05
Sep
spotifytiny

Spotify App Update Now Adds NFC Sharing Ability, Equalizer For Users Running ICS And Up

Posted by in Applications, News

Today, Spotify's Android app received an update that should please audiophiles the world over (where available): if you're using the mobile app on Ice Cream Sandwich or above, you can now access an equalizer from the Settings menu. The features is actually called "Audio Effects" in 4.0, but on Jelly Bean it's been changed to the more readily-recognizable "Equalizer" moniker.

2012-09-05 12.42.54 2012-09-05 12.42.44

Also new is the ability to share music via NFC. Assuming you and a friend have NFC-enabled devices and both subscribe to Spotify, you can share tracks by tapping your devices together. Handy! Other improvements include a better offline mode bar and a bunch of bug fixes.

31
Oct
IMGA0092 (2)

Review: Philips Fidelio AS851 Android Speaker Dock - When An Awesome Speaker Meets An Amazing Dock

Posted by in Other Reviews, Reviews

I wouldn't exactly say it's a secret, but I'm a bit of a closet audiophile. I've reviewed a couple of audio products for Android devices in the past (like portable speakers and headphones), and am always interested in Android-friendly sound solutions.

Today, I'm taking a look at the Philips Fidelio AS851 (yes, that is kind of a lame name), Philips' top-of-the-line Android speaker dock. How can a speaker dock be designed for Android, you ask? Well, Philips realized that their popular line of iPhone docks could pretty easily be converted to be Android friendly by changing the dock connector to a microUSB connection, and releasing the Fidelio app for Android handsets.

06
Dec
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[Updated] Google Announces 2.3 Gingerbread! Here Is Everything You Need To Know

Posted by in Gingerbread 2.3, News
Last Updated: December 10th, 2010

The moment we've been waiting for so many months - it's finally here! I can hardly contain my excitement as I'm writing this, but both Gingerbread and the Samsung Nexus S were officially announced 30 minutes ago. As expected, the new OS bears the version number 2.3 and brings updates to the SDK and the NDK as well SDK tools and the Eclipse ADT plugin.

As expected, a lot of the OS improvements are under-the-hood, which will result in better gaming, responsiveness, and overall Android experience.

New Features/Enhancements

OS/SDK/NDK

The new OS features and enhancements include:

  • enhancements for game development, including a new concurrent garbage collector, more native APIs, faster event distribution, updated video drivers, and new sensors (gyroscope) - this is amazing for developers; expect gaming to get a lot more responsive and versatile
  • lots and lots of attention in the above bullet point has been given to the NDK - the Native Development Kit.

25
Oct
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Behold PowerAMP - The Most Gorgeous Player On The Android Platform, With Preamp And Equalizer Support

Posted by in Applications, News, Videos

There is no shortage of media applications for Android - in fact, Winamp that came out last week was the most serious and robust media offering I've seen so far. However, when it comes to strictly the media player functionality, even Winamp can't touch what I'm about to show you - a new beta app called PowerAMP.

PowerAMP is an Android media player developed by a cool Russian dude by the name of Maxim Petrov (Max MP). Its most notable features are, in my opinion, the gorgeous interface, support for both equalizer and preamp, and very fast file scanning speed.

Here are the features at a glance, courtesy of owziee from xda:

-MP3, MP4/M4A,loseless ALAC,FLAC, OGG, WAV, TTA, WMA
-Has own codecs
-Widget
-Choose music from SD card
-Tags, lyrics
-Skins, 2 in beta version
-Fast scan of files ( in 1 second 1000files, depends on phone speed)
-EQ
-Preamp

Unfortunately, genre support is yet again missing, but hopefully Max will add them in the next update.