My G1 is showing it's age and I'm thinking of just switching back to a dumb phone and using the G1 as an iPod Touch-esque only device. I was wondering which launchers, media apps, widgets, etc. you all would recommend for turning a low powered android device into a glorified media player with wifi. The scroll ball does not work and, as much as I appreciate a good dev's work, am unable to purchase paid apps. If there are any ROMs you think would be especially suited to this purpose, please, do tell. I'm currently running Cyanogen's 1.6 ROM.
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Hello, this has probably been talked about before, but I wanted to let anyone interested know how this is working out. I have been doing extensive research on the purchase of a new MP3 player wanting the main features to have Bluetooth A2DP and audible.com compatible.
I realized these features are far and few between, and the players that have these two features are the size of your average WM Phone. When I finally came to this conclusion, I pulled out my old HTC Diamond and have been able to not only have these features, but by turning off the cell radio, I still have wifi, pmp, mp3, A2DP, web browser, touchscreen, etc etc all in one. Needless to say, I love my Diamond again.
I made my today screen bare with just iLauncher on it and wisbar to take away the phone features on top. Other than the hardware buttons, it looks and feels like a good solid MP3 player. Hope this may let other old phones see the light of day again. Thanks for reading.
I gave my old HTC Wizard to my 19 month old daughter to watch her Dora and Yo Gabba Gabba videos on, she also likes the obscene amount of buttons that phone has. So yea, that phone is pretty much just a media player now.
Then allow me to ask then for advise!
I use MediaMonkey on windows to organize my music. I like the program, it suites my needs.
The problem is on the WM phone itself. Which program do you use to listen to music? I've tried Nitrogen, and iMulator... both of them work as they're supposed to. But i could use more. iMulator need to mature, and be a little more customizable. But for a alpha stage, its quite good!
I could use a program with a good media library, probably fullscreen support, touch friendly.
Any advise ?
I know this has all been discussed in the past but I feel there is enough talent on here and creative minds to make this happen.
Android OS and its phones have come a long way since they first came out and have passed up the iPhone in many of those areas, however what Apple still has on us is a great integrated Media player. The biggest problem with the media players already on Android are their inability to sync to iTunes with ease (I know there are some workarounds but nothing overly integrated).
My question to the community is this: What are some Needs/Wants for a Media Player in Android especially in areas like Functions/GUI/Features?
Let's use this as a think group and start getting the ball rolling on something great.
Who believes that the Zune HD's interface is MUCH more polished than that of WP7? I mean it looks even more original and sexier in majority of places...
I do, Zune HD interface is obviously much much muich better then WP7, only a moron wud say no.
xyhchina said:
I do, Zune HD interface is obviously much much muich better then WP7, only a moron wud say no.
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great that someone agrees! I thought i was the weird one lol
100% agree, i love the pinned, new and history stuff on the left, and i love going back by touching the upper side of a screen (only wave app has something similar )
UI and UX are two different things. The UI of WP7 and ZuneHD are similar. WP7 is to ZuneHD what iPhone is to iPod Touch. The ZuneHD UI is mostly replicated in the Music & Videos Hub (like "iPod" on iPhone). I tend to think Metro is Godly for Media Player-type applications, but terrible for general end-user applications.
The panning isn't the issue, it's the user controls that are a problem for me, and the lack of Chrome and in many cases visual feedback when working with UI elements (i.e. Tapping a link and nothing visual to let you know you actually hit the link in many cases).
For Media Players, Zune > *
For General Applications, I tend to prefer iOS and WebOS to Android to everything else.
I do think they should have tried to replicate the ZuneHD interface 100% in the "ZuneHD Hub," though. They also should have given WP7 equivalent CODEC support.
Zune HD looks great.. Bt imagine placing calls etc on it will b difficult.. I like wp7 jst as it is :-D
Sent from my LG-E900
N8ter said:
UI and UX are two different things. The UI of WP7 and ZuneHD are similar. WP7 is to ZuneHD what iPhone is to iPod Touch. The ZuneHD UI is mostly replicated in the Music & Videos Hub (like "iPod" on iPhone). I tend to think Metro is Godly for Media Player-type applications, but terrible for general end-user applications.
The panning isn't the issue, it's the user controls that are a problem for me, and the lack of Chrome and in many cases visual feedback when working with UI elements (i.e. Tapping a link and nothing visual to let you know you actually hit the link in many cases).
For Media Players, Zune > *
For General Applications, I tend to prefer iOS and WebOS to Android to everything else.
