Windows 7 is finally here. Will it redeem Microsoft's Vista-tarnished image? All indications are that it will. The hardware driver issues that plagued Vista won't recur, for the simple reason that Windows 7 reuses the same deep plumbing code that Vista did, and after nearly three years, the incompatibilities have actually been ironed out. In other words, most of the drivers already exist. Microsoft has also remedied the other two big complaints about Vista: its bloat and those obnoxious User Account Controls. While the trend has long been for new OSes to be bloated with new goodies, Windows 7 actually performs better and takes up less disk space than its predecessor. Long story short: I like Windows 7 a lot, and with its new taskbar, user interface, and home networking enhancements.
The new streaming media functionality, together with Windows 7's new taskbar, Device Stage, HomeGroup networking, and XP Mode make this Windows far more than a service pack for Vista—though the two operating systems share much underlying plumbing. That means we haven't seen the compatibility hassles we saw with Vista. But Windows 7's lighter system footprint makes for faster start-up and slightly faster performance. Cap all this with rock-steady reliability, and Microsoft may just have a winner.
One stumbling block, however, is the lack of an official upgrade path from Windows XP, which affects a lot of users who bypassed Vista. Luckily, Microsoft is offering upgrade pricing for the now two-generations-old XP (pricing is detailed later in the story). A decent workaround for the XP-to-7 upgrade dilemma comes in the form of Laplink Software's PCMover application, which moves apps, settings, user accounts, and documents from XP to Windows 7 in a smooth, controllable workflow.
Editions and Setup
There will be three editions of Windows 7 for sale: Home Premium ($119.99 upgrade, $199.99 full), Professional ($199.99 upgrade, $299.99 full), and Ultimate ($219.99 upgrade, $319.99 full). Anyone with a valid copy of Vista or XP is eligible for the upgrade price. Most users will opt for one of the first two, with Professional obviously suited to workplaces and hard-core techie users. Ultimate includes everything from the other editions, but doesn't add much more than the abilities to encrypt USB drives and switch to any of 35 languages. (Gone are the "Ultimate Extras" of Vista days.)
A fourth edition, Starter, will come preinstalled on some netbooks, but won't be available at retail outlets. Starter won't run eye candy like Aero Glass, though we have found most netbooks run regular Windows 7 well in PC Labs. The Home Basic edition, seen in Vista, is gone (in the United States—it will be made available in developing countries), so Home Premium is the only home choice. Note also that these are list prices, and you can expect to see markdowns as time passes. Also note that Microsoft offers a Student upgrade license for just $29.99, and PC part suppliers have already offered OEM versions, without all the packaging and support, for $99 (Home Premium), $134.99 (Professional), and $174.99 (Ultimate).
There will also be so-called "Anytime Upgrades" from the lower editions of Windows 7 to the higher editions. Upgrading from Starter to Home Premium will cost $79.99, from Home Premium to Professional will cost $89.99, and from Home Premium to Ultimate will cost $139.99. Finally, a Family Pack pricing option will allow installation of Windows 7 Home Premium on three PCs for $149.99—a pretty sweet deal compared to the individual licenses. Note also that Microsoft recently announced volume discounts for business customers.
The operating system's install routine has new icons and a few splash screens ("Checking video performance," and so on) with a new starburst effect. Even the Starting Windows and log-on screens have gained a leafy, patterned background. The installation smartly wouldn't allow me to set up the OS while my laptop was unplugged. And the installer asks to look for updates on first run; I recommend agreeing to this.
If you want to do an upgrade installation, you must be running Vista SP1 or SP2 and have 12.9GB of free disk space. Remember, upgrade installation, in which all your programs and documents are maintained for the new OS, is only available to Vista users. Users of XP and other versions of Windows will have to choose Custom and do a "clean" install.
