COWON Z2 - The complete Review (from Izzi going) - Page 7

I'm an android noob, how do I install the .apk files I've downloaded?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Izzi going 

Hey,

 

It's quite strange, that you have some tags problems. I loaded the Z2 around 20 Giga. I can try to load more, just to check it out for you. I'll try to do it tomorrow (European time) and I will give you an answer soon about that. I still think that it might be a problem of some differnet versions of players, programms or whatever it is, which can make the Z2 to be 'confused' of it...

 

Good luck

Izzi

Yeah, if this is happening to more than just me, it might be something that can be fixed with a firmware update.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Izzi going 

Hey

 

How did you succeed to download the Apps without an android market?

If you still made it and downloaded your Apps to your computer, then you should just copy them to ONE OF THE FILES IN THE STORAGE and not out of it. I tried it once, just like that, to copy it to the Z2 (with no File name) and it didn't recognise it. Put it, for example in an Apk File and from there you would be notice that you need to install the app, or just click on it to activate it

 

Cheers

Izzi

Thanks, I was able to install them.  I downloaded a few from the pirate bay.

Izzi, can you please confirm with me that the Z2 is gapless natively (i.e. that the standard Cowon player is gapless)? 

Rip a gapless album, where the tracks flow continually into eachother. A good example would be Deadmau5 - 4x4=12. With a gapless player, each track will flow seamlessly into the next - if the player doesn't support gapless playback there will be a small pause between tracks.

No, it isn't gapless. I put the Z2 music player on my D3 and tried it. It's basically the same as the D3 player (which itself is more or less the stock Android audio player with some visual tweaks). It also doesn't have Replaygain support or lets you scrobble tracks to Last.fm. Just install Rockbox. ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by dfkt 

No, it isn't gapless. I put the Z2 music player on my D3 and tried it. It's basically the same as the D3 player (which itself is more or less the stock Android audio player with some visual tweaks). It also doesn't have Replaygain support or lets you scrobble tracks to Last.fm. Just install Rockbox. ;)

Rockbox is great for the Clip+, iPods and other dedicated music players but the Android Rockbox app leaves quite a bit to be desired, to say the least. If you're going to replace the player, use PowerAmp or Neutron.

All a matter of taste, I'd say. Neutron is plain crap sold with ridiculous "audiophile" marketing (worst interface ever, major CPU hog and battery drain, no true gapless), in my opinion, and Poweramp just doesn't have the features or interface I like to use. Besides Rockbox, I really like GoneMAD. Those are the only ones with true gapless I tried so far - the others claiming gapless support all had some clicks or pops between tracks.

Disclaimer: it's been 2 or 3 months since I tried Poweramp, Neutron, and the others - back then none were truly gapless. Maybe this changed in the meantime. I helped the GoneMAD dev myself getting proper gapless to work, based on the Rockbox source code, so I know this one's good for that. ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by dfkt 

No, it isn't gapless. I put the Z2 music player on my D3 and tried it. It's basically the same as the D3 player (which itself is more or less the stock Android audio player with some visual tweaks). It also doesn't have Replaygain support or lets you scrobble tracks to Last.fm. Just install Rockbox. ;)

This is disappointing. I thought that given what they wrote in their specs, that would have been sorted. Although it seems eminently more usable than the D3, there is therefore no point in upgrading...

You mention putting the Z2 player on the D3, how did you do that? I am assuming there is no performance improvement?

I have rockbox on my D3 - thanks to you, your builds and your skin - and it does give me some issues time to time. Agree, it does work though and has way more options than stock player. Might try the other player you mention later on...
 

Yeah, Rockbox for Android is still labeled as unstable/unsupported. There are definitely some quirks and stability issues to resolve, but for me it works pretty well as my main player.

Maybe there's more to gapless than just the audio player app? Maybe it indeed is gapless on the Z2 while it isn't on the D3... I will know when I get my Z2. ;) But considering how limited the player is in features and functionality, I doubt I will ever really use it.

To get the Z2 apps onto the D3 you just extract them from the Z2 firmware update ZIP. They're in /system/app. You need root access and Titanium Backup on the D3 to uninstall the original music player app (make a backup first), then you can install/sideload the Z2 music player (or any other Z2 app) like a normal app.

Wow, no native gapless music? That's disappointing.

I'm still on the fence about getting this and letting go of my beloved S9. Maybe I should think twice then?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghisy 

Wow, no native gapless music? That's disappointing.

 

I'm still on the fence about getting this and letting go of my beloved S9. Maybe I should think twice then?

I don't think this has been answered yet. DFKT has reported that using the Z2 music player app on the D3 won't give you gapless playback, we still haven't heard from Izzi Going if it is supported on the Z2. Using PowerAmp, I get perfectly gapless playback on my Nexus S.