I got an android phone a couple of months ago. I was enjoying it and all, but it was after I downloaded the Audible App that I started moving to use it as my mobile media device.
I used my iPod as a sleep aid and productivity tool. When I can’t sleep, I’ll put an audiobook on for a certain amount of time (usually 15 minutes will do it), and listen to a story until I fall asleep. It keeps me from ruminating on useless crap and allows me to do the truly productive thing at night – SLEEP!
So, no music/audiobook player was going to make Noël-san happy unless it had a feature where it’d turn off after a few minutes. Well, whatdoyaknow? The Audible app has exactly that!
However, not all of my audiobooks are from Audible. I have the Harry Potter books, MP3s I’ve ripped from CDs from the library – you name it. So, what’s an audio/bibliophile to do?
Well, there is the Sleep Timer, a free app developed by Patrick Boos. This will integrate with your music player to turn off your music (and other functions on your android-based phone, if you want to) after a specified length of time.
However, that didn’t solve another problem. I have an extensive music collection that I’d organized into smart playlists on iTunes. Now, for all that Apple gets under my fingernails from time to time, I do like the organization features of the iTunes media player. Was I screwed for using those playlists on my phone?
Nope! Now, iSyncr is not a free app, but at $2.99, I’m not going to sweat the price for one paid app. This will load whatever playlists you select onto your phone. They play just fine through the default music app preloaded in Android. What it won’t do is play DRM protected music you bought from iTunes. I know there’s a kludge for that, but I don’t know exactly what it is, and I don’t buy a lot of music through iTunes, anyway.
This means that my iPod is completely replaced, because I also use a music player with a sleep timer for another function. It’s a serious productivity tool and procrastination avoider for me. When faced with a large, overwhelming task, I often will put on a music player with a fifteen minute sleep timer, promising myself I can stop when the music stops. By that time I’m usually into the task enough to finish it, but even if I’m not, do you know how much you can get done in several fifteen minute sessions of hyperfocus?
Speaking of which, got some writin’ that needs attending to…
| Audible | iSyncr | Sleep Timer | |
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