Update On My Android Bluetooth Issues
So in my previous post I detailed some issues I was having with my Nexus One (running Froyo, Android 2.2) and bluetooth. I tried the Nexus One on several different bluetooth audio devices and got the same crappy results. I also tried a Motorola Droid running Android 2.1 on those same devices and got the same results. Both phones work great via bluetooth with their respective desktop and car-mounted docks. But other bluetooth audio devices end up with stuttering sound until I turn bluetooth off and on several times… and in a couple of cases, had to reboot the phone and *then* toggle bluetooth off and on. Very disappointing.
I tried my iPhone 3GS running iOS 4 on all of those same bluetooth audio devices and they all worked without a hitch except once there was a tiny amount of stuttering on the Motorola EQ7 that quickly cleared up on its own.
And in this previous article I talked about using Google Listen for podcast listening. But the bluetooth problems were a problem because I do a lot of my listening in the car and I was using that Mot EQ7 in the car because my 2003 Honda Pilot has no method of hooking audio into the built-in sound system except the tape deck or using an FM transmitter. The FM band is too crowded around here to make that work and my tape deck no longer works. I think I wore it out over the last seven years… listening to podcasts. Heh.
So what did I do? Well, the EQ7 wasn’t able to get loud enough while driving without distorting and buzzing, anyway. So I found the Logitech S125i portable speakers. They fit nicely in this spot in the center console and are loud enough with no buzzing. I’m using an inverter to power them via the vehicle. And they’re not bluetooth so I’m using a wire for audio.
I’ve also switched back to the iPhone for podcast listening. I’m so fickle. I found an app that download the podcasts directly from the ‘net over WiFi or 3G. No Mac or PC needed. However, it crashes a lot when downloading and has several other bugs. It doesn’t seem to lose data, though… but it does sometimes reset playing a given podcast from the beginning under certain conditions. But the iPhone has more storage for these downloads than the Nexus One so its what I’m using. Neither of them are perfect. Neither of them sync track positions via the cloud.
I’m working on doing something about that.
The Android With The (Not So) Bluetooth
In switching from using the iPhone to using the Nexus One running Android for podcast listening, I started trying to use bluetooth extensively with it for the first time. The Nexus One sends audio to its car and desktop docks via bluetooth instead of using a hardware connection like the iPhone’s 30-pin dock connector and that has worked fine. But I began trying to use it with a Motorola EQ7 portable speaker and another little bluetooth receiver that will plug into any 3.5 mm audio jack.
The results were terrible. Constant stuttering made listening impossible. Sometimes turning bluetooth on the Nexus One off and back on *several times* would clear up the problem, but not always. And that’s a pain to go through every time if you’re in the car, for example.
I don’t know if this problem is a Nexus One problem or an overall Android problem. I do have an original Droid that I’ll test out and update this post with the results.
For now, I’m sticking with using the car and desktop docks and wired audio for everything else with the Nexus One.
Android, Podcasts and Cloud Syncing
For development purposes, I have both an iPhone and a Google Nexus One running Android. For development purposes… or that’s what I tell myself. The iPhone 3GS is what I use as my everyday device for email, surfing, phone calls, podcasts & music, time tracking and to-do lists, etc. I got the Nexus One purely so I’d have an actual piece of hardware running Android for testing software that I develop on it.
But I recently got tired and fed up of having to tether my iPhone to my Mac just to get the latest podcasts downloaded to it. I thought I’d give Google Listen on the N1 a try. Google Listen maintains your subscribed podcast feed lists in the cloud. If you use Google Reader (and you should) you’ll see them in a folder called “Listen Subscriptions”. You can subscribe or unsubscribe to new podcasts there. You can also use Reader’s import feature to import an OPML file listing all your podcast feeds, which you can export from iTunes.
Android’s Google Listen app accesses that list and automatically downloads new podcast episodes periodically… over WiFi or both WiFi and 3G, depending upon how you configure it.
Now I’ve heard the rumors that Apple is working on wireless syncing for iTunes. Maybe it’ll even be announced at this fall’s usual “new iPods” event. And that’ll be great… as long as it’s got wireless syncing to the cloud and not just wireless syncing to your Mac. I want to be able to download new podcasts when I’m 50 miles away from my sleeping or completely unpowered Mac.
Google Listen does this. It’s not perfect, though. It doesn’t store track locations in the cloud. So I can’t listen to half of an MDN Show podcast on a Nexus One and then go get in the car and fire up an EVO and pick up listening right where I left off. The fact that I don’t have an EVO notwithstanding, why can’t I do this? I can do this with ebooks using the Kindle software running on all the computers and devices I have. iBooks does it on the iPhone and iPad. Google Listen is still in Google’s “Labs” section, so its even more “beta” than their normal offerings, so I hope that’s a feature that will get added as time goes on. It would also be nice if they would create apps for the iPhone, iPod and iPad and the Mac and Windows. Or… maybe a web app is necessary in case Apple rejects a Google Listen app for the iDevices.
Also, I like to listen to podcasts at night as I go to sleep. But if I do, the thing will stay on all night and burn through 6 or 7 hours worth of podcasts while I sleep and I’ll have to go through and find them all the next day and mark them as un-listened again so I can hear them. It’d be nice if there was a sleep option that would turn Listen off after an hour or some other configurable time period. Or an option to play the ‘casts in the queue but not mark them as “listened”. But maybe that’s just me. Your mileage may vary.
The best place to listen to podcasts is, of course, the car. I have one car that has a USB connection that looks for all locally stored audio files and lets you navigate them with the dashboard controls. It also has an auxiliary input jack. But I don’t use either of those. I don’t yet know whether the USB connection will work with Listen. I don’t know if the Listen app stores the downloaded audio as individual audio files or in a database file. If it’s a database then it won’t work with the USB connection. My other car has no audio input method at all except a cassette deck that no longer works. I wore it out using it with iPods and iPhones via a cassette adapter.
My solution for listening in the car with the Nexus One? I’ve been using the Nexus One Car Dock. It has its own built-in speaker which is good enough for podcasts but I wouldn’t want to use it for music. Its good enough, that is, except in noisy conditions. Last night it was raining very hard and the Dock speaker couldn’t compete with the sound of the rain on the car roof. But 90% of the time its fine. It’s also useful in using the Nexus One as a GPS since it attaches to the windshield with a suction cup.
But note that neither Google Listen nor the iPhone’s iPod app have good user interfaces for the car. They should have a “car mode” with big buttons spaced far apart and a “night” mode with black backgrounds and dark green text and buttons to not kill your night vision. Its best to just start it up and let Listen’s queue or an iPod app’s playlist play and not mess with them.
Unfortunately, Google has recently ended sale of the Nexus One, which I think is a great device. But everything I wrote here applies to any Android device except for the car dock. Each device would have to have its own car (and desktop) docking solution. But the docks I’ve seen for several of the different types of Android phones have all seemed to be of high quality… except for the Nexus One Desktop Dock. While the Nexus One car dock is great, the desktop dock is lousy. It’s hard to get the N1 seated in the dock so that it makes contact with the connectors and there’s nothing holding the phone it place. I have literally seen my N1 just fall right off of the desktop dock.
So… to sum up… Google Listen is great if your prime desire is for wireless syncing of podcast subscriptions from the cloud. The iPod app on the iPhone or iPod Touch still has more features and, of course, a much nicer user interface. For music, I’m still using the iPhone. But unless and until Apple rolls out wireless downloading of podcasts from the cloud (not wireless syncing to my Mac) I’ll be listening to podcasts on my Nexus One. But if Apple does roll that out? *sigh* I’d switch back. *hangs head*
