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Hello all.
I am a very new owner of a Samsung Captivate (I've literally only had it for two days). In fact, I'm actually fairly new to Android in general. Prior to the Captivate, the only smartphones I've owned were Windows Mobile phones and an iPhone 3GS.
I'm doing well so far, but there are a few apps that I would really like to have, but can't seem to find.
To begin, is there app that allows you to download TV shows/movies. I've had apps like this previously and it would be really nice to have a similar app for the Captivate that works at least half as well. Second is an app I had from my WinMo days; TCPMP, in particular. TCPMP had an option that allowed you to slow down or speed up music playback and I was wondering if there are any music apps that allows that on Android?
Ultimately, I appreciate all replies, and thank you in advance!
As of Jan 3,2011...
If anyone can give information / review about how different apps save downloaded art, it would be very helpful. It seems that art can be embedded in ID3 tags, or it can have put in a folder. But different programs save in different folders or into an "album art" file...which may not be compatible with different programs. Also, how does iTunes, Winamp, and Windows Media handle this? (Ive used each for my music collection, and so may have different types of cover art formats in my collection)
12/28/2010 I didn't mean to start making this into a bigger post. But let me first say what I'm looking at/for:
Features I'm paying attention to:
headset control
Lock Screen and homepage widget
General UI ( and in particular, ease of getting from a "playlist" back to the "Now playing" quickly
Features which are sort of cool to me:
lyric display
Folder / File Organization
Album art (it would help me if someone could tell me about the different types and options here. ID3 mode? Files?
(and a distant fourth in importance) Video player
Equalizer (I don
't care about this but everyone else seems to be)
Features are just can't get myself to care about:
Scrobbing (whatever the hell that is)
Social stuff
Any damn fraking thing that statistically analyzes my preference in order to help me decide what I like. I don't want to robotize my music.
So this is what I have looked at so far:
Samsung Default:
Great Status bar and lock screen controls. headset controls. Has equalizer. NO Folder Select (it scans all music on the phone and so will get unintended stuff into the library). Nothing special other than this, but it a good app. HOWEVER, I'm now using Darky's ROM which does not have the Samsung Lock Screen. The Samsung player's lockscreen widget is tied to the Samsung lockscreen. Also does not have homescreen widget, but this is more than made up for by the very good notification bar integration.
Meridian:
Plays video and music. Headset controls but no lock screen. Good gesture control. Edit ID Tags
Cubed:
Video and Music. NIce Lockscreen widget. Headset controls. Art download in ID3 mode. However I still don't terribly like the interface, but it works. Has a directory filter , so can play just a folder and keep out unwanted songs (like game songs). Downloads art in ID3...method. Don't know if that's good or bad. There really is no "Now Playing" screen. It just shows it super-imposed on the song library. Which is not pretty but its actually functional. For me, Cubed is a good free app.
MixZing:
Plays music and video. Options up the yingyang, including lots of social crap. I'm not going to detail here because lockscreen version is a paid app, and I'm focusing on not paying (it does have trial period though). Good UI. Can do folder view, and has good folder management options. Can switch between folder list and now playing very quickly. Has headset controls. Has Equalizer. Auto-download album art. The free version is staying on my phone because it plays video. Lots of damn social crap.
Winamp:
Just plays Music. Interface easy, but maybe a little dull (maybe there are skinning options?). Has headset controls and lockscreen. Ability to look up info and search on the artist. Ability to syn with Winamp desktop, so a good choice if you use that. Some social crap. No Equalizer
DoubleTwist:
Looks a little like Winamp, but also plays video. Has Lockscreen wideget and headset controls. With $5 purchase can sync with Itunes. No equalizer.
UI is mostly good, if not exciting. Does not do folder view(!). Not that many options. If I wanted to use one player for both music and video, and have the lockscreen widget and handset controls, this definitly works. It also has art download, but that's not so important to me. I also use iTunes Agent to file-sync anyway.
Miui:
Bare basic player. No equalizer. No lockscreen widget. No headset controls. What this does have is a) art download , and most exciting b) lyric read-along. I intend to use this app just for my KTV practice, so it will stay on my phone
(but I recently discovered Lyrics App, which allows me to see Lyrics of everything).
PowerAmp:
This has everything. But the free version is 15 day trialware, and I don't want to go through it all here. One thing I remember about this is that it allows fine customization of its widget appearence.
