ScreenSleeves ready to go as a standalone app

In the last post I gave a preview of a new direction for ScreenSleeves and now it's ready to go.

Changes in MacOS Mojave have made it impossible to continue with ScreenSleeves as a true screensaver. Apple have not made it possible (as far as I know at the time of writing) to grant a screensaver plugin the necessary permission to communicate with or control other apps.

Making ScreenSleeves run as a full app (in its own window) has several benefits:

• Resize the window from tiny to large, and put it into full-screen mode.
• Choose to keep the window on top of others when it's small, or allow others to move on top of it
• The new version gives you the option to automate certain things, emulating a screensaver:
• Switch to full-screen mode with a keypress (cmd-ctrl-F) or after a configurable period of inactivity
• Switch back from full-screen to the floating window with a wiggle of the mouse or keypress
• Block system screensaver, screen sleep or computer sleep while in full-screen mode and as long as music is playing

As mentioned, Mojave has much tighter security. The first time you run this app, you'll be asked to allow ScreenSleeves access to several other things. It won't ask for permission for anything which isn't necessary for it to function as intended. You should only be troubled once for each thing that Screensleeves needs to communicate with.

The new standalone version (6.0.0) is available for download, it runs for free for a trial period, then a small price to continue using it. (Previously, the screensaver came in a free and 'pro' versions with extras in the paid version).

Screensleeves album art screensaver as a standalone app

Screensleeves has been a popular screensaver for a number of years, but the security changes in the new Mojave OS may make its functionality impossible.

Over the years people have suggested that it could be a free-standing app rather than a screensaver. This comes with some advantages - eg you can keep it minimised and floating above other windows in the corner of the screen when it's not in full screen mode.

This may be the only way to keep the screensaver alive. I've been experimenting with the idea, ironing out some issues related to the change, and using it. I have to say that I like it very much.

Here's a very quick peek at what all this means.

routine update for Screensleeves

Yesterday Screensleeves (free and pro versions) received a maintenance update; some small updates, improvements and the odd little glitch fixed.

It's the first update in a while. But then if something's working pretty well, should it be important to do some work and release a new version? There are definite marketing advantages (exposure).

Over the weekend I had an app pulled from the App Store, on the grounds that it hadn't been updated for a while. I hate the Store and haven't supported it for a long while, and this is a minor app that I haven't sold a copy of for a long time and have been wondering whether to stop supporting anyway. When uploading apps is such a headache anyway, the obligation to do it regularly in order to avoid them dropping an app just seems like another hoop to jump through. But it did make me feel a little offended.

On the positive side, the Apple's policy does keep their store free of abandoned apps. I've seen users refer to apps as 'abandonware' if they haven't been updated in a couple of years.

New theme in Screensleeves

Welcome to the new 'Ambience' theme.

It goes against the idea of a screensaver a little to have a static coloured background (I've been toying with the idea of adding a little 'Ken Burns' to the background, but this would have little benefit if the album cover is fairly homogenous in colour.)

But there is a fade to black and repositioning of the album cover and details every 30 seconds, which existing users will be familiar with. And if you're listening to individual tracks rather than complete albums or audiobooks, then there's no problem as the coloured background will change significantly every few minutes. Plus as now, when the music stops you either get a black screen or random artwork (whichever you choose) so no problem there.

Above all, it just looks so cool. I'm so excited about it and love using it.

[Update] This theme is now available in Screensleeves Pro v5.1.  You can download and use the Pro version without paying, just certain Pro features will be disabled before you obtain a key.

Very cool new feature in ScreenSleeves

I have a Mac which is pretty much dedicated to playing my music; I regularly use iTunes (actually now more often Swinsian), Spotify and occasionally Radium for a particular internet radio station I like.

However, that mac doesn't always have a screen attached (I often use screen sharing to control the music). In any case, it's not the screen I like to have running the Screensleeves screensaver.

This problem has been on my mind for a long time. What's required is an elegant way of sharing what's playing on another computer. Without any messy setting up or messing around with passwords every time a computer is restarted or just decides it wants to be awkward.

And here it is. It's called Screensleeves Broadcaster. It's included in the Screensleeves Pro dmg, and you just need to pop it in the Applications folder of the computer that plays your music, start it (you may like to add it to your login items so it's just running whenever your computer is on).

Then install version 5 of the Screensleeves screensaver (obviously on the computer that you want to be displaying the saver). Go into its options and switch on "Listen for the Screensleeves Broadcaster" (under the Pro options). And that's it.

Version 5 of Screensleeves has various fixes / improvements, support for the Broadcaster, and it also restores support for 10.6 (Snow Leopard) which has been broken in recent versions.

Update: v5.0.1 Pro is now released, and the Broadcaster is officially released too.

Apple Music not playing nicely

[update 16/8/15] This issue now seems to be resolved in iTunes 12.2.2.25

21 Jul 2015

Screensleeves, the album art screensaver for Mac, is currently having trouble displaying the artwork and track details when the new streaming service (Apple Music) is being used.

