Cover Stream 2.5 Released

Snarb.tk has announced the immediate availability of Cover Stream 2.5, a major update to their popular iTunes controller that extends iTunes Cover Flow to the desktop. The update (€14.95, or free to existing customers) is now available for download.

Feature-rich, beautiful and unobtrusive, Cover Stream lets you control, browse and search your music, without leaving your work. Key features include desktop cover flow, a powerful search filter, player notifications, Last FM support, hotkeys, visuals and a fullscreen jukebox mode.

Cover Stream 2.5 eliminates the need to manually sync with iTunes. Syncing is now seamlessly performed in the background as soon as the iTunes music library is updated. Syncing, as well as searching, is also considerably faster. Reading the full music library only takes a blink. Consequently, Cover Stream no longer needs to keep a cache file of your iTunes artwork. Artwork for which QuickLook has no preview is automatically retrieved from iTunes, just like in iTunes Cover Flow.


The update also adds a new Core Animation tracks menu to Cover Stream's fullscreen mode. Songs can now be selected Front Row-style, using the keyboard, mouse or Apple remote control.

The songs browser has been replaced with a resizable sidebar that can remain visible while flipping through your artwork. The track info bar also got a facelift. Besides it new slick look it also consumes less CPU while scrolling long song titles. The playlists popup menu got a facelift too, and now displays the iTunes playlist icons for easier navigation. There are also visual indicators for unplayed podcast episodes, just like in iTunes.

Per frequent user request, the desktop artwork can now be positioned anywhere on any screen. The artwork and track info is flipped and aligned automatically to match the nearest screen corner.

The new version also has options to disable cache management. By disabling the cache manager, the user can get rid of the artwork reloading that takes place after the cache has been flushed and the browser window is brought to front. Disabling cache management, however, will consume a lot more RAM and is not recommended if you have a large music library.


The update also provides means to break out of the album-centric nature of Cover Flow. By right-clicking on a cover, you can now choose to play or queue all songs by the selected artist or album. You can also choose to shuffle your entire music library.

The update also resolves a number of bugs to ensure utmost reliability and performance at all times. It is a recommended update for all users.

Pricing and Availability:
Cover Stream is available through its dedicated web site www.coverstream.net at a price of €14.95. Upgrades from previous versions are, and will always be, free of charge. A fully functional demo is available for download.


Read More