Dragon Player (Qt Written Multimedia Player for KDE) Version 3 is On its Way!

Dragon player is a qt-written, multimedia front-end that's designed for the KDE desktop. As said it's a front-end rather than a player engine (such as MPLayer or VLC, etc) thus you can set it to use either Gstreamer or with Phonon (the newlywed KDE multimedia framework).

Although the player itself is a bit awkward when viewing from a KDE's point of view because KDE is always about features and lots of options but the Dragon player is all about simplicity and less features!. Thus it loads fast and does its job quite nicely and many just love it.

Although I actually haven't been using it for a long time but according to the KDE apachelogger, the Dragon player has been there with KDE for almost 4 years as the version 2 but yesterday at the current Berlin desktop summit, the developer of Dragon player Ian Monroe has announced that there's gonna be a Dragon player version 3 in the very near future!.

Few of the "things" expected in this release...

Although the "Blacky" background will most probably be removed which doesn't look that good actually ;-)...

*. He has promised not to clutter anything at all thus the player version 3.0 GUI will also be quite simple :).

*. No features are dropped thus all the things that were/are visible with its older versions will be ported into the version 3.

*. Cool looking (more smooth) start-up animations (well, I ain't a huge fan of those since it slow down the app loading times).

*. Enhanced, "recently viewed" display section.

*. When you stop a multimedia file (both video and audio) they'll fade-out!.

*. Although not revealed yet but in "apachelogger's" own words...

"A revolutionary approach that will make it tons easier to watch a series of videos (yet to be unveiled ;))..."

Well, that's about it for now. If you can't wait till it's out then you try out its scratch repository but please be aware that it's in its early development stage thus even if it builds just fine might not work properly. So use it at your own risk :).

How to Install KDE Plasma Netbook Edition in Ubuntu?

Plasma is actually a brand-name rather than a single app or a package which was invented by the Qt-written KDE desktop. To meet today's standards, since unlike in the past now the desktop environment developers have to take into consideration of the main three types of "desktops", one for the usual desktop users, another one for the notebook or netbooks and finally to meet yet another "big" trend these days, the Tablet PC screens.

The reason for such separate development is because, say that your current desktop is optimized for computers with a certain screen resolution (HD) then since most of the netbooks don't have HD or highest HD resolutions thus if they install the desktop then they'll have issues such as applications not "fitting" in their screen, etc.

Another benefit of designing a dedicated desktop is the ability to cut-out some of the unnecessary resources (smaller windows, etc) and optimizing it for certain CPU types, etc. 

Image via: KDE.org

So, if you have a nebook with a smaller resolution and size then although you can use the standard Qt/KDE desktop edition but as said if you do so not only you'll run into trouble trying to run apps and see their whole windows but also since that desktop is optimized for the usual Desktop/Laptop PCs, etc, so it'll put unnecessary strain on your Netbook thus resulting in a shorter battery life as well.

In that sense if you're a KDE geek ;-) who's not ready to let go of it without a fight, then your best solution is to install the beautiful, KDE plasma Netbook edition.

Another key thing about the KDE plasma edition is that it does not come with a lot of applications which also helps to save some of that HDD (may not be a huge concern, unless you have a faster but costly and smaller SSD) space as well.

But that being said, the KDE netbook version do come with a file manager, web browser, office suite, image viewer, painting application, excellent widgets support and many other applications by default nonetheless + you can easily install many more of other apps in the future as well.

So if you use Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 OR

since you have a somewhat "restricted" hardware features and hard disk space, you can install the KDE plasma netbook by even without having to install any graphical versions of the Ubuntu Linux. For that you'll have to first install the Ubuntu using the Minimal CD.

And then use the below command in your Terminal window (as said if you've already installed Ubuntu 11.04 using the standard LiveCD, then you can also use the below commands too).

sudo apt-get install kde-plasma-netbook

That's about it mate! :D.

Amarok 2.4.2 Beta 1 is Released (New background, GUI changes, etc)

From the day it was released, Amarok, the Qt written awesome music player front-end for KDE was A hit. Came with an excellent GUI, lots of features (usual KDE :D) and ease of use... everybody loves it!.

