I've long since turned in my Tilt for a Motorola Q9H but had to share with you guys. For some time now I've been on a quest to find a mobile music streaming application that would give me a nice interface and access to my home music collection. Social.FM desktop and mobile client is not quite there but head and shoulders above anything else I've found. The mobile client is a one time $20 but if you're interested I can help you get access to a promo copy. The desktop client is free. There's a station list on the mobile with access to a hundred or so genres and sub-genres.
Once you install the desktop client and point it to your local music collection it shows up on the mobile. Too easy.
What is wrong with Orb? it is free, supports video, live TV and webcams as well as music.
wizzzard said:
What is wrong with Orb? it is free, supports video, live TV and webcams as well as music.
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Ummmm...
ORB is nowhere close. I tried it. The web interface is kludgy. And why would you want to have to switch to a different application to change to a different album or artist. The interface of the Social.FM client is iPod like. One of the things about Orb that was frustrating was that the streaming format was not supported in all players, or at least the one I wanted to use. It's been a while since I totally dismissed it so I can't remember the details. I tried them all. The best streamer was 40th Floor iPlay with the server option running on my desktop. But the interface on that is made for a stylus. I have no need to use a stylus, ever.
Incidentally, that's why I gave up the Tilt for the Q9H. And I need to be able to type with one hand which is not possible with the Tilt. As soon as the I-Mate 8502 comes out I'll switch to that.
Don't get me wrong. The Social.FM player is not quite there. You can't pause and there is no AVRCP support. I imagine that pausing is coming soon. I just had a full workout at the gym while streaming from my desktop at work and had zero skips. I found an interview with the CEO of Social.FM (http://www.onuiq.com/) and he said that they're using Ogg Vorbis encoding. Says they can get full quality over EDGE.
You really should give it a try.
I see its mercora. They are the ones who wanted to charge you for streaming your own music collection. Major fail.
Surur
Sounds pretty cool in spite of its short-comings. It will be great when this concept is fully dialed-in.
surur said:
I see its mercora. They are the ones who wanted to charge you for streaming your own music collection. Major fail.
Surur
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Well, they must have seen the light cuz right now I'm streaming from, not only mine, but my buddy's desktop for free.
Side note:
If I had my way I'd be streaming Slacker.com to my phone. They have, hands down, the best content available. The stations (genres/sub-genres) are put together by "music experts". And I can vouch for them. I even wrote an application to sniff their ID3 tags and automatically download full quality MP3's (theirs is 128kbit) and then sync that to my iPod automatically with ml_iPod. They have aspirations to release their own hardware player but not only hasn't that happened but I think it's misguided. I would [so] pay to stream their content to my phone.
I'm really struggling to find anything useful to download Podcasts to my Kaiser. I'd love to somehow subscribe to the Channel9 podcasts and have them download automatically as they are released (or at least have the option to download them automatically), kind of like how that crappy itunes handles podcasts and updates.
Is there anything comparable on the WM6 platform?
I'm using NewsBreak and use it to download a number of podcasts each week. It was the first I had tried, and I stopped looking after using it as it did everything I was looking for - easy downloading of podcasts, a list of prior episodes etc.
http://www.iliumsoft.com/site/nw/newsbreak.php
Egress (http://garishkernels.net) is a great client too.
As great as it is, the Hero is always going to attract comparisons with the iPhone. Both have their merits, but one area the Hero lags behind the iPhone is music management. The ease with which iTunes syncs music to the iPhone (or iPod) is a breeze, and I'd like to see the same with my Hero. Is there anything already, or does someone fancy coding a Windows program to do the same?
you can copy music just as files to your sdcard. although i would not call that "syncing" it is IMHO the best way there is, as it is portable to most devices and operating systems out there. don't know the result, but this topic was discussed already.
http://ita.sourceforge.net/
Try doubletwist.
Just like iTunes, imo
minorsecond said:
Try doubletwist.
Just like iTunes, imo
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I uninstalled because I didn't want to sign up for another service.
