Why Songbird will succeed where MM fails

[Guest]

I would prefer something that actually looks like a button.



As you can see in that screenshot, the MM icon is not something you would intuitively click on to bring a menu.

Yes but if it's implemented as an "orb" like in office it could work.


But, yeah something like this would be nice as an option :

[Peke]

Here is my point, if it counts. I hated Office 2007 Button, I liked that I can add commands in Title bar. Office 2010 is much much better

and I like level of customization too


Finally just for note I completely switched to Open Office

[remixedcat]

When I used songbird in linux I thought it was overrated. I liked Amarok better.

I am really liking MM so far in windows and I've been using it for about a week. It's very easy on system resources and I got it to look great. I love how you can use winamp plugins with it. There are a good bit of awesome plugins.

[Dreadlau]

Ribbon is the way to go indeed.

[Guest]

I didn't know office 2010 changed the look of the GUI. I like the new look way better.

[rovingcowboy]

sorry peke but last i heard a few weeks ago there was a survey done for new software in the last year.
and office 2010 was voted worst new application of 2010. that is what they said on the news here.




i for one don't mind the new icon now after a year of looking at it up there in the left corner.
only thing i can find wrong with it is the larger screens have trouble showing it
when it is so small the yellow parts are even smaller.

of course for the buttons wanted in its place i think that if any option not for xp then make them customizable for that list.
so us with xp can remove the options that dont work on xp.

i still don't like the web browser being merged in to monkey its a whole bag of worms being opened and i don't like worms in my system.

[Dreadlau]

of course for the buttons wanted in its place i think that if any option not for xp then make them customizable for that list.
so us with xp can remove the options that dont work on xp.

It is possible to add titlebar controls in XP:

i still don't like the web browser being merged in to monkey its a whole bag of worms being opened and i don't like worms in my system.

Current MM3 version already has an integrated web browser:


What I meant was that now it will be possible to download online contents. Like in this mockup:

[rovingcowboy]

of course for the buttons wanted in its place i think that if any option not for xp then make them customizable for that list.
so us with xp can remove the options that dont work on xp.

It is possible to add titlebar controls in XP:

i still don't like the web browser being merged in to monkey its a whole bag of worms being opened and i don't like worms in my system.

Current MM3 version already has an integrated web browser:

first answer . i don't know but if it is i was thinking it would be better to allow them as customized options to us.

second answer.

thanks for again reminding me how my age is making me forgetful. i did know it can browse online but forgot.

[Peke]

XP Titlebar do not allow adding buttons Some hacks allow it but they also tend to interfere/block Standalone Skinning engines like MMs.

@RovingCowboy
We are talking about GUI, not functionality. Read my Reply little bit closer (HINT: OpenOffice) ;(

[rovingcowboy]

XP Titlebar do not allow adding buttons Some hacks allow it but they also tend to interfere/block Standalone Skinning engines like MMs.

@RovingCowboy
We are talking about GUI, not functionality. Read my Reply little bit closer (HINT: OpenOffice) ;(

oh i seen that now peke.

ya hid it on me all the way at the bottom.

[sirandar]

I have been using MM for a long time now. I am hard pressed to think of anyway to improve it.

The only things I can think of are:

1) Windows 7 is going to be very popular in NA at least. MM3 has some small issues with Win7 that need to be worked out, especially with burning CDs.

2) Tabs may be nice but I personally prefer seeing everything at once, which is very do-able if your monitor is > 19"

3) MM sucks as a sit on the couch and pick music player. You can't see anything from far away. Windows Media Center 7 does this very well. It would be nice to see a WMC7 integration plugin. I would use it even though I never use the WinAMP one.

4) Tagging is great but still too painful when you do a lot of them at the same time. Somekind of template system would be nice. Just right click on the song, scroll down to templates, hover, and then select a template type which applies data all the rating and info fields ( except song, artist , composer). Also you can cut and paste templates.

5) If MM4 intergrates too well with the Internet and ends up forcing on me things I don't want to see, I will stop using the program. As long as I can completely turn it off I am OK with linking to online information. If it is forced on me, that is another thing altogether. I was very upset when I kept opening up Amazon.com because I accidentally clicked the wrong place on my library. This large issue disappered immediately when I turned this off in the settings menu. Unfortunately, when 3rd parties buy access to your fan base, they usually insist on "features" you cannot turn off. I hope MM4 has none of these.

[Sebastian78]

[*] Songbird actually looks like it was made after 2003 (This is why everything Apple sells like crazy)
[*] It's clean look with small borders/sliders and buttons that let the music collection take up more screen space

Have you seen this skin:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.p ... dM's_Skins

Right now, it can't get better than this.

No I haven't seen this, because it's not that easy to find. It's just like Hannah said, finding scripts/themes is a real hassle in MM. But this looks awsome! Thx

[Dreadlau]

Happy to see that another item of the GUI as been improved in MM:
The "whole row highlighting" in the tree panel. see: http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=6558

Now it should be possible to achieve something similar to what shows in this screenshot. ( in green )



Btw looking at this old screenshot I posted.
I notice that in songbird, the now playing track is a lot more identifiable than in MM. Since it has a different color than the rest of the tracks.
(and in the tree the selected item as a different color too)

I recall reading several topics asking to have the ability to change the color of the current playing track.
It would greatly improve the user experience if this was introduced in MM4.

[Lowlander]

I like the music icon as well. I hope these items will be added to skinning for skinners to work with.

[MusicBringer]

I have been using MM for a long time now.

5) If MM4 integrates too well with the Internet and ends up forcing on me things I don't want to see, I will stop using the program. As long as I can completely turn it off I am OK with linking to online information. If it is forced on me, that is another thing altogether. I was very upset when I kept opening up Amazon.com because I accidentally clicked the wrong place on my library. This large issue disappeared immediately when I turned this off in the settings menu. Unfortunately, when 3rd parties buy access to your fan base, they usually insist on "features" you cannot turn off. I hope MM4 has none of these.

I quite agree - control of any Internet links is a Must Have.