Well my Rio Riot finally died and I’m not going to fix it again.

I know, dinosaur man, get with it… well I’m cheap, and it met my needs (be they small).

Anyways, I really would like to get an iPod touch however they still do not have built in GPS functionality. I know you can get car base navigation “holders” that have GPS that communicates to the touch but I’d really like it built into the unit (especially for GEO caching and city walking).

So advise wanted: should I puck down $300 for an itouch and just “suck it up” or does anyone have an alternative suggestion?

Maybe just a cheap MP3 player will hold me over. The one thing I love about the empeg is the one button press to keep playing the artist that just came up. This seems to be hard to find in any player.

The Samsung Galaxy Player is due soon, running Android. That includes GPS and can have up to 48GB of storage.

Thanks you!

That is exactly what I want.

I know it's a new product but since it's just one of their phones, without the phone part, hopefully there won't be too many new device bugs.

It also takes SD cards which I always considered a plus with these sorts of devices. I hate to be locked into storage.

Doesn't Archos make an Android powered media player too ?

Maybe not as simple as "keep playing this artist", the touch has artist playlists that can be chosen with a few operations.

Thanks, I'll look into those as well.

This slick little video really got me going on the Samsung.... Of course after a Riot and a 7 year old GPS it doesn't take much to impress me.

http://thetechjournal.com/electronics/an...er-yp-g50.xhtml

I'm very conflicted here. I love Android, but historically, one of its major weak points has been its media playback. However, there have been a number of pretty decent apps that address this problem, and you can now sync with programs like DoubleTwist and Winamp (Winamp does wireless sync, I believe).

Up until Christmas I would have recommended Archos. I can't do that anymore, and I hate that.

I was thinking of buying an Archos player a few years ago. I heard quite a few reports that they suffered from poor hardware quality. Do you know if that is still a concern?

My apologies, I meant to come back here and link to my GDGT review of the Archos 101. I was not kind.

To speak to your question specifically, the hardware quality is fine for the price you pay for their products. My Archos 604WiFi was/is actually a pretty sturdy device. It's not Apple build quality, but what is?

Well I've been waiting impatiently for the Samsung, or something better, to come along and I think the boat from Korea is finally getting closer…..

http://www.droidmatters.com/news/samsung...re-order-at-jr/

I’m interested in the 5.0 version. I think that is about the biggest portable that will fit in my coat pocket.

It seems like Android 2.2, Froyo is a bit dated now. Should I be concerned?

Since I’ve never had an Android product before I’m not sure how OS dependent apps are.

Froyo is not the newest version, but there's not really all that much new in newer versions, at least from a user standpoint. YMMV.

If by "hard" you mean "impossible," I wholeheartedly agree. To make matters worse, the iPod app in iPods and iPhones doesn't have any concept of a currently playing playlist. If there's a way to manage the "now playing" list, I've never heard about it. There was an "on the go" playlist, but IMO, that's just complete BS.

IMO, while an iPod has really great hardware, all of Apple's built-in software sucks, especially the iPod app. It's only really suited for shuffle play of the entire music collection. Anything else, including picking individual tracks, albums or artists, is as painful as pulling teeth. Unfortunately, no one has come out with a good third-party music player that does not require a server holding the music (iPeng for Squeezebox Server).

I can't imagine how the music app for Android could be any worse.

Up until last week, it was easy. As I said in another thread, the music app on Android was, IMO, easily the worst aspect of the platform. Fortunately there are lots of decent alternatives, but none of them appealed to me for various reasons, some of them very nit-picky.

The music app used to be the ugliest first-party app on the platform and might have had less functionality than the iPod app, but now I think both platforms have apps that are equally good (as in not very much at all).

The Samsung 5.0 Wifi finally hit the USA on of all places Woot today for $169.

Got one. Seems like a heck of a deal

I saw that today and thought it was strange because I didn't think it was sold anywhere yet. Usually they have clearance type things.

It was released in Sweden, Russia and Korea. Some say not in the USA because the cell phone carriers kept it out since it is almost a phone with no monthly charges.

Well I finally got this electronic Swiss Army knife.

So far I don’t like it. It’s not that the machine is inadequate it’s that I expected much more from Android. I’ve been working with PC’s since 1980 and I just expected this to be easier to use after all the years of “computer progress.” Yea, I know, if I want easy buy Apple. It took me hours to setup Google voice on this and I had to also buy groove IP to make it work, and it’s still has issues.

OK enough rant.

