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Hello All!
It seems line not so long ago I was joining XDA to get help with my HTC Mogul. Seems so long ago. We have all come a long way since then, and I’m here today to announce my new Android application.
simplePLAY is a media player that adds some unique functionality for browsing tracks, as well as simplifying the play screen functionality. See below for detailed information, as well as links to purchase for a measly 99 cents on the Android market.
If anyone has any questions or comments I will try to address them here.
Thank you all for the support throughout my years here!
Josh McKinney
Twisted Pixels Multimedia
simplePLAY
Enjoy your music and podcasts with ease using simplePlay, the new media player from Twisted Pixels Multimedia.
simplePLAY allows you to browse your music files with ease, using unique features like Quick Letter to jump to a specific letter while browsing.
Pressing the playing tab in the bottom of the corner takes you the "No Look" playing screen, where you can swipe left or right to navigate tracks, tap the screen to play and pause, or swipe down return to the library. No wrong buttons to press, no fumbling for the right function. Simple. Safe. Great for attention free shuffling while driving.
Other features include:
• Theme Support (Light, Dark, more to come)
• High Resolution Album Art Downloading
• Fullscreen functionality
• Optional screen lock while powered
• Podcast support includes bookmarking functionality.
Market Link:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.twistedpixels.simple_play
Purchased right away, as I really like the idea of this player.
I've only been playing with it for a short while, but here's a few thoughts...
I like:
Lovely clean & minimalistic look.
The "quick-jump by letters" feature makes the library a pleasure to use!
Gestures.
Podcast playback with resume.
Responsive and fast.
What I'd like to see implemented or improved:
Lockscreen widget!
Being able to override the functionality of volume buttons while locked. PlayerPro allows me to use these buttons to change/skip songs (long press) as well as adjust volume (short press), while on the lockscreen. This makes the player easy to operate while still in my pocket.
The buttonless interface is great, but a (optional) position slider would be very useful in the podcast mode.
Perhaps a equalizer?
Keep up the great work!
Thank you for the feedback!
I continue to try and improve the app, and will add all of your suggestions to my to-do list. Lockscreen and volume button controls are not included natively, but do work with some custom ROMs. I will look into adding these in the future.
I have also received numerous requests for a time slider, and I will be adding that and a volume slider soon. The playing screen will keep it's simplistic design, but additional controls will be brought up with a double tap.
Thanks again for supporting!
Josh
What are the widgets like, if there are any? I couldn't see any in the video.
Thanks for considering my previous requests I would also like to add another one:
Please stop invoking the media scanner every time the player is launched.
wow man, i like the simplicity!!! kudos
ppcmaster1 said:
wow man, i like the simplicity!!! kudos
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
goood job!!! thx
Thank you all for the kind comments. Update went out last night with some interface tweaks and a new theme.
Next update should be a big one with time and volume sliders and a homescreen widget.
If you would like to help spread the word you can follow the official Twisted Pixels twitter account or my personal twitter here.
Thank You Guys!
Josh
Purchased. Like a lot. Needs a few improvements.
Ability to easily play all songs in an album without having to menu -> play all.
When a song is selected from within an album, only that song plays. It would be nice if the other songs in the album were added to the "playlist" so that once again I didnt have to select menu -> play all
ummmm im alittle scared....i went to the developers website (twisted pixels) and it says hacked by arab something O_O
Hi All.
Sorry about the website. It did get hacked, as did other sites on the same server farm. I have my webhost working on it and it should be back up later today. Just keep in mind that simplePLAY was developed entirely separate from the site, and there is no risk involved in purchasing.
The app has really taken off since being featured on AndroidCentral yesterday, and I want to keep the momentum by adding some features being requested.
In response to jhotmann:
If you want to play or queue an entire album you can do so by holding down the selection from the album menu. This works from the Artist menu as well.
Any other questions or requests?
Purchased this app, so far I'm loving it. Despite some missing features, it's a really good player. As people have said, a nice widget and some extra controls would be nice for the next update. Keep up the good work!
Is there a way to go directly to an album list.
Currently it seems I have to go into artist, then select the album they're in, it seems a bit backwards.
i purshased the app and it did not download...it stays stuck on downloading...i have the email to prove the i brought the app but i havent been able to download it....any way i can contact you so you can help me fix this problem =/
MMontanez347 said:
i purshased the app and it did not download...it stays stuck on downloading...i have the email to prove the i brought the app but i havent been able to download it....any way i can contact you so you can help me fix this problem =/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sorry you are having trouble downloading, but there is nothing I can do from the developer side to fix a stuck download. I believe this is either a problem with the market, your device or a combination of both.
