Cover Flow

Cover Flow is a graphical user interface with three-dimensional effects included with iTunes, the Macintosh Finder, and other Apple Inc. products for visually locating files and digital media libraries via cover artwork.

History
Cover Flow was invented by artist Andrew Coulter Enright, and originally implemented by an independent Macintosh developer, Jonathan del Strother.

Cover Flow was purchased by Apple Inc. in 2006, and its technology was integrated into its jukebox application, iTunes 7.0, which was released September 12, 2006. The name was previously "CoverFlow" without a space. The last release of Steel Skies’ stand-alone application, version RC1.2, was released the day prior, September 11, 2006. It was freely distributed for that day only, but remains available for download from MacUpdate. On January 9, 2007, Apple announced that the iPhone (EDGE and 3G) would incorporate Cover Flow technology. During the WWDC Keynote on June 11, 2007, Steve Jobs announced that Cover Flow would be added as a view option in Leopard’s Finder. On September 5, 2007 Apple announced that Cover Flow would be utilized in the third generation iPod nano as well as the new iPod classic and iPod touch models.

Other implementations
The Cover Flow interface has also been implemented on other operating systems. The open source media player Songbird offers a Cover Flow navigation add-on called MediaFlow.

Using Compiz Fusion (Shift Switcher) or KDE 4 (Cover Switch on KDE 4.1 or later) on a Unix-like system, it is possible to switch between open applications with a Cover Flow animation.

A Cover Flow-like interface is used by the graphical search engine Search Me.

The free jukebox firmware Rockbox also implements a Cover Flow-like album art viewer, called "PictureFlow". However, PictureFlow is not part of the main UI, instead included as a demo.

Aqua Connect Terminal Server 3.0 will feature Cover Flow in their Administrator Tools in an upcoming update. Cover Flow is used to cycle through current user sessions to monitor user activity in real time. By zooming into the user session in Cover Flow view, the administrator will be able to take over the user session.