Aw, you're making us blush:
"I've been hoping for something like this since I ripped my first cd into iTunes. I've never thanked a programmer before, but this is such a thoughtful, elegant solution to the only drawback I've found with mp3s."
"What a fantastic bit of software ... Showed a mate with a new XP laptop and he was extremely jealous!"
"Freaking brilliant. I love it. You've addressed the biggest problem of putting everything into iTunes/iPod -- facelessness."
"The most original and unique idea for a program I have seen in recent memory. The beauty of it is its simplicity. For some reason this makes me want to rip more CD's and listen to more music."
"A few years ago I ripped all my CDs onto my hard drive and while I enjoy listening to them there was always something missing. Now I know what it was -- when I played them in the CD drive I used to prop the CD case on the desk so people who walked in would know what was playing. Now I can do it with my ripped collection as well. Thanks for a great program!"
"Clutter is one of those found treasures that makes me love OS X. Thank you."
CLUTTER
[ download 1.0b2 | screenshot | release notes | contact | open source ]
Clutter is a small Mac OS X application that lets you put music CDs on your desktop. You can drag them anywhere -- they're really windows. Line them up neatly or put them in piles, it's your choice. Each one looks like the real CD's cover, and double-clicking it tells iTunes -- or your SqueezeBox or SoundBridge -- to play that CD.
Think of Clutter as an alternate user interface to your music collection. When deciding what to play next, instead of searching through a huge alphabetical list, let your eye roam over the covers of your favorite CDs and those you've been listening to recently.
There's a main window that shows the CD you're now playing -- the cover picture is looked up automatically from from Amazon.com or from iTunes 4, or you can paste in your own. (You can also export pictures to iTunes 4.) To keep a CD around for easy access, just drag the picture out of the window onto your desktop. Then double-click it whenever you want to play it.
Improvements in version 1.0db2 (7 February 2005):
- New image, courtesy of Laurent Baumann, for an album whose cover isn't known: a round(!) gold CD.
- Clutter is better about repositioning windows that no longer fit onscreen (due to a resolution change, or disconnecting a display) and restoring them to their original position when possible.
- You can now type or use the arrow keys in the browser window without having to click on the list first.
- Type-selecting artists or albums in the browser works again.
- Made Clutter stop crashing on OS X 10.2. Sorry about that, Jaguar users!
- Amazon.co.jp cover lookups work now. Thanks to Shuichi Kodama for the fix.
Clutter is free and open source.
Download Clutter 1.0b2 (500K ZIP archive. Mac OS X 10.2 or later and iTunes 4.5 or later required. Sorry, there are no plans for a Windows version -- maybe it's time to get a Mac Mini?)