If there are any other developers who can suggest how to fix this please let me know and i would be happy to help.
Josh McKinney
Twisted Pixels Multimedia
i happy you finally responded....and i have the email to prove that i brought it legally from the android market....i doubt its my device because i have a tmobile G2 unrooted.....do u have a email address so i can fowward you the bill from google that shows i dowloaded it so u can maybe send me the apk so i can manually download or something....or maybe update the apk in the marketplace so i can try downloading it again?
MMontanez347,
There will be an update posted soon. Please try downloading again from the market when the new version is posted.
Sorry for the trouble,
Josh
Looks awesome, looks like the Zune HD interface
Purchased
alright please let me know when the update is avaible...thanks
Two simple questions
Hi! This app is really awesome, and i want to buy it , but first i need to know two things.
1) The app has a lastfm support?
2) If i disconnect the headphones the music stops?
If the app can make this two things then i buy it
Good job!
Edit: Nevermind... I buy the app and do all the things that i need! I really want to participate translating the app... There is a way to help in the translation to spanish? Cheers!
First of all, hello to everybody. I have just joined xdaDevelopers.
To business now..
I recently bought my first Windows Phone (Nokia Lumia 520). One of the reasons for getting it was for developing my own WP8 apps.
I would like to start with a music player app - one that can play mp3 files from phone memory and SD card; arrange songs according to name, albums and artists; create playlists; have capabilties of fast foward and rewind (seeking); and recognise album arts.
What do I need to know before I can start building it?
I have zero experience in app development; I am a web designer.
I noticed that there are very few "polished" music players (which function properly as well as have a nice UI) in the WP store. Any particular reason for that (other than the platform being relatively new)?
I created this post mainly because the lack of quality music players appeared a bit strange to me. I have heard that a particular file type can be accessed by only one app (please correct me if I am wrong). So does it mean that one has to somehow uninstall the default music player in order to use the newly downloaded one?
For instance, I have "Adobe Reader" which can read PDFs from my MicroSD card. But the "PDF Reader" app (which I installed just yesterday) cannot even find them! So I had to uninstall the latter.
So I wanted to know if there was something about WP8 that doesn't allow such things - if these "security measures", which render apps like file managers less useful, are also responsible for the lack of music players in this otherwise very fantastic platform.
Please note that I come from Android, and am very new to Windows Phone platform. So kindly point out if there's something incorrect about my assumptions.
Thanks and regards.
Hi,
Welcome to Windows Phone. The Lumia 520 is a great choice in my humble opinion. In regards to why there are so few music apps, there are probably several reasons. One such is the fact, that the easiest way to make one is to integrate with the built-in music features, which however limits you in several ways, like not being able to add more file types, not being able to customize the experience too much, playlisting is limit as far as I know, which basically puts you in the position, that the only actual improvement you can do upon that is implementing a new streaming service. The other route is to implement your own music player, but then you're going to have issues making it work in the background (not to mention, that implementing a music player isn't entirely simple).
gdebojyoti said:
What do I need to know before I can start building it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Make sure you have hardware for it. I recommend a minimum of Windows 8 Pro 64bit, but you can find instructions for Windows 7 on this forum as well. You'll need VT-x support on your CPU, plenty of RAM.
2. Download and install the WP8 SDK.
3. Once you open Visual Studio, you can start by creating a new project, you'll need a UI project (I recommend Windows Phone App or HTML5 App templates) and a music playback project (WP Audio Playback Agent -OR- WP Audio Streaming Agent).
4. For tutorials on how to get started I usually go to Pluralsight.com, because I have a subscription there, and they're plain awesome, but I'm sure there are a bunch of other sources as well, which are for free.
gdebojyoti said:
For instance, I have "Adobe Reader" which can read PDFs from my MicroSD card. But the "PDF Reader" app (which I installed just yesterday) cannot even find them! So I had to uninstall the latter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have both Adobe Reader and PDF Reader installed, once you tap on a PDF file (say after downloading one in IE) an option should appear for you to select which app you wanna open it with.
gdebojyoti said:
So I wanted to know if there was something about WP8 that doesn't allow such things - if these "security measures", which render apps like file managers less useful, are also responsible for the lack of music players in this otherwise very fantastic platform.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can install and use as many audio/music apps you like, but obviously only one can have the background music feature used at one time. (You can only have one music playing in the background).
