Miro 4, the open source music and video player, is released

on mac (MBP laptop):

- it doesn't react on previous/play/next buttons on keyboard

- no last.fm integration

Thanks for the link. I've been using qmpd on the mac with a lot of success for some time now, but I'll check out the native solution.

I know iTunes isn't very popular with HN readers, so I'll balance things out a bit and play devil's advocate for a while: I like iTunes quite a bit. There are certainly some minor gripes and irritations, particularly with the UI, but overall I'm satisfied with the performance of iTunes and wouldn't want to replace it without much careful thought.

I'm not a computer power user, more of a 'system dadmin'; we run iTunes in the house on about six (Mac) computers and half a dozen or so devices. iTunes runs happily on all the computers, ranging from an old original iMac from 2001 (which runs Tiger and iTunes 8 and acts as an internet radio and music 'terminal') to an eMac from 2005 running Leopard and iTunes 10) and various Snow Leopard machines and attached drives.

The different copies of iTunes copes with various libraries (the biggest one is 110GB) with apparent ease, and keeps track of the settings on various iPods, including a 60GB classic from 2005, two iPhones, three iPod Touches and a couple of Shuffles. It's easy to play music from other machines around the house - click on the computer's name and start listening to its music. It's also nice that when one of my children, say, buys an app for their iPhone on their iTunes Store account it appears automatically on mine too; similarly if I put music on mine it appears in their library, but of course you can be more selective in what you copy from family members' accounts and machines...

I love the power of iTunes playlists - those heavy duty database-query-like nested multiple smart playlists - and it's a great way to control what gets put onto your iPod while it charges and you sleep.

I also like: the automatic downloading of the latest podcasts and TV episodes; adding PDFs to my library puts them on my iPhone; broadcasting music around the house using iTunes DJ mode and Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil - controlling the music from any room using the Remote iPhone app (and sometimes letting people select music from their iOS devices); browsing the iTunes University and downloading lectures; tracking my App store spending with Wetfish Software's App Store Expense Monitor; writing new visualizers with Quartz Composer (which is cool if weird); ripping CDs with automatic track naming. I could go on.

OK, I'll accept that iTunes is a bizarre behemoth of an application, and has certainly outgrown its moniker. But, for day to day use, people like me find it a solid and reliable media and device 'engine' that doesn't require much thought or effort to use effectively.

But don't get me started on those stupid scrolling boxes within boxes...

Edit: when I started typing this, I was sure the title said 'Miro 4 ... iTunes replacement ...'. When I finished typing, it didn't. (I went off to work between those two times.) So I was thinking about whether Miro could replace more than 10% of iTunes' functionality. This comment seems less relevant now.

The hackers solution. A media server running mpd or XMMS2, with the proper metadata organizing utility for your medialib. Plus running mplayer and possibly some ffmpeg tweaking for when you're out in the deep end. Plays anything, anywhere, and leaves the rest up to your imagination.

I guess Miro is great, but any complete solution will always be inferior to the proper tools for the right jobs.