Songbird takes wing

Here is something interesting. Basically, Songbird is a music/video player built on the same platform as Firefox, Thunderbird, and others (I recommend Firefox and Thunderbird heartily), that functions "like a specialized browser for music and video".

The preview release, which I have tried out briefly, is pretty limited in functionality. That is, it won't replace Winamp (or any of the other players) anytime soon. Overall, I like the concept, though I couldn't find any way to configure the thing. (Rats!) Specifically, I could not get it to work through the proxy server at work. Stay tuned; I will try it at home and report what I find. It's also not devoid of bugs, as I was able to crash it fairly easily. That said, go easy on these guys: this is release 0.10--what did you expect?

Of course, it does play music, though it took forever to scan the 700 songs on my itty-bitty USB hard drive. (Seagate 5 GB portable hard drive, super cool!) I suspect the speed of the drive (or lack thereof) was a factor, but I note that Winamp scans this drive in a fraction of the time. Regardless; whatever, etc., I'm not complaining.

I really want to try this puppy out at home where I can access the web more ... directly, to see what coolness it adds. Stay tuned.