Hey, what's this song, Skynet?

I really like how the current iPod Shuffles speak the name of the track using VoiceOver.  I found I wanted the same feature in iTunes while working this morning, so I took 45 seconds and whipped up an AppleScript to do the same thing.

So, while iTunes is playing, I just bring up Google Quick Search Box (son of Quicksilver) and start typing "What track" and Skynet tells me.

Ok, I guess I have to explain the Skynet thing? See, a while back I bought a third party Text To Speech voice from CereProc.  The voice is called Heather and is Scottish.  It sounds vaguely like Shirley Manson.  Shirley Manson, in addition to being awesome, is the lead singer of Garbage.  More relevant to matters at hand, though, is that Shirley Manson played a terminator in the Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Where was I? Oh, yes... the script.

tell application "iTunes"

	if player state is playing then

		set trackTitle to name of current track

		set artistName to artist of current track

		set ourString to "... " & trackTitle & ", by " & artistName & "."

	else

		set ourString to "iTunes is not currently playing anything."

	end if

	set origVolume to sound volume

	set sound volume to 33

	say ourString

	set sound volume to origVolume

end tell

Sometimes I forget how nifty AppleScript can be...