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Songbird 1.0 Released

As everyone would have gathered by now is that I am an open source freak. By the way I'm proud of it.

Given this, I have been keenly following an app called Songbird for a while now. It is a cross-platform music player and library, which can handle playback of most music formats (think iTunes). Conveniently enough it is based on the technology that Firefox utilises (Mozilla-based software), giving it the ability of supporting plugins. These plugins range from supporting music from the iTunes store and syncing with your iPod as well as other mainstream portable media players.

While I mentioned that it is like iTunes, it actually goes further than being a simple music player and library. Being a Mozilla-based app it comes with a built in web browser allowing you to roam the online music world. As you visit websites the app automatically lists available tunes giving the choice to listen to it (streaming) or to download it. Last but not least it can integrate with Last.fm, you can get information on the songs and artists you're playing or even stream similar tunes. My favourite bit is that it supports integration with the SHOUTcast Radio service.

Well... Enough of the sales talk. I am happy to announce that the milestone (and stable) version has been released - version 1.0. It was only just over a month ago that the release candidate was made available.

I just simply love this app and recommend it as a worthy contender to iTunes. Simply because of the fact that it does not slow down your machine and gobble up your resources, which iTunes loves to do. Plus, it supports lots of portable media players.

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