[Bumble2000]

You're thinking too much, which this app can help you with Kudos to the developer for making an app and having way more talent than I can ever hope for, but bring this feature to it's obvious conclusion - that eventually your whole music collection will sound the same. We see this more and more with Amazon suggestions, blog suggestions, advertising in general. Pretty soon everything will be grey and we'll all agree it's great.

@Beakman, Thanks for the kudos. We agree if you choose to take Amazon, Youtube or website suggestions, you will likely converge to sameness :-)

The Think mode of this player doesn't inevitably converge to sameness though. It converges to your preferences. Your preference could converge to sameness if you choose one Christmas carol after another. However, you could choose Christmas carol after Jay Z after Mozart after Thomas the train for diversity. If so, we guarantee that you won't hear Jingle Bells after Silent Night.

[Bumble2000]

@Herve5. Many thanks for your feedback. It is greatly appreciated!
@416to604. re: "the play/pause button on the playbook doesn't seem to work with this app. as well as the auto-pausing of audio when headphones are removed from the 3.5mm jack. please fix these as they are vital to the usability of the app". We totally agree and have completed these work items. Instead of waiting to complete additional feature before uploading, we're going to upload a new update with these two work items now as I do think you are right that it adds to the usability of the app. We'll let you know as soon as the update is approved.

@416to604: The update with the auto-pausing when headphones remove and enablement of the physical play/pause is now available.

[sushistew]

got the update on my app world, thanks

[Bumble2000]

I've emailed you.

They are in fact audio lectures (mp3s) in a series rather than an audio book. I assume the autoresume should work the same.

Thanks for looking into it.

Hi Mike,

Many thanks for all your help in providing the sample. We have identified the issue and have a fix ready that will be uploaded today after we have finished testing. Essentially, it was an initialization bug that we didn't catch in our testing because we always had a music clip populated in the database.

In the meantime, there is a work-around that will fix the problem
1. Load any song into the player.
2. Play that song for about 1 minute (any song). That will populate the player with one clip.

This fixes the issue permanently.

Some tips on using Think-4-U for audio books:
- Pause/play by tapping anywhere on screen
- Navigate from one lecture/audio book to the next and back with swipe gestures. The auto-bookmarking will remember exactly where you left off and will resume back to the same place. So for example, if you are listening to the first lecture and want to fast-forward ahead for a peek at what's coming in the next, swipe for the next. When you swipe back to lecture one, it will be at exactly the point you were listening to
- When downloading new lecture/audio book, if you create them in a sub-folder from the music folder, you can load each as a playlist (via the custom playlist menu) or you can quickly create a dynamic playlist by going to search box and typing the name of the series or the author. As you type, you'll get all the ones matching sorted. In the case of a series of lectures, the auto-sorting will get the right order to play sequentially.

Hope that helps.

We will let you know as soon as the update is approved.

Sincerely,
BumbleBee Computing

[mikeywilliams]

Thank you for sorting it out so quickly.

Sent from my BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps using Tapatalk 2

[dangerousfen]

I really love the look and feel of this player but have one complaint. (unless I'm missing something). I like to play my loacally stored music randomly but when the PB goes automatically into standby, the player stops at the end of the last song that was playing. This doea not happen with the stock player.

Any fixes for this issue? It would also be good if the "random play" selector could remain in the same state after restarting the app.

[Bumble2000]

Thank you for sorting it out so quickly.

Sent from my BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps using Tapatalk 2

@mikeywilliams: Just wanted to let you know that an update is now available with the fix for the issue you reported. Thank you again for your assistance in helping us diagnose the problem. We greatly appreciate it!

[Bumble2000]

I really love the look and feel of this player but have one complaint. (unless I'm missing something). I like to play my loacally stored music randomly but when the PB goes automatically into standby, the player stops at the end of the last song that was playing. This doea not happen with the stock player.

Any fixes for this issue? It would also be good if the "random play" selector could remain in the same state after restarting the app.

@dangerousfen. We are very glad to hear that you like the app! And thanks for taking the time to report the issue that you are seeing.