As said, like many other applications these days, it's actually not a complete player with a multimedia playing engine of its own but only a front-end. A Qt written GUI that relies on few multimedia frameworks such as Gstreamer, Phonon and other players such as VLC, Xine as well.

Anyhow, I think simultaneous to the upcoming KDE 4.7 release, Amarok and a lot other applications are receiving updates accordingly. Like two days ago Amarok was updated to its latest version 2.4.2 Beta 1 which brings bug fixes and some new features such as ...

*. New backgrounds.

*. Re-polished GUI.

*. Few updates to dynamic play-list (prevent duplicate track loads, Quiz-bias features that has the ability to play a multimedia file that has characters similar to the one just finished playing, drag-n-drop support for copying/moving files directly from the play-list in local storages, etc).

*. Removed "redo" button from the main tool-bar.

*. Now uses the ffmpeg 0.6 or higher by default.

*. Preview button, progress bar and few other layout clean-ups to make it look more simpler and "easy to understand" ... are just a few to mention.

While I checked it wasn't yet available through the Kubuntu PPA (backports) but you can add the PPA so when they do, you'll be able to install Amarok 2.4.2 Beta 1 in both Kubuntu 11.04 and Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal easily.

To do that, open the Terminal and enter the below commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install amarok

Remember, this is still in its beta stage... so may not be the best of Amarok, yet :).

Wanna an Oxygen KDE Theme for Your Firefox Web Browser?

The Qt written (the GUI actually) gorgeous looking KDE desktop went through a lot of changes with the introduction of the version 4 some time ago. In the past KDE came with daunting amounts of options and a huge right-click menu ;-), etc but with the KDE4... I personally think the developers have done an extremely good job by reducing some features thus the desktop in general looks much more polished and simple as well.

Anyhow, as mentioned above the Oxygen theme is the default theme that the KDE4 uses which does resemble a lot of similar look-n-feel concerning the Mac OSX (it kinda slipped out :P) and the colors certainly are easy on the eyes too. It's a complete theme suite which comes with an icons, wallpapers and the GUI buttons and the "tinting".

But as any obsessive theme geek knows ;-) even after having a complete theme installed still if you have a major application that you frequently use which does not inherit the look-n-feel of the main desktop theme... well it can easily jeopardize everything.

Now the web browser is such an application nowadays thus if you use KDE 4+ as your main desktop and use the Firefox 3-5 as the web browser, then you might be wondering if you could find a way to "Oxygen-lize" its skin :D.

Well no worries dudes... there is in fact an Oxygen KDE theme for Firefox web browser that does exactly that!. Few hours ago they've released the latest version 3.2 which now supports the Firefox 5, finally. Anyhow the 3.x version comes with few improvements in general such as ...

Don't you just love it ;-)...

*. Automatic color scheme detection under KDE (say that you've changed the default colors of the Oxygen theme, then the browser add-on/theme will change automatically).

*. 4 Additional styles for buttons.

*. Classic Oxygen + the shadowed version.

*. 3 Styles for the background.

*. Hide/unhide arrows.

*. Also supports the now old Firefox 4.

*. Comes with a Linux/KDE configuration window of its own which lets you change a lot more other options. 

*. 2 Different icon themes... are just a few to mention.

As you can see from the above screenshot, once installed this theme, it'll make the Firefox web browser "theme integration" with the Qt-KDE Oxygen desktop almost perfect. If interested (heck yea you are :D) you can get the stable version from this KDE-app page. Enjoy.

How To Install Amarok in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal ?

Amarok is one of those applications that you just can't forget once used. I first came around it few years ago (when I was playing around KDE/Qt) and loved it ever since. But then I switched to Gnome and to be honest these days I don't use it much. But when it comes to playing music files in an elegant looking GUI, Amarok is at the top ten without a doubt.

