Not the best drawing I've made, but http://imagebin.ca/view/pmvjUta.html It's a bit similar to lil_rich suggestion.

There are 2 columns (well number of them should depend of width of the window) each pile representing different sources. In mockup 1st is filled with e.g. top 50 albums by user rating, next the ones from the playslist. Hovering pile extends it vertically for browsing.

If thats still too mac'ish might be http://imagebin.ca/view/pMOrXE.html (with a better proportions to create realistic perspective effect)
it differs from the first in a way, that in last one covers always faces user with their front. In the original one the more cover is far away form center, the more t faces the user its side corner rather than front

p.s. I we came up with really great idea, might be it could be mate reusable in e.g. digikam and other

p.p.s how this differs from apples one? blog post is 1 year ago before patent process was started...

@my idea:
Maybe the big cover should be some kind of magnification of the marked small one so when the small albums scroll down the big album slides out and a new one in. Movie strip like.

Lukas. Yeah, something like that. I was previously thinking of this more as a collection browser, but including playlist functionality would really strengthen this applet.

Here is the kind of thing I meant in my post. Sorry, I'm not too good with the graphics, but hopefully you get the idea.
http://imagebin.ca/view/L8WmlSA.html

Cheers,
Rich

lil_rich wrote:Here is the kind of thing I meant in my post. Sorry, I'm not too good with the graphics, but hopefully you get the idea.
http://imagebin.ca/view/L8WmlSA.html

Interesting design however I'm thinking do we need scrollbar? If it is technically easily doable, a some sort of kinetic scrolling could be nice. The closer to the top/bottom, the faster it auto-flips in that direction.

Moving this thread to Development, which is more appropriate to the current discussion.

Lukas wrote:

lil_rich wrote:Here is the kind of thing I meant in my post. Sorry, I'm not too good with the graphics, but hopefully you get the idea.
http://imagebin.ca/view/L8WmlSA.html

Interesting design however I'm thinking do we need scrollbar? If it is technically easily doable, a some sort of kinetic scrolling could be nice. The closer to the top/bottom, the faster it auto-flips in that direction.

Cool! I like it.

Wow, these CD Rack / Pile mockups are really amazing!
I'd love to have that in Amarok.

For quite a while now I'm looking for any media player that lets me easily sort albums into "piles" or "racks" without having to rely on ID3 genre tags (too unflexible). So whenever I have a bunch of new albums, I usually listen through them (the "new stuff" pile) and then I'd love to be able to move them to other piles. Thing is, with a collection of more than 20 000 songs I easily "lose" albums because there is currently not a simple and easy way to highlight / "tag" an album (bookmarks work only for single songs).

The "Album Piles" concept as in the mockups in this thread looks like the perfect solution for my usecase. It really highlights the "album" notion and lets you organize your stuff as you would do with your regular CD or vinyl collection. Plus the advantage to be able to e.g. put albums into multiple piles.

I kinda like this idea too

Frando wrote:The "Album Piles" concept as in the mockups in this thread looks like the perfect solution for my usecase. It really highlights the "album" notion and lets you organize your stuff as you would do with your regular CD or vinyl collection. Plus the advantage to be able to e.g. put albums into multiple piles.

+1. Great idea, I hadn't thought of it like this. Although, this "piles" method could also be another sorting method in the collection browser, too. The problem with a coverflow frontend is that it's pretty resource hungry. I would never use it on my netbook, for example. I would still love this functionality in amarok, though. What if we could customize Pile/Genre/Artist or Genre/Pile/Album sorting?

Should this be opened as another idea?

Frando wrote:Wow, these CD Rack / Pile mockups are really amazing!
I'd love to have that in Amarok.

For quite a while now I'm looking for any media player that lets me easily sort albums into "piles" or "racks" without having to rely on ID3 genre tags (too unflexible). So whenever I have a bunch of new albums, I usually listen through them (the "new stuff" pile) and then I'd love to be able to move them to other piles. Thing is, with a collection of more than 20 000 songs I easily "lose" albums because there is currently not a simple and easy way to highlight / "tag" an album (bookmarks work only for single songs).

The "Album Piles" concept as in the mockups in this thread looks like the perfect solution for my usecase. It really highlights the "album" notion and lets you organize your stuff as you would do with your regular CD or vinyl collection. Plus the advantage to be able to e.g. put albums into multiple piles.

Frando, I think you are onto something. The "piles" could be controlled by labels, right? New, and moods, or tempos, or instuments/voice types, etc. Or a "needs re-ripping?" pile. Many possible uses for this.

Valorie

will the new applet be ready for 2.3.1? cause i was really looking forward to the coverflow thing. Maybe I can add it to the code of the final release if the new applet isnt ready

Unfortunately, due to legal pressure, we've had to drop CoverBling. We can't chance being sued.

Valorie

@Valorie - I noticed in the latest git (2.3.1.60svn20100530-19.1.x86_64) that the similar artist widget is also missing, same reason?

No the similar artist widget is still here.

i like the idea from lil_rick, sounds like a good replacement.

here is a other idea (sorry if anyone already had this)

how about making something simular to 3d gallery from android? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMwoPS8ts7Y
make a virtual desk where there is a stack for each artist
use amarok's rating to bring favorite albums to front, or sort by year.
if there is too much stuff flying around, filter by starting letter

klicking a artist stash reorganizes the albums so each cover is side by side in a grid.
on klicking a album, show tracklist some way, maybe also as a new grid, split the album cover in parts and write track titles over. size of tiles is based on rating, track lenght or something.

also make it possible to switch between grid and stack view.
let the user zoom using scrollwheel, drag the viewport with holding down and moving right mouse button.

let the user create new stacks where he can trow albums or tracks on top

this way, user can not only browse, but also organize the collection, create playlists and so. yeah, add something like a virtual jukebox where user can put cds in. in the jukebox, there are already albums and tracks, and you can put them between, on top or at the end. double-klick chances track.

yeah, add a wall to your desk like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqcmPJ-oVL0 does and let the user pin albums to wall

iam sure this would be a killer-feature and nobody will miss coverbling