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Mousqueak1.1.3

Name: Mousqueak
Rating: 4 (5 reviews)

11 November 2009

iTunes volume controller and more (was iTunesVolume).

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Overview

Mousqueak is an one-slider style iTunes controller for mouse.
It has many functions.

Drag Slider Knob:: Play/pause, next/previous, and volume adjustment
Control-click Slider (...or hold button press on Slider):: Show the context menu
Command-drag Slider:: Move Slider Position
Double click Slider:: Open / close iTunes Window

You can open the preferences window or quit this application by using the context menu of Slider.
Some windows will appear when cursor touches Slider. When you want to click them, touch Slider and move cursor to the window pressing control key.

What's new in Mousqueak

Version 1.1.3:

Includes 64bit binary for Snow Leopard.
Slider

Control with mouse wheel.
Rating menu shows half-stars when option key is pressed.
Added an option to hide behind other windows when iTunes is paused.

Artwork Window

Core Graphics Animation "Warp Switch" have been added.

Floater 1.0.3

Added the multi-display support.
Added an option to disable it when cursor is touching Slider.

Simple Info 1.0.3

Added an option to fade out when touched.

Sleep Timer 1.0.3

Now the timer continues counting down after the computer awakes from sleep.

Track Browser 1.0.3

It no longer beeps when pressing keys.

Others

Some Foundation methods were replaced to Core Foundation functions.

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49 Reviews of Mousqueak

Very pleasant looking app , the only thing that buggs me is the weird gestures , something simpler would be better - like using the additional mouse buttons on hover ( for back/forward ) and the scroll button for the volume ( also only on hover )

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Me, again, Zom. Whatever you did in your update now fixed Mousqueak for me! Thank you, sincerely!! A great piece of software- and free! Works as advertised in all aspects now- at least in my testing (Leopard, on 98 Macbook 2.4 ghz Intel. I love Mousequeak for the following reasons. Gives instantaneous access to Itunes. Allows me to see Lyrics for songs with just passing the cursor over the slider. I keep the album art on my desktop above all other windows- with is a fun reminder of what I am listening too. Like the animation when the song and album cover changes. And, I like the fact that I can access the playlists, and invoke shuffle (on or off) from the slider. I now use this with three other programs to make my Itunes listening experience complete. I use ILyric- except when screen real estate is at a premium- to always keep my lyrics available to look at- and the size of the screen is somewhat customizable. It also is a great help in looking up Lyrics. I use Synergy because it offers a better way to show a Floater with Album information than currently Mousequeak offers. Also, it offers keyboard control of Itunes which I find quicker to use than the slider. Finally, I use I Love Stars to rate the Music- because it gives audio reminders of Music needing a rating- and allows for 1/2 star ratings. Anyway, I included the above in case you wanted some ideas on improving Mousequeak. However, I am thrilled that it works on my computer once again- and for the functionality it provides. You should be proud of this program- it is really useful! Bob P.S. I also appreciate your efforts to explain simply all the functionality of Mousequeak. It is certainly impressive- and allows one to easily grasp all this program does. Also, I believe that it has become much more stable in it's current iteration! Way to go!!

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2 new plug-ins (Track Browser & Trump Albums) have been released. http://homepage.mac.com/dy4/zumuya/Mousqueak/index.html#TrackBrowser

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I've determined that on my system, at least, the problems seem confined to Leopard. Tiger still seems to be fine!

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Show comments (2)

Hi Zom! Thanks for continuing to work on this. I do like the modular design that you are working towards- to reduce potential conflicts with other programs- I bet. Nice. However, a few thoughts on the transition and new program. 1. It would be nice if there was an easy way to know there are updates to Mousquek. Sparkle, perhaps. Or, at least a link that would allow one to know if you updated the app. 2. The name- I'm sorry, I just don't get it. What about "ITunes Slider Control" or the "ITunesSlider" or even "ITunesSlider Control & Display"? 3. Just recently, I had both ITunesVolume 1.22 & Mouseqeak break on me so that I can not use them. Specifically, it won't do the following: a. Stay above all the other application windows. No matter if I ask it to stay above the menu- or float. b. And, it destroys the right side of my finder menu. Once I run Mousquek, or ITunesVolume for that matter- the right upper side of my Finder menu disappears- in all apps. Very frustrating. No more time, date, etc. Anyway, I will keep an eye on your efforts. Your program, in comparison to all the other myriad ITune products out there does some things outstanding (or has, in the past). They are: 1. Animate the album art when the song changes. Great effect!! If possible, a feature request would be to allow the possibility for the effect to be invoked with each song change- not just each album change. It is so cool having the album artwork hurdle towards you- no other app does this- to my knowledge. 2. Best implementation of showing the lyrics and artwork to an album by simply putting your cursor over the slider. Outstanding. Now that I can't use your app- I go to the Dashboard to look at Lyrics & artwork. Not as convenient. 3. Only Itunes controller app that I know of that allows switching of playlists without using a menu item. For each of these three things- your app stands alone. I am sorry that I can no longer use it for these three functions- in particular. I know of no alternative programs that allow this functionality. Good luck with further development. I'll be watching. And, thanks!! Bob Zozus

