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A look at Leopard's iTunes visualizers


Mac Rumors has posted screenshots of three new iTunes visualizers coming in Leopard (or sooner, if they're included in the upcoming update). They're called Lathe, Jelly, and Stix-- Lathe is a couple of particle fountains that "pulsate" to the bass notes, Jelly a kalediscope of little colored lights, and Stix (above) is a beam of light that shoots around on what looks like a reflective disco floor.

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!

Mac Rumors has posted screenshots of three new iTunes visualizers coming in Leopard (or sooner, if they're included in the upcoming...
 

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dazonic

Wouldn't it be cool if visualisations were available from frontrow. Any word on this?

September 29 2007 at 10:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DamienDeeee

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)

September 29 2007 at 9:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
leonard_shelby

stix - the coolest one of the bunch imo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SivS9zltg74

September 29 2007 at 5:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
fnl

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!

September 29 2007 at 4:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Arthur

Kaleidostrobe is still the best:
http://kaleidostrobe.lasi.org/

September 29 2007 at 4:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tim Luckey

Your video is taking like an hour to load!!!!!

September 29 2007 at 11:52 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Olivier

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 ! :)

September 29 2007 at 4:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
R Muffet

@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.)

September 29 2007 at 1:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Danny Stocker

If the iTunes visualizer kicked in like a screen saver it would be very usefull

September 29 2007 at 1:34 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
captain underpants and the bringdown gang

G-force platnium is the best. (Although trippin hard and basic plus gabber is incredibly intense)

September 28 2007 at 11:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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