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Clementine music player RC adds iPod support, wiiremote control & more

omgubuntu.co.uk — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 09:53:55 +0000

Amarok 1.4 inspired music player Clementine is now in release candidate mode for its forthcoming ‘point 5′ release.

There are considerable bugfixes galore, as Clementine developer Dave informs: -

“There have also been loads of CPU usage reductions and memory leak
fixes, and the startup time has been reduced by more than half.”

As well as a veritable soup of new features, including: -

Device support – iPods, MTP and USB mass storage
Queue manager
Organise Files dialog
Support for using Wiimotes as remote controls
Loading embedded id3v2 cover art
Hypnotoad

Clementine 0.5 RC main window

Download

Clementine 0.5 Release Candidate can be downloaded from the project download at: -

code.google.com/p/clementine-player/downloads/list?q=Release%3DRC

As ever, thanks to zacH

Dan Rabbit’s File browser idea gets revisited, retitled

omgubuntu.co.uk — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:20:00 +0000

It seems like an eternity since we last mentioned Elementary & design demi-god Dan Rabbit’s ‘Dash’ file browser idea.

At the time Dash was both an exciting concept and a project that, unlike so many other great ideas, actually moved from pixels on a .png into usable actuality!

Sadly the progress was relatively short lived and work soon dried up on Dash due, no doubt, to the exponentially increasing popularity of Elementary and it’s associated projects.

Not since deterred Dan has gone back to the drawing board, picked up his Crayola and redesigned file-browsing ideas into something fresher, ‘smoother’ and ever so much prettier.

Meet Marlin.

Banshee 1.7.5 released with improved hardware support

omgubuntu.co.uk — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:35:31 +0000

Grab your portable gadgets, even your iPhone. Banshee 1.7.5 is here with new hardware support and we need YOU to break it (and file bugs if you succeed naturally).

With 1.7.5 you will not just get all new and improved hardware support but also 47 bug fixes. Most notable of these writing metadata to video files is now supported.

Finally 1.7.5 brings support for the MPRIS protocol which amongst other things is used to power the new Sound Indicator in Maverick.

For the complete list of new features and enhancements the official release notes can be consulted.

To test on your Ubuntu install:

Banshee Active Development PPA or the Banshee Daily Build PPA to keep up with Banshee on a daily basis. Though at the time of writing packages have yet to reach these PPAs.

On that wallpaper (you know which one)

omgubuntu.co.uk — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:02:35 +0000

A few days back a new default wallpaper landed in Ubuntu 10.10 and whilst we weren't convinced that this was the final iteration (our own post on it was layered with a questioning tone) the reaction from users has been bombastic, certainly demonstrating that the default wallpaper selection is something held in great esteem by users.

Whilst I'm not a fan of the wallpaper - I still raise an eye brow when I get to the GDM in Maverick - I am sure that this is not the final coating for the Ubuntu 10.10 desktop. Whether that was by design or an after-sight due to the received reaction is neither here nor there, after all we don't normally get given a brand new 'temporary' wallpaper.

As such I will be closing comments on that post and encouraging you all to sit tight ;)

Faenza CoverGloobus Theme

omgubuntu.co.uk — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 01:04:29 +0000

It shameless self-publicity time folks!

Actually, it's been a while since we last featured anything CoverGloobus related. This is partly because, right now, work on adding time-slider and volume support (amongst other things) is going on. Whilst you wait here's a skin I made in a fit of boredom.

Faenza fans on the hunt for a square-y skin for their musical sleeves might like it.

I took a Faenza icon and turned it into a CoverGloobus skin for no other reason than 'why not?'. The result is 'faenzaoobus' and I like it. It is a mite large (250x250) but on my desktop it doesn't look that large. The theme uses .svg's so you can edit the size yourself in the skin.xml and it will remain looking okay.

Download & Installation
Download @ http://d0od.deviantart.com/#/d2xayne

Install by extracting the archive and moving the 'faenzaoobus' folder to the themes folder within the hidden 'CoverGloobus' folder in your Home folder.

Get there quickly: -

ALT+F2
nautilus ~/.CoverGloobus/themes

Want to install CoverGloobus? See here for that.

Chromium’s restyled ‘new tab’ page is minimal win

omgubuntu.co.uk — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:31:00 +0000

With so many visually important Ubuntu updates landing today it was nice to find something else non-Ubuntu related amongst them.

Users of the Chromium Daily Builds may (or may not have depending on level of observation!) a new look 'new tab' page.

The evolution of the Chrome/ium interface is one I really love following - simply because changes often appear when you least expect it!

The new look is, visually at least, easier on the eye. I like being able to collapse any/all of the segments as and when I wish, tucking away the commanding colours of garish thumbnails.

Chromium Daily PPA (experimental & liable to crash)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chromium-daily/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

"Where is it?" – Ubuntu 10.10 Software Centre now tells you where to find your newly installed app

omgubuntu.co.uk — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:26:07 +0000

It is often the little things that have the greatest impact and, as such, consider me thrilled to finally see the 'Where is it?' feature implemented into the Ubuntu Software Centre/Center for Ubuntu 10.10.

What is it?
A massive usability problem for many end users was installing an application via the Ubuntu Software Centre and being left clueless as to where to launch said app from. No more; the Software Centre in Ubuntu 10.10 now tells you exactly where to find an application after installation, a small but incredibly important addition in enhancing the Ubuntu experience for first-time/new users.

Meerkat’s Software Centre gets a background…

omgubuntu.co.uk — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:44:54 +0000

Don't ever say we no longer keep you up-to-date with the trivial: The Ubuntu Software Centre in Ubuntu 10.10 now has a background!

Look nice, non? The background is also displayed when viewing more information on applications, which finally sees the "puke green" installation status bar replaced with a light pastel blue colour.

For comparisons sake here are some shots of the software centre in prior releases...

Lucid Lynx

Karmic Koala

Zeitgeist continues to morph into skynet…

omgubuntu.co.uk — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:58:13 +0000

Everything John Connor fought against in the future is coming to pass.
Well, not quite but as Zeitgeist continues to progress with so many insanely cool contextual meta associations one can't help but fear that it will eventually sprout an AI, build a liquid-metal exo-skeleton and flex it's finger pressing the nuclear self-destruct button - all whilst being able to tell what it was reading, listening to and plotting as it did so!

Zeitgeist + Tomboy

The video below sees Seif Lotfy (of Zeitgeist, Sezen, OMG! fame) show off a Zeitgeist-powered Tomboy plug-in he's been working on .What does it do? Simply put it shows you everything you were doing whilst writing a note - from what you were listening to what you were looking at.

Zeitgeist goes on a date with Tomboy

Terminator effusiveness aside, this small plug-in is pretty neat. The actual usefulness of this specific implementation maybe niche but it testifies clearly to the powerful and translatable flexibility that Zeitgeist totes.

Dying to try it out for yourself? Seif's got instructions and further info over on his blog.

A Beautiful New Banshee Beckons?

omgubuntu.co.uk — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:55:16 +0000

Since this is my first time writing for OMG! Ubuntu! I figured I would start by sharing a little something that excites me.

Namely this mockup Mike Beecham presented in the #banshee IRC channel.

Personally I feel it is a very fresh light take on the default Banshee interface.

So with that, OMG! people, I'm David. I will be bringing you regular doses of Banshee news as well as other assorted articles.

For now I welcome your comments on Mikes work.