[macintologist]

OK right now I use X-Tunes which is a wonderful freeware utility that lets me control iTunes by bringing up this transparent controll via a hotkey combo, like Launchbar.

Since X-tunes is a preference pane and hasn't been updated in two years, it appears that I won't be able to use it on my intel iMac.

Is there an alternative software for this?

[TETENAL]

Click the (+)-window-widget in iTunes. It will minimize to a mini-controller (you can even shrink it down to only the control-buttons by resizing it). With this you can control iTunes in the background (clicking the mini-controller's buttons doesn't bring iTunes to the front). Alternatively you can also make the mini-controller hover over all other windows (see iTunes->Preferences->Advanced). And you can use the iTunes Dock-menu to play/pause.

[brza]

You can download widgets. Tons of them. Whether for Dashboard or Konfabulator (the Yahoo! version which is available for Panther and presumably Tiger). I don't like using them, but there are a lot of iTunes ones available.
You can choose several settings, including having transparency and having the app stick on top of everything else so that it's always right there.

[macintologist]

But none of those seem as elegant as X-Tunes

Is there any other software like this for PPC that's being updated more regularly so I can hope for an intel version?

[nbn22385]

If you want hotkey controls, check out Menuet, Synergy, Quicksilver, or ByteController.