Although I actually can't remember if Amarok type GUIs (Banshee, Rhythmbox, etc) type music players (you know with the iTunes look-n-feel) for Gnome came afterwards, yet for me I think it was actually Amarok that "introduced" that type of look-n-feel.


Main features...

*. Amarok is actually a Qt4 written GUI which uses major multimedia frameworks such as Phonon and Gstreamer. So any audio file (I think it had a video enabling plug-in as well) that's supported by those frameworks, it can play them.

*. A fully featured Equalizer.

*. Very easy to use GUI... especially the KDE4 version, oh I love those colors.

*. Display album-art, change different views, search for files with ease, manage huge collections of audio albums, excellent playlist support.. it's all there.

*. Import files directly from USB or other storage devices (iPod touch, etc).

*. Although this came kinda late, but now you can even attach album arts directly into the audio file (tag-editing) too.

*. Expand its capabilities via Scripts.

*. Rip or listen to Audio CDs.

*. Web integration such as last.fm, Magnatune, Jamendo, etc.

These are just a very few to mention of this amazingly beautiful, powerful application. There are basically two ways that you can install Amarok in Ubuntu 11.04 (should work on 10.10 and 10.04). You can either use the below command.

sudo apt-get install amarok

But if you want to install the latest versions of Amarok (this will install the current latest version 2.4.1), then I recommend that you use the Kubuntu PPA for that. So, for that enter the below command instead then.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install amarok kubuntu-restricted-extras

If you have installed Ubuntu restricted codecs, then I don't think you'll need the "kubuntu-restricted-extras" package since you can set Amarok to use the Gstreamer back-end in Ubuntu, but use the whole command, just in case :).

How to Install Dragon Player (Written in Qt) in Ubuntu 11.04 , 10.10 and 10.04?

Although it's said that Linus Torvalds was a big fan of KDE and used to hate Gnome for its simplicity... yet with the KDE version 4, where the desktop got a total different look-n-feel + drifted towards simplicity (still not as notorious as Gnome), now Linux hates KDE for that!.

Although he says KDE is too simple yet being a Gnome me self :P... I still find KDE4 to be quite elegant and full of useful features. Anyhow all I'm trying to say is that, you hardly see an application which is pretty simple with Qt or from KDE developers in general.

No matter what they design... you'll get a lot of options to play with. It's apparent with players such as VLC (written in Qt), UMPlayer, or anything that has the KDE touch.

Yet if you were looking for a simple and fast multimedia player which uses the KDE's own multimedia framework called Phonon... then Dragon Player is the one to go for.

Main features...

*. Anything Phonon plays... the Dragon can play :) - MP3, MP4, OGM, MKV... anything goes.

*. Resuming capability (starts the videos from the last position you exit the player).

*. Automatic subtitle loading.

*. Change screen brightness/hue/contrast.

*. CD/DVD playback support.

*. Speed - Yes, this is one of the things you'll get with an application that is simple. It loads fast and known to take, somewhat less system resources in comparison with others.

Anyway, you can install Dragon Player in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal or 10.10 and 10.04 by entering the below command.

sudo apt-get install dragonplayer

Remember, unless you're using Kubuntu  or KDE desktop, this will require some decent amount of file size downloading (about 64MB). Although this has nothing to do with the player, it's just that, since it's KDE based and you're using Gnome, there has to be some KDE bindings installed first. That' all I've gotta say about it :). Enjoy. 

How To Install/Upgrade KDE 4.6.4 in Kubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal?

Although Kubuntu wasn't there with Ubuntu when it first launched. First it used to be just Gnome. I remember reading a post (few years ago) from a fellow KDE/Qt developer saying that how much he loved the stability of Ubuntu and etc. It was all good to him but being a KDE fan... he missed Konqueror (which is one of the most advanced File manger + an advanced Web browser, etc) and other aspects of the KDE desktop. So he decided to "grab" few others and started KDE "ing" the Ubuntu OS.

