iTunes' new feature, Genius, is getting a lot of negative reviews but a few good ones as well. The Genius Playlist function, which compiles tracks in the user's collection, is getting far better reviews than the Genius Sidebar, which picks recommendations from the iTunes store. iTunes 8 is not working for me so I haven't tried either yet.

An early negative review of Apple's new Genius function for iTunes. The Unofficial Apple Weblog quickly spotted a few problems. "My iTunes Genius is tone deaf. When I selected 'Man of Constant Sorrow' as my 'seed' song, My Genius actually suggested 'America, F**k [sic] Yeah' and 'Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky)' at the store." One of the commenters had this to say: "You think that's bad? Mine gave me 'Through the Fire and the Flames' by Dragonforce when I clicked 'Dream On' by Aerosmith.'"

Another poor review at ComputerWorld. "Whatever cloud Apple is using is obviously not filled with any geniuses, at least not yet."

Analyst Michael Gartenberg either had a much better experience or was impressed by the demo (from my point of view it looks like his comments are based on Steve Jobs' presentation). "It should properly be called Magic because that's how it works."

PC World ran into a roadblock when offering Genius tracks by an artist not sold at iTunes: The Beatles. "What this suggests is that the iTunes Store listings largely determine what is showing up in your Genius list. If an artist isn't available in the iTunes Store, the Genius playlist creator may not work. I tested this further by using the Genius button with some really obscure acts and mislabeled songs. That didn't work, either."

Finally, positive words from Macworld on both functions. Here's a comment on the Genius Sidebar: "As much as I might like to pick on Apple for putting yet another iTunes Store hook into iTunes, this one seems to work quite well."