The latest release of Miro will allow you to clean up your music collection by changing titles like Track 01 to their real title with a single click! Unknown Artists are replaced with the actual name.  Browsing your collection is vibrant and organized in the new Album/Artist view.

If you are tired of listening to the same old tracks on your device, it’s time to freshen it all up with Miro 5.

We’ve added eMusic to the Stores section, so you can sample and buy, and keep it all organized in your Miro music library.

There are new options added to device syncing.   You can sync automatically when you connect your device.  Choose to have Miro fill a percentage of your available space with an assortment of music and podcasts based your preferences with the new Auto Fill option.

And don’t forget the conversions. We have updated to the latest and greatest from ffmpeg to convert any media file to apple, android, KindleFire and web-friendly formats.

If you love your internet video, on Miro, it has just gotten better.  We’ve added support for HD downloads from Vimeo. We’ve upgraded libtorrent.  On Windows, we have updated everything on the backend, bringing a cleaner UI, better browsing, and clearer, sharper playback.

Along with the new release, we’ve moved Miro’s Support and Forums to a new platform to help us help you, and to assist you in helping yourselves and others. Have a question, or maybe some answers? Join in to discuss Miro here.

Miro 5 is the media player you need to share with your friends.  If you haven’t tried it yet, what are you waiting for?

Get Miro!

Download here:

• Windows (5.0-rc2)
• OS X (5.0-rc2)
• Source (5.0-rc2)

Thanks to all the users who downloaded release candidate 1 and provided feedback.  We’ve fixed up the bugs that you found and few more that we found, and we are ready for you to check out RC2.

One of the great new features coming in Miro 5 is the ability to look up song information and album art.  Here’s a blog post that explains how it all works.  We encourage everyone to try it out and let us know how it goes.

You can also help with testing and translations.

• Test this release. See the detailed instructions on the miro testing blog post.
• To help translate, see the translation guide.

Thanks to everyone who’s helped us get this far!

New in the upcoming version 5.0, Miro can look up missing music information and album art. The song information is retreived from the Echonest database and the album art comes from 7Digital.

Setup after upgrading from earlier versions of Miro

If Miro is upgraded from a version earlier than Miro 5.0. The first time the Music tab is clicked, a dialog asks to use the song info look up.

New User Configuration

When installing Miro for the first time: an option to turn on look up is provided in the Music Settings screen of the first time start up dialog.

Turning on / off Lookup from the Preferences Panel

The Preferences Panel General tab controls turning metadata look up on and off for all audio files or for newly added music files.

To run look up for all audio files:

Click Run Online Lookup for All Current Music 

To remove look up data from the item metadata display

Click Remove All Lookup Data 

To look up information for all newly added items:

Check Automatically run online lookup for any new audio files that I add to Miro 

Toggling on and off from the File Menu

To toggle the use of Echonest data for one or a few items:

1. Select the item or items
2. Open the File menu
3. Choose (Don’t) Use album art and song info from online lookup database (Echonest)

Toggling on and off from the Context Menu

To toggle the use of echonest data for one or a few items:

1. Select the item or items
2. Open the context menu
3. Choose (Don’t) Use album art and song info from online lookup database (Echonest)

Download here:

• Windows (5.0-rc1)
• OS X (5.0-rc1)
• Source (5.0-rc1)

…And we need your help!

Test this release. See the detailed instructions on the miro testing blog post.

To help translate, see the translation guide.

There are some awesome improvements in this release.

1. Song information and Album art lookup

Clean up your music collection by automatically looking up
the Artist, correct title, and album name and artwork among other thing.

2. Album View

A clean view to group together all your songs by Album and Artist.  Also a simplified way to view video items by kind (Movies, Clips, Podcasts…)

3. Faster Device Syncing and Conversions

We’ve added a Quick fill option to get your music onto your device fast!  Automatic syncing,  options to convert only when necessary, and updates to the ffmpeg binaries.

4. eMusic in the Stores section

Purchase music from eMusic and add it straight to your library.

5. Download HD videos from Vimeo feeds

When available, you can now download HD quality videos from Vimeo podcasts.

6. Massive updates to the Windows backend

From playback to gui display to libtorrent, everything is updated and upgraded.

1. Open Miro. (Download Miro here if you don’t have it.)

2. Connect your Kindle Fire with a USB cable to your computer and it will appear in the ‘Connect’ tab in Miro.

3. Drag any videos or music to the Kindle Fire in the Miro sidebar and they will automatically convert to the right size and format and sync.

That’s it!

Note that videos that aren’t purchased from Amazon will be viewable in the ‘Gallery’ app on your Kindle Fire, not in the ‘Video’ tab.

we also put together this simple site explaining how it works: Sync Video and Audio to Kindle Fire

We need your help to keep Miro alive. To those of you that have already donated this year– thank you so much. If you haven’t given yet, here’s why it’s urgent.

