Database Users

UPDATED!!! iPhone-like Music Player: Lumen. [alpha]

PLEASE READ THIS!!
Hi.. just to announce, that I'm making serious efforts to make the iPhone-like musicplaying capability on a Windows Mobile device, I show you now what I have been cooking for a while now..
This is only a proof of concept thing. It won't play any music now. It just shows the possibilities.
I was quite busy in the summer-time, so I had no or little time to develop, but it's going to change.
Anyway, a few things you should know:
- only 240*320 portrait mode (for now)
- .Net Compact Framework is required.
- it's filled with some random data.
- there is a syncing software on the desktop-side, which transfers a playlist from iTunes (not included in this release)
- without cleartype enabled, it's ugly.
- again, it won't play music now!
PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU SOFTRESET YOUR DEVICE AFTER INSTALLING.
FAQ
-----------------------
Q: Will it have a coverflow-ish cool feature?
A: Yes, there will be.
Q: Will it support landscape mode only screens?
A: Well, landscape mode will be used for the coverflow-ish view. I'm still considerind this.
Q: Will it support smartphones?
A: I hope so.
Q: Will it sync automatically with my computer?
A: Of course it will!
Q: Yeah, but how?
A: You have to select an iTunes playlist then decide whether use the activeSync connection (more convienient but slower) or select a drive, and let the Bridge program on your computer do the rest (less convienient, faster)
Q: Wait, you have to have iTunes to use with this thing?
A: Currently, yes. iTunes offers a great API to work with, so it's very efficient to use. Also, in iTunes, most people has georgeous album art in tracks, and in Lumen, album artwork uses a lot of screen real estate, making it look insanely great. In the future, I'll consider fetching MP3 ID3 data, and so.
To keep yourself up-to-date:
www.petervajda.com/Lumen
Download it from here:
www.petervajda.com/Lumen/Lumen-current.php

is there a video / other for preview?
Without seeing something I don´t want to install.

Same here
Please post some screenshots, either here or on your site (http://www.petervajda.com/Lumen/index.html)
Thanks

I'm quite busy now, but soon, I'll post some screenshots.

I have installed it, wow!!! its awesome looking Its going to replace my
other players when you got it Finished. keep it up

yeah, it sounds great, I like it, pls keep it moving

snotboy32 said:
I have installed it, wow!!! its awesome looking Its going to replace my
other players when you got it Finished. keep it up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Post screenshots pls.

Things I'd like to see with this application (in comparsion with Audio Manager):
1. Integrate with HTC Home music tab - so that it can be controlled via that tab.
2. Possible to turn-off phone/screen while the music keeps on playing (to conserve battery)
3. Lists/plays tracks according to track numbers, not alphabetically (Audio Manager has this problem)
4. Library option - by albums, artisits, genre , etc.
5. .ogg support.
Possible?

EazyVG said:
Things I'd like to see with this application (in comparsion with Audio Manager):
1. Integrate with HTC Home music tab - so that it can be controlled via that tab.
2. Possible to turn-off phone/screen while the music keeps on playing (to conserve battery)
3. Lists/plays tracks according to track numbers, not alphabetically (Audio Manager has this problem)
4. Library option - by albums, artisits, genre , etc.
5. .ogg support.
Possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. I don't know "HTC Home music tab" and I don't know how to communicate with it, but I'll take a look.
2. It's already implemented in a previous unpublished version.
3. If you go to an artist, and select an album, it'll show it by track numbers if it's given. Any "view" that contains songs from a single album uses this mode.
4. I think it's already in.
5. Well.. i'm using Windows Media Player component, so it plays it if your device already supports it. (I'm looking for a better audio playing solution) So in theory, it can work.

stephano nice works...!
Hope nice programs in the future from u..!

Just tried it out. Nice and cool.
Looking forward to your release. Good job bro!

wow
the second iPhone Media player in two days? I'm really impressed.
Will test soon
EDIT: Great concept, but try to speed it up. Oh, and mine does not play any music. Please fix it
mindless ramblings aside, this looks neat. You made it on to my 'watch-for-further-developments' list.