Also:
"Developers must pay an annual subscription fee of $99, (this, according to Todd Brix, the General Manager for Windows Phone Apps and Store team, is currently on an ongoing promotion at $19) to become an App Hub member and submit apps to the Windows Phone Store. There's no limit on the number of free submissions for paid apps. There's a limit of 100 free submissions for free apps; thereafter, there's a fee of $19.99 per submission for free apps." - Wikipedia
Hope I helped, and happy coding!
:fingers-crossed:
@TheGoldrocker: Thank you for your reply. It did clear up quite a few things.
As of now, I am okay with "integrating with the built-in music features" as you said.
What I want to do is modify the UI and UX a bit. Some of the features can be as follows -
1. Introducing a scroll bar;
2. Option to get rid of the grouping system by name;
3. Control over the font size;
4. Allowing the currently playing song to continue if I select the song (currently it starts playing from the beginning);
5. Enabling the seeking feature (tapping the timeline of the song so as to play from that point of time);
6. Having a tile feature in the start screen with options to pause, change song, etc (number of options would depend upon the length of the song);
7. Showing the album art of the currently playing song in the tile;
8. Having an animated background in the app (just a wide photo which slowly slides from left to right).
Am I allowed to do the above?
You're welcome.
"Integrating with the built-in music features" doesn't mean you get to rewrite the UI/functionality of the current Music+Videos app. What it means is, you get to use the built-in classes for simplifying music playback in your new app. You'll still have to build up a new UI around your classes, you'll also have to write quite a few lines of code for the playback functionality (but obviously way less than if you tried to write your own music player from scratch).
Now sadly I cannot answer all of your questions with absolute certainty, because I haven't tried writing a music player yet, but I'll give them a shot.
I numbered your list:
gdebojyoti said:
1. Introducing a scroll bar;
2. Option to get rid of the grouping system by name;
3. Control over the font size;
4. Allowing the currently playing song to continue if I select the song (currently it starts playing from the beginning);
5. Enabling the seeking feature (tapping the timeline of the song so as to play from that point of time);
6. Having a tile feature in the start screen with options to pause, change song, etc (number of options would depend upon the length of the song);
7. Showing the album art of the currently playing song in the tile;
8. Having an animated background in the app (just a wide photo which slowly slides from left to right).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Yes, since you'll have to make a new UI from scratch, and you'll have the ability to include any logic behind it you want.
2. Yes, the grouping can be avoided AFAIK.
3. Same as 1.
4. Same as 1.
5. Don't think so. Someone else with more knowledge will have to answer this to be sure, though.
6. If you mean a tile on the start screen, which, when tapped will play/stop/next/prev/whatever and STAY on the start screen? No. Tiles (sadly) always open a program (even if for only a millisecond). You can use this for deeplinking to favorite songs/playlists/streaming services though, which is cool.
7. Same as 1.
8. Same as 1.
Hope I helped.
Thank you for your reply.
TheGoldrocker said:
6. If you mean a tile on the start screen, which, when tapped will play/stop/next/prev/whatever and STAY on the start screen? No. Tiles (sadly) always open a program (even if for only a millisecond). You can use this for deeplinking to favorite songs/playlists/streaming services though, which is cool.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By "deeplinking", do you mean pinning songs to the start screen by 'long pressing' on them?
I do hope that Microsoft introduces interactive tiles in some future update. Sort of start screen widgets.
gdebojyoti said:
By "deeplinking", do you mean pinning songs to the start screen by 'long pressing' on them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Deeplinking is launching an app with a link toward a specific page with parameters. Imagine it as a URL to a specific page on a website. If your app and pages support it, you could tap on a tile (say on the start screen), which opens your app, and instantly navigates to a playlist, album, song, whatever you made that tile link to.
Pinning items to the start screen can be triggered by anything you want. You, the coder, decides how you're gonna allow the user to pin their songs/albums/playlists/artists/whatever.
Here's a little tutorial on this topic:
http://wp.qmatteoq.com/first-steps-...-links/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Okay, thanks. I'll have a look at that.
To make a media player for windows phone is to know insanity.
Why we no join forces?
There are a couple fo things the guys here forgot to tell you:
You can not read Mp3 files from SD card.
You can not read mp3 files from the user music folder.
You only have access to web resources or your app's isolated storage.
You basically have to engineer a way to get them to the app storage.
mcosmin222 said:
To make a media player for windows phone is to know insanity.
Why we no join forces?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think I have enough knowledge to be able to help you. I am just a beginner.
mcosmin222 said:
You can not read Mp3 files from SD card.
