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Sync, Sank, Sunk – a Droid Incredible Journey

I have a mixed marriage.  My wife has an Apple iPad, but I replaced my Apple iPhone with a Droid Incredible.  Not because I didn’t love my iPhone, but because I wanted to find out what it would be like to actually have voice communication with a phone.  That necessitated my leaving AT&T.  Don’t get me wrong.  AT&T treated me wonderfully and they have great products.  Unfortunately, I also wanted a network that let me talk on the phone in the places I frequent.  When the AT&T network allows me to talk on the phone along my usual routes, I will happily consider returning to AT&T.

So, life without an iPhone in my new Verizon world:  Android can very happily automatically download audio podcast updates using Listen.  Unlike the iPhone, Android phone storage is easily accessed to just drag and drop music from the computer.  Unfortunately, the Android Music, DoubleTwist, and HTC Music apps on my phone only recognize album art embedded in the music’s tags.  But I also want playlists that synchronize between the phone, the iPad, and the computer and I want my video podcasts on that awesome Incredible display.

Given the iPad in the house, we’re going to continue to use iTunes.  Frankly, I like the way it looks when we’re playing music on the HTPC, too.  Unfortunately, Jobs and Co. are at war with the Google Nation.  iTunes will not willingly sync with a Google Android phone.  There are at least a couple of programs that seek to bridge the gap.  For those who like to cut to the chase, I’ll start with where I ended up.  For the cynics, later I’ll explain why I took this approach.

For audio podcasts, I use Listen on my phone and no desktop client.  If I wish to hear my audio podcasts on my computer I go to my ‘Listen Subscriptions’ folder in Google Reader on the web.

For video podcasts, I copy my podcasts from my iTunes ‘podcasts’ folder on the computer to the ‘Podcasts’ folder on my phone’s microSD card.  (If you don’t have that directory then make it.)  I can then watch them using my Photos mobile app.  Yes, it is called “Photos” but it plays videos, too.

For music, I use MediaMonkey and listen using either my Music or DoubleTwist mobile app.  For playlists, I use iTunes Export to include my iTunes playlists in MediaMonkey.  (Alternately, iTunes Export can also export your iTunes playlists straight to the ‘Playlists’ folder on your phone.)  This means I have the same playlists in iTunes as I have in MediaMonkey as on my phone.

As I showed in a recent post, I have arranged my Listen, Music, and Photos apps on the same page.  Don’t tell Apple, but I think of it as my iPod page.

Continue reading Sync, Sank, Sunk – a Droid Incredible Journey

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Music in the Stream

last.fm iPhone screen Read this humming “Islands in the Stream” sung by Kenny and Dolly, cause that’s how I’m writing it.  Over at Lifehacker, they’re putting on another one of their “Hive Five” posts where their readers pick the best five of something and this time it is all about streaming music.  The main theme of streaming music is based on the “sounds like” principal.  The three top services all feature the ability to play music that sounds like a song or artist the user provides to seed that channel.

Pandora is where I started  my streaming music experience and I still use it frequently both on the computer and on the iPhone.  The computer interface is very straightforward and provides a lot of information about the artist, album, and song and easy links to purchase the music that is playing.  In fact, while setting up to get a screen shot I heard an album I liked and bought it.  The iPhone app is also somewhat spartan with a small ribbon of an advertisement displaying below the album cover.

Matt told me about last.fm a couple of years ago(?) and I added that to streaming services but set it up to play different types of music than Pandora.  A feature that I like is that I can “scrobble” what I’m playing in my own collection and that makes those songs available to me through last.fm.  It also adds a social element which doesn’t add a lot of value for someone like myself but is important to a lot of folks.  For example, it offers the option to listen to what other people who like the same artists I do are listening to.  When playing music there are no ads on the iPhone app but a simple ribbon in the corner notifying you that the artist is in concert.

Slacker radio seems comparable to Pandora and has the best looking now playing screen on the iPhone app.  There are no ads.

Grooveshark and lala are worth a look if you want precise control over your streaming playlist or you want portability of a precise playlist.  That is important to some folks.

I’ve lived a lot of places in the U.S. and have favorite radio stations from all of them.  That is why I’m also adding RadioTime and its WunderRadio iPhone app to this list.  I can listen to radio from Raleigh to Pittsburgh to So Cal to Hawaii.  Just close my eyes and I’ve traveled to some place that I love.  (Not advised while streaming music and driving, however.)  There’s my two cents.  Can’t wait to see what the Lifehacker community comes up with.

screenshots after the break
Continue reading Music in the Stream

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iTunes for My Tunes

itunes-8 There was a time in the not too far distant past in which one made a token of affection for another person by putting one’s favorite songs onto a cassette tape. This mix was considered to be either (a) romantic or (b) dorky and a big turn-off. From those days until now, I have tried to ride the dorky mix wave. I have accounts with last.fm and pandora both of which are also on my iPhone. I have internet radio (Radio? Sure!, radiotime.com, etc.) on my computer and WunderRadio on my iPhone.

I use pandora and last.fm to (a) keep me open to new artists I might enjoy and (b) provide variety in the music I hear on a longer trip. last.fm seems to produce a better mix, but has buffering issues on my iPhone which cause it cut out more frequently than pandora.

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Make your own kind of music

This old dog has been playing the guitar since he was 10.  Recently I made two purchases.  One was a new keyboard and the other was a new guitar.  (I like to buy a new guitar every 20 years or so.)  My greatest area of weakness in playing the guitar has been rhythm and consistency.  The [...]