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Mousqueak 1.0 is a successor to iTunes Volume 1.2.1.

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Show comment (1)

Dear Zom: Great Work! I find the slider much more responsive under Tiger! It just works!! Thanks again... If you do decide to polish the app further- I would suggest the restoring some of the functionality that was present in earlier incarnations of Itunes Volume. There are only two: 1. Allow the slider to be positioned horizontally, as well as vertically. 2. When you slide the cursor over ItunesVolume, besides showing the album cover, and info balloon connected to the cursor- could you please restore the window showing the song's lyrics. That would be great! Thanks again for your hard work. Your app is now quite polished from where it began. I'm very impressed- and hopeful that you will continue the fantastic work!

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Thanks so much for letting us Tiger users in again, I wouldn't want to use my iTunes without iTunesVolume again.

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Sorry, but the support for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) has been removed on the latest version.

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Show comment (1)

Please add year and song length to the wonderful floater that appears on song change. Also good would be able to show floater on keystroke or mouse over (like art window is).

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This just gets better and better. The developer has created a very nice app that does everything I want my iTunes controller to do (and he has ironed out the bugs....), with just the only interface, a simple translucent slider/volume controller that rides on my menu bar....when I want to see the album cover or details...I just ride the mouse over the slider....perfection.

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Hi! Me again. Just had to augment my earlier review by stating my pleasure to see that ITunes Vol. is being actively developed. And, to state my gratitude to the developer for the fine work on this app!! There are several major improvements made to ITunes Volume which I would like to briefly mention. For ease, I will number them. 1. In a most unobtrusive manner- the developer has now made it possible to donate an ITunes gift in the about ITunes window. This just serves to underscore the fact that this developer does not require payment for functionality that so many other ITunes' helpers only hope to provide (i.e., TotalTunesControl & CoverSutra- to name a few)- and require you to pay. I am going to save some money so that I can at least show the developer my appreciation for his hard work. ITunes Volume is the best ITunes helper app that I know of for my needs. And, I have tried most of the others which work on Tiger. 2. Now that I know that touching the cursor to the Volume Slide Control while pressing the Control key allows me to use ITunes Control to see the full lyrics in the Info window- I do not need to invoke PearLyric in Dashboard to check out a song's lyrics! Nice!! I still have PearLyric widget run, however- since it automatically obtains and downloads lyrics to songs that are missing such information. 3. Touching the slider control is much, much more responsive now in this most recent ITunes reiteration. Much easier to rate the music. Much easier to get to the preference controls & playlist functions. Just much easier to use!! 4. Now, the artwork flashes on the screen much more crisply- and with the appropriate random core graphics faders!! Before, it was too slow. Very nice improvement in ITune Volume programming- just like that seen in the responsiveness to slider control mentioned in 3 above. 5. The Icon is now more detailed. I can see that the brown thing next to the musical note is an accordion. Much more detailed- although I think it would be better to have a different icon. Perhaps, a generic dog "listening" to the note- which would connote better the volume and listening control features of ITunes Volume. To Improve ITunesVolume, I would like to see the following. They are listed in order of importance: 1. Add the tunes user star rating to the Artwork that flashes onto the screen. This would be great!! However, if too difficult, than perhaps adding the song's user star rating to either the Info Window- or the Info Balloon (which is a cool new feature, by the way!)- would suffice. As it is now, one does not know how the tune was rated in the past- or whether it needs a rating. To get this information now, ITunes Volume requires one attempt to give a song a rating- an active proposition to information which should be shown more passively. Further, since I feel the vast majority of my music rates a three- I do not bother to rate any music that is not 2, 4, or 5 stars (I do not keep music that only rates a star). Thus, I do not actively engage in rating the vast majority of my music. 2. Restore the ability to have the slider control be horizontal, as well as vertical. On my system, having ITunes horizontal makes it less obtrusive when working on other applications. 