TinyPlayer:
As the name implies, a small player with minimum bells and wistles. My device is an SGS which generally has an OK time with demanding applications, so this is not for me. But for those who want a simple bare-minimum player, this works.
......
Others have mentioned apps which I need to pay for to try, such as Lithium Player... apps which have a social network focus (Tunewiki), and apps that I need to flash (CW Mod). I'm sorry I cannot add these to this list now.
12/27/2010
I'm in China and sometimes the market is problematic (although I could just fix that with a VPN). When I can download again, I intend to note the features of :
btunes
Astro Player
TuneWiki
Also, I will re-download all the above (I just wiped-flash Darky's awesome ROM for my SGS) and go back over the others and note down features I missed.
Here is a pic of the homescreen widgets.
Widgets (from top to bottom):
Meridian
Cubed
MixZing
Winamp
Doubletwist
I'll never understand why people say they don't understand "cubed" interface. What's confusing about it? It's the same thing as scrolling through albums with a little animation. The new update gives you control over the directory files, so it's not like it's different then any other player. Do people really get that shocked when they see something that looks different but operates the exact same?
Just scroll up or down, man. You'll see the albums or artist (depending on how you choose) in ABC order. You want to skip to a different letter, scroll side to side. That's literally the entire learning curve. Don't like the cube? Change the view mode to Morph Flow. Don't like looking at albums? Change the view mode to boring, it just gives you a list.
The only thing I can possibly imagine people being slow to realize is that to change the place of a song, you click on the dotted light thing at the bottom. To change from artist to album to song you drag the dotted bar in the bottom-middle to the right or left.
This all took me less then 2 minutes to figure out.
poweramp = iTunes . I'm off it. same **** different skin. Cubed can scan all the bands in your library and tell you A) when their upcoming release is and B) the next time their playing a show within 50 miles of you (you can adjust the distance). Now THAT'S practical application.
I appreciate you putting this list together. It is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.
Hands down the best player is TINY PLAYER. It actually does REAL folder play like you're using windows explorer on your home computer.
Another great feature is the live font size option which lets me read long file names. Even Poweramp doesn't have that crucial feature. What good is it if I can't read what song it is. Especially true for Classical music with long file names.
PS - It is the ugliest ui ever tho lol. But I really don't care.
PS2 - Poweramp doesn't have everything. It lacks sleep timer and font size changing to read long file names. And no true folder play. Both of which are available in tiny player. and it is tiny at 64kb
I figured I would throw a few notes in the discussion about music players since music is a big part of my Android experience. I use two apps, one for playing music located on my phone, and another app for streaming from my home PC.
1) Mixing:
the main reason I bought this app was because of the lock screen abilities. Not only does it give you gesture commands from the lock screen, but it also has a setting that will make the lock screen come active for a few seconds each time a new song starts, showing the album art and song information. I like this a lot since it allows me to see what has just started playing, and mainly because it gives me a few seconds to skip the song if I do not like it ... instead of having to hit the power button first to activate the screen, like all the other music apps do ... it's one less step to distract you when driving. It is a small, nitch feature, but it is worth the money of the full version app for me. I have yet to find another music app that does this.
2) Audiogalaxy:
Hands down, this is the best app to use if you want to stream music from your home computer. This is great for people like me that have huge music libraries that will not fit on an SD card. All you have to do is download the app for your phone, install a small program on your PC, and sign up on their website. It is free, and it simply works with no hastles. I have tried many other apps that I could not get to work ... they all required me to **** around with ports and IP addresses, and I could not get any of them to work. Audiogalaxy was so easy my mom could do it. No screwing around with ports or IP's, just install, setup which folders you want to scan, and then wait for it to build your library. Great app!!
Hopefully Mixzing adds streaming ability into its code so I can just use one music app. Until then I will continue to use these two apps together. Together they make for an awesome music experience on the Android phone.
hi, nice list for reference.
just a quick note from me, i'm using miui and the lockscreen and heatset controls works on cm6 which has those tweaks modded on.
irish22022 said:
I'll never understand why people say they don't understand "cubed" interface. What's confusing about it? ...
Just scroll up or down, man. You'll see the albums or artist (depending on how you choose) in ABC order. ...
