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Pandora having spat with Froyo, problems processing audio

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by Dustin Karnes on
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We’ve gotten a ton of notices from our readers out there that Froyo and Pandora aren’t exactly playing nice, and this writer can confirm the issue. I’ve got an HTC Hero running CyanogenMod 6 (Froyo based custom ROM), and the Pandora quality has been awful. Others on different handsets and carriers, with official and unofficial updates, are reporting the same. Pandora has even been notified of the issue. Their response:

Froyo has a problem processing our AAC+ files. We have confirmed that this is an issue in the OS, and they should have it fixed in the next Android release.

Thanks for your patience in the meantime.

Best Regards,

Pandora Listener Support

In other words, Pandora is throwing Google under the bus on the issue and leaving it up to the Android developers to fix the issue in the next iteration of Android. In my opinion, I can see this easily turning into a public argument between the two companies. What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

[via droid-life]

Rock out with your phone out: Official Lollapalooza app for Android

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by Dustin Karnes on
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What do this weekend and Chicago have in common? Lollapalooza, baby. With artists like Soundgarden (Heck yea!), Green Day, The Strokes and Social Distortion in the line up, it’s sure to be a good time. But now, it looks like your little green man (not that one) will be able to help you out in your concert going experience. There is now an official app on the Android platform for Lollapalooza, which offers things like:

  • Lineup and Custom Schedule: Add filters by day and/or stage. Search by name in any view. Add or remove artists to your custom schedule with one touch.
  • Artist Info: Click on any artist name in the Lineup pages to see a full bio and links. Track set lists using the notes feature.
  • Map: Zoomable/scrollable.
  • News: News and Twitter feeds.
  • Post Photos to Facebook: Choose photos from your phone within the app, and upload directly to Facebook.
  • Post Messages to Facebook or Twitter: Post updates to Facebook or Twitter from within the app.
  • My Friends: Lets you stay connected with your buddies at Lollapalooza. See messages from all of your selected friends in one place with the Friend Wall. Organize a meeting point using your phone’s GPS – just plant a flag on the Map.
  • Lighter: For the ballads!

If you’d like to download the app, click here or scan the QR code below:

[via Lollapalooza]

Rdio music app available to general public

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by Dustin Karnes on
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Rdio (pronounced “arh-dee-oh”), a music subscription service made to compete with the likes of Rhapsody and MOG, has been available by invite only for Android users… until now, that is.

As of yesterday, Rdio made it’s Android app available to the general public. The app focuses heavily on integrating your media choices into social networking, while enabling you to stream music from their huge selection. One really great feature is that it connects you your iTunes or Windows Media Player to base it’s selections, making it super easy to customize your preferences.

In a prepared statement from said Drew Larner, CEO of the company, he said:

Rdio users love how simple it is to use. Imagine having an unlimited online jukebox which shows you what others are listening to – you can enjoy any song you want, as many times as you want, whenever and wherever you want. The social nature of Rdio means you can discover new songs every time you visit Rdio.

The app is made by the founders of Skype, and costs $4.99 per month for web access, $9.99 per month for mobile access.

[via intomobile]

Carphone Warehouse Bringing “Music Anywhere” to the Samsung Galaxy Europa

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by Chris Moor on
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A continuation of the current move to cloud based solutions, “Music Anywhere” is introduced as a cloud-based locker system for your music. This application differs from the likes of Winamp Remote, or Grooveshark in that this app does not stream music from your desktop, upload your collection to an online database, or simply stream from an unlimited collection. This app scans your collection and tags each song to the equivalent copy on their servers. This means that you are restricted to just the copies contained in their collection (which is said to be near 6 million songs) and found in your collection, but it also means that you have complete information on the song including album art, artist info, and song titles. The service costs a little under $50/year, and will stream over 3G, and WiFi.

The app is being bundled on the Galaxy Europa which is being carried exclusively in the UK with a free subscription. The phone is rather low-end and can be found pretty cheap online. Does anyone have plans on picking this up? Is the app worth the $50/yr subscription fee? Let us know in the comments!

Samsung YP-MB2 Personal Media Player Shows up in Korea

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by Chris Moor on
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There have been rumors of an iPod Touch competitor from Samsung and now it has been spotted Korea. The Samsung YP-MB2 is basically a Galaxy S without the phone internals. The device uses a 1GHz Snapdragon processor to decode DivX, XviD, OGG and FLAC codecs. It also sports a 4 inch Super AMOLED display, GPS, Wi-Fi and Android 2.1.