3. Add a way to invoke the shuffle feature of a playlist. Because ITunesVolume lacks this functionality, I still need to invoke ITunes when switching playlists- because I can not toggle shuffle on and off from ITunesVolume. This negates the usefulness of being able to access playlists from ITunesvolume- which otherwise is a fine feature. Fortunately, since I do not need to change playlists often- this problem is not nearly as important as the previous two. 3. Improvements to the information balloon feature. On my system, sometimes the "Display Attached to Slider"- which keeps the Info Balloon showing even when the cursor is not touching the slider- flips on. This is annoying- but easily fixed by going to preferences to turn it off. Still, the only unpolished part of ITunes Volume I have identified. 4. As an adjunct to Number 2 above, it would be very cool if ItunesVolume could allow rating of all songs in a playlist en masse. I could then go through the playlist and rate music without waiting for it to be played. Perhaps there is another program that allows that now. If so, I haven't found it! 5. Memory usage. It uses around 23 mb. of real ram consistently, and about .5 to 5% of CPU processing power. The processing power seems o.k. About as much as utilized by my Temperature Monitoring Application- for example. However, sometimes it will use up to 32 mb. of real ram. ITunes itself only uses 34 mb. of ram. I wonder if this ram usage could be decreased? 6. The following functionality is found in the wonderful ITunes helper called IController (found at ) However, if ITunes Volume goes commercial as a complete solution to ITunes control- the developer might choose to include these functions. Not as important, however, if this software is to continue to be listed as free. Just do as I do, use IController (which is also free- by the way) in conjunction with ITunes Volume: a. The ability to have the current ITunes song and artist scroll on the menu bar. IController has an especially useful interface allowing great customization of this feature. b. Allow system wide "hot keys" be set up that allow the ability to change the track being played to go one back or one forward- and to play/pause ITunes. An additional neat hotkey would allow one to quit Itunes without having to go to Itunes itself. c. Growl support- which would again afford another opportunity to show the Itunes Star rating in another passive type condition. Either this method- or on the CD artwork which flashes on the screen during track changes, would constitute the best ways to showcase user song ratings. And, should the developer go to a paid model for ITunes Volume- it would make a great deal of sense to notify users before upgrading that upgrading will result in a payment requirement. The developer of TotalTunesControl went from a free to paid model- and did so without notifying his installed base that he was doing so. Incurred the wrath of many who upgraded- only to find that now they owed money when previously they did not. Whew! I've gone on way too long. Anyway, my heartfelt thanks to Zom!! You have indeed produced a well-designed app which I find useful each and every day!! And, the recent improvements in the app are immense!! Thanks again!!!!

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Show comments (3)

No foolin'! Great job. I wouldn't mind have a bit more information in it: time, rating, etc. But the size and action are wonderful.

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Is there some trick to being able to move the various windows around that go with this app? When I leave the slider, they disappear. I've even placed the slider over top of the windows and yet, they go away when I move the mouse over to them.

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itunes volume is so cool... been looking for an app like this for a while --fits nicely in a corner and the album artwork thing is nice too... get this!

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This is a very cool and awesome controller. My request is to be able to choose and change artist, song and album within the info balloon. It could be very useful.

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WHOA! I take back what I said about Synergy. It's eating up 40 MB right now but it has been known to go down to 20. Sheesh.

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v1.0.3 is doing better with RAM, but just barely. Before I was seeing 33 or 34 MB real RAM. Now. it's down to 28/29. Not a problem if you have plenty of RAM to begin. TotalTunesControl uses 24 and Synergy 14/15. Still, I love this app!

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About the CPU usage: not seen here in this latest 1.0.2 version. However, I do note it uses more real RAM than any of the other iTunes buddy apps, even when sitting idle (iTunes not running). What I would love is for iTunesVolume to be able to control system volume when iTunes wasn't running. About the app: wonderful! I love the art showing large. It does lyrics, too. Great flexibility in usage and appearance, especially window location. Coupled with a system-wide keyboard assisting app (e.g. SizzlingKeys, GimmeSomeTune, Synergy, etc.) is very nice to have. price is right, too. Only 4 stars for Features: no auto-start or stop, no track change behavior (e.g. art/info show).

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Nice, unobtrusive and mostly self-explaining little app which lets me switch songs/playlists and rate songs, which also gives me info about the currently playing song. I wouldn't want to use my iTunes w/o iTunesVolume any more -- five stars in every category.

