Monday, June 16, 2008
Looking For An Alternative To iTunes? BIOS Magazine Reviews Songbird 0.5 Media Player
Posted by Tim Williamson in "Digital Home Software" @ 10:00 AM
"If you’re still using iTunes or Windows Media Player you should be ashamed of yourselves. Songbird is one of the most flexible desktop media players or ‘jukeboxes’ you’ll ever use, plus it has a uniquely open approach to Internet digital media network services. What’s so great about Songbird (which is officially still in Beta), is that it’s completely open source and tons of developers are continually creating add-ons and updating features. Bug fixes are sorted quickly too, unlike Apple and Microsoft who generally wait until the next major release of their players."
I use Winamp to play most of my music, and iTunes to organize and synchronize with my iPod, but Songbird looks like it could be a great replacement for both of these players (except that it doesn't support video yet). It appears to have some great "Add-ons" though which add functionality, plus the interface is skinnable and looks very clean. I've tried Songbird in the past and had some problems with persistent crashing, but it might be worth checking out again. The latest version is up to 0.6 alpha, so check it out and post your thoughts on this alternative media player.
I use Winamp to play most of my music, and iTunes to organize and synchronize with my iPod, but Songbird looks like it could be a great replacement for both of these players (except that it doesn't support video yet). It appears to have some great "Add-ons" though which add functionality, plus the interface is skinnable and looks very clean. I've tried Songbird in the past and had some problems with persistent crashing, but it might be worth checking out again. The latest version is up to 0.6 alpha, so check it out and post your thoughts on this alternative media player.
