n-Stream Alternative For Android Users?

I use Bubble upnp with my Unitiqute and although it works quite well if I had the choice over again I'd go with another manufacturer who actually supports android. When I bought the unitiqute 14 months ago I was told by dealer (who quoted naim) that an Android app was imminent.

I bought an iPad air specifically for the N-Stream app.  Most expensive remote control I've ever bought but I do like the app.

A second hand early iPod touch would be £40 or so..... Or an old iphone for £100 or less.  

I had a similar issue with my dealer who told me airplay would happen by May 2012 as an update for my Uniti. I'm still waiting, and that is an apple product too!

Hi All,

Thanks for the swift responses; I guess I'll have to find an alternative to the Naim hardware as I'm not prepared to fork out even more money for an Aple product I have no desire to own. I'm still astonished that they are happy to let their sales suffer to such a degree, especially when the n-Stream app is doing much of the work in terms of selling the hardware in the stores. Once you realise it won't work with your own tablet / phone etc, it loses most of its appeal because you begrudge spending over £1,500 on an amplifier which has so much functionality that you cannot access (and let's be honest, have actually paid for!).

Software has become an absolutely essential component of most hardware sales these days. Just look at the Wii: U. It's very innovative, yet failed miserably due to a lack of software to drive the consumption of the hardware.

Maybe they will release an n-Stream for Android eventually, but I don't have the patience to wait.

Thanks again all,

Regards,

Scott.

Is it really that difficult to build an android app compared to an apple one?

Seems silly for Naim to risk losing sales by being tardy here. There is obviously some problem but the Ryanair approach may be applicable, give £10k to young gun with the requisite capabilities. 

It it would be interesting to know what the problems are though. 

SJB

I am by far not a tech expert but probably one of the problems is creating a Android program that works on every version of Android. I have a couple friends who have Android phones, they like them more than iPhones for their own reasons but I asked them to look at what version they had for operating systems since they were all using different phones. They also had different operating systems.

So you would have to make a completely backwards compatible program to encompass the mass of Android users.

I believe that the iPhone is a superior product. There are many reasons but I am not getting into that.

Surely Naim just support the current version and then if someone wants to use it they upgrade to that version. There are plenty of cross platform apps. It doesn't bother me as I'm typing this on an iPad but   whatever about widows vs mac support android has at least half the smartphone market and it doesn't make sense not to pull the stops out to support it. 

SJB

You don't understand the Android world.  Google decides which companies and which phones gets the updates and when. 

Only Google phones are released the latest version of Android and all the rest get told when they're getting their update.  Some of them aren't even on the 2nd latest version.  It's Googles way of making their phones more desirable.

Also, due to the open nature of Android, phone companies add their own interface which is their code.  Anyone coding an app for Android has literally dozens of devices to support whereas coding for Apple just means doing it for one system.

I have a Google Nexus 4 phone and like it but checking the reviews of any app I download I'm struck by the amount of comments along the lines of "doesn't work on Samsung Galaxy 3" "app crashes on phone x but not phone y".

If the Android world was like Apple and every manufacturer used the same version of Android without adding their own interface then it would be easy for Naim to make an Android version of N-Stream.  Can you imagine trying to support an app for an operating system knowing full well every phones manufacturer using it would have their own peculiarities? 

The open nature of Android is a good thing but it also brings some liabilities. Liabilities Apple have avoided by their singular approach.

Edit.  I always swore I wouldn't buy Apple products but the UQ2 changed my mind.

Having worked for a major software vendor for many years, I can imagine supporting android would be similar to supporting Unix - Which flavour os, version and chip set combinations? The permutations when it comes to quality assurance testing alone can become onerous and is one of the reasons one can wait so long for an upgrade to become available.

So, application porting or redevelopment efforts aside, I can understand why Naim haven't released a version yet. They may well do so in the future, but you may be disappointed to find out that it's not supported for your specific device/os combination. I would imagine they will support only the most popular android devices...

