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Apps that are a delight on the Tab

Thought I'd start a thread, similar to the games one, to allow for recommendations for apps that are found to runs particularly well on the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
I'll start this off with:
Google Earth - Obviously the big screen makes it nice, but the fast GPU and super smooth touchscreen controls also help. tilting and twisting with two-fingers, panning and flying over the high resolution terrain of the Alps is simply amazing. I'd almost say, due to the intuitive touchscreen controls, it's as good or even better than the desktop version (not as many options yet though).
AndroidVNC - This works just like I almost imagined. Sitting on the balcony, then 'tap...tap' my Kubuntu desktop is displayed nicely and can be used on my tab. Awesome for checking up on progress bars of running stuff.

WinAmp is cool on the Tab. Gives You big enough room to select and scroll through directories (compared the N1)
Speed Hud uses the FULL SCREEN, can't wait to try it in my car at night !
EStrong File explorer also uses full screen and is excellent to use on this device.
Wifi Analyzer on the Tab lookes like a professianl Wifi tool !
XBMC remote is alos great on this device. Only problem I have is when Yo rotate it during browsing folders it looses info and You have to go backwards one step to see anything again.
TuneIN radio also works great. I have it running in the background most of the time
Skype is also a dream on the Tab. Gives good room for the big communications...
Photoshop express on a screen like this rocks !
MSN DroidX also works really good
IM+ does not work well. It does 2/3 size in the center
Meridian player works really well too.(pro edition) Plays MKVfiles and everything I have tried smooth. Flac and mp3's are no problems at all.

I just discovered TV Flash. Works really well on Tab, good quality and nice selection of news channels. Some entertainment tv as well! Get it while its in beta!

I'll add another one:
GMote is awesome. Using the entire screen as a touchpad to control the mouse on my XBMC box. You can also switch to remote or keyboard mode, and even stream files from the computer to the Tab. Very nice.

Fennec official beta works a treat. Finally we have firefox!

ftgg99 said:
Fennec official beta works a treat. Finally we have firefox!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where did you get the apk???
Can you share please? The ones I am downloading from the mozilla ftp aren't working
They just force close...
EDIT: Nevermind I found it... It's not one of the nightly builds but the publicly released beta.

Indeed. By the way, gmote doesn't work in fullscreen. Only the pad works, and not too well at that...

ftgg99 said:
Indeed. By the way, gmote doesn't work in fullscreen. Only the pad works, and not too well at that...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What exactly are you having trouble with? It automatically goes fullscreen for me (cover art of streaming music, the remote buttons and the file browser).
As for the touchpad, I did increase the mouse acceleration a bit beforehand, because I was using the touchpad from the Logitech DiNovo Mini before. Maybe that makes the difference.

The browser isn fullscreen for me. Cant remember now as ive uninstalled it. Ive got PocketCloud so its not really an issue.

Anyone tried GRemote? It's a prettier version of GMote, albeit commercial. http://gbmsoftware.com/
Will need to try Fennec, a link to a recent working .apk would be useful.

knightnz said:
Anyone tried GRemote? It's a prettier version of GMote, albeit commercial. http://gbmsoftware.com/
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Click to collapse
Looks like it's Windows only.

Rapax said:
Looks like it's Windows only.
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Click to collapse
The server is, yes, but the client isn't.
They did say several months ago that they were working on a OS X server, but no further word of it, my guess is that it's not going to happen.

I'm searching for a good Newsreader App, where i have my Feed Abonnements on the left and the articles an the right, like you get it on your desktop browser when visiting google reader website.

Just search for fennec for android... can't be easier than that.
Really Skype... are there video calls? If not then where do I get video to pccalls from?

I got to say that one of my most essential needs on a device like this is comic book reading.
So I got to say I was quite pleased with the app Comic Reader Mobi.
The reader takes advantage of the full screen.

paradox82 said:
I got to say that one of my most essential needs on a device like this is comic book reading.
So I got to say I was quite pleased with the app Comic Reader Mobi.
The reader takes advantage of the full screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Somehow it refuses to list my cbr files though...
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App

smnnekho said:
Somehow it refuses to list my cbr files though...
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's strange. In my case I just chose a root folder source for my comic collection that is located on my external sd card and away it went.
Perhaps you should get in touch with the developer through the comic reader mobi forum. The person seems to be quite hands on when it comes to helping users.

