Hynek Hampl On OS X, I like to listen to music from my iTunes library. I can comfortably control the music being played via the function buttons from the Apple keyboard, so I don't have to switch the music in iTunes. As a result, I also have the iTunes window closed and I don't know what song is currently playing. Previously, I used Growl and some other music app to alert me to songs. Recently it was the NowPlaying plugin. But very often it happened that the plugin or application stopped working, either due to a system update or for some other reason. And then I discovered iTunification.
The iTunification application is another in a series of menu bar utilities to help you. You might be thinking that you don't want another icon in the top menu bar, that you already have too many of them there, but even in this case, read on and don't be discouraged.
The purpose of iTunification is to send up-to-date information about the currently playing song from the iTunes library using notifications. You can display notifications both with Growl notifications and with OS X Mountain Lion's built-in notifications. Here comes the question – Growl or system notifications? Two paths, each with its own path.
If you use Growl, you must have Growl itself installed, or use the Hiss app that redirects notifications. As a reward, in iTunification you will be able to set the song name, artist, album, rating, year of release and genre in the notification. Anything can be turned on and off at will.
Without the need to install additional applications, the second option is to use the Notification Center. However, the warnings are a bit limited. You can only set the track name, artist and album (of course you can turn each one off and on). However, the caveats are within the system and you don't need to install anything other than iTunification.
I chose the Notification Center. It's simple, you don't need additional applications, and thus there is less chance of malfunction. And three pieces of information about the currently playing song are enough.
What about settings? There aren't many. By default, after starting the application, you have an icon in the menu bar. When you click while a song is playing, you'll see the album artwork, song title, artist, album, and song length. Next, in the icon menu, we can find a silent mode, which immediately turns off the notification. If you look in the next settings, you can turn on loading the application after the system starts, leaving the notification history, displaying notifications even when the icon in the menu bar is turned on, and the Growl/Notification center option. In the notification settings, you just choose what information you want to display in the notification.
To go back to the feature of keeping notification history - if you turn it off, every time a song is played, the previous notification will be deleted from the Notification Center and a new one will be there. I probably like that the most. If you really want the history of several previous songs, turn the function on. The number of notifications displayed in the Notification Center can also be managed in OS X Settings.
An interesting option after clicking on the menu bar icon is the option to turn off this icon. The first setting "Hide status bar icon" only hides the icon. However, if you restart your computer or exit iTunification using the Activity Monitor, the icon will reappear the next time you start it. The second option is "Hide status bar icon forever", that is, the icon will disappear forever and you will not get it back even with the procedures written above. However, if you change your mind afterwards, you have to use a special procedure:
Open Finder and press CMD+Shift+G. Type "~ / Library / Preferences” without the quotes and press Enter. In the displayed folder, find the file “com.onible.iTunification.plist” and delete it. Then open the Activity Monitor, find the "iTunification" process and terminate it. Then simply launch the application and the icon will reappear in the menu bar.
The app has become my favorite part of the system and I really enjoy using it. The best news is that it's free (you can donate to the developer on his website). And in the last few months, the developer has done a real job on it, which is now proven by the current version 1.6. The only downside to the app is that you can't run it on older OS X, you must have Mountain Lion.
[button color=”red” link=”http://onible.com/iTunification/“ target=”“]iTunification – Free[/button]
I use the significator for itunes... it also allows you to control itunes
Great app :)