NaNplayer (New Music app in the works) - Updated Preview Video

[mdodge]

Great work on this app, looks like a good replacement for the default player. I know you mentioned that an EQ may not be possible but was curious if anything has changed on that front. Or if you know why its not possible? Just like iphone/ipod, I just cant fathom why they wouldnt allow a custom EQ. I consider myself and audiophile and cant even use a player without an EQ and ability to use FLAC or other lossless audio. Any chance of lossless compatibility? I'll have to stick to another playing device for now but this app shows promise and would be a winner for me if it ever included the above features

Great work so for though

[Blubble]

@gollyzila,
If it comes to that, I have a few people in mind, but would be open to working with any professional interface designer.

@mdodge,
I am quite frustrated at the inability to create an EQ with the existing APIs. I don't really expect them to make this kind of functionality available. I have done quite a few audio processing desktop apps and I just don't think this kind of audio data manipulation is going to be possible through javascript.

Unfortunately, I am limited to the formats supported by the media API (MP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR, QCELP, WAV). I will ask Palm if they are planning or even able to support FLAC, but I bet on it.

[milominderbinder]

Originally Posted by Blubble

I have some bad news that will bum some people out. It turns out that I will not be able to extract embedded lyrics from MP3 tags. The WebOS media API simply does not support this. I will be bugging Palm about this, but even if they agree to add this functionality, it surely won't be ready for the first release of my app...

Nuts. I really love this feature in the iPhone and am addicted to it.

So the media API is not set up to allow access to lyrics which would basically be like a memo field. Could you have a little database module pull that field separately?

At this point Palm does not even see the priority in having a slider for music. But fixing the music app will have to come after immediate priorities of allowing cut and paste, undo, redo, etc.

Waiting on Palm may be a long shot.

- Craig

[mdodge]

Originally Posted by Blubble

@mdodge,
I am quite frustrated at the inability to create an EQ with the existing APIs. I don't really expect them to make this kind of functionality available. I have done quite a few audio processing desktop apps and I just don't think this kind of audio data manipulation is going to be possible through javascript.

Unfortunately, I am limited to the formats supported by the media API (MP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR, QCELP, WAV). I will ask Palm if they are planning or even able to support FLAC, but I bet on it.

Understandable as you can only create what they give you to work with. You should really give it to Palm about this unexcusable lack of features Especially if they want to compete with Iphone that at least has presets.

[davim00]

Don't know if this is possible, but a setting to allow the screen to stay on while plugged in and playing music would be helpful for those of us who like to plug up in the car and don't want to have to wake the screen up everytime we want to skip songs. I know PocketTunes has this feature, and so does the Sprint Navigation.

[Blubble]

I will look into how the nav app does it and see if I can make it work with my app.

[davim00]

Sweet! Whatever the case, when you finally launch this app I will be first in line!! I only wish I could do something to help you. I have graphic design experience but not so much with interfaces (I do print work and some web work). That's about all I could do.

[Blubble]

Thanks, but I finally got the designer in gear. I have been adding new features as time permits.


The newest and I think, coolest, feature I am working on is a GPS location based playlist feature. The idea is to let you define certain locations, like the gym, office, etc and assign playlists to each location. Say you're at the gym. You just press the location play button and the app automatically starts playing your workout playlist.

What do potential users think about such a feature? Is it worth spending time on?

[Galtish]

Wow, that is a very unique and interesting feature! It could actually be fairly useful if it could function on location lookup by either cell tower or GPS - the quicker location recognition from cell tower would be nice rather than having to wait for GPS to fire up and find satellites. For the purpose of preserving the battery I would hope that it wouldn't keep the GPS on after it loaded the playlist, although I'm sure you've already thought about that.

I almost always listen to podcasts at work and shuffle-all music playlists at the gym, so the selection of a type of playlist (genre, shuffle all music, certain artist) rather than a specific manually created playlist would be great. Hopefully this feature would be integrated with it remembering where you left off in the playlist & track so there's even less fuss in setting it up to play what you want each time.

