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My Android Experiment

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bwillard5

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 5, 2011
22
0
Before I get started I just want to state if you have read my thread Why I switched from an iPhone 4 to a flip phone? This takes place between the time when I sold my iPhone 4 to Gazelle until I bought an iPod Touch and flip phone.

Anyways for almost a month I left Apple (except for my MacBook Air and iTunes) and switched to Android because I no longer had an iPhone and I wanted to check out the other side. Since I didn't want to spend a fortune to see if I like Android I bought the new ZTE Valet from Tracfone on shopcelldeals eBay store. It cost $90 and ran Android 4.1 so I figured this would be a good place to start with Android. Before the phone came I uploaded my iTunes music to the Google Play Music cloud or whatever it's called so I could stream my music on my new phone.

When the phone came setting it up was really easy and before I knew it I had it setup with Tracfone. The keyboard was awesome with swype and the music streaming was smooth. It had all the apps my iPhone 4 had and worked just as good. I really began to think I could switch to an Android phone.

I also decided I didn't want to run the battery down on my phone by streaming my music all the time so I grabbed a 32GB MicroSD card I had lying around and put it in my phone. I then hooked up my phone to my MacBook and downloaded Android File Transfer so I could put my music on my phone. Most of my music went on no problem at least the stuff I got from LimeWire or bought on iTunes after April 7th, 2009 (the day DRM was removed from iTunes music. So of my over 600 songs only around 400 would move to the Android File Transfer. At the time I didn't know why so I went online and learned DRM protected music from iTunes will only work in iTunes and Apple devices.

This definitely soured me liking Android. I then learned of the Nexus 5 coming this fall and how it will receive updates from Android first and has vanilla android with no bloatware. I really liked the sound of this device but remembered the DRM thing and realized no matter how great it might be if I can't play all my music on it forget it. My music not being compatible led to me returning my phone and going back to the Apple ecosystem.

The only way I would try again is if I could figure out how to remove DRM from my music.
 
Vegastouch

Vegastouch

macrumors 603
Jul 12, 2008
6,185
992
Las Vegas, NV
bwillard5 said:
Before I get started I just want to state if you have read my thread Why I switched from an iPhone 4 to a flip phone? This takes place between the time when I sold my iPhone 4 to Gazelle until I bought an iPod Touch and flip phone.

Anyways for almost a month I left Apple (except for my MacBook Air and iTunes) and switched to Android because I no longer had an iPhone and I wanted to check out the other side. Since I didn't want to spend a fortune to see if I like Android I bought the new ZTE Valet from Tracfone on shopcelldeals eBay store. It cost $90 and ran Android 4.1 so I figured this would be a good place to start with Android. Before the phone came I uploaded my iTunes music to the Google Play Music cloud or whatever it's called so I could stream my music on my new phone.

When the phone came setting it up was really easy and before I knew it I had it setup with Tracfone. The keyboard was awesome with swype and the music streaming was smooth. It had all the apps my iPhone 4 had and worked just as good. I really began to think I could switch to an Android phone.

I also decided I didn't want to run the battery down on my phone by streaming my music all the time so I grabbed a 32GB MicroSD card I had lying around and put it in my phone. I then hooked up my phone to my MacBook and downloaded Android File Transfer so I could put my music on my phone. Most of my music went on no problem at least the stuff I got from LimeWire or bought on iTunes after April 7th, 2009 (the day DRM was removed from iTunes music. So of my over 600 songs only around 400 would move to the Android File Transfer. At the time I didn't know why so I went online and learned DRM protected music from iTunes will only work in iTunes and Apple devices.

This definitely soured me liking Android. I then learned of the Nexus 5 coming this fall and how it will receive updates from Android first and has vanilla android with no bloatware. I really liked the sound of this device but remembered the DRM thing and realized no matter how great it might be if I can't play all my music on it forget it. My music not being compatible led to me returning my phone and going back to the Apple ecosystem.

The only way I would try again is if I could figure out how to remove DRM from my music.
Click to expand...
Thats Apple screwing you, not Android. You should be soured by Apple.
And just so you know....you can go to the library and check out CD's for free to load on your computer and transfer it to your phone. Takes a bit of an effort i know, and nobody likes to do anythung that takes n effort anymore but its free.
 
T5BRICK

T5BRICK

macrumors G3
Aug 3, 2006
8,314
2,391
Oregon
DRM is a horrible thing. It always has been. In this situation, the music being unable to play on the Android phone is 100% Apples fault.

As a consumer, its important to educate yourself about these issues. Until Apple removed the DRM, I refused to buy anything from iTunes; I was still buying CDs and ripping them in 2009. Now I use Google music and have a library of about 12,000 songs that I've purchased over the years, DRM free.
 