Questions:

«» What is the best way or tool to use to connect up to a PC share? Maybe like a file manager type program. I would have though this would be delivered and easy, but no.

«» Looks like in order for the delivered Google navigation “stuff” to work you must be connected to wifi. Is there a way I can download the maps so I don’t have to be connected or does anyone know of a better navigation program?

«» Does any group or company independently rate programs or recommend them? Since there a re thousands of Android programs out there I imagine many are junk or will put junk permanently on my machine

thanks

Why didn't it work? From what I'm able to gather from your post, it sounds like you're trying to get Google Voice to work as a voip service. Google Voice IS NOT a voip service. That's why you needed Groove IP. On a regular phone, Google Voice does nothing more on your end but initiate a regular cell phone call to your carrier using your voice plan and consuming your talk minutes. It does not connect through the data plan.


I'm not sure what you're asking for here. Are you asking for a way to view files on your computer or a networked hard drive via the handset? Honestly I'm not sure because I don't use my Android handset to view any video media. I use Google Music which lets me avoid any syncing with my desktop directly.

Airsync with Double Twist should get you syncing wirelessly from your computer, using an interface much like iTunes. That should be a good way to organize all your media.


Yes, it needs a data connection to initiate navigation. Once you're on your way you don't need it anymore.

However, the answer to your question is, actually, YES! Check this out.


Honestly, I just tend to pick up app recommendations from my daily web travels. I get them from blogs, podcasts, and other web denizens like the Android owners here. This is a universal issue for smartphones, frankly. However, you should be fine to try out random apps on the market if you pay attention to the rating and the number of votes/downloads an app has received.

That said, there are certainly threads on this very board where Android owners like me have listed dozens and dozens of their favorite apps.

Thanks… response….

Google Voice – Well I might be wrong here but from what I read. “IF” you have a full fledged android phone and Google Voice installed you have the option of using your cell phone carried or wifi after you initiate the call through your phone’s dialer. Since I have no phone dialer or carrier I needed this app (which won’t let me hang-up or mute, need to send an email to the developer). However for the most part groove IP did connect right up to Google voice, had my contact and everything and I was able to call right through GV’s servers without much hassle.

Google map – Thanks much. I did not test this much yet but when I wandered outside in the yard and got out of wifi range the map disappeared. I was not navigating anywhere maybe that was the issue. Glad I can download maps and POI in case I go on a trip and decide to got to multiple places. Thanks for the link

File Sharing – Yea I was just amazed that the device did not have a simple file manager type program to map to a network drive. I don’t want anything on a cloud or anywhere in the web since I am limited to 10 Gig a month of web traffic (thanks Verizon). I would like to be able to connect to my PC to manually copy files or play music directly from my PC. Nothing fancy.

I have definitely been cursing the other posts and will definitely be downloading a few apps you guys recommend. I’m kind of in fear of loading some crappy program on my device and hosing it up, slowing it down or filling it full of junk. Besides and new viruses out there.

Samsung Kies is the Samsung supported method for media management on their devices. When I had my Captivate, the device defaulted to working only with Kies over USB, when Kies at the time wasn't available in the US. I'm assuming that Samsung has since released it for the US since then.

This program works for sharing files over wifi. I don't know what the difference between the free and pro versions is.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dooblou.WiFiFileExplorer&feature=search_result

Redrum- maybe I wasn't clear enough. Doubletwist with Airsync has nothing to do with the cloud. It's purely for syncing your media while in your own WiFi network.

Tom- my Galaxy Tab uses Kies. I despise it. I have no clue why it's a better alternative to simple mass storage mode. Ugh. At least I rarely connect my tablet to my computer.

Well maybe because I don't have an SD card yet but this program would not copy anything over to my android. It said I needed the pro addition.

Would be nice to mount a PC share on my android rather than just have the PC access the android. I could then play music from the PC share without taking up player space.

Yeah it looks like it only lets me move files to and from the SD card.

Astro is a file browser for android, if you also install Astro SMB module you can connect to windows file shares. You should read thru the different android threads here to get a good list of other programs.

You should also get the Amazon app store installed as they are giving away a paid program every day for free.

Thanks,

Yep, free is for me!

I finally got around to looking into navigation. Unfortunate Google offline maps will only cache a 10 mile area and you can’t create a new navigation destination within that area if your offline.

So, I’m still looking for recommendations on an app. that turns an android into a turn by turn GPS without being online.

I haven't tried any of them, but MapDroyd, Navit, Ndrive, and Maverick are some options.