Sunday, September 14, 2008

Apple unleashes Genius Sidebar ... would you like fries with that?

Well done Apple ... but don't confuse the Genius sidebar with the Apple Genius Bar (technical support in Apple stores).

On Tuesday Steve Jobs unveiled their latest feature for iTunes. Genius.

Everyone know that Apple's agenda is to push more iTunes sales. Genius sidebar is the latest arsenal in their toolkit.

When you highlight a song, the Top Songs You're Missing feature tells you the most popular tracks by that artist that you don't own. This is obvious next step, but very clever. Then there are the recommended tracks from other artists. It's pretty slick, and may make money from people who are keen to extend their collections.

It will be interesting to see when Genius extends to movies and television shows. It would be great if it provided music fans with the tools to analyze how their music collection fits together. But it is still a step in the right direction.

Apple Genius Sidebar

I tried out Genius and it worked quite well with rock, but the service seems to stumble with older music including my indie, acid jazz and classical collections.