...Cubed can scan all the bands in your library and tell you A) when their upcoming release is and B) the next time their playing a show within 50 miles of you (you can adjust the distance). Now THAT'S practical application.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I should say I like "folder view". Or just Song List. I have a lot of songs from independents, songs un-attributed in the tags, songs from Chinese artists, etc. So I don't want to go to an Album or Artist, but rather to a folder. I'm sorry...I did not know the correct terminology.
As for internet-related content, you may have seen I call that stuff "social crap". I have no idea what scrobbing is. The artists don't come to China. And even if I was in the US, I really could not care to share my music tastes with others... let everyone find their own muse.
nghj said:
hi, nice list for reference.
just a quick note from me, i'm using miui and the lockscreen and heatset controls works on cm6 which has those tweaks modded on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh. Sounds cool. I don't want to have to flash something just to get that function though. But having lyrics is fun.
AlexNC75 said:
I figured I would throw a few notes in the discussion about music players since music is a big part of my Android experience. I use two apps, one for playing music located on my phone, and another app for streaming from my home PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm just focusing on Apps that I can use outside. But thanks for those comments. Does AudioGalaxy allow non-streaming, regular functionality? FYI some of the other players above (I think Meridian) also have streaming, but I didn't review this because its not something I look for. I need to update for this feature I guess.
I will now download tinyplayer and add this to the review. I also hope to download (from somewhere) the stock Android player.
Right now probably Doubletwist will be my main player, only because its a music and video player that has lockscreen widget and headset controls. OR I will try to reinstall the Galaxy SGS player (which is uninstalled after flashing Darky's ROM). Funny thing is Doubletwist's main sell-point is iPhone integration, and I don't care enough about that to purchase it.
If I was going to spend money (which I may just do), then Mixing is the best of what I have reviewed so far. I don't know if its worth $5 for now.
I personally use 2 music players
1 standard CyanogenMod player
2 Lithium player
I normally do this because I will have music on lithium, and podcast download through methods other than my podcast player in t he CM music player.
since nobody mentioned lithium and it's a pay app I would mention a few things..
Pro: Looks great, UI is great and has nice things like volume built in, multi-colors/customizations and the #1 reason I bought it is it grabs album art for with a few clicks!
Cons: The ui for FF/RW skips to big of a segment in a 2 hour, or 2 hour podcast (not a big deal, it's a music player not a podcast player) and one semi-major issue for me is the program NEVER shows up in tasks (holding home), or previously used programs (etc). For some reason android doesn't recognize it as a program and the CM lockscreen music controls don't work for it.
To me the pro's outweigh the cons so I purchased it even if just for the album grabber.
I still really like bTunes.
I know it's abandonware, but it's only $1.49.
Looks like the iPod player (may be a good thing or a bad thing), it's very simple to use, it has a nice widget and even though it hasn't been updated in some time, it works great on froyo and never crashes on my phone. I don't think it has an equalizer.
TuneWiki is my fave, actually one of my fave Android apps.
Music Player Pro is still the best for me, I wish PowerAmp gets some of MPP features to use only one.
Thanks for the comments about the apps you tested
Tinyplayer for me on the Inc. Half the players can't find the built in memory. Most of the others can't restrict themselves to a folder so a bunch of sound files that aren't music and belong to games.
dvdivx said:
Tinyplayer for me on the Inc. Half the players can't find the built in memory. Most of the others can't restrict themselves to a folder so a bunch of sound files that aren't music and belong to games.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm looking at Mort Player now and it also does folder selection but has a lot more options, (headset control for one)
I'm still using the basic player ...
I've tried some of the more robust apps, but damn if they don't chew up a bunch of runtime memory, causing lag. I'd like an equalizer, but I don't want all the extra garbage that comes with an app, when I don't need it.
Have gone through various music players but Power Amp is the best it's worth paying for in the market.
Rockbox is absolutely the best choice. Equalizer, actual playlist support, themes, lockscreen controls, and plays every codec at the highest quality you throw at it. Just missing widgets, but it's a little buggy at the moment and it's still early in development.
i think u forgot TTPOD
A nice feature is if it is compatible with Last.FM scrobble apps
Nice summary atm i use Winamp becausr it has a esay ui and i love the shoutcast Radio Feature but maybe i switch to Double Twist because of the wifi sync i dont know yet...
