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msmobiles.com_robot · Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 16777215

Previously we have published audio recording of our chit-chat with Horace Luke from HTC, but this time we present Horace Luke in video - albeit only a short one (10 minutes, rationale: our SDHC memory card was full!...

Read more at http://www.msmobiles.com/news.php/7339.html

Styff · Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 10

Oh man, he looks like he's enjoying what ever it is he's eating... It looks like it was pretty tastey.

I don't really see what mp3 album art has to do with HTC.

You keep telling him that downloading a song online without album art is very important to users, but it has nothing to do with HTC or HTC's device.

The device shows album art if it's there, if you download the song without album art then, obviously, it's not going to be displayed... Because you haven't downloaded it.

As we all know, syncing with WMP or Activsync imports album art if you have it.

Wanting your device to retrieve album art means that you just have a bunch of mislabeled, illegally downloaded MP3s. Because I've never bought an MP3 that didn't come with album art.

EJR · Joined: 18 Mar 2004 Posts: 2629

Styff · Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 10

I'm aware that album art can be integrated into the mp3 file directly, in which case, if you download the mp3, you have the album art to be displayed.

As for connecting your device as an external disk drive then transfering said mp3 will also transfer the album art if it's internalised within the mp3 itself.

The only way that you can download an mp3 without album art is if it's not automatically provided when you initially download the file... Which means that the mp3 has no album art associated with it, i.e. podcast or you've got a bodgey mp3.

I think a more appropriate question would be whether Touchflo3D displays album art from mp3s with album art integrated within it.

adamz · Joined: 28 Oct 2005 Posts: 44

He says that if you have to sit down and look at your device, then the user interface is broken?

Can you feel the buttons on the Touch Diamond with your fingers?? It looks like they're flush with the screen, which means you DO have to stop and look at the device in order to see where the buttons are. That's not very good.

carter · Joined: 07 Mar 2008 Posts: 16

It's clear that the device displays album art when it's available, so that will cater for 99% of users which is great Smile

However, I really could care less about whether or not the software can display artwork that is embedded in a single MP3 file ... If I had to make a list of the Top 50 features I wanted my device and it's associated software to have, that one definitely wouldn't make the cut.

If I had a chance to ask about music player integration there would be a whole bunch of things I would rather know... Does it only appear in the home screen, or is there a more fully featured application as well? Can you view a list of all albums for an artist easily, or do you have to scroll through them one by one? Can it handle hundreds of artists/albums (assuming the 4GB isn't too limiting..)? Can you skip through artists/albums quickly? How easy is it to make a playlist on the device? etc... These are all important to usability, which is what Horace seems to be fairly focused on.

I hope HTC continue to take this software even further in the coming months - IMO this is just the start of the direction that the software needs to go in Smile

indiekiduk · Joined: 03 Dec 2004 Posts: 198 Location: Glasgow, Scotland

I think he raised a valid point here. The iphone is way better than WM because iTunes automatically gets all the album art and embeds it into the files and this is all available to be viewed in cover flow mode on the iPhone after a sync. Windows media player can get album art but it doesn't embed it into the files. So when you copy the files onto the Diamond using disk drive mode like he explained (active sync mode is too slow for media files) you will most likely be copying files without album art embedded, making their fancy cover art interface look pretty stupid.

You should have just asked, does it show album art in the MP3 or an image in the folder of songs, or both? Then he would have said doh, we never thought about that. Then he would have said, in reality my home screen is a bit of a gimmick that everyone is going to turn off anyway.
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carter · Joined: 07 Mar 2008 Posts: 16

That's not entirely correct - if you copy a folder the artwork always goes with it... You don't need to have the artwork embedded in individual MP3 files.