Songbird for Android — v1.5 Now Available!

By Aus Aus Sep 13, 2011 3:20 pm Permalink
Filed under Development

Hello fellow birders,

It’s with great pleasure that I announce the availability of our latest Songbird for Android release!

For this release we have focused entirely on memory usage and speed with impressive results. We hope you’re as happy with it as we are.

As always, your feedback is welcome and appreciated! We couldn’t have built such a great product without your input. :)

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  1. [...] avec grand plaisir que l’équipe de Poti, Inc. nous annonce la disponibilité de la dernière version de Songbird pour Android! Amélioration des performances sur votre AndroidPour cette version, l’équipe de Songbird [...]

32 Comments

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  1. SquareWheel Sep 13, 2011 3:48 pm Permalink

    Linux. :|

  2. Aus Sep 13, 2011 3:58 pm Permalink

    @SquareWheel

    Please stay on topic or your comments will be removed.

  3. Skyyo Sep 13, 2011 5:24 pm Permalink

    Great.

    I don’ know if its new or I missed it before but the transitions between song, albums, and playlists are very sleek.

    Still would love to see options to change songs via the status bar.
    Widget sizes options 4×4

    Also shuffle should stay on even if I select a song. I hate selecting a track then having to turn shuffle back on. annoying.

  4. Kristofer Palmestål Sep 13, 2011 10:26 pm Permalink

    Any chance you will implement features for better audiobook playback?

  5. Alfred Kayser Sep 13, 2011 11:13 pm Permalink

    @Aus,

    The comment is ‘on topic’, but should have been phrased more like this:
    Great, the updates of Songbird on Android look great, and the performance and memory improvements are well received. Meanwhile, willl Songbird for Linux (and Windows) also have these improvements? It seems that Songbird development for non-android is on a stand still.

  6. Alfred Kayser Sep 14, 2011 3:38 am Permalink

    B.t.w., it would even more great if Songbird on Android and Songbird on Desktop work together on devices not explicitly supported in the Device Manager of SB Desktop.

  7. klint Sep 14, 2011 1:35 pm Permalink

    Hi
    Thanks for this update :) Nice perf improvement indeed.

    But I still have a problem.
    Is there a way to select the folders that are scanned for music?
    Currently, one folder of mine is dedicated to mailbox messages but I cannot prevent SB from scanning it. So all my mailbox messages show up in Songbird, which is quite annoying when listening to music in public…
    I really don’t want all my SD card to be scanned.

    Thanks
    Olivier

  8. Aus Sep 14, 2011 2:33 pm Permalink

    @Skyyo

    Glad you like the transitions, we love them! :) As for picking a specific track when shuffling, I can see how that would be annoying. We always assumed that a user picking a specific track would expect the tracks to be played in order after that but that doesn’t always make sense. We’ll try and fix that soon.

    @Alfred Kayser

    I think this is where we’ll have to agree to disagree. I don’t think talking about the desktop product in this comment thread is on topic. However, Desktop development is still continuing. Our release cycles for the Desktop have always been fairly lengthy and unfortunately they will continue to be like that for a little bit longer. We are hoping to have more frequent releases of the Desktop product though and are definitely working towards a process that will allow us to do so.

    We also have plans to have tight integration between the Android client and the Desktop client. We are however not exactly sure when that will happen at this time.

    @klint

    If you put a ‘.nomedia’ in that folder and force a rescan it should resolve the issue. Here’s a blog post describing the process: http://androinica.com/2009/08/how-to-hide-non-music-audio-files-from-appearing-in-android-media-players/

  9. Aus Sep 14, 2011 2:33 pm Permalink

    @Kristofer Palmestål

    Yes! We added saving of position within Podcasts and we are planning on doing the same for Audiobooks.

  10. Nathan Sep 14, 2011 7:52 pm Permalink

    Woohoo! Always glad to see a Songbird update even though mine seems to run quite smoothly.

    Quick question, though… I’ve noticed that all of my album art that SB “generates” ends up getting archived and shown in my standard photos gallery. It’s pretty annoying when I’m trying to scroll through my photos. (This is on a Nexus S, btw)

    Thanks!

