Browse iTunes cover art with CoverFlow

I have fond memories of sifting through stacks of LP's, not quite sure of what I wanted to listen to, hoping to be inspired by just the right piece of cover art. Or better yet, digging through rows of dusty milk crates in an out-of-the-way record store, searching for that one treasure that I just had to take home. Reading a list of text in iTunes just isn't the same. Could I somehow recreate that old experience on my Mac?

CoverFlow comes pretty close. It's an album cover browser that's been written in Cocoa and makes use of OpenGL. Flip through your albums one at a time, while keeping the next and previously viewed album visible. Double click your selection to begin playing it in iTunes. Album art can be pulled from mp3 tags, Synergy, Clutter or Amazon, and if CoverFlow still doesn’t find the appropriate artwork, you can just drag and drop an image in place.

It really is nice to look at, I have to say, and flipping through albums is fun. There's even a preference that allows you to set conditions that dictate which albums are displayed, smart album style (add or delete several conditions to seriously customize your options). The current release, version 1.6, is a technical demo and will expire on August 14th. The developer has set up a page of feature requests, and says that a wiki is in the works. I'm certainly eager to watch this application develop. Check it out if you're interested.

[Via What Do I Know]

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Source: http://www.steelskies.com/coverflow/HomePage.html

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I have fond memories of sifting through stacks of LP's, not quite sure of what I wanted to listen to, hoping to be inspired by just the...

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cddesign

There is a similar program called CoverBuddy. It let's you browse and play by cd cover design, jukebox style. The cool thing is you can browse and play your iTunes library remotely through a web browser - awesome for a home network. I've been using it for weeks on a Powerbook and it's rock solid. CoverBuddy http://www.coverbuddy.com

September 18 2005 at 1:17 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Raheel

Fabulous app. One more thing to show after Quicksilver to make people feel either jealous about a Mac, or start owning one. I hope the developer is working on more features for the near future.

August 17 2005 at 4:09 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Steve

Ditto to most of your comments. I find that it is also a great tool for locating artwork for iTunes. I right-click (yes I own a Mac, but use a real mouse--though not the new-out-of-my-price-range-for-what-you-get Mighty Mouse) on an album which takes me to Amazon without having to type in a thing and I get my artwork. I am going to suggest that he include a paste feature (if it is there I could not find it) so when I find artwork that the program can't I can add it myself. What a dynamite product.

August 12 2005 at 12:25 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dean Shan

That's really cool. I can't wait for the final version.

August 12 2005 at 12:22 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

PaulH

Does this only work in Tiger? Cos in 10.3.9 it doesn't wanna install?

August 12 2005 at 11:50 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

peeweejd

wow. thats pretty cool. Imagine having this as the controls for some uber sweet jukebox remote. or piped to your TV to select what plays over your home theater. or as a DVD catalog too!

August 12 2005 at 8:33 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Henri

Looks like an improved version of the already great JewelCase from http://www.opticalalchemy.com/. Now we wait for a stable version!

August 12 2005 at 8:07 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mark

i used this thismorning and it's way freakin' cool! i love this program and might consider paying for it if it comes down to that. great job on this one... now the trick is to figure out how to extend the time beyond it's expiration. :) it would be goos to get it in fullscreen to use as a party jukebox.

August 12 2005 at 8:04 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

niji

nice? neat? huh? it is absolutely f'ing the the most creative use of a mac i have seen. get this evaluation copy and run to his site and give him hints on what and how you want him to further develop it. like: control clicking on it and it giving a subwindow of being able to pick the song to play . or, (already requested) command clicking on it to see the back of the album. brilliant and beautiful.

August 12 2005 at 1:46 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

kakapo

very nice application... wish it lasted longer than a few days, tho

August 12 2005 at 12:02 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply