20
Mar
currentstiny

Google Currents Update Adds Support For Audio Playlists, Media Bars, And Audio Controls

Posted by in Applications, News

Google released an update to the news reader it hasn't abandoned today, adding a bunch of support for audio-centric features. Playlists are now available for editions that contain audio content, and users will be able to play, pause, and jump forward or backward in the playlist. There are even status bar controls added for when audio is playing, so you don't have to sit staring at a blank playback page while listening.

Here's the full change log:

What's in this version:

* Audio playlist for editions with audio
* Audio media bar in app for stop, start, next, previous
* Story scanner audio icons for launching Audio directly
* Status bar audio controls when Currents audio is playing
* Syncing post read state between devices
* Bug fixes

It sounds a lot like Google is gearing up to make Currents more than just a guided content scraper.

06
Dec
soundcloudtiny

SoundCloud App Updates With A Slick New UI, Improved Search, And The Ability To Repost

Posted by in Applications, News

SoundCloud may not be the most famous app around, but when it comes to sharing a simple audio clip or a song, it's hard to beat. Now, the company's mobile app is getting an overhaul and with it comes a shiny new interface that doesn't suck. The UI upgrade makes use of the action bar, side navigation panel, notification controls and all the other fancy new features that we've grown used to since Ice Cream Sandwich and beyond.

The update also brings improvements to the search features that should help you track down public audio (like our podcast!) more easily.

19
Nov
apollotiny

Official CyanogenMod Music Player 'Apollo' Arrives On The Play Store To Organize Your Musical Muses

Posted by in Applications, News

In ancient Greece, Apollo was—among other things—the god of music. In ancient 2012, Apollo became the official music app for CyanogenMod. It was gorgeous, functional, and completely customizable, as you might expect from the world's most popular ROM. At the time, we were told that this lovely bit of software would be coming to the Market "in the coming weeks." That was back when we still called it the Market. Today, though, Apollo is available on the Play Store.

apollo1 apollo2 apollo3

The player comes in two flavors: regular, and +. Apollo+ removes ads and offers quicker updates for a mere $0.99.

19
Sep
rhapsodytiny

Rhapsody App Turns 3.0, Celebrates By Adding Offline Support For Individual Tracks And Albums

Posted by in Applications, News

While services like Spotify and Rdio may steal the spotlight most of the time, there are other streaming subscription services out there. Related: we need a better name than "streaming subscription services." Rhapsody, originally founded by Real Networks and since become an independent entity, has a pretty impressive library that users can now download for offline playback. An essential feature for a modern cloud music player. Update: To clarify, it's the ability to download songs on an individual or per-album basis that is new. Users were always able songs by adding them to a playlist first. This simply makes the process simpler.

08
Sep
Google_Music

[Weekend Poll] Do You Stream Your Music Library On Android, Or Store It Locally?

Posted by in Polls

This is the latest in our Weekend Polls series. For last week's, see Would You Give Up A Front-Facing Camera To Have A Bezel-Less Phone?

If you want to listen to your own music on your Android device, there are two ways to do it: first, store it locally, or second, stream it from a cloud-based service like Google Music or Amazon MP3. Obviously playing back locally would be faster (no buffering), reliable (you don't have to worry about reception), not use up valuable bandwidth, and allow you to use whatever music player you want. But if you choose to stream from the cloud, you're not limited by your phone's storage, so you probably have access to your entire library - not to mention you don't have to bother with syncing your music.

02
Jul
thumb

[Update: More Info About NA Availability] VLC Player Now Available In The Play Store For ARMv7 NEON Devices... But Not In The U.S. And Canada

Posted by in Applications, News

It seems like we've been waiting forever for an official build of VLC to land in the Play Store, and that day has finally come... for some people, anyway. First off, the build that just landed in the Store is for devices with ARMv7 NEON CPUs only. This includes most modern processors, like Tegra 3, Exynos, OMAP4, and Snapdragon S2, S3, and S4. If you have an older processor, like Tegra 2 or one that uses ARMv6 architecture, then a build for your device should be available "in a few days."

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4 5

While this version is beta, it still supports all the features that users of VLC's desktop software have come to expect, like playback of nearly any video or audio file, media library, support for multi-track audio and subtitles; as well as some mobile-specific goodies like auto-rotation, aspect ratio adjustments, and gestures to control volume.

18
May
vlc logo

VLC For Android Gets Unofficial Hourly Alpha Builds, Courtesy Of A Generous Developer

Posted by in Applications, News

VLC is one of those tools that's in every geek's toolbox. The video player that supports every video format known to man still doesn't have an official, finished Android version, though. In the meantime, however, developer cvpcs, has done us all the courtesy of setting up an hourly build server for the alpha of VLC for Android.

2012-05-18_15h04_51

The builds come in both NEON and non-NEON flavors. So, folks with older phones, or devices with the Tegra 2, for example, should probably download the non-NEON version. Newer devices packing the likes of the T3, S4, and modern Exynos SoCs can enjoy the NEON version.

25
Aug
t-mobile-g2-itw-2-04

T-Mobile G2 Running On New MSM7X30 Chipset: Native 720P 30FPS Recording And Playback, Better 3D Performance And More

Posted by in Carriers, Devices By Manufacturer, G2 (Vision), HTC, T-Mobile
Last Updated: August 27th, 2010

Based on a tweet by Cyanogen, the G2 isn't going to be sporting another rehash of the Snapdragon family of chipsets that has come to dominate HTC devices for the past 6 months.

You may remember back in November of 2009 (or maybe not, I didn't) that Qualcomm demoed an updated family of chipsets for mobile multimedia devices. The name of that chipset is the remarkably catchy MSM7X30 (really has a ring to it, no?), and it's bringing a little more to the table than its predecessors.

We already knew the G2 would be shipping with HSPA+ connectivity (the first phone to have it), but that's only one of the goodies Qualcomm's upgraded chipset will be offering:

  • 720P video encoding (recording) and decoding at 30FPS
  • Integrated 2D/3D GPU's with OpenGL ES 2.0 and Open VG 1.1 API support
  • 5.1 surround sound output
  • Up to 12 megapixel camera support
  • Integrated GPS
  • Support for processor speeds between 800MHz and 1GHz (Scorpion CPU's, same as Snapdragon's)

All of this considered, the G2's spec sheet could really cause some heads to explode.

21
Jun
divx

Play DivX, H264, MKV, and AVI Files On Your Android Device Using RockPlayerBase

Posted by in Applications, Apps/Games, News

One of Android’s major shortcomings is its lack of compatibility with many audio and video file types. Fortunately, doubleTwist stepped in to fix the audio problem, but what about video playback? That’s where RockPlayerBase comes in!

Compatible with a plethora of video formats, including MKV, AVI and DivX, RockPlayerBase combines great compatibility with a simple interface. Controls are overlaid on the screen, so you can still see the video track whilst using the controls.

android rockplayerbase

When testing on the Nexus One, I found playback quality to be predominantly good. I tested a DVD rip encoded in AVI which played back without any problems, although audio output was sometimes a little pitchy and inconsistent.