[Blubble]

In the interest of battery life, it will require you to press a button on the home screen to use the location play feature. It will look up your location once and check to see if you have a playlist selected for that location.

For now, it will only let you select a playlist. However, you can make custom playlists in the app from lists of songs, albums, genres or artists, so you can easily make a playlist to fit whatever your needs are. The interface works the same for album, artist and genre lists as the drag & drop and slide to delete example that is shown in the preview video.

You can also use the bookmark feature to remember your exact position in a playlist and the song time where you left off. For now, it requires you to hit a button to save your bookmark because the database saves aren't too reliable when you trigger them when the app is closed. I think it is a problem with the SDK because I have seen other Early Access members mention similar problems.

I will be getting with the designer tomorrow to work on the designs for the various screens. I hope to have another preview video in about a week and beta shortly after that.

[SDash]

How about a feature request?
I'm thinking of a shake feature with a setting for random song or random playlist.

Good luck with the designs!

[as147]

Originally Posted by SDash

How about a feature request?
I'm thinking of a shake feature with a setting for random song or random playlist.

<When Harry Met Sally ****** scene> YES YES YES YES YES </When Harry Met Sally ****** scene>

What a great idea !

That would put one over on the Apple crowd - talk about innovative thought!

[johncc]

Originally Posted by as147

...
That would put one over on the Apple crowd - talk about innovative thought!

Sorry, but they already have it.

[as147]

Still love it and think it would be great !

[rexalbel]

they might already have it, but its one more feature the pre will have as well. Its these little tweaks that really attract the average user. That and apps, flashy = average iphone customer. Me and a friend were talking about our phones and the whole "mine is better than yours". He insists his 3gs is better than mine because of the cool "video recording" and "apps" and all the little features like shake. I like the 3gs and the pre, but prefer the pre. I think it has more potential as it is open source. Also like the cleaner ui

[as147]

PLEASE PUT THIS IN
I think it is better than the GPS location tracking on the media player because you will have had to set up a playlist for the gymnasium and it is a lot quicker, easier and less power draining to just choose the playlist

[bulls96]

great job man!
feedback: great job on the overall features! just needs a designer (good background). ONe thing i liked about the default music player is the "coverflow" part of it and the ability to swipe on the cover to go to the other songs. That may be nice to add

But great job man!

[Blubble]

@SDash & @as147

I have been thinking about using the shake feature for some purpose in the app. One option is to use it to switch to the next song or to simply shuffle a random song. I will definitely be including some kind of shake option.

As I mentioned, the Location Play feature won't use up much battery life at all. You only need to set your location once when you assign a playlist for the first time. Later, when you click the Location Play button, it will just do a GPS locate once. The battery drain will be very minimal for this feature.

Both features will be included and you I don't think any phone including the iPhone has a Location Play feature like this.


@bulls96
We are working on very cool designs that should look very nice. Additionally, the app will have multiple skinning ability. For now, we will preload it with at least 3 or 4 skins. Eventually, I will either allow users to submit skins for us to include in updates, or will add the ability for users to create and load skins on the phone themselves.

I am not including a coverflow interface like the stock app for now. However, I do have a swipe feature for moving to the next or previous song. In fact, it is better than the stock app, because with that one you can accidentally swipe to the next song too easily. That irritates me to no end. I have included a swipe velocity threshold that keeps that from happening. It is still easy to swipe, but it won't happen by accident.

Also, when you are playing a song, you can click on the song name and it instantly pops up a menu with all the songs in your current playlist. You can quickly switch to any song. This is especially helpful when you have a long playlist.

[davenukem]

Not going to lie, I want this right now! When you start taking beta testers let me know. I love listening to music non stop and am not in love with the default pre music player.

Thanks for the effort and work you are putting in.

[Blubble]

I am hoping to submit it to the App Catalog soon. I don't have to wait until fall as I was in the Early Access Program.

I will likely end up releasing it initially as a free trial in the App Catalog. The full program will eventually cost a dollar or two once Palm allows us to charge for it.