Apple Announces Major iTunes Update Coming Next Month [Update: Version 10.7 Released Today]

Apple announced a new version of iTunes at today's media event featuring a "dramatically simpler" interface with an edge-to-edge design.

We created iTunes because we love music and we’re going back to our roots with an incredibly clean design that keeps your music at the forefront,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “The new iTunes works seamlessly with iCloud, always keeping your entire library at your fingertips, and we’re adding great new features that make listening to your music more fun.

The updated media application will show albums in a grid interface with song listings unfolding below the album cover art when clicked. Searching is improved, showing inline results as you type and the MiniPlayer has been redesigned to show a miniature version of the album cover art and album and song information and playback controls.

The updated iTunes will also get iCloud integration to show all your media content saved in Apple's cloud storage service and save your position in movies or TV shows automatically so that you can pick up where you left off on another device.

The new version of iTunes will be available in late October.

Update: A new version of iTunes, version 10.7, has been released. It "adds support for iOS 6 running on compatible iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch models. This update also adds support for the latest iPod nano and iPod shuffle models."