Installation
I installed Windows 7 on a Dell Mini 10 netbook, a Dell XPS M1330 notebook and an HP TouchSmart. The installer can format or create new partitions if you choose its Custom choice. Installation took 30 minutes for a machine that already had the release candidate of Windows 7 installed, longer than the 20 minutes RC took on a blank partition. The installer copies programs and data from the previous installation to a "windows.old" directory, as Vista did. Installing to a blank new partition doesn't require that step, so installation went faster, at 24 minutes—still slightly slower than installing the RC took. But all of these times beat the heck out of Vista's minimum time requirement of 45 minutes to an hour.
After installation, however, I had a problem with the laptop's graphics driver—my Windows Experience Index was 1, and I couldn't see Aero desktop effects. Getting the correct driver installed was far less automated than it should have been; I had to go to Dell's site and find the driver. The installer found and installed the correct driver on the HP TouchSmart and a few netbooks I tested, but one netbook had the same graphics driver problem. There have been other reports of laptop driver issues, but you can usually go to the manufacturer's site and get the driver यौर्सेल्फ़.
Thursday 11 November 2010
Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition
Do you know what operating system the phone or tablet of tomorrow will use? You may be tempted to say "Android," "BlackBerry," "iOS," or even "Windows" if you're feeling optimistic. But for the first time in ages, there's a reason to throw Linux into the mix as well. The Netbook Edition of the easiest-to-use and most popular distros, Canonical's Ubuntu 10.10 ("Maverick Meerkat"), is available for free and has received a top-to-bottom visual rethinking that primes it for use not just on small notebooks but also touch-screen devices of every stripe. It's still Linux, so it suffers from software compatibility issues that don't plague the Big Boys. But overall it's one of the friendliest, most intuitive, and powerful operating systems on the market, so don't be surprised if it integrates into your mobile-computing life in ways you never expected.
Differences Between Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook and Desktop Editions
The biggest mistake you can make with Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition is to directly equate it with the new Ubunti 10.10 Desktop Edition of the same distro. They may be based on the same core code and technologies, but there the similarities end. Unlike that version, this is not merely an obligatory upgrade, but a full-scale renovation that changes so much about the way the OS looks and behave, the two Editions hardly seem related at all.
At the heart of the Netbook Edition is a new interface called Unity that yanks the most popular OS functions from the traditional menus and places them, Windows 7 taskbar–style, in a launcher on the left side of the screen. In addition to reducing the need to searching menus for the most common apps and utilities, this achieves two major things: First, most netbooks have very narrow screens, so removing the top and bottom menu bars frees up valuable real estate on tiny displays. Second, the larger icons make those programs even easier to access netbook pointers or, particularly, touch screens.
If you haven't seen many touch-screen netbooks, you're not alone. They're pretty rare, and that's precisely the point Canonical is trying to make: If netbooks are to have a future, it will be inextricably intertwined with the evolution of the tablet, for which touch is a vital component of interaction. Whether that means we start seeing touch-screen netbooks or more robustly powerful tablets, it's almost a given that the two fields will somehow merge.
Playing in with this, Ubuntu 10.10 has full multitouch support; though you'll need hardware capable of recognizing four-finger touch or better to take advantage of all it can do. According to Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth, the goal is to have "touch-aware versions of all the major [Ubuntu] apps" ready for the release of Ubuntu 11.04 ("Natty Narwhal") in April. Regardless of what actually happens, Canonical is poised to make a serious entry into the space.
And serious is what it is, because Unity represents the best kind of revamp: one that extends, rather than curtails, the most important functionality. All you give up is a bit of control over your files. During testing, we were surprised to see that files we knew we placed on the desktop didn't appear in the big swath of purple at the center of our screen. We could find them by navigating with Ubuntu's file manager, but that takes some getting used to if you use the desktop for storage as much as we do. In fairness, but because this OS was designed for netbooks—where quick Web interaction trumps traditional file management—this isn't something that's likely to bother everyone.