Like most of you I too tasted the first editions of Kubuntu. It wasn't that stable at that time. Bugger gave me errors and crashed most of the time and I actually liked that. This didn't concern me much because I think when you have an OS that crash a bit more than others, it's either because the developers don't know what the heck they're doing or they've put some hard work that just isn't there, yet. That's what I felt with Kubuntu.

It may have crashed a bit but I did feel something unique about it. Anyway the times has passed and boy... Kubuntu seems to be pretty good (with the help of the beautiful KDE/Qt4 desktop) these days apart from all those issues it had. Seriously if there was a beauty content, Ubuntu is certainly way behind :P.

Okay let me come back to the story, recently KDE released their desktop to the next version which makes it 4.6.4. Although with the already installed version in Kubuntu KDE packages you won't be getting a lot of new features yet it'll bring minor updates and bug fixes nonetheless.

The always awesome Plasma Desktop/Workspace...

And the best thing about Ubuntu is its ability to let the users update/upgrade their entire operating system with one or three commands!. Although the 4.6.4 builds aren't available in the official Kubuntu repository but as always you can install it using the Kubuntu Launchpad PPA.

You can do this using two main methods. One way is to use the GUI tools which are "very user-friendly" yet it's a bit of a long process which is gonna take some time Or you can use the "non-user-friendly" Terminal and do it in three steps!. So, let me humbly present you how to install or upgrade to the KDE 4.6.4 desktop in Kubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal.

Open your Terminal and enter the below commands in your Terminal and when asked confirm. The rest will be taken care of. Long live the Launchpad :).

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

Enjoy while it's free (just kidding :D).

VideoCatcher - A Qt Powered TV Viewer for KDE4!

When it comes to downloading and viewing on-line TV videos there are few bloody good apps for GNU/Linux. But some are separate projects (non official projects of Gnome or KDE), although there's nothing wrong with that, but for all you KDE4 users, according to the developer, Videocatcher is actually the only TV viewer available for KDE4 at the moment!.

It's very similar to the excellent Miro ... but as said, it's especially designed for KDE4 geeks.

Main features...

*. Well, as said it is an online TV channel viewer.

*. Lets you view/add-subscribe/edit video casts via: RSS/Atom feeds, etc.

*. Downloading videos.

*. Can also be used as a podcast client.

*. Written in Qt4 toolkit.

Although there isn't a ".deb" package for Kubuntu/Ubuntu 11.04 at the moment but I think the Ubuntu 10.04 should work on 11.04. Not just in Ubuntu but you can install Videocatcher in other GNU/Linux distributions such as OpenSuse and Mandriva as well.

For that please visit this opendesktop page for more.

If the ".deb" package does not work for you then you can try compiling it in Kubuntu 11.04. For that use the below commands.

First download the source-code.

svn co svn://svn.kde.org/home/kde/trunk/playground/network/videocatcher

Now get the dependencies.

sudo apt-get install kdepimlibs5-dev libqt4-sql-sqlite libboost-dev

Let's compile (yikes :P)

tar xjf videocatcher-0.1.x.tar.bz2
 cd videocatcher-0.1.x
 mkdir build
 cd build
 cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config --prefix`
 make
       
Finally, issue the below command to install it.

make install

Good luck. 

Meet the Redesigned, Awesome Phonon (Multimedia Framework for KDE/Qt Applications) Website!

There are few emerging and prominent multimedia frameworks under GNU/Linux. For instance, Gstreamer is one of the oldest (although not that "old" when concerning the Linux Kernel, etc yet for these types of frameworks) and strongest which is highly used by GTK toolkit based applications.

Although Helix is another one, but I don't think it'll have much success since Real Networks being the original developer.

Anyhow, for sometime even KDE used Gstreamer as their main multimedia framework (in apps such as Amarok, etc). Although Gstreamer developers say that they have nothing to do with GTK or Gnome... but many see (including myself) a lot of similarities between Gnome and Gstreamer (they both start with the letter "G", okay, that was a bad example :/). So it's natural for KDE to have/build something of their "own".

It may have not been the only reason... anyhow, that's one of the reasons how Phonon was created. It consists of main three parts according to KDE themselves, quoted below...

