Cover Stream lets users control, browse, and search their music without having to leave whatever other application they're working in. The software costs €15--about $21 for us here in the States--with the 2.6 update free to existing customers.

The pop-up panel added in Cover Stream 2.6, which provides full control over iTunes playback, appears when the mouse hovers over Cover Stream's status bar icon; previously, player controls were available from the actual status bar menu. The new control panel displays the current track's artwork and lets you rate the track. Clicking on the artwork or jewel case toggles the visibility of the browser window.

Other changes in Cover Stream 2.6 include improved podcast support with full episode descriptions displayed when your mouse hovers over a podcast in the songs browser, a feedback reporter for sending troubleshooting reports from within the application, and an improved launcher utility.

Cover Stream runs on OS X 10.5 and iTunes 7.5 or later.--