Included Applications
The launcher is beautifully outfitted, as well, with an excellent choice of default icons: Firefox, Empathy IM, Evolution e-mail, the Rhythmbox music player, the Software Center, and so on. Of course you can add your own programs to it by firing them up, right-clicking on their icons, and then selecting "Keep in Launcher." Another nice inhabitant of the launcher is Workspaces, so you can set up "subdesktops" of programs without cluttering up your whole screen—just click the icon, then select any of four available workspaces to view just the programs you have running there. (MeeGo for Netbooks lets you create even more of these workspaces, but Ubuntu's implementation is still a good one.) Icons for Files & Folders, Applications, and the Trash are here as well, as they should be.
The downside of the Unity innovation is that, without the menus, the interaction changes with almost every program, and that might take some getting used to. Whereas the standard Applications menu groups programs by their type, in Netbook Edition the default is to show you icons for everything. You can, of course, choose to see just accessories or just games if you want, but the "links" for doing those are traditional text, not buttons, which spoils the cohesion of the design as a whole.
For Netbook Edition to completely succeed (especially as a touch-screen alternative), it needs to be absolutely consistent from start to finish. In Ubuntu 10.10, it's not quite there—but it's off to an amazing start. If Linux blew its one big chance at mainstream adoption by not having the user-friendliest interface imaginable just when the netbook craze hit a couple of years ago, Ubuntu Netbook Edition signals it's ready for a second chance. And as long as netbooks and tablets keep up their popularity, we wouldn't be at all surprised to see that happen.
In most other respects, Netbook Edition mirrors the other 10.10 changes that were also implemented in the Desktop Edition: a streamlined and more informative installation process; a primary system font based on the Ubuntu logo; clever capabilities that mesh tightly with the Ubuntu One cloud storage system, including clients for iPhones and Android devices, and Windows, which let you share your files and music on non-Linux operating systems; the change of the default image-management app from the much-derided F-Spot to Shotwell; and a more advanced Software Center that lets you find for-pay Linux software as well as download apps for free. (Interestingly, OpenOffice.org is the included office suite; its successor, LibreOffice, reportedly couldn't be integrated in time for the operating system's release.)
Should You Download Ubuntu Linux Netbook Edition 10.10?
Considering how much else Canonical was able to pack into 10.10, however, we can forgive them this. The company has devised a winning solution to the difficult problem keeping Linux relevant in the age of netbooks and tablets. The Unity interface is one of the smartest and most intuitive we've seen yet for these kinds of devices, and it could inspire users who never would have previously looked twice at a non-Windows OS. Netbook Edition has achieved that long-vaunted Linux goal of looking like something anyone can (and would want) to use in a way that even Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, despite its many improvements, couldn't.
If the Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition gains the traction it's capable of, we wouldn't be at all surprised to hear people discuss "Ubuntu tablets" in the same appreciative tones they reserve for discussion of "Android tablets" or "iPads." It's still too early to say for sure if that will happen, but the potential is certainly there—and we wouldn't dare put the possibility past an OS nicknamed something as gutsy as "Maverick."
Differences Between Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook and Desktop Editions
The biggest mistake you can make with Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition is to directly equate it with the new Ubunti 10.10 Desktop Edition of the same distro. They may be based on the same core code and technologies, but there the similarities end. Unlike that version, this is not merely an obligatory upgrade, but a full-scale renovation that changes so much about the way the OS looks and behave, the two Editions hardly seem related at all.
At the heart of the Netbook Edition is a new interface called Unity that yanks the most popular OS functions from the traditional menus and places them, Windows 7 taskbar–style, in a launcher on the left side of the screen. In addition to reducing the need to searching menus for the most common apps and utilities, this achieves two major things: First, most netbooks have very narrow screens, so removing the top and bottom menu bars frees up valuable real estate on tiny displays. Second, the larger icons make those programs even easier to access netbook pointers or, particularly, touch screens.
If you haven't seen many touch-screen netbooks, you're not alone. They're pretty rare, and that's precisely the point Canonical is trying to make: If netbooks are to have a future, it will be inextricably intertwined with the evolution of the tablet, for which touch is a vital component of interaction. Whether that means we start seeing touch-screen netbooks or more robustly powerful tablets, it's almost a given that the two fields will somehow merge.
