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Thunderbolt as a music player

TxGoat said:
The only problem I have with using a cell phone as a music player is I use my MP3 player for working out and develop quite a sweat. As often as I've had to deny warranty claims to iPhone users for water damage, I dare not subject my phone to any moisture, and lets face it sweat is probably more corrosive than plain water. I have a set of bluetooth headphones, but the sound quality is not there yet as compared to a corded set of headphones, and this is with a $200 set of bluetooth headphones (jaybirds).
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Ya know I've been taking my Incredible and my phoens before that into the gym and also into the sauna for years and have never gotten any water damage to them . Have even had them warrenty exchanged at Verizon . And I'm a sweater , I even take my phone into the hot tub on a regular basis (in a ziplock bag of course) I always have a case which covers most the weak points and I keep my phone in my left pocket
 
The only thing that has been keeping me carrying around my iPod is that I don't have enough room on my phone for all my music. I like to have all my tunes with me at all times (never know what I will be in the mood for) and I'm already having to not synch some of them because my 32gig iPod Touch is full... I need MOAR STORAGE!!!
 
ska.t73 said:
The only thing that has been keeping me carrying around my iPod is that I don't have enough room on my phone for all my music. I like to have all my tunes with me at all times (never know what I will be in the mood for) and I'm already having to not synch some of them because my 32gig iPod Touch is full... I need MOAR STORAGE!!!
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theacoustician said:
Seriously, look at Subsonic
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OK I am wanting to try this. i have a Dinc right now and an Ipod touch. the only music I use my Dinc for is Pandora and that sort of thing but would love to move my itunes stuff to the phone.

If I connect it by usb and mount the card I can copy to it I am sure, but does the music need to go in a certain folder or use a certain folder structure. I mean i have tons of cds I would like to drop on there.

If the default player is kind of shitty which one should I d/L that will make cd,playlist, or track selection easiest. I was going to wait for the T-bolt with its 32 gig card but they are taking so long I may as well learn the process with my Dinc.
 
theacoustician said:
Seriously ... I have 5.5TB of storage at my fingertips. Subsonic also started supporting streaming video as well.
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Gonna look into that for sure. Question though, I've tried streamers before and didn't really like them for my phone (mainly because of the buffering) have you tried Subsonic on a phone, and if so how was the streaming?
 
ska.t73 said:
Gonna look into that for sure. Question though, I've tried streamers before and didn't really like them for my phone (mainly because of the buffering) have you tried Subsonic on a phone, and if so how was the streaming?
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It basically downloads and pre-caches songs to your phone. So, your experience will completely depend on you internet connect on the server side and your phone. It is smart enough to keep downloading songs in your playlist while it's playing the current one. It's smart enough to know if you switch playlists and have a song in the new playlist that's currently sitting in your cache, it will not redownload it. You can set the cache size to whatever you want, so it's not hogging your entire SD card, but large enough to cover you in areas where coverage is spotty.

I used it on the OG Droid and it worked great. My connection at home is fast, so that's not an issue. If my coverage was spotty on the phone, it might require me to fully download the first song in the playlist before it would start playing anything. If coverage was 3 or 4 bars, it plays immediately. I would think on LTE, it would be seamless streaming most of the time.
 
theacoustician said:
It basically downloads and pre-caches songs to your phone. So, your experience will completely depend on you internet connect on the server side and your phone. It is smart enough to keep downloading songs in your playlist while it's playing the current one. It's smart enough to know if you switch playlists and have a song in the new playlist that's currently sitting in your cache, it will not redownload it. You can set the cache size to whatever you want, so it's not hogging your entire SD card, but large enough to cover you in areas where coverage is spotty.

I used it on the OG Droid and it worked great. My connection at home is fast, so that's not an issue. If my coverage was spotty on the phone, it might require me to fully download the first song in the playlist before it would start playing anything. If coverage was 3 or 4 bars, it plays immediately. I would think on LTE, it would be seamless streaming most of the time.
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Handy, but more of a battery drainer and need a good signal. MP3s better option, IMO.
 