Lollipop_Lawlipop said:
Rockbox is absolutely the best choice. Equalizer, actual playlist support, themes, lockscreen controls, and plays every codec at the highest quality you throw at it. Just missing widgets, but it's a little buggy at the moment and it's still early in development.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will check it out. Widgets is a must-have for me, unless it also has a status bar control option (which is even better than widgets.
jonny68 said:
Have gone through various music players but Power Amp is the best it's worth paying for in the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tend to agree, but I'm not sure how much money I want to spend on my phone. Part of me wants to get an iPhone and never have to fudge around with settings and roms again. Part of me hates the iPhone because I can't do with it what I want. So I'm trying not to invest more money in my phone unless I get something really really must-have. As the default player with the SGS is good (and now can use it with Darky's ROM), I'm good.
phoezies said:
i think u forgot TTPOD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will check it out and update.
Zalastax said:
A nice feature is if it is compatible with Last.FM scrobble apps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in China and so have missed the social network craze. I think if I was in USA, I still would have missed it.
Poapfel said:
Nice summary atm i use Winamp becausr it has a esay ui and i love the shoutcast Radio Feature but maybe i switch to Double Twist because of the wifi sync i dont know yet...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Winamp's UI is easy, but Double Twist is very similar UI IMO.
I know Winamp is pretty popular so I thought I'd share. One of the best music players on Android just got a very nice update: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.nullsoft.winamp&feature=search_result This is the first update in ages and it's a good one.
What's new:
What's in this version:
1. Download and stream free music
2. Now Playing screen redesign
3. Additional artist info including News
4. Album art gesturing for track change
5. Home screen redesign
6. Browse by Genre
7. Lock-screen player redesign
8. Integration with Android's "listen to" Voice Action
9. SHOUTcast (2.2 & above) Featured Stations
10. Fixed crash issue on Sony Ericsson Xperia series
11. Languages: English, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese (BR), Romanian, Russian, Spanish & Turkish
New very nice look (in many areas) and even greater functionality (genre finally!).
If you haven't tried Winamp or have tried but didn't like it at first, I recommend you check this out.
Still no EQ, which may be an issue for some. Hopefully that gets added sometime, but this is still really great.
still has a poor layout ui :S
Ive been hopping around through different music players and always come back to WinAmp. Ive tried...
-Mixzing
-double twist
-power amp
-cubed player
-Connected music player
-MIUI
-and various other stock ones
Every time i seem to fall back to Winamp although each of the players have there ups and downs
It should be skinnable . . . hope they wil implement it in a future release.
But the app does what it has 2 do . . .
ironlood said:
Ive been hopping around through different music players and always come back to WinAmp. Ive tried...
-Mixzing
-double twist
-power amp
-cubed player
-Connected music player
-MIUI
-and various other stock ones
Every time i seem to fall back to Winamp although each of the players have there ups and downs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I've tried all those as well lol. I think my favorite is actually the leaked new google one, but I can't really use it consistently since it often cracks up while playing and has some other issues (most importantly shuffle doesn't work). Winamp has been great in general.
Heruhur said:
It should be skinnable . . . hope they wil implement it in a future release.
But the app does what it has 2 do . . .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, something I want to see as well (and have requested in their beta forum). Hopefully they do this sometime.
PlayerPro is my music player of choice. IMO it has the best UI of all the ones you just listed. PowerAMP is really good too but the UI is too busy for my taste. You get a lot of functionality with PlayerPro in a much cleaner interface.
I will say that PlayerPro takes a lot of design hints from the iOS music players, but honestly, that's fine with me, because it looks great doing it. I bought the Pro version to support the developer and I don't regret the purchase at all. The only thing that annoys me about PlayerPro is lag while scrolling through long lists of albums with album art - although this is a problem with all players, PlayerPro seems to struggle with it more.
If you haven't tried it out yet you should - there's a trial version on the market with complete functionality.
br123 said:
PlayerPro is my music player of choice. IMO it has the best UI of all the ones you just listed. PowerAMP is really good too but the UI is too busy for my taste. You get a lot of functionality with PlayerPro in a much cleaner interface.
I will say that PlayerPro takes a lot of design hints from the iOS music players, but honestly, that's fine with me, because it looks great doing it. I bought the Pro version to support the developer and I don't regret the purchase at all. The only thing that annoys me about PlayerPro is lag while scrolling through long lists of albums with album art - although this is a problem with all players, PlayerPro seems to struggle with it more.
If you haven't tried it out yet you should - there's a trial version on the market with complete functionality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll check it out - though I think I checked it out already once and wasn't too impressed.
btw, in terms of scrolling through long lists, I don't think any player has felt smoother and without lag as connected music player.
