Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Odds and ends, iTunes, Leopard
A look at Leopard's iTunes visualizers

Seeing just screenshots of these doesn't do it, of course-- the whole thing depends on how well it moves with the music. And I have to say-- I hardly ever use the visualization functions on any mp3 player I've ever had. Sometimes during a party I'll turn it on, but even then eventually people turn it off and start browsing my iTunes collection anyway.
Still, every piece of news about Leopard means we're one step closer to release. New visualizers may just be visualizers, but at least they're new! Just a month left!

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Will said 9:29PM on 9-28-2007
It's about time! I just switch to Magnetosphere (which is nice looking and very responsive), and it's a welcome change from the "Waveform + Flow field + Color spectrum" formula that's been in use for the last decade. Glad Apple's decided to bring iTunes into the present.
Next up on the list of outdated features to fix: Ink. I had better luck with the handwriting recognition on my friend's Newton, and we all know what people thought about that... Pretty please make it suck less?
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kevin Kowalewski said 10:28PM on 9-28-2007
Milkdrop for OS X (ProjectM) is much better...
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captain underpants and the bringdown gang said 11:18PM on 9-28-2007
G-force platnium is the best. (Although trippin hard and basic plus gabber is incredibly intense)
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Danny Stocker said 1:34AM on 9-29-2007
If the iTunes visualizer kicked in like a screen saver it would be very usefull
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Reg Muffet said 1:43AM on 9-29-2007
@Will > "I had better luck with the handwriting recognition on my friend's Newton, and we all know what people thought about that..."
Which Newton?
Yes, the Original MessagePad (OMP), the MP 100, the MP 110, and 120, all had abysmal, "eat up martha" sucky handwriting recognition (unless you were born in 1959 and learnt a particular style of cursive that it seemed to like).
However...
Newton 2.0's "Rosetta" recognition engine (Apple seems to like reusing codeames - did you know "iPod" was actually intended for a kiosk...) was actually very very good. It was developed and bought from Russian programmers and cost an enormous amount.
Arguably the best the industry has seen until Tablet PC, which was/is let down for me by the frictionless digitizer screen that most of them ship with.
I wonder if Rosetta-the-HWR-engine will make a comeback for the iPhone-esque tablet predicted for next year?
(Which none of us will buy because of Apple's obscene behavior over iPhone 1.1.1... Or will we.)
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Olivier said 4:45AM on 9-29-2007
I made a quick video to show how these visualizers look like : http://tinyurl.com/2ssbl7 (50mb video)
It looks like it's slow (probably an accelerated 3D problem due to video capture) but it runs very smoothly ! :)
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Tim Luckey said 11:52AM on 9-29-2007
Your video is taking like an hour to load!!!!!
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Arthur said 4:14PM on 9-29-2007
Kaleidostrobe is still the best:
http://kaleidostrobe.lasi.org/
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fnl said 5:00PM on 9-29-2007
Can only approve with poster #3 - if you want the coolest visualizer for Mac (or even the dreaded Mirco$oft junk), try G-Force (http://www.soundspectrum.com/g-force/), and if you like it, but the full version (Platinum). Never seen anything that kicks ass more: not a single visitor who was not completely amazed after seeing G-Force doing its tricks on a 40" flatscreen :)=). It's been round for years and I am still waiting to see anything to get near it!
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Paul said 5:48PM on 9-29-2007
stix - the coolest one of the bunch imo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SivS9zltg74
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damienG said 9:23PM on 9-29-2007
how come after all these iTunes years, we still don't have visualizers that are as cool & numerous as in Sound Jam MP?
(iTunes was born from the mp3 program Sound Jam MP, which Apple bought from Cassidy & Greene - for those who aren't aware)
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dazonic said 10:54PM on 9-29-2007
Wouldn't it be cool if visualisations were available from frontrow. Any word on this?
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