iTunes Controllers December 9, 2008
Posted by Chaim Gartenberg in : Computers, Music , trackback
Bowtie, running on my desktop with the Wet Floor theme.
For me, the most often used application on my computer is my iTunes controller. Now there are several of these applications that basically, as the name would suggest, allow you to control iTunes and since I listen to music on an almost never-ending basis, I find a good controller to be the most useful application I have. For some of my top picks, read on!
Here are some of the best:
TotalTunes Control ($8, Mac Only) – this is my current favorite application. Coming up at a series of hotkeys, the controller fades in and allows me to change songs, search, change playlists, and do basically anything i could do in iTunes. Unfortunately though, at some point between when i first got it and now, they updated that application with additional features — and an 8$ price tag. So the most up to date version has more features then listed here. But the design is simple, efficient, and is very compatible with Spaces and everything else.
FluidTunes – This is both the coolest and least useful of the apps listed here. Fluidtunes is basically a Cover flow interface, with forward, back, play, and pause buttons on the side. So, what’s the feature? It overlays the cover flow onto your webcam, allowing you to flip through the cover flow interface with your hands. Quite cool.
Bowtie – This is actually my newest controller, and i happen to also really like this. Bowtie is an iTunes controller, but is highly customizable, and extremely versatile.It comes with several skins, which allow you to display at most song info, and basic control buttons, or just have a small blurb telling you what song it is. Already plenty more online. Also highly recommended.
Moody – An interesting little app, Moody lets you tag your music by mood, and then you can just select the mood your in and get those songs. A simple, color-coded interface, I had 2 complaints – 1. I don’t have 16 separate moods. May just be that I’m a guy, but still. There are 16 moods you must set (its not even optional), and each one needs a name. 2. I couldn’t get the auto-tag thing to work, so I’d have to mark each song by hand. Also, most of my music isn’t in the database. But if you can figure it out, moody is cool and does what it says well.
Keyboard – I use a Macbook. Macbooks have iTunes controls in the function keys. Probably the most used of all the controllers mentioned.
What you think- are you gonna go for one of these controllers or stick to the controls you already have on the keyboard? Let us know in the comments.
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