We haven't seen an issue with the app stopping when the PB goes into standby, so it may be a symptom of a different cause. Our current theory is that the file being played may be reporting a different duration in the metadata than the actual run time (so for example, in the metadata it might be reporting 3:40, but in fact only runs for 3:39) and so the playback stops before triggering the advance next at the duration end.

Could you help us test this theory by noting the file that it stops playback on and then just trying to do a continuous play from that file? If that is the problem, we have a fix ready.

As for your suggestion of the play mode remaining in the same state after app restart, that's an excellent idea! We look into add that in an upcoming update.

[dangerousfen]

@dangerousfen. We are very glad to hear that you like the app! And thanks for taking the time to report the issue that you are seeing.

We haven't seen an issue with the app stopping when the PB goes into standby, so it may be a symptom of a different cause. Our current theory is that the file being played may be reporting a different duration in the metadata than the actual run time (so for example, in the metadata it might be reporting 3:40, but in fact only runs for 3:39) and so the playback stops before triggering the advance next at the duration end.

Could you help us test this theory by noting the file that it stops playback on and then just trying to do a continuous play from that file? If that is the problem, we have a fix ready.

As for your suggestion of the play mode remaining in the same state after app restart, that's an excellent idea! We look into add that in an upcoming update.

Thanks for your response Bumble. I will check that out tonight. Having said that, I received an update last night re the audio books and since that update I haven't experienced the problem with playback stopping.

Very strange.

If you could modify the play selector mode, that would be perfect for me.

Thanks again.

Alan.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[dangerousfen]

Hi Bumble, as I said in my last post, I thought your last update had fixed the issue but sadly not.

I have run some tests tonight and you are absolutely correct in your theory. When the song stops in standby mode the metadata shows 3.31 and the song has stopped at 3.30. I can reproduce this every time I play that particular song. I start the song and then put the Playbook into standby and it stops at the same place (as above) every time.

I do hope you can fix this because its a great music player.

Regards, Alan.

[Bumble2000]

Hi Bumble, as I said in my last post, I thought your last update had fixed the issue but sadly not.

I have run some tests tonight and you are absolutely correct in your theory. When the song stops in standby mode the metadata shows 3.31 and the song has stopped at 3.30. I can reproduce this every time I play that particular song. I start the song and then put the Playbook into standby and it stops at the same place (as above) every time.

I do hope you can fix this because its a great music player.

Regards, Alan.

Hi Alan,

Thanks very much for all your help in isolating the problem. We have a fix that we are testing now. If all goes well, we'll upload for RIM approval in the next couple of days. Also, we have implemented the restore state of the play mode, you'll get that in the next update.

We'll give an update when we have a release that we can upload to RIM.

Thanks again!

[dangerousfen]

Thanks for your fast response Bumble.

Regards,

Alan,

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[Beakman]

@Beakman, Thanks for the kudos. We agree if you choose to take Amazon, Youtube or website suggestions, you will likely converge to sameness :-)

The Think mode of this player doesn't inevitably converge to sameness though. It converges to your preferences. Your preference could converge to sameness if you choose one Christmas carol after another. However, you could choose Christmas carol after Jay Z after Mozart after Thomas the train for diversity. If so, we guarantee that you won't hear Jingle Bells after Silent Night.

Ok, you've convinced me to give it a try. Sounds interesting.

[Bumble2000]

Thanks for your fast response Bumble.

Regards,

Alan,

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

Hi Alan,

We've just uploaded an update to RIM (or should I say BlackBerry :-) for approval. This update contains
- The fix for the issue you reported with the bad duration metadata
- Restores play mode state
- Will now recognize the folders.jpg file for album art in folders that have it

And we've also added a Sleep timer that allows you to auto turn-off the player at intervals of your choosing. Perfect for falling asleep to your favorite music :-)

[FlagshipFighter]

Hi Bumble2000,

This music player sounds great, I'm glad someone stepped up to make this, it is just what I want and I'm sure many other music lovers do too (I will be reccomending it to other playbook users I know) definitely going to purchase when I get home today.

