You are here

Amarok 1.4.6 Released



Your very own Amarok team announces the immediate availability of the latest 1.4 series release, 1.4.6.
So, what's new?

  • Funky new icon set, featuring KDE4 Oxygen colors by Landy DeField; for 2.0 he will be working to ensure that Amarok has a complete Oxygen icon set.
  • Default database backend is a lot faster due to a new SQLite version.
  • A gigantic load of bug fixes, the main focus of this release.
  • Introducing rockbox support for iPod.
  • Performance tuning.
  • More wockas per square inch.
  • A miracle in software engineering - we added less people to an early software project and made it later, disproving the Mythical Man-Month.
  • Packaged with FUKITOL.


In preparation for 2.0 we have a user survey - let your voice be heard.

Didn't make it out to Berlin for LinuxTag this year? No worries! Video recordings of the talk and workshop are available and a photo log of the Amarok invasion has been posted.

Next week the annual KDE conference "aKademy" in Glasgow is starting, keep an eye on the developer blogs to follow the happenings there. Thanks to your continued donations and support from KDE e.V, 7 Amarok developers will be present at aKademy. They are looking forward to a very productive week hacking on exciting new Amarok features.


The full technical ChangeLog follows.

Version 1.4.6

Changes

  • Improved icon theme, kindly provided by Landy DeField <lando@revelinux.com>. Big thanks!
  • Playlist now sends notifications to scripts if items are added, removed, reordered, or if the playlist is cleared.Useful for script authors. Thanks to Miguel Angel Alvarez <maacruz@gmail.com> for the patch.
  • iPod device plugin now handles RockBox devices.Thanks to Michael Buesch <mb@bu3sch.de> for the patch.
  • Organising files will only delete empty parent folders if the folder is within the collection hierarchy. (BR 136757)
  • The default cover image preview size has been increased to 130px.
  • The "hide menubar" option has been removed. It's too dangerous and led to countless support requests.
  • Generic media device can now handle any KIO-compatible URL, including obex and smb. Manage your bluetooth phone's music collection through Amarok!
  • Upgraded SQLite to 3.3.17.
  • Append an album to the playlist by right-clicking on it from within the Cover Manager.Patch by Doug Reich <dreich@hmc.edu>.
  • Faster playlist handling. Patch by Ovy <ovy@alum.mit.edu>. (BR 142255)
  • The moodbar process has been given a higher priority. (BR 136867)
  • Allow for lyrics scripts to specifiy site, site_url, and add_url from within the script. This will allow for "meta lyrics" scripts. Patch by Sergio Pistone <sergio_pistone@yahoo.com.ar>. (BR 141885)
  • First rating star now lets you toggle between no rating, half a star, and one full star.

Bugfixes

  • Uninstalling scripts would in some cases leave files behind. Patch by Sergio Pistone <sergio_pistone@yahoo.com.ar>. (BR 143716)
  • Last.fm "Custom Station" stream works again. (BR 146020)
  • Fix regression where the "Show Script Manager" button displayed on the Lyrics tab of the Context Browser wouldn't actually show the Script Manager.
  • Don't show ratings from the previous track's rating change in the OSD on playing the next track.
  • The config dialog is now less tall and fits on widescreen displays.
  • Making a dynamic playlist with the number of previously played tracks to show set to zero and attempting to play the first track would cause a crash. (BR 145157)
  • If "Stop after current track" was used, the last track would not be counted or rated in the user's statistics. (BR 140980)
  • Generic media device wouldn't allow you to drop a folder on the viewport, meaning you couldn't move subfolders to the top level of the mount point.
  • Made the settings dialog less tall. (BR 141250)
  • Star ratings now update instantly in the Context Browser, OSD, and Collection Browser.
  • lyrc script did not work behind proxy due to a stray quote mark. Gentoo Bug 166050.
  • Fix compilation on kde-3.3 systems.
  • amarok_live.py now uses popen correctly. Patch by Luke Macken <lmacken@fedoraproject.org>. (BR 127804)
  • Make amarok_proxy.rb use HTTP/1.0 as we don't support chunked responses. Patch by solsTiCE <solstice.dhiver@laposte.net>. (BR 141819)
  • Fix Quadratic loading in Playlists. Patch by Ovy <ovy@alum.mit.edu>. (BR 142255)
  • Correctly set iPod model. Patch by ?smail Dönmez <ismail@kde.org>.
  • Fix detection of vfat devices on FreeBSD. (BR 141614)
  • Right-click on volume slider would change the volume. (BR 141672)
English

Comments

Thanks for focusing on bugs!

I know how easy it is to get excited about developing awesome new features all the time.

