Introducing FreezBeat

Posted on September 4th, 2009 by Jeff

FreezBeat I’d like to introduce you to the latest creation from Snowmoon Software, FreezBeat. It’s an indispensable little utility that keeps you from missing a beat of your favorite music, a scene from the latest movie, or a word from that podcast. Just how does it do that? Read on!

First, a little background. I work in an office — a noisy one. Music and headphones are essential to getting any work done at all. The workstation I was using had a nice multimedia keyboard with playback controls. With just a touch, I could play, pause, and even adjust the volume right from the keyboard without having to hunt for Windows Media Player or iTunes. Sadly, that didn’t last too long. My next workstation didn’t have a multimedia keyboard; I had to hunt for the player window whenever I left the computer, or someone came by to ask a question. That gets a little annoying when you have as many windows open as I usually do!

Over the next two weeks in my spare time, I wrote what was to become FreezBeat. It went through a  few name changes… Sonic Presence, Caesura were just two of the incarnations. I shared FreezBeat with a couple of friends and they loved it. It quickly became one of those apps that you don’t really notice when it works, but when it’s not running, you miss it… quickly!

So what does FreezBeat do? It manages your audio playback for you, automatically. Ok, that’s what it does but what does that mean? Imagine you’re at work, listening to music and have to go get a fresh cup of coffee, or go to a meeting. You lock your workstation (Windows Key+L from the keyboard) and FreezBeat pauses playback. When you return you sit down, unlock the computer and get back to work.  Wait, the music’s playing again! That’s because FreezBeat knows you’re back and automatically resumed playback and you didn’t miss a beat!

What if you need to pause playback because your phone rang? FreezBeat can help you here too. Click on FreezBeat’s tray icon to pause, click again to resume. If you’re a keyboarder like me, you can assign a special key combination (called a hotkey) to pause and resume too. Just right-click on  FreezBeat’s tray icon and pick the hot key option from the popup menu. My favorite hotkey is Control+Keypad 0; it’s an easy two-handed keypress without having to move too far from the home row.

FreezBeat can also pause playback when the screensaver starts, and resume when the screensaver stops running. FreezBeat supports Windows Media Player, iTunes, and WinAMP and runs on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 2008.

Buy a copy today, or download a free 30 day trial at freezbeat.com. Please note that you have to enter a little bit of information to get a trial license before you download FreezBeat; this information is used only to generate your license.

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