After about a year of enjoying how well my Ubuntu Linux home server downloads, organizes, and serves video files to my TV, I started to think harder about serving up music to devices around the house, and to my phone and/or PC while I’m at work. In the past, I’ve made my music library available on my home network via MediaTomb, minidlna, and Samba, but I never made use of it. Instead, I always used iTunes, which is good software, but very limiting.

In December, I realized two things:

1. I almost never sync my iPods to my computer anymore, because they charge in my car or in my home stereo’s dock.
2. I also never use my Android phone to listen to music, even though it is perfectly capable, because I never wanted to bother to get the USB cable out for my phone, and I haven’t found any software that I like to sync with.

My problem: syncing. I hate it. It is passé and worthless when everything is network connected and your music collection is vastly larger than what a reasonably-priced amount of flash memory will hold.

Around the same time, I received a Cr-48 from Google. It runs Chrome OS, which can play audio via the browser (Flash or HTML 5), but that’s it. I thought it would be an interesting challenge to find a good way to play my music library on it. I also wanted to store my library on my power-efficient Ubuntu Linux server, so I wouldn’t have to leave my power-hungry desktop on all day.

Searching for a Solution

I found two highly respected options that would allow me to stream music to a browser or other device: Ampache and Subsonic. Ampache is built on top of the LAMP stack, so it requires Apache, MySQL, and PHP, which a ton of Linux servers have installed on them. It has a good number of features, too, including an Android client and front-end support in Amarok and WinAmp. I ended up not liking it, however, for two main reasons: The system requirements are rather high, mostly because it depends on MySQL as a data store. Also, indexing my 80 GB music library was very slow.

What I ended up preferring, and falling in love with, was Subsonic. Subsonic is a Java app, which you can install either as a standalone Debian package in Ubuntu, or as a WAR file that you can run under TomCat or another Java Server. It runs on any host OS that supports Java, so Windows and Mac users can run it too. Subsonic scanned my music library surprisingly quickly, looks great, and worked right away. I have it installed under TomCat, and configured to use SSL (for security and to disguise my music downloading/streaming from network administrators).

Subsonic

Subsonic

Subsonic offers a somewhat complex, but attractive and skinnable, web interface. It offers playlist support (though not smart playlists as in iTunes), random playlists, search, and support for album art and metadata (including a tag editor). It is far more album-oriented than song oriented, which took some getting used to moving from iTunes. For example, albums can be rated, but not individual songs. Also, the home page on the interface defaults to random albums, which looks nice and pretty, but differs greatly from how I use iTunes. I really like the feature, though, because it allows me to rediscover music that has long been buried by my iTunes smart playlists.

Playback in the browser is done via an open-source Flash plugin, which works fine. Album art must be embedded in the files, or at least stored at the folder level, which was initially a challenge for me due to the way iTues handles album art in its library. I used MediaMonkey to help get my album art into shape. The server can be set up to transcode music in formats such as Flac to MP3 or AAC to support the client player’s capabilities and to limit bandwidth.

Subsonic doesn’t really stream your music; it downloads and caches it. The browser client caches the song you are playing, while the iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 7 clients will cache a number of songs ahead of the current one. Caching is way better than streaming, because you don’t need a constant connection to the server. It works really well. The server has a “Status” window in which you can review all the connected clients and the bandwidth they are using, which is pretty cool.

Subsonic is free and open source software, though it does have a somewhat controversial donation requirement if you wish to use it via a phone app. You can connect to it via a web browser indefinitely, but if you use the Android app, as I do, it will tell you that you must donate to the project/developer after 30 days, or it will refuse to access the server. After seeing how well the Android app worked, I donated right away. Remember, even in the open source world, it is a good idea to support good developers.

By creating multiple user accounts, you can also use Subsonic to share music with friends and family. If you configure the server with SSL, you can do so securely and privately as well. Users can be given access to download and upload music, so it could become a music sharing platform for you and your close friends that flies under the radar.

All in all, I love Subsonic and recommend it to anyone who has a large music library that they wish to bring with them and share with close friends.

Motorola Droid

Even though this phone was almost immediately outclassed by the Nexus One and replaced by the Droid 2 after only 6 months, my Droid remains the gadget I use more often and find most useful throughout the day. That it is more useful than the day I bought it is a testament to the Android platform’s growth and the persistence of the open source custom ROM development community that has sprung up around it. Here is a list of my most-used apps.

