Developer builds macOS menu bar app to fix play/pause key hijacking by Apple Music

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A developer frustrated by macOS routing keyboard media keys to Apple Music instead of the active browser tab built a small menu bar app called SmartPause to fix the issue. The root cause is that macOS maintains a single 'Now Playing' slot, and whichever app last registered with the MediaRemote framework receives all play/pause commands. SmartPause uses a Core Audio API introduced in macOS 14.2 to identify which app is actually outputting audio at the time a key is pressed. The app also queries each player's true playback state via AppleScript and JavaScript to avoid misfiring pause or resume commands. The source code has been published on GitHub by developer Yasin Ozmeen.

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