Developer Andy Kim of Potion Factory has recently released this nifty free Mac app called I Love Stars. The app shows the rating of iTunes' currently playing song in the menu bar and lets you rate your songs in iTunes "with as few brain cycles as possible." Following users' suggestions, Andy updated his app to version 2.0, which packs a whopping 150% more features. Click HERE to download it now, or read on for more details on I Love Stars.

"You tend to get distracted switching back and forth from iTunes and even rating songs with iTunes' dock menu is not fast enough when your hands are on the keyboard. Apps like QuickSilver and CoverSutra already solve a big chunk of the problem by letting you assign keyboard shortcuts for raising and lowering ratings," Andy notes. So he "needed a way to quickly see what the rating actually is before changing it." That's how he came up with the idea of making an app like I Love Stars. "If you cringe at the thought of having unrated songs in the library like I do, you'll enjoy I Love Stars," Andy says.

Before Andy knew it, folks were grabbing I Love Stars like crazy. They immediately started issuing suggestions, such as the ability to assign half a star, and letting the app hide itself when iTunes is not playing.

I Love Stars sports the simplest UI you could ask for, which is exactly what you need when you only want to rate something, period. To quit the app, you only need to right click for the menu. You can also set I Love Stars to launch at login - just go to System Preferences, Accounts, then Login Items and add it to the list.

While I Love Stars is completely free, you can also check out Andy's commercial application Tangerine!, if you are a music lover too. Andy credits Steve Harris for sharing the rating control code.