From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Songbird is a free and open source software media player and web browser developed by Pioneers of the Inevitable (with members who previously developed for both Winamp[1] and the Yahoo! Music Engine), with a stated mission "to incubate Songbird, the first Web player, to catalyze and champion a diverse, open Media Web."[2]
Songbird employs Mozilla's XULRunner platform, and is thus capable of running on Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, Solaris and Linux. Songbird utilizes the GStreamer media framework.
[edit] Features
- Cross-platform compatibility with Windows XP, Vista, Mac OS X v10.5 (x86, x86-64) and Linux (x86, x86-64). Mac OS X v10.4-10.5 (PPC) and Windows 2000 are unofficially supported by either 1.0 for PPC[3] or using the official Win32 version to run on 2000.
- Ability to play multiple audio formats, such as MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, Apple Lossless and WMA
- Ability to play Apple FairPlay-encoded audio on Windows and Mac platforms via hooks into QuickTime (authorization takes place in iTunes)[4]
- Ability to play Windows Media DRM audio on Windows platforms[4]
- A skinnable interface, via feathers
- Media files stored on pages viewed in the browser show up as playable files in Songbird
- MP3 file download
- Ability to subscribe to MP3 blogs as playlists
- User-created bookmarks
- Ability to build custom mixes
- Ability to scan the user's computer for all audio files and add them to a local library
- A configurable and collapsible graphical user interface similar to iTunes, and mini-player mode
- Keyboard shortcuts and media keyboard support
- Automatic updates
- Last.fm integration via a plugin, complete with love/hate buttons
- Insound.com and HypeMachine integration
- Microsoft MTP compatible device support
- Ability to edit and save metadata tags
[5]
[edit] Extensions
Zune MTP support, Songbird 0.5
Users can add features and change functionality in Songbird by installing extensions. Community coded extensions are available on Songbird's addons support page. Known community designed extensions are: Qloud Tagging & Search, eMusic Integration, iTunes Importer, iPod Device, Artist Tracker, Library File Organizer, Audioscrobbler Notifier, Wikipedia Artist Display, SHOUTcast Radio Directory, UnPlug, Adblock Plus, Taglib metadata handler and Minimize-to-Systemtray, and ChatZilla.
Skins are referred to as "feathers" in Songbird, and give users and artists the ability to change the look of Songbird via an extension which generates a default skin. Using CSS (and optionally XUL), and an image manipulation program such as Photoshop or GIMP, users are then able to make Songbird look however they want.
[edit] Localization
There are 98 volunteer-basis localizations of Songbird currently being developed at various stages.[6]
[edit] Release history
Below is the version history of the Songbird project. Note that some versions have nicknames or codenames based on popular musicians and recording artists, such as David Bowie, Cher, Dokken, Eno, and Fugazi.
| Color |
Meaning |
| Red |
Old release; not supported |
| Green |
Current release |
| Blue |
Future release |
| Version |
Release date |
Codename |
Significant changes |
Gecko version |
| 0.1 |
February 8, 2006 |
Hilda |
|
1.8 |
| 0.1.1 |
February 22, 2006 |
|
- UI fixes.
- More file types supported.
|
| 0.2 |
October 17, 2006 |
|
- Cross-platform compatibility.
- Multi-language support.
|
| 0.2.5 |
February 28, 2007 |
|
- Windows Media DRM audio playback.
- FairPlay audio playback.
- USB mass storage device support.
- iPod device support.
- Automatic locales downloading.
- Improved OS integration.
|
| 0.3 |
October 30, 2007 |
Bowie |
|
1.9 |
| 0.3.1 |
November 6, 2007 |
|
|
| 0.4 |
December 27, 2007 |
Cher |
|
| 0.5 |
March 26, 2008 |
Dokken |
- Media library API.
- MTP device support.
|
| 0.6 |
June 13, 2008 |
Eno |
- Memory and performance improvements.
- Write metadata back to the file.
|
| 0.6.1 |
June 25, 2008 |
|
- 3 bug fixes. Last official version for Mac OS X PPC.
|
| 0.7 |
August 20, 2008 |
Fugazi |
- Layout and feather changes
- Smart playlists
- Drag & drop
|
| 1.0 |
December 2, 2008 |
Genesis |
|
| 1.1 |
March 10, 2009 |
Hendrix |
- Watch folders for changes and auto-import media
- Fetching Album Art
- Playback normalization
- Improved sorting
|
| 1.2 |
May 2009 |
Isan |
- New equalizer
- Customizable Toolbar
- Fetch audio fingerprinting/metadata
- CD-RIP/Encode/Metadata Lookup
|
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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Gopher |
|
| Active clients |
|
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| Discontinued clients |
|
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| Server software |
|
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| Persons |
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| See also |
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