APPLE INTRODUCES iTUNES HOME SHARING FEATURE

By K.C.Bishoppe

A new feature in iTunes software known as Home Sharing allows iTunes owners with multiple PCs and Macs within the same network to listen to and copy music stored on other systems.

Home Sharing is easier for users to enable and use than the previous iTunes library sharing feature. Simply by using the enable/disable feature a user can decide whether to share content with other users on the network.

When a user's system enables Home Sharing, the software sees the first library and allows the user to either play the music over the network or copy it to the new system.

The software still has bugs that need to be fixed since the bugs prevent users from using the software optimally. Discussions on Apple forums show the bugs to be widespread and continuing.

Additionally, the Home Sharing software will only work on systems connected with the same iTunes accounts. Family members cannot transfer downloaded music between PCs if they have different iTunes accounts.

There's a way around this by transferring music to flash drives, transferring the music to the other system and then authorizing the system to play the music. Doing it this way is much more complicated and time consuming and won't be appreciated by users who are always looking for the simpler way to do things.