Scan & Fix 50 registry issues FREECNET Editors' review
If Firefox and iTunes hooked up, their hatchling could very well be Songbird. Although it's in beta and plenty buggy, it's also a very fun app that's part music player, part Web browser, and all about music discovery, management, and playback.
During installation, it'll ask if you want to load your iTunes music directory or another media directory, or perform the task later. Processing 5,000 songs took about 3 minutes, not a bad pace. It then asks you which of the pre-installed Songbird extensions you want to load. Most of these, like the iPod and USB device manager, only make the app stronger.
The left sidebar provides quick links to bookmarks, downloads, your music library in an iTunes-style interface, and several music discovery Web sites to get your started. When you're looking at any Web site with MP3s available for download, Songbird will open a new window at the bottom main browsing pane. Double-click on a song to play it, while links on the right let you purchase the track from Amazon, iTunes, eMusic, and Amie St. They also tell you the format of the track--MP3 or AAC, for example, and provide a blog link for more info.
Songbird has a growing library of extensions, and support is slowly growing for those written originally for Firefox. Many of the improvements from the last version make for a dramatic change, but Songbird is definitely a beta: caveat emptor. Still, it could really take flight for the music-loving, Web-surfing fanatic in all of us.
Songbird:Publisher's Description
From Pioneers of the Inevitable:
Note: Beta or prerelease software is not intended for inexperienced users, as the software may contain bugs or may potentially damage your system. We strongly recommend that users exercise caution and save all mission-critical data before installing or using this software.
Songbird is a media browser and Web player built from Firefox, VLC Player, and SQLite. Songbird is open source and supports user contributed, cross-platform extensions. The latest 0.4RC1 update adds display panes for installing multiple add-ons simultaneously, extended iPod support, media source discovery, and bug-fixes.
What's new in this version: Display panes for installing multiple add-ons simultaneously, extended iPod support, media source discovery, and bug-fixes.
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All versions:
3.6 starsout of 179 votes
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Current version:
3.5 starsout of 15 votes
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My rating:
Write review
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"Best media player available!"
Version: Songbird 0.4
Pros
This is the future of media players. I started using Songbird around version .2 and it is now the only player I use.
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"Exelent but buggy for now"
Version: Songbird 0.4
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"Very good"
Version: Songbird 0.4
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"pretty good"
Version: Songbird 0.4
Pros
This is a pretty good program, and does everything I expected it to.
Cons
It took a while to get a feel for the program, though.
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"Hopeless"
Version: Songbird 0.4
Cons
If i wanted itunes i can download that, i use mp3,oggvorbis on a iriver mp3 player and was hoping to import files from my pc into songbird, it just did not wanna know.
Screen is way too dark and couldnt be bothered to investigate further.I have changed the software on my ipod to rockbox so i can drag and drop music files this a poor mans itunes. Dont waste your time with it.
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"Has potential, but still full of bugs."
Version: Songbird 0.4
Pros
iPod support, so no need to stick to iTunes.
Skins or 'Feathers'.
Imports iTunes, WMP, etc.
Add-On's allow user to do more with their music player.
Cons
Eats memory.
Still riddled with bugs resulting in regular crashes.
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"Excellent with Win2000!!!"
Version: Songbird 0.4
Pros
Thanks open-source'rs.
Only software that works with Win2k and my iPod Nano 4Gb.
iTunes 7.3 only supports XP and Vista.
Daniusoft and Anapod both install but cannot sync the iPod.
Apple even admits there is a known bug with the iPod and Win2k but offer no support or fixes.
Punishment for Windows people I suppose.
First and last time we buy an Apple product sorry to say.
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"perfect"
Version: Songbird 0.4
Pros
easy
Cons
at this moment nothing
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"Disappointing"
Version: Songbird 0.4
Pros
As a web browser it works o.k. and it builds up the library quite quickly.
Cons
It doesn't do anything that IE7 and Firefox can't do with FoxyTunes added.
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"good"
Version: Songbird 0.4
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