Playing in with this, Ubuntu 10.10 has full multitouch support; though you'll need hardware capable of recognizing four-finger touch or better to take advantage of all it can do. According to Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth, the goal is to have "touch-aware versions of all the major [Ubuntu] apps" ready for the release of Ubuntu 11.04 ("Natty Narwhal") in April. Regardless of what actually happens, Canonical is poised to make a serious entry into the space.
And serious is what it is, because Unity represents the best kind of revamp: one that extends, rather than curtails, the most important functionality. All you give up is a bit of control over your files. During testing, we were surprised to see that files we knew we placed on the desktop didn't appear in the big swath of purple at the center of our screen. We could find them by navigating with Ubuntu's file manager, but that takes some getting used to if you use the desktop for storage as much as we do. In fairness, but because this OS was designed for netbooks—where quick Web interaction trumps traditional file management—this isn't something that's likely to bother everyone.
Included Applications
The launcher is beautifully outfitted, as well, with an excellent choice of default icons: Firefox, Empathy IM, Evolution e-mail, the Rhythmbox music player, the Software Center, and so on. Of course you can add your own programs to it by firing them up, right-clicking on their icons, and then selecting "Keep in Launcher." Another nice inhabitant of the launcher is Workspaces, so you can set up "subdesktops" of programs without cluttering up your whole screen—just click the icon, then select any of four available workspaces to view just the programs you have running there. (MeeGo for Netbooks lets you create even more of these workspaces, but Ubuntu's implementation is still a good one.) Icons for Files & Folders, Applications, and the Trash are here as well, as they should be.
The downside of the Unity innovation is that, without the menus, the interaction changes with almost every program, and that might take some getting used to. Whereas the standard Applications menu groups programs by their type, in Netbook Edition the default is to show you icons for everything. You can, of course, choose to see just accessories or just games if you want, but the "links" for doing those are traditional text, not buttons, which spoils the cohesion of the design as a whole.
For Netbook Edition to completely succeed (especially as a touch-screen alternative), it needs to be absolutely consistent from start to finish. In Ubuntu 10.10, it's not quite there—but it's off to an amazing start. If Linux blew its one big chance at mainstream adoption by not having the user-friendliest interface imaginable just when the netbook craze hit a couple of years ago, Ubuntu Netbook Edition signals it's ready for a second chance. And as long as netbooks and tablets keep up their popularity, we wouldn't be at all surprised to see that happen.
In most other respects, Netbook Edition mirrors the other 10.10 changes that were also implemented in the Desktop Edition: a streamlined and more informative installation process; a primary system font based on the Ubuntu logo; clever capabilities that mesh tightly with the Ubuntu One cloud storage system, including clients for iPhones and Android devices, and Windows, which let you share your files and music on non-Linux operating systems; the change of the default image-management app from the much-derided F-Spot to Shotwell; and a more advanced Software Center that lets you find for-pay Linux software as well as download apps for free. (Interestingly, OpenOffice.org is the included office suite; its successor, LibreOffice, reportedly couldn't be integrated in time for the operating system's release.)
Should You Download Ubuntu Linux Netbook Edition 10.10?
Considering how much else Canonical was able to pack into 10.10, however, we can forgive them this. The company has devised a winning solution to the difficult problem keeping Linux relevant in the age of netbooks and tablets. The Unity interface is one of the smartest and most intuitive we've seen yet for these kinds of devices, and it could inspire users who never would have previously looked twice at a non-Windows OS. Netbook Edition has achieved that long-vaunted Linux goal of looking like something anyone can (and would want) to use in a way that even Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, despite its many improvements, couldn't.
If the Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition gains the traction it's capable of, we wouldn't be at all surprised to hear people discuss "Ubuntu tablets" in the same appreciative tones they reserve for discussion of "Android tablets" or "iPads." It's still too early to say for sure if that will happen, but the potential is certainly there—and we wouldn't dare put the possibility past an OS nicknamed something as gutsy as "Maverick."