You can not read mp3 files from the user music folder.
You only have access to web resources or your app's isolated storage.
You basically have to engineer a way to get them to the app storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's why I will try to "integrate with the built-in music features". Hopefully it will be okay then.
I am not trying to make the next best thing in the music player app category.
I am just trying to make one which has a slightly different UI and is able to play mp3s.
Sort of a project of mine.
By the way, can someone please tell me if I can use technologies like HTML5 to create this app? Actually I don't know C#.
Or should I learn C# before attempting this app?
gdebojyoti said:
I don't think I have enough knowledge to be able to help you. I am just a beginner.
Well, that's why I will try to "integrate with the built-in music features". Hopefully it will be okay then.
I am not trying to make the next best thing in the music player app category.
I am just trying to make one which has a slightly different UI and is able to play mp3s.
Sort of a project of mine.
By the way, can someone please tell me if I can use technologies like HTML5 to create this app? Actually I don't know C#.
Or should I learn C# before attempting this app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can not integrate with the built-in player.
There are too many limitations to explain. You will see.
Yes, learn C#
Okay.
Hello xda,
Now what I am posting today is NOT THE EFFICIENT way of playing YouTube songs or videos in the background but it is effective. This will shouw that youtube background playback is poasible. I hope someone can understand thh logic and convert this into an application or an xposed module at some point.
Step 1 - ask a friend to call you in a while, say 30 seconds
Step 2 - meanwhile open a YouTube video so that when your friend calls you YouTube automatically pauses it for you
Step 3- take the call and press home button in between the call and then just disconnect it
Your videos should continue playing in the background
Again, I am not saying this is a trick or sth. I am just sharing so that someone can use this and actually make it a trick to play YouTube videos in the background.
PS-the currentxposed module doesn't work for me
PS2- I am facing a problem with my phone, for which I posted in the nexus 5 troubleshooting group but no reply as of yet. Could you please give it a look and help me out there. Here's the link
http://forum.xda-developers.com/goo...ar-nexus-5-t3191613/post62620267#post62620267
rahul9five said:
Hello xda,
Now what I am posting today is NOT THE EFFICIENT way of playing YouTube songs or videos in the background but it is effective. This will shouw that youtube background playback is poasible. I hope someone can understand thh logic and convert this into an application or an xposed module at some point.
Step 1 - ask a friend to call you in a while, say 30 seconds
Step 2 - meanwhile open a YouTube video so that when your friend calls you YouTube automatically pauses it for you
Step 3- take the call and press home button in between the call and then just disconnect it
Your videos should continue playing in the background
Again, I am not saying this is a trick or sth. I am just sharing so that someone can use this and actually make it a trick to play YouTube videos in the background.
PS-the currentxposed module doesn't work for me
PS2- I am facing a problem with my phone, for which I posted in the nexus 5 troubleshooting group but no reply as of yet. Could you please give it a look and help me out there. Here's the link
http://forum.xda-developers.com/goo...ar-nexus-5-t3191613/post62620267#post62620267
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Current YouTube Background Playback doesn't work because it hasn't been updated to work with the current YouTube, yet... You can simply downgrade your YouTube using XInstaller or Uninstall then Install an older version.
Hi guys.
As I have mentioned it before I have started working on a YouTube Player for Android Auto, but since I'm not a big youtuber myself I will like to get some input from you guys on how this should app work.
My thought till now are:
1) When you are outside Android Auto, you will need to open the app, give permission to access your content and sync your playlists to the app.
2) When in Android Auto, the media player will contain entries for each PlayList and all the items of a playlist will be listed as subitems. This part will work as any other media app.
3) Video playback, this will be on the fifth tab, same menu structure, but it will also display video, of course only when the car is stopped, other than that video playback will be disabled.
4) Provide search for individual songs.
- Is there any other way you usually use Youtube beside created playlists, if yes please tell me so I can understand what should I build.
Sync before use - Why is it needed?
- To be able to use the YouTube API which gives me access to your playlist and content I need to create a developer API. The API is limited to 1.000.000 trade units per day, every query has it's own unit value (not necessarily 1) so if I don't sync the playlist and use a fetch as needed approach, I will risk to run out of trade units when the user base grows bigger.
Any comments suggestions are welcomed.
Hello, I am very interested in this application.
It would be very useful if you could choose the quality of the video.
