โดย Songbird นั้นจะสามารถทำงานได้ทั้งบนระบบปฏิบัติการ Mac OS Windows และ Linux ซึ่งเป็นการพัฒนาขึ้นมาจาก Gecko Engine ที่เป็นพื้นฐานที่ใช้ในเวบบราวเซอร์ Firefox โดยถึงแม้ว่าหน้าตาอินเตอร์เฟสต่างๆของ Songbird จะคล้ายๆกับ iTunes ของ Apple เป็นอย่างมาก แต่ฟังก์ชั่นที่แตกต่างอย่างเห็นได้ชัดก็คือส่วนที่สามารถเพิ่ม add-on ต่างๆได้ ทำให้ผู้ใช้สามารถเพิ่มขยายฟังก์ชั่นต่างๆได้ตามต้องการ แต่ขณะนี้ Songbird ยังเป็นเวอร์ชั่นแรกๆจึงยังไม่มีฟังก์ชั่นพื้นฐานบางอย่างครบถ้วน เช่นการ rip CD
System Requirements
Windows
* Windows XP SP2 Windows Vista
* 1.5 GHz Pentium 4 or comparable
* At least 512 MB of physical RAM
* At least 150 MB of available space on your hard drive
* 16 bit sound card (Recommended: 32 bit Sound Card)
* Speakers or headphones
New Features
GStreamerGStreamer
We now use GStreamer as our main media playback system across all platforms - giving us higher performance better reliability and a platform for much more media-related functionality in the future.
mashTapeImproved mashTape
When you listen to music in Songbird you’ll have the option to see Flickr photos YouTube videos last.fm biographies google news (and more) for the currently playing artist. mashTape has been completely re-written from the ground up to be more extensible and flexible than ever.
Improved Album Art SupportImproved Album Art Support
The album artwork feature now supports drag and drop of images as well as toggling between Now Playing and Currently Selected tracks.
Complete Keyboard ShortcutsComplete Keyboard Shortcuts
We’ve cleaned up our Keyboard Shortcuts this release (and added some new ones for power users). Look for the link to a complete list of Keyboard Shortcuts in the applications Help menu.
Updated Linux InstallerUpdated Linux Installer
We’ve created a single archive that has all the necessary dependencies so that Linux users can run Songbird without having to install any additional dependencies.
Re-usable Smart PlaylistsRe-usable Smart Playlists
By popular request we’ve implemented the ability to use a smart playlist as a rule within another smart playlist.
Reveal Original FilesReveal Original Files
We’ve added the ability to expose the media items in Songbird as files in your filesystem by right clicking and choosing “Show File”.
Recommended Add-ons UpdaterRecommended Add-ons Updater
A new update mechanism ensures that all upgraded users have an option to install the latest Recommended Add-ons. You can turn this feature on/off in the Preferences.
Hide/Show Display PanesHide & Show Display Panes
We were inspired by Atrieu’s Pane Button add-on and decided to add a few buttons to allow you to toggle between showing & hiding Display panes.
Simpler Column HeadingsSimpler Column Headings
We’ve refined the column heading property list and made it easier to enable the properties you care about. Just right click on any column heading in a library or playlist to give it a try.
Performance Enhancements
We made some substantial gains this release:
* Drastically Faster Search: Searching in Songbird is now anywhere from 10x faster for small libraries to 1000x for large ones.
* Reduced RAM Usage: There’s a 70% reduction in RAM usage when importing and using large (100 000 track) libraries.
* Faster Media Importing: Importing media into Songbird is now 2-4x faster.
* Reduced Startup Times: Large library users (10 000 tracks or more) will notice that Songbird startup times are now twice as fast.
* Efficient Scrolling: Scrolling through your library now uses half the amount of CPU.
* Snappier Sorting: Sorting your library is now 3-4x faster which adds up to significantly smoother browsing when scrolling and filtering.
* Optimized DB Size: We’ve optimized the database in Songbird and reduced its size by on average 60%. This leads to a variety of performance improvements throughout the application.
* Fewer Crashers: We’ve worked hard to identify and fix 11 of the most common crashes in Songbird.
For Developers
* We’ve created a simple guide for updating 0.7.0 Feathers to be 1.0 compatible.
* For extension developers we’ve created a similar guide for updating extensions to be 1.0 compatible.
* We updated the Media Core APIs to take advantage of GStreamer. This allows for more power and flexibility in controlling playback.
* We’ve documented how developers can add support for additional playback formats by packaging GStreamer plugins as Songbird add-ons.
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