From https://github.com/abarisain/dmix/issues/656
It is with great disappointment that I'm using this space to announce that Google made the harsh decision to remove MPDroid[*] from the Play Store. If they remove it, as they told me they will, 1.07 will be the last update you will get automatically from the Play Store. For information, Google removed MPDroid for 'Copyright infringement' without telling us what we did wrong, and we lost the appeal without being able to speak to a human.
[*] Ed's note/update: MPDroid is, apparently, an application that runs on Android and serves as an interface to Music Player Daemon:
Music Player Daemon (MPD) is a flexible, powerful, server-side application for playing music. Through plugins and libraries it can play a variety of sound files while being controlled by its network protocol.
(Score: 3, Informative) by stormwyrm on Tuesday December 02 2014, @09:40AM
The summary should have mentioned something about the Music Player Daemon [musicpd.org] that MPDroid is designed to be able to control and stream music from.
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday December 02 2014, @10:13AM
I've included the link - thank you
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 02 2014, @11:55AM
MPDroid should not link to MPD's page, they are not the same. MPD should be mentioned in the summary so people know what MPDroid is for.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Tuesday December 02 2014, @01:20PM
Done. And done! Thanks for the explanation/clarification, and the courteous manner in which you called it to our attention!
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by TheGratefulNet on Tuesday December 02 2014, @09:48AM
I use mpd at home since its a good 'native' linux app and proper server/client design. mpd runs on small embedded hardware (even a rasp pi) and you can use remote guis (web, etc) to manage the music playback. that's where mpdroid comes in.
fwiw, I am still suck at a very old android (nexus one) and only a truly old mpdroid will even compile for my platform anymore. I did ask the author for the tagged source that was last known to work with binary xyz version but he does not tag his tree! he was not able to bring up the exact versions of code he used to do that old build. I found that pretty odd, to be honest, and I did not have confidence in the project.
I froze the old binary and I keep it around for when my phone crashes and I have to reinstall, but I can't build one from source since its not known HOW and what versions of each file was used ;(
kind of a shame. I would have liked to learn android devel (just a little) and I had ideas for this kind of app, but not if it can't be built for older platforms. and my old phone is an ideal 'remote control' for this kind of thing, so not supporting older androids is a huge mistake for THIS kind of app. it does not need a big/fast phone to do what it does and not supporting older versions is really a bad move.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 02 2014, @11:59AM
The app never really worked for me on a newer android either. Being very slow to connect and interact, and often crashing. I have since switched to using Unified Remote, which I use to automatically execute mpc commands on my server (having added play/pause/skip icons to my android).
(Score: 2) by cykros on Tuesday December 02 2014, @02:25PM
While streaming directly through it has never worked for me over mobile data, it always has worked well for me as a controller for MPD, and I just use deadbeef or some other streaming app to actually stream the music.
The nice thing about MPD is that it can be controlled by literally hundreds if not thousands of various clients, so I don't foresee this entirely wrecking anyone's day. It is perhaps one of the more convenient options around though. With any luck, they'll throw it onto f-droid and it'll live on outside of the Play Store empire.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 02 2014, @10:51AM
Can't they distribute the app some other way?
Then if Google does this to many other legit and popular apps, it would eventually weaken their control over apps and that doesn't sound so bad to me.
(Score: 1) by Dogeball on Tuesday December 02 2014, @11:09AM
Aptoide http://m.aptoide.com/ [aptoide.com] is probably the best alternative for distributing android apps: it allows you to create your own 'storefront' for apps you wish to distribute.
This, along with Amazon's app store, is the usual way for me to install Android apps to my Jolla.
(Score: 3, Informative) by WillR on Tuesday December 02 2014, @02:26PM
(Score: 1) by Nerdfest on Tuesday December 02 2014, @10:57AM
One of the nice things about Android is you're not locked to a specific software repository. The app also seems to be available from F-Droid [f-droid.org]. It's a nice source of open source software, with lots of the usual Linux stuff on there as well. I should note that there is at least one other MPD client on the Google store as well.
