I just got Verizon SGS3 here and thinking about putting my ATT iphone 4s for sale.
I used iphone for the last 3 or so years and I have owned everything single model. I have owned a ATT HTC One X but returned it because i did not like Sense. Here are my impressions and questions on SGS3:
Overall, IOS and its apps seemed far more polished. It seemed that every app I download worked quite the same and I knew exactly what to expect. With android, there is a wider range of apps, which could be a big plus or a huge minus. Lets look at specific features that bug me:
1) Universal media control is deficient in ICS. Iphone has a universal playback control menu that is reached with just two taps on home button and a slide to the left. In SGS3, every media app has it own control, some allow to be controlled from the notification bar, some have a widget, for some you have to enter the app. Wouldn't it be convenient to just control playback in every single app through a universal playback menu??? Why isn't it implemented?
2) Media players do not play nice with each other. Why doesn't playback stops in one program automatically when playback starts in a different program. Some media players (Amazon cloud) have this feature but many do not, making this annoying.
3) Media playback should stop once a Bluetooth is disconnected - this is automatic on Iphone
4) Universal search is gone - AHHHH. But I will probably have to wait till next OTA or root my phone to get that back.
I listen to a lot of audiobooks when I drive so activities that I have to perform on SGS3 with media control annoy the heck out of me. I know these are easy to fixes but will make SGS3 more user friendly.
My iphone is jailbroken. Also, I looked through modified ROMs, there are so many and hard to chose, just need something stable easy to use with the features I need .
OK guys, check this out. I use iTunes, period. I have no qualms about it. But, until now, I haven't found an app worthy enough of Apple's own Remote app. As of the last two weeks, a new remote has appeared in our market that blows Apple's out of the water, and it's FREE. It's called Retune, and I have no connection to the dev whatsoever.
It follows Android's holo theme to a tee, simply beautifully. It includes even more functionality than even Apple's app in that it controls not only your entire music collection (playlist, genres, even composers), but also your entire video collection, including rentals. It can even browse iTunes own radio section. Separate volume sliders for all Apple airplay devices included. Start genius based on a song is also present. This app has a 4.9 rating so far, and I can't believe it doesn't have more downloads than it does. While it doesn't have a widget yet, it does have a nice album art notification center just like Google's Play Music app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.squallydoc.retune&hl=en
Might pick up an sw2 for 100.
Just curious about app support.
Can I control google play music? As in navigate library etc.
What is phone control like.
What else can I do.. Sell it to me folks.. Thanks.
Sorry. What about pairing with non Sony phone... (galaxy note 2)
Mine works with my note 3.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
It controls your music app, play, pause etc but it doesn't allows you to go through your library to search for your song. Maybe its a limitation of the app or because the screen is too small, hence they don't include that ability. It is compatible to our note 2.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Free mobile app
I know only one app wich can browse library (Artist, Album, Song) SWP for smartwatch and it has his own built in player.
The PowerAmp-App for the Smartwatch 2 can do all this and more (in combination with PowerAmp installed on your Phone).
Love this App! I'm using it every day
To your other question about compatibility:
The Sony Smartwatch 2 is made to work with every Android Phone running Android 4.0 and higher.
jewnersey said:
Might pick up an sw2 for 100.
Just curious about app support.
Can I control google play music? As in navigate library etc.
What is phone control like.
What else can I do.. Sell it to me folks.. Thanks.
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Click to collapse
For $100 it's an awesome gadget. Compared to the smartwatches out right now it is a best-of-all-worlds device.
- Color touch screen.
- Perfectly visible in direct sunlight.
- Always-on watch face.
- Fully customizable watch faces.
- 3-4 day battery life.
- Non-proprietary charger.
- Water resistant.
- Compatible with any standard 24mm watchband.
- Large selection of apps in the app store.
- No hard limit on number of apps and watch faces you can have (unlike 4 or 8 limit with pebble).
- With the right apps, can forward any and all notifications from your phone.
- Can also display most widgets from your phone on your watch using remote widget app.