I do think they should have tried to replicate the ZuneHD interface 100% in the "ZuneHD Hub," though. They also should have given WP7 equivalent CODEC support.
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interesting feedback which i agree with mostly but it has so much difference that I don't believe it can be called as iTouch of WP7. the differences may be subtle but that icing on the cake makes all the difference.
jay_993 said:
Who believes that the Zune HD's interface is MUCH more polished than that of WP7? I mean it looks even more original and sexier in majority of places...
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Click to collapse
I think the Mango update did a lot to fix some of my major gripes inside the Music Hub - overall I prefer the Zune HD interface because it is much cleaner.
I would prefer to see the same time related switch to the artist/song player controls as seen in the Zune HD. The only time it shouldn't default back is when you are in the middle of using a plugged in app. Otherwise the media player controls should be considered the default screen. I want to temporarily look at the History, New, Apps or Zune screens not have it permanently display until I make some sort of switch.
I would also like to see the same screen saver options on WP7 and have it extended to the lock screen.
amlex said:
I think the Mango update did a lot to fix some of my major gripes inside the Music Hub - overall I prefer the Zune HD interface because it is much cleaner.
I would prefer to see the same time related switch to the artist/song player controls as seen in the Zune HD. The only time it shouldn't default back is when you are in the middle of using a plugged in app. Otherwise the media player controls should be considered the default screen. I want to temporarily look at the History, New, Apps or Zune screens not have it permanently display until I make some sort of switch.
I would also like to see the same screen saver options on WP7 and have it extended to the lock screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting feedback!
I sold my Zune HD because it seemed redundant with a Windows Phone but now I'm on the market for a new one as there's no phone with 32GB and the Zune hub isn't as slick as the whole Zune experience on the player.
1. WP7 zune interface needs a better seek feature aka let me drag it dammit. Sometimes I don't have time to hold down the >> button, like while I'm driving.
2. It also needs a queue as next song function. Sync a playlist, but sometimes I want to play a song thats halfway down the list first. I want to be able to hold down the song and give me the option to add as next song after current one is done.
3. Make the buttons bigger. The shuffle icon is so small.
OT
WP7 zune is good for occasional short listen and day to day use. On long trips, bring along your Zune HD. Good for your phone battery life anyway.
I recently subscribed to GMusic all access, and I'm liking the service very much. I work out 4-5x week for 2h, and I need music. I've been using my Nexus 4 but it's too big and bulky and gets in the way. An armband helps, but I'd like to have a dedicated music playing device. It doesn't help that I've already smashed the screen on my N4 once while running with it (something I don't do anymore, and I don't run all that often, but it'd be nice to have something I can run with and won't fall/isn't worth $400). I found an old iPod Nano (6th gen I think) that would work great but there's no way to reverse sync it with GMusic (I manage my playlists, etc. on GMusic, not iTunes) and it won't get me any of my All Access content.
My conclusion is sell the iPod for whatever I can get (it's like new, so I don't think $60-80 is unreasonable) and get a cheap android phone to use as a dedicated GMusic streaming device. I'm thinking requirements are:
ICS+ (to be able to run current and future GMusic apps)
<4" screen. Shouldn't be too hard seeing as that keeping price low is a priority
WiFi (to stream)
Headphone out and half decent sound quality (i.e. not garbage sound, I'm no audiophile)
Custom ROMs would be nice, but not a requirement at all
I'm open to suggestions, including china phones and used phones (going off average market price)
Has anybody started a thread with their 'best' or 'favorite' Android Stick & Console Computer hardware? I currently have a Google ADT-1 (w/ PureNexus), but I'm looking to sell this and upgrade in favor of something newer.
I guess I'm looking for suggestions based upon cost, performance, support for newer android versions, ease of use, root access, etc. I recently was helping a friend who had a 'Minix' device, and was impressed with the UI and how easy it was to add shortcuts to the 'desktop' for apps (no need to rely on Leanback Launcher apps, etc). I don't necessarily need support for 4k, but was seeing what people are buying.
Ultimately the goal is that this device will replace my TV set top box, so I will have Xfinity Stream TV, Netflix, Kodi, and other streaming platforms on my television screen.
Thanks in advance!
Since there hasn't been any traction on this thread, I thought I would add an update. After a little research, it seems I should definitely look toward Android TV 'box' with the s905x processor. Then the next step would be to find one of these devices that can rooted and / or one the supports a custom ROM. BTW, this would be for use in the USA.