[slim] iPhone application

[blaaaaaaah]

Hi all,

I'm currently developing an iPhone application to control the
squeezecenter. It makes JSON calls using cli commands. It starts
working and I'm looking for a designer able to help me doing some
artwork (buttons, icons) and general look & feel. It'll become
open-source as soon I have a beta version.

BTW, feel free to make any feature requests or comments that could
help.

Thank you

Thomas

[Michael Herger]

Post by blaaaaaaah
I'm currently developing an iPhone application to control the
squeezecenter.

Seems to be rather popular recently. I've read from about three guys working on this. Maybe you should join your efforts?

[funkstar]

Have a look at iPeng -
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=49821

[pippin]

Thomas,

Michael, is right, you are at least #4 ;-)

And I also feel it miht be a good idea to join forced.
What I have so far is a lot of artwork ;-), a fully functional skin,
Erland's plugin that can help a lot on menu functionality and plugins,
lots of JSON/RPC based business logic that just needs porting to
Objective C and a few nice looking controllers that need lots of glue.

Somebody else has tried to use CLI instead of JSON/RPC and it looks as
if it could perform much better.

Post by blaaaaaaah
I'm currently developing an iPhone application to control the
squeezecenter. It makes JSON calls using cli commands. It starts
working and I'm looking for a designer able to help me doing some
artwork (buttons, icons) and general look & feel.

Have a look at iPeng ;-)

Post by blaaaaaaah
It'll become open-source as soon I have a beta version.

You haven't really read that License Agreement and NDA you signed when
downloading the SDK, didn't you?
Can't go open source on iPhone.

Post by blaaaaaaah
BTW, feel free to make any feature requests or comments that could
help.

What I feel is right to do tonight or tomorrow: I will set up some
pages on native iPhone dev. on penguinlovesmusic.com that we could use
to discuss on how a joint effort could be set up.
The difficult part is: you cannot exchange code openly, but you have to
make sure everybody signed up on Apple's NDA, so google code is not
possible (Google retains the rights to use any code on there). But we
could set up a private svn.
The I feel we might need to agree upon some general guidelines on
things like: how should this whole baby look like.
And the, of course, we need to get this through the App Store.

Any feelings?

[dean]

It's not completely clear, at least to me, that you cannot release the
source to iPhone applications. Some are doing it:

http://iphone.wordpress.org/2008/07/24/version-11-and-beyond/

Some additional discussion here:

http://plasmasturm.org/log/512/

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2008/07/24/apple-gpl-iphone

[pippin]

Dean,

hmmm, your links actually support the view that you can NOT have an
open source iPhone app.
However, in this case it's not the main point. The main points are:
a) You can of course openly publish your own code. However, most people
will use Apple code and libraries which are covered by an NDA alongside
the license agreement
b) Since you usually cannot build your own app but have to go through
the App Store the usual OpenSource distribution model breaks apart. And
then there is no way to guarantee that you will be able to distribute an
app through the app store.

I I currently trying to figure out a way how you can manage that NDA
thing so that you can at least have a forum for people who have signed
that. Need to find time to REALLY CAREFULLY read those things, though.

[erland]

Post by pippin
hmmm, your links actually support the view that you can NOT have an
open source iPhone app.
a) You can of course openly publish your own code. However, most people
will use Apple code and libraries which are covered by an NDA alongside
the license agreement
b) Since you usually cannot build your own app but have to go through
the App Store the usual OpenSource distribution model breaks apart. And
then there is no way to guarantee that you will be able to distribute an
app through the app store.
I I currently trying to figure out a way how you can manage that NDA
thing so that you can at least have a forum for people who have signed
that. Need to find time to REALLY CAREFULLY read those things, though.

Is the NDA the same thing as the license agreement you agree on when
downloading the SDK ? Or is the NDA a separate thing only to those
paying the $99 to be able to distribute the binaries through AppStore
?

The Apple license it pretty clear that you can't re-distribute binaries
of your application besides through AppStore, but it is a bit less clear
regarding if you can re-distribute your part of the source code. Of
course, the problem is the NDA part which don't allow you to publish
stuff regarding the SDK and I guess you could interpret it as a
violation if you publish source code, which indirectly would be an
example of how to use the SDK, which isn't permitted by the NDA.

