PlayWatch: A New Take On iTunes Controllers
The world of iTunes controllers is a crowded one, and any new application that comes out has a lot to go up against. There are a variety of free and shareware applications that share and uniquely have numerous features. So it may seem a little odd to add another one to the crowd, but this one brings something new (at least as far as I know) to the table.
Aquarius Software’s Playwatch is a handy menu bar iTunes controller which will display the song information of whatever track is playing in a little mini iTunes-esque ticker, right in your menu bar. This provides a quick and easy way to view what song is playing without even having to press any buttons.
However, if you hover your mouse over the display, HUD window pops out with a variety of options. You can play, pause, skip a song or go back to the last one. But in addition to that you can select any other song from the currently playing album to play or go directly to iTunes. Most of these features are new additions in recent versions. What started as a simple ticker display has blossomed into a full-fledged iTunes controller in only a few versions. Personally, this creates a much more full experience and could change the way that you interact with your music.
Playwatch also has a wide array of preferences which let you customize the size, colors, font, and specific information that appears in the ticker. There is also a small progress bar at the bottom of the ticker that indicates how far along in the song you are, and an optional play/pause, rewind, fast forward button that can be displayed in the menu bar.
One of the problems I had with Playwatch was, although it is very customizable in other areas, the lack of options regarding the pop-out menu interface. You can control how many seconds the mouse needs to hover to activate it, but I would prefer to just click and activate it, and perhaps Command + click would give the menu with preferences and other information. Another problem is that the preferences are a completely different application, and don’t seem as polished as they could be, organization-wise. Playwatch has some really cool features, but it’s misses the polish and cleanness that are common among many other iTunes controllers.
Finally, I can’t forget the price. Playwatch costs just under 7€, or just above $13. If Playwatch were freeware, I know it would be a much more attractive solution for many mac users. However, because of it’s fairly high price (at least in dollars) I don’t think it is my preferred controller. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t try it out and see for yourself. There’s a free 30-day trial. Additionally, I feel that Playwatch will improve in the coming versions, seeing how it has matured in only the last few months.
You can download the trial of Playwatch from German website Aquarious Software. The english isn’t great, but that shouldn’t turn you off from this interesting iTunes controller.
Niiiiice!
The price turned me off though…
Give me Last.fm support and support for keyboard shortcuts and I’ll drop CoverSutra like a lead weight. CS was good for a while but lately it’s too unstable.