• Communication: Google Voice, GMail, Touchdown (Exchange for Android), Facebook, Twidroid Pro, eBuddy
• Productivity: VitaDroid, Calendar Pad Pro, EverNote
• Entertainment: NewsRob, Amazon Kindle, TuneIn Radio, Subsonic, Pandora, Act1 Video Player, NFL Network
• Utilities: USB Tether (a Froyo feature), Gentle Alarm, Lightning Bug
• Games: Angry Birds, Robo Defense
• Travel: TripIt, FlightTrack Pro
• ROMs: CyanogenMod 5 and 6, Sapphire 1

Amazon Kindle (2nd Generation)

I love my Kindle, and prefer to read books on it than on paper now. Part of the appeal is that it is a gadget, but, even more importantly, the Kindle is lighter and smaller than most books, and takes up a finite amount of space as my library grows. The only downside to the Kindle is that its contrast is not great, and screen glare is a problem in mediocre-light conditions. (Oddly, glare is rarely a problem outside or in bright light.)

Boxee Box

I love my Boxee Box. Even though my Amazon.com review, the #1 most helpful for the product, is less than glowing, I love the Boxee Box’s handling of local media, and wait eagerly for it to get apps for Netflix and, to a lesser extent, Hulu Plus.

I just upgraded (I wiped cache and data, just to be sure), and so far things are working very well.

While CyanogenMod has more interface and application tweaks than Sapphire, Sapphire runs more stably on my phone (compared with CM6 RC1 and RC2), which is far more important. One of Sapphire’s killer features is that it integrates the basic overclocking/underclocking mechanisms found in the SetCPU app, which enables you to overclock without SetCPU (unless you wish to set up profiles). The rest of the Froyo goodness, including the JIT compiler, wifi tether, Exchange support, and Chrome-to-Phone, are all included.

If CM6 isn’t working well for you, I highly recommend trying out Sapphire. I found it a little tricky to install via ClockworkMod Recovery/ROM Manager, because you have to downgrade ClockworkMod Recovery to do so. The instructions below reflect the steps I took to switch from CM6 RC1 to Sapphire 0.8.4. If you’re new to flashing ROMs on your phone, know that it requires root access. Also, Sapphire appears to be compatible with the Motorola Droid only at this time.

1. Install/upgrade to the latest version of the ROM Manager app via the Android Market.
2. Open ROM Manager.
3. Due to an incompatibility of the latest ClockwordMod Recovery, Sapphire will install with ClockworkMod 2.0.1.3 or earlier. To flash this recovery, scroll to the bottom of ROM Manager’s main screen and select “All ClockworkMod Recoveries” from the “More Recoveries” section.
4. A recovery selection popup will appear. Choose “2.0.1.3″ and click the “OK” button.
5. ClockworkMod 2.0.1.3 will be flashed to your devise. (If for some reason the recovery does not install, use ROM Manager to “Flash Alternate Recovery” and then repeat steps 3 and 4.)
6. From the “ROM Management” section in ROM Manager, select “Download ROM”.
7. Select “cvpcs” under the “Free” section.
8. Select “Sapphire 0.8.4 (Froyo)”, which is the latest stable release at this time.
9. A screenshots popup will appear. Click the “Download” button.
10. A kernel selection popup will appear. Choose a kernel from the list. I use P3Droid’s 125-800mhz Low Voltage kernel. You may choose one with a faster top speed if you wish. Click the “OK” button.
11. A theme selection popup will appear. Choose a theme from the list. I stick with the “Stock (Default)” theme. Click the “OK” button.
12. A ROM addons selection popup will appear. Check “Google Apps” so that Google’s standard apps (including the Market) will be installed. Check the “Market Hack”, too. Until Motorola releases an official Froyo build for the Droid, copy-protected apps will not show up  in the Market when you run a Froyo ROM. The Market Hack fixes that. Click the “OK” button.
13. ROM Manager will download the necessary ROMs.
14. When the downloads complete, a ROM pre-installation popup will appear. Check both of the options: “Backup Existing ROM” and “Wipe Data and Cache”. Always back up your current ROM prior to flashing a new one. Sapphire’s developers say that it is important to wipe data prior to the install. Froyo will re-download your apps from the Market after a reinstall, so it isn’t as much of a pain as you think it might be. Click the “OK” button.
15. ROM Manager will reboot into recovery and install all the ROMs you selected.
16. When the phone reboots again, you will be able to log into your Google account and set everything up. The Market will download all your previously-installed apps during the sync process. Just be patient!