Winamp
You can use the good old Winamp to sync music to your phone, pretty much like iTunes.
I use Salling Media Sync . With it I can keep using iTunes and more or less sync my music like I used to.
Edit: I see no real need to buy the program. The free version works well.
I am using SongBird + Folder Sync add on. But it has some bugs for now.
Doubletwist is No. 1.
I tried doubleTwist, but it doesn't update tags after I edit them, so I switched to SongBird.
Do you use FolderSync or other add on? FolderSync gives some errors. And my problem with the SongBird is it can watch only 1 folder, but I download music to 2-3 different folders in 2 drives.
I was thinking of making this a generic discussion thread on what the going media players are. There are a couple of subjects I'd like to bullet-point:
1) (HD) video players
2) Music players
3) music/video streamers
4) Remote control functions for media players
To elaborate, and I'll start of with asking questions so people can add their comments/suggestions/questions/et al to the thread. If we can keep it tidy maybe we can turn this into a sticky at some point.
1) I guess there are plenty of (HD)video players around. Could someone tell me which ones are the more popular ones currently?
2) Same question for music players
3) This one applies to both points 1+2 I guess: Are there any players that can stream directly from your shared music/video folders wirelessly?
How about iTunes integration? I'm kinda considering an Apple TV kind of approach, where you can play all your music and videos stored somewhere on your network. This may require additional hardware though if the gTab is to be used as remote. Though another option would be to hook up the gTab to your TV and have it function as the Apple TV, and use for example your iPod/iPhone, or better yet, your Android phone, as a remote.
Another option would be to use the Viewsonic VMP75 (or similar media player) for the desired functionality (web browsing/streaming music/streaming video on your TV) and use the gTab as remote control. However, I actually did look around and couldn't find an app that allows an android device or apple device to control the VMP75 from Viewsonic.
This leads us to the final point:
4) Remote control functions: Are there any apps that allow this unit to control for example iTunes
So any thoughts/ideas/opinions/etc will be welcome...
Can't answer much.
2) I've tried these so far:
winamp
mortplayer
simple player
I actually like the widget that comes with tntlite, since it just works and doesn't take up a lot of space. On my phone I like to have more than one program so my music listening doesn't throw off my audiobooks.
I haven't messed around with winamp much but it is supposed to have some type of music integration with winamp on windows. I think it will sync wirelessly somehow.
3)upnpplay, might not have the spelling correct. I've gotten a few things to play, but don't think the interface works too good on a larger screen. But again I will admit to not trying it much.
4) someone on here had a post on reconfiguring the XBMC remote for use with the bigger screen. I don't use itunes so can't comment on that at all.
Hope that helps.
I have tried winamp and realplayer beta. I like the realplayer better and it scans pictures/movies/music from a SDCARD2 (micro SD card).
http://techmaderelevant.blogspot.com/2011/05/htc-evo-3d-and-view-4g-preorders-are-go.html
Still uploading all my songs lol, but so far I'm loving it! Who got their invite?
Can you just post your review here instead of linking to your blog for hits?
Here ya go:
Google's cloud-based music service was announced at this year's I/O conference to much fanfare and no surprise. While rumors of a music store had been rampant for quite some time, that wasn't quite what we got. Yet. But enough talk about what is not present, here's a quick sneak peak into Google Music Beta!
Before I get into this review, I'd like to make 2 disclaimers. The first and most important is that this entire service is Beta. There are imperfections that will no doubt be addressed. The second is that this is really 2 sneak peaks: One for the webapp and uploader, one for the Android app. Now, the good stuff.
First up is the meat and potatoes: The web interface and uploader. The uploading is incredibly easy. After a quick download and install, the Music Manager will scan your computer for the music. To avoid getting the random sound effects on your computer, you can have it scan through iTunes, Windows Media Player, or specific folders. Everything is done in the background, so you don't need to pay attention to it at all. You can also have it automatically run upon start up, keeping this truly out of sight and out of mind. The average library has a lot of music, mine being about 19.5Gb of tunes. At the time of this writing, I'm at 387 track uploaded after a few hours in, so completing this task will take a long time. The good news is Google promises each user 20,000 songs. My 19.5Gb accounts for roughly 4,000 tracks. The one issue I have is that I use iTunes, which means I don't really keep track of what the files are actually named. Since many tracks have numbers in front, and as far as I can tell the Music Manager uploads in alphabetical order, some albums can't be listened to in full.
