vB Easy Archive - Phones that are OSX friendly and don't require wmp10?

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Phones that are OSX friendly and don't require wmp10?
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Posted by: randycat99

I think the media player built into a phone feature is a great idea. However, this feature may be out of reach for some if you happen to be on a Mac or don't have easy access to wmp10 on a PC. So are there certain phone brands/models out there that mount up readily over a usb connection and allow you to simply drag your mp3's into a folder?

I'm trying to get my mom into using the mp3 player in her Samsung Sync (A707), but I don't think it is going to work out (due to the conditions cited above). By the wording of the instruction manual, it sounds like you can only transfer your music via wmp10 (which does its little drm trick to make it all work on your phone). So I wonder if it will mount up at all when connected to Mac over usb? ...and if it does, and you drag over some mp3's into some folder on the phone, will the phone fail to even see the mp3's after being disconnected from the Mac? Does anybody have any experience with Samsung phones and interfacing with a Mac OSX?

The 2nd part of my topic asks if there are other brands/models that are generally more OSX friendly?

Posted by: ILuvMyMac

You can put music on the SYNC without wmp. I bluetoothed songs over simply by drag and drop.

That being said, I would recommend any of the the Sony Ericsson phones as a better alternative. They are better phones and play very well with Macs.

Posted by: Heavy Fluid

The SE W810i is very OS X friendly. I have mine synced with my iMac, and I send everything over by Bluetooth.

Posted by: randycat99

Ah, this is good news then, if wmp10 is truly not a necessary link to get music onto a Sync. I was worried about this, given my past experience with the mp3 player in the Sirius S50. You could drag and drop mp3's to it all you want, but it would never recognize them in a directory unless you drag and drop them through its special application that only ran on a PC or use wmp10.

Anybody know why the Samsung user manual even bothers mentioning wmp10, if you can just drag and drop your own mp3's? Is it just a solution they are pimping for those who need to convert CD's into mp3's?

I agree about the SE phones. I have one, myself.

Posted by: randycat99

Well, I finally got my mom setup with bluetooth between her computer and her Sync phone. It's still not going as smoothly as I expected. The biggest issue is that when I attempt to use the Bluetooth menu control in OSX to browse the Sync, only the folders in local phone memory are visible. There is no sign of the memory card, even though one is installed, and there is definitely stuff on it.

Is this normal for the Sync (that is a HUGE PIA, if that is how they designed it to work), or does some setting have to be done to enable the memory card contents to become browsable over a bluetooth connection?

Successful pairing seems very hit'n'miss, as well. The pairing operation seems to go over fine, but attempting to push or get seems to frequently yield some sort of failure to connect error. I made a setting in the OSX bluetooth preferences to "support older devices", and that seemed to let me get passed the connection error problem, but the transfer was SLOOOOOOOOOWWWWW. That's my guess that this related to the setting, for lack of more testing time, but that would be a real bummer if that is actually the "normal" speed of this setup.

When I say "slow", I mean transferring 300 MB or so of mp3's made it look like minutes passing by before 1% changed to 2% and so on. It looked more like the connection was hung, rather than just doing something really slow. Nevertheless, the transfer actually did occur when my mom picked it up (hours later?). Unfortunately, it ended with an error message of not enough space. I checked beforehand, and this should not have happened. It was a 512 MB card, with barely anything on it (essentially 480 MB free to burn). To add insult to injury, something must have crashed on that phone some time later, as it lost all of the music, but strangely retained what was on there prior to the mp3 episode just fine.

Anybody care to provide some insight on my experiences, here? It would be much appreciated (especially, that memory card not visible issue).

Posted by: ILuvMyMac

The SYNC I has was the same way .... and a huge factor in why I no longer have the thing. I found that a card reader was a better solution for transferring music. Bluetooth was fine for small ringtones or graphics. I would also suggest a program called Blue Harvest. Its great for preventing .DStore files from being created and cleaning up the ones that do appear. I found that while most phones don't like those files, they seem to really confuse the SYNC.

The phone I had, now in the hands of a co worker, did the same random reset thing as yours. She lost all of stuff, pictures and ringtones. That was not card related though because I had kept the card from that phone.

So I guess, you have a typical SYNC and will feel like putting your head through a wall just thinking about the thing.

Posted by: HelloRobo

No "OS X friendly phones" thread would be complete with a list of the most OS X friendly phones:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/isync/devices.html

Useful for keeping your contacts and calendars in sync, if nothing else.

I just wish Apple would update the list more often. Maybe with Leopard we'll see the V3xx, N75, et. al.

Posted by: Heavy Fluid

In order to see the memory card on the SE phones, I know you have to use a USB cable. Once you plug that in, you can do the drag and drop method.

Posted by: randycat99

Thank you, for the scoop on normal Sync behavior, ILuvMyMac!

You are right- I am putting my head through a wall over it. I wish my mom could exchange for a different phone, but I think it is months too late for that.

I was thinking about the card reader solution, as well. Looks like I will have to run down that path. My only concern is Momma's old hands not having the dexterity to insert/eject that thin little memory card wafer out of the phone...

On the topic of my SE 810i, I briefly tried it out with my laptop with BT adapter. I don't recall any trouble, at all. It linked up just fine, and I think I was able to see the memory card, successfully (though my memory may be foggy on that). I should have tried some get/pushes while I had it setup, but like I said, it was a brief experiment. It's a moot point for my phone, since it comes with the usb cable, afterall.

It's poor Momma's phone that I am trying to find solutions.

Posted by: scottuf

I just got a Nokia N75 and it works pretty well. Nokia has some beta software that will even allow you to sync the N75 (and others) directly with iTunes & iPhoto (although i haven't used with iPhoto), but the iTunes sync is pretty cool. It will also fill the phone with random songs if your library is too big, kinda like with a small iPod.

Posted by: randycat99

For anyone who is familiar with the Sync phone, is there a way to mark several files to delete in one shot, or do you really have to select each file to delete one after another?

Posted by: efparri

Quote:

Originally Posted by randycat99

For anyone who is familiar with the Sync phone, is there a way to mark several files to delete in one shot, or do you really have to select each file to delete one after another?

When you choose Delete when there are more than one file, you choose Selected or Multiple. The Multiple option allows you to use the center key to put a check mark beside the files you want to delete. You can check All at the top or individual files. Once you have them seleted, use the left softkey to delete them.

Posted by: efparri

The SYNC gives you a choice of Samsung's PC Studio or Windows Media Player. Neither wil run on a Mac.

Posted by: randycat99

Thank you for the response. I will pass on the information!