Filed under Announcements

Performance Improvements in Songbird 0.6!

By raffel raffel May 9, 2008 5:45 pm
Also filed under Development

Over the past few months we’ve heard from a number of users asking us to focus on performance optimizations for the next version of Songbird. Today, we’re excited to share our progress. If you can’t wait for Songbird 0.6 to ship (it lands in early June) you can try our latest blessed nightlies [...]

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Songbird 0.5 Final Released, All Aboard!

By raffel raffel Mar 26, 2008 4:47 pm
Also filed under Development
Tagged as , , , , ,

Get Onboard
Download Songbird 0.5 (release notes)

New in 0.5
0.5 Final has entered the station with hundreds of bug-fixes and several new features:
MTP Device support
Windows users have a shiny new MTP Add-on that introduces MTP Device Support! Most portable media players and cell phones integrate the MTP spec so try plugging in your device and share your [...]

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Ring in the new year with Songbird 0.4!

By astroerph astroerph Dec 27, 2007 5:45 pm
Also filed under Development

Air your grievances!

Ring in the new year with Songbird 0.4!

Us birders have been giving Santa’s hardworking elves a run for their cookies this holiday season, and we’re ready to release a final Songbird 0.4 for Developers just in time to ring in the new year.

Download it from the Songbird Developer Center.

It’s been less than 2 months since we released Songbird 0.3 and introduced our new open development platform, but we’ve built in a few new juicy tidbits that we couldn’t wait to get out. In particular, check out the following new features:

  • Songbird display panes allow add-on developers to easily populate specific panes in the user interface with their own content, while providing the user a consistent and flexible way to interact with add-ons that use them.
  • Improved iPod support (via the default-distributed iPod add-on) makes significant improvements to the UI, and now supports all iPods except the touch and phone. (Expect to see more iPod improvements, as well as support for other devices in 0.5+.)
  • General tuning of the application’s quality and stability is becoming a greater focus as we look toward our end-user debut. With this release, we’ve cleaned up the options dialog, playlist and library sorting and reordering, media download error states, Web media history, and a bunch of bugs.
  • A comprehensive XUL periodic table – including Songbird-specific elements – is now available for add-on developers and feathers creators as part of the default-distributed Songbird Developer Tools add-on.
  • Play count and skip tracking is now implemented for all of you looking to do your own smart-playlist-like features and Audioscrobbler-like library mining.

    • For more, check out the release notes.

    Our new year’s resolution is to release early and often, so you can expect similarly quick cycles throughout 2008.

    Happy New Year!
    The Songbird Team

    Comments (4)

    Songbird 0.3 Is Launched!

    By roblord roblord Oct 30, 2007 6:10 pm
    Also filed under Development

    Bowie 'bird

    Birdwatchers,

    Big news! Today Songbird shows some wing, shows some leg and leaps media players into the next era of innovation.

    Today, Pioneers of the Inevitable launches Songbird 0.3 “Developer Pre-release”, also know by its codename Bowie, available here at Songbirdnest.com. So much to say. Let’s get started.

    Songbird Webpage API

    If you’ve tried previous Songbird releases, you know that Songbird is a desktop media player mashed-up with the Web. Now the tables are turned: Web developers can mash-up their websites with a desktop media player. Songbird’s Webpage API makes media player features accessible to the webpage author, collapsing the barrier between media player and website.

    Early feedback from Webpage API implementors including indie music store Insound.com and music blog aggregator HypeMachine is that the integration is easy and that they anticipate their users will prefer a simpler, more integrated player-Web experience.

    “Integrating Hype Machine into Songbird makes it even easier for our users to discover, play and buy music they love. Using the API we were able to customize the experience and highlight all important aspects of our site - music blog content, merchant links and, of course, the music.”

    Anthony Volodkin, The Hype Machine

    “Insound implemented Songbird’s Webpage API because we wanted to
    simplify our customers’ purchase experience. With Songbird, Insound customers can buy digital albums from within their media player and the music appears in their music library. Songbird allowed Insound to have an iTunes-like purchase experience with just a few lines of Javascript.”

    Joe Weber, Insound.com

    Starting today, Songbird is open to download stores, subscription services, radio services, social networking services, recommendation services, locker services, music blogs and other digital media services a crafty Web developer may devise.

    Songbird Add-on API

    Songbird 0.3 also lands documented, supported APIs for add-on developers. Firefox extension and Winamp plug-in developers should check it out. Like Firefox Add-ons, Songbird Add-ons are simply mark-up and Javascript in a zip file. Like Firefox, Songbird notifies users when a fresh add-on update is available, keeping the love alive.

    Update: Greasemonkey and mashTape add-ons just released for Songbird 0.3 and kick ass.

    Songbird Feathers API

    Songbird’s Feathers have been meticulously preened, making it easier than ever for visual designers to customize Songbird’s appearance and share their own feathers with other ‘birders. Styling Songbird’s Feathers and webpages both use CSS, so visual designers can extend their Web design expertise to Songbird Feathers.

    Update: The Feathers Wizard walks visual designers through the steps of creating and sharing feathers. You’ll find “Create New Feathers” under the Songbird 0.3 Tools menu if you installed the Developer Tools Add-on. Also, check out iBird. ;)

    The Songbird Community is the Mozilla Community

    Finally, I’d like to thank and recognize the exceptional work of the 20+ full-time Songbird product designers and developers here at Pioneers of the Inevitable and the 1,800+ Songbird community developers and QA volunteers who directly contributed to Songbird 0.3. You are rockstars.

    Moreover, Songbird is built on the Mozilla platform, so we ‘birders give a pterodactyl squawk to the Mozilla community. Mozilla’s Chief Lizard Wrangler Mitchel Baker recently blogged that 10,000 Mozilla community developers contributed to Firefox 2 in 2006, that the Mozilla community has grown so much recently that its prepared to move “beyond sustainability.” This is extraordinary news for all Web surfers, and specifically the Mozilla community, Mozilla platform, Firefox and Songbird.

    Enough for now. Please install 0.3, experiment with the Webpage API, try the Insound.com or HypeMachine integration, port your Firefox extension to Songbird or create feathers. Play the Web!

    Chirps,
    Rob Lord

    We’ve been Dugg. Add your digg.
    Comments (16)

    New public subversion server

    By Georges Auberger Georges Auberger May 22, 2007 2:00 pm
    Also filed under Development

    Public SVN is ready!

    Our public subversion repository has been upgraded and moved to a new home. It should be more responsive and more current. If you’re building Songbird from source, you will now track updates from our developers in near realtime.

    Public SVN is up!

    The team has been busy preparing for the release of version 0.3. This is a good time to do a fresh check out and see for yourself. The api documentation has been updated as well.

    Comments (4)

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