All the news for Xion Audio Player is displayed below. If you have any comments or feedback, be sure to check out the forums.

19th Novemeber 2009

Xion 1.0 build 125 public release is live!

It's been over a year since the last Xion public release and finally I'm ready for another public release.

Thanks to all of the people who have been helping me test this build and give feedback, ideas, bug reports, etc!

The major new features are as follows:

• Brand new Default skin
• Skinnable Playlist
• Unicode Support (future translations)
• Album Art
• Crossfading
• Xion Taskbar Button
• Auto Update Checking

There are literally 400+ fixes, features and changes in this build. If you haven't updated since build 100 you're going to find many, many changes. For a complete list of all the changes, view the Release Notes for Xion build 125

If you're looking for help, make sure you check out the forums and if you're interested in suggesting features, make sure you use the feedback on the left side of the website.

Have fun!

20th September 2009

The next Xion public release

It's been just over a year since the last Xion public release, however that doesn't mean that Xion has been sleeping! The Xion beta releases have been making great progress and I'm getting very close to releasing a new public build. The reason for the long public release schedule was the new Skinnable Playlist, which required a lot of changes to the rendering system to allow it to be resizeable.

I also implemented full Unicode support so that Xion can understand almost all user tags. In the future you'll be able to translate Xion into your native language.

Xion also has Album Art support, reading from both image files stored on disk, as well as those embedded in your Audio files.

Another often requested feature is Auto Update. Xion now has the ability to check for regular updates (Both public and beta releases).

Xion now has Crossfading support for transitions between songs.

Xion has also been given a face lift by the amazing skinner, Lance Thackeray. Lance has redesigned the Xion default skin, creating a spectacular interface with which to interact with Xion. You can check out Lance's website at http://www.lancethackeray.com/

There are literally hundreds of changes for this next public build!

If all goes to plan, the new public build should be out within the next week or two.

19th September 2009

Introducing the Xion Audio Player Suggestion and Feedback tool

For a while now I've had user feature requests and suggestions in the forums. The list has steadily been growing and its at a point where I don't know which feature everyone wants next. This is where UserVoice comes in.

UserVoice is tool that provides a Digg-line voting system. You can either vote on existing features, or create your own, which can then be voted on by others.

This will allow me to see which suggestion is most popular, so that I can aim to implement that as soon as possible.

You'll notice a new Feedback button on the left side of the website. You can use this to keep an eye on all feedback, as well as make your own, or vote on someone else's.

For any other general discussion or bug reports, please visit the forums!

1st June 2008

Xion Skin Challenge 2008 - Voting time!

Be sure to visit the Forums in order to cast your vote!

Hurry though, voting lasts 1 week, ending on Sunday 8th June 2008!

5th May 2008

Xion Audio Player in association with Skin Consortium bring you this exciting competition.

Think you have what it takes to design and create the ultimate Xion skin?
Well then this competition is just for you!

15th April 2008

1.0.100 has been released. There are quite a chunk of changes since the last release about a month ago.
There are also a couple of new features for skinners to use, such as:

• action_anim_reset
• action_object_trigger
• trans_volumeb
• trans_volumem and trans_volumet
• triggeron_songchange
• balance_left/balance_right
• progress_forward/progress_rewind
• volume_increase/_decrease

Check out the Layer Reference page for details

Radio stations have also had some attention in order to fix and niggling issues including meta data updates.

Release Notes for this build can be viewed here

14th March 2008

1.0.95 has been released. This version adds support for installable plugins! Xion plugin installers are .XPF files that when double clicked or dragged onto Xion will display all the files and request if its okay to install.

Check out the Xion download for a list of the available Plugins.

This version also sees support for the Logitech G15 keyboard.

Release Notes for this build can be viewed here

16th February 2008

1.0.94 has been released. This is a major release with many fixes, changes and optimizations. Less CPU usage, more power to skinners and greater stability for expansion with plugins

Release Notes for this build can be viewed here

1st October 2007

Congratulations to zeolyte and basj for their winning entries, 'Valiant' and 'XionFlux' !

There were some really great entries and the judging of them proved very difficult. In the end the first place was split as there was a tie amongst the judges.



For a full list of all the competition entries, click here

Thanks to Skinning.net for organising the Competition and to the other judges who voted for the winning entries!

27th November 2007

The Skinning.net Competition has now ended! Winners will be announced soon! Good luck to all those who entered!

2nd September 2007


Skinning.net has started a Xion Skinning Contest! In cooperation with Xion Audio Player and (it's author) Cliff Cawley we give you 'The Xion Skinning.net Contest'.
Xion is possibly the easiest to skin and fastest growing skinable media player ever.
Anyone who can make a PhotoShop file (there are programs that can create a .psd without the need for PhotoShop, including some free ones) can make a great looking player in no time with this amazing program.

The Rules:

• You must be a member of Skinning.net (joining is free with instant access).
• Each contestant can upload 2 skins maximum.
• The skin must contain all normal media player controls. These would include...
  
  • Play, Stop and Pause
  • Next and Previous Track
  • EQ and Playlist buttons
  • Volume control
  • Player can include more then these but the above are required.
• Skin must be uploaded to the 'Xion Contest' section at Skinning.net
• The skin must be "new" original (not uploaded to any other site)
• The skin can not be uploaded to another site until after the end of the contest.
• Uploading will take place anytime during the contest, from Sept. 4th to Sept. 24th

The judging will take place during the week after the upload deadline and a winner announced on Oct. 1st.

The Prizes

• 1st Place - $75 USD from Skinning.net and $75 from Xion - Totaling $150
• 2nd Place - $25 USD from Skinning.net and $25 from Xion - Totaling $50

Prize money from Skinning.net and Xion Audio Player will be paid out via PayPal or a money order if within the US, other arrangements will have to be made for outside the US if not paid through PayPal.

Be sure to get your skins ready and don't miss out on this contest.

20th April 2007

A new build of Xion has been released!

With 200+ fixes it is well worth the download! There have been many improvements, fixes and changes to make this release well worth the wait.

I've converted from using the FmodEx engine, over to the BASS engine which opens up a large array of new file formats including AAC, MP4, M4A, MPC and APE to name a few.

This release brings with it many new features for the skin engine which give skinners even more power to create amazing skins.

Release Notes for this build can be viewed here

20th March 2007

A new Public Release of Xion is nearing completion!

The Beta releases have been moving along very well and after all of the feature additions, it is starting to stabilize

So far there are 100+ changes/additions/fixes including things such as faster skin rendering, new file formats and more advanced playlist features

A complete change list will be available when it is released!

7th November 2006

webWICKED is holding a Competition entitled 'Name that Skin'.

It's the simplest competition in the world, all you have to do is submit a name for their new Xion skin and you can win 12 months of web hosting!

Be sure to click here to find out all the details!

9th September 2006

I've just opened up a Community/Discuss page, which you can find in the toolbar under 'Discuss'

I will do my best to answer questions as soon as possible, but this Community page is for you! If you see someone who needs some help and you know the answer, feel free to jump in and help them out!

6th September 2006

I've noticed quite a lot of skins zipping up a .xsf file and including a .ttf and telling users to install the font.
There is no need to do this!. Just include the .ttf (True type font) file in your .xsf file and Xion will dynamically load it straight from the .xsf file when it loads the skin!

Yes, that means there is absolutely NO installation/setup required for your skin! Just include it in your .xsf file and Xion will automatically load it ready for your skin to use!

21st August 2006

1.0.58 has been released. This is a minor release which has a couple of fixes and optimizations. It helps to improve the stability of Xion

Release Notes for this build can be viewed here