Playing Music without Leaving Firefox

Extension FoxyTunes

Categories Entertainment, Miscellaneous

Do you spend so much time using your Web browser these days that switching applications seems like a major distraction? Thankfully, some developers are creating extensions that bring the applications to you. One of my favorites is FoxyTunes, which integrates your favorite music player into Firefox by adding a slim toolbar that stays out of the way. The toolbar offers direct access to everything you need: Play, Stop, Rewind, Fast Forward, and Previous/Next song, which navigate through your current playlist. FoxyTunes works with all the popular music players, including WinAmp, iTunes, Windows Media Player, and RealPlayer. (See http://foxytunes.org/firefox/features.html#supportedplayers for a complete list of supported players.)

How it works After installing FoxyTunes, you see a small toolbar in the bottom-right corner containing a few different sets of buttons (see Figure 22-4). You can hover over a button to see its purpose, so I mention only the important ones here. You can also see a handful of tiny black arrows. Click these arrows to expand the toolbar and see additional controls or information. For example, the first black arrow slides out a tray displaying the name of the current song.

Figure 22-4: The slim, unobtrusive FoxyTunes toolbar is an audiophile's dream.

The first button opens the FoxyTunes menu. Click it, choose Player Tip 

If you don't like the FoxyTunes bar in the bottom-right corner of the screen, you can move it. Simply move the mouse pointer to the first black arrow on the toolbar and when it turns into a pointing hand, begin dragging the toolbar to the desired location on any of Firefox's toolbars.

Additional help is available from http://www.foxytunes.org.