MediaObjects, Paths and Outputs. The MediaObjects control the playback/capture and provide the media data. MediaObjects can be connected to Outputs using Path objects which also allow the insertion of Effect objects between MediaObject and Output.

What is a multimedia framework?

To be honest, I'm not a programmer, so I don't have a in depth concerning its "tech" aspects. But between you and me :)...

... When designing a multimedia framework, the original developers make sure to built/embed codecs, libraries + many more that are necessary to playing/capture the audio/video files from reading the original source file to "carrying" it to your GNU/Linux PC/Laptop's speaker (output).

Most importantly, this is done within a standard "layout" (API). That's why it's called a framework :).

So anyone who knows standard layout, can easily implement it on their "projects"/players.


For instance...

Let's say that you're a developer who'd like to create a multimedia player of your own. Then you'll have to figure out how to read/play all sorts of codecs (hundreds and hundreds of 'em, Xvid, Divx, AAC, MP3, Theora, WMV,.....), etc and implement all that to your video player, despite of the GUI creation using GTK or Qt or any other that you like (you know creating a graphical "player" with buttons and stuff).

So, it's pretty boring and hard work (who likes that :P). But with a multimedia framework, since they've done all the hard work for you (such as building programming codes for playing all those different codecs, etc), all you have to do is built a GUI and simply "attach" the multimedia framework to the "player". So, whenever a user requests a file to play via your GUI, all your GUI does is just calls for the framework libraries and give the job to them.

So, a framework not only helps to create not just multimedia related things, but any other area, with ease + most importantly, it helps to bring applications that have different GUIs yet if they all use the same single framework, then it adds more stability to the software environment it self since, if a bug is detected or if new feature is added, then all those apps that use the framework can easily "get"/implement it.

Geeeeeez, this is getting awfully long. Wha was I saying again, oh yeah, Phonon. In the very recent past Phonon's main web site didn't look that good. I mean, when considering the high standard set by Qt or KDE artwork in general, it was a bit "behind".

But according to a phonon developer (who's still searching for a sensible wordpress pink theme :) ), few days ago they've give the official Phonon website a new look-n-feel and it looks GORGEOUS!.

The website design idea came from Tomasz Dudzik which was then became a reality via Wojciech Ryrych (nicely done) and according to them, the site is still being developed... which makes sense, since it seems to be lacking a nice introduction, etc.

Anyhow, the above mentioned Phonon developer-dude (maybe a girl... the obsession with "pink" :) ) is a very humble person, so if you have few ideas of your own on what's the site's "missing" then, please by all means, visit his/her site and throw some comments at him/her.

And if you want to express your love towards Phonon by making its logo your background for a while, then get it from here (high resolution, 2MB in size).

Again, I looove the "new" website, nicely done.

How to Install Muon Package Manager 1.2 (Beta) in Kubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal?

Although I haven't used KDE for sometime now (including Kubuntu) but I think the package manager in Kubuntu is as powerful as it is with Ubuntu. But, few days ago in the Ubuntu developer summit (UDS), with the introduction of Qt-5 tool-kit version, Kubuntu developers came up with a cool looking package manager for Kubuntu Natty Narwhal called Muon.

It seems to have two main basic "views". One view represents the default package manager GUI with software categories to the left and more information to the right side. But the other view, which seems to follow the Ubuntu software center GUI "patterns", has an enhanced graphical representation (using a lot of beautiful looking icons and all that stuff :D ) which does the same thing + I think this second GUI is more user friendlier than the other GUI. 

As with Ubuntu software center, once you click on an application icon, then you're taken into a more in-depth view which contains user ratings, total space needed, a small introduction of the app that you selected, etc. And with KDE4... the KDE desktop has been simplified when comparing to the "daunting" amount of features that earlier versions came with. The Muon package manager also seems to inherit those attributes and certainly looks very user friendly, as mentioned above.

Although it's still at its beta stage, still if you use Kubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, you can install Muon by using their official PPA channel. To do that, open your Terminal and issue the below command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:echidnaman/qapt-experimental
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install muon

Plasma Active : The Emerging "Software Contender" for Tablet PC Type Gadgets??

