iPod and iTunes Hacks

Clutter Your Desktop with Music

Neatness sometimes just doesn’t count, particularly when it comes to artistic expression. So, go ahead and clutter your desktop with click-to-play album covers from your iTunes library.

Remember when discs weren’t compact? I’m talking about albums, those lovely black plastic platters cluttering your shelves and spinning away with the occasional crackle and pop on your turntable. If you’ve made the switch to all digital yet still wax nostalgic for thumbing through your old record collection—each record lovingly tended, all but scratch-free, and gently placed within its sleeve—and find iTunes a little too sterile, you’re going to love Clutter (http://www.sprote.com/clutter; freeware).

This groovy little app from Sprote Research gives all the MP3s and AACs in your iTunes 4 library the tactile feel of those stacks and stacks of records, eight tracks, cassettes, and CDs you left behind in your frenzy to join the 21st century. Set aside any tendencies toward neatness you may have, toss album covers on your desktop like so many throw pillows, and just enjoy the colorful clutter, as shown in Figure 4-25.

Figure 4-25. Embracing the clutter and enjoying the color

When you first launch Clutter, a small Not Playing window appears (Figure 4-26, left). Launch iTunes, ...