We’re hoping that these were issues with our own device and not problems with the Spotify app itself. So, Spotify is a cracking service, and the webOS app is a good, full-featured implementation. By launching on webOS, they’ve made themselves a key European launch partner for HP and Palm when a tablet device emerges next year. It is, however, disappointing to see poor performance and bugs when working on. Yes, its aweful that spotify web version does not work, even spotify said (when stopping to provide the app for Web OS on LG) that it should work in the browser. As spotify cannot support HTML5.0 web application for their service, still Adobe Flash is needed to start the web app of spotify. Which the current LG Web OS Broser doesnt support.
Review: Spotify for webOS
by jackofspeed on Wednesday, Nov 17, 2010
by jackofspeed on Wednesday, Nov 17, 2010
PreCentral forum member jackofspeed submits this review of the Spotify webOS app and service, as he's from the UK and can use Spotify
Webos Spotify App Free
Here in Europe (the land from whence this author hails), Spotify is kind of a big deal. When their webOS app became available last week, it was the end of a 12-month wait for those of us lucky enough to be able to get the Spotify service. To most of you though (i.e. the United States) it may be an unknown commodity, and this is as much a review of the service as it is the app.
A quick summary is in order: Spotify is a cloud-based music streaming service, not unlike Pandora, but with one key difference - you can choose exactly the music you want to play. It's as simple as that; if you want to listen to a specific artist’s new album, you just search for it and play it. What's more, if you don't mind a few adverts, it's free to do so! Alternatively, you can pay £4.99 a month for ad-free streaming to a computer at 160kbps, or £9.99 per month for ad-free streaming at 320kbps to a computer or mobile device.
The more expensive of these services also allows for offline storage of playlists (limited to around 3000 tracks) so playback can continue in the absence of a data connection. The service also supports collaboratively editable playlists, scrobbling, and social links via Facebook or as web links which can be used in any way you wish. Incorporation of local music into playlists is now supported as well, so the Spotify app can really act as a hub for all your music on your Pre or your desktop. Yes, you understood that correctly, Spotify does what iTunes does, but with a subscription service like Zune Pass built right in.
But what about webOS? Well the Spotify app supports all the features described above, provided you have a Premium subscription. You can build playlists on the phone or on the desktop app, and they sync through the cloud between devices in a totally transparent way. Got a good Spotify playlist already? Install the app and it's there, ready to go. You can hit play straightaway and it's off, playing your music pretty much instantly. This works flawlessly over Wi-Fi, and pretty much flawlessly over 3G GSM.
The killer feature of the Spotify app though is offline storage of playlists. You can set specific playlists to sync for local storage on the phone, and that playlist will be downloaded over Wi-Fi when the app is running (3G syncing is an option guaranteed to cream through your data allowance). The tracks are downloaded in Spotify's own proprietary DRM wrapper, and will fill up as much or as little of your device storage as you like. Once you have your tunes stored offline, you can play them to your heart’s content - even in the underground railways of which we are so fond in Europe.
Where Spotify really wins is in its use of the cloud, and in the social elements. For example, a group of friends can maintain a communal Spotify playlist, which any of them can add tracks to, and which they can all listen to independently of each other, with changes to the list being reflected to all listeners transparently. In addition to this, we maintain a “new music” playlist, so that as soon as we hear of some music we want to try out, we can add it to the playlist. Then, in the car, it’s already synced to the Pre and ready to go. If we like the tunes, we can quickly post a link to Facebook or Twitter, and any friends with a Spotify account can listen to it straightaway. The webOS app also provides the ability to share a Spotify link via e-mail or the native messaging app.
The Spotify UI is sleek black with a hint of Spotify green, and it pops up a notification bar (with album art underlaid) when the phone is locked. This dashboard bar (just like the native music app or drPodder) offers play/pause and forward and back skip buttons, and works a treat when the phone is being used as a pocket-based media player, or is on the Touchstone.
During our testing we experienced no crashes, hangs or significant issues, only a few performance issues we’ll come on to. However, syncing a large (500+ tracks) playlist over quite a shore, even over a speedy Wi-Fi connection. The issues were twofold. https://everjesus787.weebly.com/spotify-red-download-ios.html. Firstly, the phone (an original GSM Pre) got pretty hot during the transfer, and the exercise basically drained the previously full battery. Secondly, when the device powers down, the sync tends to stop. We found we needed to keep the slider open, and the device plugged in (on the Touchstone would also work) to keep the transfer going - the combination of heavy processor load, nonstop data usage, and battery replenishment did no favors for keeping the phone cool. However, this is a rare exercise, once your big playlists are on the device, changes and updates happen transparently and without issue.
Over time it became apparent that a few issues were beginning to develop. The stuttering problem when streaming over 3G wouldn’t go away, even when full signal strength was available. The notification bar sometimes stopped updating when the app moved onto the next track, continuing to display the first track played, and the Pre really began to bog down quite considerably. In fact, the 3G stuttering seems to be connected to system resources somehow – when the Pre received an e-mail or SMS message, the playback seemed to stutter. Following these problems, we decided to try the app on a different device, a Pixi Plus. It’s fair to say that the difference was significant - all the bugs we found disappeared instantly; stuttering was a thing of the past, the notification widget worked fine. Notably, playback seemed to be unaffected by other processes running on the device. It was beyond strange, considering how the Pre, even in non-Plus form, is still more powerful than the Pre Plus. We’re hoping that these were issues with our own device and not problems with the Spotify app itself.
