Hi Dane,
I'm replying to your initial email on purpose because what you said
is very
interesting and of course true.
The point for me isn't though that it isn't possible to play my files
with
the IPhone, but that it's more complicated or implies more knowledge of
hardware and software than with, say, another mp3 player or mobile
phone or
smartphone. This I can just plug into my computer and copy the files
to the
device or I can insert large sd drives plus having the possibilities you
mentioned, at least with a smartphone.
So I think it's rather like this: If you compromise to playing music
with a
non-jailbreaked--or is it broken?--IPhone, you'll have to accept the
more
tedious ways of moving around things, i.e. buying an app here and a hard
drive there.
I for my part use the amazon cloud player which gives me enough music to
listen to whenever I feel like doing so on the IPhone which I usually
don't
and play all the rest with my Plextalk Pocket, which involves other
ways of
compromising. Smiles
Take care
Alexandra
-----Original Message-----
From: Pc-audio [mailto:pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org] On Behalf Of Dane
Trethowan
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2014 2:36 AM
To: PC Audio Discussion List
Subject: Playing Your! Files On An IOS Device
Hi!
I’ve decided to post an eMail on this subject for a variety of reasons,
the
main being that there seems to be a myth doing the rounds, the myth
says
that its impossible! to play third party content such as different
audio
file
formats etc on an iPhone or other IOS devices.
This is - to a major extent - true if you’re using say the iPhone’s
“Music
Player” App. This - to me at least - is not a big issue as every
operating
system with its built-in features does have its limitations, you
cannot -
as far
as I know - play FLAC files in Windows Media Player for example
unless you
use a third party plug-in so essentially we’re referring to the same
type
of
problem but with different operating systems.
The other annoyance with IOS is that - unless you have an adapter
available
from Apple - you cannot copy your music files from say your computer
over
a USB connection to a particular folder on your iPhone of your choosing
but
again, there are ways around that snag.
Okay so its best not to focus on what can’t be done and focus on
what can
be
done so let’s do that with IOS.
The first App you’ll need is a Player and there are several good
one’s out
there but for the sake of simplicity let’s focus on two, oOplayer
and File
Browser, both do exactly what their names suggest.
With both you can set up remote locations such as a Dropbox account,
computer on a local or remote network, UPNP/DLNA device and so on,
when configured you can then select what files you wish to hear or
view.
Now supposing you want to take your iPhone away from any network and
want your favourite music to accompany you? No problem as both the
aforementioned Apps will allow you to download your Music from a
specific
point - computer, Dropbox account etc - right to a folder on your
iPhone
where you can browse, play and manipulate your files to your hearts
content.
So this brings us to another possibly challenging topic, iPhones
have only
so
much storage space so what if you have thousands upon thousands of
files
you wish to access at any one time or supposing your music
collection is
in a
Lossless format that takes up a good deal of space?
If this is the case then its time to look at a pocket sized hard drive
with a
built-in Wi-Fi network, I mentioned my Skyshare drive towards the
end of
last week and this drive has its own built-in Wi-Fi network which the
iPhone
can connect to.
Once connected the Apps I mentioned earlier - oOplayer and File
Browser -
have direct access to the drive thus the content you’ve placed too the
drive.
The Skyshare drive on the surface looks like any other portable hard
drive, it
has a USB port on the back for connection to a computer with a USB 3.0
port
for the copying and manipulation of content, you can also use the Wi-Fi
abilities of the drive for copying/manipulating files though this
process
is
considerably slower when compared to USB 3.0 or even 2.