But no built-in EQ yet?
I listen exclusively through wireless BT headphones, which always sound thin and tinny unless I significantly boost the low and mid-high frequencies. They also tend to be pretty sibilant, so I need to cut the highest frequencies. PowerAMP is the only player I've found that gives me the control I want over the shape of the sound - and now my wireless phones sound incredible!
It's improved. They need to not do the cover art transition animation when you are changing songs on the same album. And they need to an old school skinned version.
still no folder view... what are they thinking...
br123 said:
PlayerPro is my music player of choice. IMO it has the best UI of all the ones you just listed. PowerAMP is really good too but the UI is too busy for my taste. You get a lot of functionality with PlayerPro in a much cleaner interface.
I will say that PlayerPro takes a lot of design hints from the iOS music players, but honestly, that's fine with me, because it looks great doing it. I bought the Pro version to support the developer and I don't regret the purchase at all. The only thing that annoys me about PlayerPro is lag while scrolling through long lists of albums with album art - although this is a problem with all players, PlayerPro seems to struggle with it more.
If you haven't tried it out yet you should - there's a trial version on the market with complete functionality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i may have found my new player....thanks for the sugg
PS - for the scroll-lag, i might suggest using list view instead of grid view in settings>browser options
Shoutcast favorites and recent stations is borked too.
I wish they would put a sleep timer in already.
Add a bloody EQ!
boodies said:
still no folder view... what are they thinking...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What a music player that is recommended now that I can play songs from a folder actually?
SHOUTcast still doesn't work. Why? No clue. They've had all this time to fix it but instead of fixing up some of the bigger main problems they focus on the other stuff that should be put behind the main problems.
UI is still hideous. But I've managed to find some very nice smoked out designs from the droidforums that makes it look a whole lots better.
As for EQ's (Equalizers) I wouldn't mind seeing this feature in Winamp. But nothing as serious as PowerAmp. PowerAmp's biggest recognition is due to their massive adjustments of the EQ. Winamp doesn't need something big like that. Just something subtle and enough to notice the change depending on genre of artist(s)/song(s). I don't see the need for a few different bass settings unless you're seriously wired up to your sound system in your vehicle and changes can be made with your phone and Winamp. The need for different options on levels of bass is stupid. No offense, I love a lot of bass and the thumping that goes with it, but on a phone? Pointless when your phone speakers or putting PC Speaker mode on is not going to change.
Lock-screen redesign is dumb as heck. It's no different than just going to your Home screen and going to the app in your app drawer and playing it on there. I'd like to see some smaller widget-like redesign specifically for the lock-screen.
Another thing that seems to work to the liking of tons of people is the spectrum moving along with the music playing. Like in MIUI. MIUI isn't that great and has minor FC's here and there depending on music change but their design is almost flawless. I would like to see something like that just to give the Now Playing (in Home screen or elsewhere) a bit more vibe.
I could go on and on with the pros and cons of Winamp and add-ons and ditch-on-this, but my point was laid out. The only thing I see that was worthy through the so-called "major update" is the "listen to" voice action. This feature will definitely come in handy for people driving, or not wanting to scroll through all the artists/songs they have on there.
So, I can no longer find how to enable/disable shuffle in the new version, as the 'now playing' screen seems to have been shafted in favour of giant album art.
To toggle shuffle I now have to use the widget, I can't find the option in the app itself. Just me?
richardkemp said:
So, I can no longer find how to enable/disable shuffle in the new version, as the 'now playing' screen seems to have been shafted in favour of giant album art.
To toggle shuffle I now have to use the widget, I can't find the option in the app itself. Just me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tap the album art to pop up shuffle, repeat and info buttons.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
TheSwaggeR said:
SHOUTcast still doesn't work. Why? No clue. They've had all this time to fix it but instead of fixing up some of the bigger main problems they focus on the other stuff that should be put behind the main problems.
UI is still hideous. But I've managed to find some very nice smoked out designs from the droidforums that makes it look a whole lots better.
