flight404’s Magnetosphere the New Visualizer in iTunes 8?
Nova (audio by Helios) from flight404 on Vimeo.
The rumor mill’s conventional wisdom is that iTunes 8 will be part of Apple’s music-themed press event next week. That’s a safe bet — iTunes 7 is clearly due for an update. But Allan White has some interesting speculation with which I’m inclined to agree. There’s an excellent change Robert Hodgin’s excellent Magnetosphere visualizer is going to become an official visualizer for iTunes 8. That’s be a big win for Processing (site | cdmo tag), the visual code “sketching” tool — and a likely time suck for your productivity next week, if true, as you stare into its hypnotic pulsing orbs. (Just fair warning.)
Allan White writes on his blog — a lovely visit for fans of music and visualization:
[Robert] Hodgins built a wonderful iTunes visualizer called Magnetosphere a while back - which mysteriously disappeared from his site a few months back. I wrote him, and he said that it had been sold to a third party. There’s strong evidence that this third party is in fact Apple, and that it may ship with iTunes 8, which could be shown as soon as next week at an iPod Event.
iTunes 8 Rumors: is Magnetosphere the New Visualizer?
One way or another, it looks like we will be getting the visualizer. And getting it officially would be terrific — it’s about time the fairly moribund world of visualizers was reignited. (Just remember, musicians, work with a real VJ/visualist when playing live for the full experience. End public service announcement.)
Magnetosphere Video
(Above, a reskinned take on the original — Robert does wonderful things with iterating his code)
17 Comments
Leave a CommentLEGENDmag
[...] this is one of those instances. While reading a digital music blog posting about the rumored next iTunes plugin, I found out about Magnetosphere: an amazingly [...]
September 4, 2008 @ 10:18 pm
MonksDream
Peter - thank you! That magnetosphere link is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. It’s made me want to learn about Processing. Bravo!
September 5, 2008 @ 12:02 am
t.edison
Why doesnt the idea of iTunes v8 fill my heart with joy the same way the prospect of ableton LIVE 8.0 might? (if only they finally implement 5.1)
I guess its because each itunes update is more about implementing new ways of selling (DRM & all) whereas live is about making stuff….
September 5, 2008 @ 3:03 am
Filtrada una posible captura de pantalla y el nuevo visualizador de iTunes 8
[...] | Hispasonic |Create digital music trackback ¿Recomendarías este post? Más noticias sobre: iPod, iTunes, iPhone Tags: [...]
September 5, 2008 @ 4:20 am
Filtaciones del nuevo iTunes 8 | Appleismo
[...] Vía | Hispasonic y Create Digital Music [...]
September 5, 2008 @ 5:33 am
womanonfire
i HOPE this rumor proves to be true! I have the old version of this visualizer installed and it is truly mesmerizing and beautiful no matter what is playing. Robert does great work in this field.
September 5, 2008 @ 7:22 am
Allan White
Thanks for the attribution, Peter - and nice chatting with you yesterday. Robert’s work deserves the attention and credit.
September 5, 2008 @ 2:39 pm
Allan White
A lot of the comments around this idea online are tempered with frustration at iTunes - valid feelings IMHO. I’d really love to see a stand-alone version of Magnetosphere someday (and, oh, pipe it into Quartz Comps while I’m at it…).
PS - why doesn’t my Gravatar show up here? It does elsewhere.
September 5, 2008 @ 3:31 pm
vvvoid
I’d be more impressed if apple removed the malware junk from itunes. Ever uninstalled that app? absolute pita.
September 7, 2008 @ 7:52 pm
Sep 9th: Apple ‘Let’s Rock’ Special Event. | RazorianFly :]
[...] 8.0 Early doubts left this rumor hanging, but it’s now back stronger than ever with recent claims explaining iTunes 8.0 will hit later today, with new features including Grid View, Genius [...]
September 8, 2008 @ 9:09 pm
Rumor: new visualizer in iTunes 8 to be Robert Hodgin’s Magnetosphere | Apple News
[...] [via Create Digital Music] [...]
September 9, 2008 @ 9:02 am
Mike
well…nice job Robert…hope you got a nice chunk of change from Apple for this. Looks beautiful
September 9, 2008 @ 2:16 pm
Daily DIY Network - Science Projects Plans Guides » Blog Archive » Apple’s new iTunes visualizer & the open source Processing language
[...] details soon. Here’s a video of Magnetosphere in action, it’s pretty much the new visualizer… and here’s a rumor about it from earlier in the [...]
September 9, 2008 @ 4:01 pm
Apple’s new iTunes visualizer & the open source Processing language | Abiyaa
[...] a video of Magnetosphere in action, it’s pretty much the new visualizer… and here’s a rumor about it from earlier in the [...]
September 9, 2008 @ 5:39 pm
George P. Macklin
GO Robert!!! That is some really good news. Magnetosphere is exactly the piece of code that got me into dabbling with Processing.
September 10, 2008 @ 7:46 pm
Wiley Wiggins
I’m curious how Magnetosphere got in there if it was a processing app.. All the iTunes visualizers I have seen have been Quartz Compositions.
September 15, 2008 @ 3:59 pm
Apple’s new iTunes visualizer & the open source Processing language | thekevinpipe.com
[...] details soon. Here’s a video of Magnetosphere in action, it’s pretty much the new visualizer… and here’s a rumor about it from earlier in the [...]
November 15, 2008 @ 2:37 am
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