After spending some more time with iTunes 7.0, I’m of the feeling that this is what I’ve wanted iTunes to be all along. The new group view is easily now my favorite way to browse my media, especially my podcasts (which I can now download without killing the program, yay!).

Sadly, you can’t use the grouped art or Coverflow views from within the Podcast management section, nor can you do shuffle or repeat or anything else. There’s an easy solution: create a smart playlist where “Podcast is true” and then call it Podcasts. That’s your new iTunes-like podcast list, supporting groups and Coverflow and repeat/shuffle, etc. Much better.

While I balk at the use of the new interface elements and the flawed reasoning behind it, I must say that the interface redesign works well and I love it.

If you’re not iTunes 7-enabled, you need to get this one.