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bwillard5

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 5, 2011
22
0
How can I tell if songs have DRM on them because I have switched laptops since I bought those songs and now all my old music has the same added date in iTunes? Does it show it in the songs information?
 
irnchriz

irnchriz

macrumors 65816
May 2, 2005
1,034
2
Scotland
bwillard5 said:
How can I tell if songs have DRM on them because I have switched laptops since I bought those songs and now all my old music has the same added date in iTunes? Does it show it in the songs information?
Click to expand...

Yes, get the file info and it will say something like protected by FairPlay.

As others have said to remove drm burn the songs off as a proper music CD then rip them back as mp3.

Apple stopped putting DRM on music some time ago and if you used iTunes Match you could re-download all of you music at a higher bitrate without DRM.
 
B

bwillard5

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 5, 2011
22
0
Thanks I figured it out. I created a smart playlist and searched Kind Contains Protected. I only had 1 music video that is protected. So I went looking at the user manual for my old phone and it doesn't support AAC files. That was why it didn't work. Maybe that is what you get when you buy a $90 Android phone.
 
T5BRICK

T5BRICK

macrumors G3
Aug 3, 2006
8,314
2,391
Oregon
At one point apple offered to "Upgrade" songs to their DRM free versions for a couple bucks per album, or $0.30 per song. Maybe you have that option as well?

----------
bwillard5 said:
Thanks I figured it out. I created a smart playlist and searched Kind Contains Protected. I only had 1 music video that is protected. So I went looking at the user manual for my old phone and it doesn't support AAC files. That was why it didn't work. Maybe that is what you get when you buy a $90 Android phone.
Click to expand...

Install Google play music, upload your library to Google, stream them to your phone. You also have the option to download them to the phone for offline listening.
 
blackhand1001

blackhand1001

macrumors 68030
Jan 6, 2009
2,600
37
If your gonna try android and simply write it off, atleast buy a nexus or something that costs more than 90 dollars. Even if you have to buy an older model like the galaxy nexus.
 
B

bwillard5

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 5, 2011
22
0
I'm actually looking at the HTC One SV. It supports all my music formats. Can anyone tell me about HTC Sense? I don't mind if it doesn't have vanilla android because I can always download Nova Launcher, Holo Locker and Google Keyboard to make it look like a Nexus.
 
T5BRICK

T5BRICK

macrumors G3
Aug 3, 2006
8,314
2,391
Oregon
bwillard5 said:
I'm actually looking at the HTC One SV. It supports all my music formats. Can anyone tell me about HTC Sense? I don't mind if it doesn't have vanilla android because I can always download Nova Launcher, Holo Locker and Google Keyboard to make it look like a Nexus.
Click to expand...

I have Sense 5 on my HTC One, and it's not bad, but I prefer vanilla Android.
 
Lloydbm41

Lloydbm41

Suspended
Oct 17, 2013
4,019
1,456
Central California
Lloydbm41

Lloydbm41

Suspended
Oct 17, 2013
4,019
1,456
Central California
bwillard5 said:
How is the beats audio sound? How is HTC with the updates?
Click to expand...

No other phone compares in sound to the HTC One. As for updates, the AT&T version is already on the latest version of 4.3. And Sense is a pretty non-intrusive UI, unlike Touchwiz. Sense 5.5 update is supposedly on the way too. HTC is doing a great job updating the One and keeping it fresh.
 
T5BRICK

T5BRICK

macrumors G3
Aug 3, 2006
8,314
2,391
Oregon
bwillard5 said:
How is the beats audio sound? How is HTC with the updates?
Click to expand...

Beats is pretty good. At first, it was a little bass heavy for me, but I got used to it and started using my better headphones and they sound great.

From what I've heard updates are pretty good. I unlocked the phone and installed custom ROMs so I don't get updates OTA.
 
B

bwillard5

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 5, 2011
22
0
Since I already have a phone I really just want a good and affordable android phone to use as an iPod Touch.
 
blackhand1001

blackhand1001

macrumors 68030
Jan 6, 2009
2,600
37
bwillard5 said:
Maybe but since music is very important to me an HTC One SV with Beats Audio for $230 is probably what I will go with.
Click to expand...

They both have the same DAC most likely, both qualcomm chips. I'd strongly recommend the nexus over the htc one sv. If you really want beats audio, there are mods on xda-developers that add it to the nexus. The sound quality of the nexus 4 is quite good, especially headphone output. There are also tons of custom roms and kernels that allow you much greater control over the EQ and sound profile compared to what htc offers.

Nexus 4 sound tests
http://www.gsmarena.com/google_nexus_4-review-860p8.php

One SV sound tests.
http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_one_sv-review-876p5.php#aq
 
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