[kmbauer]

There were a couple of things that were really bugging me using Google Music in the playbook browser.

1) The screen does not stay on, so you had to run another app to keep playing music while you did anything else.
2) If you were using the playbook and playing music you could not use the browser for anything else or the music would stop playing.

So I wrote an app that addresses both of these things. One it is it's own app so if you run in show case you can browse and the music will not stop and 2 the app keeps the screen lit.

You can grab it from my dropbox if you want to run in dev mode... http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8853997/StayLit.bar

I will submit it to app world, but I am hoping they just fix the issues before it would even get approved.

[yzf.shaun]

No reason why it should be fixed anytime soon. I have been using the silentnoise app which does pretty much the same as yours. Is it possible to make an app that will allow the screen to dim but keep the music playing?

[kmbauer]

No reason why it should be fixed anytime soon.

No reason to expect they will be quick to approve an app

I have been using the silentnoise app which does pretty much the same as yours.

Yup that is what I was doing as well. But things still bugged me, I would forget to switch back over to Silent Noise after checking a song etc and it would time out or it would stop playing if I browsed anything else.

Is it possible to make an app that will allow the screen to dim but keep the music playing?

I would guess so, Ill look into it.

[FF22]

This sounds like a nice background addition to solve the 5 minute timeout problem. I guess it might be time to really investigate xxx.bar installations. Dimming the screen or even turning off the light but keeping it active, if possible, might be a nice upgrade before you even released it!!!!

[eds817]

How do you install it?

[kmbauer]

How do you install it?

The way I know is...

Install the BB AIR SDK from...

BlackBerry - Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR Development Resources

Than put your device in dev mode and use the blackberry-deploy tool in the SDK to deploy the bar file...

How the install Application in the BlackBerry Play... - BlackBerry Support Community Forums

[yzf.shaun]

No reason to expect they will be quick to approve an app



Yup that is what I was doing as well. But things still bugged me, I would forget to switch back over to Silent Noise after checking a song etc and it would time out or it would stop playing if I browsed anything else.



I would guess so, Ill look into it.

Yes it would be great if you could allow the screen to dim whilst listening to music like how the native music player app allows. Just seems a waste to have to keep the screen lit when I may be just listening to streaming radio whilst cooking for example and not actually going near the PB for half hour or more.

I didn't understand you could just leave your app in the background at first. This makes it much more appealing and I will load it on tonight. I hate having to specifically switch silent noise back to the main app. Often find myself streaming music on the netbook and browsing on the pb which is nonsense really.

[trsbbs]

The way I know is...

Install the BB AIR SDK from...

BlackBerry - Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR Development Resources

Than put your device in dev mode and use the blackberry-deploy tool in the SDK to deploy the bar file...

How the install Application in the BlackBerry Play... - BlackBerry Support Community Forums

Way too much of a pain in the a** to do this.

Will wait for an app or for RIM to get on the damn stick and fix it!

Tim

[cferneyh]

This is a great idea! Any chance you could actually have the app display the album art for the song that is playing?

[Mojoski]

Way too much of a pain in the a** to do this.

You can't be serious.. Installing bar files is like a 10 second process once you've done it the first time, and it isn't hard at all. Let me know if you need some help setting up a tool for it. Having this ability opens up all kinds of possibilities for trying out different types of apps before they make it through into AppWorld..

[Mojoski]

I'm away from my home PC at the moment, so I can't install the app to find out myself, so I thought I'd just ask..

Is there anything specific to Google Music with this app, or could you use it to listen to Pandora just as easily? How about Rhapsody?

[HaTaX]

Hold up, the entire SDK is NOT needed to load a bar file.

I've posted a simple 1MB download to do it with a batch file and there's another member that has posted a much more complete application with a GUI to do it as well.

Takes 30 seconds to install a bar with either of these apps, it is NOT difficult.

EDIT:

Here's my method:
http://forums.crackberry.com/f243/si...pworld-615199/

And here is the much nicer looking, but same end result application:
http://forums.crackberry.com/f222/dd...update-623074/

[Mojoski]

So I wrote an app that addresses both of these things. One it is it's own app so if you run in show case you can browse and the music will not stop and 2 the app keeps the screen lit.

Just got home and grabbed your bar file. Awesome Idea! Now if I just had a beta invite for Google Music I'd be in good shape.

Any chance I could talk you into making one of these that loads the following URL for Rhapsody instead?

welcome: rhapsody

Or maybe Pandora? Or even better, maybe something you could put your own URL into on startup?

[kbz1960]

What is RIM's reasoning behind the force screen time out? It can't possible be security, don't be apple and let people choose what they want it to do please.

[Mojoski]

Probably relates to squeezing as much life out of the battery as you can, I'd guess.. I guess they didn't think about streaming media in the browser. Or maybe they did but they figured the stream in the browser should be able to keep the timeout from kicking in? That would be the best options..

[kmbauer]

I was going to look to add a url bar in a pull down menu so you can set it to what ever site you do not want to time out. I was just using Google Music so that is what I had entered.

Just got home and grabbed your bar file. Awesome Idea! Now if I just had a beta invite for Google Music I'd be in good shape.

Any chance I could talk you into making one of these that loads the following URL for Rhapsody instead?

welcome: rhapsody

Or maybe Pandora? Or even better, maybe something you could put your own URL into on startup?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[kmbauer]

Probably not. I have not seen any public api from them yet.

This is a great idea! Any chance you could actually have the app display the album art for the song that is playing?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[mscooley]

This is great! Thanks!!

[Mojoski]

Any ETA, kmbauer, on a version what would let us enter another URL, like Rhapsody or Pandora? Just curious..

Thanks!

[kmbauer]

Did not have anytime tonight. Probably this weekend.

Any ETA, kmbauer, on a version what would let us enter another URL, like Rhapsody or Pandora? Just curious..

Thanks!

[TheScionicMan]

Can't wait to check this out after dinner. I just got my invite for GMusic but it wasn't working on my PB when I tried it the first time.

[Mojoski]

Did not have anytime tonight. Probably this weekend.

You're my hero, dude! Can't wait to try it out!

[MrT1ki]

can somebody explain the silentnoise "trick" with google music?

[FF22]

Run SilentNoise but do NOT play any of the ambient sounds. Run whatever and then bring SilentNoise to the FOREGROUND and leave things along - the background app (streaming) should continue.

[BBOttawa]

Probably a stupid question, but does changing application behaviour to showcase mode fix this, or does the timeout still happen? I have Playbook but haven't run into this issue very often, but haven't bothered to switch to showcase mode to check it out. Thanks!