Pause iTunes or VLC When You Unplug Headphones

Mac only
Breakaway is a nifty little free application that makes your Mac computer stop playing music in iTunes anytime you unplug the headphones. Some of you might already be familiar with this feature because it’s something that most iPods do. I would imagine that this would be especially handy if you’re in a quiet office, and don’t want your music to play through the speakers when you unplug your headphones.

If you don’t use iTunes on your Mac this can still serve a rather useful purpose. With a little AppleScript programming you can essentially have the app do anything you want when the headphones are unplugged or plugged-in. By default Breakaway comes with several different scripts that you can setup under the Triggers tab in the preferences. They will do things like set your iChat status to away, play/pause VLC, start your screensaver, and more:

• awayiChat.scpt – Sets iChat’s status to away
• availableiChat.scpt – Sets iChat’s status to available
• awayAdium.scpt – Sets Adium’s status to away
• availableAdium.scpt – Sets Adium’s status to available
• awaySkype.scpt – Sets Skype’s status to away
• availableSkype.scpt – Sets Skype’s status to available
• fastLogout.scpt – Fast user switches (logs out) the current user
• startScreensaver.scpt – Starts the screensaver (useful if the screensaver locks your computer)
• vlcPlayPause.scpt – Toggles the playing state of VLC

I could be missing something, but even after quite a bit of searching I couldn’t find anything comparable for Windows users. Maybe it’s not possible to detect when headphones are unplugged in Windows? If you know of any applications or add-ons that will do this in Windows or Linux please shoot us a comment below!

Download Breakaway