CoverSutra: Control iTunes With Style

Posted by Nick Yassen on 02/2/07 in Applications, Giveaways, Music

Controlling iTunes can be annoying, because the only way you can do things such as skipping tracks, or pausing your music is switching back to iTunes, if you are working on something else at the same time, this becomes a hassle. There’s many applications and widgets which will help you to control iTunes more easily, whether you’re browsing the Web, chatting with friends in iChat, or managing your pictures in iPhoto.

CoverSutra is a fairly new application made by Sophiestication Software, It allows you to control your iTunes application at the click of a hotkey - with style.

CoverSutra sits in your Menubar and/or Dock, meaning that everything is easily controlled when ever you want.

You can quickly control iTunes from any application, with customizable keyboard shortcuts, or by bringing a floating window to front with a press of a button. CoverSutra also works with an Apple Remote, making it perfect for use from across the room. The floating window shows all the important details about the currently playing song, and allows you to control iTunes with options such as pausing, playing, skipping track, going back a track, viewing artwork, and more, all from one handy pop up display.

CoverSutra doesn’t have a search feature incorporated yet for digging deeper into your iTunes library, but it is in the works as this is only version 1 of a wonderful application.

The information bezel gives you visual feedback of changes in iTunes, like song and rating changes. It also shows the album art of your currently playing song.

CoverSutra has really been made with style in mind. The Jewel Case feature puts a little box with your album art onto your desktop, and it looks pretty nice. All the windows are nicely designed and a nice icon is always a good thing (which CoverSutra delivers on).

CoverSutra costs $9,95, and you can download a free 10 day trial here.

Contest

We have copies of CoverSutra to give away to two (2) lucky readers.

To enter the draw, simply post a comment on this article - we will announce two winners on February the 9th at 12PM EST.

del.icio.us tag this | digg this | permalink | ping

40 Comment(s)

Legend:

Guest

Article Author

Contributor

Rennervater said on

February 2nd, 2007 at 10:43 am

Looks Cool, is it skinable??

Glenn Wolsey said on

February 2nd, 2007 at 10:45 am

Not at the moment, I’m not sure if the developer plans to allow users to skin it in the future. We’ll do our best to find out for you.

Jack Sauer said on

February 2nd, 2007 at 10:51 am

Update: We have copies of CoverSutra to give away to two (2) lucky readers.

To enter the draw, simply post a comment on this article - we will announce two winners on February the 9th at 12PM EST.

Sherb said on

February 2nd, 2007 at 10:56 am

Looks cool. Going to try it out

Ralph Dagza said on

February 2nd, 2007 at 11:08 am

I just purchased it

Andrew said on

February 2nd, 2007 at 11:12 am

It’s almost exactly what I want when I minimize iTunes. If only the controller wouldn’t hide, and were a little smaller…

Jack Sauer said on

February 2nd, 2007 at 11:12 am

Tell us what you think Ralph? We love it!

Paul Stamatiou said on

February 2nd, 2007 at 11:28 am

This might be just what I was looking for ever since I got an Intel mac and my license of Barquee doesn’t work on intel macs. Can you go through playlists with it?

Jack Sauer said on

February 2nd, 2007 at 11:37 am

Sorry Paul, You can’t go through playlists with it, however there are coming features in there that make it interesting, when you dont have album art CoverSutra will generate an album with the name written on it, it looks awesome and has to be my favourite feature!

Evan Sims said on

February 2nd, 2007 at 11:41 am

Giving the trial a go. So far I’m impressed, very slick.

MattBrett said on

February 2nd, 2007 at 11:44 am

Oh nice, I like this a lot. Been trying out different iTunes controllers. Like CoverSutra the best so far.

Codie Westphall said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 3:36 am

this is really a nice app, it has a real nice look overall the other and doesnt look too obtrusive, glad you guys caught this app quickly other wise i would have never discoverd it

Matt said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 5:50 am

Nice, I found this earlier this week, looks really nice. I’ve downloaded the trial and I like the feel of it. I’ll enter into the chance to win the serial, but I’ll buy it anyway £7 wont break the bank.

PS Niklas: The price is in € not $. The price is €9.95

Thanks
Matt.

Stefan said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 9:00 am

Looks really neat, looking forward to giving the demo a try.

Leanda Ryan said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 9:03 am

I love how this app looks, wish I could change albums or playlists though.

fcodc said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 9:09 am

Looks like a great app, so I’ll be downloading the demo once I post this comment.

Max said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 9:16 am

looks sweet, just wish it had more global hotkey options like other itunes controllers.

Niklas Nisen said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 9:38 am

@Max: Yeah, me too, but more stuff is in the makes. We just need to wait.

Steven Owens said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 9:45 am

Oh wow, that looks like an amazing app!

rish said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 9:46 am

I like it; I downloaded CoverSutra yesterday, and uninstalled Synergy this morning.

Jack Sauer said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 9:54 am

Can everyone please digg this!

http://www.digg.com/apple/CoverSutra_A_stylish_iTunes_controller_for_the_Mac

Jens said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 9:54 am

Looks very KOOL! Hope it is skinnable, would like color at times and other times agua, others dark! But it is KOOL!!

luke dorny said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 10:19 am

Sophie is great. I’ve been a fan of her programming since her Album Artwork widget debuted a while back.
She’s talented and has listened to tons of feedback. She’s a wonderful shareware dev.
Props for this release, as she’s had her stumbling blocks with it (since coverflow was integrated into iTunes and some other issues).
You’ll find she’s wonderful with rapid feedback.
I love CoverSutra.

(subscribed to comments) Add karma

Rennervater said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 10:34 am

Digged!!

Daniel Nass said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 10:36 am

Pretty spiffy. I like it a lot.

Andre said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 11:13 am

I just use my Apple Remote to controle iTunes. Works great.

shadownight said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 11:27 am

Hey, this looks really good. I’m using sizzling keys right now, but CoverSutra looks like it’ll offer much greater control.

Mathieu said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 12:28 pm

I’m using sizzling keyrs right now too, but I’ll definitely consider to switch to coversutra.

Joe said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 12:58 pm

Seems great, except I think the icon’s actually really poor.

(subscribed to comments) Add karma

Charlie said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 1:51 pm

It has a nice interface, very clean and organised.

wph said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 2:28 pm

You know how to get people to comment! Everyone likes free stuff!
I love the idea of coversutra, it’s well suited to be this sort of transparent window, like the panels in iPhoto. Not many apps can pull this off, but this fits it very well. Another app like this is Twitterific from the Icon Factory.

http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific/

I predict we’ll see more and more apps with this style in the future.

Richard said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 7:07 pm

I have been using Synergy for a long time now. Maybe I will have to check out CoverSutra.

Dave said on

February 3rd, 2007 at 8:33 pm

Would be helpful to streamline the process of changing songs.

Sherb said on

February 4th, 2007 at 4:12 am

I just started using the demo tonight and I am very impressed. At first I thought it was kinda pointless, but then I got the shortcut keys the way I want them and I love it! I love how the album art pops up when you change the song or the song changes itself.

Samir said on

February 5th, 2007 at 5:17 pm

This looks like a nice app

Ross said on

February 5th, 2007 at 6:09 pm

Schweet. It’d be really handy on a mac with a smaller screen (like my macbook…)

alej744 said on

February 5th, 2007 at 6:40 pm

Menuet kicks CoverSutra’s ass.

Zach said on

February 5th, 2007 at 11:57 pm

I have Menuet…but I might as well give CoverSutra a try!