I think the restrictions in the Apple license may be there for similar
reasons as the restrictions in the Logitech SqueezeOS/SqueezePlay
license. Although the license prohibits some things, Apple is probably
not going to hunt you down unless you do something that really hurts
Apples business. I personally have a hard time too see how developers
collaborating to build iPhone applications which is distributed through
AppStore would hurt Apples business.

It will be interesting to see if the WordPress iPhone application
developers is allowed keep publish their source code or if Apple will
convince them to remove it.

I really wish the iPhone would have been surrounded by the same open
source philosophy as we have around the Squeezebox products, but I
guess Apple is Apple so that would be a bit too good.
--
erland

Erland Isaksson
'My homepage' (http://erland.isaksson.info) 'My download page'
(http://erland.isaksson.info/download)
(Developer of 'TrackStat, SQLPlayList, DynamicPlayList, Custom Browse,
Custom Scan, Custom Skip, Multi Library and Database Query plugins'
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[pippin]

Post by erland
Is the NDA the same thing as the license agreement you agree on when
downloading the SDK ? Or is the NDA a separate thing only to those
paying the $99 to be able to distribute the binaries through AppStore
?

2.1 Confidential Nature of SDK
The SDK is Apple Confidential Information and subject to the
confidentiality obligations of this Agreement. Distribution of
Applications created with the SDK is not permitted absent a separate
agreement with Apple
5.1 ...You further agree not to disclose or disseminate Apple
Confidential Information to anyone, or to discuss anything about the
Apple Confidential Information with anyone, other than those of Your
employees and contractors who have a need to know and who are bound by
a written agreement that prohibits unauthorized use or disclosure of
the Confidential Information,...

My understanding is: If you've got a closed group of developers who
have either
- signed that agreement
or
- have signed up on a mutual agreement that ensures confidentiality

You are fine. Open discussions or open code disclosure are not.

Post by erland
I really wish the iPhone would have been surrounded by the same open
source philosophy as we have around the Squeezebox products, but I
guess Apple is Apple so that would be a bit too good.

Well, it depends.
Of course it would be good if they were as open about their systems.
But on the other hand, they DO provide you with a lot of support stuff
which the SqueezeStuff is not so particularly strong at: Documentation,
commented sample code, libraries etc. In the end, they're a bit
bigger...
So if you go WITHOUT all that, you should be able to share your code
freely. But I don't think a lot of people do so, so far. You would have
to build up a whole open source framework first, which you can't, since
Apple's limited license breaks GPL so you cannot use anything published
under GPL, at least V3. That's one of the reasons why I use LGPL on
iPeng, GPL is way too dogmatic. And with Apple thats two rather
dogmatic parties hitting each other then...

[gsamsa]

I am one of the multitudes working on a native app. I shared an early
version of my code with Jörg (Pippin), though I've made more progress
since then. The app is actually pretty useful already, though a number
of large chunks of functionality are absent. I'd be happy to share my
code with others as well...at least privately for the moment.

I've been using the CLI via sockets, rather than JSON, and I think it
works very well. It's quite fast, running on an ipod touch, although
the one thing I'm not doing yet is getting all the tracks (that's
probably slow). Not sure that's absolutely necessary, though. I suspect
CLI is the way to go (I haven't used or even investigated JSON before,
though...maybe it's just as good).

[pippin]

Post by gsamsa
I am one of the multitudes working on a native app. I shared an early
version of my code with Jörg (Pippin), though I've made more progress
since then.

You were the one I referred to on the "CLI" part...

[blaaaaaaah]

Hi guys

Thanks for all your responses, wasn't expecting that much !
I looked a bit to iPeng .. a lot of work have been done, great work ! I
think it could be a great start for a native cocoa touch port.

For all the license/NDA stuff I agree with pinpin when he says that
Apple won't shoot us down for that. They simply don't want a parallel
distribution method. But we can easily go with a private svn for the
moment.

BTW, does anyone have a key for the Appstore ? I've the one of my work,
but we won't be able to use it to release the app.

For the moment I have the very basics stuff :
- List of folder/tracks tree, ability to play or add to the current
playlist a song
- View of current playlist.

TODO in priority :
- look & feel of the lists (with buttons and so on)
- currently playing song screen (with working volume bar and so on)
- caching mechanism : i'm running squeezecenter on a linkstation and
it takes ages to load the whole folder list.


I really think we should follow Apple's UI guidelines so maybe we can
take the iPod mobile app as example.

