The stock media remote app seems to work fine with Spotify playing on the phone, however it would be pretty cool to see a spotify-specific app, maybe with the following features:
- like track
- albumart
- track/album name
- playlist selection
There are a few remote apps on the play store, but they are PC to phone, an existing phone to phone one may work, if one exists?
Any one have any idea's if the above is possible?
Aghh I just asked this on a different thread!
I don't know if a "Remote Control" app exists for Android, but if it does, it would still probably looks awful on the Gear, since it won't be optimized for it.
Hopefully there could be something created or "hacked" to, at least, transmit song info to the Gear native application. An Xposed module would be awesome!
Related
I would really like to see a developer merge the music app with co-pilot and make some type of car PC ui. I just got the multifunction adapter and I have to say that I have found the best use of my phone yet. I don't really have to worry about battery life or cd's. I know its kind of a huge task to undertake but I really think that this would appeal to a lot of people
Well, Android is a multitasking OS, a full merge of the multiple programs isn't needed as the two programs can coexist without issue. Is there some issue with the audio subsystem not allowing the copilot instructions to play if the audio is playing or not allowing the audio to play when copilot is running? If this issue exists, then it wouldn't be in the copilot or media app where the change needs to be made, but in the android audio subsystems.
And FYI: it isn't possible for "some developer" to make modifications like this to copilot, since it is CLOSED SOURCE. Any new features to copilot would have to be added by ALK themselves.
Hello all,
I have recently created a new XBMC Remote App because well I like programming
It's cheaper than the ones available and works with XBMC 10.0+. I have created some extra featurs that I thought would be useful which weren't present in the other apps.
Pictures:
The app has full support for pictures, you can download them from XBMC right to your phone, watch a slideshow on your phone and have extensive controls when playing them on the Media Center, like zooming and scrolling ....
Library updates: With one click of the button you can update your music / video library
Subtitles: A button is available to open the subtitles window and select the subtitle you'd like (very handy for us non-native english speakers)
Furthermore, all the basics are available: browsing libraries, remote control, ...
Please let me know iwhat you think of it and if you have any good ideas about new features, requests. I'd be glad to work out something.
Here's the deep link to the application in Zune: windowsphone.com/s?appid=9a2f8f94-5dae-e011-a53c-78e7d1fa76f8
Looks good, lots of nice features, would really like to trial it first though, it's quite important for apps like this.
Can you view the most recent movies, tv episodes? Can you pull up info on the currently playing media?
Thanks for the hard work!
Hello,
I have just submitted an update with trial mode enabled. It should be available in a few days. There's a now playing feature and in the next release I have some extensions planned on that.
Currently there are no recent items collections, but I'll add it to the feature requests and I think I'll be able to add it to the next version as well.
If you can, please check out the trial version and let me know what you think.
(The trial version has complete functionality but it only shows you a few items)
Many thanks in advance.
Does this app have the gesture-mode for the arrow-keys?
Used the android-one before, never got used to the normal key-mode.. you always have to look at your phone...
because of that i still use my android-device for remoting my XBMC Notebook...
Hello,
Gesture mode is not included in this version. I'll take a look whether I can fit it in the next release though.
In a few days an update should appear with a trial-mode so you can try out the remote. I have focussed a lot on the usability of the remote and made large buttons which have audio and/or haptic feedback so you still might like it.
Sorry, we don't allow paid apps here.
First of all, hello to everybody. I have just joined xdaDevelopers.
To business now..
I recently bought my first Windows Phone (Nokia Lumia 520). One of the reasons for getting it was for developing my own WP8 apps.
I would like to start with a music player app - one that can play mp3 files from phone memory and SD card; arrange songs according to name, albums and artists; create playlists; have capabilties of fast foward and rewind (seeking); and recognise album arts.
What do I need to know before I can start building it?
I have zero experience in app development; I am a web designer.
I noticed that there are very few "polished" music players (which function properly as well as have a nice UI) in the WP store. Any particular reason for that (other than the platform being relatively new)?
I created this post mainly because the lack of quality music players appeared a bit strange to me. I have heard that a particular file type can be accessed by only one app (please correct me if I am wrong). So does it mean that one has to somehow uninstall the default music player in order to use the newly downloaded one?
