Freakn' Sweet » Android

The Amazon Cloud Player: Another Reason to Love Amazon!

cwhitmore — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 05:08:03 +0000

They’ve been in a the business of selling music (and other things) for a while. Earlier this month Amazon launched their Android App Store but they’ve just stepped up their game again. Taking on Apple and Google, Amazon just launched it’s very own music streaming service. The Amazon Cloud Player lets you shop 15 million songs and play your music on any Android device, PC or Mac. Existing customers in the US can now upload their MP3 purchases to their 5GB cloud space and if 5GB isn’t enough you can upgrade to a one-year 20GB plan for FREE when you purchase an MP3 album.

Pretty sweet stuff if you ask me… Where you at Google Music?

View the press release after the break.

[via Amazon]

Introducing Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon Cloud Player for Web, and Amazon Cloud Player for Android
Buy anywhere, play anywhere and keep all your music in one place
Start with 5 GB of free Cloud Drive storage – upgrade to 20 GB free with purchase of any MP3 album

SEATTLE, Mar 29, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) –

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced the launch of Amazon Cloud Drive (www.amazon.com/clouddrive), Amazon Cloud Player for Web (www.amazon.com/cloudplayer) and Amazon Cloud Player for Android (www.amazon.com/cloudplayerandroid). Together, these services enable customers to securely store music in the cloudand play it on any Android phone, Android tablet, Mac or PC, wherever they are. Customers can easily upload their music library to Amazon Cloud Drive and can save any new Amazon MP3 purchases directly to their Amazon Cloud Drive for free.

“We’re excited to take this leap forward in the digital experience,” said Bill Carr, vice president of Movies and Music at Amazon. “The launch of Cloud Drive, Cloud Player for Web and Cloud Player for Android eliminates the need for constant software updates as well as the use of thumb drives and cables to move and manage music.”

“Our customers have told us they don’t want to download music to their work computers or phones because they find it hard to move music around to different devices,” Carr said. “Now, whether at work, home, or on the go, customers can buy music from Amazon MP3, store it in the cloud and play it anywhere.”

Store Music for Free

Customers automatically start with 5 GB of Cloud Drive storage to upload their digital music library, and those who purchase an Amazon MP3 album will be upgraded to 20 GB of Cloud Drive space. New Amazon MP3 purchases saved directly to Cloud Drive are stored for free and do not count against a customer’s storage quota.

Adding Music to Cloud Drive

Amazon’s easy uploading process makes it simple for customers to save their music library to their Cloud Drive. Files can be stored in AAC or MP3 formats and will be uploaded to Cloud Drive in the original bit rate. Customers can hand-pick particular songs, artists, albums or playlists to upload or simply upload their entire music library.

Cloud Player for Web

Customers who have a computer with a Web browser can listen to their music. Cloud Player for Web currently supports Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari for Mac, and Chrome. Cloud Player for Web lets customers easily manage their music with download and streaming options. Customers don’t need to worry about regularly updating software on their computer to enjoy music, and Amazon MP3 customers can continue to use iTunes and Windows Media Player to add their music to their iPods and MP3 players.

Cloud Player for Android

Cloud Player for Android is now bundled into the new version of the Amazon MP3 App; it includes the full Amazon MP3 Store and the mobile version of Cloud Player. Customers can use the app to play music stored on their Cloud Drive and music stored locally on their device. Features include the ability to search and browse by artist, album or song, create playlists and download music from Cloud Drive.

Secure Storage

Customers never need to worry about losing their music collection to a hard drive crash again. Files are securely stored on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and each file is uploaded to Cloud Drive in its original bit rate. Customers can buy music anywhere and know that their MP3s are safely stored in Cloud Drive and accessible from any device.

Store More than Music

Cloud Drive allows customers to upload and store all kinds of digital files; music, photos, videos and documents can be stored securely and are available via web browser on any computer. In addition to the 5 GB of free storage, customers can purchase storage plans starting at $20 a year for 20 GB.

Meet the HTC Flyer

cwhitmore — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 01:23:08 +0000

It’s no secret that this is the year of the tablet and it was just a matter of time before HTC jumped in the pool. Meet the new HTC Flyer ($TBA). It’s running Android 2.4 with the Sense UI and features a seven-inch touchscreen with 1024×600 resolution, a 1.5 GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 32 GB of internal storage with microSD expansion…… [catching breath] ……HSPA+/GSM cellular connectivity, a five megapixel rear camera with auto focus, a 1.3 megapixel front camera, GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP. That should be enough to take on the iPad right? I can’t wait to get this!

I also could help but notice that it didn’t have Honeycomb so thats a little sad but it does has Skype video calls. I think this is the gadget Jason has been looking for.

A busy day for Google! Nexus S, Gingerbread SDK & Google Books

cwhitmore — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:46:49 +0000

Well Google went all out today… They announced the Nexus S, released the Gingerbread SDK and launched Google Books. I would say they’ve been busy. So lets break this down.

The Nexus S has a lot of “firsts” going for it. First phone to run Gingerbread (Android 2.3), first to have a 4″ Contoured Display, and support for Near Field Communication. Some of the other highlights are an improved keyboard, VoIP/SIP support, Wi-Fi hotspots 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 16GB internal memory, a dedicated Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and a slew of other great stuff.