So guys, what are the next steps ? :)

[pippin]

Post by blaaaaaaah
BTW, does anyone have a key for the Appstore ? I've the one of my work,
but we won't be able to use it to release the app.

Yes.

Post by blaaaaaaah
- caching mechanism : i'm running squeezecenter on a linkstation and
it takes ages to load the whole folder list.

Interesting one. See this tread for more discussion about this:

What are you using to process the JSON/RPC? Own code? BSJSON?,
json-framework?

Post by blaaaaaaah
I really think we should follow Apple's UI guidelines so maybe we can
take the iPod mobile app as example.

How much have you looked at iPeng? It does so a lot so there's quite a
bit of artwork already that is close to the iPod mobile app UI but
takes into respect that SC can do a bit more than the iPod (Playlists,
love/ban stuff, more shuffle modes, favorites, synching of players,
that kind of stuff)
I also have a UITableView controller that does Album Art and has a "+"
icon on the right like the iPeng browse page.

I will see whether I can set up a private svn on my server. I think a
registration that includes accepting a mutual NDA would do WRT to the
Apple license.

[blaaaaaaah]

Post by pippin
What are you using to process the JSON/RPC? Own code? BSJSON?,

json-framework?

For the JSON I'm using SBJson (from Stig Brautaset) for the
deserialization and some custom code (using NSURLConnection) for the
transport.

Post by pippin
How much have you looked at iPeng? It does so a lot so there's quite

a bit of artwork

Only looked at the screenshots, and yes it complies to the UI
guidelines :)

I'll try to do some work on my side to have something showable by the
end of the week. If in the meanwhile you can set up a SVN, we would be
able to share our sources (if you want to).

CU
Thomas

[pippin]

OK, I have set up a bit of infrastructure (svn server, trac project with
a wiki and a forum) that we could use to generate a somewhat coordinated
effort.
I also drafted a mutual NDA that I (not being a lawyer) think should be
enough to meet Apple's license agreement requrements for talking to each
other.

Interested?

[gsamsa]

Post by pippin
OK, I have set up a bit of infrastructure (svn server, trac project with
a wiki and a forum) that we could use to generate a somewhat coordinated
effort.
I also drafted a mutual NDA that I (not being a lawyer) think should be
enough to meet Apple's license agreement requrements for talking to each
other.
Interested?

Yes, definitely.

I've made quite a bit of progress with my app, actually...already
starting to feel pretty useful.

[erland]

Post by pippin
OK, I have set up a bit of infrastructure (svn server, trac project with
a wiki and a forum) that we could use to generate a somewhat coordinated
effort.
I also drafted a mutual NDA that I (not being a lawyer) think should be
enough to meet Apple's license agreement requrements for talking to each
other.
Interested?

At the moment I can't be much help on the Objective-C side since I
neither know Objective-C nor have a Mac to run he SDK on, but let me
know if you help with something on the SqueezeCenter side.

I've already downloaded the Apple SDK, so agreeing on the NDA shouldn't
be a problem if necessary.
--
erland

Erland Isaksson
'My homepage' (http://erland.isaksson.info) 'My download page'
(http://erland.isaksson.info/download)
(Developer of 'TrackStat, SQLPlayList, DynamicPlayList, Custom Browse,
Custom Scan, Custom Skip, Multi Library and Database Query plugins'
(http://wiki.erland.isaksson.info/index.php/Category:SlimServer))
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[pippin]

OK, here it is: https://penguinlovesmusic.de/trac/ipengnat/
Please note the "httpS", this is SSL only. And you have to accept the
"insecure" SSL certificate, I don't have a signed one :-)

I added some "NDA acceptance logic", but apaert from that, there's
absolutely NO CONTENT on the site, yet ;-)
It only has infrastructure: A trac wiki/ticketing system, svn and a
forum. Should be enough project management stuff.

I feel next steps are to define how this should look like, how we want
to work together and what the license should be, GPL does definitely
NOT work, maybe LGPL does.

Please note that the NDA I require on signup is NOT a license agreement
of any kind, that model has to be worked out. It only tries to commit
people to adhere to Apple's SDK license agreement.

[mpjohnst]

Well, unfortunately I have a nothing to add to this project other than
my support. Keep up the great work and I can't wait to see the
results!

I assume the reason for developing a native app is to speed up the UI
response compared with browser-based ones? I suppose I can only dream
of cover-flow type browsing of my squeezebox music collection...
drool.

