Apple iTunes is a free media player for both Windows and Mac OS X. It was a media library made by Apple for Mac OS X only until a Windows-ported was launched since version 4. It was a hit since then.
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Initially as a proprietary digital music organizer for Mac computer and iPod, iTunes is now regarded as one of the best media player of all time. Despite the criticism it received for not having a Windows version from the beginning, today many Windows user who have tried iTunes are satisfied and decided to continue using it. It has evolved much, with the current version (ver. 8.2 at the time of writing) offers several features like movie player (though limited to mp4 video only, not even the Quicktime mov files), podcasting and many more.
As its name bears, the iTunes player is associated with the iTunes online music store in many ways. Registered user can purchase songs (DRM-enabled) via this service for less than US$1 per song, though user would need a credit card to make a purchase. This is quite cheap for most users, and also comparable to most of other online music stores.
On the surface, iTunes is very simple to use, especially the Library that is much more easier to manage than those found in Winamp or Windows Media Player. Just with a few clicks and drags&drops, you'll be just a step away to play your selection of songs a.k.a. playlist. Media library can't be easier than this.
iTunes also features built-in CD ripping, allowing you to convert CD musics to AAC (DRM or non-DRM), mp3 or Apple Lossless. It also plays non-DRM Windows Media Audio (WMA) files but it could have been better if it allows conversion to other format like FLAC. iTunes also supports 3rd party plugins but so far there is no plugin to extend the capabilities of handling the non-default audio format.
Even iTunes comes with its flaws too. It is BLOATED with many most likely unnecessary stuff like the Bonjour service and less than useful Quicktime player, though Bonjour may be uninstalled later. Quicktime is however compulsory or iTunes won't work, which may make people doubt is iTunes by itself really a media player when it has to rely on the presence of Quicktime where most of the time Quicktime is only used to watch downloaded movie trailers? There are ways to use iTunes without Quicktime but this is another story.
Users also have been nagging for a long time about iTunes support for portable media player other than iPod but Apple is just too stubborn (or stupid) to listen to these complaints. Thank God there is a software named Bad Apple that allows iTunes to work seamlessly with most major portable media player like Creative Zen and Microsoft Zune although there is no guarantee that the process would be fuss-free. Overall, iTunes still do a good job especially allowing each song to have its own equalizer setting (because different song need different equalization).
Get iTunes for free here:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
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