One of the main reasons people buy Android phones is the wealth of customization options available in the form of apps. Apple’s App Store may still be the largest one today, but the Android Marketplace is expanding rapidly, and you’ll find most of the popular apps available on both platforms. When it comes to multimedia, the stock music and video player in Android offers very basic functionality and supports just a handful of formats. Unless you have something like Samsung’s TouchWiz UI, which supports MKV and FLAC out of the box, you have to rely on apps. Here are some of the best video and audio players available in the Marketplace, which I think are worth checking out.
RockPlayer Lite We start off with RockPlayer Lite, a free video player that’s been around for sometime now and is still one of the best players. The player supports most popular video formats including MKV. The interface is not very fancy and directly gives you access to the folders and files in your phone. It also supports subtitles for movies.
A very capable barebones video player
Currently the only free version is available, which puts a little ‘R’ in the upper right corner of the screen and since the paid version has been taken down, there's no way around this. Moboplayer This is my personal favourite media player, as it offers all the features of RockPlayer in an easy-to-use interface. It supports multiple audio streams from a single video, multi-subtitles, hardware and software decoding, video streaming though HTTP protocols and thumbnail display of videos. The OSD controls are very intuitive as well, for example swiping your finger on the right side of the screen lets you control the volume, while the left controls the brightness.
Will play just about any video format
You can also lock the OSD by tapping the ‘Options’ soft key on your phone. The best part, besides it being free, is that when you start it the first time, it checks if you have the necessary codecs installed. If you don’t, it will redirect you to the Marketplace for the right codec pack for your phone.
TuneWiki Let’s face it, the stock Android music player is a disappointment. This is where TuneWiki comes in. It’s a novice friendly music player app with a social networking twist. You sign in using your Facebook or Twitter account and invite your friends on TuneWiki. Then, through the SongBox feature, you can see what your friends are listening to, which is a great way to discover new music.
Discover new music through your friends with Facebook and Twitter integration
It even has an ‘F Like’ option for Facebook. Song ID is a feature similar to Shazaam and Sound Hound. The app also automatically pulls lyrics for the currently playing song and shows up at the bottom of the ‘Now Playing’ screen. Other features include managing and editing playlists, Song Maps that let you discover what songs are trending, videos of the songs in your playlist and streaming radio from SHOUTcast.
Cubed This app is currently still in Beta, but it works just fine and I haven’t come across any major bugs, yet. Albums are displayed in the form of a 3D cube, which can be flipped vertically to scroll through the albums or horizontally to find any album alphabetically. The animations are really slick and smooth, but you’ll probably need a fast processor for the best experience.
Cool animations make it fun to use
A five band graphic equalizer is present as well with a nice graphical representation. You also get different desktop widgets, so you can access your music without opening the app. PowerAMP This is possibly the best and most powerful music player app in the Marketplace. The free version lets you try the app with all its features for 15 days. The paid version is not cheap, but worth it if you’re a music buff. The audio support list is quite extensive, which includes FLAC and APE formats, as well. The 10 band equalizer can be adjusted for a single song or a list of songs, perfect for the audio geek.
Excellent tweaking options for your music
Other features include crossfade, gapless playback, folder view, CUE file support, download missing album art, visual themes and many more. Hit the title to try the free version.
mVideo Player Finally, if you’re somewhat of a neat freak, then you’ll love mVideo Player. It’s not as powerful as Moboplayer or RockPlayer, as it will only play videos that your phone can natively play. However, it does one hell of a job organizing all your videos into categories, perfect if you have many TV shows on your phone.
Great app for organising your video collection
It also has IMDB and OpenSubtitles integrated to give you quick info about the movie you’re watching or find subtitles for the current video. Poster search lets you find movie posters making it easier to recognize the movie in your library.
That’s it from my end. Feel free to share your favourite media players in the comments below.
Now here’s something nice for Motorola enthusiasts. There’s a mystery device that’s been spotted, but unfortunately the angle from which the picture has been captured doesn’t reveal much of this smartphone.
What can it be?
The handset looks like it has a pretty large screen (possibly somewhere around 4+ inches) and if you can notice the faint horizontal seam, it might look like this is a QWERTY device but that can also make the display component a tad too slim. There’s an orange ribbon cable sticking from the left side of the handset which PocketNow says might be used to JTAG (Joint Test Action Group) the handset. JTAG is meant to test printed circuit boards.
Apart from that, the front panel doesn’t seem to have any physical buttons whatsoever. The capacitive buttons on a Motorola are usually visible even when not lit up, but as you can see that whole row doesn’t seem to be present. Now what exactly can Motorola be coming up with? We certainly hope it won’t be exclusive for the Western market only.