Well in truth, it could be too early to tell. But the rest assured, Plasma Active looks pretty darn amazing!. I'm also really new to Plasma Active project... if you have no idea of what it is, then "PA" is actually a project for creating a gorgeous looking interface (using the KDE's plasma desktop "frame-work") which is specifically built for Tablet PCs type electronic gadgets that comes with touch screens.

Let me quote it in the exact words of the developer himself...

"The goal is to Create a desirable user experience encompassing a spectrum of devices... we want to create something, people want, and people want to use. It means we are less technology-focused, but are taken a user-centered approach..."

It's very new actually, so currently I think it can be run in 3-5 specific Tablets... but that will/may change in the future. Anyhow, Plasma Active is basically another shell environment in which you can create a different application GUI's which are, again, optimized for Tablet PCs like devices.

Well, that's the idea...

In general Plasma Active runs on top of the KDE's plasma (obviously) and uses the OpenSuse 11.04. But again, PA can easily be ported into other GNU/Linux distributions as well. Few hours ago, Sebastian announced (one of the main contributors) few other new "invented" features for the PA project such as amazing virtual keyboard, activity switcher, etc.

The new, virtual-keyboard...

The "activity switcher"...

Have a look at the below video to get a better idea ("feat" Sebastian Kügler :P)...

Bangarang 2.0, Features Rich Excellent Multimedia Player for KDE Desktop!

Unlike with Gnome, with KDE you'll always get lots of useful features by default. Not like in the past, KDE now has a multimedia framework of its own called Phonon. So as a KDE/Qt developer, all you gotta do is to create a GUI and integrate it with Phonon framework and it'll make sure to play multimedia files without you having to do that part of the coding.

Meet Bangarang! (means "awesome" according to sources - a Jamaican word)...

Although there are several excellent players that uses the Qt toolkit, yet with Bangarang, you can do few things that most those players fail to achieve. Although it comes with a lot of features, but the main GUI looks very simple and less complicated as well.


Main features...

*. As said, anything that Phonon plays, Bangarang can play.

*. Manage large collections of multimedia files with its built in powerful album support.

*. Add/Manage TV shows.

*. View audio/video feeds.

*. Play CD/DVDs.

*. It can share/fetch audio/video file ratings done by (Amarok for instance) other Qt/KDE apps that uses the Semantic desktop API. For instance, if the video "A" is rated with 4 stars by another video player in KDE and if it integrates with Semantic desktop API, then Bangarang can "import" that rating automatically.

*. Automatically fetch album/artist, etc related information.

*. Last.fm support... are just a few to name.

If you use Kubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, then you can install Bangrang multimedia player by issuing the below command (should work in 10.04/10.10 as well).

sudo apt-get install bangarang

Kubuntu 11.04 is Released!

Simultaneous to the Ubuntu Natty Narwhal (11.04) release which brings the long waited... talked Unity desktop... the official KDE version of Ubuntu called Kubuntu has also released their 11.04 version as well. Unlike many other previous versions... this does bring some important new features according to their release log.

*. Comes with the KDE 4.6 version which brings the Kwin manager (default window handler for KDE).

According to the Kubuntu team, KWin now needs less resources but performs faster than previous versions!. Other benefits include better VGA driver integration, new power management GUI (very impressive and looks gorgeous!) + few improvements to the Dolphin as well (KDE's file manager).

*. File sharing made easy because of Samba!.

Sharing a file or a folder across a network has never been this easy according to Kubuntu team!. Just right click on the file/folder in Dolphin file manager and go to "Properties" and simply, share!.

Samba ... Samba ... Samba....

*. Better printer configuration.

Including few bug fixes... the new printer configuration now ingrates better with a lot of printers.

*. OwnCloud.

This is a cloud based storage that are hosted directly at KDE servers. Now as a Kubuntu user, you can easily access and manage your OwnCloud easily.

*. Switched to Phonon Gstreamer back-end.

