Let's play "Find the download button"
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So I finally created a DI.fm account because I got tired of not having media controls available when playing music, and in order to download a .pls file you need an account.
Once I had my account, I managed to find a "Select player" entry in a menu conveniently only marked by a cog icon. I selected VLC and got a .pls file. So far, not THAT bad. But when I switched the channel this is what I got:
I assure you, the download button is on this image. Can you find it?
I know what you're thinking, you're clicking the VLC icon, aren't you? Nope, not even a link, just an image there.
Change your player settings is a link. But that's stupid, I don't want to change a thing, I want a .pls, not .itunes or whatever it is.
Did you guess that it's the play button? No, it won't launch the web player, it's actually the link to a .pls file.
Does it make some kind of a twisted sense? I guess so, but damn is it confusing. What IS it with web interfaces lately? Have we all forgot how links used to look like?
Filed under: everything's a phone
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I rarely use DI.fm's web interface, since most of the time I just use the mobile app and stream it in the car on the way to/from work. I used to use iTunes for it (back when I still had iTunes installed on any of my non-Mac computers), but iTunes used to have most of DI's channels listed in their "Internet Radio" section. Never had to deal with this...unique...way of distributing the playlist file.
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I got tired of not having media controls available when playing music
I cannot contextualize this.
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I cannot contextualize this.
Yeah, now I re-read it, it is a bit confusing. What I meant is multimedia keys on keyboard / my bluetooth headphones.
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...how does an account at a radio station website give you hardware buttons?
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...how does an account at a radio station website give you hardware buttons?
in order to download a .pls file you need an account
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Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ok
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I agree with @Onyx in this one, the design is truly great at hiding things. I expect the Play button to start a stream (as Spotify's web client does), not to give you a .pls file.
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Maybe the site assumes you have a file association for .pls and as such it will auto-open in the standard player, for a seamless experience.
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Maybe the site assumes you have a file association for .pls and as such it will auto-open in the standard player, for a seamless experience.
Wait, you can make someone automatically open a downloaded file? It would have to be one of those faux-protocol links, which this one isn't.
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Try these two links:
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That's what I said, one is a magnet link, and the other is a steam link. And luckily (or not), both handlers are broken in my browser.
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Chrome will prompt you before opening alternate-protocol links, because some of them can be dangerous.
E.g:
steam://can write files to your hard drive. Anywhere, not just to$STEAM/steamapps/*as part of installing a new game.
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It would have to be one of those faux-protocol links, which this one isn't.
As stated.
Actually, my Chrome doesn't even prompt me, it just flat-out does nothing.
And if
steam://writes files only as part of installing a game, it's fairly safe - you can't forge a link which will push a malicious DLL or something. You can only install a Steam-approved game on someone's HDD.I wouldn't mind if you installed me some Watch Dogs.
EDIT: Actually the other link seems to open my TF2, which admittedly is a mild nuisance. Still works in FF only.
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I could ask your Source game to run any of these commands upon clicking the link:
Combine that with the command line switches that cause the GUI to not open: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Command_Line_Options
And....well...
That's why Chrome prompts.
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Maybe the site assumes you have a file association for .pls and as such it will auto-open in the standard player, for a seamless experience.
Well, I do actually. But I can't even find a way to force Chrome to allow me to just open a file without downloading it first and then clicking on it again in Chrome. Which in this case is a good thing anyway, I don't want my playlist sitting in a temporary storage location where it will get cleared so my player can scream bloody murder next time I start it.
Even if we ignore the temp storage thing and assume the player will save the playlist entries in it's own library manager (can VLC even do that?), clicking the link in Chrome won't open it right away anyway. What's Chrome's market share again?
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What I meant is multimedia keys on keyboard / my bluetooth headphones.
I use di.fm's web player along with the Sway.fm Chrome extension which adds media key support. Not sure if it works on Windows but it works on my MacBook. I used to use Winamp on Windows, but their web player is pretty good these days.
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I wouldn't necessarily trust W3Schools stats because they only track their visitors.