We had reported earlier about the Spice Mi-410 receiving an unofficial Gingerbread update. Naturally, updating the phone to a stock 2.3.4 Gingerbread will rob you of your Superuser privileges. If you are somewhat of a control freak and were a bit iffy about jumping to 2.3.4, then we have some good news for you.
Bang for Buck
Now, Free Radical, a member of Erodov forums has found a way to root your Mi-410 running on the latest version of Android. This currently doesn’t work on a Windows based machine, you will need a Linux distro with Nautilus to get this working. You can find a step-by-step guide here. (Note: If the link dosen't work, try again later).
This rebranded Huawei Ideos X6 packs in quite a punch for its price tag and is sure to give other Android phones from bigger brands a run for their money. If Spice continues to churn out phones like these, they may just be the next big thing to look out for in the mid to high end mobile phone space.
Friendthem is an iPhone app that allows you to friend people around you on Facebook. The goal of the app is to reduce the friction involved in friending people on Facebook, which is usually an important step in keeping in contact with people you meet for the first or second time. The app is free and is designed to allow users to friend people around them on Facebook, right away or file the friend request away for later. The idea is that when you meet someone, and want to keep in touch over a social network, you could go home and forget their name, or find a million results for that name.
Location-based Facebook friend adding
The way to get it to work is pretty simple, you just sign into Facebook and that's how you connect with the app. However, the other person also needs to have Friendthem on their phones in order to work. Once you sign in, you choose what information you want visible and if you don't want people to find you say at the office, or on vacation, you can put up 'geo-fences'. There are of course, two downsides to this application that are somewhat interrelated. Firstly, this is yet another application people have to download to be social. Also, people can find each other and friend each other on Facebook mobile apps a lot easier. And if there are multiple results for the same person, you can always just ask the other person which result they are (without being too terribly dorky)
MAXX Mobiles has launched a slider, the MS502 Vista, targeted at women. The slider has a QWERTY keypad, a 3.2 megapixel camera, expandable memory upto 8 GB, and a 1000 mAh battery. It's available in pink, orange and blue, and has dedicated keys for Facebook and eBuddy applications. It features talk time of upto 4 hours. The phone is a Java enabled device and provides browsing on the go via Opera Mini. The phone comes with FM radio with FM scheduling, MP3/WAV/AAC music player and a 3GPP/AVI/MP4 video player.
Also available in orange and blue
The phone also includes dual SIM and GSM support as well as MMS, WAP and GPRS. For connectivity, it comes with Bluetooth, MySync (PC Suite) and USB Mass Storage. The handset will be available for Rs. 4,242, and will release in Mumbai first, before launching in other cities in India
The Galaxy S II has been one of those handsets that the mobile community has been craving for. Sure we have the iPhone 4, but S II was, as far as I was concerned, to be the next best thing or the alternative for those with lower budgets. A few weeks ago we did manage to get our hands on preview, but here’s a more in depth look at what the Galaxy S II has to offer. But to get the ball rolling here's a quick unboxing -
Form Factor Let’s forget about it’s predecessor. It’s, to put it mildly, as good a phone as it is, but it’s a bit outdated as the world of Dual Core devices is here. The Galaxy S II is factually, the thinnest Android mobile phone in the market. It’s remarkably just 8.5mm in depth, which is just about a shade thinner than Apple’s iPhone. The 4.3-inch Gorilla Glass display manages to keep even smudges away, which makes viewing a real treat. If the colours are little too ‘in-your-face’, for lack of a better term, you can tone them down via the display settings for Background Effects. There’s even an option to activate an Outdoor mode that boosts both brightness and contrast to a seriously high level that makes it easier to view in bright sunlit conditions. However, even with default settings, you’ll have no real problem with viewing angles. The resolution on this, the first ever Super AMOLED Plus display is 480 x 800 pixels which is, of course not nearly as refined as the Retina Display on the iPhone 4 that has it beat hands down, even if the colours are brighter on the Galaxy S II.
The iPhone 4 should be a little worried
A couple of touch sensitive keys (return and menu) are placed on either side of the rectangular ‘Home’ button. The micro USB connector for charging, USB 2.0 for PC supported connectivity, MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) support and USB-on-the-go (no adapter cables provided) is located at the bottom while a 3.5mm handsfree socket is placed on top. Volume/zoom keys are located on the right side while a screen lock/Power button is on the left. Pity Samsung didn’t incorporate a small shutter release for the camera but it’s not really missed. What is a bit of a disappointment is the lack of a hot swap memory card slot. However with 16GB of internal storage it’s not really something I was too concerned about.