Could someone try and see if this app works on their Tab, I downloaded it and used it on my HTC Desire last night and it is so damn amazing!! Live streaming of games in pretty high quality straight to my phone
Would be awesome if it scaled and worked on the Tab too.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=800415&page=2

Hey guys, just wanna let u guys who don't know that u can tweek the apps that does not run in full screen with spare parts app avlb in the market...
Just got the tab yesterday and today I'm completely happy to run all my apps full screen!
Cheers..
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App

Yeah, JKK made a howto.

Tab's AllShare (DLNA client)

errr.. is it just me, or did somebody actually fire the people that made the AllShare app in the SGS and just took a bunch of their notes and incorporated the WORST ideas that other team had ever devised?
Ok, so AllShare wasn't a top-notch app in the SGS to begin with, but AllShare on the Tab is just a bad joke. Loading the list of files takes ~ x10 as much time as it takes on the SGS and then .. NO OTHER option to just display the files (ALL THE FILES) in alphabetical order, regardless of albums/folders however you had/wanted them to be ordered on the server... At least the SGS's version let's me browse folders. Tab's version just displays a HUGE list of files in alphabetical order, which is NOT really good for usage...
Are there any other apps to fill in that void? I mean there are DLNA servers left and right, but are there clients? That I could play videos (preferable support for dualaudio+subtitles) from my DLNA server?

Id like to know this as well... or indeed any client that will stream in full quality over the lan.

Me too ! Please write if you tryed some other DLNA client working on Samsung Galaxy Tab

I tried AndroMote. It works fine for me.

Makoselm said:
I tried AndroMote. It works fine for me.
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Click to collapse
????
That's a Remote Control application, NOT a DLNA client as we talked about... At least I understood it so. (You can't watch movies from a DLNA server WITH THE TAB via AndroMote, can you?)
EDIT: Apparently it SHOULD be able, it just doesn't do that on my SGS. Will try on Tab later.
EDIT2: ARGHhh! Yeees, it does work - sorta. It needs to DOWNLOAD the WHOLE file over the connection to the device, THEN play it... with installed available applications, not within the app. so... NO, not really a suitable replacement. It's not really a DLNA media player, but a tool to download files from said server.
Nice to have, I guess, but not what I'm after.

You can do this with any lan file manager. I use Astro smb.

ftgg99 said:
You can do this with any lan file manager. I use Astro smb.
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Click to collapse
Which is all well and good as long as you're not watching anything decently HD or over 2GB in file size
I agree the AllShare app is aweful. I've found that ES File Explorer over SMB does a good job but neither the built in Video player or Rockplayer behave well with this. It only works if I turn off hardware decode in Rockplayer, which means it cannot keep up with the HD video demands.
UPnPlay in the market has a decent attempt via DLNA however it chokes on HD too.

netgun71 said:
Which is all well and good as long as you're not watching anything decently HD or over 2GB in file size
I agree the AllShare app is aweful. I've found that ES File Explorer over SMB does a good job but neither the built in Video player or Rockplayer behave well with this. It only works if I turn off hardware decode in Rockplayer, which means it cannot keep up with the HD video demands.
UPnPlay in the market has a decent attempt via DLNA however it chokes on HD too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think ftgg99 meant you can do with filemanager anything you could do with AndroMote, not DLNA client

Indeed i did. And when you sab behaves properly you mean it doesnt work because streamimg headers are not appacked to filetypes.

Try twonky from the market, works quite well.

ritdaw said:
Try twonky from the market, works quite well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Isn't Twonky (mobile) just a server? Does it play on the device also?

AnttiV said:
Isn't Twonky (mobile) just a server? Does it play on the device also?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are two versions of it now, the one that has a pie chart icon is similar to all share

Indeed you are right, it does! Thanks!
Err.. Anybody got it to work? I get only an error with every single video I try to play. I only get "unable to start playback"
Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk

Mine seemed to work with all my videos except MKV files, however my mate said they worked on his tab :s

Use vplayer, it should play everything.

ftgg99 said:
Use vplayer, it should play everything.
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Click to collapse
Doesn't have built in dlna does it?

Indeed not. However you should have a Dona service already. I can't get it to work either, probably because I removed both allshare and dem content launcher... I would love to get them back, but have no apostle.

ritdaw said:
Try twonky from the market, works quite well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 - Been using this since I got my Vibrant in July. Easy to use and works awesome. Works just as nicely on the Tab too.

epakrat75 said:
+1 - Been using this since I got my Vibrant in July. Easy to use and works awesome. Works just as nicely on the Tab too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Twonky looks good and is waaay faster than AllShare, but unfortunately is out of the question since it refuses to play .avi files (and mkvs and wmvs and and. I can't get it to play anything at all really. Don't have any mp4s around, I hear those should work...)
Also, I don't know if it had something to do with the server-side update (I use TwonkyManager v2 in a Win7 machine) but couple of days ago my "browse by folder" ability disappeared completely, no I can just browse everything by date of playlists, which isn't at all practical with folder-based organization...

