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iTunes 101: Using the Album Art widget

by Mike Schramm Sep 3rd 2010 at 10:00AM

Here's a cool new feature in iTunes 10 that we haven't mentioned yet: when listening to any song in your library, you can double click on the album art window in the lower left hand corner to detach it from the main window and see it full size. That's not new -- you could get a closer look at the art in previous versions of iTunes. But what is new is that when you mouse over that detached art, you now get full QuickTime-style controls for your tracks. You can then minimize the main window (using those weirdly-aligned buttons, of course), and then just control the music directly from that square widget (which can also be resized any way you want).

Pretty neat, and somewhat hard to find if you don't usually zoom in to see your album art full size. This replicates some (not all) of the functionality provided by CoverSutra and a number of other "iTunes controllers," so it looks like Apple has (yet again) decided to make a popular function in third-party apps part of the official thing.


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Here's a cool new feature in iTunes 10 that we haven't mentioned yet: when listening to any song in your library, you can double click on...
 

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Bonifacio

Still no quick access to lyrics? Then I will stick to iTunes 9 for the moment.

September 07 2010 at 9:01 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Peter

This makes me happy, but I need a way to make it always on top (like you can with the mini player). Time for some searching...

September 05 2010 at 6:08 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ryan Gray

Funny, on my Windows XP box, that window has a fake Windows Vista or 7 titlebar style. Wish it showed the track info for Internet radio (yes, I'm off to http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html).

September 03 2010 at 12:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Galley

So that's what Sophia was talking about this morning.

"With every iTunes release, CoverSutra dies a little."

September 03 2010 at 11:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
John Green

Also new... And a hint towards the next 'remote' app update... If you click on Airplay in the bottom of iTunes, you can now individually adjust volume levels for each airport express etc.

September 03 2010 at 11:32 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
marc

the hold steady almost killed me.

September 03 2010 at 11:08 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike Napier

An even better addition would have been the option to display lyrics in the window as well. It works well on the iPhone/iPod Touch but in iTunes you have to right-click on the song, click Get Info and then click on the lyrics tab. Then, when that window (lyrics) is up, you lose all playback and volume controls. Kind of silly.

September 03 2010 at 11:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matt

For me at least, the song has to already be playing for the controls to show up in the pop-out window.

September 03 2010 at 11:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Johnny

This feature, I like.

September 03 2010 at 11:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
John.B

FYI, "those weirdly-aligned buttons" ("the stoplights" aka: close, minimize, and zoom) can be fixed:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -1

September 03 2010 at 10:48 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to John.B's comment
Anthony La

Sadly, that seems to disable this new feature.

September 03 2010 at 11:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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