I want buy it
Hi,
Why a YouTube player, and not any other type of player? Several opensource players with local support exists. Why not use some of these as a base?
manos78 said:
Hi,
Why a YouTube player, and not any other type of player? Several opensource players with local support exists. Why not use some of these as a base?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Local players do exist for audio, and it's easy to create an app for AA for them, but YouTube is more problematic, and yeah it's a bit against youtube policy because you shouldn't have sound without video, so officially that app will never be created (maybe with youtube red).
However this project did not receive too much attention so it's on a backburner at the moment, probably till end of November.
Emil Borconi said:
Local players do exist for audio, and it's easy to create an app for AA for them, but YouTube is more problematic, and yeah it's a bit against youtube policy because you shouldn't have sound without video, so officially that app will never be created (maybe with youtube red).
However this project did not receive too much attention so it's on a backburner at the moment, probably till end of November.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh, Ok! You think in audio only YouTube player.
I hope someone will start to develop a Xposed module that "rewrites" the MainActivity of any selected App and add AA support on-the-fly! This will be more similar to MirrorLink (not supported in a lot of devices).
Regards.
manos78 said:
Ahh, Ok! You think in audio only YouTube player.
I hope someone will start to develop a Xposed module that "rewrites" the MainActivity of any selected App and add AA support on-the-fly! This will be more similar to MirrorLink (not supported in a lot of devices).
Regards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Audio only + video when the car is parked/not moving.
Video Player app for Android Auto, maybe based to VLC that is open source would be very useful and i'll buy it surely
Emil Borconi said:
Local players do exist for audio, and it's easy to create an app for AA for them, but YouTube is more problematic, and yeah it's a bit against youtube policy because you shouldn't have sound without video, so officially that app will never be created (maybe with youtube red).
However this project did not receive too much attention so it's on a backburner at the moment, probably till end of November.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why isn't there any more attention for this?
Listen to Youtube playlists and watching video while parking would be a killer feature for AA.
Excellent App idea ?
Would love this app
Great !
We wait youtube app to android auto ! Please <3<3<3
uzakask said:
We wait youtube app to android auto ! Please <3<3<3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's my attempt to make YouTube work on Android auto.
www.thekirankumar.com/blog/2017/12/29/play-youtube-video-android-auto-app
It's an apk you download and install on phone and it allowd use of YouTube mobile site on Android auto. Enjoy !
Hi all here,
I am the author of what's called an unofficial Android Auto SDK, a piece of software
which allows creating custom Android Auto apps.
Because the poster of the previous message used this SDK, I believe it's
important that I quote my statement about video-in-motion AA apps from
the thread linked above also here. Please read below.
Regards,
martoreto
martoreto said:
Dear all,
it is a good moment to say my final word specifically about the kind of apps
which allow playing videos on the head unit.
I think these don't need much comment:
It's ok to have a movie together on a great trip in middle of nowhere, when stopped.
It's not ok to watch a movie while driving. It doesn't need any comment.
It's totally ok for the passenger to watch a movie on his/her own device.
It's not ok for a passenger to watch a movie on a display in front of the driver.
It's ok to show off how a wonderful head unit I have which can play YT, but not while driving.
It's not ok to watch a movie while driving just to do a forbidden thing.
There's no "it's ok" scenario here for playing movies while in motion. Please share if you
know some. I'm pretty sure these are very uncommon or borderline ok.
Those "it's not ok" may be tempting. Because the driver may be bored, pissed off,
deny the danger of driving distracted, willing to show off, overestimate his/her skills,
name your reason.
Words displayed in the dash or written on a website or anywhere else would rarely
prevent it.
It's not that if movies are not possible in these cases, the driver will definitely do
something else stupid, like playing the video on the phone itself or become even more
angry and aggressive on road.
I want to say that clearly: I believe no apps should allow playing videos on the
car display while the car is in motion. Period.
I ask all here to not write such apps and not promote and talk about them here.
Instead of supporting those who create these apps just to satisfy popular demand of
doing a forbidden thing, please support those who actually care about creatively
and carefully designing the apps to be useful and which assertively, yet nicely
prevent being used in a stupid way.
Regards,
martoreto
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Post deleted.
Youtube auto Android auto
I created an app in html5. Its an basic bible app with a lot of pages and a couple of images, nothing to complicated.
How can i import all those pages (the app) to continue my development in android studio so i could finally put it in google play store?
If i could get a step by step process about how i can do it i would appreciate it.
Btw i used wysiwyg web builder to build this project. It is a drag and drop software. I'm not so good in programming so that's why i use drag and drop software's to create what i want in a short time.