Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"If you’re still using iTunes or Windows Media Player you should be ashamed of yourselves. Songbird is one of the most flexible desktop media players or ‘jukeboxes’ you’ll ever use, plus it has a uniquely open approach to Internet digital media network services. What’s so great about Songbird (which is officially still in Beta), is that it’s completely open source and tons of developers are continually creating add-ons and updating features. Bug fixes are sorted quickly too, unlike Apple and Microsoft who generally wait until the next major release of their players."



I use Winamp to play most of my music, and iTunes to organize and synchronize with my iPod, but Songbird looks like it could be a great replacement for both of these players (except that it doesn't support video yet). It appears to have some great "Add-ons" though which add functionality, plus the interface is skinnable and looks very clean. I've tried Songbird in the past and had some problems with persistent crashing, but it might be worth checking out again. The latest version is up to 0.6 alpha, so check it out and post your thoughts on this alternative media player.

"If you're using a consumer grade point-and-shoot Canon digital camera, you've got hardware in hand that can support advanced features way beyond what shipped in the box. With the help of a free, open source project called CHDK, you can get features like RAW shooting mode, live RGB histograms, motion-detection, time-lapse, and even games on your existing camera. Let's transform your point-and-shoot into a super camera just by adding a little special sauce to its firmware."



Ever since I bought a Canon PowerShot SD870 IS, I've been a little disappointed that Canon didn't offer "advanced" features such as the ability to manually set the aperture and shutter speed (you'd think a $300 camera would have these features). But it looks like my disappointment can finally come to an end now that I've discovered CHDK! CHDK (which stands for Canon Hacker's Development Kit) adds manual aperture and shutter speed settings, plus about a thousand (not really) other features. Plus for those of you worried about messing up your factory ROM, don't worry about it, CHDK doesn't overwrite your current firmware. It loads onto a memory card and you choose when to activate it. So what are you waiting for? Unlock the full potential of your Canon P&S! Let us know how it works out for you.