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the only thing that keeps me from running this is the extremely high CPU cycles that it takes while running. on my intel mac running 10.5.2 it is anywhere from 45-72% even when itunes isnt running unfortunately will have to send it to the trash, when this bug is fixed, i will give it a try again

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Kudos to the developer of this fine app! Once in awhile you come across an application that has little fan fair- but just simply does what you want. Itunes Volume is one of those apps for me. It works very well in MacOS 10.4.11 running on a PPC chip. Their are many ways that this app functions oh so well- and for free! First, though, some oddities. The name is very misleading- ITunes Volume. Volume control is the least of which this Itunes controller does. However, it is one of the least important functions it provides. Secondly, bar none, this has to be the most ugly App Icon that I have on my Mac. It looks to me like a note stuck on a garbage can! But, the name nor the look of the Icon does not affect it's functioning. It does, however, throw one off when initially judging the usefulness of the ITunes Volume Control. O.K., so why do I love ITunes Volume? First, it allows you to have the album art flash automatically on the screen as your ITune song changes. Very cool. Also way cool is the ability to see the Album artwork and lyrics just by placing the your cursor over the small app. Did I mention that it's footprint is very small- and transparent. I have a 14'' Ibook, and screen real estate is at a premium. It rests just below my Date & Time Menu item and doesn't both the usability of my IBook or my precious menu bar real estate in the least! I also very much like the fact that you can use this app to rate your ITune Music without going into ITunes. Very Handy indeed. And, if you wish to change the playlist without going into ITunes- you can do so without ITunes using ITunes Volume. However, if you do want to go to ITunes- you just need to click the ITunes Volume Controller twice- and you are transferred to the song currently playing in Itunes. A timer function also graces this app- allowing you to let ITunes lull you to sleep for a specified period- before it is turned off by ITunes Volume. For those with sight difficulties- or if you are just away from your computer- you can have ITunes Volume announce the Tune that is playing. Also nice. One niggling problem is that if the current songs lyrics are larger than your screen in length- then it is impossible to reach the Lyric box to read the rest of the lyrics by using the scroll bar. Not to fear, though, I just use the PearlLyrics widget- a great freeware app that shows me the lyrics in Dashboard. Now, don't get me wrong. ITunes Volume can not always function as advertised. But, simply restarting the app seems to fix any problems I have. And, as with all my ITunes enhancers- I simply shut it off when not using ITunes. It has greatly added the usability of ITunes & My Mac. I wish the developer well, and wish that he would continue to develop this app! However, it has not been updated since August 29, 2007. In fact, if he is still developing it- I would gladly give him a donation- he most certainly is deserving! And, as noted earlier, it is not the entire way that I enhance ITunes. I also use the excellent PearLyrics for Lyric Management, display, and acquisition. I also use the free program IController- the perfect compliment to ITunes Volume. IController allows one to have the song artist & title displayed on your menu bar- as well as allow you to easily pause, play, play previous & next support. It also offers Growl support, which for the visually inclined- augments the brief album artwork provided by ITunes Volume with the Song Name. Finally, my ITunes armamentarium also includes the free Fetch Art application- which I use to search Amazon for artwork that ITunes incorrectly applies to my CD's. Doesn't always work any better than ITunes- but often enough to use it first before manually searching Amazon for needed artwork. It takes little effort to learn and use- and about 50% of the time saves me from the process of getting album art for Compilation Disks- which ITunes doesn't perform particularly well. All in all, I am so happy with ITunes, IController, PearLyrics (the only program being actively developed), and FetchArt- that I am putting off upgrading to Leopard because I fear these programs will stop working in the upgrade. That is telling! Hope this proves helpful. Now, on to enjoy some Tunes....

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I find it very usefull. Does just what I want and is very unobtrusive. If I don't want the album cover I don't have to have it and the slider can be made so very small. One thing with this newest version, the Slider no loger goes horizontal or above the menu bar. I'm sure it will be fixed quickly though as the developer is working with this app. constantly. Thanks for a useful tool.

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There are many things I love about iTunes Volume, its being free is one of them. But the reason I can't use it and can't recommend it is that every time I run iTunes Volume, it works fine as long as I'm playing iTunes. When I stop, even with iTunes still running, iTunes Volume starts spinning very heavy CPU cycles, with System Events tied to it. I've kept some data on this, and typically the System Events process, with iTunes Volumes as its parent, is running 40-60% CPU, and iTunes Volume itself runs at 20-40% CPU. This persists when I close iTunes, and if I force-quit the System Events process, iTunes Volume promptly launches it again at about 60% CPU. The only way to stop this is to quit iTunes Volume. Nice software except for this killer bug. I'm running Mac OSX 10.4.8, PowerMac Quad G5, 4.5 GB RAM.