The thinnest one yet!
While it ranks high with me on the design front, being so light weight (116g), so thin and yet so large, I did notice that those with slender or long fingers usually ended up gripping the phone in one hand and activating apps that were a little too close to the edge with the tips of their fingers. While sensitivity is a good thing, in this particular case it’s not a good thing. The S II also feels a bit plastic-y and delicate being as light as it as, however I did drop it (unintentionally) a couple of times and although a couple of locks on the rear popped up, the handset remained unscathed. Impressive!
Features and Performance Interface Samsung’s all new TouchWiz UI 4.0, although much better looking than past offerings, is a wee bit sluggish. Their new option of adding widgets is by opening up a small sliding section at the bottom of the display so you can click and drag whatever you want onto the multiple screens (than can be added or removed). What I don’t like about this UI is that once you’ve reached the last page it doesn’t return to the first page like Launcher Pro, which, by the way, worked out much better than the Stock UI.
TouchWiz UI 4.0, better than before, for sure!
TouchWiz’s overall functionality is quite well laid out. It allows you to arrange apps in the menus with an edit option and unlike the desktop, rotates back to the first page from the last. You can also create folders if you wish to be a little more organized. Like the LG Optimus 2X, the S II also has gesture-based features like holding down on an app and tilting the handset to move between screens. You can also flip the handset to silence it, hold your thumbs on either side of an image and tilt the handset forward or back to zoom in and out. The Double Tap for voice commands options was a complete bust as it worked in the trial simulation but never after.
Interface Contd. Swype input is by far the speediest way of typing once you get the hang of it. If you’e not used to it, I suggest using the tutorial, but it’s really not that hard. The phone book has a Merge with FB or Google set up that didn’t seem to do anything. I ultimately had to manually join contacts with FB and Google or Twitter. It was a bit unusual that I found no option to show my SIM card contacts though it was easy enough to copy them from the card to the phone and vice versa. So far, HTC’s sense UI phone book still has the best integration system. The swipe left/right to call and message respectively, was one of TouchWiz’s better ideas.
Customize the menus to your preference
The Samsung Galaxy S II, on the whole worked like a charm, pushing the Dual Core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor and Android Ginger bread (2.3.3) platform very steadily. Accessing data, opening apps, multi-tasking and creating or playing HD videos was almost fluid and lag-free.
Media The Galaxy S II truly excels in this regard. The music player, although lacking a jazzy gyro using, Cover-Flow style view, is simple and easy to use with EQ presets and an 8 band customizable setting, my personal favorite. It even has sound effect settings which include Bass enhancement for some seriously hard hitting low frequencies. A 5.1 Channel Surround sound option adds a little more to the value of audio output on the Galaxy S II. An in-ear styled handsfree kit is bundled and is quite comfortable to use and also manages to handle the output quite well even at peaked volume. It’s loud and clear enough for calls and music to be heard over the loud din emitting within a Mumbai local, needless to say, it passed my acid test.
Plenty of audio settings for personalisation
When it comes to video playback, the S II fully supports any and all files formats in a variety of resolution including full HD i.e. 1080p. There was no delay or lag while accessing or playing files. Visually, thanks to the brilliant display, playback was a pleasure. Watching videos in any lighting condition was just plain simple and comfortable. The S II also comes with a preloaded video editor that’s easy to use and makes things quite simplistic when it comes to creating videos from your image gallery or editing videos you’ve recorder via the camera. A photo editor is also provided.
Full HD playback
Than handset's FM radio in contrast was a bit average. Reception was just about adequate while commuting, with unfortunately quite a bit of disturbance. But when stationary in places where I usually get good reception it performed well enough.
Connectivity Of course the Galaxy S II is a 3G capable phone capable of handling HSDPA with speeds of 21 Mbps and HSUP up to 5.76 Mbps. EDGE/GPRS functions quite well too but get yourself a 3G connection and you’ll seriously burn web space! With Bluetooth 3.0 + HS and USB-on-the-go capability the Galaxy S is well equipped for connectivity. Let’s not forget Wi-Fi with tethering and Wi-Fi Hot spot creation as well. Samsung also offers DLNA support for the Galaxy S II with their All Share app and Samsung Kies functions like iTunes for syncing and setting up an account for downloading apps etc. wirelessly. Another great feature regarding Wi-Fi is Wi-Fi Direct that pretty much works like Bluetooth for wireless transfer of data through Wi-Fi. Of course, it's only compatible with other devices featuring the same technology and rest assured there will be plenty of those real soon.
