Revisiting CoverSutra, now with Last.fm and Growl integration

It's been a while since we first mentioned Sophia Teutschler's CoverSutra, a new iTunes interaction and manipulation app, and it's come quite a ways since its v1.0 debut. From the start it's offered things like global keyboard shortcuts for controlling iTunes (including one for toggling Shuffle), Apple Remote integration and album artwork that can live on your desktop underneath all your other windows (for that nice Exposé peek-a-boo effect), but recent developments have brought two major new features. The first is integration with the increasingly ubiquitous Growl notification system of which we're big fans, but the second big new feature finally made me decide to buy a license: integration with the Last.fm music community. For those who haven't seen it, Last.fm can watch what music you're playing (on both Mac OS X and Windows) and upload what is more or less a history of all the songs you listen to (it doesn't upload the songs themselves; it isn't the next Kazaa/LimeWire). From there you can share your playlists and discover new music through both friends and strangers who also use the site, and even embed your Last.fm playlist in a website or blog. It's a great service for any music enthusiast, and now it's built right into Sophia's excellent iTunes controller app. Consider me sold.

A demo of CoverSutra is available from CoverSutra.com, while a license sells for €9.95 or roughly $13 USD.

View Tags

Source: http://coversutra.com/

Categories

Audio Software Cool tools Productivity iTunes

It's been a while since we first mentioned Sophia Teutschler's CoverSutra, a new iTunes interaction and manipulation app, and it's come...

Add a Comment

Sign in »

13 Comments

Filter by:

Theo

I saw on the site "do you really want to switch to a cinematic like application while having a short break on your sofa." You don't have to use FrontRow to control iTunes, it doesn't een have to be the front app.

April 27 2007 at 1:10 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Cole:

I'm a big fan of Synergy -- it's probably my favorite all-around iTunes add-on. But while it has more features than CoverSutra, CoverSutra betters it in a few areas. For example, CoverSutra's onscreen control window is similar to Synergy's informational display, but also includes playback controls, a progress slider, and a ratings interface. CoverSutra also adds improved Apple Remote support, as well as a command to temporarily disable all keyboard shortcuts, a unique feature that's useful if you're using another app that happens to use the same shortcuts you've set up in CoverSutra.

Having reviewed both add-ons, I still recommend Synergy as the most feature-rich utility in this category, but I like CoverSutra a lot, as well.

April 26 2007 at 4:31 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Paul Turnbull

Synergy has pretty much everything Coversutra has in terms of active functionality (doing stuff vs. displaying stuff) for half the price. Plus Synergy has the ability to run an Applescript when the track changes which allows me to run auto rating scripts. I don't see myself switching soon.

April 26 2007 at 3:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

derek

LMFAO at Ralph

April 26 2007 at 3:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

kevin

Chix with Dix

April 26 2007 at 3:45 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

derek

haha oasis rocks! Dixie Chicks??? what the hell kind of music is that?

April 26 2007 at 2:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Danny

Bring back the Dixie Chicks! I mean, really, do we need more than one image to illustrate music related stories. I liked it in the good ol' days of TUAW when music story meant Dixie Chicks.

April 26 2007 at 2:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Matthias Schonder

Coversutra is one of my fav apps.... I really like it.

Oh... and it's a great pleasure to support Sophia [ http://flickr.com/photos/sophiestication/ ] ;)

April 26 2007 at 2:37 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tim

Only if its Last.fm integration including syncing played lists from iPods, it's the reason I'm still sticking with iScrobbler.

April 26 2007 at 2:33 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

chris

nice call racco. i've not caught on to the macheist craze until u just mentioned it. i have been trying out coversutra for the past few days and was on the verge of purchasing. within 5 minutes on macheist i found the code to get the free software. very nice!

April 26 2007 at 2:30 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply