Feedback on Amarok 2.1.1

[AG]

Kolja Dummann wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I think you should have a look at the Beta of 2.2. Many things you talk
> about are back in 2.2 and you can customize your layout that it fits the
> 1.4.
>
> cheers Kolja.
>
> Am Sonntag, den 06.09.2009, 14:02 +0100 schrieb AG:
>   
>> Hello
>>
>> I don't know if this kind of feedback is useful for the developers of 
>> Amarok, so in the hope that it is ...
>>
>> Amarok 2.1.1 using KDE 4.2.4 on an up-to-date Debian testing ("Squeeze") 
>> i386 system:
>>
>> (i) once I got used to it, the lay-out is probably better than the 1.4 
>> version I had grown to love.  I must say though, there is an 
>> intuitiveness about 1.4 that is now lost - specifically whether the 
>> playback should be randomised or not, etc. which in 1.4 was easily 
>> accessible via a click in the PL window, rather than via the menu in 2.1.1
>> (ii) fetching album cover art is still borked in 2.1.1 presumably due to 
>> Amazon changing its API.  Wouldn't it be better if the user could elect 
>> which source s/he wants to use for album cover art rather than tying it 
>> all to Amazon and their corporate whims?  Also, the album cover art 
>> isn't even applied to all tracks from the same album, but I haven't been 
>> able to discern any pattern to this yet.  If I do, I'll come back on this.
>> (iii) I really miss the simplicity of the old (i.e. 1.4) PL window - it 
>> was easy to append tracks to playlists, whereas with 2.1.1 what tends to 
>> happen is the track is automatically selected just when one clicks on 
>> it, and it is difficult to append a bunch of albums or multiple tracks.
>> (iv) tag editing (part 1) - this is not very good:  again the old (1.4) 
>> allowed one to edit tracks on the fly in a spreadsheet/ column + row 
>> interface.  Now, editing track info locks the whole interface up for the 
>> duration of the edits to be written.  Very frustrating.
>> (v) tag editing (part 2) - when editing the tag, it would speed things 
>> up a whole lot if the drop down menus actually enabled auto-completion 
>> (or whatever it is called) - i.e. when the text being entered into the 
>> relevant section offers some suggested completions.  For example, typing 
>> Pink Floyd into the artist tag should bring up the auto-completed option 
>> of Pink -Fairies or -Floyd, etc.  Ditto the album title, genre, etc.
>> (vi) finally, how does one get that really small (collapsed?) interface 
>> that one could get in 1.4 where all one saw was the scrolling titles, 
>> and the necessary buttons, reduced to a miniaturised interface?
>>
>> Hope this helps in terms of user feedback.  I only suggest it because 
>> Amarok has really got to be my favourite audioplayer and I know that 
>> sorting out the above would certainly enhance my user experience.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> AG
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>>     
Kolja

Thanks - I had seen the announcement of the 2.2 beta release.  I believe 
that it is supposed to be in experimental, but unfortunately, it hasn't 
yet been moved downstream into the testing repos for Debian. 

Patience is a virtue ... :)

AG