Help me stay with Android?

[gordol]

My current contract with Verizon is almost up for renewal, and I can get a subsidized new phone at any time now (I'm just waiting for a new job first so I can afford even that cost!). My current phone is a Moto DroidX running 2.3.4. Overall, it's been one of the two most trouble free smartphones I've ever owned. But in the past couple of months, I've started to actually hate it. Most of what I've come to dislike about it I am reasonably sure are perfectly fine on a new device, so that's not really the issue. What is the issue, and why I'm almost certain to switch back to an iPhone, is media integration. I've got iTunes on my PC. Despite its bloat, I have never, ever, found a media player/manager that can handle my 14k plus track music library and 5k plus photo album as well as iTunes does.

I have tried a couple iTunes <--> Android sync apps in the past, DoubleTwist and iSyncr. Double Twist simply does not work right for me, and iSyncr has cost me several MicroSD cards, lost to corruption. One of my deal-breaker must-haves is support for Smart/Live Playlists that update themselves as I listen to items and adjust ratings on the fly. And nothing has been able to handle my photos.

Compare to iTunes/iPhone, where it's a native process with Smart Playlists, and not only syncs my photos but also resizes them to fit the target device. On my PC, my photo album takes up 20.7 GB. On my iPad those same photos take up 4.4 GB.

However, device vs device, rather than sync vs sync, Androids have a bunch of things in their favor, including generally a lower price and larger screens. With the understanding that Samsung is off the list (my own reasons, nothing to do with and predates the legal battles), is there any current Android and PC combination that will do what I want out of the iPhone?

 

[Subsound]

My current contract with Verizon is almost up for renewal, and I can get a subsidized new phone at any time now (I'm just waiting for a new job first so I can afford even that cost!). My current phone is a Moto DroidX running 2.3.4. Overall, it's been one of the two most trouble free smartphones I've ever owned. But in the past couple of months, I've started to actually hate it. Most of what I've come to dislike about it I am reasonably sure are perfectly fine on a new device, so that's not really the issue. What is the issue, and why I'm almost certain to switch back to an iPhone, is media integration. I've got iTunes on my PC. Despite its bloat, I have never, ever, found a media player/manager that can handle my 14k plus track music library and 5k plus photo album as well as iTunes does.

I have tried a couple iTunes <--> Android sync apps in the past, DoubleTwist and iSyncr. Double Twist simply does not work right for me, and iSyncr has cost me several MicroSD cards, lost to corruption. One of my deal-breaker must-haves is support for Smart/Live Playlists that update themselves as I listen to items and adjust ratings on the fly. And nothing has been able to handle my photos.

Compare to iTunes/iPhone, where it's a native process with Smart Playlists, and not only syncs my photos but also resizes them to fit the target device. On my PC, my photo album takes up 20.7 GB. On my iPad those same photos take up 4.4 GB.

However, device vs device, rather than sync vs sync, Androids have a bunch of things in their favor, including generally a lower price and larger screens. With the understanding that Samsung is off the list (my own reasons, nothing to do with and predates the legal battles), is there any current Android and PC combination that will do what I want out of the iPhone?

Sounds like the easiest route is to buy an iPod. lmao.

 

[gordol]

Sounds like the easiest route is to buy an iPod. lmao.

Did I not mention that I do not want to carry two similar devices?

 

[ChromeJob]

A: MediaMonkey.

Auto-playlists are one of my fav features.

 

[B. Diddy]

It may not be the most perfect solution, but do you find Google Play Music to be inadequate? With it, you can (1) upload your entire iTunes library to the Google cloud (up to about 20000 songs)--including your playlists--and then access it on any device or computer, (2) track all of the songs you've played as a queue, and at any time, save that queue as a playlist (it may not be a Smart Playlist in that it won't save automatically, but it's only a couple of menu selections away), and (3) adjust ratings on the fly, but it's only a thumbs up or thumbs down. Once you start rating songs, a new Thumbs Up playlist will appear that will automatically update with all of the tracks you give a thumbs up to.

In regard to photos, try uploading your photos to Google+/Picasaweb. By default, the photos get resized to about 1500x2000 pixels, which greatly reduces the file size. If you set up your Android phone to sync with Picasa or Google+, you can then access all of your photos over the web.

Again, these Google apps aren't perfect, and they don't necessarily have a ton of bells and whistles (although Play Music does actually have some nice features including a decent equalizer), but it might be enough for you.

