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afterglow's picture
571 pencils

Coverflow - OpenGL meets your Music


Came across this very promising alpha app called Coverflow which reminded me of how well you can take a well known concept and start polishing it to make something original. Coverflow is at it's simplest an iTunes cover art browser.
The way it implements it though is through sucking your artwork and using OpenGL to represent them in a stacked fashion similar to an iChat AV window, reflections and all. At the moment this is very much a tech demo but the times it did work for me made scrolling through a text list a bit 2004..even if it is faster.
You can search by letter or thumb through your dodgy collection with the arrow keys. If even half the points on the feature list are implemented, this would be my music browser of choice.
http://www.steelskies.com/coverflow/HomePage.html

Commenting on this Blog entry is closed.

Ivan's picture

It takes some time to initialize, but than it worked nicely. Check out the full screen mode. Would be nice for parties. :) When I double click the album doesn't start playing. :( I guess it's not perfect yet.

KEWLBIT's picture
4 pencils

http://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/demo.xml

here is the bad news, man. Get that HiRes-Video from that link.

please, folks, get the whole thing ... why are the developers of "Cover Float" not mentioning the fact, that they have obviously been inspired by the "looking glass" project ?? This is lame, because the idea was there before.

more: its exactly the same like in the quite astonishing case study SUN has presentated in the year 2003!

too, take it as a hint to understand where these GUI updates in Tiger were coming from ....

.... truly yours

greetz
kewlbit

ps: its not a bad thing to adapt a formerly known concept for the favorised system. This is one of the basic ideas of open source software, isnt it ? But it is unfair to the open source community and the own apple folks to keep the facts hidden. They should have put a link to the looking glass project on their website. cheating is silly ... we gonna find out anyway. thank ya folks!

Xeppelin's picture
6 pencils

Doubleclick works for me fine, it starts playing.

dhayn's picture
179 pencils

that is so freaking cool. I need something like that on my arcade/jukebox, too bad it runs on windows (my machine).

Ivan, when I double click it works perfect.

the061's picture
1 pencil

Remember though, it is in alpha so if you see any problems with it, let the developer know.

I made a demo video of this for those without Tiger who want to know what the fuss is about, you can see it here.

Also there has been a thread running about CoverFlow over at ars for a while now where you can speak with the developer and file any faults you find here.

Enjoy ! :)

mrgreenish's picture
31 pencils

This thing is grate!
Only is there a fast way to get cover art on your computer and have it linked to the music?
There is Synergy but it is a bit to much.

Anyone? :)

buckleypeter's picture
4 pencils

Well if you have a Solid Network connection and all day depending on the size of your collection then i highly recommed MPFreaker , http://www.lairware.com/mpfreaker/ does the job nicely.
I use it while in work so it sits there and grabs the art while im workign away on other things.
Enjoy!
Peter

EMAIL:BUCKLEYPETER@GMAIL.COM

buckleypeter's picture
4 pencils

Hi,
Ive been useing this myself and find no issues with it, that combined with MPFreaker you get a good experience with music and album art.
See what you think.
JewelCase.app

http://www.opticalalchemy.com/products.html

EMAIL:BUCKLEYPETER@GMAIL.COM

mrgreenish's picture
31 pencils
stupidfish23's picture
16 pencils

best of it all? the cover of Caucasian Psychosis by irish lads Therapy?

!!!

stupidFish23
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honey i'm home, but i'm just animal bones

afterglow's picture
571 pencils

That's the one. "Potato Junkie" was a seminal tune for any Irish teenager ;)

www.afterglow.ie

stupidfish23's picture
16 pencils

hell yea, you probably know the rest anyways :D

rockstar bullshit

stupidFish23
----------------------------------------------
honey i'm home, but i'm just animal bones

Ivan's picture

Nice to see you drop by fish! :D

stupidfish23's picture
16 pencils

yeah, had to add my two cents, cause there was a therapy? cover on your blog :D

stupidFish23
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honey i'm home, but i'm just animal bones

Ivan's picture

i know you're a fan! :D

stupidfish23's picture
16 pencils

http://www.therapyquestionmark.co.uk

stupidFish23
----------------------------------------------
honey i'm home, but i'm just animal bones

afterglow's picture
571 pencils

Kinda lost interest in the post "Infernal Love" albums but they put out enough classics to assure them a warm little spot on the iPod Mini.

www.afterglow.ie

stupidfish23's picture
16 pencils

man, i absolutely love everything they ever put out :D
have you checked out the latest album Never Apologize Never Explain? They are a trio again (after canning martin which is a shame, i loved the electric chello) and they are as crazy as ever. also a must see is their live DVD from a Belfast gig in 2003, called Scopophobia :D

honey i'm home, but i'm just animal bones

:D

stupidFish23
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honey i'm home, but i'm just animal bones

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