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Dear Zumuya, Gosh, 8.7.1 version of iTunes Volume is stellar, wonderful ... words fail me. You have made a Desktop controller of what iTunes lacks from Apple. I agree, this amazing app. is not just 'volume control'. At first I thought the mini app. might be useful or at least worth a try as you are not charging a fee. I just found myself using it to control subtlety of volume and the star rating system. In this incarnation you have graced us with an ingenious full app. with excellent contextual features in a tiny packet. Well done, congratulations and thank you. Adrien UK

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You can quit this app from contextual menu of Slider. http://web.mac.com/dy4/iWeb/zumuya/4736E765-086F-49F0-8D60-F0A2AA81FC01.html

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To SYHARRIS, Quit iTunes Volume from Activity Monitor in Application Utilities. Select iTunes volume in list of My Processes and press Red hexagon top left: Quit Process. This is a handy tip for Quitting or force quitting any app that doesn't 'want' to close. I keep Activity Monitor in dock for just such occasions. Adrien.

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Simple and handy, can be used together with Volume Slider, which offers a size configurable mute button for one's desktop. One issue, though. When the iTunes Volume controller is on one's desktop, there appears to be no way to close it....it's always there, can't even hide it. When iTunes is closed, iTV still remains on the desktop. It's usable only with iTunes, unlike Volume Slider which works with any sound source. Double clicking on the iTV controller launches iTunes....nice. But the ability for hiding/closing the iTV controller needs to included.

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I love this thing! Tried other similar things. Very small, easy to use, has the features I want. Recent changes have improved it, too, adding a couple small features that I and others wanted.

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I've been happy with a reg version of Sizzling Keys for some time and never thought it could be improved on. But if you're an iTunes enthusiast and play stuff all day you should try this. Very nice piece of freeware and maybe a foretaste of the next OS upgrade in style.

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I noticed a potencial bug. When the iTunes Volume slider app is running, and I turn on the rocketboom podcast, the video stops randomly and then continues. This behaviour doesn't seem to apply to other podcasts I have. The only difference I see in these podcasts is that the rocketboom podcast is chapter enabled. P.S. Would have posted that at the developer site, but could find a e-mail or feedback form.

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Works Great. To the Developer; Could you add Pause and Play to your nice tool? And sincere thanks for your work.

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Since I'm using Panther, iTunes Volume won't work for me....it requires Tiger. But, if you want just a volume control on your desktop and are running OS 10.2 or 10.3, there's "Volume Slider" http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16669 It's just a slider, and a resizeable mute button(actually quite handy!). Also free and also very good.

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I'm now using it permanently, over the few other similar apps. Very convenient (size and information)and practical. I use it to turn on iTunes and control the volume, as well as display the album art. There is a new bug in v8.3.3, though. I can not un-select the artwork and info window in the view menu, so they are both always on my screen, even though I'd prefer to see the info and/or the art, only on the mouse over, as it I did on the earlier versions. Thanks for the great app. I'm, sure this will be fixed soon.

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Way to go man... I really like the improvement on this. I would've just called this version 8.0. This is so much better. It's lost all the bugs I noticed the the previous versions and the preference panel is way better. My preferences have it slightly transparent with the frame off but the float on, and when I roll over it the artwork pops up on the screen. It's perfect. Thanks for a great app!

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I love this app. It's really great and out of the way. I wish that when it's not in float mode (with the box around it), it would still float. Also, it should be about to drag in non-float mode with Command-drag or something. Thanks!

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I love this app!! its just what iTunes was missing! clean, out-of-the-way, every function I could want. Thank you for your hard work!

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The Movie: http://homepage.mac.com/dy4/zumuya/gazou/iTunes%20Volume.mp4 The Screenshots: http://homepage.mac.com/dy4/zumuya/software_itv.html

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wow, just have everything i wanted. Desktop level artwork at any fixed size, volume control, and rapid rating access. Stable but use a little bit too much processor i think. Kudos to the developper !

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Found my problem. The program does not float the windows above other programs like most iTunes controllers. Still never did figure out how to quit this program though and the functionality of it seems very limited.

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Kinda pointless really...like it shows album artwork but people only want to stare at it for so long. There are far better controllers out there. (Including my own)

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