I'm looking for a streaming solution too for the Tab. On the iPad I had the StreamToMe software running, and it would transcode the video on the fly, and stream to iPhone or iPad. Doesn't seem like there's similar solution on Android. I tried copying some of the movie file I have and it's just laggy to play even locally with vPlayer and RockPlayer. Anyone has a good solution?

Stream video from PC

Hi guys
Im trying to find a app than can help stream movies and view other files on my PC. I havent had any luck so far and i tried searching but didnt end up with anything that feels simple enough?
On ipad there was a great app that made me able to view all files and play video that converted the files "live" so they were able to play on the pad. Was superb.
Anyone know anything like that?

Discusbass said:
Hi guys
Im trying to find a app than can help stream movies and view other files on my PC. I havent had any luck so far and i tried searching but didnt end up with anything that feels simple enough?
On ipad there was a great app that made me able to view all files and play video that converted the files "live" so they were able to play on the pad. Was superb.
Anyone know anything like that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I would recommend the combination of UPnPlay and moboplayer. works a charm!.

Discusbass said:
Hi guys
Im trying to find a app than can help stream movies and view other files on my PC. I havent had any luck so far and i tried searching but didnt end up with anything that feels simple enough?
On ipad there was a great app that made me able to view all files and play video that converted the files "live" so they were able to play on the pad. Was superb.
Anyone know anything like that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try Plex...it runs great on android tablet ..just like air video on iOS..i.e. live convert/stream from your PC

or u could just set up themy cloud software that came with your transformer it works great nearly no lag.. i tethered to 3g with my phone and there is about .5 seconds of lag fro the screen but if u weren't looking at the computer at the same time u woud never know

jtn7040 said:
or u could just set up themy cloud software that came with your transformer it works great nearly no lag.. i tethered to 3g with my phone and there is about .5 seconds of lag fro the screen but if u weren't looking at the computer at the same time u woud never know
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
10 characters

i feel like really stupid cos ive been looking at mycloud but cant figure out how to stream with it??

Yep, use the mycloud splashtop software and it works like a dream.

Discusbass said:
i feel like really stupid cos ive been looking at mycloud but cant figure out how to stream with it??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
here's what you do... first figure out what your static ip for your router is... try going to http://www.whatismyip.com/ this should tell u what your ip is... now go into your router... normally by typing 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 depeding on your router... now open up ports 6783 to 6786 in TCP mode (these numbers may change due to your settings in MyCloud Software) now go and manually set up a new connection using the static IP you got from the website and everything should work!!!!!

Discusbass said:
i feel like really stupid cos ive been looking at mycloud but cant figure out how to stream with it??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And just to add clarification, splashtop is a remote desktop tool not a media streamer as such, although as people have said depending on your connection it works just as well as one.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App

I use cifsmanager to mount the drive. then mobo to play. haven't tried any other players on hc yet.

pastey said:
Hi, I would recommend the combination of UPnPlay and moboplayer. works a charm!.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the exact combo I use. The great thing about upnplay is that you don't have to install anything on your desktop just a few setting in windows media player.
Sent from my Transformer TF101

Plex Media Server gives me the best payback quality compared to mounting cifs and playing with vplayer or mobo, upnplay, and vlc s&c
sent from a device using an app

I use Mirage. It works off the iPods Air Server. Works pretty good except for higher quality video it gets choppy. Gonna try this Plex one.
...Sent via Asus Transformer...

neotekz said:
This is the exact combo I use. The great thing about upnplay is that you don't have to install anything on your desktop just a few setting in windows media player.
Sent from my Transformer TF101
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why use upnp though when u can just play the file directly without libraries and conversions on the server?

Subsonic is the way to go.

Zenoran said:
why use upnp though when u can just play the file directly without libraries and conversions on the server?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure what you mean. I also use upnp and moboplayer and works great. Moboplayer can't stream from the network and mynet does not play any codec other than h.264. With upnp and moboplayer, I don't have to worry about what type of video/audio file it is.

