Developers have gotten their hands on an alpha version of what appears to be Android's upcoming media player.
When it comes to media management and playback, Google's (GOOG) Android lags behind Apple's (AAPL) iTunes ecosystem. For those who like to have their music and video managed by an application, Google simply doesn't have a good answer to iTunes.
I currently use DoubleTwist on Android, which is a third party app that allows me to manage my music with iTunes on my computer. It also has a slick interface and allows for over-the-air sync, which should be in both Apple and Google's products.
Back in May at Google I/O, VP Vic Gundotra demoed what appeared to be a pretty impressive cloud-based music system based on some software they bought called Simplify Media. Here's the demo below:
Here we are, seven months later and Google's media software hasn't changed. Certainly nothing like what was demonstrated has even been mentioned since Google I/O.
Yesterday, however, some Android software that looks like the app demonstrated leaked. According to people who've used it, it works well for organizing music but the streaming side doesn't work well at all.
While it isn't too flashy, the newly-discovered logo likely shows what Google will call its music service.
Recently discovered and posted to TechCrunch, a new 'Google Music' logo seems to indicate that Google's entry into digital music sales will have a pretty straight-forward name.
Google demonstrated its over-the-air music service at Google I/O last month by impressively having an engineer purchase a song through an Android Market web page and having it MORE
Seth Weintraub - Jun 4, 2010 10:41 AM ET
In March, SimplifyMedia bowed out of the iPhone App space telling its customers that it was moving in a new direction. That direction was toward Mountain View.
A cryptic blog post in March was the last we saw of SimplifyMedia...until today.
After developing the technology behind Simplify Media for over 4 years, it is time for us to take it in a new direction. In order to focus on this transition, we MORE
Seth Weintraub - May 20, 2010 5:45 PM ET