The web app will look very familiar if you've used the web version of the Android Market. Everything is very tab-centric, making it incredibly easy to use. On the left side, you have the traditional ways of sorting through your library (Songs, Artists, Albums, Genres). Under that you get to the mixes and playlists. The auto-playlists sort out the songs you've Thumbs Up'd, your recently added stuff, and the free music Google is giving out. There's not a lot of it, and it's mostly a song or two per artist, but it's nice to get free stuff.
There are two kinds of playlists. You have your traditional playlists that you custom make by drag-and-dropping songs. The Music Manager also pulls your playlists from iTunes, which is very cool. You can also create Instant Mixes (a la Genius Mixes from iTunes) from individual songs or albums, adding in similar jams. Along the bottom is the Now Playing bar with the familiar Play/Pause, track navigation, Shuffle, Repeat, and Volume controls. I think the Now Playing bar could be a bit thinner. The width of it and the banners at the top make the song and album lists seem a little cramped. While the overall look isn't as visually impressive as the Zune player, it looks a lot better than iTunes but still has the information that iTunes has. Overall it's a very easy to use service while still looking very nice.
Now the dessert. The Android app is very basic, almost to a fault. First thing's first, it works pretty well. It decided to scare me by force closing the first time I tried to play a song, but every time after it worked well. Songs take very little time to load up on WiFi, though it does take a little bit longer on 3G. Swiping left and right switches through album, artist, etc. views. When on the now playing screen, you see the album cover, Play/Pause, song and artist name. One cool thing is being able to make custom playlists in the Now Playing screen, though it would make more sense to be able to make Instant Mixes from this screen. Maybe we'll get that later. You can also download songs or albums from the Library view and Now Playing screen.
The main problem with the app is a visual one. It's just boring. Like really boring. You're given a blurry, boring background picture. There's no animation between screens, nothing. It's just blah. It would have made a lot more sense to keep the color scheme and overall feel of the web app, while tweaking it a bit for smaller screens. The other small problem is that the name of the app is Music. So is the stock music app for Android. While the icons are different, this can be a bit confusing. They should made it Google Music for differentiation.
The biggest problem facing Google Music is the complete lack of a store. Google Music, as it is now, is just cloud storage and streaming. What's weird is that in both the web and Android app, you can "shop for artist", but it just does a Google Shopping search for that artist where you can buy the songs from somewhere else. This may work for now, but it isn't a longterm solution when Amazon is offering very similar services. Google is trying to get the labels to get on board in some fashion, but how long it will take and in what form we'll get the music remains to be seen. I'm hoping for a subscription service, and knowing how Google does things (and a fair amount of rumors supporting this theory), it's very likely that that is what we'll get.
Overall, Google Music is the best solution to having too much music to fit on your phone. While I'm also a big fan of subscription services like Rdio, they just don't have everything I listen to. Amazon's cloud storage is good, but it lacks a well done web player and uploading your stuff is obnoxious. Google nailed the upload and web version for sure. Once they lock in the record deals and make the Android app visually appealing, Google Music may just be the best music solution yet.
Everybody outside of the USA should have a look at 4shared music in the android market.
The most underrated and probably best international cloud service around
Has anyone tried to play it through a different player like PowerAmp. I don't want to listen to music on a lesser player, not since I've heard the difference. Also, are the playlists recognized by other players like PowerAmp?
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got my beta invite today...yippe
got my invite but didnt see a download for the android app????
vampir4997 said:
got my invite but didnt see a download for the android app????
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You have to set up the app on your PC. There is a link from the music.google.com page near the top right for the android app.
