We even forced ourselves to limit the design to a single simple window. Literally the only requirement we had was “small” Plex has plenty of bigger apps already, but nothing that sits unobtrusively on a desktop, beguiling and delighting. Plex, on the other hand, provides a best-in-class client/server model, an extremely metadata rich library, is highly portable, and gives you access to your entire music collection from anywhere in the world we wanted to pair this with a similarly excellent music player. Written in a low-level language, it ran on Windows, and was limited to playing files on the local (or networked) filesystem. The most classic and beloved small audio player, Winamp, was first released almost exactly TWENTY years ago. It all started over a beer - as most great things do - re-envisioning what a tiny and powerful music player might look like in 2017. Plex co-founder Elan Feingold mentioned that the Plexamp team forced itself to think small in terms of the app's footprint, so it could act as a miniature companion to Plex's larger apps. In terms of the interface, the app's default setting appears to be around the size of a miniaturized iTunes player, and it features four different sizes in total "including one that hides the app entirely." Plexamp's minimalism extends into its buttons, which appear when needed and otherwise stay hidden. More in-depth features include Spotlight-like search for your entire Plex music library, gapless playback, soft transitions when pausing, resuming and changing tracks, and loudness leveling to normalize playback volume across different albums. The Winamp-inspired app works similar to a native Mac app (so media keys and notifications are supported), plays "just about any music format," can remote control other Plex players and vice-versa, and supports offline playback. The first such project is called " Plexamp," a macOS and Windows app that pulls from your existing Plex music library and accumulates it all into one miniaturized interface (via The Next Web). Outside of work, Manuel enjoys a good film or TV show, loves to travel, and you will find him roaming one of Berlin's many museums, cafés, cinemas, and restaurants occasionally.This week Plex announced Plex Labs, a new internal section of the company that focuses on sharing in-depth Medium posts, community ideas, and passion projects created by Plex engineers. This helps him gain perspective on the mobile industry at large and gives him multiple points of reference in his coverage. Since then, he has mostly been faithful to the Google phone lineup, though these days, he is also carrying an iPhone in addition to his Pixel phone. After his HTC One S refused to connect to mobile internet despite three warranty repairs, he quickly switched to a Nexus 4, which he considers his true first Android phone. Manuel's first steps into the Android world were plagued by issues. He isn't shy to dig into technical backgrounds and the nitty-gritty developer details, either. Manuel studied Media and Culture studies in Düsseldorf, finishing his university career with a master's thesis titled "The Aesthetics of Tech YouTube Channels: Production of Proximity and Authenticity." His background gives him a unique perspective on the ever-evolving world of technology and its implications on society. He has been covering tech news and reviewing devices since joining Android Police as a news writer in 2019. Manuel Vonau is Android Police's Google Editor, with expertise in Android, Chrome, and other Google products - the very core of Android Police’s content. The app uses the same codebase as Plexamp, making both applications behave mostly similar on a visual level. You can view all playbacks across multiple servers from your phone, and it's possible to edit artworks and metadata without ever touching a keyboard and mouse. The app gives you all of the features available on the web service. Plex created Dash to make managing your files easier. For a deep dive into all the considerations that went into creating the app, check out Plex' Medium post. Other than a Tidal integration, you also have access to a discovery radio, custom mixes, stations, and downloads - it feels pretty much like a streaming service of its own. It lets you explore your historic top charts, like what you were listening to in Fall 2019 or what music from the 60s you like the most. The player has a SoundCloud-esque seek bar and blurred backgrounds, with colors extracted from the album art. Being an audio app, Plexamp comes with the OPUS codec that ensures high quality at low bitrates and caches songs for instantaneous playback.
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