What to say.... WOW!
Scrolling smoothness is really impressive I must say. Some other developers playing around with iPhone like applications should implement your scrolling routine as it is almost perfect.
I had many problems with selections at beginning, until I realized that, differently from other apps, I had to double-tap , so ppl please DOUBLE TAP'em :-D
You could join efforts with the other guy messing with an iPhone like mediaplayer (His already playing trough WMP features), but I think those 2 are developed in different ways.
Hope anyway to hear news from you soon

I'd love to see what this app looks like, but I Can't since I don't have a WM5 or 6 device. My player and this, are coded in two very different ways, so it would be hard to sort of combine the two, or use his scrolling routine, although from the sounds of it...I'd LOVE TO! I'll be keeping my eyes here though...

In truth I would like to see other developers using YOUR scrolling routine. I truly love it!
Have a nice evening.

spicchio72 said:
In truth I would like to see other developers using YOUR scrolling routine. I truly love it!
Have a nice evening.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW! Thanks!! Really!
Anyway, you don't have to double-tap.. It goes into things with one tap, but I'm working on to make the app realize it much faster. Since it has to mess with databases, then draw the list, it isn't as easy, as you may think.

Merlin_reloaded said:
Oh, and mine does not play any music. Please fix it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you mind reading the first post? Pretty please

Hey great app, this is the kinda thing i've been looking for, anyways once you get everything working properly, i have a suggestion for a cool feature, maybe once ur in the player u could have a coverflow type thing where u can flick thru album covers to select songs, srry if i'm asking for too much too soon but i can't contain myself when something this cool comes up.

ksjulsen said:
Hey great app, this is the kinda thing i've been looking for, anyways once you get everything working properly, i have a suggestion for a cool feature, maybe once ur in the player u could have a coverflow type thing where u can flick thru album covers to select songs, srry if i'm asking for too much too soon but i can't contain myself when something this cool comes up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool down buddy Your wish will come true. I have a proof-of-concept app built, and it performs quite well. Keep watching this space.

ksjulsen said:
Hey great app, this is the kinda thing i've been looking for, anyways once you get everything working properly, i have a suggestion for a cool feature, maybe once ur in the player u could have a coverflow type thing where u can flick thru album covers to select songs, srry if i'm asking for too much too soon but i can't contain myself when something this cool comes up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean like what I've implemented so far?

Verbose boot?

i love my hero, but the boot process couldnt be any slower..
And its very frustrating that it loads with a black screen and a animated gif, when i would like to know exactly what its currently loading, like a verbose boot.
On Mac OS X, when booting the computer one can hold command-V for verbose mode, witch looks pretty much exactly the same as most linux distro bootups, a long list of text feedback (loading part one... done. loading part 2... done. and so on)
so is it possible to add this feature (or enable it) on the modaco rom?
..i know it wont speed up the boot process, i´dd guess it would even make it longer, but it wouldnt feel as long if i could follow the boot process.

i second that, verbose boot would be cool. and would boost the geek factor at least by +7

i just realized that i could replace the animated gifs with custom ones, faking a verbose boot.
This could be quite funny..
like:
Boot -IEX [da=x2ar4] -V
Boot sequence starting...
Loading virtual enviroments... done!
Loading customized data... done!
Loading nuclear powercell... done!
Loading self destruct sequence... ERROR! no path to detonator
Loading done!
Configuring enviroments... done!
Configuring networks... done!
Configuring hack tools... done!
Retrieving access codes... done!
Configuring free internet access... done!
Configuring done!
Writing random IEMI... done!
Disabling remote tracking/bugging capabilities... done!
decrypting private user data... done!
Boot sequence completed!
>quickly displaying a snapshot of home screen<
>change to blue screen with text<: "Keyboard was not found, press F1 to continiue..."
now i just have to find a gif animating app for mac..

lol i like that idea. sounds would be possible also.
animating gifs is pretty easy with GIMP, if that is available for mac.
edit: i'm still interested in a solution for actually verbosing the boot sequence.

