Synergy - 0.9.7

Synergy is a tiny Cocoa application for Mac OS X 10.2 (and later) that puts three buttons to control iTunes in your menubar: previous track, next track, and play/pause; as well as proving you with visual feedback about the currently playing tune. Synergy can even automatically download and display the cover of the currently playing album. The Synergy controls, together with the ability to control iTunes via system-wide Hot Key combinations, mean that Synergy provides the fastest way of skipping between songs when using the keyboard or the mouse; all this without having to switch to iTunes, or access its Dock menu. Synergy is only $5 (USD).

With other iTunes "remote control" applications you have to give up some screen real-estate to accommodate a floating window, or you have to navigate into a menu extra so as to access the features. In contrast, Synergy allows you to skip between songs simply by flicking the mouse into the menu bar and clicking one of the buttons. It also offers the ability to assign system-wide hotkeys (for example F11, F12, F13) for the play/pause, previous track and next track buttons). The time savings are most obvious when you wish to skip through several tracks in quick succession. Synergy won't take up precious space in your Dock as it appears only in the menubar. It provides you with ultimate control over iTunes even while you're working in other applications. The Synergy global menu provides you with quick access to recently played tracks, and the floater provides information whenever a new track starts playing.

An online tour is available to take you through Synergy's features.