As for EQ's (Equalizers) I wouldn't mind seeing this feature in Winamp. But nothing as serious as PowerAmp. PowerAmp's biggest recognition is due to their massive adjustments of the EQ. Winamp doesn't need something big like that. Just something subtle and enough to notice the change depending on genre of artist(s)/song(s). I don't see the need for a few different bass settings unless you're seriously wired up to your sound system in your vehicle and changes can be made with your phone and Winamp. The need for different options on levels of bass is stupid. No offense, I love a lot of bass and the thumping that goes with it, but on a phone? Pointless when your phone speakers or putting PC Speaker mode on is not going to change.
Lock-screen redesign is dumb as heck. It's no different than just going to your Home screen and going to the app in your app drawer and playing it on there. I'd like to see some smaller widget-like redesign specifically for the lock-screen.
Another thing that seems to work to the liking of tons of people is the spectrum moving along with the music playing. Like in MIUI. MIUI isn't that great and has minor FC's here and there depending on music change but their design is almost flawless. I would like to see something like that just to give the Now Playing (in Home screen or elsewhere) a bit more vibe.
I could go on and on with the pros and cons of Winamp and add-ons and ditch-on-this, but my point was laid out. The only thing I see that was worthy through the so-called "major update" is the "listen to" voice action. This feature will definitely come in handy for people driving, or not wanting to scroll through all the artists/songs they have on there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the thing though, many of us use our phones as our music players as well. I use it in the car, makes a HUGE difference with a good EQ such as PowerAmp. The problem with PowerAmp is that it has the most god awful UI every conceived. I mean seriously... THE worst.
Still waiting for Winamp to support FLAC.
Poweramp is the top player now to me but its not free and the UI is a bit too busy.
I do prefer Winamp's UI better.
So I am liking my Samsung Galaxy II more and more every day but one thing that drives me nuts is the inability to find a suitable app that willy play audiobooks at variable speeds.
I finally found a program that works for most podcasts. "Pocket Casts" with Presto player for viarable speed control.
There is on program call Xspeedplayer that works for playing audiobook files but there is no way to jump to different parts of the audiotrack. Say for example I listed to the book for 1hr going to and from home then read a little bit on my kindle well there is no way to jump ahead to where my reading left off.
So if anyone knows of a good audio player that works for audiobooks that allows for variable speed I would love to hear about it.
TIA
Hopefully if enough people star this Android issue Google will add it as a feature to Android :laugh:
There is Nova Player which is mentioned in that thread which looks reasonably promising,
alternately Audio Speed Changer.
Or perhaps SFT AudioPlayer might work but not sure how good playback is?
p4nts said:
Hopefully if enough people star this Android issue Google will add it as a feature to Android :laugh:
There is Nova Player which is mentioned in that thread which looks reasonably promising,
alternately Audio Speed Changer.
Or perhaps SFT AudioPlayer might work but not sure how good playback is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been very happy with Presto Sound Library Open Beta - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aocate.presto&hl=en
which works well with Akimbo Audiobook Player - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.akimbo.abp
and Pocket Casts - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.com.shiftyjelly.pocketcasts
So there is a solution but it will cost you over $10 I agree it should be included free with the OS like iPhone etc.
shortbus1234 said:
I have been very happy with Presto Sound Library Open Beta - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aocate.presto&hl=en
which works well with Akimbo Audiobook Player - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.akimbo.abp
and Pocket Casts - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.com.shiftyjelly.pocketcasts
So there is a solution but it will cost you over $10 I agree it should be included free with the OS like iPhone etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@shortbus - I have Presto but disappointed that the app hasn't been updated in a while, as there is bug where if I get a phone call while listening to Pocket Casts / Presto, it doesn't gracefully hand over the audio to the phone app, and have to force-close it after the phone call ended. Running Android 4.1.2 Jellybean on a GNex. Curious if you have the same issue - cheers.
kitecarl said:
@shortbus - I have Presto but disappointed that the app hasn't been updated in a while, as there is bug where if I get a phone call while listening to Pocket Casts / Presto, it doesn't gracefully hand over the audio to the phone app, and have to force-close it after the phone call ended. Running Android 4.1.2 Jellybean on a GNex. Curious if you have the same issue - cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problems here from like what you describe. I have had the program freeze on my but I am not sure if that is Presto or the Pocket casts program. I am running Jedi Mind Trick.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1818305
But it has worked on all different builds and other programs.
Hope you figure out why it is happening.
For those of us who want to run a more standard Android launcher (Nova, oem launchers, etc), what are you guys doing re: music player controls?