lol i threw together a rough proof-of-concept. use it as a regular update.zip if you want to try it. it is not good, it loops several times, timing is bad, text is no fun. but it works
as always no responsibilty for phones turned into gremlins, make a nandroid before, yadayadayada you know the deal.
you can also extract the boot.gif from the zip and drag&drop it into firefox to see what happens.
edit: took it down, nobody wanted it, was crap anyway. see a few posts down, did a better version.

just a heads-up: i am actually working on this. might take a few days, but i will try to make something at least decent looking... every help is welcome, especially with graphics. i could use a background, maybe some sort of grid. and if someone has or is willing to make something that acts as a movie-style fingerprint scanner, that would be awesome

kendong2 said:
just a heads-up: i am actually working on this. might take a few days, but i will try to make something at least decent looking... every help is welcome, especially with graphics. i could use a background, maybe some sort of grid. and if someone has or is willing to make something that acts as a movie-style fingerprint scanner, that would be awesome
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have them but I know of a few places I've seen fingerprint things lately:
http://lock2.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/ancient-system/
http://instinct-software.com/2009/02/pretend-fingerprint-scanner/ (near the bottom of the page is a larger screenshot)

yeah i found these also, not really glad with them though. i thought of something anymated, like a green glowing fingerprint with a "scanning" redish-glowing bar in front of it...

i decied to make this a new topic: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=582336
nevertheless i want to know how to get the console output on screen during bootup, so please make this thread a success

kendong2 said:
i decied to make this a new topic: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=582336
nevertheless i want to know how to get the console output on screen during bootup, so please make this thread a success
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BUMP.
I'd like to know that too. Just like the good old linux boot would be nice.
Regards Al the Pal

Rockbox for Android

Hey everyone!
I couldn't help but notice on the Rockbo homepage (rockbox.org), under unusable ports it has listed Google Android and in this thread: forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=14177.30 the last post says that someone had actually gotten sound to work through Rockbox on a HTC Legend phone:
Hello guys,
I'm right now listening music with my newest music app on my phone:
Rockbox plays music on my HTC legend \o/
The first song was Edward Maya vs Alicia - Stereo Love.
I'm overly happy that I've gotten that far now. I'm looking forward to
finally bring gapless playback, dynamic playlists and an extensive
equalizer (and more) to Android! Although there's a lot of work still to do.
Best regards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is rather exciting! I've used Rockbox before on an old iAudio X5 and it was a powerful alternate firmware. Anyways I just wanted to post this here just incase anyone else would be interested.

I found some more information digging around the interwebs. I found a blog from a Rockbox developer who talks about Rockbox as an application and he mentions this achievement and includes a link to the users git repositories for Rockbox on Android. You can read about it here: daniel.haxx.se/blog/2010/07/30/the-rockbox-app-part-ii/
Here's a quote from the blog:
While I’m told the current state is rough and there’s no installer or anything yet, I’m sure I share the view of lots of others that this is a great moment in the Rockbox history. A milestone. Thanks Thomas, I hope your work continues equally good and that we get an app to try out at the end of the summer or so.
Thomas’ git repo is here: h ttp://repo.or.cz/w/kugel-rb.git
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also Rockbox as an application was accepted into Google's Summer of Code program (info here: rockbox.org/wiki/SummerOfCode2010#Rockbox_as_an_Application )

Yeah!!!!!!!! I d like to see rockbox on android, I used it on an ipod mini, and it was really great with a great sound quality

There are no prebuilt apk's yet but you can download the source code and build Rockbox for android.
It works rather well, I'm using it in favor of the stock built in media player on my Legend.

kugel. said:
It works rather well, I'm using it in favor of the stock built in media player on my Legend.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you share the apk?

There's a link on the wiki page I created today:
xttp://www.rockbox.org/wiki/AndroidPort (remember to change the xttp to http).

Just out of curiosity, could someone post a screenshot ?

