Take Five for Mac

It's starting to feel like Iconfactory central around here, but the company has been on a roll these first few months of 2011. They've released a major overhaul of Twitterrific for Mac, a new photo app called Flare, the unveiling of their game-changing development kit called The Chameleon Project, and now one of their iOS originals has come to the Mac.

Take Five for Mac is a simple utility that pauses your music for 5 minutes (or whatever you set in preferences), then gracefully fades it back in when time is up.

You may be asking why anyone would need something like this. The answer is simple: we all have distractions. I can be on a roll working on something while listening to music or a podcast when my phone will ring, or my wife or son needs my attention for a moment. So I pause iTunes and deal with the issue at hand. And then, more often than not, I listen to absolutely nothing for the next 45 minutes (and often with my headphones attached to my ears). Take Five solves this.

I've been beta testing the Mac version for the past couple weeks and it works really well. I never did buy the iOS app because I didn't want to switch apps just to pause what I am listening to, especially since I often pause with the in-line remote on Apple's headphones.

The Mac app makes perfect sense, though, as it works as advertised while staying out of the way. An added bonus is that is pops up slightly with track info when tracks advance.

Take Five for Mac is available in the Mac App Store for $3.99. However, it is half off for a launch special of $1.99 for a short time.

If you listen to stuff via iTunes while sitting at your desk, you need this app.