My Cloud Player is a SoundCloud client with ChromeCast and XBMC support
It seems only a matter of time until a large company buys SoundCloud, a large music community site that brings together music and audio creators with listeners and people working in the music industry.
For end users, it is offering a large repository of free music and audio that it makes available. It is possible to explore trending music or audio, browse by genre, search for specific tracks or follow artists.
SoundCloud has created apps for mobile platforms such as Android, and while it works fine, it lacks certain features such as offline play.
Cloud Player is a SoundCloud client for Google's Android operating system that adds this functionality and a lot more including XBMC and ChromeCast support.
After you have installed the application on your device you can get started right away. While you can associate a SoundCloud account with the app, it is not a requirement. If you just want to browse and listen to music and audio tracks, that is possible without logging in.
The app offers quite a few options to get started. It displays a track right away that you can play, and if you open the settings icon, you can use the search or explore functionality instead.
You can search for tracks, playlists, users or groups , with results being displayed as you type. A tap on a search result displays a selection menu that you can use to play all or only the selected track in the application.
The explore feature on the other hand lists popular stations and genres that you can tune into right away. You can not only explore those two sections but also browse user tracks, likes, sets or groups.
The app allows you to download tracks that have been authorized by their creators. Another interesting feature in regards to playback is that tracks can be cached locally.
To cache a song tap on the three dots in the upper right corner and select the cache option from here. The app will always prefer cached versions regardless of network status. Instead of using the menu at the top it is also possible to long tap on the song that is playing and use the cache option on the page that is opened then.
The player supports the usual set of options including shuffle and repeat but also easy back and forward buttons to jump to the previous or next song in line.
You can move songs around in the playlist or use the playback widget that is provided to control the music even if the application is not running in the foreground.
What else? A lot actually. The app recognizes headphones and calls automatically and will pause and play music based on that.
You can sign in with a SoundCloud account to get access to your account including tracks, likes, groups and more. And if you run XMBC or own a ChromeCast, you can connect the app with those as well.
Verdict
If you use SoundCloud regularly and have used the official app on Android until now, then you may be surprised how much better Cloud Player actually is.
It works really well even if you do not sign in to a SoundCloud account, and features such as caching or downloading of songs make it an attractive choice.
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?