Notices

Beta9 is out in the wild!

May 19th, 2008

Hello people! After a long delay we are back with a slightly bigger update, now even with a smaller team.
We managed to get the two most desired features into this release, but please bare in mind that they are
appearing for the first time, so we will need your help debugging and reporting problems so that we can
iron out the bugs.
Instructions:

Already a Canola user? Just click on the “Check for updates” button in the Application manager and wait for the Beta9 to appear!

Before running Canola, make sure you install all of the Canola related updates.
Most notable changes:

UPnP streaming is here now you can install the plugin that will allow you to browse UPnP capable media services and stream (photo, video, audio) as requested.
Canola is no miracle maker, so make sure that your videos are already in good resolution and your pictures are not insanely big to avoid slow performances over your network.

How to use the UPNP feature in canola2

(1) A new icon with the name “Media servers” will show up at Canola’s home screen as soon as you have installed the UPnP plugin. (2) Inside Media servers, “Search servers” (3 and 4) will let you browse available UPnP devices.

Support for playlist creation! Simply press and hold a song in order to add to the dinamic
“On the Move” playlist later saved as a real playlist if you like. You are able to save as many playlist as you like, as well as edit them. More features will be coming in a near future.

How to use the Playlist feature in canola2

(1) When you enter Canola’s “My music” section your whole song library is at your disposal. (2) If you press and hold a song the song will be added to the “On the Move” playlist. (3) The “On the Move” is found within the “Playlists” section of My music. (4) At the “On the Move” you also able to remove songs from playlists and even save your modified playlist by accessing the options menu.

Tune Canola2 using a new plugin Now you don’t need to use another application for managing cover arts and video thumbnails. The standalone 3rd party Canola Tuning application has been turned into a plugin that integrate seamlessly into Canola and give you more control over your cover arts, video thumbnails by allowing you to update and delete unused cover arts as well as select your cover art sources.

How to download, update Cover Arts and Videos in Canola 2

(1) The cover arts and video thumbnails can be updated simply by accessing an option found in the settings panel. (3) You can even choose your favorite place to download covers. (4) This feature can also be accessed directly from within the album art screen, found in “My music”.

Better List handling, in order to reduce miss clicks during scrolling : Please, let us know if it works better for you. We will keep improving based on your feedback.
Other Additions / Fixes :

- You can now change the volume using the hardware keys on your internet tablet, not just when using the player, but everywhere in Canola.
- Pre-added internet media is added in new installations, which will bring you a nice selection of photocasts, internet radio stations as well as podcasts. Enought to get you started, exploring these features of Canola.
- More stream URIs supported for internet radio, which allows more radio stations to be added.
- An annoying PNG thumbnail bug has been fixed, which should make some of you happy.
- Several dozens of bugs has been fixed during the release cycle, and Canola should be considerable more stable.
- Many interface gliches and corrections were made, resulting in API change. If you are a plugin author, you will need to update your plugin accordantly.

Note: If you have extra themes and plugins installed, make sure to update them as well, at the
Add ons section.
What’s known, and what’s coming:

We already know that UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) support is not top of the notch, so please be kind and share your problems with us, so that this component is able to evolve. Also, we highly suggest you to use streaming optimized media as well a good UPnP server.
We follow Nokia’s recommendation: SimpleCenter. It’s a free download and runs on Windows. If you are on Linux, FUPPES does the job, but you’ll need to organize the shared media to appear as good as possible. Missing points: the media has no thumbnails and it’s not possible to differentiate visually one kind of file from another. So make sure you have organized your contents into distinct folders.

Coming before beta 10:
- Highly improved YouTube plugin; sorted results, support for comments, log in to your account, leave comments etc.

Coming in beta 10:
- FM radio
- Search on lists
- Better list navigations (search, jumps, alphabetical grid)
- Simpler grid for photos and album art, to ease use by allowing alphabetical grouping and to improve speed in some cases