Is You Control smashing the freeware competition?

The widget bundle of the regular You Control is a bit pricey, but their slimmed down version called You Control: Tunes offers the functionality of a mini-program that someone would usually pay for, for free.

System Requirements
• Macintosh PowerPC
• Max OS X v10.3 or higher
• 10 MB free hard disk space
• Internet connection required for some modules to get updated information and for product registration

The 1.8 megabyte You Control: Tunes can be downloaded from the You Control website. After the file is downloaded, drag it to your desktop and open it. A screen will pop up prompting you to enter your serial number. You may be asking, "If this thing is free, why and how do I get a serial number?" To get a FREE serial, click on the link above and look on the left of the web page between the toolbar and the system requirements where it says, "Have you already downloaded You Control: Tunes and just need a FREE serial number?" and click on that link. A new window will appear prompting you to enter you name, company, e-mail address, and to enter an authentication code to prove you aren't a robot spammer. After you click "Submit", an e-mail is instantly sent to your inbox with the registration code that you can copy and paste into the You Control program so you can use it.

All the cool features of You Control: Tunes are found in the preferences.

To turn the program on or off, check or uncheck the "Enable You Control: Tunes" box. Menu Type allows you to choose where you want the controls for iTunes to appear: text or icons in either the left or the right of the menu bar at the top of your screen. The menu text is what is displayed in the menu bar if you have selected to display text rather than the icon, and "menu image" does just the opposite.  Clicking on the down arrow in the menu bar brings up the same menu as the hot key.

Hot Key is a really nice feature, simply by hitting the command key with another button of your choice, a small menu comes up on your screen, and you can play any song in your iTunes library.

The menu font is self-explanatory. The "Display Controls in Menu Title" box lets you choose either the controls with rewind, play, and fast-forward, or if you prefer to leave the box unchecked to display your custom text in the menu bar.

A brief overview of the tabs in the You Control: Tunes preferences:

Menu: lets you choose what you would like to appear when you use the program to control or choose songs to play.

Controller: Pick which icons you want to appear in the menu, and which buttons to put there as well.

Ticker: Displays the song and artist/album in a ticker in the menu bar. You control the size and speed of the ticker.

Overlay: When a new song begins, an overlay window appears in the front of the screen (if you have it set to) displaying the title, artist, album, rating, and album artwork. You can customize the colors of the window, and there are eight different transition effects. There are three options including the window always appearing on top, rounded corners, and mouse clicking to dismiss the overlay. There is also a preview button and advanced settings. Under "Advanced Settings", you can select the area on the screen you want the window to appear, how long the transition effects are, and how long the actual information displays are.

If you want to quit the program, right click the controls and select "Stop Engine".

The "About You" tab shows information about You Software and how to contact them.

I found You Control: Tunes to be very useful. This freeware app is so convenient that I would consider buying if it weren't free. The quick, smooth interfaced menus look great and function well. You Control: Tunes is especially good for people who don't want to clutter their desktop with the regular iTunes remote. Kudos to You Software for this great program - I haven't found to be wrong with it; everything runs smoothly. On a scale of five stars, You Control: Tunes receives a perfect score, because it is the ultimate iTunes controller, and you can't beat the price!