INTelegance

newTunes 2.1.1 Dashboard Widget

version released March 2008

Ever miss an album release from one of your favorite bands because you forgot to check their website for a few months? It'll never happen again with newTunes! newTunes is a Mac OS X Dashboard Widget designed to keep you up to date with new and upcoming album releases by only the artists of interest to you: the artists in your iTunes Library!

CodeBreaker 1.5.1

newTunes was first released in June of 2006. I came up with the idea after finding a record from a favorite band of mine that had been out for a few months without my knowledge. I knew that there had to be an easy way to get music updates by artists that I listened. By using the artist data from the iTunes XML file as search criteria for Amazon.com's web service, I created the functionality to get instant targeted music updates. I wrapped it up in a widget and newTunes was born!

Check out the features page to learn more or go straight to download! I also have a fully thematic newTunes Official Site that contains news, features, and past updates.

Features

full search control

Searching for albums is painless. newTunes allows you to start, pause, cancel, and resume searches with ease. A progress bar shows the status of the current search. As albums are found, they are immediately added to the list so you can start browsing even before the search is done.

user interface control

newTunes 2.0 now has a fully configurable window. Collapse it when you are not using it or waiting for searches to finish. When browsing albums, stretch newTunes as big as you need and then shrink it again when you are done. newTunes will never get in the way of your other widgets!

artist list management

Refresh your artist list directly from iTunes at any time. Checkboxes allow you to decide which artists you want to be included in the search for more specific searching. Select/deselect all options allow you to effectively manage even thousands of artists to easily customize your searches.

album list management

Albums have never been easier to manage. Sort new albums by artist or by release date; ascending or descending. In newTunes 2.0 your albums stay between searches and new albums appear with a red border so you can easily spot them from those you have seen before. If you want to start fresh, simply hit the clear button and the list is emptied.

album options

Each individual album has several options. You can permanently remove albums you never want to see again or just clear them for the time being. With one click you are at the album's page on Amazon.com to buy or pre-order your new music. If you don't want to buy the album right now but don't want it to get lost, move it to the wish list as a reminder for later.

user preferences

The backside of newTunes allows you to completely customize its behavior. Specify how many days old is too old for albums to be displayed. You can allow newTunes to continue searching when you return to your desktop or you can save resources and have it automatically pause when it is hidden. When you start your search you can have newTunes automatically purge any items older than you consider new. newTunes 2.0 now has automatic update checks that you can enable or disable and check manually.