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Foobar2000 posts

Filed under: Audio, Utilities

Foobar2000 v1.0 Beta -- holy crap, it's finally here!

Believe it or not, almost 7 years after its initial release, the Foobar2000 v1.0 Beta is finally out, and with it comes a large list of changes. Most of them are much-needed interface fixes, but there is the welcome addition of built-in support for the streaming of Windows Media formats (ASX/MMS/RTSP). Other than that, it's much of the same.

Foobar2000, if you were wondering, is a very light-weight music player. It's incredibly flexible thanks to its modular design and fully-featured developer kit. There are mods and plug-ins for Foobar that make it one of the most useful music players: if you're the kind of music buff that likes downloading 'quadrophonic gold remastered' albums in AC3 format from Torrent sites, then Foobar is the music player for you. If you have a large MP3 (or FLAC, AAC, MP4...) music collection and simply want to listen to it, Foobar is also the one for you.

There's all the usual functionality there too, like ripping CDs or fixing ID3 tags. My personal favourite is the keyboard shortcuts that you can set to work globally -- so even if you're playing a game like World of Warcraft, you can skip and pause your music using a finger-breaking keyboard shortcut. Handy. There's also a neat Windows 7 shell integration plugin, if you're fortunate enough to be using Foobar2000 AND Windows 7!

If you're one of those old boring types that's still using the antiquated WinAmp, or you're using the slow-and-disgustingly-bloated iTunes, give Foobar2000 a go -- you'll be surprised at just how good it is.

Official download (torrent) / MajorGeeks direct download (seems link was broken -- fixed now)

Filed under: Audio, Features, Windows, Macintosh, Linux

iTunes Alternatives

iTunes Alternatives
As the comment section from our recent post about the latest iTunes update shows, not everyone is in love with iTunes. Especially for Windows users, the program can be buggy, hog memory/system resources and it tries to force users to organize and store their music in a certain way (hey, some of us have very specific, if a bit arcane, organizational methods and we don't want iTunes to force us to put everything in "My Music" in artist/album folders).

The program's strength lies with its perfect integration with the iPod and the iTunes Store (which for all intents and purposes, IS iTunes the application). So what do you do if you don't like iTunes - but still want a program that will easily (and reliably) work with your iPod? We've scoured the web and found the best iTunes alternatives, both for music and iPod management for Windows, Linux, and yes, even some OS X alternatives.

Here at DownloadSquad, we like software to be free - especially if it is replacing another free program - and almost every utility or program we mention is free or has a free version available.

Read more →

Filed under: Audio, Windows, Freeware

Foobar 2000 - alternative audio player for Windows

Foobar 2000 audio playerIf you're not happy with your options for playing audio content in Windows, like Windows Media Player, iTunes or WinAmp, you might be interested in trying Foobar 2000. Foobar 2000 is "an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include full unicode support, ReplayGain support and native support for several popular audio formats.", although rather than tout it as an advanced player, I think it would be more accurate to pitch it as a pared down player that does what it does well. You're not going to get the glitz of the other media players mentioned, but Foobar does include support for add-in components, so its functionality can always be built upon.

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