I prefer the ADW Launcher to the launcher that Sapphire comes with. ADW Launcher is a free download from the Android Market.

Barrage Lite

Barrage Lite is free and includes the entire game. You can purchase the paid version to add more weapons, remove the unobtrusive ads from certain non-gameplay screens, and save your high scores and publish them for all players to see. Sadly, there is no online play, though that would be awesome. Still, it’s very good, and I heartily recommend it if you played the original in the DOS days!

Gentle Alarm

Thanks to the Motorola Droid’s dock and clock (ahem, “Multimedia Station”) mode, my phone became my alarm clock the day I brought it home. (Of course, due to the insanely bright LED lights on the Droid, I have to shut off the display before turning in for bed! The LEDs Hack doesn’t work for me very well.) Android’s default alarm clock is fine, but I really wanted an alarm that didn’t blast me out of bed in the morning, but started out quietly instead, and gradually increased in volume until it woke me up. Luckily, the Gentle Alarm app exists for just this purpose.

Gentle Alarm's Main Screen

Gentle Alarm provides alarms that fade in over a user-definable period, and customizable snooze times, too. It can ring any alarm, audio file, or ringtone on your phone. (The app, and your Android ROM, come with a number of alarm sounds by default.) Gentle Alarm’s defining feature is its “pre-alarm” feature, which tries to take advantage of your sleep cycles to wake you up when you are refreshed. The idea is to ring a very quiet alarm, prior to your normal wake-up time, to rouse you if you are already almost awake. If you are still in a deep sleep, you won’t be able to hear it. (It’s true!) The app helps you calibrate the volume, so the pre-alarm will only wake you up when you are not sleeping deeply, and the main alarm will always ring loud enough (eventually) to rouse you out bed. I’ve found that the pre-alarm helps me wake up earlier, or at least hit snooze less often, and still refreshed.

Gentle Alarm's Profiles Screen

If you’re worried about replacing Android’s tried and true alarm system with a third-party, and potentially unstable, application, don’t be. Gentle Alarm hooks into Android’s normal alarm routines, so, short of your battery dying, you can be assured that the alarm will ring.

Gentle Alarm's Alarms Screen

It took only one night’s trial for me to fall in love with and purchase the Gentle Alarm app. (The free version only works 6 days per week.)

Sleep Now

Sleep Now is a great app for the power napper or anyone who has trouble getting to sleep at night. It’s a fancy white-noise generator and alarm clock wrapped up into one package. I really like it, because I think it helps me fall asleep faster, and sleep more soundly, than I did without it.

Sleep Now's Main Screen

You set up programs to fall asleep to music or white noise.

1. Relax to music (whatever is on your phone), white noise, or other sounds included with the app.
2. Sleep to white noise, other sounds, or silence.
3. Wake up to a gentle alarm.

Programs can be configured to a fixed sleep timeframe, such as a 20-minute power nap, or to prompt you for a sleep duration when you run them. The alarms are similar to the Gentle Alarm app, but cannot be scheduled to exact times of day, and do not include the pre-alarm function. Like Gentle Alarm, Sleep Now allows you to calibrate your volume.

Sleep Now's Sleep Programs Screen

Two Apps?!

I bought both apps and use them every day. I think that Gentle Alarm could be folded into Sleep Now, because only two features of Gentle Alarm (alarm scheduling and the pre-alarm) are missing from Sleep Now as it is. The developer may do that in the future. Because the apps are not that expensive, I use them every day, and I like to support small developers, I didn’t hesitate to buy both.

