Songbird: An Apology….Thanks for the Mac Extensions and more
March 23rd, 2009Visited 644 times, 2 so far today
An open apology goes to the Songbird Community for looking out for me. You haven’t wronged me. I was foolish to toss aside such a project that so early in its development actually carries a lot of the needs that say…Itunes would do for software user.
- Valuable Extensions -
Apple Keyboard Media Key Support – I may have just lost this extension in the shuffle. The Apple Keyboard Media Key Support Extension seamlessly takes advantage of the Mac keyboard that was a major barrier for me.
Mac Remote Control Support – Apple provides for the use of little functionalities that although many users overlook, may be crucial for others. The use of the Apple Remote is one for me.
MacBook Extras – Not as noticeable, but the tweaks to Pause playback on sleep and Pause playback on headphone insertion and removal, is nice
Now Playing List – Itunes doesn’t allow for this beyond you constructing a playlist. The list of where you’re going is a great help.
Fasterbird – I haven’t used Songbird long enough to notice an improvement in performance with implementation, but I always support this kind of stuff. Its cute. Have you felt any difference?
Last Track Resume – Again another nice function that seems intuitive to exist in the core product.
Shuffle Question – Do you feel that Songbird’s shuffle function is better than Itunes? I’ve just been hearing music in my shuffle through Songbird that I would have never gotten to in Itunes. Just a thought.
- Some Concerns –
No Growl Support – It may be my stupidity, but Notify Me, the available extension, doesn’t function properly on the Mac. I need a hotkey that triggers a Growl Notification of the current playing track. Quicksilver has always done this for me. I miss it. =( The Song Notifier Extension works better for me, but still doesn’t integrate as well as I’d like it.
No Default Player button – Although you can compensate with RCDefaultApp, a preference pane that allows you to designate default apps for regardless the medium. Fantastic App, but Songbird ought to have the functionality within itself to override Itunes natural inclination to take all your Mp3 business.
No DownThemAll Support – Despite my love for Omniweb I can’t get away from Firefox for this extension and handful of other things. With Songbirds ability to run through so many Mp3 Blogs DownThemAll would make this experience far more tolerable. I’ve posted before on how useful stripping the content out of website can be for getting for your music collection.
VLC is better – In terms of getting an all-in-one package, VLC just does a better job of playing EVERYTHING. I see Songbird so far as a nice barebones Itunes replacement, but until it plays all the different formats it doesn’t fit this niche.
Did I forget anything?