The only downsides depending on your point of view:
- Shorter battery life than pebble, still longer than almost any other smart watch
- No microphone or speaker
- Support may wane now that android wear is out, but so far holding steady
I got one for Christmas, and broke it two weeks ago. I went less than a week before buying another one, I liked it that much. Conversely, I had a pebble steel for three days and returned it.
HI,
First time on this forum. I've had my SmartWatch 2 for almost a month now and to be honest I'm not overly impressed. I'm not expecting it to be a replacement for my phone or anything but I find it has a limited use due to very few useful apps. I have all the ones that are suggested by Smart Connect. I have a couple of custom watch faces, Smartmote (Music controller that's compatible with Spotify), Find Phone and Commander. I find it hard to find any decent apps on Play that are high quality. Is there any third party apps dedicated as an appstore for the SmartWatch?
What I'd really like to know, what apps do you use on a daily bases, that you can't live without and that makes the SmartWatch 2 a useful aid to your life?
Use SmartConnect or search in Play Store for Smart Extension Sony...
I love D-Day for dates and tasks and the Shopping list extension since I've the 2nd child
Von meinem Sony Xperia Z1 gesendet. Mit Hirn.
Depends on what you want to do. I use tasker to remove the pass code when it is connected to the watch and re-enable it when out of range. Tasker also notifies me if the battery is draining when usb charging or the screen is on while in my pocket... I use AppLauncher to be able to start car mode when in my 2nd car (which doesn't have Bluetooth) and to start klets (voice control) or remote widget to turn on my home media server from the lounge room... I use "Phone Status" to toggle Wi-Fi hotspot. My bank had an asp to view current balance...so many things it can do...
Main use : Watchify
I own a galaxy note 3, so it's super convient to see the notification on my wirst.
Also as said just before, the Tasker combinaison can do some pretty good things.
I use mostly Poweramp Control pro and Runtastic.
And from time to time, Calculator and the Timer.
Notifier
Smartwatch Notify! Although it's lacking in the grammar area, it's by far the most useful app I ever had on my Smartwatch 2
- AllNotify for notification
- Everwatch : To see my Evernote
- Tiny task : To see my Google Task
- TimeOut : Interval Timer
- CayNax HIIT : Also interval timer HIIT
- Calendar by Nefa Studio to Add event in calendar from the watch
- SMS Sender by Nefa to write SMS from the watch
- AppLauncher to start phone app from the watch
- Tasker for SW2 to launch Tasker Task from the watch
- Smartwatch Shopping List to go to supermarket with my OutOfTheMilk list
- SWP Music Player to start music, Album, Artist, Song from the watch
- Call Handling pro to make call from the watch
- Counter to keep count many thing from the watch
- Stopwatch app (other than original) to count even if wath is down
- K9Mail for my mail notification
- Lunar Phase for Lunar and Sun
- Spy Voice to start voice record since the watch
- NanoNotes to write quick note from the watch
- Skype, hangout, Facebook, Twitter client
- Smartwatch Currency Converter to quickly convert money
- Smartwatch Remember to start remind with snooze time
- SMS&Notes for Smartwatch also to write quick note from the watch
- WatchNote other Evenote Client
- Status View to see phone Wifi, Sound, 3G batt .
- Wearable Widget to see phone widget on SW2 and all Zooper Widget
- Smartwaether to see forecast 5 days on watch
Sony apps:
-Gmail/Twitter/Messages/Facebook/Call handling
3rd part apps:
-Whatsapp
-Rain alarm Pro
-Hangouts
-Watchface Widgets
-Phone battery
Ordered by usage weight, my top 5 apps are:
Augmented Smartwatch (it handled all notifications from day 1)
Watch Widgets from NefaStudio (for the watchface)
Call Handling Pro
Music Player from Sony
Built-in alarm app
...and many others
dersie said:
- TimeOut : Interval Timer
- Skype
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you link to these two please?
AlexOB1 said:
Could you link to these two please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.shuisky.timeoutpro
For Skype, developper blog say that app is removed from playstore cause trademark issue with image....
he link his app before change for playstore
http://file.lis2012.com/sw2apk/
Smart Vanilla Music Player
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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Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?