Before I purchased my Playbook Feb last year, I use to use my PSP as a bedside music player which had a great amount of music playing functionality (SONY sure knew how to build a great media player!) and there was a program called SensMe that was fan-freaking-tastic! It use to analyse your tracks and categorise them based on mood (energetic, mellow, upbeat, relax, etc) and also categories based on time of day (songs for the morning=energetic and positive and midnight calm and relax etc).

After getting my playbook it made the PSP and all its silly dock etc a hassle so I use my tablet for everything and stored my PSP away since... but I always remembered and missed SensMe (I even wrote an essay for it at Uni about interface etc)

It seems I will somewhat have that level of playback again, if anything more unique and special. You can really take advantage of this (feature-wise) as the stock player, while good, keeps things at its core.

I'm really pleased to see the changes made so far, I was just about to report the need for having a player which has proper playlists and sleep timer functionality. I'm really excited to try this, the player looks great from the screenshots so far, though I think you can really take advantage from incorporating more aesthetics, perhaps something like having a picture of a place behind the album art (e.g. sunny morning field if you are using the player around morning or stars in the sky if you are using it at night) it will give a real sense of live-ness.

I'll write a review and suggestions for improvements at some point during the week, would really like to help Think-4-U become something great! :-D

[Bumble2000]

Hi Bumble2000,

This music player sounds great, I'm glad someone stepped up to make this, it is just what I want and I'm sure many other music lovers do too (I will be reccomending it to other playbook users I know) definitely going to purchase when I get home today.

Before I purchased my Playbook Feb last year, I use to use my PSP as a bedside music player which had a great amount of music playing functionality (SONY sure knew how to build a great media player!) and there was a program called SensMe that was fan-freaking-tastic! It use to analyse your tracks and categorise them based on mood (energetic, mellow, upbeat, relax, etc) and also categories based on time of day (songs for the morning=energetic and positive and midnight calm and relax etc).

After getting my playbook it made the PSP and all its silly dock etc a hassle so I use my tablet for everything and stored my PSP away since... but I always remembered and missed SensMe (I even wrote an essay for it at Uni about interface etc)

It seems I will somewhat have that level of playback again, if anything more unique and special. You can really take advantage of this (feature-wise) as the stock player, while good, keeps things at its core.

I'm really pleased to see the changes made so far, I was just about to report the need for having a player which has proper playlists and sleep timer functionality. I'm really excited to try this, the player looks great from the screenshots so far, though I think you can really take advantage from incorporating more aesthetics, perhaps something like having a picture of a place behind the album art (e.g. sunny morning field if you are using the player around morning or stars in the sky if you are using it at night) it will give a real sense of live-ness.

I'll write a review and suggestions for improvements at some point during the week, would really like to help Think-4-U become something great! :-D

Many thanks! We really appreciate your comments and support. Your suggestion especially on the adaptive background picture based on the time of day is really cool.

We'll post an note as soon as the update with the sleep timer feature is approved by BlackBerry.

[Bumble2000]

Many thanks! We really appreciate your comments and support. Your suggestion especially on the adaptive background picture based on the time of day is really cool.

We'll post an note as soon as the update with the sleep timer feature is approved by BlackBerry.

@FlagshipFighter: We've been thinking about the idea of adaptive background pictures and the notion of live-ness. We're thinking that one way to approach this could be to tap into the "most interesting" picture feed from the photo sharing site Flickr. That way new, interesting images could be pulled daily and used as background image (in addition to album art). We think this could enhance the visual appeal to the player and may also give users a sense of freshness of looking a new and interesting images pulled every day.

We've attached screenshots of mock-up designs. "A" is what's available now. Design B is the current view with larger album art. Design C is album art and a pull from Flickr the most interesting image of the day and design D is another layout of the Flickr background image.

We'd love to get your feedback on whether this is something that resonates or if we're just down a wrong path :-)

We welcome any feedback the PlayBook community would have on this idea!

Thanks in advance.

[sushistew]

you should make it option add a button to turn on and off?

[Bumble2000]

you should make it option add a button to turn on and off?

@sushistew: Thanks for the suggestion! We'd definitely thinking it would be option controlled with a button or maybe a gesture.

[FlagshipFighter]

@Bumble2000

Hey apologies for the delay, it's been pretty busy since I last posted.

