Last week I was asking on Twitter for a decent MP3 player that wasn’t such a resource sucking hog like iTunes. Klumsi recommended a Mozilla based program called Songbird. Songbird is built off the same platform as iTunes, but is optimized to be quicker, more efficient and kinder to a computer’s system resources.

I liked Songbird. Really, REALLY liked it. But there were three quirks that bugged me to the point that I sucked it up and made the switch back to iTunes:

  • The playlist does not scroll to the currently playing song. If you want to view what’s currently playing within the playlist, besides looking at the media player section you’ll need to manually scroll to the exact line.
  • Songbird by default does not minimize to the system tray. A plugin helps it to minimize, but then when it’s brought back up it’s beneath all other windows.
  • Most music players will display what’s currently playing in the title bubble when you hover your mouse over the program name (when it’s minimized to taskbar or tray). Songbird does not do this.

Quirks aside, Songbird IS an excellent media player. Once it’s a bit more stable and ready for the mass public to enjoy, I will probably jump back to it.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

3:41am