The third potion from Potion Factory is out in beta form – Tangerine. I helped beta test this cool little gem. Its beautiful like Podcast Maker and Voice Candy. It also fills a need I didn’t realize could be filled.

I had created a playlist in iTunes a while back called “Fast Beats” where I hand-picked a few songs. If you’ve read earlier entries on my blog, you’ll know that I use music to elevate my mood and get me into “the zone.” There’s quite a few selections from New Order’s Substance 1987 CD. :) So this is a great playlist, but it took some time to put together and it doesn’t really have much variety.

Tangerine does this automatically by analyzing your iTunes library for beats per minute (BPM) and beat intensity, then lets you pick your BPM range and another factors and then creates a playlist for you. I definitely got more variety but still my fast beats.

Design – Tangerine has an iTunes-esque look, which is appropriate since it is intended to work closely with iTunes. It has a novel Timeline View which shows which songs it has picked for you, with higher BPM songs being taller and longer songs being wider. The toolbar is at the bottom, which is different but looks appropriate for the app. There’s also novel range choosers in the New Playlist sheet to choose BPM and Beat Intensity ranges which are nice because they show you the number but also graphically where it is in the range. Its nice to see the Potion Factory guys following the HIG but innovating when they need to.