Best of luck!

[pippin]

Post by mpjohnst
I assume the reason for developing a native app is to speed up the UI
response compared with browser-based ones? I suppose I can only dream
of cover-flow type browsing of my squeezebox music collection...
drool.

Why? What's the problem with that? Apart from the cover load time, of
course...
Might turn out as being prio 10, though...

[Matt Wise]

Can I throw my two cents in... please, please, consider modeling it
after Apple's Remote app. I got to spend some time using the Remote app
in a house full of Airport Expresses and it was quite an impressive
experience. The UI is JUST powerful enough to do what you need without
being cluttered... Really impressive for a phone, I thought...

(I kind of wish that we had a 'Dummy' mode on Duet that was similar...
someday I'll have to learn Lua!)

[pippin]

Post by Matt Wise
Can I throw my two cents in... please, please, consider modeling it
after Apple's Remote app. I got to spend some time using the Remote app
in a house full of Airport Expresses and it was quite an impressive
experience. The UI is JUST powerful enough to do what you need without
being cluttered... Really impressive for a phone, I thought...
(I kind of wish that we had a 'Dummy' mode on Duet that was similar...
someday I'll have to learn Lua!)

Always happy to learn...
What exactly do you feel is better on the Apple remote than, say,
iPeng. Other than speed and responsiveness, of course?

[Alok K. Dhir]

I think speed and responsiveness are *the* major factors in Remote -
there is nothing more important in a phone based music controller.
The key is to get the core features working, and working well, and
then add the additional stuff.

Post by pippin

Post by Matt Wise
Can I throw my two cents in... please, please, consider modeling it
after Apple's Remote app. I got to spend some time using the Remote app
in a house full of Airport Expresses and it was quite an impressive
experience. The UI is JUST powerful enough to do what you need without
being cluttered... Really impressive for a phone, I thought...
(I kind of wish that we had a 'Dummy' mode on Duet that was
similar...
someday I'll have to learn Lua!)

Always happy to learn...
What exactly do you feel is better on the Apple remote than, say,
iPeng. Other than speed and responsiveness, of course?
--
pippin
---
see iPeng at penguinlovesmusic.com
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[pippin]

Post by Alok K. Dhir
I think speed and responsiveness are *the* major factors in Remote -
there is nothing more important in a phone based music controller.
The key is to get the core features working, and working well, and
then add the additional stuff.

100% agreed. That's why I said "other than speed and responsiveness".
This sounded like there was something else that's better on the Apple
remote than on SC/iPeng/...

[Matt Wise]

Post by pippin
100% agreed. That's why I said "other than speed and responsiveness".
This sounded like there was something else that's better on the Apple
remote than on SC/iPeng/...

Honestly, iPeng is pretty damn impressive in its own right... for a
web-interface, I was very impressed. The comments about speed and
responsiveness being the most important, I echo loudly. That being
said, I have a few gripes about iPeng (not that i couldnt help solve
them with a bit of development work.... )

1) the main screen that loads up doesnt fit with any of the rest of the
screeens. its very non-apple, and just feels out of place.

2) volume control should be on the now-playing screen

3) coverflow is awesome...

[yoyoma]

Volume control should also be available to the right menu of the Now
Playing screen, which is the currently playing playlist.

[pippin]

Yea, completely agree to the volume control issues.
On iPneg SKIN this being on the overlay was owed to the fact that you
are missing a row dow to the bottom browser bar.
If you are interested in the UI discussion, I think the wiki on
https://penguinlovesmusic/trac/ipengnat is openly accessible and has at
least MY thoughts about UI in it.

[Luke Redpath]

Just to throw my hat into the ring, I too am looking at developing an
iPhone remote control for the SqueezeCenter although I'm going the
commercial route instead of the open-source route. I do hope to do a
limited beta first using ad-hoc distribution.

Look forward to see what you guys come up with though.

Re: coverflow - I'm not convinced it would work with large libraries
(Apple's own Remote omits it too) or that it's really that useful, as
cool as it looks.

[tom.jelly]

Great job on ipeng! This may is off topic, but it seems like a
beautiful addition (or more likely a separate app along the same lines)
would be an iphone based universal remote control that would use a wifi
IR blaster (or even a usb IR blaster) to control components. Anyone
know if there is such a thing? (it seems the IR blaster hardware/code
software would be a perfect fit to the logitech product line if they
don't have it in the works already- someones going to do it)

tom

[marlowe]

Post by Luke Redpath
Re: coverflow - I'm not convinced it would work with large libraries
(Apple's own Remote omits it too) or that it's really that useful, as
cool as it looks.