For instance, I have "Adobe Reader" which can read PDFs from my MicroSD card. But the "PDF Reader" app (which I installed just yesterday) cannot even find them! So I had to uninstall the latter.
So I wanted to know if there was something about WP8 that doesn't allow such things - if these "security measures", which render apps like file managers less useful, are also responsible for the lack of music players in this otherwise very fantastic platform.
Please note that I come from Android, and am very new to Windows Phone platform. So kindly point out if there's something incorrect about my assumptions.
Thanks and regards.
Hi,
Welcome to Windows Phone. The Lumia 520 is a great choice in my humble opinion. In regards to why there are so few music apps, there are probably several reasons. One such is the fact, that the easiest way to make one is to integrate with the built-in music features, which however limits you in several ways, like not being able to add more file types, not being able to customize the experience too much, playlisting is limit as far as I know, which basically puts you in the position, that the only actual improvement you can do upon that is implementing a new streaming service. The other route is to implement your own music player, but then you're going to have issues making it work in the background (not to mention, that implementing a music player isn't entirely simple).
gdebojyoti said:
What do I need to know before I can start building it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Make sure you have hardware for it. I recommend a minimum of Windows 8 Pro 64bit, but you can find instructions for Windows 7 on this forum as well. You'll need VT-x support on your CPU, plenty of RAM.
2. Download and install the WP8 SDK.
3. Once you open Visual Studio, you can start by creating a new project, you'll need a UI project (I recommend Windows Phone App or HTML5 App templates) and a music playback project (WP Audio Playback Agent -OR- WP Audio Streaming Agent).
4. For tutorials on how to get started I usually go to Pluralsight.com, because I have a subscription there, and they're plain awesome, but I'm sure there are a bunch of other sources as well, which are for free.
gdebojyoti said:
For instance, I have "Adobe Reader" which can read PDFs from my MicroSD card. But the "PDF Reader" app (which I installed just yesterday) cannot even find them! So I had to uninstall the latter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have both Adobe Reader and PDF Reader installed, once you tap on a PDF file (say after downloading one in IE) an option should appear for you to select which app you wanna open it with.
gdebojyoti said:
So I wanted to know if there was something about WP8 that doesn't allow such things - if these "security measures", which render apps like file managers less useful, are also responsible for the lack of music players in this otherwise very fantastic platform.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can install and use as many audio/music apps you like, but obviously only one can have the background music feature used at one time. (You can only have one music playing in the background).
Also:
"Developers must pay an annual subscription fee of $99, (this, according to Todd Brix, the General Manager for Windows Phone Apps and Store team, is currently on an ongoing promotion at $19) to become an App Hub member and submit apps to the Windows Phone Store. There's no limit on the number of free submissions for paid apps. There's a limit of 100 free submissions for free apps; thereafter, there's a fee of $19.99 per submission for free apps." - Wikipedia
Hope I helped, and happy coding!
:fingers-crossed:
@TheGoldrocker: Thank you for your reply. It did clear up quite a few things.
As of now, I am okay with "integrating with the built-in music features" as you said.
What I want to do is modify the UI and UX a bit. Some of the features can be as follows -
1. Introducing a scroll bar;
2. Option to get rid of the grouping system by name;
3. Control over the font size;
4. Allowing the currently playing song to continue if I select the song (currently it starts playing from the beginning);
5. Enabling the seeking feature (tapping the timeline of the song so as to play from that point of time);
6. Having a tile feature in the start screen with options to pause, change song, etc (number of options would depend upon the length of the song);
7. Showing the album art of the currently playing song in the tile;
8. Having an animated background in the app (just a wide photo which slowly slides from left to right).
Am I allowed to do the above?
You're welcome.
"Integrating with the built-in music features" doesn't mean you get to rewrite the UI/functionality of the current Music+Videos app. What it means is, you get to use the built-in classes for simplifying music playback in your new app. You'll still have to build up a new UI around your classes, you'll also have to write quite a few lines of code for the playback functionality (but obviously way less than if you tried to write your own music player from scratch).
Now sadly I cannot answer all of your questions with absolute certainty, because I haven't tried writing a music player yet, but I'll give them a shot.
I numbered your list:
gdebojyoti said:
1. Introducing a scroll bar;
2. Option to get rid of the grouping system by name;
3. Control over the font size;
4. Allowing the currently playing song to continue if I select the song (currently it starts playing from the beginning);
5. Enabling the seeking feature (tapping the timeline of the song so as to play from that point of time);
6. Having a tile feature in the start screen with options to pause, change song, etc (number of options would depend upon the length of the song);
7. Showing the album art of the currently playing song in the tile;
8. Having an animated background in the app (just a wide photo which slowly slides from left to right).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Yes, since you'll have to make a new UI from scratch, and you'll have the ability to include any logic behind it you want.
2. Yes, the grouping can be avoided AFAIK.
3. Same as 1.
4. Same as 1.
5. Don't think so. Someone else with more knowledge will have to answer this to be sure, though.
6. If you mean a tile on the start screen, which, when tapped will play/stop/next/prev/whatever and STAY on the start screen? No. Tiles (sadly) always open a program (even if for only a millisecond). You can use this for deeplinking to favorite songs/playlists/streaming services though, which is cool.
7. Same as 1.
8. Same as 1.
Hope I helped.
Thank you for your reply.
TheGoldrocker said:
6. If you mean a tile on the start screen, which, when tapped will play/stop/next/prev/whatever and STAY on the start screen? No. Tiles (sadly) always open a program (even if for only a millisecond). You can use this for deeplinking to favorite songs/playlists/streaming services though, which is cool.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By "deeplinking", do you mean pinning songs to the start screen by 'long pressing' on them?
I do hope that Microsoft introduces interactive tiles in some future update. Sort of start screen widgets.
gdebojyoti said:
By "deeplinking", do you mean pinning songs to the start screen by 'long pressing' on them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Deeplinking is launching an app with a link toward a specific page with parameters. Imagine it as a URL to a specific page on a website. If your app and pages support it, you could tap on a tile (say on the start screen), which opens your app, and instantly navigates to a playlist, album, song, whatever you made that tile link to.
Pinning items to the start screen can be triggered by anything you want. You, the coder, decides how you're gonna allow the user to pin their songs/albums/playlists/artists/whatever.
Here's a little tutorial on this topic:
http://wp.qmatteoq.com/first-steps-...-links/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Okay, thanks. I'll have a look at that.
To make a media player for windows phone is to know insanity.
Why we no join forces?
There are a couple fo things the guys here forgot to tell you:
You can not read Mp3 files from SD card.
You can not read mp3 files from the user music folder.
You only have access to web resources or your app's isolated storage.
You basically have to engineer a way to get them to the app storage.
mcosmin222 said:
To make a media player for windows phone is to know insanity.
Why we no join forces?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think I have enough knowledge to be able to help you. I am just a beginner.
mcosmin222 said:
You can not read Mp3 files from SD card.
You can not read mp3 files from the user music folder.
You only have access to web resources or your app's isolated storage.
You basically have to engineer a way to get them to the app storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's why I will try to "integrate with the built-in music features". Hopefully it will be okay then.
I am not trying to make the next best thing in the music player app category.
I am just trying to make one which has a slightly different UI and is able to play mp3s.
Sort of a project of mine.
By the way, can someone please tell me if I can use technologies like HTML5 to create this app? Actually I don't know C#.
Or should I learn C# before attempting this app?
gdebojyoti said:
I don't think I have enough knowledge to be able to help you. I am just a beginner.
Well, that's why I will try to "integrate with the built-in music features". Hopefully it will be okay then.
I am not trying to make the next best thing in the music player app category.
I am just trying to make one which has a slightly different UI and is able to play mp3s.
Sort of a project of mine.
By the way, can someone please tell me if I can use technologies like HTML5 to create this app? Actually I don't know C#.
Or should I learn C# before attempting this app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can not integrate with the built-in player.
There are too many limitations to explain. You will see.
Yes, learn C#
Okay.
