Magellan - Amarok 2.0.1.1 released (including security fix)
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.
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.
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.



Comments
Re:Bug Reports
Believe it or not, I'm sick of filing bug reports that don't get fixed, and it takes a few minutes to file each one when you factor in the time taken to search for duplicates. I didn't have the time to do it at that moment, so I just made that comment and washed my hands of the matter.
Well done
This release finally puts back those features that made Amarok a great audio player, I especially appreciate the return of the queue track and stop after current track features and the fact that compilations are now displayed under one heading instead of many. I think this release might be enough for those that were holding back with Amarok 1.4 to upgrade now.
Thanks for all the hard work guys, much appreciated.
Opensuse 11.1 KDE 4.2 depencies
Booooh, Amarok 2.0.1.1 has a kdebase 4.2 RC 1 dependency on opensuse 11.1. But the opensuse team will not make RC1 available before the official release date (Tuesday, I guess). Now I have to wait two more days to be able to install it. Life's tough...
Switch from UNSTABLE to
Switch from UNSTABLE to KDE:KDE4:Factory:Desktop and you'll get Amarok 2.0.1.1. Factory now has KDE 4.2 (4.1,.87 snapshot).
OS X
Amarok for MacOS X is still in Beta. Still the list of new features in Magellan lists "Growl support on OS X." :-(
why does this make you
why does this make you sad....
It makes me sad, because it
It makes me sad, because it looks like there is a Magellan for OSX, yet I'm still waiting for Amarok 2 Final. Therefore someday, when Amarok 2 Final for MacOSX is finally available, I will probably go straight to waiting for Magelllan. Not a very happy outlook...
Sounds like 2.0.1.1 is the
Sounds like 2.0.1.1 is the real 2.0 - I think I might be able to switch over now!
No it's not, still many
No it's not, still many regressions. Even the stop button doesn't work. :|
Sounds like 2.0.11 is the
Sounds like 2.0.11 is the Surreal 2.0!!!
Somehow I expect to hear
Somehow I expect to hear similar things ( 2.x.x is _the real_ 2.0. ) for the next many version we release, as the specific features that was missing for someone in 2.0.0 makes it back:-)
I think 2.0.1.1 wouldn't come
I think 2.0.1.1 wouldn't come so quickly if there was no 2.0. Big thanks to Amarok developers for improving the already the best music player!
Windows Version
I know the team at windows.kde.org is responsible for the Windows port, but about how far behind are there usually? What's the ammount of collaboration between you and them? Will we ever see concurrent releases?
Windows version
We are very close to the Windows guys, so we usually have pretty good cooperation. The thing that would help them most is sheer manpower, I assume. And I expect more people to join their team as KDE applications are becoming increasingly popular on Windows.
Why not help them? :)
POOR MICROSOFT USERS
Pathetic is the only world i can use to describe all the - good - energy and efforts of you people to produce a Windows and Mac version. I used to prefer Kaffeine but yes i am a satisfied user of Amarok thanks to its improve features. In the past it had a nice interface but too limited functionality. I could but don't understand why one would work FOR FREE for the software Giant that has it is said 60 billions NOT millions but billions in its bank account for law suits and that is said to have presented the future release of Windows aka Windows 7 as the ultimate Linux killer.
In Windows to be fair there are so many free players do you think for an iota of a second you are going to make a DIFFERENCE?
Good intentions but pathetic indeed you should concentrate on Linux users in Windows you are a NON player but if you are stupid enough to work for the US giant be my guest.
I personaly think you should work on resolving the TOO MANY bugs still afflicting Amarok instead of helping - for free!!! - the US giant to become even richer and put a couple more billions into Bill Gates bank account.
Yes, there are plenty of free
Yes, there are plenty of free audio players on Windows. There are also many free audio players on linux - however, I will prefer Amarok every time on every system I use. This Gollum-like obsession and jealousy between operating systems doesn't help anyone.
You really think Microsoft is cheering when Amarok is released for Windows? They have their own media player and won't be so happy about fading vendor lock-in. I have seen troves of people switching to Linux or OSX after they could get acclimated to the open source library of applications on their familiar system.
About the Windows port
Sorry, but you completely misunderstand how Amarok is technically designed. Thanks to using Qt 4 and KDElibs 4, we basically get the Windows and OSX versions "for free". It's exactly the same code base, because we are using excellent cross-platform libraries.
Then consider the following: The more users = the more developers = the more bugs get fixed. Every bug fixed by a Windows developer on Amarok is automatically _also_ fixed on Linux and OSX.
Last not least, not all of us are working on Amarok for free. Some are working on it professionally, and a bigger userbase increases our chances of generating more income (while keeping Amarok _Free Software_, of course).
This does put things into a different perspective, doesn't it? :)
About the Windows port
I just discovered that one can have KDE 4.2 under Windows.
Right away I installed it on my wife's computer
so now I can use amarok, konqueror, and other favorite KDE applications on this machine. All is not fully functional (still missing is kmail, for example) but what a pleasure this is! Although this will not get me to give up my own linux portable, at least now my family can discover the joys of amarok.
Amarok is still 2.0 - I image that 2.0.1 will be ported soon.
In fact, one of the features
In fact, one of the features that I use the most, the new last.fm service, ( and I run linux exclusively ) was initially developed by a guy developing on windows. So this is not a "zero sum" game where all effort spent on Windows or Mac is effort not spent on the Linux version. There are a few tweaks that needs to happen on each platform specifically, but in terms of code its almost negligible.
The newest announcement...
The newest announcement from the team may well cause an explosion in contributors for KDE - the one where it's now possible (bar some minor inconveniences with plasma data engines for tasks and system tray icons not being there yet ;) ) to run Plasma as your Windows shell :) Announcement here: http://saroengels.blogspot.com/2009/01/pre-release-sprint.html
Another version, another regression
Another Amarok version, another regression. Tray icon stopped showing progress of the song and is plain ugly with visible aliasing. :(