Banshee 1.5.4 Released

Banshee 1.5.4 has been released, with several new features and 40 bug fixes since 1.5.3. This is a BETA release and the fifth release in preparation for the 1.6 milestone release, which is scheduled at the end of March.


New Features

Opt-In Usage Data Collection

Under Preferences, you can choose to "Improve Banshee by sending anonymous usage data" back to the Banshee developers. This collects information on what version you're running, what OS, library size, slow SQL queries, and a whitelisted subset of your preferences. This information will help us choose better defaults and see what parts of Banshee are used most and can be improved. All collected data is anonymous!

Default Equalizer Presets

Banshee now ships with several equalizer presets, and the core of the equalizer management has seen much internal improvement.

Banshee Community Extensions

A new sub-project named Banshee Community Extensions has been created. Its code is hosted on Gitorious, and its bugs tracked alongside Banshee's. It already contains 9 extensions, including Alarm Clock, Lyrics, and Mirage, and has 15 maintainers. Its releases track Banshee's.

Extensible Shuffle Modes

Extensions can now add new shuffle modes and PlayQueue fill-by modes. The Mirage extension is the first to take advantage of this, adding a Shuffle/Fill-by Similar mode based on acoustical analysis.

Other Enhancements

• Wikipedia context pane extension enabled by default
• Add support for Nokia N900 phones
• Add tooltip to playback error column
• On close Internet Archive item, return to Search
• Notify user if trying to sync missing file to DAP
• Popup explanation of manual playlist ordering when appropriate
• Simplify the default set of columns in Podcasts
• Enable 'Delete From Drive' action in File System Queue
• Make debuggable from within MonoDevelop
• Coverart for unicode artist/albums now supported
• Dropped glade-sharp dep; GNOME 3.0 ready
• Add columns showing track sample rate and bits per sample
• Option to sort an artist's albums by year, not title
• If starting Banshee hidden (--hide), up to half a second of startup time is saved; this is particularly useful in Moblin

More Information
As always, check the release notes for more detailed information, screenshots, and download links. Thanks to everybody who made this release happen!

Source: http://banshee-project.org/download/archives/1.5.4/