I don't use my Ipod touch often as a remote. I am pretty sure I would,
if it had coverflow. I relate to my music collection through the covers
and here the touch does something the Transporter doesn't: It's easier
to select an album and to be inspired by browsing. As someone else put
it "coverflow is awesome". Ipeng is great work, but last time I tried
it, the coverview just didn't do it for me. So "true" coverflow I think
is essential.

I don't know if browsing 1000+ cd's will be a problem - but if so, you
could perhaps limit the covers by first selecting genre or artist?

[Nonreality]

Post by marlowe
I don't use my Ipod touch often as a remote. I am pretty sure I would,
if it had coverflow. I relate to my music collection through the covers
and here the touch does something the Transporter doesn't: It's easier
to select an album and to be inspired by browsing. As someone else put
it "coverflow is awesome". Ipeng is great work, but last time I tried
it, the coverview just didn't do it for me. So "true" coverflow I think
is essential.
I don't know if browsing 1000+ cd's will be a problem - but if so, you
could perhaps limit the covers by first selecting genre or artist?More of a coolness factor to me. I don't find it that useful in itunes

but it is very cool. Glad it works for you.

[Sike]

Any idea when when a native application would be released?

[Thunder-]

Anyone working on porting SqueezePlay to iPhone/iTouch? Without much
work you could get a great version of the Squeeze Controller going..

[erland]

Post by Thunder-
Anyone working on porting SqueezePlay to iPhone/iTouch? Without much
work you could get a great version of the Squeeze Controller going..

The SqueezePlay license doesn't allow anyone but Logitech to do it, at
least it doesn't allow anyone but Logitech to release/distribute it.
--
erland

Erland Isaksson
'My homepage' (http://erland.isaksson.info) 'My download page'
(http://erland.isaksson.info/download)
(Developer of 'TrackStat, SQLPlayList, DynamicPlayList, Custom Browse,
Custom Scan, Custom Skip, Multi Library and Database Query plugins'
(http://wiki.erland.isaksson.info/index.php/Category:SlimServer))
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[Luke Redpath]

What is SqueezePlay? Is that the software which runs on the Duel remote?

Anyway, I'm still learning the iPhone SDK but I'm making some good
progress with an Objective-C wrapper for the JSON-RPC interface. I can
get library browsing working. Now to work on player control.

[erland]

Post by Luke Redpath
What is SqueezePlay? Is that the software which runs on the Duel remote?

Yes it is, you can also compile it so it runs on a standard PC.
--
erland

Erland Isaksson
'My homepage' (http://erland.isaksson.info) 'My download page'
(http://erland.isaksson.info/download)
(Developer of 'TrackStat, SQLPlayList, DynamicPlayList, Custom Browse,
Custom Scan, Custom Skip, Multi Library and Database Query plugins'
(http://wiki.erland.isaksson.info/index.php/Category:SlimServer))
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[morberg]

Post by pippin
Always happy to learn...
What exactly do you feel is better on the Apple remote than, say,
iPeng. Other than speed and responsiveness, of course?
What should it be to model after?

I didn't post the original, but after having bought an AirPort express
this weekend and using the Remote app some I agree with
[url=http://thesmallwave.com/2008/07/27/dear-apple-please-make-the-iphones-native-interface-like-the-remote-app/]this
guy.

I'd add responsiveness to that list - the Remote app (once connected to a
library) is snappy.

[pippin]

Post by morberg
I didn't post the original, but after having bought an AirPort express
this weekend and using the Remote app some I agree with 'this guy'
(http://thesmallwave.com/2008/07/27/dear-apple-please-make-the-iphones-native-interface-like-the-remote-app/).
I'd add responsiveness to that list, the Remote app (once connected to
a library) is snappy. So is the built in music player of course, but
the iPeng plugin - although brilliant - is not as fast.

OK, so apart from "more snappy", which we all agree is the most
important factor, it's:
- Showing an artist with a track. Actually, I've been thinking about
doing that also on the NowPlaying screen since I miss it a lot there
when playing dynamic playlists. What do you think about that one?
- Schowing a vertical scroll-bar also for non-categorized lists. Puh.
Let's see
- Having a Lazy-search with a search result display like iPeng (sorry,
couldn't resist)
- Having icons and number of tracks for playlists. How about the same
for favorites? I'm not completely sure SC has a way to store an icon
for a playlist, though.