Applescript (the sensible way for applications to talk to each other) is often overlooked - there are ongoing problems with Spotify, although it's been possible to work around most of these. But it's particularly disappointing when Apple themselves neglect their own scripting interface.

iTunes' 'current track' seems broken when it comes to the new music service as developers of other apps have reported.

I hope that this is 'teething trouble' with the new service and can only suggest installing updates when they're available.

Sreensleeves album art screensaver as a desktop

There is a way to make the Screensleeves screensaver as your desktop.

It's a terminal command,

/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background &

The animations all work smoothly. The screensaver you get will be the one you have set in System Prefs > Desktop and Screensaver, so make sure that's set to Screensleeves. The theme and settings will be as per your options there (including whether it shows a clock or not).

Protip: Make sure your music player of choice is already running and playing when you use that Terminal command. If you want to stop the 'desktop screensaver' you'll need to use Activity Monitor to find the 'ScreenSaver Engine' process and kill it.

ScreenSleeves screensaver - Installing and setting preferences

Important note: The article below applies to the old screensaver version of ScreenSleeves. This has been superseded by a standalone app, but the appearance and the options are pretty much the same as described below. The settings for the new app are found in the app's Preferences.

It's a shame that the Lounge screensaver seems to have disappeared. It displays only the currently playing album cover with some details in a very neat, easy-on-the-eye-way (a la Front Row). Being a screensaver it just kicks in if you leave your computer or mouse to your hot corner.

So I set about writing a similar app. But with Spotify support too, which I would have liked in Lounge - I use both iTunes and Spotify equally.

Screensleeves detects which is playing and displays cover art and details for the currently-playing track:

As with most screensavers there are some options, and it's not always obvious how to find these options. So here's a quick tutorial.

[4 Aug 2014 - this page updated to reflect the new options. If you don't have all of the options below, please download and install the current version]

Installing

Simply double-click the package icon from within the downloaded dmg. System Preferences will open and confirm that you'd like to install the saver. It'll do so and show you a preview. Note that with earlier systems you may need to click the saver's name in the left-hand list if you want to switch to it.

Accessing options

After you've installed, you can get back to the options via System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Screen Saver   and press 'Options'

What those options mean

1. Theme: Choose from Classic, Text, Mosaic, Full-Screen or Random. Random chooses one of the graphic themes (not Text) each time the screensaver kicks in. Preview window in System Prefs will not be the same theme as the one chosen when the saver kicks in for real.

2. Artwork size: The artwork and text size will adjust itself to be suitable for your screen size, but you can make the default size larger or smaller.

3. 3D effect: The cover can be displayed flat or at an angle. This slider adjusts the angle of the effect. Works with Classic and Full-Screen themes

4. Font size: Adjusts the size of the text. With some themes the font size may also be sized relative to the artwork size.

5. Rating / Popularity: If iTunes is playing, your star rating will be displayed and you can press keys 0-5 to change the rating. If Spotify is playing, the Spotify popularity will be shown. You are unable to change this except by playing the tune which is a vote for it.

6. A Progress bar can be displayed showing the position within the current track.

7. Show Total track time / Time remaining: If progress bar is showing it can display a counter showing either of these things.

8. Keep centred and static: If you are sure your screen isn't burnable, you can fix the position of the artwork and text. It will only fade when the track changes.

9. If no artwork available: These buttons choose what Screensleeves does. It can display a default image, or no image. Since v3.4.3 it's been able to very sucessfully fetch album art from the web. The last box about Snowtape is there because Snowtape currently provides artwork which is low-quality and often not the correct cover. With the box checked, SS will try to override the artwork Snowtape provides with a cover fetched from the web.

10. Always find from the web with Snowtape / Rdio: Depending on the type of music you're listening to, Snowtape may not provide the best album cover for the track playing. In both cases, these players provide lower-res images than is desirable when Screensleeves is displaying larger artwork sizes. This option forces Screensleeves to source a better quality and perhaps more appropriate image from the web.

11. ScreenSleeves can default to any of the other screensavers if necessary. Just choose your favourite from the list.  Note that the alternative won't show in the preview window. You'll need to press 'Test' or Preview' or use your hot corner

12. This box allows you to choose whether the alternative saver cuts in if there's no music playing, or if no music player is running. Checking this box means that if there's a player available, but paused, ScreenSleeves will display a 'Paused' message and allow you to start the player using the spacebar.

13. If both players are running but paused, these buttons allow you to choose which one starts playing when you press the spacebar.

14. Setting a modifier helps to prevent the rating of a track being changed accidentally. 'none' means that you can just press keys 0-5 to set the rating. 'control', 'alt', or 'cmd' mean that you have to press that key along with 0-5 to change the rating.

15. If you're going to sleep to music, or for some other reason want the screen to black out when the music stops or after a delay, here are the options.

Triggering the screen saver

As per any screensaver, it'll kick in after a preset time, or you can trigger it manually by setting up a Hot Corner. While your System Preferences window is showing, you can use the 'Test' or 'Preview' button for a full-screen preview.




Download

In case you missed it at the top of this post, the ScreenSleeves download is here