Facebook for Android (2010)
Android social networkers on the go can now enjoy an updated Facebook app that adds Groups and Places—features added to the PC version over the course of the last few months—as well as an improved notification system. It isn't a radical departure from the version that came before it, but Groups and Places give users new toys to play with, and the new notifications (which are now integrated into the app itself, instead of sending users to Facebook's mobile site) brings much-need cohesiveness.
Interface
Once you've download and launched the app, you're treated to an easy-on-the-eyes blue-and-white color scheme with a layout that's very similar to the Apple iPad version—the app features three rows of icons that let you quickly access News Feed, Profile, Friends, Messages, Events, Photos, and Requests (oddly, Chat, which has been a staple of the iPhone version is still, sadly, absent here).
Beneath the main icons is a strip that houses thumbnails of the latest photos and videos your friends have posted to the social networking site—it's a nice touch that the iPhone version lacks. The upper-right section of the app has a magnifying glass that lets you search for you search for Facebook contacts when tapped, and the word balloon icon takes you to the News Feed where you can see all your friends' updates, and post your own (including images).
Overall, these features will be familiar to event he most casual Facebook user, but the Groups and Places icons, recently introduced to the desktop version of Facebook are the new faces here.
Groups and Places
Groups lets users create a public or private page based on a topic or event, and then invite other users to post media, collaborate on basic documents, schedule events, and comment. I created a "Testing Testing" group on my PC that synced over to my handset when I opened "Groups." There I could see the new group, but when I entered it I received an error message stating "cannot fetch the user data at this time. Please try again later." Unfortunately, this happened on every occasion that I tried to access the group.
Places is a location-based feature that lets Facebook users "check-in" to a business or other locations, and then post and media about that location. Tapping the Places icons left my friend's most recent check-ins, and I could add my own location and description after hitting the Check in button. Unlike Foursquare, Facebook also allows users to check their friends into a place, if the ability to do so isn't nixed in privacy settings.
Some Notification Improvements
The new Android app improves on the previous build's sloppy notification implementation by keeping the updates within the app—users are no longer bounced over to Facebook's mobile site, which keep things not consistent, but convenient. The app still lacks push notification; a Facebook note was sent to my e-mail notifying that someone left a comment in my created Group, but I didn't see the actual app notifications until I fired it up again a half hour later.
Should You Use The New Facebook Android App?
Quite simply, yes. If you're using the current version of Facebook, upgrading is a no-brainer as it adds new features and improvements that weren't in the older build. The push notification and chat omissions are still headscratchers (the iPhone version has the leg up here), but if you don't mind those absences, it's a very solid social networking app.
Interface
Once you've download and launched the app, you're treated to an easy-on-the-eyes blue-and-white color scheme with a layout that's very similar to the Apple iPad version—the app features three rows of icons that let you quickly access News Feed, Profile, Friends, Messages, Events, Photos, and Requests (oddly, Chat, which has been a staple of the iPhone version is still, sadly, absent here).
Beneath the main icons is a strip that houses thumbnails of the latest photos and videos your friends have posted to the social networking site—it's a nice touch that the iPhone version lacks. The upper-right section of the app has a magnifying glass that lets you search for you search for Facebook contacts when tapped, and the word balloon icon takes you to the News Feed where you can see all your friends' updates, and post your own (including images).
Overall, these features will be familiar to event he most casual Facebook user, but the Groups and Places icons, recently introduced to the desktop version of Facebook are the new faces here.
Groups and Places
Groups lets users create a public or private page based on a topic or event, and then invite other users to post media, collaborate on basic documents, schedule events, and comment. I created a "Testing Testing" group on my PC that synced over to my handset when I opened "Groups." There I could see the new group, but when I entered it I received an error message stating "cannot fetch the user data at this time. Please try again later." Unfortunately, this happened on every occasion that I tried to access the group.