I've been using Upnplay and Mobo player and that combo works great for files served by a media server. I would also like to play files directly from a network share without needing the media server. CifManager sounds perfect except it appears to require root. Any similar options that don't require root? Any other apps that would allow a network drive to be permanently mapped as a folder on the tablet?

pastey said:
Hi, I would recommend the combination of UPnPlay and moboplayer. works a charm!.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there, could you perchance explain how one might go about doing such a thing for themselves?

tcpsyn said:
Subsonic is the way to go.
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Click to collapse
Yep, but the native android app needs native playing without the flash video player... is that fixed yet?

Helium_Junkie said:
Hey there, could you perchance explain how one might go about doing such a thing for themselves?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First media sharing needs to be set up on your desktop (Google can help with this part) then as long as you are connected to the same home network as your desktop it will show up in upnplay just like it does in mynet (its name will be the set name of the PC). Then you can navigate via libraries or just via the folder paths to find your media files (this is how I do it to avoid setting up libraries). Once u have found your media file run the file using moboplayer/vplayer/etc. This will only work for video.
Hope that helps..
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App

[Q] How do we not have enhanced podcast (.m4a) support on Android yet?

Is there something specific to the platform that is preventing enhanced .m4a support on Android? As far as I can see from scouring the internet, it looks like we don't have a single media player that supports the enhanced features of chaptering and embedded images offered by enhanced .m4a files. This is supported in every apple device, if I am not mistaken.
Any ideas?

Found One!
In case anybody is interested, somebody on reddit came through for me:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.akimbo.abp.trial&feature=search_result
Akimbo is an audiobook reader that handles .m4a chaptering and images pretty perfectly. Their library setup is a ****ty mess, but it has otherwise been strong so far.

yes this one works........ nearly.
The enhanced podcasts I use have several differant images per chapter, and the player moves onto the next image only at the next chapter so come the 2nd chapter it is several images behind.

.m4a files play just fine on the stock music player of my LG vortex, and the blur'd music player of the DX2. where are you encountering issues playing .m4a file?

the audio playback is fine on every player its the images encoded into the podcast that dont display properly

delboydell said:
yes this one works........ nearly.
The enhanced podcasts I use have several differant images per chapter, and the player moves onto the next image only at the next chapter so come the 2nd chapter it is several images behind.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same issue here. I want to access enhanced podcasts from Coffee Break Spanish but I couldn't. Those podcasts also have multiple images per chapter.

I'm very interested in this as well. I've been using Pocket Casts which is a great player but doesn't support the contextual images and links.
My example Specifically is the "Rooster Teeth Podcast".
On my old iPhone the embedded images displayed perfectly in apps like Downcast and the native iTunes Player had functional Live links some of the time.
I'm desperately searching for one, but I've had no luck.

has anyone had any luck yet with this one? I am thinking about using my old hd2 just for m4a playback

I asked the developer of Pocketcasts about this. And it seems they're missing the tools to make this.
" We've been looking into it, but that format is a proprietary Apple standard that no one else has support for. So our iOS app supports it out of the box, because Apple has the developer tools for us to do that. On Android Google don't, and we've yet to find a third-party library we can use that does, which leaves us stuck. So short story: yes we'd love to, but we don't think we can."
Bummer.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium

Hurtcake said:
I asked the developer of Pocketcasts about this. And it seems they're missing the tools to make this.
" We've been looking into it, but that format is a proprietary Apple standard that no one else has support for. So our iOS app supports it out of the box, because Apple has the developer tools for us to do that. On Android Google don't, and we've yet to find a third-party library we can use that does, which leaves us stuck. So short story: yes we'd love to, but we don't think we can."
Bummer.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The feature is supported by VLC on the desktop (and likely other open source desktop apps). Handbrake also supports it; it can encode the chapter data into m4v files. In reading about it, it seems like the chapter data is simply encoded into the file in plaintext. I don't know how easy or hard it is to read that data on Android, but it definitely seems do-able (seeing as how the above 2 open source apps do it).

Any update on this?

Puffin617 said:
Any update on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had no joy. I have tried most new players added to the marketplace.
I don't believe that windows mobile has one up over android ??

It seems like Podcast Republic does the job ? unfortunately is has some bugs on my LG G3, like background play doesnt work, and rotating the devices skips chapters :silly:
Hopefully it will be resolved in a newer version.

uncleslim said:
It seems like Podcast Republic does the job ? unfortunately is has some bugs on my LG G3, like background play doesnt work, and rotating the devices skips chapters :silly:
Hopefully it will be resolved in a newer version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This app is absolutely useless.!!! It has NO idea about chapters, let alone that there ARE chapters in the podcast....
I'm so vukking fed-up with Android's incompetence!!!!
The only way to even remotely use chapters is to play AAC files with an accompanying CUE sheet with PowerAmp...

