The widget is great. What needs to be done to change the text to black? thanks.

Just the type of widget I was looking for -- was going to try to write one, but you did better than I could have without a lot of time ...

two requests if you update:
1 - ability to turn off fields (like ratings, I dont use them)
2 - ability to hide the widget if iTunes is not running

Good work!

Any chance of a port to Windows?

Pleaaaaaaaase.

the stars are much smaller in tiger, you might want to look into this. you can barely see them.

Hi!!
can port this widget to Konfabulator for Windows??
this widget is a fantastic companion to Sputnik, but is only for windows

i really like this widget, but i keep getting the AppleScript errors when:
> song changes
> move itunes
> itunes companion gets album art

best. widget. ever.
used together with sofa and set not to display frame and shadow, this is fantastic. i can have the album cover for the current track displayed with all petinent information directly below. grand.

best. widget. ever.
used together with sofa and set not to display frame and shadow, this is fantastic. i can have the album cover for the current track displayed with all petinent information directly below. grand.

Kewl widget. But how about adding the album artwork (either via internet search or the art embedded into the song files. Check out the iTunes Catalog (google it!) and see how they search the net for the album artwork. It worked pretty well for me for almost all of my albums. Also, how about a feature to briefly show the widget window over all the other windows whenever itunes plays the next track.. than fade away to the background (desktop mode).. just an idea.

I like the idea and presentation. But there are two big problems that I would love to be fixed:

1) When iTunes is starting (for example) the Display shows an AppleScript error. This isn't a huge problem, but cosmetically annoying.

2) The polling nature of this Widget means that about every half second it creates a CPU spike. I noticed this when I was running the iTunes visualiser: it slowed every half second. A quick check of Activity Monitor showed your Widget as the only one that was using any CPU. Is there any other way to get the info?

Thanks. This could be a great widget.

Quick fix for probs with no album title?

So I hacked in a quick fix that didn't give me the AppleScript error for no album title on a stream. The block begins at line 250:

album.data = album_shadow.data = telliTunes('return ((get name of current track_ as string)');
if(album.data.indexOf("Error") != -1){
album.data="";
album_shadow.data="";
}

That block checks for the string 'Error' and then just clears the data properties so the display is at least clear.

Also it looked like

album.data = album_shadow.data

was album.data = artist_shadow.data

which might explain some of the weird shadowing.

Anyway, I tested it on my streams and a few tracks and it seems to hold for now.

Great widget. I run multiple desktops for development (PB 17" 1.5) and I usually do all my coding on desktop 1 and all my music/browser/etc on 2 (it's pretty sweet that I can split my widgets up on the desktops as well :). So when I hear something - cuz I listen to a lot of net radio, I always have to flip back to see what it is. This widget is great cuz it's not too high and wide enough to display some good info. Fit's snugle in the bottom right corner.

However. I'm having the same errors as plastique as far as shadows, and radio AppleScript messages. Other than that, as an info widget, it's great.

I guess the only feature request I have is to specify height and width as I wouldn't mind it being a little wider. Anyway, thanks and I look fwd to future versions.

A correction on my previous comment.. instead of showing the station name on streaming audio (on the third line), please show the album name--I just figured out that it is included in the streams.

at all if the shadow mode is not selected...

I hope you can clean up this widget, because I really like its simplicity; I would like to see some things done like selectable display length, or even better an auto-resize feature (which would be good with the bezel). I'd also like to have the shadow and background options seperate, as it looks weird to me to have 'floating' text and a bezel with no shadow; I'd rather have flat text and a flat bezel. Another thing you might add is an option to tweak the vertical distance between lines, for a more customized display--that way, one could separate the information as they like.

I'm sorry for all the criticism, but I hope you can put the time in to squash the bugs and add some new features!

Thanks for updating to include streaming music, but I've noticed a couple of bugs in this version.

While displaying info for streams, the first two lines are track and artist, and then AppleScript error on the third line; I think it would be better to have the first line show the stream title (such as Groove Salad), and then the track/artist on the next lines. In any case, please fix the AppleScript error message.

The shadow feature is doing some weird things with this widget on my machine. First, the shadow on the third line of the display doesn't switch from the original font. Second, the shadows on streaming music are all screwy--the third line's shadow shows up on the second line, in the appropriate font, but it also shows up on the third line in the original font! Thirdly, I see the shadow pop up and then disappear when tracks change, even when I have simple mode running. Maybe it's only noticeable because I have a slower machine (500MHz G4), but this shouldn't happen

Hi, I'm Japanese user.
This widgets is very simple and cool !
It's my pleasure that Japanese words also displays with no error.

I wish user can change the size of display on next version.
Because long title are'nt displaied at the end.
Scrolling title is not better for CPU performance, so I want next versions to change the display size.
I'm looking forward to see ver 1.2 !

As for feature requests that didn't make it in:
I'd like to implement the time display but I'm not sure where to fit it in. It seems too small to go on a line by itself and I don't particularly want to make the widget any higher. Any suggestions are welcome.

As for your request, Adam, I'm not 100% clear on what you mean and don't have a network to test things out on. So, sorry, that probably won't get included. Perhaps post a request in the "what would your widget do" section of the forums?

An update is uploaded and will be along as soon as it's processed (probably this weekend?).
As for what is and isn't included in the update:
-There is now an optional background and text shadow. Right now, they're turned on and off together, but I could change that if there's a request.
-The status messages when iTunes is not playing can now be turned off.
-The correct information is now displayed for streams. I don't use this much so please let me know if you run into any problems with it as I probably won't find them myself.

Wow-this is ALMOST what I was looking for. We have a robust mp3 server in my studio which is routed to all the speakers in the studio. All day long, the common refrain is 'what an excellent tune-who is this?' To find out, you need to get up and walk over to the mp3 server.
What I really need is a little widget that will push the artist/track name info to any workstation on the network running the widget, but not running iTunes. Any plans for something like this?

I really like this widget--if you update it, please have an option to keep this original 'simple' mode! Also, the only thing I would like to see added is display of artist and track name on Internet radio mode...

I'd like to see an incorporation of time: i.e. time of song, time remaining, etc. make it clickable to rotate through the options.

very nice otherwise!

Nice small widget. Would be nice if it wouldn't say anything when iTunes is stopped or not running (if there aint sound commin' out, we don't need a widget to tell us "iTunes not running")

very nice stuff...sometimes all you want to know is the artist or title...album art is nice but cannot always be found...i love this widget!!! :)

Widget author here. I'm currently working on a new version of this widget. It's a little less customizable at the moment, but looks a lot nicer. Transparent background, shadowed letters, etc. It'll be along as soon as I get the same customizability rolled in.

Also very happy that it accepts characters from the Unicode table (Special Characters). We can actually have stars representing the rating.

Very nice. I love the customization options. Would get 4 stars if there was a way to add a drop shadow to the letters