Rumored to be called
iMusic,
Steve Jobs introduced iTunes in his
keynote at
MacWorld San Fransisco 2001. Steve actually called it iMusic once in his speech. It is an Apple-branded version of
Casady & Greene's
SoundJam MP with some improvements and an
interface overhaul.
Some of the similarities between iTunes and SoundJam:
1) Choosing "Get Info..." for a music file yields the *identical*
dialogue in both programs, from the three-tabbed layout (Info, Tags,
and Options) right down to every single item, button, and label.
2) The control strip module bundled and auto-installed with each
program is also identical except for a different icon and "iTunes"
inserted in place of "SoundJam MP" in the pop-up menu.
3) The repeat and shuffle buttons at the bottom of the playlist
window in iTunes bear the same icons as their SoundJam siblings.
Their behavior is identical also - for example, option-clicking the
shuffle button in both applications reshuffles the playlist.
Keyboard commands for playing, pausing, moving between tracks, etc
are identical.
Weirdest of all:
4) SoundJam has its own unique alert sound, a bubble-sounding ding.
When SoundJam is the frontmost application, that alert sound preempts
the system alert sound. For example, if you hit the power key while
running SoundJam, the Shut Down dialogue appears accompanied by the
SoundJam bubble-ding. I hit the power key in iTunes: up popped the
Shut Down dialogue, accompanied by the *SoundJam* bubble-ding.
Source: Macintouch (www.macintouch.com) and Duncan Brook