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I downloaded iTunes 7 yesterday and installed it on Vista RC1. Here is my quick review after a day of using it, since I have yet to find anything about iTunes 7 on Vista RC1.

For starters, the interaface feels more sleek and streamlined. The brushed metal look is out in favor of a softer white and silver gradient; it has a more appropriate feel in Vista’s Aero interface, although not quite a perfect match. The source list is separated out more, having more distinct areas for the library, the iTunes Music Store, the devices and the playlists. This seems more logical than the previous source list layout, where each section ran right into the next.

There are a few new features, such as downloadable games, feature length movies and automatic retrieval of album art. For your tracks that do not already have album art associated with them, you can allow iTunes to automatically search through the iTunes Music Store for album art. Then you can flip through your music collection using Cover Flow, as if you were flipping through the jewel cases themselves. When you flip through the album art too fast, the animation becomes choppy and iTunes stutters while loading the art. If I had a faster CPU and better video card than a RADEON 9600, I might not have the choppy animation, but it’s bearable nonetheless.

The current selection of downloadable games and feature length movies isn’t as stunning as the rest of the available media from the iTunes Music Store. Steve Jobs mentioned that Apple will be adding more content each week for the next several weeks, and then monthly thereafter. The price for other media seems a bit steep. For example, Pac Man is available as a $4.99 download, and Under the Tuscan Sun is available for $9.99. It’s available from Amazon.com for $20.99. You cannot currently burn iTunes movies to DVD; they can only be played in iTunes and on an iPod.

Now, to my problems with iTunes on Vista RC1: I am having repeated problems with Vista drawing the window, as well as problems synchronizing iTunes with an iPod. When I connect our iPod to the computer, Vista always wants to check the iPod for errors before letting iTunes have control of it for a sync. The first time I connected the iPod after installing iTunes 7, I needed to update the iPod’s firmware to v.1.2. This seemed to take forever, until I noticed that the iPod wanted to be plugged into an AC adapter to finish loading the new firmware. iTunes never reported any change in the status, so I just let it run all day "updating" the iPod when I was at work. I do not know what this means for people who do not have an AC adapter, since the iPod no longer comes with one.

After browsing around iTunes and/or synchronizing our iPod, eventually iTunes becomes unusable because the window becomes locked. The interface does not redraw properly when this happens, usually resulting in a window where new elements are drawn without clearing the old elements. So, if I scroll in the library, it will look like the text has been smeared across the window. I have not wanted to wait more than an hour to see if this clears up on its own, so I always end up having to end the iTunes task. It’s a pain in the ass to try to get this to remain stable for any longer than a half hour. Luckily, I’ve got a lot to keep me busy right now, so I can walk away and come back.

So, I have mixed feelings about iTunes 7 running on Vista RC1. Perhaps the experience might actually be better if I were still running Windows XP, but I’m not. I’ll continue to test this scenario out and report my findings here. For now, I’m going to go watch Project Runway (damn Lynn for getting me hooked!).

Update: Apparently I am not the only one complaining about iTunes 7. The Sydney Morning Herald has an article about the problems with iTunes 7. This thread on a Vista forum reports that these problems are not unique to Vista, either.