 

[EvilMonkey]

If you're stuck on iTunes, I don't really have a suggestion. You have to realize that it's an Apple product, which by default means it plays nice with other Apple products and not much else. While some third party apps (like Doubletwist and iSync) have done a good job of trying to make it work outside the Apple ecosystem, they of course are going to have some limitations.

Personally, as B. Diddy points out, I've switched everything over to Google Music (around 15k songs) and my pictures have been in Picasa (and now Google+) for years now. I don't keep any local copies of any of that stuff any more. Local copies are so 2009

Guess it depends on if iTunes means that much to you that you're willing to give up the rest of the benefits of Android for it (assuming this is your deciding factor).

 

[gordol]

It may not be the most perfect solution, but do you find Google Play Music to be inadequate?

Yes, I do find it inadequate for my needs. It's a good store, but a lousy media manager. Because it does not do this:

(2) track all of the songs you've played as a queue, and at any time, save that queue as a playlist

in a way that is actually useful. With an iPod, I sync, I listen, and I sync again, and what I listened to is now off the playlist until other criteria is met such as the time since the last time it was played. Then it's automatically put back into the playlist.

(3) adjust ratings on the fly, but it's only a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Ratings is more than a binary yes/no. With iTunes' five stars, I use all six possible ratings to flag items for playlist inclusions or exclusions (along with type and genre) or track editing.

Plus, bulk changes in Play are cumbersome if even possible, and I would still need a local manager which means I'd be doing double maintenance as changes to my local files does NOT get uploaded, only the addition of new items get uploaded to Play.

In regard to photos, try uploading your photos to Google+/Picasaweb. By default, the photos get resized to about 1500x2000 pixels, which greatly reduces the file size.

Not by much. Unless its recompressing as well, which is fine for the purpose. My camera outputs 3872x2592.

If you set up your Android phone to sync with Picasa or Google+, you can then access all of your photos over the web.

And eat up more of the limited data quota I'll have once I get the new phone.

Again, these Google apps aren't perfect, and they don't necessarily have a ton of bells and whistles (although Play Music does actually have some nice features including a decent equalizer), but it might be enough for you.

I looked into Play more than once. It is, of course, installed on my Droid X, and I find it has a lot lacking even in basic search, display and playback. GMusic, a third party app for iOS has a much better interface, display, search and playback.

Chrome-Job suggests MediaMonkey. Except for the lack of photo support, it looks like it should do what I need, I'll check that out.

 

[gordol]

If you're stuck on iTunes, I don't really have a suggestion. You have to realize that it's an Apple product, which by default means it plays nice with other Apple products and not much else. While some third party apps (like Doubletwist and iSync) have done a good job of trying to make it work outside the Apple ecosystem, they of course are going to have some limitations.

Personally, as B. Diddy points out, I've switched everything over to Google Music (around 15k songs) and my pictures have been in Picasa (and now Google+) for years now. I don't keep any local copies of any of that stuff any more. Local copies are so 2009

Guess it depends on if iTunes means that much to you that you're willing to give up the rest of the benefits of Android for it (assuming this is your deciding factor).

I'm using iTunes as a reference point because it does what I want it to do and I I use it to manage photos on my iPad, music on my iPod Touch (3rd gen, now with a dying battery) and apps on both. If I could get everything onto Android and find a way to manage music and photos for the Android without iTunes, I'd get rid if it in a heartbeat. Though my problem with iSyncr isn't with it's interaction with iTunes, it's its interaction with my Droid! It's corrupted my media card over a half dozen times. Three times so badly the card was unrecoverable, unformattable, and trying to use it in the phone caused the phone to become unusably slow with the CPU pegging at 100%, draining the battery from full to almost empty within five hours (normally lasts me over 24 hours) with that power draw causing the CPU to get hot enough I was afraid It'd burn out.

 

[B. Diddy]

Ok, thought I'd just mention it. You never know, sometimes people on this forum never bother to try some of the basic Google apps, and therefore aren't aware of what they can do. It's clear that you're looking for a feature-packed app, so I hope you can find one!

I would mention, though, that photos uploaded to Google+ or Picasaweb do in fact reduce greatly in file size. A 3000x4000 pixel photo that is 3.14 MB that I uploaded to Picasaweb got reduced to 1536x2048, with a corresponding reduction in file size to 186 KB.