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April 7, 2008 1:58 PM PDT

Control music from the Mac menu bar

by Jason Parker
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Do you listen to music or streaming radio while you work? I find I'm much more efficient when there's some music in the background or maybe a podcast if I find something interesting online or at the iTunes store. But one thing that breaks my concentration is the need to continually go back to iTunes to make new selections. To keep the distractions at a minimum, I like to set up my music or podcasts beforehand and get to work.

As a software reviews writer, I spend a lot of time using a word processor with my hands on the keyboard. So when the music I'm listening to changes to something I don't like or when a podcast gets a little too distracting, the last thing I want to do is leave my word processor and search around on iTunes. Fortunately there's a program that lets me control iTunes using hot keys.

Synergy

Use the default hot-key setup or customize Synergy with your own.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Synergy (Leopard) is a long-time favorite of mine for quickly switching songs in iTunes. It places some basic controls--like play, pause, and skip--in the menu bar for convenience, but where Synergy really shines is in its use of hot keys. Without touching the mouse, I can quickly adjust volume, skip tracks in either direction, shuffle playlists, rate songs, and even quickly bring up iTunes if I absolutely must choose something different. One of the best things about Synergy is how it elegantly brings up a floating window at the beginning of every song with artist name, track information, and album art so I always know what's playing.

The linked version of Synergy above will only work with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, but you can get Synergy for older Mac OS versions here. Whatever your operating system, Synergy makes listening to music while you work much more convenient and, at less than 10 bucks to register, it's worth every penny.

Jason Parker writes software reviews and features for Windows, Mac, and iPhone. If he learned to dance, it would make him a fabled "quadruple threat," but we can't get him to do it.
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by AppleSuxLeo April 8, 2008 1:29 PM PDT
"One of the best things about Synergy is how it elegantly brings up a floating window at the beginning of every song with artist name, track information, and album art so I always know what's playing" LOL
Well , if you had a Windows machine with the free WMP 11 it does all that and more. It drops down on the taskbar and becomes a mini-player that also gives an elegant pop-out of all the song info. And on my low buck , 4 yr old Windows PC my keyboard has dedicated BUTTONS for play , pause , skip , mute , forward , back , etc. that controls WMP.The rip-off nature of the Mac contiues to amaze me. 10 bucks for something we take for granted in the Windows world. No wonder Mac only has 2.2% worldwide market share !
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by Sliderocity April 8, 2008 3:12 PM PDT
Yeah, enjoy your cheap, primitive, and unattractive Windows PC and we'll enjoy our elegant and well-designed Macs. As for the so-called "rip-off nature" of Macs, what exactly are you basing this on? I guarantee you Synergy looks ten times better than WMP 11. PC users are just jealous that the products they use will never be as attractive or refined, both from a hardware and software point of view, as Apples are. 'Nuf said.
by yoyoschwartz April 8, 2008 3:36 PM PDT
Just use the free Sizzling Keys by Yellow Mug Software ? it's free and it gets the job done well. The only things missing are menu bar icons.

@AppleSuxLeo:
Wow! Thanks for an unbiased opinion...sike.
The name says it all, you're just another mindless hater.
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by AppleSuxLeo April 8, 2008 7:50 PM PDT
My PC is quite "elegant" and the OS it came with can be used in the next one I build and with like 12 yrs of OS support by MSFT for my XP it gives excellent value. With Mac , Jobs makes you buy everything new and start over. Hardware AND OS/software.
BTW...In case you are out of the loop , Steve Jobs copied us all the way and now the Mac is a PC...same internals . But the Mac is made in China and you pay way more fof the same parts. And the Mac makes a great gaming machine/platform LOL
More apps and web services work on the Windows OS by far. AmazonUnBox doesn`t even support the Mac ! Just one major example. Have fun in the Jobs forced upgrade-DRM-PROPRITARY-LOCKED-IN ECOSYSTEM. iPod sales are dropping fast and AmazonMP3 is taking over. NO DRM , higher bitrate , lower cost , runs on anything ! Jobs pancreatitic cancer/ulcer must be flaring up over this. Bwahahaha !
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by Todey April 9, 2008 9:01 AM PDT
HIHI every body.
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by NTropy April 9, 2008 3:52 PM PDT
Earth to Leo - the Windows / Macintosh war is soooooo 90's. Maybe you can use your elegant 4 year old PC to download a clue. I hear BitTorrent has a few seeds for you. I can point the way for you if you'd like.

PC World says that the 17" MacBook Pro was the fastest PC - read that again really slowly since you might have a hard time with big words - "P C" laptop available until 10/25/2007 of last year.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135062-page,1-c,notebooks/article.html

Oh, and iTunes just passed Wal-Mart as the 1 music retailer in US.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080402-apple-passes-wal-mart-now-1-music-retailer-in-us.html

Get back to us when you move out of your mom's basement, mm'kay pumpkin?
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by SunilHD April 10, 2008 1:31 AM PDT
Fanstastic
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by big_DC May 27, 2008 9:57 PM PDT
awesome!
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