Amarok Blog

Amarok teamster Abhishek has again produced a great video, this time explaining some new Podcast features of the upcoming Amarok 2.3:





Here is a direct link to the video, in case the embedding did not work:

Video: Podcasts in Amarok 2.3

Enjoy

What is Kraut Sourcing? No worries, I will explain this later on. First I would like to ask our community for a favor:

The Amarok team is about to release Amarok 2.3 fairly soon (our release schedule is tight), perhaps in about three weeks from now. What I am asking our community (especially artists) for: Creating a new splash screen for this release


This is how the current splash (kindly made by Lee Olson) for Amarok 2.2.x looks like:




As Amarok 2.3 is the start of a new major series, we would love to have a new splash screen. Any takers?


The winner will be chosen by the Amarok team, and the reward is:

1 Amarok t-shirt, a mention in the "Thanks To" dialog of Amarok, and... hmm, a beer at our next meeting. Does this sound ok?



PS:
"Kraut Sourcing" is pretty much what just happened here: A German asking for Crowd Sourcing.


Update: Please note that the license must be Creative Commons, cc-by-sa

Amarok user and enthusiast Abhishek has made a great video, showing off some features of the upcoming Amarok 2.3.


Again, please remember that this is a beta release, and some things are not fully finished (e.g. the toolbar).



Enjoy:

Video: Amarok 2.3 First Look

KDE Software Compilation 4.4 has been released!

I haven't used it yet (waiting for package), but let me tell you: This is an amazing product. We at KDE are happy to present you something the world has never seen before. A product so unbelievably terrific, you will love it! It's simply huge, and amazing. And great to use. Please, without further ado and silliness (we don't need more Stevenotes in this world):

Go check it out

One more thing...

I've switched jobs. I used to work for Gibson Guitar Corporation for a while (which was great, but all good things come to an end), and now I'm working with these friendly chaps:

A friendly user has today created a screenshot of the latest Amarok from Git Master. I was rather surprised that it actually looks fairly decent on Windows (had expected worse things), and the user even said it also works pretty well, with the new Phonon-VLC backend.

Anyway, I wanted to share this with you, but please keep in mind: This is a preview of the next Amarok version. Some things (like the new toolbar) are not yet fully finished, so please don't complain about that.

A while ago I had written an article about the dangers of "micro-options" in software. Like many articles about usability, this one was discussed somewhat controversially (which is good in a way), but overall I did get a positive reception, even from a professional usability expert.

While this article was perhaps interesting, there was no "proof in the blog pudding". Let's be honest here, anyone can claim the wildest things in blogs, which may be true, or not. I did however stumble upon an interesting connection between psychology and usability, which appears to back up my speculations. The connection is this:

The Paradox Of Choice

Have you ever been in the following situation: You're in a supermarket. You want to buy a salad dressing, and the timing is somewhat tight. Guests are waiting, the usual...

Alright, found the "salad dressing" section (which can he hard in itself, in huge supermarkets). So, not much time, let's choose something that looks yummy, and preferably not too fatty! So, what do we have here? Vinaigrette, Blue cheese dressing, Caesar dressing, Honey Dijon, Hummus, Italian dressing, Louis dressing, Ranch dressing, Russian dressing, Tahini. Hmm. Nice choice. Let's go for some Italian Dressing, I like that one. Wait, there are three different brands of dressing, each of them offering further varieties of this product. Chef's Choice, Low Carb, Lite, Very Lite, and hey: the Special Edition!

Here is someone who can explain this problem of choice much better than I could ever do. His name is Barry Schwartz, he's a professor of psychology, and he made one of the best TED talks ever (according to the founder of TED himself):


TED Video: Barry Schwartz - Paradox of Choice


I very much recommend watching this video. Few have been disappointed by it, and I suppose you might find it enlightening too. It does explain many phenomena in our modern life in a surprisingly simple way. One of them can be translated to usability: Too many choices can reduce the user's satisfaction with a software product.

I'd be happy to read comments on this article, be it positive, or negative. Discussion is important, so I think we should do that. But please, do me one favor: Watch Barry's talk before commenting. Thanks