I listen to podcasts within iTunes. Sometimes, I like to skip through some material (e.g. ads or music or whatever). I used two extremely simple AppleScripts that will do just that (forward or backward).
I activate them using iKey, although any macro program would do. The skipped duration can be altered by the user by modifying the scripts.
Skip forward:
tell application "iTunes"
if player state is playing then
-- length of current track:
set trackTime to duration of current track
--get the current position time:
set currTime to get player position
--to set new position to 10 seconds ahead:
set currSkip to currTime + 10
-- checks if new position is greater than
-- length of track, and corrects it if it is:
if currSkip > trackTime then
set currSkip to trackTime
end if
set player position to currSkip --skip to new position
end if
end tell
Skip backward:
tell application "iTunes"
if player state is playing then
--get the current track time:
set currTime to get player position
--if track is less than 10 seconds:
if currTime < 10 then
--go to start of the track:
set currSkip to 0
else
--otherwise, skip backwards 10 seconds:
set currSkip to currTime - 10
end if
set player position to currSkip --skip to new position
end if
end tell
The scripts should work only if iTunes is currently playing a track, and do not work when playing live MP3 streams.
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=200507192227372