SimplifyMedia
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Simplify Media, a Mac favorite, bought by Google
We were wondering what happened to Simplify Media, the well-regarded software that offers your Mac ubiquitous access to your DRM-free music and photos via iTunes, an iPhone or iPod touch. In March, we reported that the company was "heading in a different direction," which turned out to be a sale to Google. The Simplify Media app was removed from the app store, and the ability to share your iTunes library with others was removed. The sale was just announced this morning at the Google I/O conference. Google intends to use the product on Android Phones, and it will be a component part of an iTunes-type of service that's in development. If anyone had any doubts about Google offering competition for Apple, this should remove it. Competition is good, and this will be most interesting to watch. The nasty part is that Simplify Media for the Mac ecosystem is likely gone for good.
Google adding over-the-air app installation and iTunes streaming to Android
Sure sure, Froyo is great and all, but Google just blew our minds with two previews of upcoming Android features at I/O: OTA application installation and remote music streaming. OTA installation is just as simple as you'd expect -- after browsing to an app on your desktop, you can push it to your phone and install it with just a single click, all done over the air. Interestingly, Google also showed music being purchased and transferred from Android Marketplace in the same way, which could indicate a deeper push towards music integration, or just be a nice demo. Either way, it's pretty slick stuff -- the fewer wires we have to carry, the better. The remote music streaming is a little crazier: Google bought a company called Simplify Media, which makes a bit of desktop software that can stream all your music directly from iTunes to your phone. The demo was quite slick -- you just open the app and push "all," and all your music is instantly available. Whether or not this'll work over 3G or be limited to the local network is still up in the air, but we're dying to try it out.
Boo Hoo! SimplifyMedia dropping products and changing direction
The problem is, we just don't know where they're going. In a Saturday blog post, the company announced it is "...taking a new direction" and won't be offering their current apps to new users. SimplifyMedia has been offering free software for computer-to-computer and iPhone-to-computer music sharing over the internet. Using the iPhone app, you could connect to your computer at home and stream albums, playlists or songs without any complicated firewall setups. A newer version of the software also allowed remote access to your iPhoto library. It also looks like the company is going to slowly sunset current customer accounts but will continue to keep them functioning for at least another 3 months. The Simplify iPhone app has been removed from the App Store, and the company says new account creation will be disabled soon. I don't have any idea where the company is headed, but the current product will be missed. SimplifyMedia was offered for Mac, PC and Ubuntu. [Thanks to Robert for the tip]
Your iPhone and iPhoto library are in sync with Simplify Photo
Like its music app on the iPhone, which allows you to use your iPhone to tap into your desktop's music collection, Simplify Media provides similar functionality with photos through its Simplify Photo [iTunes link] iPhone app. Many of us are forgetful in some form, and this trait is especially magnified when one proceeds to show others an "awesome photo" on your iPhone that, sadly, didn't get synced. Instead of telling your friends that you'll show or email them the photo later -- assuming you even remember to -- you can use Simplify Photo to view your entire iPhoto collection. While increased megapixels in digital photography brings with it the promise of better picture quality, in most cases it comes at a file size premium. And because storage space on your iPhone is a finite resource, you can choose to set aside dedicated space for those really important photos and use Simplify Photo for those that are not as important but would nonetheless like to have access to just in case. Simplify Photo is available for 99 cents on the iTunes App Store, while the required desktop client (available for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux) is available as a free download at the Simplify Media site. The desktop app allows you to not only specify which iPhoto albums and events to sync, but the people as well -- via integration with the app's "Faces" facial detection feature. And if you're not exactly sure which album or event a photo is stored, you can use the app's search feature, which searches your photos' tags, titles and comments. But the standout feature of Simplify Photo is its geolocation support. Like iPhoto '09's places feature, Simplify Photo displays a map with various dropped pins; and tapping on the pins will display the photos taken in the vicinity. If a picture can say a thousand words, then Simplify Photo's desktop syncing capabilities have the potential to make your iPhone speechlessly filled with photos.
Remote media sharing tool Simplify Media updated
The Simplify Media app for sharing your music libraries across the net or to your iPhone has been updated to version 2.0 (previous coverage here). If you have the app installed on your Mac, PC or Linux computer, you'll see an update notice real soon now. The update includes stability improvements, the ability to share only selected playlists, and a much-desired feature that lets you send your shares to Sonos, Roku or XBox 360 devices. The app now supports FLAC, in addition to the usual MP3, AAC, WMA and Apple Lossless codecs.Simplify has also added a version 2.0 for the iPhone. The original app will continue to work fine, and it's free. The new version, Simplify Music 2.0 [App Store link], is $2.99US and adds the ability to search your music library from afar, tag tracks as favorites, create on-the-fly playlists and a 'scrub bar' so you have more playback control in podcasts and audio books. I had no issues with the install on my desktop Mac, but the software irritatingly and without warning put a new share in iTunes called 'Simplify Demo' with an album by Brad Turcotte. I could have lived without it, and can't figure out how to send it back to the netherworld from which it came.Update: I wasn't the only person ticked off about the demo share the software installed. Check the comments at the bottom of this page on the Simplify Media site. What were these guys thinking? What a creative way to ruin a good reputation. Also, a couple of our readers correctly point out that version one of the iPhone app was free, but is now $3.99.A further update: Paul Joyce of Simplify Media tells me they will release a new build with an 'off' switch to get rid of the demo share. Good move. It's nice to see a company acknowledge a mistake and move quickly to fix it.
Simplify Media for iPhone
The Simplify Media iPhone application (iTunes link) v1.1 has hit the App Store. As you can see from the video above, with Simplify Media installed on your Mac and on your iPhone or iPod touch, you can stream your home iTunes library to your mobile device wherever you may be. It will supposedly work over EDGE, 3G, or WiFi and promises what might be the holy grail for mobile audio devices -- practically unlimited storage.To get started you'll need to download the Simplify Media Mac client as well as register for a free account. Then install the iPhone client on your mobile device and your home Mac should show up as a streaming source. In addition to your home machine, you can connect to up to 30 friends also running the cross-platform software.Simplify Media for Mac is a free download. Only the first 100,000 copies of the iPhone version are free to download, after that it will be $3.99.[via Gizmodo]
Found Footage: Stream music from your computer to your iPhone
Simplify Media allows you to stream music from your home computer (or from the iTunes libraries of 30 of your close personal friends) to your iPhone or iPod touch via WiFi. Admittedly this video is pure marketing, but the concept is cool. I installed a copy of the 1.0 alpha build from Installer.app, and gave it a spin--or at least I tried. The program requires that you have a Simplify Media account so I had to step back and grab a desktop client first. Then after painfully installing the software, signing agreements and clicking "I don't have an account yet", I finally got signed up and added my music folders. The whole process took about 20 frustrating minutes but persistence paid off. I then returned to my iPhone, signed in with my new account, and although I was able to get correct listings of my music library, none of the songs actually played back--causing "Server is not responding" errors instead. This is one of the caveat lector instances: Boy, does this tool sound like it's going to be great but at the same time it doesn't really work as well as you might hope, at least it doesn't for me right now (some commenters have had better luck, see below). Simplify Media for iPhone is an alpha release and presumably will be finalized sometime after the official iPhone SDK ships.
