Finally, if you're a fan of Smart Playlists, iTunes 9 finally brings conditionals. Yes, this means you can now create playlist that match any or all of several groups of criteria.

One of the most significant new features--and one that will frustrate some users with its limitations--is . Similar to iTunes 8's sharing feature, Home Sharing lets you listen to music shared by other iTunes users on your local network. But it doesn't stop there.

To set up Home Sharing, you first choose Advanced -> Turn On Home Sharing. Then each copy of iTunes must be authorized (Store -> Authorize Computer) to use a common iTunes account, which means a maximum of five computers can use Home Sharing together. Once multiple computers are authorized, each appears in iTunes's Shared section on the other computers. You can double-click on an audio or video track hosted by another computer to stream it over the network to play it on your own computer.

But there are a few big changes here. First, you can also items from a shared iTunes library to your own. For example, to copy a music track from your spouse's library, you just drag it from the track list on the right to your own library on the left (or select the track and click on the Import button); the track is immediately copied and appears in your library. It really, truly is in your library: it will be there even when your spouse's Mac isn't on and running iTunes, and even when you take your MacBook away from home. This isn't smoke and mirrors.