Comments on: A look at Songbird http://www.nickpeters.net/2007/02/12/a-look-at-songbird/ Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:22:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Clif Notes http://www.nickpeters.net/2007/02/12/a-look-at-songbird/#comment-344 Clif Notes Sun, 18 Mar 2007 04:16:44 +0000 http://www.nickpeters.net/2007/02/12/a-look-at-songbird/#comment-344 Hi Nick, good job. I plan on adding a mention of your review in my newsletter tomorrow. Don't miss it! ;-) Clif Hi Nick, good job. I plan on adding a mention of your review in my newsletter tomorrow. Don’t miss it! ;-)

Clif

]]> By: Nick http://www.nickpeters.net/2007/02/12/a-look-at-songbird/#comment-55 Nick Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:37:58 +0000 http://www.nickpeters.net/2007/02/12/a-look-at-songbird/#comment-55 Hey Adam, Thanks for the kind words! The day after I made my post, I saw in their <a href="http://addons.songbirdnest.com/" rel="nofollow">add-ons repository</a> an <a href="http://addons.songbirdnest.com/extensions/detail/12" rel="nofollow">iPod support plug-in</a>. Of course it would be nice for this sort of support to be built-in, but hey, at least it's there. I fully agree that iTunes does have a great UI and since Songbird "borrowed" that, it makes it just as easy to use. However, the potential this program has (especially the mp3 blog support and add-ons support) will def. give iTunes some competition in my opinion. As far as the semantic labeling of music, I think it should go beyond rel=mp3. As <a href="http://www.trustworthy.net" rel="nofollow">one of my co-workers</a> pointed out, semantic labeling makes media detection format-neutral; you can find Ogg Vorbis files, Real Media files without having to rely on the extension. I also think there should be ways to label the media information such as: <code> <span class="artist">Band</span> <span class="song">Song Name</span> </code> This will make it so you don't have to download the song/part of the song to retrieve that information from the ID3 tags or equivalent information. The iPhone + MP3 Blog idea is brilliant! Apple REALLY needs to start looking into microformats and the potential they have. Perhaps now that FF3 and IE8 will start supporting them, Apple and Safari will jump on the bandwagon. Hey Adam,
Thanks for the kind words!
The day after I made my post, I saw in their add-ons repository an iPod support plug-in. Of course it would be nice for this sort of support to be built-in, but hey, at least it’s there.
I fully agree that iTunes does have a great UI and since Songbird “borrowed” that, it makes it just as easy to use. However, the potential this program has (especially the mp3 blog support and add-ons support) will def. give iTunes some competition in my opinion.
As far as the semantic labeling of music, I think it should go beyond rel=mp3. As one of my co-workers pointed out, semantic labeling makes media detection format-neutral; you can find Ogg Vorbis files, Real Media files without having to rely on the extension.
I also think there should be ways to label the media information such as:

<span class="artist">Band</span>
<span class="song">Song Name</span>

This will make it so you don’t have to download the song/part of the song to retrieve that information from the ID3 tags or equivalent information.
The iPhone + MP3 Blog idea is brilliant! Apple REALLY needs to start looking into microformats and the potential they have. Perhaps now that FF3 and IE8 will start supporting them, Apple and Safari will jump on the bandwagon.

]]> By: Adam Darowski http://www.nickpeters.net/2007/02/12/a-look-at-songbird/#comment-54 Adam Darowski Wed, 14 Feb 2007 15:21:30 +0000 http://www.nickpeters.net/2007/02/12/a-look-at-songbird/#comment-54 Interesting. I've gone on record saying that iTunes is the single greatest user experience ever designed for a desktop application (of course, it's had some bloating problems recently). No iPod support is a bit tricky... and it's going to take a decent amount for me to switch from iTunes, so I'll give it a whirl. I tend to love cross platform apps, like Firefox, where the UX is always consistent. But I guess I'm a bit of a hypocrite in that I like my Mac apps. Perhaps I'm just biased against Windows only apps. Shame on me. I should give Songbird a try. But dam, the iLife suite is so... sweet. <blockquote>I propose the idea of a Microformat-like way of labeling MP3 information within HTML for programs like Songbird.</blockquote> Ah, rel=mp3. Perhaps here's another spot where the iPhone could use Microformats (<a href="http://www.nickpeters.net/2007/01/09/iphone-the-microformat-killer-app/" rel="nofollow">as some smart kid mentioned before</a>). Browsing a blog with an embedded MP3? Well, maybe the iPhone can automatically add it to your iTunes library on the phone (and re-sync back to your iTunes when you reconnect). Of course, maybe this just be done through the .mp3 extension in the link name? Interesting. I’ve gone on record saying that iTunes is the single greatest user experience ever designed for a desktop application (of course, it’s had some bloating problems recently). No iPod support is a bit tricky… and it’s going to take a decent amount for me to switch from iTunes, so I’ll give it a whirl.

I tend to love cross platform apps, like Firefox, where the UX is always consistent. But I guess I’m a bit of a hypocrite in that I like my Mac apps. Perhaps I’m just biased against Windows only apps. Shame on me. I should give Songbird a try. But dam, the iLife suite is so… sweet.

I propose the idea of a Microformat-like way of labeling MP3 information within HTML for programs like Songbird.

Ah, rel=mp3. Perhaps here’s another spot where the iPhone could use Microformats (as some smart kid mentioned before). Browsing a blog with an embedded MP3? Well, maybe the iPhone can automatically add it to your iTunes library on the phone (and re-sync back to your iTunes when you reconnect). Of course, maybe this just be done through the .mp3 extension in the link name?

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