When we first looked at CoverFlow a little more than a year ago, we were impressed: "It really is nice to look at, I have to say, and flipping through albums is fun...I'm certainly eager to watch this application develop." It seems that Cupertino was also smitten, as the message on CoverFlow's (former) home page explains:
"We are pleased to announce that all CoverFlow technology and intellectual property was recently sold to Apple. It has been incorporated into the latest version of iTunes."
Let that be a lesson to you, kids. Work hard, and you, too, can be consumed by a corporate giant. Seriously, though, congratulations to the authors of CoverFlow. Well done indeed.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
9-12-2006 @ 3:56PM
Dave said...
Wow congrats to the CoverFlow team! For a second when I opened iTunes 7 I thought Apple had ripped off another independent software program...wouldn't be the first time.
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9-12-2006 @ 4:05PM
craig said...
There is hope yet for developers who's apps are seemingly being rendered useless by Leopard's features!
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9-12-2006 @ 4:08PM
Tek said...
Has anyone tested out Cover Flow in iTunes 7 to see if it supports full screen scrolling? I didn't see it during the demo, and I thought that it'd be cool to have...but I guess they're banking on people using FrontRow for anything full screen, huh?
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9-12-2006 @ 4:21PM
Miguel said...
Congrats to the CoverFlow guy (if my mind doesn't fail me, it's only one guy that created the app) for such a great deal with Apple. If Apple buys the rights from an app from me and integrates in one of their applications, I would be very proud!. When I saw the first pic of the iTunes 7 during the live coverage, the first impression was "wow, that people rip one cool app I saw a lot of months ago!" but this time I was wrong :-)
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9-12-2006 @ 4:22PM
Lobato said...
I hope they put it on FrontRow! I loved using coverflow on fullscreen but i couldn't get my airclick usb to skip the tunes like in frontrow, just the albums.
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9-12-2006 @ 4:23PM
phlavor said...
I agree with Dave, the Coverflow guy (guys?) have put together a great peice of software and I'm so glad that Apple brought it into iTunes rather than ripping it off. I remember when this was just a concept on the Ars Technica Macintoshian Achaia Forums. Good job guys!
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9-12-2006 @ 4:57PM
Ryan Meyers said...
Hey Hey! Where is my thanks for the tip at??? lol, jk. Yeah I was really glad to see this happen, after first I thought Apple just stole the idea much like they have done in the past, but makes me feel better that they do recognize those talented, and send some money their way.
Now, I just wonder how much $ they got?!
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9-12-2006 @ 4:58PM
Tush said...
I still wish that compilation albums would stick together even when in viewing by artists.
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9-12-2006 @ 5:35PM
Bagel said...
If memory serves me correctly, Windows Media Player also has a similar CD cover view. I wonder if CoverFlow came onto the scene first and if so, with the recent rash of patent suits(e.g., Creative vs. Apple) in media player land, if Apple would capitalize on their newly acquired intellectual property (as much as I hate this kind of patent/IP warring) and start hunting down other programs that share this way of file organization. I know they'd have to secure a patent for this, but this IP just makes me wonder.
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9-12-2006 @ 5:55PM
lOUDsCREAMEr said...
hey all suckers!!
Apple has NOT ripped off CoverFlow, coz Coverflow=Apple
http://www.steelskies.com/coverflow/?
;p
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9-12-2006 @ 6:08PM
anonymous said...
that was the point of the article read before you post!
tit
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9-12-2006 @ 6:45PM
Dewey said...
If I'm correct, did'nt these guy(s) just release a RC1 version of CoverFlow just a week or so ago? That's fairly odd, and I doubt it was a last minunte purchase for Apple,ie being incorporated throughout iTS. Maybe they just did it to allow Apple's introduction of it a complete suprise. Or maybe I'm wrong all together and RC1 was released a long time ago, and I just did'nt realize it.
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9-12-2006 @ 6:50PM
Dewey said...
According to iusethis.com CoverFlow RC1.2 was released not a week or so ago but 2 days ago(I didn't think it was that long ago that I downloaded it). Any body have any ideas on why? Are they continuing their app even after the purhcase by Apple?
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9-12-2006 @ 7:44PM
James said...
I dislike how the functionality to seperate entre CDs into the "Coverflow" playlist was lost.
Anyone know of a fix?
Congrats to the guy who created CoverFlow!
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9-12-2006 @ 8:58PM
harrison said...
anyone know if there is any way to import album art from cover flow to itunes 7?
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9-12-2006 @ 10:24PM
Thomas said...
Congratulations CoverFlow!! I'm glad to see Apple didn't just take it. :)
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9-13-2006 @ 7:13AM
Michael Moll said...
For #8 TUSH:
To consolidate albums by various artists or even albums where a song features another artist, highlight the whole album and then right-click > Get Info. Now Click the INFO tab and there is a spot for album artist. For compilations simply put Various Artist, or for, say a CD that features other artist on one or two songs, put the main artist. After you do that press enter and it will consiladte what appeared to be doubles because of seperate artist into one album cover.
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9-13-2006 @ 10:20AM
geoff said...
Coverflow was created by Catfish from the Arstechnica forums. I think he released that very last version before iTunes7 as a thank you to all the people who had been using his betas. He's been strangely silent at the Ars forums - presumably because he too busy rolling in dough.
He also has a wicked iTunes visualizer at his steelskies website.
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9-14-2006 @ 2:09AM
Robbie said...
OK, the only thing(s) I know Apple ripped off for a fact was Watson with Sherlock and maybe System Restore with Time Machine. But, what else did they "rip off"??
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9-14-2006 @ 4:55PM
dan.hutch said...
Integrated cover flow is great, it was very pretty before but not very useful really, now it's integrated into iTunes it's really come into its own. Congrats to the CoverFlow team, now when will we get integrated LAME encoding?
P.S. Apart from cover flow the rest of the UI changes make be want to puke (well ok, it's not quite that bad), please bring back beautiful Aqua blue!!!
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