Only a few days after Apple released its iTunes visual plug-ins software development kit (SDK), some developers are already releasing plug-ins to work with the popular music software.
iTunes, of course, is Apple’s wildly successful MP3 software. With iTunes, Mac users can listen to MP3s, rip MP3 files to their hard disks from audio CDs they already own, and can burn MP3s back to CD-R if they have a CD-RW equipped Mac. Apple released the software at Macworld Expo in San Francisco this past January.
Like many digital music applications, iTunes includes support for visualizers — plug-ins that produce patterns of colors and images on the screen synchronized to the music. They’re light shows, if you will, designed to entertain while folks are listening to their music. iTunes 1.1, the current shipping version of the software, has supported multiple plug-ins since its release. Up until this past week, however, software developers have not had the tools they need to develop iTunes-compatible plug-ins.
ArKaos has announced the public beta release of its Visualizer software, a highly customizable plug-in that the company developed previously for Casady & Greene’s popular software SoundJam.
Additionally, Channel D. Corp. has also released a beta version of its free plug-in called Phase Scope. Like ArKaos’ Visualizer, Phase Scope’s roots are in SoundJam.
We’re sure these are the first of a veritable avalanche of visual plug-ins to be released for iTunes 1.1. Stay tuned for more details.