Puffin617 said:
This app is absolutely useless.!!! It has NO idea about chapters, let alone that there ARE chapters in the podcast....
I'm so vukking fed-up with Android's incompetence!!!!
The only way to even remotely use chapters is to play AAC files with an accompanying CUE sheet with PowerAmp...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it Works for me with chapters for the few podcasts i subscribe to like Hardwell on air and Tiesto Club life.
So it might be useless for you .. but for me its the best player out there for android ..
Go buy yourself and iPhone or calm Down :laugh:

[Q] How to convert a .wtv file to view on the OPO?

The title pretty much speaks for itself.
I want to use my OPO to store and playback recorded WMC TV content, (Windows 7.)
In a dream world, preferably without converting to different file format.
If not, is there a good, free piece of software that anyone can recommend?
And so on...
I did search for this topic, couldn't find a suitable thread.

djsinco said:
The title pretty much speaks for itself.
I want to use my OPO to store and playback recorded WMC TV content, (Windows 7.)
In a dream world, preferably without converting to different file format.
If not, is there a good, free piece of software that anyone can recommend?
And so on...
I did search for this topic, couldn't find a suitable thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have a look at http://mctvconverter.vivolum.net/ - found in less than 30 seconds with Google
Oh, and this really should be in the "Q & A" forum as it is a question :silly:

Yes, it is a question, but hoping for feedback from those who have used software to allow viewing...
Also, concerned about downloading any software from the web without verification from at least a couple of users who have had good experiences with it.
Thanks for your input.

I can suggest this beautiful open source software project, licensed under the GNU General Public License v2:
MCEBuddy.
IMHO, one of the best WTV converters for Windows systems.
The latest two versions require a small donation, but previous versions are free of charge.

I have been looking at MCEBuddy. It seems as though older versions are free, and the "new and faster" version requires a minimum $25 "donation."
I don't mind paying, after I have had a trial, but don't see that option.
Which version are you using, fastleo?

I'm using the free 2.3.13 version.

Thanks, I am trying the MC-TV Converter as I type this. It looks like about 15 - 20 minutes to convert a file of about 1 GB.
Will try the same file with MCE Buddy, which I expect will be faster, (which will also mean, better.)

OK, showing my lack of expertise here. I converted file to .mpg4 file type, and dropped it in the camera folder of my OnePlus phone.
It will not play, although a preview thumbnail showed up with an image...
Should I be using a different file type for Android to play the video, or drop the video into a different folder, or both?
Thanks...

djsinco said:
OK, showing my lack of expertise here. I converted file to .mpg4 file type, and dropped it in the camera folder of my OnePlus phone.
It will not play, although a preview thumbnail showed up with an image...
Should I be using a different file type for Android to play the video, or drop the video into a different folder, or both?
Thanks...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try renaming it to .mp4 or .m4v. Also, which video player are you using?

Convert to MP4 or MKV then play using MX Player, you shouldn't have any problems then.

I downloaded VLC for Android, then put the video in a folder on my OPO I titled Recorded TV (in Movies folder.) VLC plays my video quite nicely.
Next, I will try MCEBuddy to see if it is faster than MC-TV Converter.
Thanks, all, for your patience. This will save me from having to carry my OPO and my tablet. As long as I load the right content, can now keep up with some TV on my phone. Things like sports or epic movies deserve a bigger screen, but there is plenty to watch on my phone now!

djsinco said:
I downloaded VLC for Android, then put the video in a folder on my OPO I titled Recorded TV (in Movies folder.) VLC plays my video quite nicely.
Next, I will try MCEBuddy to see if it is faster than MC-TV Converter.
Thanks, all, for your patience. This will save me from having to carry my OPO and my tablet. As long as I load the right content, can now keep up with some TV on my phone. Things like sports or epic movies deserve a bigger screen, but there is plenty to watch on my phone now!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MCEBuddy is way faster, esp if you have the hardware encoding encoding enabled it blows the rest away. Even without hardware encoding if you're using the latest builds 2.3.15 or 2.4.1 it's still 30%-40% faster. (a little less than half the time) esp for HD and H264 video.
---------- Post added at 09:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:12 PM ----------
djsinco said:
I have been looking at MCEBuddy. It seems as though older versions are free, and the "new and faster" version requires a minimum $25 "donation."
I don't mind paying, after I have had a trial, but don't see that option.
Which version are you using, fastleo?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are running a promotion on facebook, check out mcebuddy on facebook (I can't post the link here).
I think it $15 right now.