I'm sure many people have noticed this, but figured I'd start a little discussion on this.
For those that have not seen or heard about it: Amazon started offering a "cloud" service. Basically functions as a typical online storage service with a few neat features. Using the amazon mp3 player (free download), you can stream music files stored on the "cloud" account to your phone. Obviously this doesn't completely replace the functionality of having music stored on the device, as you wont have access if you don't have a network connection of some sort, but I know I can store more of my music on the cloud server and keep a limited amount of music on the phone for those instances that I wont have a network connection.
It looks like their basic/free service will provide 5 GB of storage, though you can get that upgraded to 20 GB for free with the purchase of an MP3 album. Obviously, not everyone will want to do that, but I had been looking at buying an MP3 album from amazon anyways (finding the actual CD was looking to be impossible or WAY too expensive) so it kind of worked out well for me. I wouldn't say there's a whole lot of innovative features, just a bit of innovation in combining features for convenience I guess. So, with my limited testing so far, I wouldn't call anything groundbreaking, but definitely nifty.
So far, it streams perfectly fine over both wifi and 3G which is to be expected. The player is fairly basic/minimalistic, but gets the job done. The widget also follows the minimalistic design. I feel that both are a bit too simplistic and prefer using winamp, but it's really just a preference thing. I can't really fault anything specific about the amazon player at this point other than being simple in design. The player also functions as an amazon music store so you can purchase music to be added to your cloud storage and you download the files directly to your phone. So far, I'd say the convenience is the best part of the service.
One thing I'm wondering about: Why didn't they combine the app store and music store into one app? I know it's not that difficult to switch between the 2, but it seems like it would be "cleaner" to just put both into one great package. I'm guessing they were concerned about it becoming cluttered, especially with search results, but it still seems like they could have worked the 2 together.
I tried this an it seemed to work good to me. The only thing that sucks is that my upload speed is terrible at home so uploaded 5gbs would take me forever, yet alone more GB.
Be sure to check here for some essentially free space.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/03/29/tip-get-20gb-of-amazon-cloud-drive-storage-for-only-0-69/
Hello everybody!
So with all the hype of ICS source being released, there are a few things I think Google is overlooking BIG TIME!
Forgive me if you don't agree or don't care for that matter.
First. I am really digging the new Google Music app as well as the addition of the music store being added to the market. But my question to Google would be, why use your music store vs. ITunes on my CPU? There is no music management system for Google, which in my opinion is a huge short fall. I understand that Google is really hitting the cloud hard, but what if I don't want my new purchases or any music in the cloud? Manually dragging and dropping music files is a pain in the @ss. I guess my frustrations revolve mostly around their web based music player than the music app. Drop the web based music player and release an application. Make it easy for android users to flawlessly sync their phone with their CPU and CPU with the cloud. Make it easy to sync my music and playlists.
And dude what's up with your LAME music widget? Seriously? You make this beautiful UI, built from the ground up and you dont even have the decency to revamp your music widget... Com'on man!
Second. Again this is attention to detail, why did you not update the ui in the clock app? It doesn't match the ICS ui at all. It didn't even match with GB for that matter.
Don't get me wrong, I love android and Google but there are just a few things (IMHO) that need to really be tended to.
I guess that's all for now.
Good day.
I agree. Thats why I still use iTunes. Best music manager to me.
Temari x Shikamaru
Since we're on the google music kick... anyone notice you can't make individual songs available offline in the app? You can only do artists or albums (though, I really only tried from the artist view)...
And yes, they do need to redo the widget. I'm not so interested in a standalone music player for pc, though I do see the need for better pc-android syncing.
If you purchase the song, and you play it or make it available offline, you can listen to the local cached version.
No drag and drop, it's just there.
Craysh said:
If you purchase the song, and you play it or make it available offline, you can listen to the local cached version.
No drag and drop, it's just there.
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Click to collapse
I get that, and it does work well. It's the music that is not synced to the cloud has to be manually drag/drooped to the phone. There needs to be a better music management system.
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App
knowledge561 said:
I agree. Thats why I still use iTunes. Best music manager to me.
Temari x Shikamaru
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly!
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App
Completely off-topic, but more people should know this:
CPU ≠ Computer.
The CPU is an extremely small part of a computer, it stands for Central Processing Unit, and is the brain of a computer, but again, is NOT the computer itself.
</rant>
Edit:
By the way, I completely agree with this entire post, btw. Closest I've come to an iTunes-like experience has been DoubleTwist, and has worked well for me. Give it a shot, if you like iTunes then this is the Android equivalent.