I've noticed that car launchers like Agama and Vivid have pretty cool music controls integrated in- whether it is my Bluetooth connection to a phone, Spotify, Amazon Music, YT Music, etc., it displays whatever track information it has (sometimes art too) and universal play/pause/next/prev buttons. I like that.
My Atoto S8 Ultra (uis7862 based unit) comes with a pretty standard launcher. There is a music widget that seems to control just the built in local music player, which I don't like and therefore don't use. It got me thinking, are there any universal widgets that can work the same way the Vivid/Agama/etc launchers handle it?
I found and tried the following so far:
Music Widgets for Car Devices
This seemed promising on paper. I can't get it to switch between sources however, it gets stuck on the last one used even if I clear all open apps. For example, if I had Spotify open, and the next time I drive I want to listen to Amazon Music, it still shows Spotify controls and track information. I have to go into settings for the widget and press OK, only then will it update.
Also, I think I had the Bluetooth track control the very first time I installed it (I was playing music over BT to test it), but ever since I used it with anything else (Spotify, Amazon, etc) it refuses to ever go back to BT control.
Material Music Widget
I like the aesthetics of this one, seems much nicer than the first one. BUT, the trial version only allows you to connect it to a single app player so I can't confirm if it does what I want correctly. I also can't seem to get it to recognize the BT player, I'd imagine if it wasn't designed to be a car player widget it wouldn't be aware of that as an option.
What else should I try? What do you guys use?
I use Poweramp without any widget. The interface allows you to swipe left, right, up and down on the album cover. Very easy and intuitive. I like keeping it open to see the album cover. I have navigation, Waze on the left 2/3 of the screen and Poweramp on the right 1/3. I think it's 2/3 and 1/3 or it could be 3/4 and 1/4...not sure. I usually use the steering wheel controls to switch to the next song and play/pause. I have another button to change source, but I usually don't. I usually listen to the music on my USB stick using Poweramp.
mastrv said:
I use Poweramp without any widget. The interface allows you to swipe left, right, up and down on the album cover. Very easy and intuitive. I like keeping it open to see the album cover. I have navigation, Waze on the left 2/3 of the screen and Poweramp on the right 1/3. I think it's 2/3 and 1/3 or it could be 3/4 and 1/4...not sure. I usually use the steering wheel controls to switch to the next song and play/pause. I have another button to change source, but I usually don't. I usually listen to the music on my USB stick using Poweramp.
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That doesn't help me though.
I have multiple drivers of my car between my wife and daughter, we use a mix of sources between Spotify, Amazon Music, AA/Bluetooth (because my daughter has her own spotify account she wants to use), etc.
It's annoying to have so many interfaces, I feel like there could/should be one set of "now playing" info on the display, with one universal set of controls for pause/play/next etc.
Agama and other launchers do this correctly, but their UI is too busy and too far from stock for me. I like the stock Android UI better, with the recognizable and colorful icons, but finding a widget like this seems harder than expected.
I am finding the folks at 4PDA made something called Music Proxy which sort of takes over the FYT standard audio player and uses that widget. However, Atoto's built in player widget is kind of ugly, huge, and doesn't even support album art (unlike other launchers that have this built in), I was hoping for a better option.
Suggesting a totally different app (Poweramp) isn't a solution for me personally, although I appreciate the reply.
Still searching for music widget that can go forward and rewind the tracks
Ubiquity ?
surfer63 said:
Ubiquity ?
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Does that work on our modern Android OS?
dishe2 said:
Does that work on our modern Android OS?
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No idea. I know they used it on the FYT Android 6 Sofia's. I never used it. I had to dig down deep in my memory and then search Google Play Store to find it back.
I guess you simply have to try.
surfer63 said:
No idea. I know they used it on the FYT Android 6 Sofia's. I never used it. I had to dig down deep in my memory and then search Google Play Store to find it back.
I guess you simply have to try.
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I wanted to as soon you wrote it, but it says not compatible with my version of Android.
I could try forcing it via side load but I feel like it might just not work since it says designed for KitKat.
Its a shame because we know it's possible for a widget to do what we are asking but no one has done it.
Meanwhile, thanks to suggestions elsewhere here, I found the music widget updater for Teyes and the music proxy app from 4pda that goes along with it.
It's VERY CLOSE to what I want. It turns the standard FYT music player into a "now playing" universal widget, supports pretty much any media including Bluetooth, and gives play/pause/prev/next controls to whatever is currently playing.
