“Quick info on playing iTunes tracks”

To get iTunes out of the way, when I'm playing tracks, I like to minimize it. However that means having to hover the mouse over the dock icon to know what song is playing.

With Playwatch you can follow what tracks are playing in iTunes straight from the menu bar. The applications is highly customizable and you can choose what font and colors are used. You can even set ticker speed, delay and HUD delay.

The most interesting bit, although a little complicated to set up, has to do with the iTunes info. You can customize the order in which information appears in the Playwatch HUD. For example for radio tunes you want to see first the url and for albums the name of the song. Information lines for each music type can be rearranged and linked together.

A neat little feature is that Playwatch also showcases album art. One thing we found a little strange is that Preferences open up as a separate application.

Playwatch is a useful little menu bar item to have so you can always know what song is playing in your iTunes.

Languages:

English, German

Limitations:

30 day Trial Period

OS requirements for Playwatch:

OS: Mac OS X

Minimum requirements:

Mac OS X 10.5 or later
iTunes 6 or later

Pros

Fully customizable
Displays Cover Art

Cons

Preferences open up as different app
Lacks explanations

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From the publisher of Playwatch

Listening to music while working is fun and can be very inspiring. iTunes is by far the most respected Audio-Player in the Mac-Community. Sometimes you hear songs, of which you had no idea, that you actually possess them not to mention that you don‘t know how they‘re called or who the Artists are.

Normally you don‘t want to interrupt your work just to get that information. But, on the other hand you can‘t work on until you know what you are listening to. So you start activating iTunes, or switch to the desired „space“ on Leopard. This is bothersome and a disagreeable interruption of you workflow.

Wouldn‘t it be nice to get all the information just from the corner of your eye? If so, Playwatch is exactly what you are looking for.