Yeah. That’s right. Songbird is finally out of beta and is now on version 1.0! After using it for near enough a year now, possibly the best music player in the whole world is out of beta and I can post a full run down of the features.

Now as the college DJ I have an enormous music library as you would expect. Well no other player I have used has ever handled my music quite so beautifully. Ever! So for those of you who are still using some outdated, inflexable and featureless player like MS Media Player, here is what you are missing out on.

Songbird is an opensource, highly customizable music player that is constantly under development. This means that as soon as there is a cool new feature that could be used, a performance upgrade possible or some other kind of update that could possibly happen, you get it, automatically, as soon as it is safe and stable. No more waiting for MS to get off their arse and release a new version of MS Media Player in a year or two.

Not only does Songbird get updates when there are possible new features but it is free and more importantly, it allows you to browse the web at the same time! Even better is that, should you visit a website that has music on it for download, Songbird will find it and allow you to download it straight into your library and or play it from the site!Songbird uses GStreamer as its main media playback system giving it higher performance, better reliability, and a platform for much more media-related functionality in the future.

When you listen to music in Songbird you’ll have the option to see Flickr photos, YouTube videos, last.fm biographies, google news (and more) for the currently playing artist.

There is an album artwork feature that supports drag and drop of images, as well as, toggling between Now Playing and Currently Selected tracks.

There are some keyboard shortkuts for the power users amoung you.

Smart Playlists that automatically update based on criteria you set.

A new update mechanism ensures that all upgraded users have an option to install the latest Recommended Add-ons. You can turn this feature on/off in the Preferences.

You are able to make Songbird your own by choosing from dozens of different skins feathers.

On top of this, due to this being a Mozilla based product, there are a very generous amount of add-ons to kit out your music experience, tell you when the artist you are listening to are performing nearby and where to get tickets, listen to online radio and much, much more.

Seriously though. This has to be the best music player in the world. There are only a few things I miss from MS Media Player, but these features are coming in the not too distant future. Enjoy it. I know I really do!

Design

Asus X51L Notebook Review

The notebook chassis is a typical for the lower and middle class Asus notebooks, sharp edges, not too thin, not too thick, mostly silver with black around the 15.4″ wide monitor. Simple yet good looking, a much better design than most of the notebooks in this class.

Inside it’s pretty straightforward, a nice keyboard with good response, no keypad which is good because the large touch-pad is placed right in the middle. It’s simplicity is dominating inside also, but the usefulness can be noticed while using it. There are also the hotkey buttons for power up, wireless switch and a power4gear mode switch which are nicely placed on line above the keyboard and have a blue led light in them.

It weights about 6.5lbs (or 2.94kg) with the battery, which is still not bad for a notebook of this class. The length of the legs are not that high, but enough to provide good airflow to cool the Core2Duo processor. What I like about this notebook is that is quite firmly made. The monitor is connected with the chasis with three hindges and there is no way that it can brake with excessive use.

Features

Asus X51L Features

The Asus X51L is equipped with four USB 2.0 ports to connect your camera and download your pictures, connect a mouse, swap file to your flash memory stick or maybe use a notebook stand to cool your it better. It also contains a multi 4 in 1 card reader for SD, MMC, MS and MS Pro to exchange files with a camera or phone. Two jacks for a microphone or headphones are included, a VGA output to transfer the signal to a bigger monitor or a TV maybe if you need to. A PCMCIA slot is included, as well as a 56k modem, don’t know if it is still worth it, but yet you got it if you need to send faxes, and a disappointing 10/100Mbps LAN port instead of 1 Gigabit. The lack of a web-cam is another disappointment for an entertainment oriented notebook.

Under the hood we have a Core2Duo T5450 (1.66GHz) which is quite powerful processor for most applications and games, yet energy saving. An Intel GMA965 graphic card is integrated, which is somewhat low for the T5450 processor and 2GB ram and explains our low 3DMark results, but yet a graphic card which can handle everyday business and home users tasks like wordprocessing software, surfing the web, whatching movies etc. A Super-Multi DVD Burner is also built in, as well as wireless adapter.