(Score: 1) by radu on Tuesday December 02 2014, @12:26PM
https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=mpdroid&fdid=com.namelessdev.mpdroid [f-droid.org]
(Score: 1) by TheRaven on Tuesday December 02 2014, @02:04PM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 02 2014, @06:34PM
OSMAnd~ is better than the commercial build even though it does lag behind in updates.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday December 02 2014, @02:54PM
Can you have two software repositories simultaneously without a fuss?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 02 2014, @02:59PM
On F-Droid? Yes.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Tuesday December 02 2014, @05:15PM
Someone else answered for F-Droid itself (yes), and you can do the same with Android itself. Each rpo is really just an app. I install and get updates from Google, Amazon, and F-Droid.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday December 03 2014, @08:12PM
Unfortunately it seems a lot of these app stores don't work as well as the more "official" ones (Play and Amazon being the two I'm most familiar with). I've used F-Droid a bit in the past, but a lot of apps fail to update. AdBlock Plus is one such example -- if you install through F-Droid, the package signatures don't match the official package, which will cause it to throw an error when it tries to update. Seems to be a pretty well known issue, but I haven't found any way to fix that other than simply not using F-Droid for that... :(
Had some similar problems with Orbot too I think, and ended up removing that and reinstalling through the Play store to fix it.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Wednesday December 03 2014, @10:34PM
As far as I know, AdAway isn't allowed in the Google store ... I was under the impression that the F-Droid version was the 'official' one. Updates work for me, but there are signature conflicts between the Play store and F-Droid when apps exist in both places.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 02 2014, @06:03PM
I've considered F-Droid in the past but I believe I read or heard somewhere that there are security risks because the code is not signed or cannot be verified that it has not been altered from what the author had uploaded.
Is this true?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 02 2014, @06:36PM
I think that is true if you use their website, but I think they sign everything they distribute through their application.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday December 02 2014, @12:59PM
I've noticed a trend by google to intentionally fragment their app store. I'm fairly mystified why.
So now I need "app store apps" like f-droid and humblebundle.
Fundamentally the kindle app and the ambling player and audible and amazon music are all app store apps where the app happens to be a sound file or a document, but whatever.
Its very strange behavior from google. Like they don't want an app store. Which might be true. There are likely already rumors circulating that the app store is going the way of google reader and wave and +. Oh wait + isn't dead yet.
(Score: 1) by GeminiDomino on Tuesday December 02 2014, @01:47PM
Yeah it is. Google's just tied monofilament wire to its appendages and hoped we wouldn't notice when it started to stink.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
(Score: 2) by meisterister on Wednesday December 03 2014, @12:20AM
No it isn't! You take that back! All five of us on + are quite thoroughly offended!
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 04 2014, @06:52PM
Works just fine for me. I only use it for Ingress related things (otherwise I wouldn't be using any social network), but it does its job.
(Score: 1) by Nerdfest on Tuesday December 02 2014, @02:15PM
I use Google+ quite a lot and have noticed it getting even more popular. Just perception perhaps. As for the app store, they still run their own single app store but have it segmented within the same app for music, video, etc. I like it that way personally. I love the fact that there are alternatives, although it sucks that a large number of them seem to be repositories of illegally copied or malware infected apps (the Chinese one mostly). Google, Amazon, and F-Droid are the only ones I really trust to any degree. Still, even the option is nice.
I'm wondering if the takedown for MPD client is just a mistake. They seem to have a lot of automated process and mistakes do happen.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday December 02 2014, @02:57PM
Seems google wants to avoid competition to their own music infrastructure?
Just proves that infrastructure can't be beholden to corporations which by definition have their own self interest.
(Score: 1) by Nerdfest on Tuesday December 02 2014, @05:18PM
Unlikely. There are hundreds of alternatives in their market, including other MPD clients.
(Score: -1) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 02 2014, @07:26PM
Personally, I would contact google HQ, and if they don't answer, file a lawsuit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 02 2014, @11:47PM
Download the apk from somewhere safe, side load it.