Update Android MPD client review (fixes #155)
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Stein Magnus Jodal
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@ -82,8 +82,8 @@ It generally works well with Mopidy.
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Android clients
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===============
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We've tested all six MPD clients we could find for Android with Mopidy 0.3 on a
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HTC Hero with Android 2.1, using the following test procedure:
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We've tested all four MPD clients we could find for Android with Mopidy 0.7.3 on
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a Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.1.1, using the following test procedure:
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#. Connect to Mopidy
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#. Search for ``foo``, with search type "any" if it can be selected
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@ -107,133 +107,165 @@ HTC Hero with Android 2.1, using the following test procedure:
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#. Check if the app got support for single mode and consume mode
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#. Kill Mopidy and confirm that the app handles it without crashing
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In summary:
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We found that all four apps crashed on Android 4.1.1.
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- BitMPC lacks finishing touches on its user interface but supports all
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features tested.
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- Droid MPD Client works well, but got a couple of bugs one can live with and
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does not expose stored playlist anywhere.
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- IcyBeats is not usable yet.
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- MPDroid is working well and looking good, but does not have search
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functionality.
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- PMix is just a lesser MPDroid, so use MPDroid instead.
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- ThreeMPD is too buggy to even get connected to Mopidy.
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Combining what we managed to find before the apps crashed with our experience
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from an older version of this review, using Android 2.1, we can say that:
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Our recommendation:
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- PMix can be ignored, because it is unmaintained and its fork MPDroid is
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better on all fronts.
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- If you do not care about looks, use BitMPC.
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- If you do not care about stored playlists, use Droid MPD Client.
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- If you do not care about searching, use MPDroid.
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- Droid MPD Client was to buggy to get an impression from. Unclear if the bugs
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are due to the app or that it hasn't been updated for Android 4.x.
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- BitMPC is in our experience feature complete, but ugly.
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- MPDroid, now that search is in place, is probably feature complete as well,
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and looks nicer than BitMPC.
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In conclusion: MPD clients on Android 4.x is a sad affair. If you want to try
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anyway, try BitMPC and MPDroid.
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BitMPC
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------
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We tested version 1.0.0, which at the time had 1k-5k downloads, <100 ratings,
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3.5 stars.
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Test date:
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2012-09-12
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Tested version:
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1.0.0 (released 2010-04-12)
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Downloads:
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5,000+
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Rating:
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3.7 stars from about 100 ratings
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The user interface lacks some finishing touches. E.g. you can't enter a
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hostname for the server. Only IPv4 addresses are allowed.
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All features exercised in the test procedure works. BitMPC lacks support for
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single mode and consume mode. BitMPC crashes if Mopidy is killed or crash.
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- The user interface lacks some finishing touches. E.g. you can't enter a
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hostname for the server. Only IPv4 addresses are allowed.
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- When we last tested the same version of BitMPC using Android 2.1:
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- All features exercised in the test procedure worked.
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- BitMPC lacked support for single mode and consume mode.
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- BitMPC crashed if Mopidy was killed or crashed.
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- When we tried to test using Android 4.1.1, BitMPC started and connected to
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Mopidy without problems, but the app crashed as soon as fire off our search,
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and continued to crash on startup after that.
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In conclusion, BitMPC is usable if you got an older Android phone and don't
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care about looks. For newer Android versions, BitMPC will probably not work as
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it hasn't been maintained for 2.5 years.
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Droid MPD Client
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----------------
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We tested version 0.4.0, which at the time had 5k-10k downloads, >200 ratings,
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4 stars.
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Test date:
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2012-09-12
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Tested version:
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1.4.0 (released 2011-12-20)
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Downloads:
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10,000+
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Rating:
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4.2 stars from 400+ ratings
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To find the search functionality, you have to select the menu, then "Playlist
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manager", then the search tab. I do not understand why search is hidden inside
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"Playlist manager".
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- No intutive way to ask the app to connect to the server after adding the
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server hostname to the settings.
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The user interface have some French remnants, like "Rechercher" in the search
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field.
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- To find the search functionality, you have to select the menu,
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then "Playlist manager", then the search tab. I do not understand why search
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is hidden inside "Playlist manager".
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When selecting the artist tab, it issues the ``list Artist`` command and
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becomes stuck waiting for the results. Same thing happens for the album tab,
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which issues ``list Album``, and the folder tab, which issues ``lsinfo``.
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Mopidy returned zero hits immediately on all three commands. If Mopidy has
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loaded your stored playlists and returns more than zero hits on these commands,
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they artist and album tabs do not hang. The folder tab still freezes when
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``lsinfo`` returns a list of stored playlists, though zero files. Thus, we've
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discovered a couple of bugs in Droid MPD Client.