No info on if these will ever make it to the U.S. but if they did I know there are a lot of users who would scoop one up. One thing that does bother me with the design though is how much it looks like an iPhone :) What do you think? Would you pick one up if they were offered in the U.S. or Europe?

[via engadget]

The Top Media Players Apps for Android – A TalkAndroid Search

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by Chris Moor on
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TalkAndroid.com is on a quest. With such a vast and varied catalog of apps, it would be neigh impossible to use every single app out there. So, when the mission comes to find the very best Top 5 media players out there the very first thing I do is head on over to the Market and do a quick search to scout out the grounds;  there are hundreds of options. I quickly realized that there would be no way to try out every single option available on my own, and who better to enlist for support than our own loyal TalkAndroid.com members?! No one.

So here is my mission to you knowledgeable TalkAndroid.com reader: Click over to the comments section below and tell me your absolute favorite media players for Android that I just can’t miss in this roundup. If you are feeling really informative, tell me a few specifics that you really appreciate, and maybe even drop a link or two! I will keep you guys updated on my progress and post my opinions of each player as I go, what’s hot, what’s not, and by the end of the series I will declare officially which 5 Media Players are absolute must-haves for every Android user to try out!

You have your orders readers, fire away in the comments!

How to get AllShare working on Galaxy S phones

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by Chris Moor on
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Have you had problems getting AllShare to work on your Galaxy S phone? Unfortunately it’s not just a matter of right clicking and clicking “share” and there aren’t any good sources available on the web for this either, hence this guide was necessary. So let’s get started shall we? Oh, this guide is intended for Windows 7 users only.

The secret ingredient to this whole process is Windows Media Player. (You can click any of these screen shots for full-size versions)

» Read the rest

Thumbplay now offering offline music caching

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by Dustin Karnes on
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We all love our music. It needs to be everywhere we are, all the time. We also love services that playback music from the cloud. But, what if your travels take you somewhere without adequate coverage? Should your life’s soundtrack be put on hold, simply because your carrier wasn’t thoughtful enough to put a cell phone tower in the 8th story bathroom in the center of a 20 story building? Well, Thumbplay doesn’t think so, so they’ve done something about it.

Thumbplay has released an update that allows you to store certain songs, locally, on your Android device. Although Slacker Radio has offered this option for quite awhile, this is the first time it’s really been offered by an app that relies more on individual selection than automatic.

For $9.99 a month, you get access to Thumbplay’s full music library. The app is only available in the U.S., and you can head over to Thumbplay’s website for downloads.

[via PRNewsWire]

doubleTwist Gets an Update

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by Chris Moor on
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If you haven’t heard of doubleTwist before, it is a iTunes-eske program for your computer that is said to cure iTunes envy. The program features an Android Market extension, Podcast searches, a Music Store hosted by Amazon MP3, and pretty much everything else you can find in iTunes. The main difference is that this application is device friendly and open to all kinds of different platforms. The program just got updated to version v1.0.2. This update fixes a memory stick detection issue, and adds Album Art searching, as well as Last.FM scrobbling among other features. The full change log can be found here for this and all previous updates. If you haven’t already, check them out! www.doubleTwist.com

Have you used doubleTwist? Have you stayed away for a reason? Let us know in the comments!

Shazam gets an upgrade and now offers free and paid versions

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by Chris Moor on
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The popular music tagging app, Shazam, is getting an overhaul. Starting today Shazam is offering two version of its popular tagging app. The “Free” version will allow you to tag up to 5 songs a month and adds seem to be on the results sections. The developers are not forgetting their faithful followers though. If you installed the app before July 13th they will keep you at unlimited tags per month. New users will have a free 7 day trial of the premium service which, at the end they can choose the free or paid service.

The premium service is now going to be called Shazam Encore. Shazam Encore will offer users additional features such as including song lyrics, access to YouTube videos for tagged artists and of course unlimited tagging. No word on the pricing of the premium service as of yet. I use Shazam a lot in the car to tag songs I want to download later, so I would be interested to see the price and if it is a onetime buy or a monthly subscription. At any rate it is a great app and if you are a prior user upgrade now and get grandfathered in for your unlimited tagging. If not I would suggest taking a look at Shazam and the features it offers.

Shazam can be downloaded or updated in the Android Marketplace.

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