Google Music - 3/3 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jul

Better Late Than Never: Google Music Manager Now Available For Linux

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News

Linux users who were invited to the Google Music Beta program back when it first launched quickly realized that the service offered little value to them. Why? Because, at the time, there was no native way to upload music. Today, after two-and-a-half-months, Google finally released an uploader designed just for Linux.

The uploader essentially works just like the Windows version, with one small tweak: OGG support. OGG files will automatically be transcoded to 320kbps MP3 files, which will inevitably make the already painfully slow uploading process last even longer -- but hey, at least you can finally use that beta invite, right?

May

Google Rolling Out Music Beta Invites To Verizon XOOM Owners

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

When Google announced its highly anticipated Music beta service at I/O last week, we were told that, aside from I/O attendees, Verizon XOOM owners would be among the first to get to use the service. Holding true to that, Google has officially started sending out the invites this morning.

As far as we know, this is exclusive to Verizon customers right now, with no word when owners of other models (or other devices) can expect to get the invite (aside from attendees with their Galaxy Tab 10.1's).

Have any of you received your invite yet? Drop us a line when you do and let us know how you feel about the service.

May

Google Music Page Is Live, Request A Beta Invite Now!

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Apps/Games, News

We got a tip this morning for the official URL for Google Music, and we've been randomly checking it (read: mashing F5 constantly) since then. A few minutes ago, something amazing happened - it went live. Hit the link, request your invite, and ~~patiently~~ wait for it! GO!

^{Landing page}

^{After clicking on "Request invitation"}

Although this just went up, we can pull out a few obvious facts right off the bat:

Honeycomb and Gingerbread will be supported
At least based on what's shown in the images above, Music doesn't appear to be a store. As expected, it seems to be cloud storage/player.

May

[Unconfirmed] Google Music Is Ready, May Be Announced Tomorrow at Google I/O

Posted by Matt Demers in Android OS, Google

The Internet is buzzing about Google I/O, with many speculating on what major reveals the public can expect. Sources close to the Wall Street Journal, for instance, are insisting that Google's long awaited music service will be announced tomorrow. The service will act similarly to Amazon.com Inc.'s cloud service, which allows users to upload their own music files and stream them to supported devices.

The service's launch would indicate that Google has given up on talking with the four major music companies it has sought to appease before moving forward.

"Unfortunately, a couple of the major labels were less focused on the innovative vision that we put forward, and more interested in in an unreasonable and unsustainable set of business terms," said Jamie Rosenberg, Android Product Manager.

Mar

[Review] Amazon Cloud Player For Android - Google Music Who?

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News, Tips & Tutorials

It’s not much of a secret that Amazon is quickly becoming one of my favorite companies. The way they have embraced Android is wonderful, creating diversity where there used to be none. I recently ran down some of the pros and cons of the Amazon Appstore for Android, which is starting to become my go-to marketplace for new apps. Now they have released a new music streaming service, Cloud Player, which brings some of the functionality that was originally a hope of Google Music to my Droid.

Cloud Drive and the Web App

The Cloud Player is basically a frontend to all of the music that is stored in the Cloud Drive (which can be used to store any file type).

Mar

Amazon Launches Cloud Player Music Streaming Service For Android

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, Apps/Games, News

While some companies are content to just talk, talk, talk about what they are doing, Amazon seems to be quietly hard at work. Last week they gave us the Amazon Appstore for Android and last night they dropped another bomb – the Amazon Cloud Player.

If Grooveshark and Dropbox had a baby, it would be Amazon Cloud Player. It consists of Cloud Drive - 5GB of free cloud storage on Amazon’s servers (upgradable to 20GB with the purchase of one album or for $20/year; $1 per gigabyte after that) - and the Cloud Player, which can be accessed from the web or from an Android device.

Jul

Google Music Coming In Gingerbread…. Says Questionable Source

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Gingerbread 2.3, News

I want to say up front that I don’t have much faith in this. In fact, I only agreed to do it if I could clearly indicate how dubious I am in the article. So, I’m opening with a screenshot of just how sketchy this is:

If you haven’t read the article in the image (which I’m hoping you haven’t), here are the important details (according to the article):

Gaurav Jain, Google Android Product Manager, has said, “Google will combine music download service next version of Android launched for the U.S. holiday season.” [Not bad, Google Translate.]

Awesome, right? We already know that a music service is coming, and hey, the folks at Google always do right by us, don’t they?