Das Amarok-Team kann stolz verkünden, dass die Jury von Linux New Media uns ausgewählt hat eines der 15 Projekte zu sein, die an der diesjährigen CeBIT in Hannover einen Stand gesponsort bekommen. Die CeBIT ist, wie ihr vielleicht wisst, die größte IT-Messe der Welt und findet vom dritten bis achten März auf dem Messegelände in Hannover statt. Ihr findet uns in Halle 6, als Teil von Stand F 50. Wir zeigen dort die aktuellsten Entwicklungen und haben auch einen kurzen Vortrag über die Benutzung von Amarok am Samstag, um 16:20 Uhr im nahe gelegenen CeBIT Open Source Forum. Mike wird natürlich auch da sein.

Und natürlich haben wir auch eine kleine Überraschung für euch. Wir haben einige Gastkarten bekommen, je gültig für einen Tag, die wir an unsere Community verteilen dürfen. Ihr wollt welche? Zeigt uns, dass ihr Amarok-Fans seid, und beweist uns das irgendwie: mit Bildern, Videos, etc. Seid kreativ. Alternativ nehmen wir auch CeBIT Überlebenstipps von euch. Vergesst nicht eine gültige Mailadresse zu hinterlassen, und natürlich erwarten wir, dass ihr uns am Stand besuchen kommt, wenn ihr ein Ticket von uns habt.

Just a few weeks after the 2.0 release the new and improved Amarok 2.0.1.1, codenamed Magellan, is ready for you. Don't let the small version number increase fool you though! We brought back features a lot of you have been waiting for and of course fixed a lot of bugs as well as one security issue.

Welcome back a few well known and loved features from the Amarok 1.4 series: queuing, playlist search and filtering as well as "stop after current track". And, long awaited and finally available: sorting the collection by composer. We of course also worked on other features and extended the Scriptable Service API to allow smoother integration of service scripts. The LibriVox service script has received some love and comes with new icons amongst other improvements. Media device handling has also seen many improvements: MTP devices can now delete multiple tracks at once, and the status bar gives visual feedback when deleting tracks from iPods. Our OS X users will certainly like the built in Growl notification support.

Thanks to the feedback of many we were also able to spot and correct some annoying bugs: The collection scanner now doesn't miss entries anymore and completes its work, and the user now gets a warning when the scanning fails. Please read the changelog below for a list of the most important fixes and features.

Security advisory: We have been made aware of a security problem concerning the parsing of malformed Audible digital audio files 2 days ago by Tobias Klein. We fixed it immediately and informed packagers so they can provide new packages for you. Please upgrade your installation as soon as new packages are available for you.

Version 2.0.1.1

Features

• Add advanced, configurable, searching and filtering to the playlist.
• Add "Stop after track" option to the playlist menu.
• Queue track functionality has returned. (BR 171939)
• Growl support on OS X.
• Add automatic recovery option to MySQL embedded server.
• Greatly improved Librivox.org service script. It now works for all books, and dynamically fetches a summary of each book that is shown in the service info applet. The script now also has a propper icon in the service browser and its own emblem and default "album" cover for books.
• Sorting collection by Composer is now possible. (BR 177271)
• Service scripts can now dynamically fetch context info when items are selected (info can still be applied statically to each item as well).
• Album items from a service script can now have custom covers.
• Items from a service script can now have a custom emblem.
• Service scripts can now set custom icons for the service browser.
• Add simple filtering to the service browser.
• Podcast channels are automatically refreshed once per hour if autoscan is enabled.

Changes

• MTP devices can now delete multiple tracks at once.
• Status bar notification on copying or deleting tracks on Ipod.
• Don't fold the Collection Browser after editing or updating the collection. (BR 166841)
• Replace the systray icon with a more modern logo.
• "Cool-Streams" radio service script is now enabled by default.
• Show more verbose output when copying tracks to the local collection.
• Custom Sorting in the Collection Browser has returned.
• Memory use optimizations.
• Playlist items now have tooltips. (BR 170844)

