Hasta La Gadget!

Though the app GoMusic is certainly not the first to bring Google Music‘s cloud of tunes to the iOS platform, we’re certain that it’s currently the best solution on the market. This lovely little app takes what you’ve got on Android as well as the mobile web and slaps it on over to iOS where neither Apple nor Google have dared yet to venture. It’s not that they can’t, it’s just that, well, Google Music is made to be an Android music service – but what do you know? It works here on the iPhone as well!

You’ll find that without one of a very few apps currently on the iTunes Appstore, you’ll be relegated to the mobile web if you want to use the Google Play cloud of tunes. If you purchase a song via Google Play, you can easily play that song in the cloud or download it to your device for offline play if you’re working with Android, right? With GoMusic, that’s just as simple here on iOS.

GoMusic offers a simple user interface as well as a single rather snappy-looking search screen that, even if you’ve only got a couple Google Music songs of your own, looks fabulous with its moving map of album covers from all across the beat spectrum. From that start screen you can also search both tunes on your device and tunes in the cloud at will. Then it comes time to explore your library of music with a collection of entrance points.

You can see your artists, albums, a giant list of all songs, playlists made on-the-fly and by you, Last Added music, Thumbs Up favorites, and all of this able to be seen either in Cloud mode or Device mode. This will come in extremely handy when you’re seeking to reserve the amount of data you use on the fly – this along with the ability to keep all of your music on the device for offline listening.

Always up in the right-hand corner is a Play button that leads you back to what’s currently playing, and the app cleverly utilizes the entirety of your iPhone 5 display (this slightly larger-than-iPhone 4S display, that is) with a re-sizing album cover image. Tap once on the cover and you’ve got a full-size (left to right) album cover, tap again and you’ve got the ability to see which number you’re at in the playlist or album, replay, shuffle, and thumbs up and down buttons.

Have a peek at the app on the iTunes Appstore and let us know what you think – and don’t forget to suggest any other Google Music alternatives for iOS as well!

GoMusic masters Google Music on the iPhone is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

With the introduction of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Android operating system has finally received gapless playback for music files as part of its core operations. Technically speaking, this was true, but the stock Google Music app still did not offer gapless playback support, while other independent audio players only supported gapless when they played .ogg files, with other apps relying on their own software so that gapless playback is achieved. Good thing Google Music has finally been updated so that the gapless playback feature has been thrown into the mix, something that quite a fair number of folks have been waiting for all this while.

The app’s latest changelog pointed out that the newest version of Google Music will come with the aforementioned gapless playback in addition to “Instant Mixes” that are based on favorite songs, offline playback improvements, and new automatic playlists. So far, initial impressions for those testing out the gapless playback capability have been above average, and you can strike off one more annoyance from the list – going to show that Google listens to their users and actually does something about it. Good job, guys!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Play Music turns on the style with lab features, Google Play Music daily streaming limit spoils the party ,

Google was supposed to host a big Android event today, but it was cancelled over the weekend due to incoming Hurricane Sandy. A lot of new devices and features were planned on being announced, but it looks that will take a back seat for now. However, that’s not stopping the rumors from swirling. It’s said that Google Music will get a scan-and-match feature as early as this week.

The scan-and-match feature essentially allows users to upload music all at once, rather than only uploading an individual track at any given time. It’s a feature that saves users from a very time-consuming process. However, the scan-and-match phrase refers the process of uploading music the the cloud, and then playing it back on a music player that’s connected to the music in the cloud.

The feature was said to be in its licensing stages last month, but now Google is expected to launch the scan-and-match feature in Europe first with the US getting the feature sometime afterward. A solid timeline isn’t yet known, but the feature is expected to roll out as early as this week in Europe.

One thing that still remains unknown is if Google will charge for the feature. Both Apple and Amazon charge $25 per year for a similar feature on their respective music services. Google was rumored to be offering the feature for free, but it’s unknown as to whether that will still be the case.

[via CNET]

Google Music to get scan-and-match feature soon is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Ever since introducing the Google Music app in beta last year its developers have been hard at work trimming away the rougher edges and that’s never been more evident than in the new 4.3.606 version now available for download. While Google Play Music’s overall look hasn’t shifted significantly, the changelog and a quick spin using it reveal nearly every screen has had some slight change. As seen above, the recently played screen now features larger album art, while the action bar has been adjusted with different transport controls. In this version, users have the ability to adjust and reorder music in the Now Playing queue, while a refreshed widget shows off album art and allows for thumbs up without opening the app. The settings menu has a direct link to the Nexus Q control app (assuming you can run it, and have one), hit the Play store for the updated version to try it out yourself.

Filed under: Software

Google Play Music app update brings tweaks to Now Playing, Recent, playlists and widget originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 22:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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