14 DAY TRIAL // The number of iTunes enhancer programs available is huge, and, if nothing else, a proof to the popularity of the program. However, not all these little programs are created equally and each one has it's own unique little feature that the other doesn't have, making it stand out, and urging you to use it. iMote is no exception to this rule, having it's own up and downs.
iTunes enhancer This little program is designed to improve the way you work with iTunes by giving you a new way of interacting with it and viewing information from it. Its functionality can be split up into three big categories: hotkeys, floater and StepBack.
Lets take a look at each in turn.
Hotkeys Each and every iTunes enhancer adds hotkeys to control iTunes regardless of whether or not it is in focus. This is a sine qua non option that has come to be pretty standard, however, the shortcuts themselves vary from program to program.
iMote has the usual assortment of shortcuts with nothing special or of interest. Beside the playback and volume controls, you can also set shortcuts for rating songs and changing the shuffle and repeat settings. The one thing that is worthy of mention is that there is no visual feedback for these shortcuts. Other similar programs use the floater to give visual feedback while you are changing the volume or rating and even when changing the shuffle and repeat settings, but not this one.
The shortcuts can be changed at will and they can be enabled or disabled from the list. There is even an option to disable all hotkey combinations when iTunes is not running.
Floater The floater is quite average in appearance and other than its position and opacity of the black background, there is nothing you can change about it. There is an option in the preferences that you can toggle to enable or disable mouse interaction with the Floater. While most users will be wanting to disable the mouse interaction so that they can click 'through' the floater and not have it interfere with whatever work they are doing, there are certain things that you can do with the floater if you can mouse it.
One thing is positioning the floater anywhere on the screen. This is the kind of thing you usually do once and never go back to again and there is also the option to center the floater when you double click on it, which is a bit useless. However, one interesting use for the floater, if you are interacting with it, is to rate songs by clicking directly on the little stars. This is something I have never seen on other applications and although the approach sounds great in theory, accidental clicking on the floater and not being able to interact with whatever is behind it render it useless for those who want to make use of their entire screen.
Perhaps a modifier key would be the best approach in getting the best of both worlds. Have the floater totally 'transparent' in terms of interaction, unless you are holding some modifier key.
StepBack This is one of those features that is not available in other similar iTunes enhancer that I have seen and sets this one apart from the rest.
In a nutshell, when you enable this feature and set the StepBack time, whenever you "unpause" a track, the playback will not resume from the point where it was paused, rather going further back by the number of seconds you specify in the preferences. While the benefit of this might not seem apparent, it is great once you get used to it in terms of music playback it is not superb, although many will like it, however, pod casts and audio books is where this option really shines.
It is like picking up a book after putting it down for a second and starting to read from the beginning of the last paragraph you reached. Also, it is great for people who are transcribing audio recording into written form.
The Good The StepBack option is what sets this program apart, if listening to audio books and podcasts is part of your iTunes usage you will love this option.
The Bad Mediocre hotkey and floater when compared to other similar programs.
The Truth With other much better iTunes enhancers out there, in terms of hotkeys and floaters, the only real reason to go with this one is the StepBack function.
Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:
