Spent a week with Android

[soulreaver99]

Originally Posted by blairh

You don't understand. I'm saying you can't listen to your Google Music collection offline unless you pin your music beforehand. And the reason why I brought this up a while ago in this thread is because we started to discuss the importance, at least for me, of locally stored music. I'm not saying anything about playing music stored locally via Google Music.

How is that different from downloading the music off music match or loading music into an iPhone? You still have to transfer music to an iPhone via iTunes to get songs in its not on there by default and it has to get on there somehow.

With google play, a brand new android phone, you can have all your songs and playlistst from iTunes or your music collection on there and listen to it offline once its loaded into the phone.

What's the issue here?

[blairh]

Originally Posted by soulreaver99

How is that different from downloading the music off music match or loading music into an iPhone? You still have to transfer music to an iPhone via iTunes to get songs in its not on there by default and it has to get on there somehow.

With google play, a brand new android phone, you can have all your songs and playlistst from iTunes or your music collection on there and listen to it offline once its loaded into the phone.

What's the issue here?

There is no issue. I brought up why I prefer locally stored music versus Google Music and now people feel the need to defend Google Music for some reason. Google Music is an awesome service, but it's not superior to locally stored music, for me. Again, for me.

You need to pin what music you want to listen to offline from Google Music. I prefer having my music stored locally because it's available without an offline connection, I don't need to decide beforehand what I want to listen to offline, and it doesn't affect my data usage when not within wi-fi.

Can we please drop this Google Music discussion and let it revert back to the OP?

[Tinmania]

Originally Posted by blairh

You don't understand. I'm saying you can't listen to your Google Music collection offline unless you pin your music beforehand. And the reason why I brought this up a while ago in this thread is because we started to discuss the importance, at least for me, of locally stored music. I'm not saying anything about playing music stored locally via Google Music.

Pin? This isn't Pinterest. If you mean download, write download. It has been pointed out to you many times now that you can:

A.) Load music onto your device (USB, wifi, whatever). Google music player will find that--even if you never once had an internet connection.

B.) Have Google music scan and upload your music library to the cloud where you can either stream it or download it to your device (or any combination of either).

I don't know any other option one could possibly want to load music, other than pre-ordering a device with your choice of music already loaded (ain't gonna happen).



Michael

[blairh]

Originally Posted by Tinmania

Pin? This isn't Pinterest. If you mean download, write download. It has been pointed out to you many times now that you can:

A.) Load music onto your device (USB, wifi, whatever). Google music player will find that--even if you never once had an internet connection.

B.) Have Google music scan and upload your music library to the cloud where you can either stream it or download it to your device (or any combination of either).

I don't know any other option one could possibly want to load music, other than pre-ordering a device with your choice of music already loaded (ain't gonna happen).

Michael

I said pin because a pin icon is used in Google Music when doing this. I've also seen the term 'pin' used many times. Perhaps due to popularity of Pinterest in recent times I should avoid using such a term.

I'm going to say this one last time. I can't stress enough how much I am tired of this nonsense. You guys are all saying the same things or bringing up things I never even said in the first place. If ANYONE wants to continue this, you can PM me. Otherwise my contributions in this thread are over from this point forward.

When you make your music available offline, from your Google Music collection (not your locally stored music), you are creating a temporary cache onto your device. You are indeed limited to how much you can download for offline use based on the amount of local storage on your device.

Why is this relevant? Well let's take me for example. My music collection stands roughly at 50 GB at all times. I've already expressed to you my desire to have access to all this music at all times.

Now, I can of course use Google Music to play all this music via wi-fi or data. I can even pin/download this music for offline use. However, I cannot pin/download all my music unless my smartphone has space locally for my entire collection. If my smartphone had that much space to begin with, I'd be storing my music locally from the start.

So no, Google Music will not work entirely for me. Again, it's a great service, but still cannot touch the availability of all my music in all situations. Again, like I said to you already Michael, there are indeed situations where I want access to all my music and I will not have access to wi-fi or data, nor will I be able to store my music offline because there is simply not enough room locally on my device.

That's what I said from the start and yet you and others feel the need to respond. Except your responses don't lead to anything and often bring up issues or things I never was discussing in the first place.

And with that, I'm done. Again, PM me if you want, but I won't be responding to more responses on this thread.

[Cod3rror]

Originally Posted by boomhower

1. Widgets: I used to love them but after a few day my main screens looked just like iOS, a bunch of frequently used apps. I liked a few widget like my podcast, weather, and TV widgets but it's not something I'll miss in the least. The one with the most potential is the Google Now widget but it just released yesterday so no much time to experiment. While nice I won't miss them.

I agree with this.

The novelty of widgets wears off in about a week and then you're back to just simple icons. I mean why do I need a widget, if in the end I end up in the app anyway?