Places is a location-based feature that lets Facebook users "check-in" to a business or other locations, and then post and media about that location. Tapping the Places icons left my friend's most recent check-ins, and I could add my own location and description after hitting the Check in button. Unlike Foursquare, Facebook also allows users to check their friends into a place, if the ability to do so isn't nixed in privacy settings.
Some Notification Improvements
The new Android app improves on the previous build's sloppy notification implementation by keeping the updates within the app—users are no longer bounced over to Facebook's mobile site, which keep things not consistent, but convenient. The app still lacks push notification; a Facebook note was sent to my e-mail notifying that someone left a comment in my created Group, but I didn't see the actual app notifications until I fired it up again a half hour later.
Should You Use The New Facebook Android App?
Quite simply, yes. If you're using the current version of Facebook, upgrading is a no-brainer as it adds new features and improvements that weren't in the older build. The push notification and chat omissions are still headscratchers (the iPhone version has the leg up here), but if you don't mind those absences, it's a very solid social networking app.
MOG for Android 0.9.19
The latest mobile music service to try to take Rhapsody's crown, MOG for Android has a slick-looking style, connects to a catalog of nearly nine million songs, and offers the user unlimited high-quality downloads. But several bugs need to be worked out before MOG can really become a top-tier music app that's worth having a $9.99-a-month subscription.
I tested the MOG Android app on the Samsung Vibrant ($199.99-499.99, ) running Android 2.1 and the HTC EVO 4G ($299.99, ) running Android 2.2. MOG works on Android phones running OS version 1.5 and above, but the service has sound quality problems on phones running Android 2.2. MOG offers a free 3-day trial and can be found in the Android Market.
Interface, Library, and Sound QualityMOG's home screen has six large, self-explanatory icons: Search, New Releases, MOG Charts, Today's Picks, My Favorites, and My Downloads. Under the six icons is a slender bar that says Play Queue. You probably won't spend much time on the home screen because there isn't an obvious way back to it unless you tap the physical "back" button several times on your Android phone.
Elsewhere in MOG, you have a small black control bar at the bottom of the screen that lets you play, pause, go back a track, go forward a track, go back a screen, or toggle radio mode. The radio option, once turned on, can help you discover new artists that are similar to the artist you currently listening to. I found the suggestions for "similar artists" to be fairly accurate. For Eminem, the app suggested songs from Brother Ali, G-Unit, D12, 50 Cent, and other rap artists.
You'll spend a lot of time on the Play Queue screen, where you can see any songs you've listened to recently. If you hold down on a particular song, you get the option to remove the song from the queue, clear all songs, download that song, or buy the song. Tapping the Buy option takes you to an Amazon.com Web page. Annoyingly, MOG automatically restarts your queue when it runs out of songs. There is no way to turn off that kind of wrapping around.
The Android app streams music at 64 kbps in AAC+ format. You also have the option to download unlimited low-quality AAC+ tracks at 64 kbps or high-quality MP3 tracks at 256 or 320 kbps to the phone's microSD card. If you plan to use MOG on your PC or Mac as well, MOG's desktop site offers high-quality 256 or 320 kbps MP3 streams, with the quality depending on what the label has approved. That's higher quality music than Rhapsody offers on the desktop, so that may make MOG worth the $9.99 to some people.
Froyo Issues, Bugs, and ConclusionsIf you are using Android 2.2 (a.k.a. Froyo), you should stay away from MOG for now. A rep from MOG says Froyo has a bug that degrades AAC+ playback. I tested it on the EVO 4G, and I definitely could tell the sound quality was worse than listening on the Vibrant running 2.1. MOG says they are working on this issue with Google.
I ran into several other annoying bugs. Sometimes I would download a song in high quality and the song would refuse to play, even though it had appeared in My Downloads. Sometimes the app would crash without any real reason, and occasionally I needed to kill the app manually because it would freeze up.