Still, streaming sounds like a nice option for desk/docked in the office - and one can do both.

And that brings up speakers, and I think I'd like you all to know how truly cool these very small spheres are -

http://www.amazon.com/X-Mini-II-Capsule-Speaker-Black/dp/B001UEBN42

They're inexpensive, one sounds great - you can daisy-chain them - and they pack a VERY surprising little whallop for a small size. They've become the darling in our offices, and you can find them on Amazon.

DroidL said:
OK I am wanting to try this. i have a Dinc right now and an Ipod touch. the only music I use my Dinc for is Pandora and that sort of thing but would love to move my itunes stuff to the phone.

If I connect it by usb and mount the card I can copy to it I am sure, but does the music need to go in a certain folder or use a certain folder structure. I mean i have tons of cds I would like to drop on there.

If the default player is kind of shitty which one should I d/L that will make cd,playlist, or track selection easiest. I was going to wait for the T-bolt with its 32 gig card but they are taking so long I may as well learn the process with my Dinc.
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I drag complete albums from the iTunes library (file browser, not iTunes) right under the /sdcard/Music folder - works.

For players, there are a bunch rated well, Meridian, RockPlayer, Mixzing, PowerAMP.

I've been sticking with Meridian, but people keep trying to tell me there's something clunky about it - and - I kinda don't care, because I got used to it.

My favorite just-listen source is actually the built-in FM Radio on my Evo because we have a pretty decent classical station here. I'm actually listening to Cyndi Lauper right now on an adjacent station.

If I'm not mistaken, the Bolt has an FM Radio.

Works great with that kickstand gimmick. lma0
 
rushmore said:
Handy, but more of a battery drainer and need a good signal. MP3s better option, IMO.
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Not any more of a battery drainer than Pandora.

Also, you might want to look at encoding AAC. You'll get equal or better quality with less bits and the container is built for streaming. If you want to stick with local media, you can at least cram on more with AAC.
 
As long as you didin't buy a lot of music from the iTunes store it will be a great player. Stupid Android OS can't sort aac files by track number, sorts them by name.
 
I currently have and iPod Touch that I use in my Ford Edge with the Sync system. I am considering either an iPhone 4 or the Thunderbolt. I am concerned that if I go with the Thunderbolt that it will not interface as seemlessly with the Ford Sync as my iPod Touch does. Does anyone have any experience with the Ford Sync and Droid phones who can give me some insight as to how this may work? Right now I just plug the iPod in using the USB connection and go. It's quite simple. And when a Droid is plugged into the Sync system do you use an app to play the music, the default player? I am unsure of this.
 
EarlyMon said:
The Sync software was made by Microsoft to be MP3 player agnostic, but was originally set to take fullest advantage of the MS Zune and the Apple iPod.

Since then - Ford Sync Now Talks to Google Maps | Android Phone Fans

http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-support-troubleshooting/94610-evo-ford-sync-anyone.html

http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-sup...117371-ford-sync-bluetooth-streaming-evo.html

http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/25492-ford-sync.html

Hope that info is helpful!
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Thanks for the links, I have looked at those and they are helpful. I am still a little confused on how Sync interfaces with the music on the phone and how it plays the music. If I play have the music on the 32GB SD card will it be a chore everytime I put connect the phone in the car or will it be as simple as plugging in the USB.
 
EarlyMon said:
Android plays all formats that an iPod does except for those laden with DRM, and those haven't been sold on the iTMS for quite some time.

I own an iPod, I use Macs, I drag and drop my iTunes music directly to my Evo. Tried doubletwist, yeah, works great, but drag and drop is better.

I use the Meridian player, most prefer the RockPlayer. Check those out if you're having trouble playing aac or m4a files on your phone.
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Really? Wow....this just shattered my whole universe.
 
