If you’ve been reading reports about problems with iTunes 7, and have held off installing it on your PC or Mac, the first update has finally appeared from Apple.

iTunes 7 does bring some excellent features to iPod owners. The best of these is ‘gapless playback’, which allows you to listen to music uninterrupted by a 1 or 2 second gap. While this doesn’t affect songs which are individual in nature, dance CDs and other music which is meant to seamlessly flow from one song to the next, without interruption, can now be heard as intended. It’s not clear why Apple made us wait 5 years for this feature, something that tapes and CDs have been able to do for much longer, but now that it’s finally here, we’re happy. The ability to manage your iPod and update it are also now done solely through iTunes. Other features include CoverFlow and the introduction, in the US, of a movie download option.

Specifics on what Apple have tweaked in the 7.0.1 version are slim, but according to their site, iTunes 7.0.1 addresses stability and performance issues with Cover Flow, CD importing, iPod syncing, and more. It will be interesting to see users reports on the stability of this new version, and whether or not Apple will have to release a 7.0.2 version anytime soon. But for now, if you’ve been holding off, it’s time to install iTunes 7.0.1!

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