Anything else? What do you think about the additional "+" icon iPeng
has over AR? Bloated or useful?

[morberg]

Post by pippin
- Showing an artist with a track. Actually, I've been thinking about
doing that also on the NowPlaying screen since I miss it a lot there
when playing dynamic playlists. What do you think about that one?

Sounds like a good idea.

Post by pippin
- Schowing a vertical scroll-bar also for non-categorized lists. Puh.
Let's see

This one is more of a nice to have, not really necessary.

Post by pippin
- Having a Lazy-search with a search result display like iPeng (sorry,
couldn't resist)

The AR search results are really similar, agreed - and you got there
first :) AR only has two rows of text (not showing album).

I also noticed that AR is "cheating" with search results, only
displaying e.g. 8 songs, although I know there are several more. The
resulting "Remote" playlist in iTunes contains all songs however.

Post by pippin
- Having icons and number of tracks for playlists. How about the same
for favorites? I'm not completely sure SC has a way to store an icon
for a playlist, though.

Icons are nice to have, numbers are useful. Haven't thought about
favorites, but it sounds good.

Post by pippin
Anything else? What do you think about the additional "+" icon iPeng has
over AR? Bloated or useful?

The AR always stays in vertical mode, I really don't think horizontal
mode is useful for an app like this. (But then again I've never
understood the attraction of coverflow besides that it looks cool.)

As for the '+' I could personally do without it, but it doesn't disturb
me much.

Since I'm on a Mac and use iTunes as my main DB I would like to be able
to rate songs and see the rating using the iTunes update plugin for SC.

[pippin]

Post by morberg
The AR always stays in vertical mode, I really don't think horizontal
mode is useful for an app like this. (But then again I've never
understood the attraction of coverflow besides that it looks cool.)

Yes, another plus you get on the native app for free :-)

Post by morberg
Since I'm on a Mac and use iTunes as my main DB I would like to be able
to rate songs and see the rating using the iTunes update plugin for SC.

does that work with TrackStat?

Post by morberg
Update: I also think the fonts looks smoother on the AR. Might be that
they use a different font and/or size. Tried to upload PNG screenshots

Yes, I know, font rendering is better for native apps than for the
browser. No idea, why.

[morberg]

Post by pippin
does that work with TrackStat?

Erland said you could 'set ratings through iPeng, but not display them'
(http://forums.slimdevices.com/showpost.php?p=321428&postcount=71). I
haven't tried it myself yet.

Erland explained some more about 'TrackStat vs. iTunes Update'
(http://forums.slimdevices.com/showpost.php?p=321435&postcount=72) and
it seems I can't use TrackStat for my needs.

[pippin]

Post by morberg
Erland said you could 'set ratings through iPeng, but not display them'
(http://forums.slimdevices.com/showpost.php?p=321428&postcount=71). I
haven't tried it myself yet.
Erland explained some more about 'TrackStat vs. iTunes Update'
(http://forums.slimdevices.com/showpost.php?p=321435&postcount=72) and
it seems I can't use TrackStat for my needs.

OK. The problem is not, that you cannot DISPLAY them, the problem might
be to IMPORT the ratings into TrackStat. EXPORTING them to iTunes seems
to work. But check again with Erland on this, I only use ratings on SC,
not on iTunes.
The reason I'm asking is, that I would use TrackStat for ratings, as I
use it now. I don't know if there are other ways to include ratings
into SC, there is no built in functionality for that.

[morberg]

Post by pippin
OK. The problem is not, that you cannot DISPLAY them, the problem might
be to IMPORT the ratings into TrackStat. EXPORTING them to iTunes seems
to work.

I don't think it works on OS X, but I might have read Erland's reply
wrong. That's why I'm using the iTunes update plugin instead.

Post by pippin
But check again with Erland on this, I only use ratings on SC, not on
iTunes.
The reason I'm asking is, that I would use TrackStat for ratings, as I
use it now. I don't know if there are other ways to include ratings
into SC, there is no built in functionality for that.

