“Music Junk” is an application that you can currently find nestled quietly within the Android Market that I believe is one of the most underrated and unknown applications to date. While most people get their music fix from more well known sources like “Pandora” or “Slacker”, I stumbled upon “Music Junk” and will never look back. At only 496kb, it is well worth the space it takes up. I recommend using a larger Micro-SD card when downloading music because it quickly filled up the 256mb card I use for media in my G1. Let me start off by saying that yes, you can find and download music from major label bands and artists using this application, but I am not saying that is what you should use it for. However, for the sake of this review, I will reference major label artists because I know most of you will be using it for that reason.
After you install “Music Junk”, you will be greeted by a rather plain looking home screen. Do not let this deter you, the inner workings are more than enough compensation for the dull design. Remember, it's about what's inside that counts. You will see the logo GHOR Corp. (the developer) chose for this application as well as the version number. As of this review, I am running the most recent version which happens to be v3.0.4. You are given the following options on the home screen as well...
-Search Box
-Editor
-Settings
-Exit
SEARCH BOX:
When you tap on the “Search Box” text you are brought to the main menu of the application. You will see two tabs on the top of the screen. One is the search tab and the other is the downloads tab. If you type something into the search box on the search tab screen, for instance “Bob Dylan”, you will be greeted with a whole slew of songs by Mr. Dylan. For me, the first song that is listed is “Like A Rolling Stone”. If you long-press the song title, you are given the option to either preview, read the lyrics or download the song. If you choose preview, it will stream the song from it's source and will not be saved to your Micro-SD card. However, once the song is loaded, you have the option to save it. If you choose Lyrics, a pop up will appear with the song title and lyrics of the song. You are also then given the option to save the lyrics text on your card, copy the text to your clipboard or cancel the dialog box and return to the previous screen. Finally, the meat and potatoes of the application, the download option. If you choose to download the song, it will appear in the downloads tab of the application where you can see a progress bar of how long it will take for the transfer to finish.
EDITOR:
If you select the editor from the main screen, you will be sent to a screen which shows all of the folders that are present on your Micro-SD card. If you navigate to the “Music” folder, you will see all of the songs that you downloaded from the application (as well as any music you have manually added). If you click a file, you will be met with a dialog box which features three text input spaces. One for the artist, one for the album title and lastly one for the song title. This is for those pesky files you downloaded which may have an incorrectly spelled album name or if the song title is missing spaces or apostrophes. It's quite a good feature that was missing in the earlier versions of this application. It wasn't something that I would have thought to add but the fact that it was added shows that GHOR Corp. is looking to maximize usability and not have their users search for other applications to do things that could have very well been fixed within theirs. Kudos on that choice.
SETTINGS:
Oh, settings. Most of the time you're just a boring section that most people ignore. However, within “Music Junk”, it's better off if you visit this option. Within the settings menu you are given only three things to change. The first is the download path. This allows you to change what folder your downloaded tracks are located. That way, if you didn't want your songs to be gathered within the defaulted and aforementioned “Music” folder, you can switch it to something that you would prefer more. The next option is to change the maximum search results. Referencing my earlier search, when I looked for “Bob Dylan”, the maximum search amount was sixty and it very well met that number. However, you can choose anywhere between thirty and one hundred and fifty. It all depends on you. Finally, the last option in settings is whether or not you would like the size of the songs to be listed along with the titles and artists. This takes more time for the search to finish, so I personally keep this option off.
EXIT:
Exit takes you right back to your home screen and out of the application.
“Music Junk” is opened daily on my Android device. I find myself using it when I hear an old obscure song that I haven't heard in years pop on the radio or while watching television. Whether it's a classic singer-songwriter like Bob Dylan, a world renowned pop star like Katy Perry, a controversial rapper like Kanye West or an indie band like Band of Horses- “Music Junk” has it all and the developer seems like they will be continuously updating and innovating. I hope to see this application grow leaps and bounds. I will be giving it a perfect score because while there are some things I hope that they fix, I firmly believe they will be fixed in a good and timely fashion.