SetCPU

1. Root your Droid. (Note that I rooted my Droid before 2.1 came out, so I have not followed the instructions that I have linked to, and cannot comment upon them.)
2. Install ROM Manager from the Android Market. This app, and the ClockworkMod Recovery it comes with, make flashing ROMs a lot simpler than the process used to root your phone.
3. Flash ClockworkMod Recovery via ROM Manager. (You don’t need the paid version for this tutorial.)
   1. Launch the ROM Manager.
   2. Click the first option: “Flash ClockwordMod Recovery.”
   1. Grant the app root access (and check “Always Allow”) when it asks you.
   1. A popup will ask you to confirm your phone model. Just click on “Motorola Droid (CDMA)”.
   2. This will download and install the ClockworkMod recovery image. Just wait a couple minutes. There’s no need to reboot your phone afterwards.
4. Install the latest stable CyanogenMod via ROM Manager.
   1. In ROM Manager, click the “Download ROM” option, then click “CyanogenMod”, then click the latest stable release. As of this writing, the latest stable release for the Droid is 5.0.6.2.
   2. A popup will appear. Check the box next to “Google Apps” and click “OK”.
   3. ROM Manager will then download the ROMs for Cyanogen and Google Apps. When the downloads are complete, ROM Manager will alert you for more options prior to installation.
   4. When the downloads are complete, a “ROM Pre-Installation” popup will appear. Check the option to “Backup Existing ROM” just to be safe. If you are doing this for the first time, or are changing themes, check “Wipe Data and Cache”; you may leave it unchecked if you are upgrading to a new version of the same ROM. Click “OK”.
   5. The phone will then reboot into recovery, back up your current ROM to the SD card, install CyanogenMod, and then reboot when it is done. The first boot into the new ROM might take a little longer than normal. Don’t worry.
5. Set up your phone again.
   1. You will need to sign into Google again and re-download all your apps. (Yes, this is a pain, but you did just reinstall everything on your phone!) You can re-download your apps after overclocking, if you wish. You will not have to pay again for any paid applications you purchased from the Android Market. You will not have problems “reactivating” your phone.
   2. If Google apps, such as Google Maps, are missing, that means that you didn’t check “Google Apps” when you downloaded the ROM. You will have to install Rom Manager and then reinstall CyanogenMod with Google Apps to fix this.
6. Install the bekit kernel, which allows you to overclock your CPU.
   1. Open ROM Manager.
   2. Click “Download Rom”, then “CyanogenMod”, then “bekit Kernals (0.8.3)”.
   3. Choose your bekit kernel from the popup that appears. I recommend “5 Slot 800MHz 0.8.3 *Low Voltage*” (which I use for this tutorial) or “5 Slot 1.0 GHz 0.8.3 *Low Voltage*”. A “slot” is an operating frequency. 5-slot means that there are 5 speed settings at which you can set your CPU. 7-slot kernals have 2 more speed settings. I don’t see much need to set the CPU to a whole bunch of different frequencies, so 5-slot kernals are good enough for me. You should stick to the “Low Voltage” kernels (scroll down in the list to find them) to avoid overheating your CPU or decreasing battery life more than necessary.
   4. The kernel install process through the ROM Manager works similarly to the CyanogenMod ROM install process. When the kernel download is complete, a “ROM Pre-Installation” popup will appear. Check “Backup Existing ROM” if this is your first time changing kernels, or if you don’t have a recent backup. Do not check “Wipe Data and Cache”. Click “OK”.
   5. The phone will reboot into recovery, back up your current ROM to the SD card (if you selected that option), install the new kernel, and then reboot when it is done.
7. Purchase and install SetCPU from the Android Market. It costs $1.99 as of this writing, and is totally worth it. Read more about SetCPU here.
8. Set up SetCPU’s global settings.
   1. Launch SetCPU.
   2. Click the “Autodetect Speeds” button. Grant the app root access (and check “Always Allow”) when it asks you.
   3. SetCPU will display the maximum and minimum CPU speeds your kernel supports. Using the “5 Slot 800MHz 0.8.3 *Low Voltage*” bekit kernel, you should see 800MHz max and 250 MHz min.
   4. Adjust the sliders on SetCPU’s main screen to set the global minimum and maximum CPU speeds. I tend to leave the minimum as 250MHz and the maximum as 800MHz. Remember that the stock Motorola Droid CPU is underclocked from 600MHz to 550 MHz, so 250MHz is actually underclocking (better for battery life) and 800MHz is overclocking (better for performance).
   5. Set the CPU Governor. I recommend using default CPU Governor: “ondemand.” This means that the CPU will scale up when the phone is busy (i.e., when you are using it) and will scale down when the phone is idle (i.e., sleeping). The “conservative” CPU Governor scales speeds up more slowly than “ondemand” does; I find that it makes games a little laggy. The “performance” CPU Governor simply always uses the maximum speed setting; this seems unnecessary for a device that spends most of the time sleeping.
   6. Check “Set on Boot”. The only reasons not to have “Set on Boot” checked is if you are flashing a new ROM, or if you are overclocking by a lot (say, to 1.2 GHz) and are concerned about stability.
9. Set up SetCPU Profiles. (This step is optional, but recommended.)
   1. In SetCPU, click the “Profiles” button. A popup will appear.
   2. Check “Profiles On” in the popup.
   3. To update a profile, click on its “Enabled” checkbox, click the “Modify” button, set the CPU speed sliders and CPU Governors in the popup, and click the “Apply” button. My recommended profile settings (for my 800MHz kernel) follow.
   4. Enable the “Charging” profile. Set to 550 Max, 250 Min, ondemand. You don’t want to overclock while charging, because the battery is already hotter while charging, and you don’t want to overheat your phone.
   5. Enable the “Sleep/Standby” profile. Set to 550 Max, 400 Min, ondemand. You can set the minimum speed to 250MHz, but I like 400MHz, because the phone wakes up a little faster.
   6. Enable the “Battery Profiles”, which will be in use most of the time you actually are using the phone. You have to set up all 3 profiles for them to work. I like to set them to scale back the CPU speed as the battery is depleted.
      1. Enable a “Power < 100%” profile. Set to 800 Max, 400 Min, ondemand, if battery is under 100%.
      2. Enable a “Power < 50%” profile. Set to 600 Max, 400 Min, ondemand, if battery is under 50%. This steps down the CPU a bit to eke out more battery life.
      3. Enable a “Power < 15%” profile. Set to 550 Max, 250 Min, ondemand, if battery is under 15%. This steps down the CPU a bit more to eke out more battery life.
   7. Leave the “Failsafe Profile” as is, and enabled. This profile kicks in when the phone starts to overheat. I’ve never had my phone overheat for any reason. SetCPU reports the battery temperature of my phone as 30° C to 40° C, which is well under the danger zone for this CPU (which starts, I believe, at 50°C).