Pre-Compiled Links
Prebuilt 240x320: http://www.alice-dsl.net/simonemartitz/rockbox/Rockbox-240x320.apk
Prebuilt 320x480: http://www.alice-dsl.net/simonemartitz/rockbox/Rockbox.apk
Prebuilt 480x800: http://www.alice-dsl.net/simonemartitz/rockbox/Rockbox-480x800.apk

Looks pretty promising and I know its not in any stage to be shown off but I couldn't even effectively navigate around. Hope they keep working on this.
Sent from my ADR6300

hazard666 said:
Looks pretty promising and I know its not in any stage to be shown off but I couldn't even effectively navigate around. Hope they keep working on this.
Sent from my ADR6300
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's probably because the default touchscreen mode is the so called grid mode. In this you navigate with d-pad like controls (the screen is divided into 9 rectangles, top middle is up, down middle is down, center middle is select, etc). You can change it to the absolute point mode in the settings.

This is the best thing to happen to my phone since I bought it!
The only problem is that's it's a bit jumpy from time-to-time, especially if 'multi-tasking.
But generally I'm impressed already. True gapless playback at last! A volume control that doesn't move in HUGE increments (I.E. I can make it really really quite if I'm falling asleep listening to music)
Great stuff!

miner49er said:
The only problem is that's it's a bit jumpy from time-to-time, especially if 'multi-tasking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assume you have an HTC phone running the official 2.1 ROM?
Those have a bug which causes music to drop out sometimes if the app is in the background/minimized.

Not working for me on Motorola Milestone. This is how it looks like:

Define "Not working". The screen shot looks ok, except the font is too small (the default font should be bigger indeed).
Try loading the cabbiev2 or selecting a bigger font. And also remember what I said about the grid mode on the previous page.

The pre-built APKs are not working for me either. I'm trying this on a Samsung Captivate (Galaxy S) running stock rom. All it shows is the rockbox splash screen and doesn't go from there.

Hi there!!
Neither works on milestone (Personal Argentina's 2.1u1 official rom).
It loads, I can navigate (and configurate the screen) but it won't actually play any file...
BTW, the screen font size and graphics from the original skin has been an issue since I firts got it for my old (from a couple of weeks now) rokr e2...

Impressive!
Installed the 480x800 build on my Milestone (Canada Telus SHOLS_U2_03.11.0) and started experimenting.
Have a few questions:
1. Noted after editing config.cfg (in order to add a WPS file) that my paths were changed from /sdcard/rockbox/ to /data/data/org.rockbox/app_rockbox/.
Is it implicit that /data/data/org.rockbox/app_rockbox/ is the way to point to sdcard?
2. My WPS contains %pc (Current time in track) and %pt (Total track time); the latter is right but the former is always 0 (%px shows 0 too).
3. Maybe silly: I'm able to use the grid to navigate but did not figure out how to exit Rockbox. How to exit?

pstrg said:
Impressive!
Installed the 480x800 build on my Milestone (Canada Telus SHOLS_U2_03.11.0) and started experimenting.
Have a few questions:
1. Noted after editing config.cfg (in order to add a WPS file) that my paths were changed from /sdcard/rockbox/ to /data/data/org.rockbox/app_rockbox/.
Is it implicit that /data/data/org.rockbox/app_rockbox/ is the way to point to sdcard?
2. My WPS contains %pc (Current time in track) and %pt (Total track time); the latter is right but the former is always 0 (%px shows 0 too).
3. Maybe silly: I'm able to use the grid to navigate but did not figure out how to exit Rockbox. How to exit?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) Yes. Rockbox removes the path and looks on the sdcard first so don't worry. In fact, any path will work. In order to remember it over restarts the files the setting point to need to be in /sdcard/rockbox though.
2) Don't know what's wrong there. I can't imagine it's an Android specific issue though.
3) There's also the absolute point mode, you just need to enable it (we didn't get around making it default yet). You don't *exit* Rockbox, you just stop/pause music (stopping will be slightly better for battery life) and leave the app (as with any other app like the built-in media player).

