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iPod and iTunes Hacks
book

iPod and iTunes Hacks

by Hadley Stern
October 2004
Beginner to intermediate
456 pages
12h 36m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from iPod and iTunes Hacks

Use the iTunes Visualizer as a Screensaver

Using ScriptSaver, you can replace that boring default Apple screensaver with the fanciful iTunes visualizer.

The visualizer included with iTunes just begs to be used as a screensaver. This hack uses a little AppleScript magic and a utility called ScriptSaver to make this possible. Combine this hack with “Extend Your Visualizer Options” [Hack #54] , and your Mac can display any number of visual options when it’s inactive.

ScriptSaver (http://homepage.mac.com/swannman/; free), written by Matthew M. Swann, is a screensaver module that, when activated, executes an AppleScript. There are many potential uses of ScriptSaver, limited only by your hacker imagination. When your Mac goes into screensaver mode, you can use ScriptSaver to have it set an away message in iChat, pause iTunes, back up files, or, as in the case of this hack, activate iTunes’s visualizer mode.

To install ScriptSaver, expand the .sit file after downloading it and open /System/Library/Screen Savers. Copy the ScriptSaver.saver file into this folder. Open System Preferences and click on the Desktop & Screen Saver icon. Click the Screen Saver tab, and you will see that ScriptSaver is now one of your options for a screensaver.

In and of itself, ScriptSaver doesn’t do anything as a screensaver—no flying toasters, no swimming fish. All ScriptSaver does is execute an AppleScript when the screensaver is activated. This means that instead of activating the Flurry screensaver, for example, ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596007787Errata Page