This is Google 101 my friend..Make a product that works and pretty it up at a later date..Its been like this for years..They worry about the aesthetics later on..They are just a bunch of engineers with no eye for ease of use or appealing UI.
I'm sure they will throw a coat of paint on it in the future.
Sent from my PG86100 using xda premium
Atoro said:
Completely off-topic, but more people should know this:
CPU ≠ Computer.
The CPU is an extremely small part of a computer, it stands for Central Processing Unit, and is the brain of a computer, but again, is NOT the computer itself.
</rant>
Edit:
By the way, I completely agree with this entire post, btw. Closest I've come to an iTunes-like experience has been DoubleTwist, and has worked well for me. Give it a shot, if you like iTunes then this is the Android equivalent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the clarification
I have used numerous apps, including double twist. While double twist has its perks, there needs to be a native android music management system. The problem with using other music apps is that you can't utilize there cloud. And with that it's annoying having to use two separate apps to accomplish what should be done with one. It seems redundant having to download an alternative app.
Also when you purchase music from the market its automatically stored "in the cloud". But when you select to download it to your phone from the music app, where does it save it to? MIUI music can't find any of my purchased music, nor can I using a file explorer. TIA.
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App
Lol I stopped reading at Itunes on your cpu hahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Holy hell, you guys using itune or apple at all, that's a sin 'round here. You get burned at the stake for that. You should be embarrassed of your sinful admition.
Jk, but really using apple products, for shame feeding the beast. All your complaints will be fixed in due time.
Well Linux has a stand alone google music app. And everything is accessible from the browser in any OS. So I somewhat agree. I really don't know what the problem is but uploading music from a computer to google music is painfully slow. I 100% agree about the clock app and the music widget though. Everytime I set an alarm I cringe at the ugly UI lol
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Idc, iTunes is the best music app. Plus my first smartphone was an iphone
Temari x Shikamaru
bballer71418 said:
Well Linux has a stand alone google music app. And everything is accessible from the browser in any OS. So I somewhat agree. I really don't know what the problem is but uploading music from a computer to google music is painfully slow. I 100% agree about the clock app and the music widget though. Everytime I set an alarm I cringe at the ugly UI lol
Sent from my PG86100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is like they forgot about the clock lol
All I'm trying to her across is it would be nice to have some sort of iTunes type media management system to sync music, movies, shows, ringtones etc... Until then I don't foresee Google taking over the music market. ITunes works and works well (sorry to say it) and people have been using it for years.
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knowledge561 said:
Idc, iTunes is the best music app. Plus my first smartphone was an iphone
Temari x Shikamaru
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sinner! Lol
Agreed.
Sent from my HTC EVO 3d using Taptalk
If you could just download the songs to your SD card and use any music player or release an api to allow apps like HTC music to use your Google music account. I hate having another music app because of this.
Via My HTC Evo 3D On The Now Network From Sprint.
Some it may be Google's agreements with the big record labels. I mean they make it virtually impossible to pull music you've downloaded from the store to a pc. But yes google needs to understand that although in the coming years the 'cloud' and tablets may be peoples only form of computing but until then and if they want to be successful now they need to make stand alone applications that is as robust as iTunes is for computers.
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I don't like itunes its incredibly over rated. There is nothing standout about it, plus it provides advertising and revinue for apple. I would rather use a folder on my desktop for arranging my music than use itunes.
hungry81 said:
I don't like itunes its incredibly over rated. There is nothing standout about it, plus it provides advertising and revinue for apple. I would rather use a folder on my desktop for arranging my music than use itunes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol I love fanboys. You can still like Google and use apple products.
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I'm trying to sync my itunes playlist to my android phone. I've used all sorts of different programs in the past to do this. But I found the Easy Phone Tunes Plus worked best for me. Double Twist works great to, but only the double twist player can read the playlist's which is the only problem. If you open your music on the default music player for an example, it will not show any playlists, only in the double twist app will it show you playlists. For that reason is why I found the Easy Phone Tunes Plus app which worked great in the past but since then is no longer working.
I originally was using a hacked version of the app which worked great. But it eventually stopped working as a result, I went ahead and simply paid for the app thinking it would start working again. But there was no change. Everything works find with the app except that the program is not recognizing that I have the paid version on my phone and thinks it is still the free version. As a result, it will not let me pick which playlists I want to sync and which ones I don't want to sync. I already emailed the developer, but haven't heard anything back yet. Please let me know if anyone has any suggestion?
