Banshee 1.5.3 will be released this coming Wednesday and will see a number of new features introduced, some of which users have longed for!
New Features
Here’s an exclusive OMG! run-down of what you can expect to find tucked inside this latest release –
Syncing play-lists to your iPods, etc
Aside from manually adding/removing files from your portable media device you can now choose to sync ‘smart’ play-lists, allowing you to specify the size limit, types of tracks to populate the play-list with (such as ‘most often played’ or ‘favourites’, etc ).
Library-folder watching
A long requested feature – already present in Rhythmbox – has been the ability for Banshee to watch your libraries’ folders for added, renamed, or deleted files and updating Banshee accordingly. Well – it’s here! (Although you have to enable it via the Extensions menu)
Cover art & Cover art editing
You can now view cover art in the lower-left corner of Banshee, as is standard in many music players from Songbird to iTunes. Banshee 1.5.3 also adds the ability to edit this artwork either by drag n’ dropping new artwork into the corner or via right-click.
Type-ahead lets you find track, artist, and album lists quickly
Described as “An alternative to filtering” type-ahead find jumps you to the first
track that matches your query. Activate using SHIFT+/ combination and type away. Press F3 to jump to the next match.
Audiobooks Library Extension
The Banshee team are calling it a “rough first version” but it’s pretty awesome for a first version. This extension sorts your books from your music.
eMusic importer/downloader extension
This release also sees Banshee gain support for the (Google) Nexus One!
Banshee 1.5.3 will be available to download this Wednesday @ banshee-project.org