For me, I think the biggest opportunity for the android app will be mire management features. Currently you cannot thumbs up it down a track from mobile, and you cannot delete one either. Also it does not appear to be updating the play count when tracks are played via the mobile app. Overall , the app feels more alpha tech demo than it does an actual beta.
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant using Tapatalk.
I would love to try this out but unfortunately my library is larger than 20,000 songs :/
i'm trying to figure out the best balance of bitrate and battery. my V0 mp3s eat battery. i think pandora streams at q.2 48kbps AAC. i'm trying out flac-->q.25 63kbps AAC right now.
i think slacker, pandora, and lastfm are all around 48kbps. this might be an agreement with mobile providers--they all stream higher bitrate to the desktop than mobile.
or maybe i should just use it as a locker, and download from it? can't imagine when i would need that. don't really see a good use for this yet. the only reason i would stream is for discovery or lazy mix, and those services don't sound great. if they were higher bitrate, they would eat battery.
All my music is either uploaded to amazon mp3 or on amazon's cloudshare storage. I wish there was a way to get the music over to google without downloading and then re-uploading.
q.25 aac (63kbps) sounds like doodoo. i guess i would only use google music when on a ac or car charger, so that i can afford to play higher bitrates
i don't know, maybe it's my phone's audio chip. the m4a files sound better on my pc than my phone. htc thunderbolt
Not to promote piracy, of course... HOWEVER, for those people who may not have purchased all of their MP3's, am I right in assuming it could turn into a legal issue if Google is asked by the RIAA or a law enforcement agency to turn over records?
sfreemanoh said:
Not to promote piracy, of course... HOWEVER, for those people who may not have purchased all of their MP3's, am I right in assuming it could turn into a legal issue if Google is asked by the RIAA or a law enforcement agency to turn over records?
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no - uploading your files to the cloud and streaming to your device is not "sharing" copyrighted material. no matter how dubious your music sources may or may not be, there is nothing inherently illegal about accessing through the cloud. in fact, it is only the act of sharing/uploading/seeding copyrighted material that is illegal.
i think its prety sweet so far. abiltly to deleted tracks from phone and some better 3g speeds would make it that much better. Anyone have this on multiple phones?? downloaded the player from the market to put it on my wifes phone but it is not in the settings to add an account. downloaded mine from the market and it has a different options menu.
I'm enjoying it so far. I was previously using AudioGalaxy to stream my collection from my home pc to other devices, but I definitely prefer the cloud storage method.
Took roughly 40 hours to upload 5k songs, not too bad. Had to convert some files to aac, but not many. Ran into 1 glitch where the uploader claims that a few song files don't contain anything, which they clearly do.. still not quite sure how to fix that problem, but it's only on 4 songs that I never listen to, so not that big of a deal.
At the end of the day, big thumbs up from me.
Im in beta but no streaming
I'm in the beta, installed android app via beta invite link, uploaded music. but can not find a way to stream from the cloud to my android phone. HELP!
c_urbanek said:
I'm in the beta, installed android app via beta invite link, uploaded music. but can not find a way to stream from the cloud to my android phone. HELP!
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Check out "Settings" and there should be an option to link it to your Google Account. I linked it and it still wasn't streaming though. I rebooted my phone, but that didn't seem to work either. Then randomly, a day or two later, it spontaneously started showing my music to stream. YMMV...
Offline music question ...
Here is a question for the Google Music Beta experts ...
One thing I love about Google Music on my phone is the ability to pin music. This allows us to play the 'pinned' music even when there is no 3G or WIFI service. The way I manage my offline music is through a playlist I made called "My Favorites". I have this playlist pinned, so anytime I add new music to it, it will automatically download when I am connected to WIFI. The question I have is ... what happens if I removed songs from the pinned playlist? Will they be removed from my phone? Or do they stay on my phone? I am hoping they are removed. I would hate for my SD card to get filled up with songs that I don't care to be available when I am offline.
Thanks
I have 30k+ songs in my itunes library, how do I pick and choose which songs to add/delete?