Check out the video and learn about the Gingerbread SDK and Google Books after the break.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Gingerbread SDK:
There are tons of new platform technologies and APIs in the new SDK. Here are some of the coolest highlights from the Android Developers blog:

Enhancements for game development: To improve overall responsiveness, we’ve added a new concurrent garbage collector and optimized the platform’s overall event handling. We’ve also given developers native access to more parts of the system by exposing a broad set of native APIs. From native code, applications can now access input and sensor events, EGL/OpenGL ES, OpenSL ES, and assets, as well a new framework for managing lifecycle and windows. For precise motion processing, developers can use several new sensor types, including gyroscope.

Rich multimedia: To provide a great multimedia environment for games and other applications, we’ve added support for the new video formats VP8 and WebM, as well as support for AAC and AMR-wideband encoding. The platform also provides new audio effects such as reverb, equalization, headphone virtualization, and bass boost.

New forms of communication: The platform now includes support for front-facing camera, SIP/VOIP, and Near Field Communications (NFC), to let developers include new capabilities in their applications.

For a complete overview of what’s new in the platform, see the Android 2.3 Platform Highlights.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Google Books:
Last but not least is the announcement of Google Books. It’s a project they’ve been working on for quite a while now and currently have more that 3 million Google eBooks. It works on tons of devices too. (Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Web and NOOK)

Learn more about Google Books here!

Click here to view the embedded video.

iPhone vs. Android vs. BlackBerry

peckelkamp — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 22:22:06 +0000

C-Section has this up and I love it. It’s absolutely true…As an EVO user I couldn’t agree more about Blackberry. I mean come on already.

[via C-Section Comics]

Google Voice FINALLY on iPhone and Palm… Kinda?

cwhitmore — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:30:08 +0000

First off, are you a Google Voice user? Well if not you should check it out because it’s pretty sweet. Second, Google Voice is now available for the iPhone and the Palm Pre and Pixi via a mobile web site. Now we definitely would have preferred an app like you can get on an Android device but hey, this is better than nothing right?

I wonder what AT&T thinks about this?

[via Gear Diary]

When Ninjas Strike… the Nexus One

cwhitmore — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:06:37 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ever wonder what 3 miniture ninjas would look like unboxing a Nexus One? Well wonder no more… It’s magical! Ninjas Unbox a Nexus One by Patrick Bovin.

[via Like Cool]

New Hack Brings Multi-Touch To The Nexus One

cwhitmore — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:22:46 +0000

There’s been a lot of talk all over the web regarding the lack of multi-touch on the Nexus One. Whether it was due to patents or who know’s what, there’s a new little treat for you. The guys at XDA Developers (cyanogen to be exact) have created a hack to add multi-touch to the native Android browser. Redmond Pie has quik little step-by-step.

After the break here’s a quick peek at how it works after the device update.

Thanks to jerbid’s Tweet for this tip!

jerbid: Nexus One Hack Adds Multi-Touch to Android Browser http://bit.ly/7y2VTh #android

Click here to view the embedded video.

For those who care, I’m curious the reason behind no multi-touch. People say it’s due to patents that Apple has. Well if that’s the case why do the Droid Eris and the Hero on Sprint (both made by HTC just like the Nexus One) have multi-touch? Is multi-touch just an enhancement in the Sense UI?

Motorola Backflip: AT&T’s First Android Phone

cwhitmore — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 01:02:37 +0000

Here’s one of the new phones that was announced at CES. It’s the Motorola Backflip($TBA; Q1 2010) will be the first Android phone released on AT&T. One of the things that sets this apart is it’s sporting a unique reverse flip design and the MOTOBLUR content delivery service. The design lets the screen slide up for access to a hardware keyboard, or flip around to act as a video viewing stand. Features like a 3.1-inch touch screen, 5 megapixel camera, a GPS, and Bluetooth round out the experience.

Did anyone else catch my name on the promo shot? So what if it’s a girls last name….

[via Uncrate]

Move over Eclair, time for Android Froyo

cwhitmore — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 05:00:15 +0000

Google has been keeping a theme with the code names for their Android releases. Some of these being Cupcake, Donut and the latest Eclair. (2.1 is still part of Eclair) You may also notice that they are going in alphabetical order. Well now we know the name for “F”. According to Android’s senior project manager Erick Tseng Android’s next big iteration will be known as Froyo. That’s short for “frozen yogurt” incase you were trying to figure it out like me.

Even though I’m a little bummed it was called Flan I guess I can deal with it. No news on a release date yet but we’ll let you know when we hear of one.

[via Engadget]

The QR Coded Building

cwhitmore — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:17:14 +0000

We’ve started seeing QR codes a lot more especially with Android and iPhone having bar code scanners. I can honestly say that I didn’t expect to see this. At least not so soon. Thanks to Terada Design a building in the city of Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan, has been constructed with a QR Code facade. The QR Code links to a site which includes up to date shop information. There is also an unofficial iPhone application available that allows the building to be viewed in real-time with an overlay of Twitter feed comments located via GPS tagging from inside the building. (kinda creepy)

The video after the break shows what the building looks like and some of the augmented reality features it has.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Freakn' Sweet » Android

The Amazon Cloud Player: Another Reason to Love Amazon!

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Meet the HTC Flyer

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A busy day for Google! Nexus S, Gingerbread SDK & Google Books

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iPhone vs. Android vs. BlackBerry

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Google Voice FINALLY on iPhone and Palm… Kinda?

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When Ninjas Strike… the Nexus One

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New Hack Brings Multi-Touch To The Nexus One

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Motorola Backflip: AT&T’s First Android Phone

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Move over Eclair, time for Android Froyo

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The QR Coded Building

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