It's a bit sad actually. KDE is certainly not second to no one and from certain aspects... it's way ahead of Gnome too. But for some reason (well, they say it's due to better compatibility with Ubuntu) they've decided to use the Gstreamer (the developers of Gstreamer won't say it's a Gnome project... but they seem to prefer Gnome :) ) as the multimedia framework.

Although the new Phonon... which is the KDE's own impressive multimedia framework, again due to compatibility, Kubuntu will be using Gstreamer via a Phonon back-end. Let's hope that next time they'll give us a full "KDE-lized" desktop.

Anyhow, these are few of the main features of Kubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal according to their official release announcement and all the details such as how to download it are also in that page. So follow the link and read it. And if you're upgrading from 10.10 version... then please read this official instruction page before proceeding. Good luck.

Install Kdenlive 0.8 in Kubuntu

Kdenlive is one of the best video editors for GNU/Linux. Although being a KDE project, it is written in Qt. So unless you want to have something that's written in GTK+, this I must say again, is one of the best of its kind.

Like two days ago they updated it to the latest version which is now the 0.8... this does bring a lot of changes according to their official announcement page.

Main features in general...

*. Few GUI improvements.

*. Add/Remove multiple audio and video tracks.

*. Cut/Paste/Delete...

*. Crop, change bit-rate, etc.

*. Various effects.

*. Import from DV/DVD or single files, etc.

*. Any codec supported by FFmpeg, Kdenlive supports (means: almost all the known codecs are supported).

Although these are very few to name and I'm not an expert on video editors, so I don't understand most of those "features" on their home page either :P.

Anyhow, in Kubuntu 11.04, 10.10 and 10.04 you can easily install the Kdenlive 0.8 by issuing the below command.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sunab/kdenlive-release
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kdenlive

GRUB2 Bootloader Editor, Another Powerful Bootloader Editor for KDE!

Now I did post about another GRUB editor that can be used in Ubuntu but it was more drifted towards Gnome desktop. But to be fare to all the KDE geeks out there I though posting another editor (actually a KCModule - standard method for integrating various programs configuration options to KDE desktop) called the GRUB2 Bootloader Editor.

Now being a KDE based app, when comparing with the previous Gnome oriented application, you can see the difference. The G2BE comes with a lots of features which enables the users to completely change the way Grub boot loader operates.

*. Change the color of the Background/Foreground or make them transparent.

*. Apply different types of themes for GRUB.

*. Change the default screen resolution.

*. Time-out settings.

*. Change the Distribution names, etc... are just a few to name.

If you want to know how to install it in your GNU/Linux distribution, please visit this page. Enjoy!.

KDE 4.7 Comes With a "Better" Shutdown Menu

Although KDE 4.7 isn't out, yet, but it's showing a lot of promises already. For instance they've decided to add a "better" shutdown menu. Now whenever you try to shutdown in KDE, you're given the chance to decide to which operating system that you want to boot the next time!.

As can be seen with the screenshot, say that you have Windows7 installed, then you can choose Widows7 and when the computer reboots, and the boot-loader will automatically redirect you to Windows7. I'm not quite sure where, but I've seen this somewhere else actually. I think it was KDE sometime ago.. not sure though. Any opinions?. Anyhow, it would be pretty cool if they include a graphical boot loader configuration app as well.

Oh and, they won't release KDE 4.7 any sooner.. it's scheduled around July (27th to be precise), 2011.

Phonon 4.5.0 For KDE Is Out!

Phonon is the answer to the Gstreamer multimedia framework which is widely in use by the GTK "community". As with Gstreamer,, if you're an experienced developer, you can built a simple multimedia player within 30 seconds! according to the developers.

Phonon illustration

Phonon is based on the QT toolkit which is the GUI builder for KDE based applications which the quite opposite to the GTK+ even though they both share almost the same license agreements, still QT has a past that is a bit clouded. Anyhow, I have nothing against KDE, and if you're a developer who loves KDE then there could be things that you might be interested in the new Phonon 4.5.0.