It was long overdue, but better late than never! Shortwave 4.0 is now available on Flathub:
General
- New MPRIS media controls implementation with improved CPU usage
- Song notifications are disabled by default now
- No more loading on startup, stations now get directly retrieved from cached data
- Fixed issue which sometimes prevented loading more than 8 stations from library
- Refreshed user interface by making use of new Libadwaita widgets
- Large parts of the app were reworked, providing a solid foundation for the next upcoming features
Playback
- Last station now gets restored on app launch
- Redesigned player sidebar, allowing to control volume more easily
- New recording indicator showing whether the current playback is being recorded
- Fixed buffering issue which prevented playing new stations, especially after switching stations too fast
- Fixed issues which sometimes prevented that a song gets recorded
- Fixed issue that volume remains muted after unmuting
Station Covers
- More supported image file format for station covers
- Enhanced security by loading station covers using sandboxed Glycin image library
- Non square covers automatically get a blurred background
- New generated fallback for stations without any cover image
- Improved disk usage by automatically purging no longer needed cached data
Browse / Search
- More useful station suggestions by respecting configured system language / region
- Suggestions now get updated with every start, no longer always showing the same stations
- More accessible search feature, no longer hidden in a subpage
- Search results are no longer limited at 250 stations
- Faster and more efficient search by using new grid widgets
Chromecast
- Shortwave is now a registered Google Cast app, no longer relying on the generic media player
- New backend which greatly improves communication stability with cast devices
- Improved discovery of cast devices with lower CPU and memory usage
- Now possible to change the volume of a connected cast device
Enjoy!