  11. klint Sep 15, 2011 12:32 am Permalink

    @Aus, thanks for the answer, I’ll definitely try that :)

  12. Andrew Luecke Sep 15, 2011 2:01 am Permalink

    @squarewheel.. We tried a linux version at nightingale, nobody contributed, and, imho, there weren’t many interested users either. Many people on the blog demanding linux support, but very few willing to help.

    Haven’t tested Songbird 1.5, but will later tonight

  13. benvh Sep 15, 2011 10:46 am Permalink

    I’ve taken 1.5 for a spin, and it does indeed seem snappier than 1.4 (and it’s noticeably faster than Google’s own music player app, so kudos on that!) As an owner of an older, slower Android phone, this focus on performance is much appreciated. One question: are there plans for making Songbird remember the currently-playing track (and position within that track) between sessions, so that one can pick up listening where one left off? That’s the only feature I miss when using Songbird instead of other mobile players. Anyway, thanks again for all your hard work!

    Ben

  14. Aus Sep 15, 2011 3:13 pm Permalink

    @benvh

    Yes! That feature should appear really soon. :)

  15. katana346 Sep 15, 2011 6:08 pm Permalink

    I appreciate the performance updates and am currently quite happy with the way Songbird functions. Hoping to see themes/feathers at some point, as well as lyric integration.

    Although I see how this may not seem the appropriate place for discussion related to the desktop client, you have to realize that there hasn’t been a desktop related post in months, and therefore few other choices of venue. I too have been dissapointed in lack of development/news on the desktop client, but understand that Android is currently the focus and have no real problems with the current build.

    Several questions:
    1. Are there any plans to develop a Windows 8 metro version of Songbird or even implement Windows 7 features like snap and jump lists? Just curious as to how integrated Songbird will be with Windows, seeing as how official Linux support was dropped to focus on Windows and Mac development.

    2. With the focus on Android, will a tablet version be created for Honeycomb/ICS users?

  16. seba Sep 17, 2011 10:26 am Permalink

    @Aus

    I understand you don’t want questions about the desktop product in the android posts. But really, isn’t that a bit the fault of the dev team? Because, where is the place to ask them? The last update about the desktop product was more than 2 months ago. Even if the development cycles take long and not much is happening, it would be nice to hear what is (or isn’t) going on every few weeks, then questions don’t have to be asked here. It takes less than five minutes of your time.

  17. SquareWheel Sep 17, 2011 4:36 pm Permalink

    @Aus: I’ve spent plenty of time in the past promoting Linux as a platform for Songbird, hundreds of users did. Check the blog post where the stopping of support was announced. Hundreds of comments expressing disappointment, we were all ignored. It seems like it would be a fair assumption that any time spent advocating for Linux would be wasted as it is entirely ignored by the Songbird team.

    As Alfred kindly pointed out, the only place to discuss this is on old blog posts, which have their comments locked and are ignored anyway. I’m still hopefuly to see Linux supported as well as Windows and OS X, and lately Android — but I guess I should realize that it’s a futile effort.

  18. Antoine Turmel Sep 17, 2011 6:18 pm Permalink

    They still build for linux, get over it… also cool to see a new update for the Android app :)

  19. Sam Sep 17, 2011 7:23 pm Permalink

    I have the same problem as @nathan with generated cover art swamping my image galleries. (SE X10/Gingerbread)

  20. Vince Sep 21, 2011 12:56 pm Permalink

    The version 1.5 introduce a very annoying bug: I use most of the time the app to shuffle between all of my songs. It is simple: select “songs” then “shuffle all”. Since the 1.5 I select “songs”, scroll up and select “shuffle all”.
    I don’t understand why I need to scroll up everytime, please correct it.

  21. Aus Sep 21, 2011 1:34 pm Permalink

    @seba

    Putting together a blog post takes more than 5 minutes. :) I do get your point and hopefully the desktop team will be more active with their blogging in the future.

    @Vince

    Ouch, that is annoying. We’ll try and fix that soon. In the meantime, you can simply press the play button after launching the app. By default it will shuffle all your songs.

