Well its offical Apple iTunes 7.1 was just recently released. This is the quote from the Apple Site on the release:

About iTunes 7.1 for Windows
iTunes is the world’s best way to organize and enjoy your personal digital music and video collection with your Mac. iTunes is also the easiest way to sync music, videos, and more with your iPod.With iTunes, easily create a digital music and video collection by importing your personal music CDs or downloading your favorite songs and videos from the iTunes Store. Create your own playlists, perfect for any mood or occasion. Burn playlists to CDs and play them on your home stereo, or sync iPod with iTunes and enjoy your collection in your car or on the go.

What’s New in this Version
Using iTunes 7.1, you can now enjoy your favorite iTunes movies, TV shows, music, and more from the comfort of your living room with Apple TV. iTunes 7.1 also supports a new full screen Cover Flow and improved sorting options to let you decide how iTunes should sort your favorite artists, albums, and songs.

You may remember my previous article talking about how to install iTunes 7.0.x on Windows Vista x64. Well I am getting ready to install iTunes 7.1 on my machine and will provide an update on the progress. Hopefully Apple has done a good job at getting iTunes to work with Windows Vista x64.

Update: (8:00 am) I have tried installing Apple iTunes 7.1 on my Windows Vista Ultimate x64 and it failed dismally. Gave me some error that said Apple iTunes installer could not run VBScript for the installer. I don’t really understand why iTunes is using VBScript, because this is moving backwards from every other MSI installer, and this is actually the first program that I have had problems installing since upgrading to Windows Vista back at the end of November 2006. I really have a feeling this has to do with Apple programmers not understand Windows MSI Installer. Why can’t Apple hire Windows Application developers like Microsoft hires Mac Application developers for its Office Suite. I will post another update as soon as I find a solution.

Update: (2:01 pm) Apparently Apple requires you to enabled VB Script which was disabled by Microsoft by default because of potential use by internet worms and trojan viruses. I have created a step-by-step guide to walk users through the process of enabled VB Script and then disabling it after the iTunes install is done. Apparently Apple is not the only vendor having problems with the disabling of the scripting languages in Vista, I have seen reports that Adobe Photoshop CS3 is having trouble installing because JScript is disabled. I am willing to put up with this for now, because it was a good move on Microsoft’s part because of the harm the scripting languages have caused in the past.

Well it has been a little over a three month since their original Podcast server bit the dust. But I am happy to welcome back the Sound Bytes Podcast, and now I have two months of shows to catch up on. Thanks guys!

For anybody not familure with the Sound Byte Guys here is a quick biography of the program.

Since 1989, Sound Bytes has been a call-in radio show on public radio. That airs every Sunday from 11 AM to 1 PM, on 1180 WHAM out of Rochester, NY bringing you news, views, and stuff you can use, as the guys talk about hardware, software, nifty toys, industry trends, silly stuff, and just about anything that flits through our brains.

You can listen to their show every week via streaming audio out of Rochester, NY or visiting their website.

It seems like the multi-billion dollar children are at it again. The bitter rivalry between these two companies ceases to amaze me. Apparently none of Apples products are ready for Windows Vista according to a Yahoo News article.

According to a document that Apple has posted on its Web site, none of the software that it’s made available for the Windows environment has been updated for Vista compatibility.

That includes not only iTunes but QuickTime, Airport For Windows, Bonjour For Windows, iDisk utility, and AppleWorks for Windows. All of those applications or utilities are listed by Apple as compatible with Windows XP and earlier versions of Windows, but not Vista.

It would seem that Apple is either very lazy or has alternate motives for not supporting Windows Vista. While I believe it was the latter, to try and push the consumers buying new computers at this time of year over to an Apple so that the buyers can still use their beloved iPod. Apple can give a bunch of BS about how they haven’t had time to update the software because Windows Vista was just released, but that is just another false truth. Windows Vista was first released to developers and corporations as a final and stable operating system back in the later part of November. In addition it had a stable API for months before that. So Apple has had a good 6 months to actually work on getting their products ready for Windows Vista.

Credit should be given to AppleDefects.com for tipping me off to this article.