on the horizon, and with iTV coming next year, seems like a great time to create a nice cross-platform user interface that stays much the same.
True, it’d be a lot of work, but it’d be brilliant.
— Matt Pat
Well, for one thing it doesn’t find the just released iTunes 7.01 update. So either it is looking for major updates only, or someone is a lousy porter.
Unrelatedly, I wish Apple would port instead AFP file sharing to windows. That way, I could drop SMB entirely
— victor
victor beat me to the comment I came here to make: the updater ain’t updating.
It seems odd to me, too, that although iPod software updates are now nicely integrated and automated within iTunes, iTunes updates are not. And shouldn’t the iTunes “check for updates” punt to Apple Software Update if it’s installed, rather than dumping the user to the iTunes download page? (“There’s an update available, but download it your own damn self.”)
— James Kew
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