After all this, your phone will be overclocked during use and underclocked at rest. I find that a little overclocking makes the Droid a lot more pleasant to use, and doesn’t hamper battery life much, and doesn’t affect stability at all. The whole process will cost you about $2 for SetCPU. If you love ROM Manager, buy that app, too, and support the developers. The premium version of ROM Manager unlocks a lot of ROMs and themes, and provides notifications if an update is available for your ROM.

Timeriffic allows you to change your phone’s volume (ringer and notifications), wifi, Bluetooth, screen brightness, and airplane mode, based on whatever day and time schedules you create. It is easy to set up (though the UI colors are kind of garish), stable (no force closes), and has almost no effect on battery life.

Timeriffic

I use Timeriffic to silence my phone while I am asleep. Typically, I don’t receive phone calls in the middle of the night, but I receive a lot of notifications, which I don’t want to wake me up. Silencing the ringer or notifications with Timeriffic is an all-or-nothing setting. The downside to Timeriffic, as opposed to Locale, is that you can’t “whitelist” phone numbers to ensure that certain people can reach you, even when you’re phone is set to silent. That isn’t a problem for me, but then again, I don’t have a job that requires me to be on call.

Locale has more features and a better user interface, but it is way too expensive, for what it is, to recommend. For my needs, the free Timeriffic is more than adequate.

NewsRob solves the loading time problem for me by fetching updates from Reader on a regular (configurable) basis. It will download the feed, the entire article, and, if you want, the entire web page (mobile or regular). You can choose to be notified of feed updates via the Android notification system, or via a home screen widget (I prefer the latter). NewsRob will sync your read/unread, starred, and shared items back to Google Reader.

NewsRob

I like using NewsRob because it saves me time. It was definitely worth the cost to buy the Pro version, because the notifications, widget, and improved loading time of articles allows me to consume my RSS feeds far quicker than Google Reader’s mobile version does alone. If you are a heavy Google Reader user, I recommend NewsRob for your Android phone.

* A free, ad-supported version is coming/available.

Later, a coworker recommended I try out Touchdown, a $20 app that integrates Exchange with my Android phone. Instead of a monthly fee to Verizon, you pay the developers one time for registration. It’s definitely an acceptable trade-off. I’ve used Touchdown daily for months now, and think that it is worth every penny.

Touchdown's home screen

Touchdown works very well. Its interface won’t blow you away, but it is certainly easy enough to use, and the push notifications and home screen widgets work perfectly. The initial setup wizard used to connect with the Exchange server is easy to use. The other settings are voluminous and a little intimidating, but it is nice that the app allows you to tweak it so thoroughly.

Having work email on your smartphone is a mixed blessing, I’ve found, but it is hard to argue against having appointment reminders (i.e., your work calendar) on your phone. If you’re on Verizon, and would like Exchange support without adding more costs to your contract, Touchdown is the app of choice.