does mac have this kind of mp3 player?

Hey, I am a new macbook pro user. I don't really like to use iTunes as my mp3 player. I have some quick questions:

1. Is there a program that has quick access Play, Pause, Next, Previous, etc. buttons on the top menu bar (where iChat, Bluetooth, Airport is located) ? I want to have quick access to play my songs without having to switch tabs or minimizing anything.

2. How can I associate certain files to a different application. For example, I want my mp3s to play in VLC media player when I double click on an mp3 file. It only opens with iTunes.

I am very proficient with Windows, but this Mac Book is really a big learning curve for me.


Thanks for your help.

1, I know this is for itunes but it controlls the songs without having to see itunes
http://www.yousoftware.com/tunes/ there you go, downloads on the right. [free aswell!]

2, Iv got a program called Default apps, which puts a handy control panel in your system prefs and does everything you asked for, free!

http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/

hope I was of some help!

I think all you have to do is right click or control click an mp3 file and select "open with" and then "other" in the menu... navigate to and select VLC and click on the "always open with" box... that should open mp3's with VLC from now on hope that helps.

sizzling keys lets you assign any buttons you want to control your itunes.....i use apple+(any arrow keys) to pause/play, skip and previous

I too disklike itunes, and how it copies files into another folder for its use.

What is needed is winamp for mac. After so many years I still love the simplicity of winamp, and it uses next to no resources.

The sad truth is not enough people use macs yet to justify a mac version.

The good news is that with the popularity of the macbooks, this is slowly changing and I am sure the percentage of those owning macs is rising. So hopefully more cool windows apps will make it over to mac.