Rumor: new visualizer in iTunes 8 to be Robert Hodgin's Magnetosphere

On the heels of our earlier post about new features in iTunes 8 comes this post from video producer and designer Allan White, speculating that the new visualizer in iTunes might be Processing artist Robert Hodgin's amazing Magnetosphere, which was available up until a few months ago from The Barbarian Group (aka Robert's design company) as an iTunes plugin.

As Allan points out, there are two very strong pieces of evidence for this: 1) Allan emailed Robert, who told him Magnetosphere had been sold to a "third party", and 2) a twitter from Digg founder (and amateur Apple rumor mill) Kevin Rose on Sept. 2nd describing the new visualizer as "planet like objects wrapping around each other w/stars/light streams". As you can see in the image above, this sounds like a pretty apt description of Magnetosphere, which visualizes sound as particle explosions like supernovas. The Barbarian Group website's page for Magnetosphere says that "We've had a ton of interest in it, and we've got some exciting plans, but it's gonna take us a couple months to make it all happen."

Of course, nothing is confirmed, but it all points in the right direction. Personally, I'd love to see Magnetosphere on every iTunes user's screen, and not just because Robert is an amazing artist and also always gracious and helpful when I email him because my Processing particle system animations don't look as cool as his. The world just needs stuff this cool-looking everywhere.

(Thanks to Poopie for noticing that I'd accidentally added an "s" to "Hodgin"!)

[via Create Digital Music]

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Source: http://allanwhite.net/index.php/blog/comments/itunes_8_rumor…

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On the heels of our earlier post about new features in iTunes 8 comes this post from video producer and designer Allan White, speculating...

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Buckingham

*ignore*
filler message so my email confirm gets pushed. tuaw fix this shit.

September 30 2008 at 1:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ali

Who thinks magnetosphere should be available on the App store for iPhones/iPod touch? How sick would that be!?

September 16 2008 at 12:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

tim

Weird that I can not find it in iTunes 8 but the itunes webpage shows a screen shots of magnetosphere and the barbariangroup page says that it now lives inside of itunes. So where did it go?

September 11 2008 at 11:44 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Allan White

I've updated the post with screenshots; it's clear that it's been greatly enhanced with new modes and style. Can't wait to try it!

http://allanwhite.net/index.php/blog/comments/more_music_viz/

September 10 2008 at 5:22 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Magnetosphere has been confirmed to be the new visualiser by Kevin Rose - see his twitter page.

September 06 2008 at 3:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

fishface

people it's just a visualizer
common!!

September 05 2008 at 10:35 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to fishface's comment

Gobo

Yes, and it's a very, very good visualizer.

I think you mean "come on", not "common".

Come on.

September 06 2008 at 8:19 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

David M.

I have been using Magnetosphere for my visualizing needs. It is really responsive to the beat and tone of the music.

September 05 2008 at 10:08 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Chris Tucker

So, I went looking for it and found Magnetosphere. Installed it.

Wow!

I REALLY hope this will be part of iTunes 8.

September 05 2008 at 8:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Allan White

Argh, the link (more on his work and process):

http://allanwhite.net/index.php/blog/comments/more_music_viz/

September 05 2008 at 2:07 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Allan White

It may be gimmicky - and yes, it's not improvements we are all hoping for. I don't think it contributes to bloat, though - loading visualizers is pretty trivial for iTunes.

Most of the stock visualizers are pretty cheesy by now. This one is one of the first that really caught my eye. Hodgins is really breaking some ground by marrying code with... beauty. His work is incredibly creative.

Here's more on some of his other work and process. He entered a Radiohead video contest recently with this one.

September 05 2008 at 2:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply