I've had my Android phone for nearly four months now, and I thought it might be a good idea to run through my idea of essential applications.

These are all available through the Android Market. Some are free, and some are not. I've only given brief descriptions here. For more information, follow the external links at the end of the entry.

NewsRob

This is an application I use everyday and probably earns the title of My Favourite Application.

It's a news reader that connects to and synchronises with Google Reader. This means that whatever feeds are setup in Google are accessible via the Android Handset. By default, only feeds with unread items are displayed. If a news article is read on the handset, NewsRob synchronises that with Google Reader ensuring that other readers (on the PC, or via reader.google.com for example) show the same.

The application can be set to synchronise at a specific interval, and can be told what to download to the phone. With my setup for example, I have most feeds set to download their full content so that I don't have to rely on an internet connection to view them. However, I have a few feeds (such as BBC News) set to also automatically download the associated web page. Now I can read BBC News even when I don't have an internet connection! Sheer genius!

My Tracks

Another extremely useful application is My Tracks. This is a google application, but does not come installed by default on the T-Mobile G1.

The basic idea is to record routes. Using a GPS signal, My Tracks records the location of the phone handset at set intervals. When recording is finished, the points are plotted as a route which is overlaid on to Google Maps. Not only that, but data such as total time taken, total time moving, speed, distance and elevation are all recorded. With elevation, a graph can also be displayed.

After recording, details about the route (title, description, method of travel) can be saved and the entire thing uploaded to Google Maps for either private or public viewing. My Tracks will also export basic data (title, description, latitude, longitude, elevation, timestamp) to a GPX file for use in other applications.

For me, I use that GPX file to upload data to this website which can then be displayed on my public map. I also intend to use it to automatically geocode my photographs.

Feasibly, the application could also be used in personal training although there are applications available specific to that need.

Twidroid

Twidroid is a client that connects to a Twitter or Identi.ca account. Like a news feed reader, it can poll the service after a set interval and will alert users to new tweets or dents, and allow them to be read and replied to. New messages can also be posted, removing the need to visit the service's website from the handset.

Audible alerts can sound as well as an icon in the notification bar and a blinking light on the handset.

Twitta

This is similar to Twidroid but only for Twitter. Since this and Twidroid can only subscribe to one account, I use Twidroid for monitoring Identi.ca, and Twitta for monitoring my Twitter account.

ConnectBot

This is an SSH client for Android. I use it for maintaining my webserver when away from my computer or if I just want to ensure that the software is up-to-date with patches. Use of the QWERTY keyboard makes this very easy to use but I'd imagine there'd be difficulty using it with a device lacking such hardware.

Last.fm

3G network connections now support a sufficiently high data rate to the mobile phone handset to permit audio streaming. The last.fm application can access 'radio stations' from your last.fm profile - such as Recommended, Neighbourhood and Tag. Basic profile information is also visible.

Audio quality is high and is certainly good enough for listening through headphones on the bus. However, a stable good quality 3G connection is required. Any signal drop outs will lead to buffering or disconnections.

StreamFurious

Here's another streaming audio application. This one allows connection to MP3 Shoutcast streams.

For most cases, 3G is required which will support streams of up to 320kbps. Only for the very lowest quality audio (24kbps) will GPRS be sufficient.

Shazam

This is a piece of software that has truly amazed me. By listening to a sample of a song, it can often identify the track that's playing. I've used this on adverts before and it's worked a treat, as long as there are no other sounds.

In noisy environments, or when an audio track is the background in a soundtrack then it doesn't work.

OI Shopping List

This really is what it says - a shopping list.

Instead of writing the weekly shop on the back of an old envelope, it can be typed into this application. When doing the shopping, tapping on the item will tick it off from the list.

Shopping lists can be saved and re-ordered. The ticked items can be moved to the bottom of the list, or remain where they are but grayed out. There are also a few different styles to the interface.

ShopSavvy

Although I don't use this a lot, I really like the idea and have found it useful before.

By using the camera, this software is able to read barcodes which can be found on nearly every product in high street shops. Once the product is scanned, the application then searches to find the cheapest store.

Not only do internet stores get searched, but thanks to location detected ShopSavvy also searches the prices of high street stores potentially saving money if a competitor has the same product but cheaper than the store you are in.

ShopSavvy also stores a history of products, which I've found useful for saving ideas for presents.

CellFinder

The final application in my list is not one that has a great deal of uses but can be interesting in a geeky way. CellFinder will show the location of the mobile phone tower that the handset is currently connected to, and the handset's position in relation to it. Other data such as the tower's identification and signal strength is also displayed.

I'm sure there are genuine reasons for finding out this information, but for me it is just geeky interest.

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Tags: reviews, gadgets, android

Sad news today as people awoke to the news that pop superstar Michael Jackson died from a cardiac arrest.

However, from watching and reading news articles throughout the day, I have come to the conclusion that many people simply overreact to this kind of news.

Television showed images of distraught fans who appeared to be inconsolable, but these aren't people who knew him personally. They are simply fans and I don't understand how anyone can get so upset over someone they don't know. Plus it's not as if his career was in full swing.

Of course I'd expect friends and family to be upset and I do feel for them, but those who are simply just fans really ought to pull themselves together.

This is nothing new though. Similar reactions were seen at the death of other stars such as Elvis, John Lennon and Princess Diana. I just think it's a shame that people react this way.

Interestingly, last.fm has published a graph showing the number of times Michael Jackson tracks were listened to on and hour-by-hour basis and there is an almost vertical spike as people learned the news.

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Tags: music, opinion

Tomorrow morning at 6am marks the official start of Heart Essex - the new name for the station formerly known as Essex FM, and Essex Radio before it.

It's not just Essex FM that is disappearing. Local stations up and down the country are receiving the re-brand treatment. For many, it's already happened. For the remaining few, the transition is completed tomorrow morning. As an example, other stations include Invicta FM, Ocean FM, Southern FM, 2CR, Buzz 97.1, Champion 103, Coast 96.3 and Marcher Sound.

This means that 33 stations now carry the well known brand. 33 stations will carry more networked programming and have decreased local output. According to The Guardian there will be 14 hours per day of networked content.

I will mourn the loss of the once local brands, but not too much. It's been a long time since Essex FM at least was a truly local station. Many times, when driving around England, have I tuned through the car radio and received the same programmes throughout the journey. Now, thanks to this re-brand, it will feel almost like one of the national stations.

The saving grace for localness comes in the form of breakfast shows and local programming between 1pm and 7pm. News is suffering though, with local opt-outs only between the hours of 6am-9am and 4pm-6pm.

I hope that local radio will be revived in the coming years as the switch to digital radio gathers pace. With the plan for major FM stations to broadcast solely on DAB around 2015, the vacated FM space will hopefully encourage new local and community stations.

So, although the brand Essex FM has already disappeared from the airwaves* I say now goodbye to the station that captured my interest in broadcast radio.


* There is now no official name - just a mention that Heart is coming. Tomorrow morning, from 6.

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Tags: broadcasting, radio

With the publication of Lord Carter's Digital Britain report comes the plan to switch off analogue radio by 2015. The plan is for FM stations to move to DAB vacating the VHF spectrum for ultra-local broadcast services. The MW spectrum would be vacated by those stations moving to DAB too or if they are ultra-local stations, then on to FM

This means that in the not-to-distant future, UK MW broadcasts will cease. It's unclear if this also affects LW and SW.

I find it quite sad that one of the oldest and simplest forms of radio broadcasting will soon be no more. Granted, audio quality isn't great (but it's fine for speech) and it's not as efficient as a digital signal, but the resilience for analogue radio is very important. Enthusiasts will know that usually a MW signal will travel far further than an VHF signal and that a receiver can be built from very few components cheaply and easily. This will surely mean an end to crystal sets.

There is a big issue over the equipment that will be left behind. There must be millions of MW and FM radios that will become pretty much obsolete come switch-over. This isn't like television where a converter can be plugged in - many of these devices will be car radios, table top sets and walkmen. All becoming useless. And what about the cost of replacement equipment? Digital radios are still more expensive than analogue equivilent. The battery life isn't as good either.

Overall, I think it'll be a sad day for broadcast radio when this switchover happens.

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Tags: broadcasting, radio

It's taken me a long time to get a standards compliant RSS feed of my blog available simple because I didn't know how to do it. Two days ago I discovered how, and realised it really wasn't that hard.

The Aim - Compliant RSS

The first thing to do before trying to create the required XML, is to look at the structure of a feed so that we know what the finished article will look like;

<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  <channel>
    <atom:link href="http://www.example.com/rss/feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
    <title>Feed Title</title>
    <link>http://www.example.com</link>
    <description>A description of the feed</description>

    <item>
      <title>Article title</title>
      <guid>http://www.example.com/article?id=1234</guid>
      <link>http://www.example.com/an-interesting-story/</link>
      <description>The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.</description>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

Above is an example of RSS. We can break this down into two main parts. The first part describes the feed itself. This is the part ending with </description>, just before the <item> tag.

The second part, commencing with <item> and ending with </item> is one of the articles contained within the feed. These item tags are repeated for each article. In my blog, I have 10 <item> tags, describing the last 10 blog entries on my site.

PHP Code

So let's move away from the actual XML code for the time being and focus on getting the data from MySQL. At this point I'm assuming that you know about MySQL and have an appropriate populated database. If not, get searching on the internet to find out about how to get this first.

This is an example of completed PHP code:

<?php
header("Content-Type: application/xml; charset=ISO-8859-1");

$server  = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx";						
$dbuser  = "username";	
$dbpass  = "password";
$dbname  = "database";
$conn = mysql_connect( $server, $dbuser, $dbpass, TRUE ) or die(mysql_error()));
$rs   = mysql_select_db( $dbname, $conn ) or die(mysql_error()));

$sql = 'SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY date DESC LIMIT 10';
$rs = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error());
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($rs))
	{
	$uid = $row[0];
	$title = $row[1];
	$description = $row[2];
	$urltitle = $row[3];

	$output .= '<item>';
	$output .= '<title>' . $title . '</title>';
	$output .= '<guid>http://www.example.com/article?id=' . $euid . '</guid>';
	$output .= '<link>http://www.example.com/' . $urltitle . '/</link>';
	$output .= '<description>' . $description . '</description>';
	$output .= '</item>';
	}
?>

NOTE: All PHP code should start with <?php and end with ?>

The line beginning "header..." is of critical importance, and the reason why I didn't figure out that RSS could be done this way for so long. It tells the browser what sort of file it is. By leaving it out, the browser will just take it as a PHP file but by putting this line before any other output ensures it is treated as XML.

PHP Code - Connecting to the Database

The next four lines set four variables - $server, $dbuser, $dbpass and $dbname. These will store the logon details for the MySQL database. $server is the IP address of the server. $dbuser is your username. $dbpass is your password and $dbname is the name of the database.

The next two lines deal with actually making the connection to the database.

Now, ideally these six lines (repeated below for clarity) should not be placed within the feed file. They should be stored in a second PHP file located in a non public area of your website and referenced by using the include() command in the main PHP script.

$server  = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx";						
$dbuser  = "username";	
$dbpass  = "password";
$dbname  = "database";
$conn = mysql_connect( $server, $dbuser, $dbpass, TRUE ) or die(mysql_error()));
$rs   = mysql_select_db( $dbname, $conn ) or die(mysql_error()));

PHP Code - Querying the Database

Now we have a connection to MySQL, we can query the database. In layman's terms - we're getting the data out from the server so that we can place it into the RSS feed.

$sql = 'SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY date. DESC LIMIT 10';
$rs = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error());

First we assign our SQL query to a variable - in this case $sql. The query shown tells MySQL to look at the table named 'table', and give us all of the fields within that table (*) ordered by date in descending order (that is, newest first) with a limit of 10 records.

The second line executes the query, but we can't access the data directly at this point.

PHP Code - Getting to the Data

The next block of code is quite a big one. This is a loop that takes the results of the query and goes through them one by one. So, in this example, the code will loop 10 times.

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($rs))
	{
	$uid = $row[0];
	$title = $row[1];
	$description = $row[2];
	$urltitle = $row[3];

	$output .= '<item>';
	$output .= '<title>' . $title . '</title>';
	$output .= '<guid>http://www.example.com/article?id=' . $euid . '</guid>';
	$output .= '<link>http://www.example.com/' . $urltitle . '/</link>';
	$output .= '<description>' . $description . '</description>';
	$output .= '</item>';
	}

The first line in this block sets the conditions of the loop. It is important to note the brackets ({ }) in this block of code. The code that will be looped through starts with an open bracket, and ends with a close bracket.

Each field can be referenced through the variable $row. $row[0] is the first field, $row[1] the second and so on. The first 4 lines in the looping block of code assign friendly names to these variables.

We now (finally) get to building a section of XML - the <item></item> block. The six lines commencing with $output all assign data to that variable. Notice the dot before the equals sign. This means that data is appended to the variable, so that by the time the 6th line has finished, $output contains all the data within the <item></item> block.

By the time this code has finished looping (10 times in this example), $output will contain multiple <item></item> blocks. We are now ready to put it into the XML.

After the PHP code - the XML file

Now, the XML data needs to be put into the file. This must start after the closing PHP tag ?>.

<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  <channel>
    <atom:link href="http://www.example.com/rss/feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
    <title>Feed Title</title>
    <link>http://www.example.com</link>
    <description>A description of the feed</description>
		
    <?php echo $output ?>
  </channel>
</rss>

This is pretty similar to the code shown right at the beginning of these instructions. The only difference here is the presence of the line <?php echo $output ?> instead of any <item></item> tags. This is because those <item></item> blocks are contained within the PHP variable $output. This new line simply echos (or displays) the contents of that variable. Therefore when the client software reads the file, it will see the full XML and identify it as RSS.

The entire file

The entire completed file will look something like this:

<?php
  header("Content-Type: application/xml; charset=ISO-8859-1");

  $server  = "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx";
  $dbuser  = "username";	
  $dbpass  = "password";
  $dbname  = "database";

  $conn = mysql_connect( $server, $dbuser, $dbpass, TRUE ) or die(mysql_error()));
  $rs   = mysql_select_db( $dbname, $conn ) or die(mysql_error()));

  $sql = 'SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY date DESC LIMIT 10';
  $rs = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error());

  while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($rs))
    {
    $uid = $row[0];
    $title = $row[1];
    $description = $row[2];
    $urltitle = $row[3];

    $output .= '<item>';
    $output .= '<title>' . $title . '</title>';
    $output .= '<guid>http://www.example.com/article?id=' . $euid . '</guid>';
    $output .= '<link>http://www.example.com/' . $urltitle . '/</link>';
    $output .= '<description>' . $description . '</description>';
    $output .= '</item>';
    }
?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  <channel>
    <atom:link href="http://www.example.com/rss/feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
    <title>Feed Title</title>
    <link>http://www.example.com</link>
    <description>A description of the feed</description>

    <?php echo $output ?>
  </channel>
</rss>

Changing the name from feed.php to feed.xml

You may consider that providing a feed URL ending in PHP doesn't look quite right. A rule can be written in the configuration file of the Apache webserver that states that accessing feed.xml translates to accessing feed.php. The user will see feed.xml, but the server will provide feed.php.

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Tags: php, coding

As soon as I posted my last message about the revamp, I decided to add a couple more features.

Firstly, I finally decided to implement an RSS feed of the blog. This is now available through the RSS icon beneath each blog entry. I'll probably develop this further so that a feed of each tag is available - effectively creating lots of mini blogs.

Secondly, I have also added a few further icons beneath each blog entry to allow bookmarking and sharing through some popular sites. I'll add to these as time goes on with other sites too.

Now I really do think that's it for now.

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Tags: this website

Today, after months of coding (on-and-off), I have launced version 8 of my website. The old site was only a little more than a year old, but I was already bored of it so a fresh new look was needed. More than that though, new features have been added, bringing it up-to-date. Here's a list of what's changed, been removed and been added:

1. No more tables. That's it - they're gone completely (at last)!

2. That means a full CSS controlled page layout.

3. The 10 latest blog entries are available in full on the front page - not just the first paragraphs of these entries

4. Javascript is used to show/hide comments and additional information within the blog page meaning it doesn't need to be reloaded when these links are clicked.

5. Nicer URLs e.g., blog URLs are now made up of their date and title rather than a reference number. However, old reference number URLs do still work.

6. Better compliance with HTML standards. Most pages will now validate as HTML 4.01 Transitional. A few old blog entries may still show small errors but all new entries should be compliant since I am not permitting HTML within entries anymore (I have a BBCode style implementation for minor formatting like this list).

7. The 'About' section is now in blog entries making the section easier to update and including it in daily backups.

8. A new section: 'Microblog' is now available, pulling data from my Identi.ca RSS feed. This could potentially also include a Twitter feed should I start using that separately from Identi.ca.

9. The way browsing is done within the Music Library has changed. Users must select the letter of the artist being looked for from a drop down list. Javascript functionality allows users to drill down through listed artists, to their albums and then tracks within that album without reloading the page. Track information is displayed in a popup window and contains more detail than before.

10. The map icons have been changed to transparent crosshair icons. Only visited locations are now on show

11. When browsing links, more information about that link can be displayed by clicking on the expand button. This may be developed further to include links to blog entries referencing that link.

12. The Contact form is available on every page. Initially hidden, it will become visible upon clicking the 'Contact' link thanks to Javascript.

13. Quick links to other websites where I have a presence are available under the 'Elsewhere On The Web' link

14. The Search function has been dramatically improved; searching more areas of the site. All results are put into a temporary database table allowing different orders (e.g., order by published date descending or result type ascending). The Music Library can also be searched by artist, album, track, tag, year or lyrics.

15. Small graphics are used to enhance the visual appearance such as the search field and button, the background of page headers, other buttons.

16. The Photography and Amateur Radio sections have been removed in preparation for them getting their own sites.

I think that's a pretty comprehensive list. I do believe it's a big step forward for my little site which has also had a small rebrand - it's called Ben Gamblin Central now, instead of Ben Gamblin Online. The idea being that all of my profiles around the internet link back here and vice-versa. Things aren't completely finished. I want to develop the Microblog section so that data is permanently saved in the database rather than just what is available on the RSS feed being shown. New sub-sites will be developed to bring back the Photography and Amateur Radio sections too.

The question now is: will I still like this version of the site in a year's time, or will I change it again?

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Tags: this website

With the news that 7 million people in Britain have been illegally downloading files, I started thinking about what could be done to make purchasing digital media more attractive. Since the only media I download is music, that's where my ideas are focused although I'm sure some of these thoughts could be applied to films too.

Before going any further, I should clarify my position. I don't download music from illegal sources. Personally, I like to know that my music collection is 100% above board and legal. Call it being obsessive if you like, but if I had even one illegal file in my collection it would spoil the whole thing and bother me until I deleted it. The temptation however has been there. If I want just one song from an artist and I can't get it through my usual stores then the thought does cross my mind.

Availability

That leads to my first thought - availability of content. We all know that iTunes has the largest collection of digital music available on the net, but for whatever reason plenty of people cannot or will not use that store. That could be down to their choice of operating system, or perhaps they cannot play the AAC files on their choice of digital music player. These people have to choose stores such as 7Digital, Amazon, Play.com etc. which whilst having a good collection, do not stock everything. There are still artists who do not release their music as downloads, and others who will not permit single track downloads.

In my opinion, by not making a track or album available in a digital store, downloaders are encouraged to seek out alternative sources for downloading this music. Other than buying the CD they have no choice. People are getting used to being able to get digital media now. Not waiting for a CD to be delivered in 2 days time, but waiting for the download in 2-5 minutes time.

Audio Quality

A majority of stores are offering music downloads in the MP3 format - a lossy format. In addition, most stores are offering MP3s at less than the maximum bitrate.

Although most people would be pushed to tell the difference between an MP3 at 256kbps versus a CD, should the downloader wish to convert the MP3 to an alternative format, further audio quality will be lost.

Downloads need to start being offered in lossless formats (FLAC is my choice). Yes the downloads are bigger, but the quality is identical to a CD. That FLAC can be kept as a master in the sameway that I have my CDs as masters. MP3 files can be created from the lossless file. Then in years to come should the MP3 go out of fashion, a new file can be created with no further loss in quality.

Of course, many consumers would not be aware of how to make the lossless file compatible with their music players by converting it to MP3, so this should be an option. When downloading the music files, purchasers should have the choice between lossless and MP3.

Pricing and Business Models

A big deterrent to downloading music legally is price. With a new CD album costing say £8.99 online, why should anyone download an album for £7.99? Obviously there are cost implications at the store in terms of file storage and bandwidth, but the consumer will only consider that they are getting a non-physical product with no jewel case, disc or artwork. Many will know that the audio quality is inferior to a CD. Because of this, consumers (myself included) will resent paying approximately the same cost of a CD particularly when so many albums will end up on sale in a few months and available for £5.00.

Single track downloads should be no more than 60p each, with albums costing no more than £5.00. For an average album, this will still encourage album sales as the cost per track will be lower (35-50p each depending on the number of tracks in the album).

Further attention should be given to online stores which operate a subscription model. The subscriber pays a certain amount per month which permits a limited number of downloads, which can be kept should the subscriber cease their subscription. This is the model that eMusic follows. As the number of downloads do not roll over each month, if a subscriber does not download the entitlement, then all the better for the store. Track costs should top out at 40p - cheaper than normal to encourage a subscription.

Downloadable Extras

As part of the cost of buying a CD, the purchaser gets not only the music but album artwork and liner notes. These should not cease just because there is no longer a physical product.

Downloaders should be given the choice to purchase album art in a high resolution PNG or JPG file and liner notes in a PDF file. The downloader can use these on the computer, or print out the artwork when burning an audio CD to create a nice product to go on the shelf.

Note that I don't expect these to be free. Downloading both files can add an extra £1.00 on to the cost of an album, netting stores, record companies and musicians extra income.

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Tags: music, downloading

It occurs to me, nearly one week on, that I haven't written about this year's Eurovision Song Contest; held in Moscow.

Sadly, since it's been a few days I don't think I'll be able to comment on perhaps some of the more obscure acts of the contest. Saying that however, I don't recall it being an overly bizarre event.

Perhaps I have just established some kind of mental block, eliminating the poor and shameful acts from my consciousness but I do believe that the Eurovision Song Contest is becoming more serious. Nations are taking it more seriously - and so are we in the UK. Or at least we did this year.

I'm very pleased to be able to write that we did very well in this competition. Every time I have reviewed the event in the past, I have had to make reference to the poor performance of the UK entry. This time however; thanks to Jade's performance and Andrew Lloyd Webber on the piano; our nation ranked 5th out of 25 countries.

In order to eliminate some of the political voting that has marred the contest for so many years, this time jury voting was introduced which accounted for 50% of a countries score. The other 50% still being made up by the public telephone vote. On the face of it, one might consider that this is why we did well and indeed it did help. Looking at an unofficial source of results however, shows that with only the telephone vote, our song would still have scored 7th. Yes the jury vote has helped us, but not by such a significant margin as one might imagine.

To me though, this result really does prove that by putting in a lot of effort in using a talented singer, known song-writer and heavy European marketing; we can still do well.

Now the mission is to do the same again next year. On the back of a good result, can we entice performers that are well known in Europe to get involved? It is important to build on what went well this year, and improve our weaker points. Then maybe (but just maybe) we will be hosting the Eurovision Song Contest.

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Tags: eurovision, music

The latest edition of the popular Linux distribution; Ubuntu was released on Thursday. Unfortunately if one wishes to use Amarok as their preferred music player the discovery that installing through Synaptic provides version 2 may come as a disappointment.

For me, I will not upgrade Amarok until the new edition supports an external MySQL database. I access my collection not only from my desktop computer, but also from a laptop in the living room (for playing music through the hi-fi). Having the collection stored within Amarok itself means that I would in effect have two different databases each maintaining their own statistics. Not good.

In addition to that, at present my website has a link to view my music library. This is compiled by accessing the external MySQL database that Amarok 1.4 is using. Therefore if I play a track, and the statistics are updated in Amarok; my website will show those exact same statistics. If I upgrade to Amarok 2 then this feature disappears.

I'm sure there are many that are in a similar situation to me for the reasons above and probably many others. So is the solution to just not upgrade Ubuntu from 8.10 to 9.04? No. There is another way.

A quick search on Google ('Amarok 1.4 Jaunty') reveals a blog which has detailed some very easy instructions for how replace Amarok 2 for Amarok 1.4. I've linked to the blog below, but for ease of reference I have expanded on those instructions here:

(Remember: to make life easy; you can highlight code, move to the terminal window, and then press the middle mouse button to paste and execute it.)

1. Open a terminal window (Gnome: Applications > Accessories > Terminal)

2. Enter the following code:

   sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/amarok.list

3. Add the following text to the newly created text file:

   deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/bogdanb/ppa/ubuntu jaunty maindeb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/bogdanb/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

4. Press CTRL+X to close the text file (DO NOT close the terminal window). When asked to save changes, press Y.

5. Enter this code into the terminal (as one line):

   sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com / 
   0x1d7e9dd033e89ba781e32a24b9f1c432ae74ae63

6. Update the repository with the new sources, remove the existing copy of Amarok (if it's installed) and install 1.4:

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get remove amarok && sudo apt-get install amarok14

That's all there is to it. I've tested it and it works without fault! Huzzah!

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Tags: ubuntu, linux, amarok, music