Bugfixes

• Fix possible buffer overflows when parsing Audible .aa files.
• The QtScript Qt binding generator has been updated to the latest. This should complete some features such as Model/View in the QtScript API and fix building with Qt 4.5. (BR 177863)
• The Files browser now remembers its settings, like the active directory. (BR 173742)
• Fix problems with the collection scanner often missing a part of the collection, or potentially failing altogether. (BR 176154)
• Fix Context View crash when quitting the application. (BR 179110)
• LibriVox: Don't crash when double clicking "Enter Query". (BR 177991)
• Files could be deleted when moving files to an unwritable destination. (BR 178701)
• Don't override cached lyrics when fetching. (BR 178196)
• Show a warning when the collection scanner dies. (BR 176154)
• Set date correctly on MTP devices. (BR 171194)
• Ipod ratings are read/written/displayed.
• Ipod playcounts are read and displayed on Current Track Info applet.
• Lastfm Settings Dialog can now check to ensure username/password is correct. (BR 144456)
• Don't delete files if an error occurs during transfer. (BR 178701)
• MPRIS GetMetadata() call returns arturl for last.fm streams. (BR 178695)
• Fix grouping of various artist albums in the playlist. (BR 175604)
• Update statistics properly on Windows and Mac versions.
• Fix progress indicator disapearing when skipping in last.fm streams.
• Write the discnumber field for mp3 tags.
• Don't start a fadeout when stopping paused media. (BR 178057)
• More accurate Amarok 1.4 database imports.
• Ipod tracks' sample rate is now shown correctly in Tag Dialog.
• Tracks did not always report that their editable status correctly. (BR 177058)
• Gapless playback of MTP tracks one after another now works.
• Podcast with some unsafe characters in them caused database corruption. (BR 172594)
• Amarok no longer stalls on large Ipod copy operations. (BR 173707)
• Fix switching between basic and advanced mode in the filename scheme chooser.
• Fix MTP device attached on startup crashing. (BR 177201)
• Tracks with same tags as a track on Ipod are no longer copied. (BR 177198)
• When reaching the end of the playlist, actually show stopped state. (BR 177782)
• Fixes in playing tracks in repeat modes.
• The wikipedia applet did not give a status update when an entry was not found. (BR 173940)
• Add tooltips to icons in context view. (BR 174478)
• Fix icons and layout in Advanced Filter dialog.

Join us in Amarok'ing in a Free World! PS: One free beer at FOSDEM in Belgium next month for the first person to figure out the current release name theme ;-) Leave a comment below and join us at FOSDEM.

The world of digital music management has changed a great deal since the birth of Amarok four and a half years ago. Amarok 1 established a reputation for innovation, but maintaining development with the old framework became more difficult as Amarok grew, often in directions we never imagined. KDE4 brings many new technologies and design patterns, and we decided to use this opportunity to improve upon Amarok's original design. We thought about how to best design a program that would allow us to stay at the cutting edge of digital music management. We also sought to distinguish Amarok in an increasingly saturated market of music players. To achieve this we took the best ideas from the 1.x series, and brainstormed what else we could do to help our users "rediscover music". And then we started developing.

Now, after two years of development, we are proud to announce that Amarok 2 has arrived. This arrival is just the beginning.
This new version brings with it a lot of changes:

• Completely redesigned user interface
• Tight integration with online services such as Magnatune, Jamendo, MP3tunes, Last.fm and Shoutcast
• Completely overhauled scripting API and plugin support to allow better integration into Amarok
• Migration from the KDE 3 to KDE 4 framework, and utilization of core technologies such as Solid, Phonon, and Plasma

The user interface has been redesigned to make context information like lyrics and albums from the same artist more accessible and allow you to decide which information you want to see by adding applets to the Context View in the middle. The new Biased Playlists offer a way to let Amarok take care of your playlist in an intelligent way similar to Dynamic Playlists in previous versions. A new service framework allows for a tight integration of online services like Jamendo, Magnatune and Ampache. New services can easily be added via GetHotNewStuff in Amarok or from kde-apps.org. More applets and scripts are being worked on and users are welcome to contribute more to make Amarok suit their needs. The migration from the KDE 3 to KDE 4 framework allows us to make use of technologies like Plasma, Phonon and Solid which make Amarok easier to use and maintain and ready for the future of music on your computer and on the internet.
These are only some of the great new features of Amarok 2. Give it a try!

It is important to note that Amarok 2.0 is a beginning, not an end. Because of the major changes required, not all features from the 1.4 are in Amarok 2. Many of these missing features, like queueing and filtering in the playlist, will return within a few releases. Other features, such as visualizations and support for portable media players, require improvements in the underlying KDE infrastructure. They will return as KDE4's support improves. Some features, such as the player window or support for databases other than MySQL, have been removed because either they posed insurmountable programming problems, or they didn't fit our design decisions about how to distinguish Amarok in a saturated market of music players.

Amarok 2.0 is now available for all major Linux distributions. KDE4 is still under heavy development especially on Windows and Mac OS X, and Amarok 2 is available as a "Beta" version on those platforms. In the coming months, we expect to regularly release a series of bugfix versions in the 2.0 series. Work on features, both old and new, has also continued. So while Amarok 2 has already been a long journey for the Amarok team, for you, the users, it is just beginning!

Amarok's journey has just begun and we are excited to have you join us for this event. Change and improvement would not have been possible without the help of everyone who contributed to this ambitious project in the form of code, promotion, documentation, donations, and a lot more. To all of you all we say: Thank You!

Join us in Amarok'ing in a Free World! Please consider contributing to our fundraiser, reading the Amarok 2 FAQ and of course don't forget to celebrate with us!