I have installed Rockbox on a HTC Tattoo. Not the most powerful phone out there, I know.
I am also very impressed. I had given up using my phone as a music player. I don't think that any of the apps on the Market are very good. None support gapless or EQ etc., and the format support is also very limited. But now there is hope.
I had to figure out how to use it first, and I found out how in the Rockbox forums. It seems like the UI is working very fine. The only thing is that they don't support the hardware buttons yet.
The music also plays back. But there is one (serious) problem: the playback stutters once in a while. It may be the same problem as reported above with HTC phones. So it is not quite usable yet. But they are definately on the way. These are early days, and the app isn't even downloadable from their web-pages yet, so I didn't excpect this much.

Update.
Fussing around with settings, noted (just once) that %pc (Current rack time) was working as it should; however, it subsequently displayed as 0 (as before) even though I modified nothing.
Another point: it seems that settings from tagnavi_custom.config aren't working.
On some occasions music did not play at all; display sometimes reverted to the very tiny initial default and it was not possible to select a font from the menu, among other menu navigation problems.
Despite those gripes, I noted no jumps while playing; in this respect, it's better than either andLess and AMPlayer, which I've been trying to play FLAC files.
Will stay attuned; am very glad that Rockbox as an app is being ported to Android and is already useable.

[Q] Some thoughts and questions on CM7

So I recently flashed CM7 and I have had some time to download all my apps and get things configured I came up with some questions and had a bit of a boot loop issue.
Ill start with the boot loop issue. A few days ago I noticed while on charge it just kept booting over and over. I have this happen from time to time on my rooted Eris with CM. No biggie I just unplug and things work themselves out. But not with the Nook. I turned it off and powered back on but its just kept booting. Sometimes it would make it to the desktop and then reboot, sometimes it wouldnt make it past the splash screen before rebooting, and sometimes it would make it to the desktop and I get an ADW Launcher error then it reboots. I followed the same procedure I followed when I originally flashed it and its been 3 days now working just fine. This time I only downloaded the apps I really needed and I currently have no SD card in it. The one I used before was the same 8 Gig card I used with Nookie Froyo (Can that card just be formatted within CyanogenMod or do i need to format it on my pc?). So Im thinking maybe that was the problem? But then I found this thread. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1043623&highlight=cm7+boot+loop Someone mentions an issue with the battery going dead. That could be it as well because it did die out just before I put it on charge that night. Any thoughts? Like I said I already reflashed just hoping I can avoid that from happening again. Im keeping track of downloaded apps and changes while testing atleast a day before doing more.
Next up is the Notification Bar. Are there any options for changing the color or maybe even the icons themselves like the WiFi, Battery, Notifications Buttons. I like the icons themselves just fine but hate how they are not all one neutral color. I like to change themes but always feel like I need to match up with something green.
So whats the deal with Wallpaper? My Eris has handled every size wallpaper Ive thrown at it. Beautifully if I may add. But the Nook struggles. Ive read some on the subject here and thought I had a decent solution when I was running Nookie Froyo but things are different on CM7. The only way I found to get decent resolution is using the browser to Google search wallpaper and setting wallpaper from within the browser. As you can imagine you dont always get the crop you want. Do I really have to crop every wallpaper specifically for my Nook or is there an easier way?
Overclocking. Boy its been a lifesaver for my Eris but im not sure about the Nook. I was impressed with a score of 1629 at the stock 800Mhz. But I wonder....was that score legit? I ran a bunch of tests back to back and they went something like this 1450, 1527, 1549, 1532, 1596, 1612, then the 1629. With the exception of that one time every test got a better score. Now when overclocked to 925 my best score was 1634 after 6 runs the first was in the 1300 range. I changed the CPU setting within CyanogenMod Settings but I wonder if I need to clear cache first? I was also looking into downloading Dalringrins kernals but can I just add his kernal to the card I used to flash CM7 originally and just flash the kernal? Or do I need to start all over?
Video and streaming video? Whos running a slick video streaming setup over their home network? What are you using and can it be an all in one setup including support for my Nook, Eris, PS3,and various laptops? Ive purchased some harddrives for movie storage but I dont want to rip my DVD collection in some specific format thats only good for one device. Id also like to load some movies and shows right on my SD card for times when I may be away from a connection. What do you guys suggest? My research has turned up many different formats and resolutions. Its been difficult to piece it all together.
I realize this is alot and much of what Im asking may be buried here in these forums but this thread will serve two purposes. To help me organize and speed up the process of getting my setup functioning the way I want. This post also in know way means ive given up on any of this. Im still working on all of it on my own. Researching and testing as time allows.
CyanogenMod-7.0.2
CWM-3.0.0.6

