Songbird for robots, another Friday, another preview

By Aus Aus Jan 28, 2011 11:30 pm Permalink
Filed under Development
Tagged as

Howdy birders,

As promised, here is a fresh preview of Songbird for Android with many improvements for you to chew on over the weekend. :)

Before I mention any of the good stuff, here are some things you’ll need to know to be able to enjoy using it.

  • You’ll need an Android phone that’s running Android 2.1-update1 or newer for the OS
  • To install, you will need to enable installing applications from unknown sources (Typically under Settings -> Applications -> Check ‘Unknown Sources’ Option).You’ll also need to manually uninstall the previous preview release before you can install the new one
  • When we release a final version through the Android Market you will need to manually uninstall this build — which will wipe data related to it
  • This build will expire 4 weeks from today so get your testing in while it’s hot!

OK, now here are some fixes and feature additions we’d like to highlight. :)

  • Headsets and Headphones getting disconnected will cause playback to pause
  • Issues with opening the application from the widget have been fixed
  • The correct song should always play on phones with phone storage as well as SD card storage
  • Sorting issues have been resolved for all phones
  • Minor visual cleanup with regard to Facebook notifications

And finally, there are still some known issues which you should know about.

  • Genre listing is still a little wonky on phones with phone storage and SD card. You will get duplicate genres populated with songs you wouldn’t expect (Amon Tobin in Rock? I don’t think so!)
  • Sometimes an album will be incorrectly listed under an artist. This issue is also related to how some phones handle phone storage vs external SD card storage.
  • Sometimes the photostream photos don’t load and the spinner stays there instead. That sucks and we’ll fix it.
  • If time permits, we will be including support for Bluetooth Headsets and Wired Headsets/Headphones with playback controls on them

Now, you’re ready to download the APK.

We’re still a few weeks away from a final release in the Android Marketplace, but this will probably be our last preview build until then so let us know what you think as it may be your last chance before we release. :)

Thanks again to all of you who have taken the time to provide feedback. We really appreciate it.

Have a great weekend!

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  1. [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by songbirdteam, Hans de Kleine, Hans de Kleine, microupdater, FreeSMUG and others. FreeSMUG said: [Songbird] Songbird for robots, another Friday, another preview: Howdy birders, As promised, here is a fres… http://bit.ly/fcQf1e #OSX [...]

  2. [...] Source : Blog de Songbird [...]

  3. [...] eine erste Preview Fassung der App zum Download bereitgestellt. Ganz frisch wurde letzte Nacht die zweite Preview Fassung freigegeben, die folgende Verbesserungen [...]

37 Comments

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  1. Ants Jan 28, 2011 11:59 pm Permalink

    No Last.fm integration? Or even capability with scrobbledroid?

  2. Pepso Jan 29, 2011 2:15 am Permalink

    Great release!

    I have seen that the album covers embebed in ogg files are not shown!
    Mp3 albums are shown, but I could not manage to encode to mp3 with songbird for PC…

    Could you add this feature, please?

    Thanks for the great work!

  3. Picool Jan 29, 2011 4:27 am Permalink

    With this version :
    http://upload.penspinning.fr/SC20110129-132240.png

    About music with no tag (or “unknow”), the photostream find pictures but they aren’t related with the music or artist

  4. arkoim Jan 29, 2011 5:01 am Permalink

    Cool, it supports multiple genre tags. the desktop version didn’t

  5. mike Jan 29, 2011 6:13 am Permalink

    Can we please have song bird integration… I will not use this till I have last.fm!!! Please let it work with simple last fm scrobbler from the android market!

  6. Coca Jan 29, 2011 8:33 am Permalink

    A nice 4×2 Homescreen Widget would be great :) Even greater would be a Widget with transparent background like PowerAMP’s 4×2 Widget. :) But so far the app is awesome! Great word guys! :)

  7. Skritt Jan 29, 2011 9:37 am Permalink

    A further sync option from desktop version to phone would be awesome!

  8. katana346 Jan 29, 2011 1:41 pm Permalink

    What an excellent improvement! Songs are correct on Dinc, playback is good quality, headphone functionality is there, and I am sure it will be a hit.

