Developers: documentation on the new Playlist Commands interface is available and posted here on our wiki: http://wiki.songbirdnest.com/Developer/Recipe_Book/Extensions_and_Core/Playlist_Buttons_(aka_Playlist_Commands). Let us know if you run into questions or concerns.

Let’s communicate! Bugzilla! Get Satisfaction! Yay!

You can download beta 2 from our Nightly Builds page.  If you’re already running Songbird 1.10.0b1, just go to your Help menu and run “Check for Updates.”  Take a look at the Release Notes if you’d like to see what’s left open and what we’ve fixed since the last beta.

Bug reports can be submitted via Bugzilla, or if it’s easier, just get in touch with us on Get Satisfaction.

The huge project we’ve been working on for the past few months is two-way synchronization for devices. We decided that, since we were making some significant changes already, we’d take the opportunity to address some of the usability issues in our previous device sync implementation. To that end, our infinitely skilled team of bird surgeons have successfully completed a full transplant of Songbird’s device sync infrastructure. This was a major organ transplant for our little guy, but he’s sutured up and ready to roll.

Download the beta and consider checking out some release notes before you get started. Perhaps you’d also like to take this opportunity to back up your profile!

The biggest change that many of you will notice right away is that we’ve stripped the product of the auto/manual sync distinction.  You can now manage the media on your device using both drag-and-drop actions *and* the sync button. The sync button will no longer delete media from your device, and the bird’s smart enough to ward off duplicates when you start mixing and matching your device transfer methods.

The other huge change is, of course, the addition of two-way sync. You can now easily pull tracks off your portable device and into your main Songbird library. Those tracks will get copied to your local machine in the process, where they will be organized by Artist and Album in your default Music directory.

One of our chief goals in this redesign was to make a simple, intuitive interface, one that gives you total control of what music you take with you on your device and what music to keep in your Songbird library. Your music is probably scattered around and sourced from a lot of different places: your home machine, your work machine, blogs, music stores, your friend’s machine, or even your friend’s phone. Our goal was to give you a way to get all of that music into one central location on your desktop and to give you the tools you need to carry some or all of that music with you wherever you go.

Having said all of that, this is still a beta! Back up your data, consider starting out with a new profile, and don’t be surprised if things go a little sideways.  Do let us know about your problems, though! We have two delightful opportunities for doing so:

• Bugzilla!
• Get Satisfaction!

Happy syncing!

It’s 1.8.0b3. You can download it off the nightly builds page. It has release notes. You should log bugs in Bugzilla.  We fixed a bug that caused a deadlock on Mac when you were playing a video and clicked Next or Back a whole bunch.  This is our last planned beta for 1.8.0.  Call your mother.  She misses you.

I refrained from dropping a #2-themed post on you guys for the last beta, so to make up for it, here’s a #3-themed commercial.  I can’t hear the words “number three” without thinking of it. You’re welcome.

• Blackberry Storm 9500
• HTC Magic and Tattoo
• LG KU990i Viewty
• Nokia N85, N96, and N97
• Sony Ericsson W980

The nightlies page contains links to downloads for the Windows, Mac, and Linux builds.  Check the release notes for outstanding bugs, and log a new bug in Bugzilla if you find something we should know about.

Automatic updates are set up for this beta.  Beta 1 users: you can use the Check for Updates function to update to beta 2.

• Device support for Mac! Our Mass Storage (MSC) add-on is now compatible with Songbird on Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6.
• A shiny new service pane! We’ve totally overhauled the window on the left side of the app.  It’s slicker, more space-efficient, and faster.  We also think it’s going to be easier for add-on developers to work with.

Our next beta will add support for several new phones from HTC, LG, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.

As always, Bugzilla is here to receive your bug reports about this beta build.

Feather developers, we’ve posted a quick guide for updating your feathers for this release on the wiki.

Some of the new features that you might want to check out are:

• Video Playback

Video is back in the bird! We’ve re-introduced the video playback feature with a brand-new GStreamer-based implementation. Songbird will do its best to import only the videos that it can play using the codecs available to it.  More information on video codec support is on the Video Codec Support page on our wiki.

• Windows 7 Support

We’ve verified that all existing Songbird functionality works as expected on Windows 7 and have fixed it up where necessary.  Note that you won’t find support for any of the Windows 7-specific UI features just yet; that will be in a to-be-determined future release.

• Removable Storage (SD Card) Support

Got a portable device or cell phone that uses a removable SD card for extra storage? Songbird can now sync to it.  Check out the Gadgets page to see if you have something we’ve tested in-house.  This is a beta release, so please back up your phone in case something goes sideways.

As always, please let us know if you discover problems by logging a bug in Bugzilla (you may also want to check the Release Notes to see if it’s something we already know about).  We’ll be hard at work fixing bugs for a few days, and then you’ll see another beta from us as we forge ahead towards our 1.7 release.

The Development and QA teams have been burning the midnight and weekend oil to bake these builds and bust these bugs and all they’re getting out of it is a never ending supply of Indian and Thai food. That and your undying gratitude of course. Think happy thoughts of them while you ride your bike or head to a movie this weekend as they’ll all be living vicariously through you until this release goes live.

Several of you reported a virus warning you received via Bugzilla, Twitter and Get Satisfaction yesterday. Mozilla reported that AVG confirmed it is a false positive that will be removed in the next Definitions update, so there’s no cause for alarm and you can fly your bird without worry. Thanks for all the looking out!

Thanks for all the feedback on our Blessed Build. With your help we’re moving in the right direction! You don’t need iTunes installed to test this Beta but a little voodoo magic is still in order if you don’t have iTunes installed. You will need to execute the installer from the Windows command line (cmd.exe).

Songbird_1.4.0b2-1284_windows-i686-msvc8.exe /CDRIP

Songbird now lets you rip to FLAC, the highest quality open-source format available. FLAC stands out as the fastest and most widely supported lossless audio codec, and is the only one that is non-proprietary, unencumbered by patents, and has an open-source reference implementation. If you want to stay open-source but need to keep your files smaller you can rip to Ogg. We also now support ripping to WMA.

Not only do we support the highest quality rips on the web, we have also integrated with Gracenote to tag your collection with the right artist, album, album art, and track information.

We’re delivering the CD Rip feature to Windows first.  We generally develop for the largest platform first, and wanted to get that capability out without delay.  Mac & Linux are coming!

The release notes contain additional details about this build including a list of known issues.

As always, please file any issues, bugs, or crashes you find in Bugzilla. Thanks.

We’d like the help of the community to test and provide feedback on a couple of new features we’ve been working on:

• USB Mass Storage Device Support (Windows only):
  Songbird now supports file transfer and track sync for USB mass storage devices (with the addition of the MSC add-on).
• Mozilla strings localization
  We’ve added support for localization of the Mozilla specific UI found in XULRunner. We’ve integrated all the languages available from Mozilla, so if you’re using Songbird in German, French, Spanish or Japanese, you will now experience a fully localized UI. See the complete list of language codes we picked up from Mozilla.

The release notes contain additional details about this build including a list of known issues.

As always, please file any issues, bugs, or crashes you find in Bugzilla. Thanks.