So, Spotify is a cracking service, and the webOS app is a good, full-featured implementation. By launching on webOS, they’ve made themselves a key European launch partner for HP and Palm when a tablet device emerges next year. It is, however, disappointing to see poor performance and bugs when working on an original Pre, we’d have hoped that a bit of careful coding could have slimmed the app down a bit, and avoided these problems. It’s hard to imagine Spotify devoting resources to resolving this for a device which is already a year old in Europe, but let’s hope that they continue to maintain the app and roll out new features as they add them to their service.
![Webos Webos](/uploads/1/3/4/0/134037264/652721412.png)
Spotify is available for free from the App Catalog, though it does require a Spotify Premium subscription to run. Also, Spotify is only available in select European countries - we're still hoping wishing and waiting for a US version (though not getting our hopes up).
We run down the best features of LG’s webOS TV interface, found on all of LG’s shiny new telly boxes, including some of our tips and tricks to get the most out of webOS.
LG offers a great range of TVs that have people opening their wallets for those sexy OLED, 4K and HDR displays. But it’s the operating system that we’ve found is the unsung hero of the LG television line-up.
Now scarily in its third generation, the webOS platform was originally an open source program owned by Hewlett Packard, which LG then bought. Fans of the software had already helped to streamline webOS, long before LG got its hooks in. And after all these years, webOS offers a totally new and satisfying way to interact with your TV – something that other brands have since copied.
Here’s why webOS is so great, and the best features for getting the most out of your LG TV.
LG TV webOS tips and best bits: Quick access tabs
One really nice option is the ability to access menus, apps, local network files, AV inputs and more, all from a colourful menu of tabs that appear at the bottom of your TV screen. It’s like every feature is an app in a smartphone menu, something most of us are now well used to. This can be accessed at any time and allows you to dip into the TV’s offerings without much interruption to what you’re watching.
Webos Spotify App Android
If you’ve opted for one of the higher-end TVs and have the Magic Remote, a quick move to the bottom of the screen will wake the quick access tabs. There you have the likes of Netflix, Amazon Video, BBC iPlayer, Now TV, Spotify and more to open at a click. Those telly processors are plenty fast and apps open near instantly, even with the 4K and HDR-supported likes of Netflix and Amazon Video.
Webos Spotify App Download
You can also access your TV settings from this menu bar, and even reorganise the order of the tabs, but there is also a dedicated settings button for quick changes to things like picture and sound settings. A nice floating menu means you don’t have to interrupt what you’re watching; in fact, you can see any changes you make as you choose them, to pick your favourite settings to suit what’s on.
LG TV webOS tips and best bits: Set-top box friendly
LG has gone out of its way to make sure you only need to use a single remote for everything (just like the Sky Q wand), and with that Magic Remote you won’t want to use another anyway. By running your cable, Sky or other set-top box through the TV’s HDMI and optionally connecting an included IR blaster, you can control everything nice and easily.
The setup is simple, allowing you to quickly select your box from a list. At the time of publishing there was no option to choose the latest Sky Q box for quick setup sadly, but hopefully this will be coming soon.
LG TV webOS tips and best bits: The Magic Remote
While the Magic Remote is only included with the higher-end televisions, it’s the operating system’s ability to make it work so well that impresses. A slight movement and the cursor will appear on-screen. Then no matter where you point the remote, your wrist movements will be mimicked on the screen.
The detailing is fantastic. Need to enter details to login to an app or search for a movie? Just pop the keyboard up and then move the remote subtly, which allows you to type almost as fast as you could using your fingers on a keyboard.
If you’re struggling with the on-screen keyboard, try voice control instead. It can be activated at any time and is super-quick.
LG TV webOS tips and best bits: Multitasking
Multitasking means that your LG TV can effectively run two apps at once, or keep an app running in the background while you flick through menus. This is really useful if – for instance – you’re watching Netflix and want to pop out for a moment to check the Sky schedule or find out the latest footy scores. Since these “apps” are still running on the telly, you can go right back into one and continue where you left off without the need to wait for loading.
This all works impressively fast. You shouldn’t notice any lag when jumping about even between a handful of inputs. https://everjesus787.weebly.com/blog/spotify-tv-app-discontinued. On top of that, we haven’t seen any freezing or fails, even when using multiple apps streaming 4K and HDR content.
LG TV webOS tips and best bits: Flinging media
LG webOS makes watching locally-stored content really straight forward. Streaming from a computer, NAS drive, phone or tablet is pretty simple using the DLNA setup.
If your other device has Miracast, that makes it super easy to just fling media onto the big screen, and you can even screen mirror. This is particularly useful for certain streaming video sites that might not be on LG’s platform, like CrunchyRoll or a certain less reputable insanely popular video streaming website; just open it on your mobile and have it play fullscreen mirrored on your telly. This is easily done via the LG TV Plus app.
LG TV webOS tips and best bits: Bean Bird
You’ve got to love Bean Bird. This is a friendly cartoon bird creature that guides you through the setup menu initially and occasionally pops up again from time to time. Remember the paperclip from Microsoft Word? Bean Bird is not that. It’s much cooler, much more fun and we want to see more in the next webOS update. Take note LG.