It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Apple is working on a new version of iTunes and iOS. It does take a snitch however to get some information about what will make those two software updates special. According to 9to5Mac, work on iTunes 11 began well before iTunes 10.6 even hit the market. It’s supposed to bring a lot of under the hood changes, minimal design changes, and the highlight feature will be extremely tight iCloud integration. Oh and one more thing, it’s supposed to be the version of iTunes that you’ll need to connect to iOS 6 devices. Speaking about iOS 6 support, if Apple doesn’t ship iTunes 11 on time, which could very well be the case, then it’s widely assumed that iTunes 10.6 will simply get a software update to address the issue.
Where things get interesting is the rumor that Apple is going to totally redo the user interface for their App Store. Back in February of this year, Apple bought a company called Chomp. Their speciality was building an app search engine that didn’t suck. Anyone who has ever used the App Store knows that while it’s highly functional, it isn’t exactly pretty.
When are we going to hear more about the next iTunes and iOS 6? Well, if we had to speculate we’d say we’ll see iOS 6 at this year, which will likely happen in late June. As for iTunes, we’re going to say September/October, because that’s always been the tradition, and because Apple is likely going to introduce a new iPod touch at the same time.
Look, no one likes iTunes, and it’s easily the worst thing about Apple’s ecosystem. Jason Snell, the guy in charge of Macworld Magazine, agrees and he recently penned a piece explaining his issues with the app and why it needs a total rewrite.
We hope Apple listens.