Over the past year, PCF, the non-profit that makes Miro, has had some big successes. We’ve won a Tech Award for advancing equality and an award from the FCC for innovation in accessibility for the deaf and hard of hearing. Miro has taken huge strides forward, adding full music support, Android syncing, and much more– Miro is now used by millions of people every month!

We believe deeply in the power of open tools. But our very small budget depends on donations from users and we are facing serious shortfall going into 2012. Can you make a donation?

Yes, I can donate to Miro

After you give, you’ll see a list of new features that we are considering: please vote on what you’d most like to see in the next version of Miro.

We are already hard at work on a major update to Miro that will bring exciting new features and major performance improvements. Miro is built by one of the smallest software teams in the world for a project of this scale, just a few very underpaid developers. But even with our tiny (and incredibly talented team), it does take some money to build and offer Miro for free to everyone.

Our request this month is very real– we just can’t afford to keep making Miro without more user support. If you can make a donation of any size today, it will help ensure that Miro can live on into next year and beyond.

Donate Here

Thank you for reading and, as always, for using Miro. And please, if you possibly can, make a donation today.

OpenCongress is a free and open source public resource for tracking and contacting the U.S. Congress. In this new and improved version, OpenCongress finally allows its followers to write a letter to the members of the U.S. Congress and then track and share the correspondence with the public. In fact, they are the only online service on a not-for-profit site that offers features to write all of one’s federal elected officials at the same time.

What’s so great about the revamped version of OpenCongress is it actually encourages input from the public. The new version gives you the ability to reach out to Congress directly and open a dialogue with governmental officials. Thanks to OpenCongress, the government can hear the voices of everyday citizens!

We are strong supporters of the Participatory Politics Foundation and believe you should check out OpenCongress! It’s a great way to monitor official legislative actions and find out what’s really happening in Congress. OpenCongress makes it easy to be a political insider, so check out their site and learn more about the U.S. government.

Flash Mobs Capture the Attention of the Community

What could be better than dancing in a group for an unsuspecting audience? In this video, watch a flash mob surprise onlookers as they dance together to Shakira’s hit, “Waka Waka.” Though the dance is choreographed, the audience can’t ignore the sense of pleasure from the smiling dancers and soon, the onlookers start dancing too!

Flash Mob breaks into Waka Waka Dance from Coleen LeDrew Elgin on Vimeo.

Sit Back and Relax to the Strum of a Harp

If you like the soothing sound of the harp, check out this video of Joanna Newsom performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live. A crooner with killer vocals, Newsom also plays the piano. Her style has been described as a combination between “Appalachian music and avant-garde modernism.” Watch this video and see for yourself!

We got this video from Joanna Newsom TV, a compilation of various videos of the artist created by devoted fans.

Watch the Community Media Network’s Handpicked Videos!

An extensive online video gallery, CMNtv presents media from the busy town of Oakland, Michigan. Through their Miro Community site, CMNtv allows viewers to watch videos about the current events in the Wolverine state. The Community Media Network is one of the most prestigious Public Access Television organizations in Michigan, so you know their videos ares worth watching!

Check out this video that captures “Heritage Days” in Rochester, Michigan.

One Day on Earth – Motion Picture Trailer

What if you could see what was going on around the world all at one moment in history? That’s the premise of ONE DAY ON EARTH, a recording of a 24-hour period throughout the world. This cool video shows us a greater diversity of perspectives than ever seen before on screen and published by the ONE DAY ON EARTH, which set out to explore our planet’s identity and challenges in an attempt to answer the question: Who are we?

The video was published by Snak.tv, a platform to broadcast your news and trying to provide differentiated news from the traditional Media.

Get New Contributors & Diversity Through Outreach

One of the great things about open-source projects is their ability to engage volunteers. But many projects are unable to harness this potential, and suffer as a result. In this PyCon 2011 talk, Miro Community’s own lead developer Asheesh Laroia gives practical tips on increasing the number and diversity of contributors.

This video is one of many excellent Python related lectures and screencasts available at Python Miro Community, curated by Miro’s Will Kahn-Greene and supported by the Python Software Foundation. There’s even a meta video on Python and Miro Community!

Why Do We Like What We Like?

Have you ever wanted to know how we experience feelings? In this video, acknowledged evolutionary psychologist Paul Bloom gives great examples that help explain Essentialism. Bloom says that ultimately, what you believe creates what you feel.

We found this video at Marin TV, which provides non-commercial local programming from global news to local events.

As a Moderator, you can feature videos and audio feeds on the home page, add material, reject broken feeds, and more. Also, you would have access to a private Google group for all Moderators where you could discuss, inquire, and chat about everything Miro Guide.

If you’re interested in joining the Miro Guide Volunteer Team, email Emily@pculture.org to get set up!