Tubalr Android App 2.0 Beta
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/36835643/Tubalr.apk
- There’s still loads of work to be done but I can’t do it faster than I’m currently doing.
- The purpose of this release is to test the speed and stability of the app on different phones and get feedback on it and the layout of the app.
- The time it took me to process a search averaged about 12 seconds, which is quite a bit faster than the current app. The main problem is the fetching of 40+ JSON files and then processing it on the phone itself. Doing this on a server would reduce this time to about 3 seconds at most, but taking into account that it would cost some serious money to do so, this is where we’re at for the time being.
- I haven’t implemented most of the UI feedback elements like dialogs that indicate the phone is processing a certain request but that’s high on the list for the next release.
- In the current version I implemented some functions like I’d imagine they could be implemented, but I already noticed some are not according to the Android developer guidelines, so that’ll need some rewriting in the future.
- The app only works from Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 and above.
Anyways, enjoy, if you need anything shoot an email to listen.to.tubalr@gmail.com.
Cody
Week in review, new design & new features!
This week has been pretty productive, so here’s the run down!
1. Redesign. Every few months I get an itch to do a redesign, and this week was the week. Earlier this week I pushed out the basic changes, a fixed width clean white layout. I got a good amount of feedback and yesterday pushed out some tweaks, mainly the switch from fixed width to full width.
2. Following the release of the white layout, users suggested adding a “Dim The Lights” feature. So now you can use the dropdown in the top right to toggle the dark version of tubalr.
3. Two new tabs have been added to the home page. Say hello to the “What’s Hot” and “Recommended” tabs.
The “What’s Hot” tab consists of the top 15 artists for the top 13 genres.
The “Recommended” tab is similar; however, it shows the top 10 artists for your favorite genres and is only usable for registered users. Registered users can visit their settings page to set their favorite genres.
Anyways, thats it, enjoy! If you have any suggestions or feedback shoot me an email at listen.to.tubalr@gmail.com!
Tubalr Redsign
I redesign tubalr every few months, and this is what I ended up with this time. If you didn’t catch it when it went out Saturday, please give it a look!
I love hearing from you guys, so please send any feedback to listen.to.tubalr@gmail.com.
Tubalr Now Supports Scrobbling
It’s been a requested feature for a while now, so I’m happy to officially announce that Tubalr supports Last.FM Scrobbling!
To get started:
- You must be a registered user… so if you’re not, go sign up.
- Once singed in, head to your settings page and click the “Grant Last.FM Access” button in the “Last.FM” section(at the bottom).
- That will redirect you to Last.FM, from there click the “Yes, allow access” button.
- After that, you’re done. You’ll be redirected back to tubalr to go about your normal business!
Once connected, any video that you watch in full(start to finish) will show up in your Last.FM history. Your profile will also be updated to show the video you’re currently watching after 10 seconds of watching.
Enjoy! As always feel free to contact me at, listen.to.tubalr@gmail.com, with any problems or whatever else you may need.
Cody
Tubalr is now on Android!
Last night was a pretty big milestone in Tubalr’s history. Going mobile has been by far the biggest request, and nearly 3 years later…. it’s finally a reality. Around 1pm, v1 of the Tubalr app went live in the Google Play store.
Before reading on, go download the app, after all that’s what all this wait was for.
First I’d like to give credit where credit is due! The app was created by Iheanyi Ekechukw, a Notre Dame student who randomly shot me an email one day asking if he could tackle the app for a class project. I said sure, and got to work on a few API end points he would need and we discussed the flow of the app… after that he got to work.
All functionality that you have in the web version is now available through the Android app, minus creating accounts. For those that don’t know, here’s what available:
- Specific artist or band playlists
- Similar artists and bands playlists
- Genre Playlists
- Reddit Playlists
- Ability to build & listen to custom playlists for registered users.
Anyways, it’s done, it’s free, it’s v1… go download it! As always, shoot any feedback to listen.to.tubalr@gmail.com. I’ve always built Tubalr with the feedback from its users and the Android app will continue to be built that way.
- Cody
Open Sourcing the Tubalr iOS App
Around 4 months ago I made a post reaching out to the public for anyone interested in working on the iOS app. I got tons of emails from developers that wanted to take on the challenge and ended up picking a developer & designer duo. The duo got to work the next day, and basically within a month had a working app and a super solid design.
Sometime in the next month the developer had to stop working on the app and left the app in a weird limbo. Weird because it was practically 90%(? random high percentage) finished and I had no clue where to start.
I’ve made a few changes myself and a buddy did a good amount of work on the “Now Playing” feature. But now I’d like to take the app in a new direction by open sourcing the project and inviting anyone who’d like to work on it, to do so.
I’ve already paid for the developer license for when the app is ready to head to the app store. When that actually happens is going to be determined by when the GitHub issues tagged as “do for first release” are complete(knowing that more may be added).
Anyways, if this project interests you please head over to the Tubalr iOS GitHub Repo and jump in!
Full Disclaimer: I’m completely new to iOS development and will do my best to maintain this project as best I can and learn from the community that hopefully builds around it.
The Import YouTube Playlists feature was broken, now its fixed!
This morning, thanks to the below tweet, I realized the Import YouTube Playlist feature was broke! It turns out it was only importing the first 25 videos in any given YouTube playlist. That’s right, if your playlist has 110 videos, it was only attempting to import the first 25 videos and disregarding the other 85.
@tubalr When I import my music playlist from Youtube it only adds 12/110 songs, and some of them are incorrect.
— David (@VoxelDavid)May 14, 2013
That’s now a thing of the past and playlist videos are now paged through correctly, so every video in every playlist is imported. Well, almost every video, there are still videos that might not make the cut. Some videos will still not import due to being blocked by the owner of the video. This is something that’s unavoidable.
Anyways, if you have large playlists that you “imported” previously, you might want to try and import them again!
- Cody
New Feature: Always play videos in highest possible quality!
This morning I’m rolling out a simple feature that allows registered users to set if they want videos to always play in the highest possible quality available.
If this interest you, login to your account and head to your settings page to opt in.
Sorry it took so long to roll this feature out!
- Cody
Tubalr Android Beta Update!
We have a new way for testing the Android app and would love to have anyone who’s interested give it a shot!
Some new and exciting features for this release are the ability to login, add videos to your custom playlists, and listen to your custom playlists.
Head here to get started: http://tflig.ht/13YqEtW
Enjoy, and as always shoot any feedback to listen.to.tubalr@gmail.com
Functionality of Android app complete, bug fixing time!
All release functionality for the Android app is complete, now it’s time for some testing before we send it out into the wild.
If you are interested in beta testing and helping us out, please download the app here: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?xtz6gwd1jd61dze
Any feedback, bugs, or w/e can be sent to listen.to.tubalr@gmail.com, we greatly appreciate it!