SqueezePlay 7.4 Release Notes
From SqueezeboxWiki
From an engineering standpoint, the 7.4 release is the most ambitious release since the initial 7.0 release of Squeezeplay. 7.4 is a significant release in that it marks the expansion of the squeezebox product line based on Squeezeplay/SqueezeOS. It includes support for the new Squeezebox Radio, as well as the groundwork for the upcoming Squeezebox Touch.
Streamlined Setup
There has been significant effort in making the setup process less of a pain than in the past. This included messaging changes, removal of superfluous windows where possible, streamlining the UI flow, and generally making it a quicker process from out-of-the-box to listening to music.
Auto-switch between Squeezebox Server and Mysqueezebox.com
Previous to 7.4, if a user's Squeezebox Server (aka SqueezeCenter) was offline the user was forced to manually change to Mysqueezebox.com (aka SqueezeNetwork). Now when this event happens the user will not experience frustration when accessing e.g. Internet Radio because the server has gone down. Provided the user can reach one of these two sources, the behind-the-scenes switch is seamless.
Multiple Squeezebox Server support in My Music->Switch Library
If a user has more than one server running on their network, switching to the alternative server(s) is easy through My Music->Switch Library.
UI Behavior Changes
The addition of Press-to-play and Context menus represent a significant paradigm shift from previous releases.
Press-to-Play
The default behavior of pushing the center button on a track is now to immediately begin playback of the track. If track N is being viewed in the context of a listing of tracks in e.g. an album, the entire album is added to the playlist and playback jumps immediately to track N.
Visually, playable items that do not have a > symbol are those that now exhibit this behavior.
Context Menus, or "Plus is More"
Context menus are now available on playable items via the + key. Think: Plus is More.
New UI for Controller
While a significant effort was made for the new Squeezebox Radio platform, Squeezebox Controller was not left behind. A major reskin effort was done for the Controller in 7.4, which much of the look-and-feel similar to the new Radio skin.
Introducing Squeezebox Radio
The most significant aspect of 7.4 is the release of the new Squeezebox Radio, a low-cost all-in-one platform for networked audio. Squeezebox Radio has a landscape aspect 320x240 resolution color LCD. With that screen comes a new "skin" to support the radio. Controller and Radio will have very close look-and-feel, particularly because at the code level they share a majority of the graphics and layout.
Alarm Clock
Squeezebox Radio is equipped with an alarm clock feature, similar to Squeezebox Boom but utilizing the enhanced squeezeplay environment.
The time input widget has been reworked for ease of use (Controller also gets this enhancement)
When an alarm fires the user is given options to snooze or cancel.
Introducing Squeezebox Touch (well, a sneak-peak at the SB Touch UI via the desktop...)
The Squeezebox Touch is not shipping until a later release, but a great deal of the UI work is already completed for this platform. This is available for a sneak peek from the Squeezebox Desktop Player (formerly known as Squeezeplay or Desktop Squeezeplay). The Squeezebox Touch will (likely) have two UIs, one for viewing up close (the "3 foot" UI) and one from a distance (the "10 foot" UI). The 3 foot UI is much more hardened at this point so the screenshots here are all from it.\
Home Menu Respin
The home menu organization was audited and reworked to support the 7.4 release, particularly for the App Gallery/My Apps feature.
App Gallery/My Apps
Gone from 7.4 is the Music Services and Extras menus (though Extras can be manually brought back if you are using 3rd party plugins that use it). Replacing this organization is the new "App Gallery" and, for installed applications, "My Apps". In the App Gallery, users can browse through supported extensions to their Squeezebox and install them as desired. Visit http://mysqueezebox.com for detailed information and more support for this feature.
Facebook Support
There is a new Facebook app supported in 7.4, on all platforms including SB Controller. If you are a Facebook user, you can check your News Feed, Wall, and Photos. Facebook photo streams are also available as a screensaver.
New Screensavers
Enhanced Flickr Support
The underlying code for the Flickr screensaver has been completely rewritten (it is now a shared ImageViewer applet that Facebook and future image slideshow apps will use). If you enter your account information at http://mysqueezebox.com and choose to allow Flickr to push your stream to your squeezebox, you can choose to send a variety of photostreams including your own, your friends, tagged photos, special photosets (e.g., "Interesting Pictures") directly to your squeezebox as a screensaver.
An "On Flickr" menu is also available when listening to music, that will display a slideshow of Flickr images tagged with the current artist name. This may not always return relevant images if you are listening to an ambiguously named group such as The Police, but it does a good job most of the time.
The Facebook app described above adds Facebook photo streams to the screensaver options, allowing the user to view their own and others Facebook photo streams.
New Clocks
The clock screensavers have been completely overhauled. There are now three options in 7.4, Analog, Digital, and Dot Matrix. The Digital clock can be rendered with three different backgrounds; default, black and transparent.
Analog
Digital
Dot Matrix
New Default Wallpapers
With the exception of Encore Red (SB Radio only)
The new wallpapers are available on all platforms:
Enhanced Diagnostics
Architectural Improvements
Development on Squeezebox Radio and Squeezebox Touch has resulted in a lot of significant architectural work, including in the networking code (amongst other things, Radio and Touch both support ethernet interfaces) and audio playback (as Radio and Touch are both primarily intended as players not just controllers).
Other Key Bugs Fixed
1956 Auto connect to SqueezeNetwork when SqueezeCenter offline
6334 Add applet for Diagnostics
7079 Power off Jive when the battery is low in suspend mode
7206 More user-friendly sound effects
8129 Controller loses connection to wireless router if you hide SSID
12390 Controller not showing certain album art- reboot required
11898 ShowBriefly can get stuck and block UI