    Two issues:
    - on Dinc, even though I don’t have any playlists and the count shows 0, a playlist still shows up if I navigate to the playlist view (a random album is listed as a playlist) and when I select the “playlist” the program freezes up my phone completely and eventually prompts for force close.

    - the “now playing” button does not work at all on my phone. Selecting it does nothing at all. This problem also occurred with the previous release.

    Also could we have the option to pin playlists and albums (such as “play all”) to the home screen?

  9. katana346 Jan 29, 2011 1:44 pm Permalink

    One more issue I just noticed:

    - Backing out of the program does not close the app. It needs to be manually force closed thorough “manage applications”.

  10. Aus Jan 29, 2011 1:56 pm Permalink

    @katana346

    Yes, there’s something funky going on with the Playlists activity. We’ll investigate some more and hopefully be able to fix that for everyone with phones that have phone storage and SD card storage.

    We’re unlikely to have time to add pinning of things to the homescreen for the initial release. Sorry. It is an idea that has been floating around though so it’s likely to happen… at some point :)

    The now playing button works great for us, maybe it’s difficult for you to hit properly? Have you tried using the button that’s in the open player drawer instead? Any difference between the two?

  11. Aus Jan 29, 2011 2:00 pm Permalink

    @Coca

    Thanks :) We’re glad you like it! We do have plans for a bigger widget as well as landscape support. However, it won’t be for the first release of this app.

    @Picool

    Haha! Yeah… there’s not really any way around that other than never doing photo searches for unknown artists. Another funny use case is when the artist is ‘Various Artists’ :) That also gives you lots of … various artists. ;)

    @all

    About Last.FM support… it would be possible for us to support scrobbling via ScrobbleDroid for the first release of this application. Would that satisfy everyone?

  12. katana346 Jan 29, 2011 2:38 pm Permalink

    @Aus
    I have tried both and neither does anything… If it helps I am playing all songs by simply hitting the play button on the widget. I have tried turning shuffle on and off with no luck.

  13. Curly Jan 29, 2011 2:39 pm Permalink

    Looking good, kudos to all.

  14. Curly Jan 29, 2011 2:43 pm Permalink

    re: ScrobbleDroid

    That would be cool, thanks :-)

  15. Aus Jan 29, 2011 2:48 pm Permalink

    @katana346

    OH! Yeah, that’s not how it works unfortunately. You need to initiate playback from an activity inside the app. For example, go into artists, pick one, and then play one of their albums. The ‘back to playing list’ button will then work as expected. It’s a little confusing that it doesn’t work when starting playback from the Widget though… we can probably do something about that.

  16. katana346 Jan 29, 2011 2:50 pm Permalink

    @AUS
    That would be excellent. I usually just play all of my music on shuffle and it would be nice to see what tracks are coming up.

  17. Aus Jan 29, 2011 3:01 pm Permalink

    @katana346

    Unfortunately it wouldn’t do quite what you want since we don’t really have the concept of a play queue at the moment. It would show you the Songs page but it wouldn’t show you the order it will be playing them in. We do plan on adding a real queue but it won’t make it into the first release of this app.

  18. Coca Jan 29, 2011 4:26 pm Permalink

    Hey, I just found a problem with the widget. When I wanted to add the widget, it looked like this: http://d.pr/fdqa

    I don’t know it you already know about that problem, just wanted to report it. :) Btw, my phone is a HTC Desire HD with CyanogenMod7, Android 2.3. Just in case that information could help you.

  19. mike Jan 29, 2011 5:00 pm Permalink

    scrobble droid would be just fine!!! Once we have scrobble support this will be my main player!! Good work!

    Also want to put in request for 4×2 widget!!

    Also whats the flickr integration about?

  20. yeliaB Jan 29, 2011 5:54 pm Permalink

    It’s looking pretty sweet — Nice work!

    I have a somewhat general question (which may be a stupid one, but I’m a recent refugee from Treo-land, so don’t be hatin’) — Given that many people have in-ear buds that really block out all sounds, and the thing playing the music (our phones) has a microphone available, has anyone ever thought to add a “pause the music and connect the mic to the earbuds so I can hear what the guy next to me is trying to say to me” button to music player apps?