I seem to remember a post from Erland talking about adding a general
ratings interface to SC. Let me see if I can find it... Ah, you were
involved in that discussion so you already know about it. See here:

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=44208

[pippin]

Post by morberg
I don't think it works on OS X, but I might have read Erland's reply
wrong. That's why I'm using the iTunes update plugin instead.

OK, my understanding was you have to use both of them. But I don't
know.

Post by morberg
I seem to remember a post from Erland talking about adding a general
ratings interface to SC. Let me see if I can find it... Ah, you were
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=44208

Yep. Remember that one, too. But it's not done... So for the time being
there's only TrackStat.

[.:.impossible]

I am absolutely loving this web app and am really looking forward to it
becoming a native.

That said, I wanted to make you aware that I am having an issue with
the Now Playing screen on one playlist. I'm 99% sure that it is
isolated to this one playlist (2662 songs). The browser hangs and

a) the cover art shows briefly, then Safari crashes OR

b) I have to restart the iphone.

Most likely this is due to the size of the list, but I thought I'd
throw it out there anyway.

I have yet to purchase any natives from the app store... ipeng will be
the first.

[pippin]

Post by .:.impossible
I am absolutely loving this web app and am really looking forward to it
becoming a native.
That said, I wanted to make you aware that I am having an issue with
the Now Playing screen on one playlist. I'm 99% sure that it is
isolated to this one playlist (2662 songs). The browser hangs and
a) the cover art shows briefly, then Safari crashes OR
b) I have to restart the iphone.
Most likely this is due to the size of the list, but I thought I'd
throw it out there anyway.
I have yet to purchase any natives from the app store... ipeng will be
the first.

Yep. 2665 tracks is too much. Everything above 150 tracks or so per
playlist will cause trouble. See the iPeng thread in the "3rd party
plugins" section for details.

[.:.impossible]

Thanks Pippin. I didn't realize there was another thread...

I had a feeling the size of the playlist was the problem.

[blaaaaaaah]

Hi all,

back from hollidays :)
I'll upload my little application to the svn so you guys can see. (It
looks ugly, but you can browse folders, play songs and view current
playlist). It's quite easy to add playlist management (reorder,
delete).

BTW, the player ID is still hard coded, so you'll have to modify it
yourselves in order to test.

Thomas

[chrisinparis]

Post by blaaaaaaah
Hi guys
For all the license/NDA stuff I agree with pinpin when he says that
Apple won't shoot us down for that. They simply don't want a parallel
distribution method. But we can easily go with a private svn for the
moment.

I wonder (besides the issue of using different libraries and all that
implies) if it will be possible to distribute an app both via the
AppStore and Installer/Cydia.

One app I'm currently waiting for (did a paypal donation in the early
days so have a key) is Adikus' Backgammon. Now Backgammon is available
already on the Appstore, but on the adimus.com site it says *last time I
looked) that the game will also be available via Installer when the
latter fianlly comes out.

Anyway, loved iPeng the day I set eyes on it, look forward to the
native app, hope in the end it is possible to work together and keep
everyone happy.

[pippin]

Post by chrisinparis
I wonder (besides the issue of using different libraries and all that
implies) if it will be possible to distribute an app both via the
AppStore and Installer/Cydia.

Depends on whether you want to take it with Apple's lawyers:

"7. Distribution

Unless and until Your Application is selected by Apple as a Licensed
Application, You agree not to distribute it to third parties or to
enable or permit others to do so."

[Omita]

Post by blaaaaaaah
I'm currently developing an iPhone application to control the
squeezecenter.

Same here. I am just doing it on the side so promises. It will be
free and pretty basic. All of the UI is built into the iPhone.

-h

[ds2021]

Now it's personal.


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[Luke Redpath]

Making some good progress with my iPhone remote (codename iSqueeze). I
can now browse my library using an Artist > Album > Track hierarchy,
queue/play entire albums or play songs. You can switch to a now playing
view and view a progress meter, time remaining, elapsed and the artwork
(ala the iPhone iPod interface).

Next on my list of things to do:

* Browse available players and set the "current" player for control
* Browse through all albums without having to select artist first
* Artwork in album list (need some kind of asynchronous artwork
downloader here as my original attempt was just too slow)
* Library search
* Server setup (and hopefully auto-discovery)
* Playlist management

Looking good though. Got accepted into the developer program today.
Hoping to get this thing on the iTunes store within 6-8 weeks, in the
£3-£5 price range. Will keep you all posted, as I will be looking for
beta testers.