OS X Software - Detour

How often has this happened to you: you're surfing the web, minding your own business, listening to some mp3s in iTunes, when suddenly your speakers are hijacked by some Flash web site cranking 120bpms of Oakenfold cheese. Your ears are filled with a cacophonous mix of sound as your body lurches forward to mash the mute button. The "flow" of your musical experience has been rudely interrupted, and in disgust you now have to close your web browser, and un-mute your system sound to get back to normal again.

Out of the box, the only sound options you have are between the operating system alerts, and applications as a group. But with Detour, your sound preferences for applications are divided up into single options. You can mute Safari, for example, so you never hear audio from your web browser (unless you want to). You can also pick which audio-out channel an application should use, so (for example) if you have a stereo plugged in to your Mac, you can run audio from iTunes out to your hi-fi stereo speakers, but keep operating system alerts on your headphones or built-in speakers so you don't terrify pets with an earthshaking Basso or Sosumi.

Detour is a brilliant idea, and the perfect fix for those in need of total sound control. (Thanks to Steven for the tip.)