ChiTownJim said:
Ya know I've been taking my Incredible and my phoens before that into the gym and also into the sauna for years and have never gotten any water damage to them . Have even had them warrenty exchanged at Verizon . And I'm a sweater , I even take my phone into the hot tub on a regular basis (in a ziplock bag of course) I always have a case which covers most the weak points and I keep my phone in my left pocket
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I'm probably just overprotective of my phone, although when you're exposed to people claiming their water damage took place because "I took my phone on a trip with me to Seattle and the only humidity it was exposed to was the humid Seattle air, I swear!", it makes you a little over cautious. I may just go ahead and get a decent case for it, although it's very liberating to have nothing but my bluetooth headphones on and not worry about THAT particular cable dangling while exercising. Of course the other cable will dangle if you ever decide to go commando while exercising, but I digress...
 
TxGoat said:
I'm probably just overprotective of my phone, although when you're exposed to people claiming their water damage took place because "I took my phone on a trip with me to Seattle and the only humidity it was exposed to was the humid Seattle air, I swear!", it makes you a little over cautious. I may just go ahead and get a decent case for it, although it's very liberating to have nothing but my bluetooth headphones on and not worry about THAT particular cable dangling while exercising. Of course the other cable will dangle if you ever decide to go commando while exercising, but I digress...
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I've been one of those people actually dropped my phone in beer about 6years ago and brought it in to Verizon and swore up and down it hadn't been in water but I had just come from Chicago in summer time and it was very humid . Long story short I got them to exchange it for me but that was old Verizon haha
 
I have used both iPod/iPhones and Android devices as music players. I can tell you there is a noticeable difference in the audio quality (but honestly it depends on the phone). For example, the iPod feature of the iPhone is truly phenominal. I use Bose in ear headphones and it sounds fantastic. In my car I can either plug it in through the iPod cable to the head unit or I can stream the music through bluetooth wirelessly. It works great, sounds awesome. I tried the audio player on the Evo and it basically sucked. The volume did not go very loud and it was pretty bad. When the PowerAMP app came out I downloaded it from the market and it made the music player A LOT better.

When I switched to the Droid X I was truly blown away by how good the music player (again, PowerAMP) sounded on the phone. It is by far the closest I have used to the iPod on the iPhone. Truly, the iPod is the best one, but the Android players are getting better. I hope the one on the Thunderbolt is as good if not better than the Droid X - we will have to wait and see :)
 
svenb352 said:
I have used both iPod/iPhones and Android devices as music players. I can tell you there is a noticeable difference in the audio quality (but honestly it depends on the phone). For example, the iPod feature of the iPhone is truly phenominal. I use Bose in ear headphones and it sounds fantastic. In my car I can either plug it in through the iPod cable to the head unit or I can stream the music through bluetooth wirelessly. It works great, sounds awesome. I tried the audio player on the Evo and it basically sucked. The volume did not go very loud and it was pretty bad. When the PowerAMP app came out I downloaded it from the market and it made the music player A LOT better.

When I switched to the Droid X I was truly blown away by how good the music player (again, PowerAMP) sounded on the phone. It is by far the closest I have used to the iPod on the iPhone. Truly, the iPod is the best one, but the Android players are getting better. I hope the one on the Thunderbolt is as good if not better than the Droid X - we will have to wait and see :)
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Yeah stock my Incredible wasn't on par with my Ipod touch . But once I got DSP and PowerAMP configured properly it's equaly if not better but I got rid of my Ipod awhile back. I still have a Ipod Mini I use on my dock from time to time when it decides to work haha that thing is old as hell
 
theacoustician said:
I'm glad you like it! It's also nice that the Android client is free :)
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He isn't the only one dude! I can't thank you enough for calling out this app man, this thing is sick!!! The set up is a bit involved but nothing too major... And it is completely worth it, spent like one hour with it before I donated...

In fact the only real complaint I have is that I wish the app was more robust like powerAmp, but it gets the job done and allows me access to my whole music libary.

Again thanks for the tip... :D
 
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