Artwork: A New Audio App Contender

While I’m sure any of you use the popular app CoverSutra, there is a new one that has been in progress for the past 6 months, and it is Artwork. Artwork is being developed by Dan Deming-Henes, and so far, has been great. Artwork isn’t released to the public yet, so take this review as a preview on what’s to come. Artwork shows your album art on your desktop, with controls, in a window with the choice of large or small. One of the features of CoverSutra that has been requested frequently is inset controls, along with the HUD it has. Artwork does not have a HUD, but I find this better. For a look at the different types of views, see below.

It displays the art for your music, podcasts, videos, or anything with artwork. If none is found, there are three backgrounds that can be chosen to replace the artwork if there isn’t any. See the example, in large, below.

And small:

More handy features include fullscreen mode (screenshot here), Song/Podcast/Video Info, and Search, with two of them being shown below.

Growl support is another handy feature implemented in Artwork, but you will have to see it for yourself once Artwork is publicly available, because installing and configuring Growl isn’t a simple task, and I don’t have it pre-installed.

Overall, my impressions of this app are mostly positive. I would use it, possibly on and off with Coversutra, because they are both great. Artwork will be free, according to the website, so just another reason to use it. I’ve found it really handy because when I am interrupted and listening to a podcast or a song, I just click on the Artwork window, and hit spacebar, then hit it again when I can listen to it again. Stay tuned for more information at its website, ArtworkApp.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 21st, 2007 and is filed under Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.