As others have suggested, buy a secondhand iPad and use it until a version for android comes out for your device. When one does, you can then sell the iPad on at that time. Why cut off your nose to spite your face?

Otherwise best of luck

I use Bubble UPNP with a 172XS. I can change volume, but can not change to different inputs from the app. I have not used nstream since I do not own Iphone/Ipad. As UPNP server I have tried ReadyDLNA (ReadyNAS Duo v1) and Asset (PC). I have problem with ReadyDNLA since it only shows upscaled thumbnails instead of high res album art.

I think Naim need to really make a big push in terms of software development.  The fact that i had to use a serial cable to update my unitii last night is a bit of a joke TBH.  

There iPhone app seems a bit "agricultural" shall we say, in terms of the overall UI - for instance the  transport bar at the bottom seems to be made from low res images, not a big deal but slightly amateurish.  Also I notice the web front end for the uniti looks like it was designed by a 12 year old, and is very limited.  I appreciate they are not a software company but still, this is expensive equipment  .

Volume control has been possible using Bubble or any other UPnP control point for as long as I have had a Uniti. Naim support DLNA / UPnP pretty well... the shortcomings in control points are usually down to the app or a limitation of the protocol (e.g. no standard input switching / FM Radio tuning / on-device playlists).

Steve.

I've always said that if you want stuff to just work, have the money and are happy with doing as Apple says then buy Apple devices (and only Apple). On the other hand, if you want more choice of form factors, features and price points then go for something else... sometimes at the expense of the "just works" part.

Backwards compatibility also affects Apple - they don't provide IOS7 for early devices so there is no assurance that a later version of nstream will work on a £50 ipod touch running an old version of IOS. The differences between android API versions not so great for standard apps and 80% of applications in music and audio run on 4.0+. The biggest issue is that Android has soooo many possible screen resolutions.

Google may decide who gets the very latest updates, which is why I opted for a Nexus phone this time, but a lot is down to the market and manufacturers. My Samsung Galaxy Tab took 12 months to get an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich and has now been forgotten. Google didn't tell them to do that but I guess Samsung I will buy some new hardware to get new software (and it won't be Samsung when I do).

Note that Apple's control runs to dictating which hardware chips are allowed to be used for things like Airplay, which means that if the Uniti is using an unsupported one we won't see AirPlay on it.

Steve.

Some interesting points made about software development and reasons why the Android  app has not appeared . Surely the technical issues were known to naim which begs the question why they said (via dealers and media) an App was on the way within months,  when clearly they knew that was not going to happen any time soon.

I have an old iPod Touch and it won't run the latest versions of Nstream - ios has it's own issues with backwards compatibility.

I have an old version of Nstream on it but much prefer my Android tablet with Bubbleupnp - using Bubbleupnp Server  (free) in conjunction makes it much less flakey.

A classic sales trap - selling futures...

Jota and Timster,

you are both very wrong.

Google do not control when 3rd party manufacturers get android updates - thats up to the third party manufacturers.

Developing an app for multiple android versions is also trivial - it s designed that way - you just specify the minimum version you support and bobs your uncle. Its even easier when you are developing an application that would use standard UI components, because its simple supporting different resolution screens.

There's a lot of fud out there about android which belongs in the past (years in the past).

I bought my NDX about two years ago and was told an android app was on the way. LOL. I have given up hope of ever seeing one.

Its a shame that people are prejudiced against android :-( it really is gaining ground (because it is so good) whilst iOS is slipping (68% worldwide market share to android and only 18.5%  iOS) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...p_in_kantar_reports/

ho hum

Nah.....  Leave that to software companies.

They have developed their own software/hardware eco system and mostly locked it to their equipment, nothing new. 

We could do with WAV hi-res files coming into that eco system for tagging/metadata etc, perhaps let a software developer offer them some neat ideas, or do they sub-out already?

If it was so easy they'd have done it.  It's been 2 years and nothing, which suggests it's not as easy as you think it is.

I don't 'think' its trivial, I know it is. I develop android software.