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- The tabs "Artists" and "Albums" did not contain anything, and did not cause
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any requests.
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Even though ``lsinfo`` returns the stored playlists for the folder tab, they
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are not displayed anywhere. Thus, we had to select an album in the album tab to
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complete the test procedure.
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- The tab "Folders" showed a spinner and said "Updating data..." but did not
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send any requests.
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At one point, I had problems turning off repeat mode. After I adjusted the
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volume and tried again, it worked.
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- Searching for "foo" did nothing. No request was sent to the server.
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Droid MPD client does not support single mode or consume mode. It does not
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detect that the server is killed/crashed. You'll only notice it by no actions
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having any effect, e.g. you can't turn the volume knob any more.
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- Once, I managed to get a list of stored playlists in the "Search" tab, but I
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never managed to reproduce this. Opening the stored playlists doesn't work,
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because Mopidy haven't implemented ``lsinfo "Playlist name"`` (see
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:issue:`193`).
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In conclusion, some bugs and caveats, but most of the test procedure was
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possible to perform.
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- Droid MPD client does not support single mode or consume mode.
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- Not able to complete the test procedure, due to the above problems.
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IcyBeats
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--------
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We tested version 0.2, which at the time had 50-100 downloads, no ratings.
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The app was still in beta when we tried it.
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IcyBeats successfully connected to Mopidy and I was able to adjust volume. When
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I was searching for some tracks, I could not figure out how to actually start
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the search, as there was no search button and pressing enter in the input field
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just added a new line. I was stuck. In other words, IcyBeats 0.2 is not usable
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with Mopidy.
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IcyBeats does have something going for it: IcyBeats uses IPv6 to connect to
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Mopidy. The future is just around the corner!
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In conclusion, not a client we can recommend.
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MPDroid
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-------
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We tested version 0.6.9, which at the time had 5k-10k downloads, <200 ratings,
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4.5 stars. MPDroid started out as a fork of PMix.
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Test date:
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2012-09-12
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Tested version:
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0.7 (released 2011-06-19)
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Downloads:
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10,000+
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Rating:
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4.5 stars from ~500 ratings
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First of all, MPDroid's user interface looks nice.
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- MPDroid started out as a fork of PMix.
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I couldn't find any search functionality, so I added the initial track using
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another client. Other than the missing search functionality, everything in the
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test procedure worked out flawlessly. Like all other Android clients, MPDroid
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does not support single mode or consume mode. When Mopidy is killed, MPDroid
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handles it gracefully and asks if you want to try to reconnect.
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- First of all, MPDroid's user interface looks nice.
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All in all, MPDroid is a good MPD client without search support.
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- Last time we tested MPDroid (v0.6.9), we couldn't find any search
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functionality. Now we found it, and it worked.
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- Last time we tested MPDroid (v0.6.9) everything in the test procedure worked
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out flawlessly.
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- Like all other Android clients, MPDroid does not support single mode or
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consume mode.
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- When Mopidy is killed, MPDroid handles it gracefully and asks if you want to
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try to reconnect.
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- When using Android 4.1.1, MPDroid crashes here and there, e.g. when having an
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empty current playlist and pressing play.
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Disregarding Adnroid 4.x problems, MPDroid is a good MPD client.
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PMix
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----
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We tested version 0.4.0, which at the time had 10k-50k downloads, >200 ratings,
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4 stars.
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Test date:
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2012-09-12
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Tested version:
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0.4.0 (released 2010-03-06)
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Downloads:
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10,000+
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Rating:
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3.8 stars from >200 ratings
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Add MPDroid is a fork from PMix, it is no surprise that PMix does not support
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search either. In addition, I could not find stored playlists. Other than that,
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I was able to complete the test procedure. PMix crashed once during testing,
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but handled the killing of Mopidy just as nicely as MPDroid. It does not
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support single mode or consume mode.
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- Using Android 4.1.1, PMix, which haven't been updated for 2.5 years, crashes
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as soon as it connects to Mopidy.
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- Last time we tested the same version of PMix using Android 2.1, we found
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that:
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- PMix does not support search.
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- I could not find stored playlists.
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- Other than that, I was able to complete the test procedure.
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- PMix crashed once during testing.
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- PMix handled the killing of Mopidy just as nicely as MPDroid.
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- It does not support single mode or consume mode.
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All in all, PMix works but can do less than MPDroid. Use MPDroid instead.
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ThreeMPD
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--------
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We tested version 0.3.0, which at the time had 1k-5k downloads, <25 ratings,
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2.5 average. The developer request users to use MPDroid instead, due to limited
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time for maintenance. Does not support password authentication.
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ThreeMPD froze during startup, so we were not able to test it.
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.. _ios_mpd_clients:
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iPhone/iPod Touch clients
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