However, since Amarok stands for such amount of every day's enjoyment, any reliability issues directly affects one's mood! Thus, I thank you for the sane approach in focusing on bugs. I can do without being able to control the tones that my garage door's motor humming makes as a generic Media Player if I am able to listen to my favorite music!

Great job all of you! If I knew software programming I'd help out, but for now I stick to web applications. (When will Amarok remote web control interface come out btw? I'll help! :) )

Btw...

A great salute to you all for including so many wockas in such a tight space! May we see further improvements in this area for 2.0?

I don't get the idea of the pill however - what's the point?

I might be wrong, but I

I might be wrong, but I think it's the way you say its name that matters.
Or, in a more geek way:
s/uk/uck/g
s/ol/all/g

Yeah, it would be awesome. I

Yeah, it would be awesome. I also really, really miss "hide menubar" option - menubar in Amarok is useless for me (there is no single option in menubar that can't be found somewhere else).

Bring it back! Power users need it (so activatation through DCOP should be a good compromise)!

Cristiano
Sohbet

Just to be sure

[quote]
The config dialog is now less tall and fits on widescreen displays.
...
Made the settings dialog less tall. (BR 141250)
[/quote]

It's so good you're fixing bugs twice :D

Hehe... ooops.

Hehe... ooops.

> The "hide menubar" option

> The "hide menubar" option has been removed.

It was a very useful option. Is it possible to turn it on again?

No, sorry, this option won't

No, sorry, this option won't return. The price is too high; the constant usuability issues and support requests weigh more than the little screen space you can safe by hiding the menu. You see, about once per day a user asked in the IRC channel "How can I get my menu back".

Menu hiding

You could expose it on DCOP -- you'd think that anybody who knows how to use dcop to hide the menu bar would know how to use it to get it back.

Good idea!

Yeah, it would be awesome. I also really, really miss "hide menubar" option - menubar in Amarok is useless for me (there is no single option in menubar that can't be found somewhere else).

Bring it back! Power users need it (so activatation through DCOP should be a good compromise)!

Yes, GREAT idea!! Put it on

Yes, GREAT idea!! Put it on dcop !
I'm a fan of the "Hide Menubar" option, and in almost all KDE apps I hide my menubar, it just looks great without it...

PLEASE, give us back this option!!

Bring it back for the love

Bring it back for the love of god!! :)

svd

svd

Maybe you could provide a

Maybe you could provide a small patch for it?
I really want this feature back. And all my friends want it :)

Hmm...

I never knew this feature, now that it's gone, I've tried it on the old version... and want it back =)

patch not tested

patch
not tested

err, see that one

err, see that one

or you could make the menu

or you could make the menu show up again automatically when you hit Alt

All other KDE apps have this

All other KDE apps have this option... Why should amarok suddenly decide on its own that it's a bad option?

I really really want this

I really really want this feature back too there must be a compromise :(

Yeah, besides every KDE app

Yeah, besides every KDE app has ability to hide menubars, and it's a cool feature...I think that this should be available also in Amarok, I won't use 1.4.6 version just because of that :/

PDF?

There MUST be a more user-friendly way of doing a survey than a freakin' PDF file.

I second that

In addition, you'd want to provide source form in case anybody wants to translate. Not everyone speaks English, you know.

Enjoy

I would like to have a

I would like to have a formular to fill out the next survey after this one. I suppose that would be easier to evaluate for you. *hint* *hint*

LAST.FM GLOBAL TAGS ISSUE

Hello,

First, I want to thank you for the great job you are doing!
However, since I upgraded to 1.4.6 LAST.FM radios are not working anymore.

Cheers!

LAST.FM'S RADIOS WORK

Forget the issue on my last comment.
Today, last.fm radios do work!

Congratulations for the great work!!

Keep it real.

Public emails

I don't think that showing emails of contributors to this release is sth good. Spam is everywhere and many sites link to this one :)

I think if you contribute to

I think if you contribute to OSS, your email address tends to be all over the web anyway. You want to be able to get feedback, after all.

Thank You!

I use Amarok every single day and I continue to be impressed. I look forward to hearing all about aKademy too.

can it play games as xp does?

just wonder if the system can play games?

not minesweeper but games such as unreal2007, CS, WOW, etc.

if it does then ill soo choose it over xp and defenitly vista.

if possible can some1 email me.

We're just a music player,

We're just a music player, not an operating system...

please help

HOW THE HELL DO U DOWNLOAD THIS THING !!!!!

Downloading Amarok

well, if you use Linux, you should be able to find it in the repositories of your distribution. It's part of KDE, so just look for it in your package manager. If you currently use Windows or MAc OS, you will have to wait for the upcoming Amarok 2. BTW, the current version is 1.4.8, so don't look for an older version.

How i cal dl that ? Download

How i cal dl that ? Download failed ! Pls check this