The only problem is that the Atoto oem widget is ugly and still doesn't support album art the way the ones I found above do.
It also doesn't go forward or back in the track like the other suggestion, but I know that isn't compatible with Bluetooth streaming anyway (avrcp support is weak, even in the Bluetooth player screen).
I wish I had more experience with app development so I could try making it myself.
Do you have link?
WidgetUpdater for Teyes (Demo) - Apps on Google Play
Display title, artist and cover of the track in Teyes widgets
play.google.com
FYI, thanks to a post in another thread, @surfer63 pointed out that Ubiquity widget DOES work if you just sideload the apk, despite the Play Store saying incompatible. I installed mine from here and it seems to work:
https://m.apkpure.com/ubiquity-music-widget/com.jackthakar.musicwidget
The problem is, it STILL doesn't do what I wanted apparently: Give universal controls for all audio playing, including Bluetooth.
It's pretty much the same as the apps listed in the first post - as in, a good universal widget for apps (Spotify, Amazon Music, Youtube, etc). But it still does not recognize Bluetooth audio streaming. For that source of audio, you need to use the Bluetooth app on the radio to see and control what's playing. This is what I'm trying to avoid having to do.
The launchers like Vivid, Agama, etc, can all seem to integrate this into one player control. Even the WidgetUpdater for Teyes app linked above this post seems to get it, but relies on a very poorly designed stock launcher widget that doesn't look right on Atoto's launcher (text is aligned oddly). It's totally possible to get this working, but I wonder what I'm doing wrong.
Is it possible that Ubiquity works with other FYT units and their Bluetooth controls? I know my Atoto has a funny Bluetooth system compared to other FYT radios.
UPDATE:
Vivid Launcher. If you've tried it before and found it buggy, try it again now. It does it perfectly.
A long time ago and it was terrible re: compatibility with FYT (it was made for a different radio type). Tried to do too much customization and fell short, being buggy and freezing a lot.
I just tried it again because I remember their music widget was pretty spot on, and I have to say it seems like they really fixed it up to be more compatible, and the audio controls are now EVERYTHING I WANTED IT TO BE!
It will even automatically switch to Bluetooth audio as a source if you start playing something off your phone, pausing the head unit's playback elsewhere. Before this, if I was playing Spotify locally, I couldn't hear voice notes on my phone unless I switch over to the BT app. With the new Vivid launcher, it will automatically pause Spotify and switch to BT as a source when it detects something is playing there. I can then hit play on spotify again and continue.
And no matter what audio source is active, their music screen acts as a universal widget with controls and titles and even album art if there is any. I'm just so excited to have found this I had to share.
dishe2 said:
UPDATE:
Vivid Launcher. If you've tried it before and found it buggy, try it again now. It does it perfectly.
A long time ago and it was terrible re: compatibility with FYT (it was made for a different radio type). Tried to do too much customization and fell short, being buggy and freezing a lot.
I just tried it again because I remember their music widget was pretty spot on, and I have to say it seems like they really fixed it up to be more compatible, and the audio controls are now EVERYTHING I WANTED IT TO BE!
It will even automatically switch to Bluetooth audio as a source if you start playing something off your phone, pausing the head unit's playback elsewhere. Before this, if I was playing Spotify locally, I couldn't hear voice notes on my phone unless I switch over to the BT app. With the new Vivid launcher, it will automatically pause Spotify and switch to BT as a source when it detects something is playing there. I can then hit play on spotify again and continue.
And no matter what audio source is active, their music screen acts as a universal widget with controls and titles and even album art if there is any. I'm just so excited to have found this I had to share.
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What kind of phone do you have and what version of Vivid launcher?
I have special version working well with NavRadio+ and when I use my phone that player sometimes changes into BT playing even if there's no music, but for example sound of typing.
I have a Oneplus 10 Pro, and I dunno - whatever version of Vivid is on the play store about 3 days ago!
I just installed the Vivid launcher on my wife's A6 pf (8581a) and none of the bluetooth or phone functions exist, so I guess they turn on / off features when it recognizes certain hardware?
I noticed that mine lags a couple of seconds before switching to bluetooth, so a notification like turning on my phone or getting a message doesn't switch, but anything that plays for 2+ seconds did. So a voice note would cut off the first couple of seconds, but at least I can replay if I need to and still don't need to change the headunit over.
Maybe your kb has too much constant noise so it clicks over?