Connectivity Contd. The various Hubs that include Samsung’s Music Hub (that was inaccessible), Readers Hub for getting eBooks, magazine and newspaper subscriptions, Game Hub and Social Hub (showcases all SN accounts into one space – LinkedIn, FB, Twitter, Email, Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Chat, Gtalk etc.) are part of the new TouchWiz UI 4.0’s make up. Samsung even has their own App market for downloading apps and another link to an online store called Samsung Suggests that offers apps that work well with the S II. Push services for email and FB are no different from other Android powered device.
Plenty of connectivity options
What was a big disappointment was the absence of a preloaded GPS software app. Usually Samsung offers a Route 66 based app but with a High-end device like the Galaxy II, not having it made a big difference. All of Google’s services were however present and accounted for from Maps to Navigation and Places etc.
Misc. Features Some of the ‘extras’ that Samsung has thrown in with the phone as preloaded content include Mini Diary – that lets you capture images with geotags and add a little information about the picture to it. It’s similar to Sense UI’s Footprints. Polaris Office is provided for reading and accessing documents and of course all the standard Android apps like Google’s Voice Search, Voice Commands (The voice command settings worked quite well provided you speak loudly and slowly), Task’s, Voice Recorder, Calendar with Google Sync, World Clock, Stopwatch, Timer and another extra - a File Manager are also provided. Widgets like an Agenda, Ap Mobile, a Sticky Notes type app called Mini paper etc. are also thrown in.
GIngerbread all the way
Camera With an 8 megapixel auto/touch focus camera with an LED flash loaded onto the S II that’s capable of recording videos in 1080p @30fps, the handset was even more impressive. Although, I do wish Android handset manufacturers could devise a simpler camera like the iPhone’s, the S II does manage to offer quite a range of very digicam like features. Those include a wide range of scene modes, Geotagging, face/smile and blink detection, White balance, Beauty shot, auto stitch Panorama mode, Cartoonize, and action shots, a timer and a few color effects amongst others. The touch focus isn’t nearly as good as any of HTC’s new devices but on the whole, image quality was great. Details were clear and quite crisp for a mobile camera. Colour reproduction was also quite vivid.
Outdoor looks pretty good too
Video capture was just a little bit framed but not enough for anyone who’s not overly particular to find a reason to complain. On the whole the camera proved to be quite an asset for the S II with almost instantaneous activation when selected. Processing was also quite speedy so most of the time you won’t really miss those spontaneous moments.
Auto stitch Panorama
The S II also features a 2 megapixel fixed focus camera up front near the proximity sensor, just above the display. This camera could be used for taking pictures of yourself or for video calls. The quality of pictures from this camera is also quite decent for both video and images.
Great for macro
Battery The 1650 mAh battery works out just fine for the Galaxy S II clocking in at 6 hours of standalone talk time which is quite impressive as mobile handsets go. I was also able to watch 2 full length movies back to back without the handset dying on me. The task manager and device’s pre-loaded Power Saving mode does help optimize the battery life of the handset as well. You’ll get about a day and a half of usage which will easily include a little bit of video, music, web browsing and at least 2 hours worth of calls.
The Bottom Line The Galaxy S II, although officially available for Rs. 32,490 (16GB), is also available, in some locations, for about Rs. 30,000. The fact that the device performs quite seamlessly and is priced rather reasonably, impressed me. When compared to similar products like the LG Optimus 2X or the Incredible S, the S II stands out. If ever the iPhone 4 had to seriously be worried, the Galaxy S II would be the handset that would make it sweat. The one thing Samsung should do for the S II in terms of packaging is - include a more cables to fill out the empty space in the premium pack. An adapter for USB (like Nokia's) and a MHL cable would have been great!
While it may not have the elegance of the simplistic yet, classy user experience as the iPhone 4, it makes up for it with speed and just tad more functionality. Of course that will all change come iOS 5, but for now, if the iPhone 4 is too heavy for your wallet, the Galaxy S II the next best thing and well worth the price tag.
Known messaging brand, eBuddy has now launched a free, real-time messaging app, eBuddy XMS. The app allows users of iPhone, iPod Touch and Android users to enjoy the benefits of real-time messaging.
The social buddy..
eBuddy claims that using its new messaging app it would be possible to completely eliminate the need of basic, old school texting. Users can use the eBuddy XMS to send free, unlimited text messages with the help of internet data connections. Using this mode would mean that users will not have to pay for sending individual text messages. eBuddy allows users to add friends by simply scanning through their phonebooks, or picking them up via SMS, email, or the social networking mediums like Facebook and Twitter.
Other features include personalization tools which let users send and receive photos, along with a variety of emoticons.