I'm running an HTC EVO LTE with the latest MEAN ROM build, as well as Windows 7, 64 bit.
What will come first the app for flash player on WP8 or a new OS. I think this is biggest lack of app now. It seems there is no end in site for flash, its time MS paid for developing it. Anyone have any insight on this WP8 missing piece.
Vangink said:
What will come first the app for flash player on WP8 or a new OS. I think this is biggest lack of app now. It seems there is no end in site for flash, its time MS paid for developing it. Anyone have any insight on this WP8 missing piece.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Meh,
The only page I've come across that needed flash was the one for a local restaurant. The majority of the sites have minimized or move from flash, or aren't intended for mobile devices.
That said, I'm sorry you can't create your new candy concoctions or tend your farms from your phone, thought there are plenty of other games that you can play that run natively on the phone.
Regards,
Etaduck said:
Meh,
The only page I've come across that needed flash was the one for a local restaurant. The majority of the sites have minimized or move from flash, or aren't intended for mobile devices.
That said, I'm sorry you can't create your new candy concoctions or tend your farms from your phone, thought there are plenty of other games that you can play that run natively on the phone.
Regards,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
perhaps you don't read BBC or stream video from tv sites. Thanks for cotton candy speech.
Adobe as of the year before last pulled out of the mobile market. That means flash is not even available on Android devices now unless you get a third party app that may still be floating around. All websites are supposed to be converting to HTML5 if they want mobile viewer traffic. If they have not converted then they are only interested in PC traffic and you should boycott the site to show them the traffic they are missing. Rather than make your work, you should make the sites do what they are supposed to do.
My android phone (Asus PadFone 2) is capable of showing live streams on Twitch.tv with the default browser, but I have no idea how. If I try to play a video from the day before on the website, it says I need flash player, so it only works if the channel is live. On my Lumia 920 however if I go to Twitch.tv, it says I need flash player, even if the channel is live... So how is it my PadFone can show live streams if its still flash-based, yet I get an error saying I need flash if I try to play videos from the day before?
I tried an unofficial Twitch TV app. on WP. It works well, but you have to pay to not get cut off every 5mins or so. I wish WP would also be able to show live streams on the actual Twitch TV website.
Vangink said:
What will come first the app for flash player on WP8 or a new OS. I think this is biggest lack of app now. It seems there is no end in site for flash, its time MS paid for developing it. Anyone have any insight on this WP8 missing piece.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Vangink said:
perhaps you don't read BBC or stream video from tv sites. Thanks for cotton candy speech.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BBC has alot of apps for reading it ... an the official player in the store
Stream video ...Most of the big sites have already apps in the store
Solarenemy68 said:
Adobe as of the year before last pulled out of the mobile market. That means flash is not even available on Android devices now unless you get a third party app that may still be floating around. All websites are supposed to be converting to HTML5 if they want mobile viewer traffic. If they have not converted then they are only interested in PC traffic and you should boycott the site to show them the traffic they are missing. Rather than make your work, you should make the sites do what they are supposed to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And as Solarenemy68 told you above ..... Forget about it ... Flash is OFF from the mobile market. (iOS Android WP ) ..period !!!!
Hey guys I am contemplating on developing a media play that will be able to play both audio and video within a single app and designing it partly around the vanilla KitKat experience. I was thinking I would list it anywhere between $1 to $3. What do yall think. Is it a good idea? Do you think it would sell? Would you buy it?
Bump
I think people use their phones differently when listening to music or watching media, at least I do and the people I know do as well
So if I'm to listen to music, be it with head phones or streaming I go to one app, and I don't keep videos on my devices so all streaming is done through various apps
If you really want to do this I would suggest a free version with either limited options or ads so users can test and you will see if there is a market for it
But I think this is a case where you need to sell the user the idea that one app is better than two or three or....
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
yeah i think this is a great idea especially with the kitkat UI implemented into it, and the idea to be able to have both music and videos within one app is great but what i think you should do is have different section for music and videos such as having a sub menu or something where you can select what you want to do and from that you could also implement a photo viewer and maybe even a stream type thing or something
I think a very simplistic "android player" with the new kitkat UI that plays all major video and audio would be useful. Possible features like playlists and album art would require the paid version. The focus of it would have to be the modern theme and simplicity since one app is simpler than two. It can still be very powerful without all the extra options that are in many applications.