My Note 8 & current 9 worked to allow Bixby to open Samsung Music (hands-free in the car) but now it just says you need Spotify to complete this action?
Why would you hobble your own APP and push Spotify? Money?
Bit short-sighted, and makes Bixby drop another couple of points in the 'is this any use' league table!!
Unless you guys know how to make it work?
Did you inadvertently make Spotify a deafult app?
No, don't have spotify downloaded at all. Don't use it.
try making a custom (bixby) quick command and instruct it to open samsung music or whatever media player you want. If anything Bixby is hardcoded to use Samsung products so it might be that somehow spotify is set as default app (maybe also check what are the defaults)
Tried that too. Interestingly I've now looked at the apps and the music player isn't listed!
When you make up a command there is a run button, this does open the player, but when you close all that and try a voice command you get the offer to download spotify otherwise it won't work.
Disappointing!
I have 1,000 CDs that I've ripped to my PC as WAV. They are basically all of the rock genre (Classic, hard rock, heavy metal, nu metal, 90s grunge, etc.), and because of that, I prefer lossless. I've tagged all of them to the Discogs database, using Foobar2000.
I use this same collection on my PC and also copied to the MicroSD of my Note 9, which I connect to my Kenwood DMX907S head unit through Wireless Android Auto.
The objective is to create several playlists based on tags. Also, I want to be able to normalize the sound, so that regardless of the quality of the recording, all tracks are equally as loud at their highest points within the tracks. For playing on PC, this can be easily done, using Foobar2000. From what I understand, there is an Android App for Foobar2000, but it was not nearly as developed as the PC version and therefore cannot create playlists based on the type of tags I'm looking to utilize.
Tags include:
Genre
Artist
Album
Date Added to Library
Possibly other custom tags (for instance, Live or Studio / Original or Cover)
Are there any Android Auto compatible music apps out there that can create these types of playlists using local files, such that they're compatible with Android Auto? ...AND can manage the sound levels as needed?
I use Bubble upnp as I also use it to cast. Give it a look to see if it does everything you are interested in.
Note10.1Dude said:
I use Bubble upnp as I also use it to cast. Give it a look to see if it does everything you are interested in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I added that app and am currently trying it. I'm noticing that all artists are listed as <Unknown>. Is this because when tagging, I used the %artist% tag instead of %album artist% ? Is there a way to adjust this in the app?
I had some rips that didn't read correctly and ended up using MP3TAG on my PC to fix their metadata. I rip all my CDs to FLAC with EAC, and generally it just works, so I can't be of much help.
Although BubbleUPNP is an excellent DLNA media player, it doesn't support Android Auto and there are no plans to include it anytime soon (I requested the dev for this feature to be added and was told it was basically impossible unless the whole app was rewritten from scratch. That was a couple of years ago now, and unfortunately nothing's changed since).
For local music playback, I'm using 'Oto Music' from the Play Store. It's a very well designed music player with Replay Gain and full AA support, although I'm not too sure if regarding your playlists it could be what you're looking for... In any event, it's a free app and constantly gets upgrades and new features.
Now you got me wondering. I use BubbleUPNP in the car all the time, but possibly only from my tablet via bluetooth. I thought it also worked from my phone via AA... I'll have to re-check that.
Note10.1Dude said:
Now you got me wondering. I use BubbleUPNP in the car all the time, but possibly only from my tablet via bluetooth. I thought it also worked from my phone via AA... I'll have to re-check that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use anyaudio app to get any music app in AA. And you need root and AA AIO TWEAKER to enable it.
[App][5.1+][Alpha] AnyAutoAudio - Use any audio app in Auto
AnyAutoAudio So I was tired of not being able to use the audio apps I normally use in Auto and decided to try and do something about it. This app is the result :fingers-crossed: How does it work? By using the notification listener permission...
forum.xda-developers.com
[ROOT ONLY] AA AIO TWEAKER - The ultimate Android Auto Utility
Meet AA AIO TWEAKER, the new Swiss Army Knife for a less restrictive and more feature-ful Android Auto! How do I use it? Allow root access, choose what you want, reboot, and then forget about it :) How does it work? This app uses SQLite...
forum.xda-developers.com