Android 4.0 - Samba - Music/Media Player

[pgmrdlm]

First,, last night my Asus Transformer T101 firmware updated to Icecream. That's just a good news item for anyone that may be interested.

Hardware
Asus dual core T101 Transformer - Not Rooted

OS
Android 4.03

Question 1
I have read some of the update posts about IceCream, but haven't seen anything concerning Samba. It seems to be mostly a standardization across devices with regard to home screens and viewing. Thats my impression, which isn't worth squat.

Was there any samba specific updates for this OS version?

Question 2
I know that samba mounts/media players are an outstanding question and have seen topics/posts up to late 2011. But they were all on previous versions of Android.

So lets run with this.

I have ES File explorer which will connect to samba shares. It also has a media player which allows me to play both movies of various file types and my music. BUT, I haven't figured out as yet how to create/save play lists.
Also, I don't see anyway to create a mount point that can be used by other clients for accessing samba shares.
Anyone have any more information/knowledge on this one?

Question 3
If ES File explorer can access samba shares, without me rooting my device, then there quite obviously is a way for applications to have access to this network location. Without rooting your device
Does anyone know of a more robust music/media player that has this capability. To access a samba location for its media sources?

1). I don't want to root the device, not comfortable doing this. Weird, my samba file server is FreeBSD and I update this from command line on a regular basis. Have no GUI installed at all, all remote connection/update. Install the OS from scratch also, regularly. And I don't feel comfortable updating android. Slap me silly, but it is what it is.

2). I don't mind paying for the app. People are writing software for others, they deserved to be paid. I'm in the IT business, just I'm old and so is my skill set when it comes to application development. And even if I leap into the fire, and learn a new language. I have never written software for network access.

Question 3?
Is there another network access solution besides Samba that would be standard for most media applications?

I'm completely comfortable updating FreeBSD, so and find network solution wise, there are many third party solutions available.


Thank you in advance for any an all thought given to my question.

Dan

 

[jae_63]

I didn't read your post completely, but I too have wished for an app which would allow you to create playlists directly onto your samba share.

I use AndSMB to access my NAS. Note that it provides intents which make it possible in principle to achieve this goal.

http://www.lysesoft.com/products/andsmb/intent.html

Here is one open source playlist creator which could be adapted (using the above-mentioned intents) to achieve this goal. I wish I had time to do this myself, but I don't.

http://code.google.com/p/android-dynamic-playlist/source/checkout