25 Aug 10 Hi-Fi Choice reviews the VortexBox Appliance
The October addition of the British audiophile magazine Hi-Fi Choice came out this week. They have a review of the VortexBox Appliance. They gave it 5 starts, their highest rating, for easy of use a features. If you don’t have Hi-Fi Choice at your news stand several tech blog sites have replubished the article. Here is a link to one of them
24 Aug 10 Labor Day sale
Save $25 off the cost of any appliance from now until Labor Day. Buy an appliance at the Small Green Computer store and use the coupon code laborday.
http://shop.smallgreencomputer.com/
04 Jun 10 VortexBox 1.4 released
We are pleased to announce the release of VortexBox 1.4. Continuing with our goal to make VortexBox the universal server for any media player we have added full DLNA support to VortexBox. DLNA is the future of media sharing and many players such as PS3, Windows 7 Media Player, and Samsung televisions support DLNA. Now you can easily serve your music and video files to all these devices.
We have also added Bliss to the VortexBox web GUI. Bliss can find cover art for even the most obscure albums.
As usual there are also may other fixes and updates requested by the VortexBox community.
10 May 10 Sync support for VortexBox Player
We now have sync support in VortexBox Player. You can sync VortexBox player to hardware players. Please help us test out this new feature. Update your VortexBox using the Update manager. Sync another player to VortexBox player and see if syncing works for you.
26 Apr 10 VortexBox UK distriutor
There are may VortexBox users in the United Kingdom and today we are happy to announce a UK distributor for the VortexBox appliance.
12 Apr 10 VortexBox 1.3 released
VortexBox 1.3 released today. This release includes lots of new features and bug fixes. We have the latest version of SqueezeBox Server and all the latest versions of the 3rd party projects that make up VortexBox. We have also added Subsonic a new GUI that allows you to manage your music collection and stream it to iPods and Android players. New features include
- Logitech SqueezeBox Server 7.5.0 pre installed and configured
- Subsonic music interface for remote playing
- Edit your tags and cover art using the Subsonic web GUI
- Latest version of TwonkeyMedia Server
- Many bug fixes including USB backup manager
- File sharing fix for OSX 10.6.3
- Auto re-index after rip for Sonos players
To upgrade your existing system you can use the updater in the VortexBox GUI.
12 Apr 10 MAC OSX 10.6.3 file share problem
Apple has introduced a bug on the new OSX 10.6.3. This will cause permission problems when you copy files to your VortexBox. We have come up with a workaround on the VortexBox end. You will need to upgrade your VortexBox if you have OSX 10.6.3
Step 1 – Use the GUI update menu and update your VortexBox to the latest code.
Step 2 – Go into the network GUI menu and press submit. You do not need to make any changes to this menu just press submit. This will reconfigure your file sharing so it works with OSX 10.6.3
25 Mar 10 Goodbye SimplifyMedia
Now that Simplify Media is gone we will no longer be supporting it on VortexBox. You can keep using it as long as the service stays up. If you need remote access to your music start using Subsonic.
To remove Simplify Media from your VortexBox please type
rpm -e simplifymedia
from command line. All VortexBox users are encouraged to remove Simplify Media from their systems.
23 Mar 10 VortexBox now with Subsonic
Since SimplifyMedia is gone we need a replacement. VortexBox community members alerted me to a cool up and coming project Subsonic. This is a web interface for listening to music that also works with the iPhone and Android. They even have a remote location service so it work outside your network.
Subsonic also supports changing the cover art on albums. It’s actually better then Simplify Media thanks for finding this!
To install Subsonic first update VortexBox to the latest using the package manager. Then you can install it from the package manager software list.
Please remember to donate €20 to the author for this great piece of free software.
09 Mar 10 VortexBox 1.2 released
The VortexBox community has been working hard on this release. We have added a lot of new features to make VortexBox the best NAS for SqueezeBox. These include adding the new SqueezeBox Server 7.4.2 and fixing some critical bugs in VortexBox Player. VortexBox Player is now the highest resolutions (192/24) player available that is compatible with SqueezeBox Server (SBS).
The new package manager allows new software packages to be installed from the GUI. The Sonos web GUI can now be installed from the GUI making VortexBox the best NAS for Sonos players.
We have fixed the mp3 encoding with better support for genre and cover art that works well in all applications. Thanks to everybody in the community for helping out.
- Logitech SqueezeBox Server 7.4.2 pre installed and configured
- Package manager for installing new software from the GUI
- Better support for mp3s (thanks Ron)
- Many bug fixes including VortexBox player
To update use the GUI update menu.