Asus X51L Notebook Review Top

The 15.4″ monitor is a glare-type and it can reflect some backlight, but it sure doesn’t reflect as much as other notebooks I have seen. The good side on this is that you will see a much clearer and sharp picture.

Performance

Asus X51L 3DMark06 and 3DMark05

We’ve run the 3DMark06 on the Core2Duo T5450 clocked at 1.66GHz and the score was 376 which is quite low for a processor like the T5450, but since the graphic card is has a great part on the 3DMark results and therefore the low score. The 3DMark05 scored 647 which means that it can run most of the older games smoothly like Silent Hill, Simcity, Warcraft 3 etc. and hardly some of the newer games, maybe if set on minimum details, but it should handle most of the productivity applications with ease.

The battery test also resulted in something lower than the 3 hour advertised, but 2 hours and 34 minutes is still great for a notebook of this class with a 6-cell battery. We’ve put on some background music, with wireless turned on and played some basic games on it like zuma and bejeweld.

The Asus X51L qualifies as stable, well-processed notebook at an affordable price. Vista runs fast, but I do not recommend it since a disk with xp drivers is already included. The notebook is ideal for average home users. For game enthusiasts there are obviously better like the Asus M51Va, but for a higher price. All in all a good buy for the money.

Specifications

Model: Asus X51L-AP164

CPU: T5450 Core2Duo CPU

Graphic Card: Intel GMA965 on board VGA

Memory: 2GB RAM

Hard Disk: 250GB Sata

Optical Drive: Super Multi DVD-RW

Communication: WLAN b/g standard, LAN 10/100Mbps, 56k Modem

Battery: 6 Cell Battery

Display: 15.4′ LCD Glare-type

Ports: 4 x USB 2.0, 4-in-1 Card Reader, Mic/Headphones jacks, VGA Output, PCMCIA

“create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.”

Now I could ramble on about what you can do and about the amazing technology in the amazing laptops that this project has produced but, to be honest that is not what I am like. I give you my point of view and a little bit of info mixed in with it. This I have done, however I beg of you. Please support this project and learn more about it, and the way it can help by visiting laptop.org. Thank you for reading this Blog Action Day 2008.

This is our first review. All kinds of comments, opinions and suggestions are greatly appreciated and mostly welcomed.

Acer Aspire One vs MSI Wind U100 vs Asus Eee PC 701

We managed to get our hands on two of the currently three available netbooks with the new Intel Atom processor, MSI Wind U100 and Acer Aspire One. We decided to compare the predecessor of them all, the Asus EEE PC 701 which came out in December 2007. Being an older and more of an experimental model, it is obvious that it is slightly out of the league, but we simply wanted you to see the difference and understand what is so revolutionary about these new models coming up.

On first look it is quite noticeable that the MSI Wind U100 is the biggest of them all, but the compromise on that is it carries a 10″ display, a nice large keyboard and they even managed to put some big air vents to carry away the excess heat. Even though the Intel Atom Processor heats much less than the Intel Celeron of the Asus EEE PC 701, MSI decided to implement their own hardcore tool even to this little guy, the Turbo Drive Engine Technology which overclocks the Intel Atom N270 from 1.6GHz to 1.9GHz (UPDATE: The Turbo Feature is no more, read on to find out more) .

The Acer Aspire One has a 8.9″ display, but that extra 1.1″ doesn’t really make a difference because it has the same resolution as the MSI 1024×600 and have in mind that mobility is the key factor we are after, so with smaller size it fits better on a train or plane table for example. Again we have large keys, with better layout than the MSI, and Acer have built-in two card readers, so you can put one 16GB SD flash card for example which will make your total space 120GB+16GB=136GB if you really need more space, and use the other card reader to transfer your pictures or any data from your camera, but I still find the lack of Bluetooth a little imprudent.

The Asus EEE PC 701 or also known as Asus EEE PC 4G Surf or 8G Surf. It’s about 6 months older than the previous two, and it’s the first model which announced the netbooks era. So according to me it is kind of a test model into this sort of PCs. But considering the much lower price, with its solid-state-drive for storage and much smaller size it can still compete with those other two little beasts.