[Kde-extra-gear] Announcing the second beta release of amaroK 1.3 - "Silly Hat"

[Greg Meyer]

No, the amaroK devs are not off enjoying the summer.  They have put on their 
silly hats to shield them from the sun (or the winter cold as is currently 
necessary for team members located in the southern hemisphere) and are hard at 
work creating the next version of amaroK.


Highlights

  * The new Helix engine now has support for visualizations
  * A queue manager has been added
  * Enhancements to the Smart Playlist functionality
  * Scripts can now add menu items to the playlist context menu
  * The playlist filter has advanced search capability using Google-like
    search syntax
  * Optimization to the default block analyzer, greatly reducing cpu usage
  * Lot's of bugfixes


Full Changelog since beta1:
  FEATURES:
    * Support for "media:" URLs. Patch by Sergio Cambra <sergio at ensanjose.net>
      (BR 102668)
    * Support for visualizations in the Helix engine.
    * Queue manager to help organise your queued tracks. (BR 90594)
    * Ability to create Smart Playlists based on file path. (BR 92467)
    * Per track scripting via custom playlist context menu items.
    * Added advanced, Google-esque syntax to the playlist filter. Lets you do
      things like artist:sirenia, "pink floyd", artist:"pink floyd", or even
      score:>50. When just typing words, it works as before. (BR 99312)

  CHANGES:
    * Upgraded included SQLite library to version 3.2.2.
    * Bumped GStreamer and GStreamer-plugins dependency to version 0.8.6.
    * aKode-engine has been disabled (too buggy/incomplete).
    * Repopulate upcoming tracks on demand when using dynamic mode.
    * Remodel the playlist browser to incorporate dynamic mode more fully.

  BUGFIXES:
    * Don't show textual URLs in Wikipedia Tab. (BR 108031)
    * Don't refresh the collection view on update scans, if nothing changed.
    * xine-engine: Don't pop up hundreds of error messages when something
      goes wrong. Patch from John Lash <jlash at speakeasy.net> (BR 101646)
    * Automatic theme download with KNewStuff works now. (BR 107313)
    * Clicking on "Lookup track at musicbrainz" use %2520 for spaces in URL.
      (BR 107946)
    * Crash when loading dynamic playlists without a collection.
    * Crash when saving smart playlist without a collection.
    * Do not call TagLib::MPEG::File for non-mpeg files - some FLAC files
      would cause the CPU to start running in circles. (BR 107029)
    * Many Helix engine improvements.
    * Crash when dragging playlist items into Playlist Browser. (BR 107709)
    * Improved context display when playing radio streams with xine-engine.
    * Number of album tracks was incorrect when showing statistics by album.
      (BR 107762)
    * Massive performance speedup for the default analyzer (BlockAnalyzer).
    * Dynamic mode will grab tracks from closed playlists.
    * Covermanager tooltips were persistent even when window closed. Tooltips
      have now been replaced with statusbar text. (BR 106976)
    * Turning off dynamic mode when items were filtered only 're-enabled' the
      visible items.
    * Disable random mode on startup if dynamic mode is on. (BR 107311)
    * The user is warned if saving tags failed. (BR 91568)
    * Sub-Folders in Playlist Browser are correctly saved and restored.
    * Crash after clicking on remove playlists in dynamic mode.
    * Crash on Context Menu in dynamic mode.

The amaroK team
---------------

amaroK is a soundsystem-independent audio-player for *nix. Its interface uses 
a powerful "browser" metaphor that allows you to create playlists that make 
the most of your music collection. We have a fast development-cycle and 
super-happy users. We also provide pensions and other employment-benefits.

"Easily the best media-player for Linux at the moment. Install it now!"
    - Linux Format Magazine

WWW:  http://amarok.kde.org
WIKI: http://amarok.kde.org/wiki
IRC:  irc.freenode.net #amarok
MAIL: amarok-devel at lists.sourceforge.net

-- 
Greg