IMO, Apple has the right idea, a great place for widgets is in the notification centre, you swipe down and quickly get all the info you need, great for weather widgets, etc...

If Apple opens it up to third parties it's going to be interesting.

[sentinelsx]

Originally Posted by blairh

There is no issue. I brought up why I prefer locally stored music versus Google Music and now people feel the need to defend Google Music for some reason. Google Music is an awesome service, but it's not superior to locally stored music, for me. Again, for me.

You need to pin what music you want to listen to offline from Google Music. I prefer having my music stored locally because it's available without an offline connection, I don't need to decide beforehand what I want to listen to offline, and it doesn't affect my data usage when not within wi-fi.

Can we please drop this Google Music discussion and let it revert back to the OP?

I am not defending gmusic but when I had it on my gs3, it simply loaded and played all my locally stored songs without an issue just like the Samsung player would.

I am not sure I understand the problem here. What is this pinning business? Because to me it just acted like another music player (never used the online part), no pin etc to worry about.

[dkersten]

Originally Posted by RetepNamenots

The lockscreen widget on my Nexus gives me the five-day forecast, how long it'll take for me to get home from my current location, and my next appointment.

Without having to even unlock the phone.

How are you doing this? Is this just the latest stock Android or are you using a third party lock screen? I would love to have weather and I'm assuming a Google Now widget on my lock screen

[Tinmania]

Originally Posted by blairh

I said pin because a pin icon is used in Google Music when doing this. I've also seen the term 'pin' used many times. Perhaps due to popularity of Pinterest in recent times I should avoid using such a term.

I'm going to say this one last time. I can't stress enough how much I am tired of this nonsense. You guys are all saying the same things or bringing up things I never even said in the first place. If ANYONE wants to continue this, you can PM me. Otherwise my contributions in this thread are over from this point forward.

When you make your music available offline, from your Google Music collection (not your locally stored music), you are creating a temporary cache onto your device. You are indeed limited to how much you can download for offline use based on the amount of local storage on your device.

Why is this relevant? Well let's take me for example. My music collection stands roughly at 50 GB at all times. I've already expressed to you my desire to have access to all this music at all times.

Now, I can of course use Google Music to play all this music via wi-fi or data. I can even pin/download this music for offline use. However, I cannot pin/download all my music unless my smartphone has space locally for my entire collection. If my smartphone had that much space to begin with, I'd be storing my music locally from the start.

So no, Google Music will not work entirely for me. Again, it's a great service, but still cannot touch the availability of all my music in all situations. Again, like I said to you already Michael, there are indeed situations where I want access to all my music and I will not have access to wi-fi or data, nor will I be able to store my music offline because there is simply not enough room locally on my device.

That's what I said from the start and yet you and others feel the need to respond. Except your responses don't lead to anything and often bring up issues or things I never was discussing in the first place.

And with that, I'm done. Again, PM me if you want, but I won't be responding to more responses on this thread.

With all due respect, I doubt PM is going to help.

But to be clear, the part bolded above about a temporary cache is incorrect, as stated. Music that was chosen to keep "on device" is not temporary. There is a temporary cache that keeps recently played music available, if it is turned on in settings, but that is different than the "on device" function. Music selected to be downloaded and kept on the device is not temporary.

Downloaded music from google music is, however, stored on the device with no current option to store on an external SD card. So if you want to store a lot of music, doubletwist or dumping to the card via USB is the way to go.

Can't make it any clearer.




Michael

[soulreaver99]

Originally Posted by Tinmania

With all due respect, I doubt PM is going to help.

But to be clear, the part bolded above about a temporary cache is incorrect, as stated. Music that was chosen to keep "on device" is not temporary. There is a temporary cache that keeps recently played music available, if it is turned on in settings, but that is different than the "on device" function. Music selected to be downloaded and kept on the device is not temporary.

Downloaded music from google music is, however, stored on the device with no current option to store on an external SD card. So if you want to store a lot of music, doubletwist or dumping to the card via USB is the way to go.

Can't make it any clearer.




Michael

Perfect explanation.

But it's pointless to further trying to reason with someone who is as closed minded as the iOS Eco-system.

[Nikhil72]

To add onto the discussion of Google Music vs locally stored, here is another aspect. I, too, need/want locally stored music rather than depending on the cloud. This is useful for 1) battery reasons (I'm rarely at a desk to charge from 6am to 9pm daily and am on the go) and 2) Manhattan subway. Now, in trying Android before going back to my iP5, I tried both the GS3 (twice, once with ICS and once with JB) and the N4. I definitely, definitely preferred stock and the Nexus hardware overall compared to the GS3 (disliked the build quality and AMOLED screen compared to the N4) but unfortunately, it's limited to 16GB max, which forces you to use the cloud. In comparison, I had a 64gb card in my GS3 and a 64gb iP5. Now, had the N4 had the option for more storage (and also a camera and battery life comparable to my iP5), I would have likely stuck with it for longer; that limitation, however, resulted in my returning it at the end. Even though the GS3 addressed the storage issue, I preferred the iP5 for a variety of reasons.