MOG's search feature is imprecise and impractical, often hiding the most popular artist very late in results. Looking for a popular indie band called Stars, I couldn't find them in the artist results at all, but many other small acts with the word Stars in their names appeared. Let's go more popular: If you search for the rapper B.o.B., who has two songs on the Billboard 100 right now, he does not appear in artist results—at all. To find B.o.B., I had to search by albums and go pretty deep into the collection before I found him.
Users of MOG's high-quality desktop app who want to listen to a bit of music on their Android devices will enjoy this app, but it doesn't come up to the standard set by Rhapsody ($9.99/month, ), our Editors' Choice for mobile music services. If you're looking for a music app that doesn't require a subscription, both Pandora (Free, ) and Slacker give you great radio options that sound good and look sharp.
I tested the MOG Android app on the Samsung Vibrant ($199.99-499.99, ) running Android 2.1 and the HTC EVO 4G ($299.99, ) running Android 2.2. MOG works on Android phones running OS version 1.5 and above, but the service has sound quality problems on phones running Android 2.2. MOG offers a free 3-day trial and can be found in the Android Market.
Interface, Library, and Sound QualityMOG's home screen has six large, self-explanatory icons: Search, New Releases, MOG Charts, Today's Picks, My Favorites, and My Downloads. Under the six icons is a slender bar that says Play Queue. You probably won't spend much time on the home screen because there isn't an obvious way back to it unless you tap the physical "back" button several times on your Android phone.
Elsewhere in MOG, you have a small black control bar at the bottom of the screen that lets you play, pause, go back a track, go forward a track, go back a screen, or toggle radio mode. The radio option, once turned on, can help you discover new artists that are similar to the artist you currently listening to. I found the suggestions for "similar artists" to be fairly accurate. For Eminem, the app suggested songs from Brother Ali, G-Unit, D12, 50 Cent, and other rap artists.
You'll spend a lot of time on the Play Queue screen, where you can see any songs you've listened to recently. If you hold down on a particular song, you get the option to remove the song from the queue, clear all songs, download that song, or buy the song. Tapping the Buy option takes you to an Amazon.com Web page. Annoyingly, MOG automatically restarts your queue when it runs out of songs. There is no way to turn off that kind of wrapping around.
The Android app streams music at 64 kbps in AAC+ format. You also have the option to download unlimited low-quality AAC+ tracks at 64 kbps or high-quality MP3 tracks at 256 or 320 kbps to the phone's microSD card. If you plan to use MOG on your PC or Mac as well, MOG's desktop site offers high-quality 256 or 320 kbps MP3 streams, with the quality depending on what the label has approved. That's higher quality music than Rhapsody offers on the desktop, so that may make MOG worth the $9.99 to some people.
Froyo Issues, Bugs, and ConclusionsIf you are using Android 2.2 (a.k.a. Froyo), you should stay away from MOG for now. A rep from MOG says Froyo has a bug that degrades AAC+ playback. I tested it on the EVO 4G, and I definitely could tell the sound quality was worse than listening on the Vibrant running 2.1. MOG says they are working on this issue with Google.
I ran into several other annoying bugs. Sometimes I would download a song in high quality and the song would refuse to play, even though it had appeared in My Downloads. Sometimes the app would crash without any real reason, and occasionally I needed to kill the app manually because it would freeze up.
MOG's search feature is imprecise and impractical, often hiding the most popular artist very late in results. Looking for a popular indie band called Stars, I couldn't find them in the artist results at all, but many other small acts with the word Stars in their names appeared. Let's go more popular: If you search for the rapper B.o.B., who has two songs on the Billboard 100 right now, he does not appear in artist results—at all. To find B.o.B., I had to search by albums and go pretty deep into the collection before I found him.
Users of MOG's high-quality desktop app who want to listen to a bit of music on their Android devices will enjoy this app, but it doesn't come up to the standard set by Rhapsody ($9.99/month, ), our Editors' Choice for mobile music services. If you're looking for a music app that doesn't require a subscription, both Pandora (Free, ) and Slacker give you great radio options that sound good and look sharp.
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