    @katana346

    1) To my knowledge, AeroSnapping should work in 1.10. Other Windows 7 features are planned as well. As for Windows 8 Metro, we’re still internally debating this.

    2) Yes.

  22. changelog:( Sep 21, 2011 2:13 pm Permalink

    changelog?

  23. katana346 Sep 21, 2011 5:15 pm Permalink

    @aus
    Excellent. To be honest I really could care less about jump lists and such, but Aerosnap is pretty essential (though it would be nice to have player controls on the preview window). Windows 8 is an entirely different matter though, as that will require you to complete rebuild… though it would make SB look pretty snazzy if you beat the other media players to the punch and gained a decent foothold in the market.

    Also, glad to hear Android tablets will be receiving some love. Sorry if I ruined the surprise – I was just curious. Don’t worry, people will still be just as excited when you officially announce it (except for the inevitable Linux protesters.)

  24. Shirna Sep 24, 2011 11:02 pm Permalink

    good news another thing adds up to Android..well I am also happy…Androids becoming a big family…

  25. UGGS Outlet Nederlan Sep 25, 2011 11:16 pm Permalink

    Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them on reading valueless books.- UGGS Outlet Nederland

  26. Rodro Sep 26, 2011 5:48 am Permalink

    When will be implemented the equalizer? I would like somekind of “Pony” ;) http://blog.songbirdnest.com/2009/06/12/equalizer-pony/ :) but with presets and the ability to make your own one.

    Thanks :) ~

  27. Brian Sep 26, 2011 12:33 pm Permalink

    Great work, a really excellent product.

    I may be a bit slow, but I haven’t been able to find any information on this on the Get Satisfaction site, but how exactly do we subscribe to podcasts with the player?

    I currently can’t figure out how to add them through the android client. If this is not possible, is an option to subscribe via a URL planned for the future?

    Thanks again.

  28. Aus Sep 26, 2011 9:46 pm Permalink

    @Brian

    Currently we handle saving the position you were at in the podcast and we separate them into their own category. We do not provide subscribing to podcasts at this time but we do want to provide this feature in the future.

    To make sure your podcasts end up in the right spot, just drop them into a folder named ‘podcasts’ on your SD card. :)

  29. Brian Sep 27, 2011 11:00 pm Permalink

    @Aus

    Thanks for the quick response. I’ll keep an eye out for a new release. Keep up the good work.

  30. woo Sep 28, 2011 9:31 am Permalink

    I just installed the Android app from market. Songbird app looks very good, but I see that the cover image in “now playing” sometimes fails to load (shows the rotating progress), although in the album list it always loads. It would be nice if the developers can fix that.

  31. rodro Sep 28, 2011 3:29 pm Permalink

    Another things that I’ve detected:
    - the one that already have mentioned about the issue with the shuffle function that we have to switch on every time.
    - sometimes the player get crazy or something… while is playing song “A” the player show that I’m listening another different song (wrong ID)
    - I pause the current song (from the widget), do other things, and whenI’m going to resume the song, the player is lika I have stopped and clsed it or whatever, coz the song is deselected, so I have to get into the app and select a song
    - I miss a equalizer with the possibility to create and save your own preset, and I suggest a new feature (that could be implemented in the desktop app too), that is that the own songbird could -recognize and- download the cover from internet and save it to a cache or even better, in the ID3 info, inside of the same song. I’m tired of that all the songs of my list had the same cover coz one of the songs once had a cover and the rest nothing

    I think that nothing else for the moment… almost tha I’ve detected :) I love this player and I only want to help you to improve it and be the perfect player (almost for me xDD).

    Thanks and regards from Spain,
    Rodro

  32. haz Oct 5, 2011 5:36 am Permalink

    I may be older than most of you but I aint dead. How about making this a little easier/user freindly to all generations? I just want to type in a name of a song or album and be given the choice to buy it when I sign in. I don’t even know where to go in this site to do that. just dummy it down for us old and dying folks. …oh and im 47.. not dead yet but my money is good