Ultimately, Google Music is a very nice idea and very seamless, overall, with iTunes, but not everyone can stream constantly (despite my unlimited data plan), and I don't have the time to micromanage which tracks I want on my device at any time. I ultimately felt like I would be micromanaging with the limited 16gb, and FOR ME, it wasn't worth the compromise in the end. Again, this does not apply to everyone, but these were the limitations that held ME up.

[blairh]

Originally Posted by Tinmania

With all due respect, I doubt PM is going to help.

But to be clear, the part bolded above about a temporary cache is incorrect, as stated. Music that was chosen to keep "on device" is not temporary. There is a temporary cache that keeps recently played music available, if it is turned on in settings, but that is different than the "on device" function. Music selected to be downloaded and kept on the device is not temporary.

Downloaded music from google music is, however, stored on the device with no current option to store on an external SD card. So if you want to store a lot of music, doubletwist or dumping to the card via USB is the way to go.

Can't make it any clearer.

Michael

That's the point! You cannot download music from your Google Music collection for offline listening unless you have the space locally on your device to fit it all. It wouldn't work for me. That's what I said from the start. Why do you keep countering me with BS? I said from the very start that I'd use DoubleTwist or the like. Everybody is wasting my time with these counters. You need the required space on your device if you plan on having access to this music offline. END OF STORY.

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Originally Posted by soulreaver99

Perfect explanation.

But it's pointless to further trying to reason with someone who is as closed minded as the iOS Eco-system.

Spare me this BS.

[soulreaver99]

Originally Posted by blairh

That's the point! You cannot download music from your Google Music collection for offline listening unless you have the space locally on your device to fit it all. It wouldn't work for me. That's what I said from the start. Why do you keep countering me with BS? I said from the very start that I'd use DoubleTwist or the like. Everybody is wasting my time with these counters. You need the required space on your device if you plan on having access to this music offline. END OF STORY.

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Spare me this BS.

So music on the iPhone doesn't take any space? Is it really that magical? Wow, absolutely freaking amazing.

I don't think you understand that you can use Google Music as a standalone music player which you can listen to music OFFLINE without having to cache, as it is stored locally. And that is not BS. Your facts are.

[blairh]

Originally Posted by soulreaver99

So music on the iPhone doesn't take any space? Is it really that magical? Wow, absolutely freaking amazing.

I don't think you understand that you can use Google Music as a standalone music player which you can listen to music OFFLINE without having to cache, as it is stored locally. And that is not BS. Your facts are.

I don't care if you can use the Google Music player to listen to locally stored music. Do you not understand that? Seriously?

The only way you can use the Google Music player to listen to music offline is if you download specific music for offline use beforehand (from your music stored in Google's cloud) or you have the files already on your phone.

[marc11]

Originally Posted by blairh

I don't care if you can use the Google Music player to listen to locally stored music. Do you not understand that? Seriously?

The only way you can use the Google Music player to listen to music offline is if you download specific music for offline use beforehand (from your music stored in Google's cloud) or you have the files already on your phone.

What Blairh h might be saying is new music must be manually synced to the device for offline listening where with iTunes you can set new music to download automatically. Of course once your music is synced to your android device it is there for offline listening just like iOS. Its the initial automatic sync of new music that Google music doesn't have. Of course apps like double twist will sync your new music to local storage over WiFi from your PC or Mbp but its not the same as iOS.

For me I had Google music put all my music on an SD card which is in my device. I listen to all my music wherever whenever no internet connection needed just like my iPhone. My music is also uploaded to googles cloud for back up just like iTunes. When I buy new music from Google play, iTunes or amazon that music is downloaded locally to my MVP and automatically uploaded to play music. When I am home that new music is automatically synced to my android De ice via double twist over WiFi and available offline.

So the biggest difference the only difference between Google music and iTunes is that you cannot set Google play music to download locally automatically you must manually sync it. But this ONLY applies to newly purchased songs. Any existing songs on your PC are loaded initially via a manual sync just like any iOS device.

After that you can listen to all your music with Jo internet connection needed just like any iOS device.

[RetepNamenots]

Originally Posted by dkersten

How are you doing this? Is this just the latest stock Android or are you using a third party lock screen? I would love to have weather and I'm assuming a Google Now widget on my lock screen

The Google search app was updated about a week ago which added a lockscreen widget.