PROS:
-Great selection of music.
-Amazing developer.
-Music ID editor.
CONS:
-Dull user interface.
-Sometimes a download will fail if the source is corrupt.
-RichieHD (6/8/2010)
After you install “Music Junk”, you will be greeted by a rather plain looking home screen. Do not let this deter you, the inner workings are more than enough compensation for the dull design. Remember, it's about what's inside that counts. You will see the logo GHOR Corp. (the developer) chose for this application as well as the version number. As of this review, I am running the most recent version which happens to be v3.0.4. You are given the following options on the home screen as well...
-Search Box
-Editor
-Settings
-Exit
SEARCH BOX:
When you tap on the “Search Box” text you are brought to the main menu of the application. You will see two tabs on the top of the screen. One is the search tab and the other is the downloads tab. If you type something into the search box on the search tab screen, for instance “Bob Dylan”, you will be greeted with a whole slew of songs by Mr. Dylan. For me, the first song that is listed is “Like A Rolling Stone”. If you long-press the song title, you are given the option to either preview, read the lyrics or download the song. If you choose preview, it will stream the song from it's source and will not be saved to your Micro-SD card. However, once the song is loaded, you have the option to save it. If you choose Lyrics, a pop up will appear with the song title and lyrics of the song. You are also then given the option to save the lyrics text on your card, copy the text to your clipboard or cancel the dialog box and return to the previous screen. Finally, the meat and potatoes of the application, the download option. If you choose to download the song, it will appear in the downloads tab of the application where you can see a progress bar of how long it will take for the transfer to finish.
EDITOR:
If you select the editor from the main screen, you will be sent to a screen which shows all of the folders that are present on your Micro-SD card. If you navigate to the “Music” folder, you will see all of the songs that you downloaded from the application (as well as any music you have manually added). If you click a file, you will be met with a dialog box which features three text input spaces. One for the artist, one for the album title and lastly one for the song title. This is for those pesky files you downloaded which may have an incorrectly spelled album name or if the song title is missing spaces or apostrophes. It's quite a good feature that was missing in the earlier versions of this application. It wasn't something that I would have thought to add but the fact that it was added shows that GHOR Corp. is looking to maximize usability and not have their users search for other applications to do things that could have very well been fixed within theirs. Kudos on that choice.
SETTINGS:
Oh, settings. Most of the time you're just a boring section that most people ignore. However, within “Music Junk”, it's better off if you visit this option. Within the settings menu you are given only three things to change. The first is the download path. This allows you to change what folder your downloaded tracks are located. That way, if you didn't want your songs to be gathered within the defaulted and aforementioned “Music” folder, you can switch it to something that you would prefer more. The next option is to change the maximum search results. Referencing my earlier search, when I looked for “Bob Dylan”, the maximum search amount was sixty and it very well met that number. However, you can choose anywhere between thirty and one hundred and fifty. It all depends on you. Finally, the last option in settings is whether or not you would like the size of the songs to be listed along with the titles and artists. This takes more time for the search to finish, so I personally keep this option off.
EXIT:
Exit takes you right back to your home screen and out of the application.
“Music Junk” is opened daily on my Android device. I find myself using it when I hear an old obscure song that I haven't heard in years pop on the radio or while watching television. Whether it's a classic singer-songwriter like Bob Dylan, a world renowned pop star like Katy Perry, a controversial rapper like Kanye West or an indie band like Band of Horses- “Music Junk” has it all and the developer seems like they will be continuously updating and innovating. I hope to see this application grow leaps and bounds. I will be giving it a perfect score because while there are some things I hope that they fix, I firmly believe they will be fixed in a good and timely fashion.
PROS:
-Great selection of music.
-Amazing developer.
-Music ID editor.
CONS:
-Dull user interface.
-Sometimes a download will fail if the source is corrupt.
-RichieHD (6/8/2010)