Well, as far as wallpaper goes, the perfect size ratio for wallpaper seems to be 1200 x 1024 at 169 ppi (pixels per inch). Gallery, Quickpic, and other image apps I've used crop to that ratio.
Gallery does some weird quality degradation (or it's resizing it) so my test image looks a smidge less sharp than it does setting wallpaper in Quickpic, for example. It looks absolutely crisp at those dimensions when set with Quickpic or Zeam (when Zeam is default wallpaper agent, it automatically expands crop tool for entire image at this size/ratio).
I've been saving my wallpapers at 1200x1024 (169 ppi). I'm not sure how it would affect your wallpaper if you've used an app like LCDDensity to change the Nook's pixel density from the default (169ppi).
Re: Video streaming
http://www.videolan.org/doc/streaming-howto/en/
You may be more interested in: http://www.videolan.org/doc/streaming-howto/en/ch05.html (Video on Demand and Multiple Streaming via VLM / VLC Player)

Quickpic is exactly what I needed. Works great!
Im gonna start looking into the VideoLan links tonight. Is this something you use? Im familiar with VideoLan but I remember having difficulty with their software before. I think it was when I was trying to stream from a TV tuner in my desktop over WiFi. Probably not the fairest situation to form a judgment.
Since My OP Im 90% sure I got stuck in that boot loop described above because the battery went dead. Mainly because I did it again but this time on purpose. I now have two Nook chargers. I dont think it would have been an issue again but now theres no chance. Anyone have a car charger?
Im also not going to mess around with overclocking for awhile. I realized lately. It runs great whats the point in rushing?

[Q] Create a bootanimation from a video

I want to know how to create a boot animation for the A500 from a video
because I want to have this bootanimation on my A500
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Tbqdv1i4_2E
So I want to know how to do it
Thanks

Tib44 said:
I want to know how to create a boot animation for the A500 from a video
because I want to have this bootanimation on my A500
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Tbqdv1i4_2E
So I want to know how to do it
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In the themes forum, there used to be a tutorial about creating boot animation.
The problem, is the file size. If you try and create a bootani from video, it will be honking big, and mega frames. So it would take forever I think, just to load.
Generally, most boot ani's run in 2 phases. 1. the initial ani. Then, because every device is different, a 2nd loop, which basically runs repetitivley, until the system boots. It's a fine line.
Try with an avi converted to what is essentially an animated gif. 5 seconds of avi, turns into 1000 frames.
And the bit depth...
If you can keep it to about 3mb, and 50- frames, then it's possible.
The boot animation you saw, was probably from Taboonay. If you open the boot animation.zip, then you will see how many frames there are. Probably 16bit depth. And you can get it in 4 different colors.

@Tib44 - The attached is courtesy of JaeKar99 who ported it for the A500, I believe from the Fascinate. I have amended it slightly so that it runs through 5 times before ending on it's looped final frame. JaeKar99 has written a HOW/TO treatise on building boot animations, I believe it was in July 2011 and it is posted in the "Themes & Apps" section. If you want to see further boot anims check on my thread in the "Themes & Apps" section, the thread is "Publish your A500 boot animations here". If you use this or any other custom anim, remember to save your present one or it will likely be overwritten and then copy the new one to either of these two locations.... (1) /system/media..... or (2) /data/local

@Tib44 - In addition to above if you want to capture any video from PC screen with a view to breaking it down into frames to build a boot animation, you could do worse than use the capture program "Frapps".