    Seems like it would be a handy thing to have…

  21. Curly Jan 30, 2011 2:07 am Permalink

    @yellaB

    Hmm, nice idea. In the meantime just get him to phone you ;-)

  22. db Jan 30, 2011 1:38 pm Permalink

    @Aus – Could you explain whether the app is likely to be open sourced on final release or if not why not etc..? Thanks very much

  23. Björn Jan 30, 2011 11:49 pm Permalink

    By now, Songbird has already become my standard music- / podcast-app. I don’t think that you should “waste” your time on building sync-functions, as there are already a couple of good sync-apps (like isyncr) available for android. Please just try to build some kind of “iTunes-substitute” (like songbird already is for Mac and PC). And thus it would be really nice to see video-support.

    Thank you for your work!

  24. yeliaB Jan 31, 2011 4:18 am Permalink

    @Curly

    I’ve got an idea — I’ll tattoo my phone number on my forehead! :-D

  25. Rafael Lima Jan 31, 2011 1:08 pm Permalink

    Good work Guys

    Here goes a suggestion from Brazil! I´d love to have search for songs by folder, like PowerAMP has. I think that organize songs this way is better.

    Thanks!

  26. Alaintxu Feb 1, 2011 1:38 am Permalink

    God job! It’s my favourite app for music at this moment, it’s a pitty it’s not open source :(
    I miss 2 things:
    -The lock screen widget.
    -Now that it turns off when the headphones are dissconected, i would like to turn on when they are conected. PowerAMP has this feature by default, but i think that it’s better to be optional (a checkbox in settings or something like that).

    I hope my opinion is usefull. Go on and thank you!

  27. Arch1k Feb 1, 2011 12:05 pm Permalink

    Hello,
    I’d like to say that I love the idea behind songbird as an open source project. I love everything the the community and developers have accomplished so far.
    Except one thing. What the hell happened to the interface of both the player and the hosting webpage. Both used to be absolutely professional and unique looking. At first it was the dark color scheme then the lighter feather. Bother were charming in their own ways.
    Then the web page began using dark purple with ugly horizontally stretched low quality, brushed metal texture. The rounded corners’ radii are way to large and make the whole web page look armature at best. Likewise the new purple feather, (which I assume was made to match the web page, or vise versa) has made the player a lot less professional looking. The contrast of color on the layout is horrendous. Why would we shit a purple feather as the default? This is like shipping the iphone with a rainbow colour by default and charging extra for a plain black version. Where is the logic?
    What i’m trying to say, the webpage need some serious refreshing, or simply revert to the original design which was very original and professional looking. Also, please package the program with a default feather that is not as abrasive as the current one. Because even from accessibility point of view, white on purple is not exactly legible on an average monitor. I’m sorry if this write up is a little negative and slurry.
    If help is needed with some of the graphic work i’m very willing to help.
    Please do something. There is a humongous elephant in this room.

  28. Curly Feb 1, 2011 1:23 pm Permalink

    A couple of things, SongBird always seems to be running?

    Also, just got a stack trace when exiting:

    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): Activity com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.Songbird has leaked ServiceConnection com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.view.PlayerViewImpl$4@4633d010 that was originally bound here
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): android.app.ServiceConnectionLeaked: Activity com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.Songbird has leaked ServiceConnection com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.view.PlayerViewImpl$4@4633d010 that was originally bound here
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.ActivityThread$PackageInfo$ServiceDispatcher.(ActivityThread.java:1154)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.ActivityThread$PackageInfo.getServiceDispatcher(ActivityThread.java:1049)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.ContextImpl.bindService(ContextImpl.java:871)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.content.ContextWrapper.bindService(ContextWrapper.java:347)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.view.PlayerViewImpl.bindPlayerToActivity(PlayerViewImpl.java:363)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.view.PlayerViewImpl.(PlayerViewImpl.java:211)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.view.MiniPlayerAndroidImpl.bindMiniPlayerToActivity(MiniPlayerAndroidImpl.java:170)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.view.MiniPlayerAndroidImpl.(MiniPlayerAndroidImpl.java:92)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.view.MiniPlayerAndroidImpl.getMiniPlayer(MiniPlayerAndroidImpl.java:48)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.view.BaseActivity.onCreate(BaseActivity.java:161)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.Songbird.onCreate(Songbird.java:273)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1069)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2751)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2803)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.ActivityThread.access$2300(ActivityThread.java:135)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2136)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:144)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4937)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:868)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:626)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
    02-01 21:20:52.515: WARN/ActivityManager(99): Unbind failed: could not find connection for android.os.BinderProxy@46271c38
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): Activity com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.Songbird has leaked ServiceConnection com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.view.MiniPlayerAndroidImpl$4@46328c60 that was originally bound here
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): android.app.ServiceConnectionLeaked: Activity com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.Songbird has leaked ServiceConnection com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.view.MiniPlayerAndroidImpl$4@46328c60 that was originally bound here
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.ActivityThread$PackageInfo$ServiceDispatcher.(ActivityThread.java:1154)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.ActivityThread$PackageInfo.getServiceDispatcher(ActivityThread.java:1049)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.ContextImpl.bindService(ContextImpl.java:871)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.content.ContextWrapper.bindService(ContextWrapper.java:347)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.view.MiniPlayerAndroidImpl.bindMiniPlayerToActivity(MiniPlayerAndroidImpl.java:359)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.view.MiniPlayerAndroidImpl.(MiniPlayerAndroidImpl.java:92)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.view.MiniPlayerAndroidImpl.getMiniPlayer(MiniPlayerAndroidImpl.java:48)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.view.BaseActivity.onCreate(BaseActivity.java:161)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer.Songbird.onCreate(Songbird.java:273)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1069)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2751)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2803)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.ActivityThread.access$2300(ActivityThread.java:135)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2136)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:144)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4937)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:868)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:626)
    02-01 21:20:52.535: ERROR/ActivityThread(4224): at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

  29. Curly Feb 1, 2011 1:24 pm Permalink

    Sorry, that was larger than I expected O.O

  30. Aus Feb 1, 2011 1:37 pm Permalink

    @Curly

    No worries about the long stack trace. We know about this issue and it will unfortunately remain because of how the activities interact with each other. The application will at most leak one service connection during it’s lifetime (but it’s annoying because it can be reported multiple times). This will be fixed in the near future when we switch to a TabActivity but not for the initial release.

  31. Glibber Feb 2, 2011 4:52 am Permalink

    What i am missing the most is the startscreen integration. I really like this feature with the default player on my desire. A feature that i am missing is browsing through my music directory based which is what i naturally want but don’t get anymore since everybody uses a database.
    I’m sorry, but i can’t really see the advantage of using songbird over the integrated player of the desire.

  32. katana346 Feb 2, 2011 8:01 am Permalink

    I recently got a new phone (still Droid Incredible, just a new one) and when I try to select Artists in Songbird, the application freezes and must be force closed. All other fields (album, genre, song, etc… – other than playlist but I already brought that issue up) work fine.This issue was not present in my previous Incredible… Any ideas?

  33. Aus Feb 2, 2011 2:23 pm Permalink

    @katana346

    We’ve noticed this problem as well and it’s been fixed. Initial marketplace release will work fine :)

  34. Aus Feb 2, 2011 2:24 pm Permalink

    @Glibber

    By startscreen integration what do you mean exactly? We do have a widget. You can create it be pressing and holding down on any of the home screens then selecting Widget and then Songbird.

  35. Glibber Feb 3, 2011 6:00 am Permalink

    What I meant was integration of player controls in the lock-screen. I don’t know plain Android, but the HTC sense player in the Desire has play/pause, skip forward/backward controls on the lock-screen (the screen you see just after pressing the power button). I use that really often during sport.
    Browsing through the music file-based is equally important for me. I personally never use gimmicks like Facebook or Twitter integration.
    Thanks for your effort but the current songbird has less features (that I use) than the default player of my phone.

  36. Scott Feb 3, 2011 4:00 pm Permalink

    Works well on the Archos 43. A problem, which caused the player to pause when the screen timed out, has been fixed. However, the player doesn’t remember shuffle settings after the device is powered down.

  37. carlos Feb 18, 2011 3:31 pm Permalink

    We really need a lockscreen widget