iController

Name: iController
Rating: 4.3056 (5 reviews)

0.6b

05 January 2007

iTunes controller for your menubar.

Overview

iController is an iTunes controller for the menubar. iController also flashes the current artist and track name in the center of the screen when iTunes changes tracks. During playback the artist and track name are also scrolled over the controls in the menubar.

NOTE: During playback the text scrolls over the controls and thus obscures them. Currently to bring back the controls you need to click the text. This should in the future be done upon mouse over, but for now this will have to do.

A full feathered preferences panel is currently under development. This will probably be included in the next release. This will allow for the user to change fonts, colors, sizes, display times etc...

What's new in iController

Version 0.6b:

iController is now a universal application.
I have added Growl support, so instead of the flashing text in previous versions the artist name and album are now displayed by Growl.

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16 iController Reviews

See all

Nice app, better than Byte Controller. But it would be better if it was configurable,. I don't like it that the title and artist are displayed all over the screen.

Version 0.4

Very Nice and Simple App. Do like it bringing growl notifications to ITunes. Also, IController can be customized to display song title and artist on the Menu Bar- just in case you miss the Growl notification. How cool is that? Finally, it is very easy to create certain limited key sequence controls- for play, pause, next & previous track, & Volume Control. To be honest, it is enough for me- as it is, I will never use it too control volume. I find this a perfect compliment to the Freeware ITunes Volume (where I provide a more extensive review of my ITune Apps). Thanks for a job well done. I just hope that you are continuing IController's development, as this release is about a year old.

Version 0.6b

This is an extremely useful app. The only problem I've experienced is: When I click the the controls, half the time nothing will happen. I have to float the cursor off the menubar, then back over the menubar for it to work. It's kind of annoying. Other than that, I HUGELY useful app.

Version 0.5b

This is a very promising program but it has one problem that keeps me away from using it. The buttons in the menu bar can only be clicked on the black parts. That is, you have to click inside those little arrows if you want to skip a song. Please fix this, bytecontroller and synergy have this correctly, so why not iController...

Version 0.5b

I have to agree with the rest. I use Growl for notifications, so all I need is a menu item that lets me set shortcuts and doesn't take too much processor power. This app fills almost all my needs, after some tweaking, changing the tiffs for the menu bar icons, to actually make them clickable. I would LOVE for this app to allow you to set the Function keys without modifiers though. F10, F11, F12 for song switching is muscle memory for me, I need it! Goes almost all the way / Jan

Version 0.5b

Great start. Like the concept and it is nice and simple. I have 3 problems: 1) You have to click on the black icon in the menu bar, not in the white space around it. This is a problem where you really have to aim the mouse on the >> icon. And for some reason, I am always click in the white space between the pause bars. Other menu bar apps allow you to click in the white space around the icon (ie. airport). 2) For some reason, when I click the close icon in the preference window menu bar, it collapse to a windowshade. I do have windowshade installed, but this is the only app/window that colapses and not simple close. Hmmm... 3) Again, with the preference window. It always stays on top. Even if I select another app, the window stays on top of all other windows. Thanks!

Version 0.5b

1 answer(s)

Anonymous

01 September 2005

>Great start. Like the concept and it is nice and >simple. I'm glad to here that. >I have 3 problems: Let's see... >1) You have to click on the black icon in the menu >bar, not in the white space around it. This is a >problem where you really have to aim the mouse >on the >> icon. And for some reason, I am always >click in the white space between the pause bars. >Other menu bar apps allow you to click in the >white space around the icon (ie. airport). I know. I realized that a while ago. I rarely even use the controls since I added the global hotkeys. I did, however, test this thoroughly for the last version. At that time, running Panther, it seemed to work fine, but now, for some reason, with Tiger, it doesn't. I will try to fix this... >2) For some reason, when I click the close icon in >the preference window menu bar, it collapse to a >windowshade. I do have windowshade installed, >but this is the only app/window that colapses and >not simple close. Hmmm... This is really just a slip on my behalf. I tried this feature out at some point and since that time I haven't noticed it, and hence it's still there. This will be fixed... >3) Again, with the preference window. It always >stays on top. Even if I select another app, the >window stays on top of all other windows. To me that's a feature. I rarely let a preferences window stay open for very long, and kepping it on top feels right. Apparently there are other opinions... I will give it some thought. >Thanks! (8/22/2005, Version: 0.5b) Thanks to you. Feedback is priceless.

Version 0.5b

Very nice litte utility. Yes again, there are so many iTunes controllers out there but this is the first one done right from a conceptual view. From a graphical standpoint it does needs some improvements though: 1.) The interface is not in the middle of the menubar. Should be at least 1 pixel down. 2.) The gap (empty space) between menu-items is too small. It looks like glued to the next item (whatever this is). 3.) A prettier application icon would be nice. Also there is no real need for a volume control because the sound control-panel already provides a menu-item for this task (I know that this is the iTunes volume control which is not exactly the same as the main volume). At least this volume control should be optional. But for a 0.5 beta version this piece of code is reallyfantastic. Thanks.

Version 0.5b

1 answer(s)

Johan Östlund

10 August 2005

Hi, just some comments on the critique: >1.) The interface is not in the middle of the > menubar. Should be at least 1 pixel down. Good point. I concentrated solely on functionality, but this should be rectified in a future release. >2.) The gap (empty space) between menu-items is > too small. It looks like glued to the next item (whatever this is). I know. The thing is that I (along with many, I would think) sit on macs with not that high resolution (G4 14" 1024x768) and that doesn't leave much space in the menu bar. Perhaps I could add the width as a prefrerences option. I'll think about it... >3.) A prettier application icon would be nice. I agree. Anyone up for making one? > Also there is no real need for a volume control > because the sound control-panel already > provides a menu-item for this task (I know that > this is the iTunes volume control which is not > exactly the same as the main volume). At least > this volume control should be optional. I use the Airport Express with AirTunes which totally separates the system volume from iTunes, and thus, I suppose, justifies the volume control, but I do see your point... Perhaps I could make it optional in the future. Thanks for the good thoughts. Keep em coming.

Version 0.5b

Great little product -- just what I wanted. I'm only amazed that with so many alternatives out there, this is the only one, for my purposes and interests, that really "gets it." What I wanted: VERY simple iTunes track controls in the menubar, some indication of what was playing, and complete functionality in Tiger. What I didn't want: Skins, a floating window, a non-floating window, a space-hog, or a damn widget (or anything I have to go in and out of Dashboard to interact with). What I like: It gives me what I wanted, is free, is reasonably customizable, and appears to be as stable as it is elegant. What I'd love to see next: Option to have the song info display either as a tooltip or via the current, scrolling text motif; Option to launch/open iTunes via iController; A preference pane would be a small improvement, but I'd really like to keep the ability to right-click to quit this micro-app (not that I see myself ever quitting it). Thanks for a very nice little piece of work.

Version 0.4.3

iController

Overview

What's new in iController

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16 iController Reviews

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