Thanks for the reply, the mock ups look fan-freaking-tastic! Please incorporate this, I like C & D (could you have an option for the button screen to decide whether you want a smaller/bigger album art cover?) if not I'll go with C because the album art is a great size already, and adding the flicker image will only make it better, love the idea btw as that will make things really fresh. Please implement it! :-)

I've been using the program btw and its fantastic! Really lives up to how you described it. I have yet to use the light bulb feature as I would like to give it more time before I do so.
I really like the gestures, its so practical and functional, it makes the stock player seem all wrong once you go back. I feel as though using the program does more justice to it than the screenshots, because you can feel the polish of it when using it, and stuff like how the gestures appear on the screen (white gradient) are great too. The minimal UI is great, and I've only encountered a few problems overtime when you use the program for too long, nothing that a restart won't fix!

This may sound a little nit-picky, but could you perhaps change the back icon (arrow?) to something like 3 rows/columns of rectangular block (looking like a list?)
Also, how about a 'mode' which removes the UI entirely, leaving you with album art, flicker and perhaps some of the controls (volume or list) upon touch?

Thanks again for your reply, this was well worth it (**** I'm surprised it did't cost more!) please keep us up to date :-)

[Bumble2000]

@Bumble2000

Hey apologies for the delay, it's been pretty busy since I last posted.

Thanks for the reply, the mock ups look fan-freaking-tastic! Please incorporate this, I like C & D (could you have an option for the button screen to decide whether you want a smaller/bigger album art cover?) if not I'll go with C because the album art is a great size already, and adding the flicker image will only make it better, love the idea btw as that will make things really fresh. Please implement it! :-)

I've been using the program btw and its fantastic! Really lives up to how you described it. I have yet to use the light bulb feature as I would like to give it more time before I do so.
I really like the gestures, its so practical and functional, it makes the stock player seem all wrong once you go back. I feel as though using the program does more justice to it than the screenshots, because you can feel the polish of it when using it, and stuff like how the gestures appear on the screen (white gradient) are great too. The minimal UI is great, and I've only encountered a few problems overtime when you use the program for too long, nothing that a restart won't fix!

This may sound a little nit-picky, but could you perhaps change the back icon (arrow?) to something like 3 rows/columns of rectangular block (looking like a list?)
Also, how about a 'mode' which removes the UI entirely, leaving you with album art, flicker and perhaps some of the controls (volume or list) upon touch?

Thanks again for your reply, this was well worth it (**** I'm surprised it did't cost more!) please keep us up to date :-)

@FlagshipFighter: Thanks for your feedback! We're working on implementing it now :-)

[Bumble2000]

Hi Alan,

We've just uploaded an update to RIM (or should I say BlackBerry :-) for approval. This update contains
- The fix for the issue you reported with the bad duration metadata
- Restores play mode state
- Will now recognize the folders.jpg file for album art in folders that have it

And we've also added a Sleep timer that allows you to auto turn-off the player at intervals of your choosing. Perfect for falling asleep to your favorite music :-)

Hi Alan,

While we were waiting to get the update approved, we decided to upload a refresh that contains one more feature: support for music videos. Once BlackBerry approves this update, you'll have the ability to play music videos in all the formats native to the PlayBook : mp4, mov, wmv, m4v, etc..). And you'll be able to combine the playing of pure audio music and music videos.

We've attached a screenshot :-)

[FlagshipFighter]

Amazing idea! Will this work in such a way where it can read a specific folder to separate it from other videos i assume?

Keep up the great work! and ideas! :-D

[Bumble2000]

Amazing idea! Will this work in such a way where it can read a specific folder to separate it from other videos i assume?

Keep up the great work! and ideas! :-D

@FlagshipFighter: Thanks! Yes, we will only pick-up videos within the 'music' folder.

[Bumble2000]

@FlagshipFighter: Thanks! Yes, we will only pick-up videos within the 'music' folder.

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update. We're experiencing an unusually long delay for RIM to release the update (possibly due to the backlog of BB10 apps they are working through). We are hopeful this update will get approved soon as we're quite eager to release the new features :-)