AVForums Smartphone/Apple iPad/iPod Touch as a Controller Thread

LanceLouse · 25-02-2010, 10:34 PM

I came across these screenshots of SlimControl and just *had to* add some more recent and what's more complete ones:-)

Oh, and I happen to be the author, just so nobody'll complain about hidden advertisement.

But do try it out and help me break apples monopoly on fancy apps.

Sebastian

coolio107 · 25-02-2010, 11:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LanceLouse

Oh, and I happen to be the author, just so nobody'll complain about hidden advertisement.

Hi Sebastian,

nice to see you here.
But they'll complain about open advertisement here, too

And ban it, so be careful. It's called "rule 7".

Oh, and iPhone doesn't have a monopoly for good apps (yours, for example), it just has a monopoly on having a decent OS

Android maaaay come almost close, but WM...

LanceLouse · 25-02-2010, 11:08 PM

Oh well - I thought I'd escape you here ;-)
But you seem to have a 'subscribe to all SB-topics on the WWW' sort-of-thing running.

How's the lyrics and Karaoke issue coming along in iPeng?

coolio107 · 25-02-2010, 11:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LanceLouse

How's the lyrics and Karaoke issue coming along in iPeng?

Hehehe

Hit. But that's not the OS, just a Sheriff who's very good friends with the music industry...
Wait until you get mail from some strange lawyers, I'm at least safe about that

But I tried THREE Win Mobile devices (WM 2003, 6.0 and 6.5) just to get to try your app and the only one that at least somewhat works has a screen format that isn't supported well (800xsomething)... And it's pain to do just ANYTHING with these devices. Even your app can't justify that pain.

NeilF · 29-03-2010, 10:54 AM

Looking at getting a Squeezecenter controller for my Squeezebox (classic). However, would it make more sense to get something like an Ipod touch or something that can be used for other functions as well? eg: My media player has a web gui so could the IPod touch be used to control that too?

coolio107 · 29-03-2010, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeilF

My media player has a web gui so could the IPod touch be used to control that too?

Well, the iTouch has a nice browser. So as long as the web interface doesn't insist in showing fine print...
Which media player is it? Maybe there's already an App, too?

NeilF · 29-03-2010, 1:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolio107

Well, the iTouch has a nice browser. So as long as the web interface doesn't insist in showing fine print...
Which media player is it? Maybe there's already an App, too?

XTreamer (at the moment)...

But it seems for about the same money as a Squeeze Controller you can get other devices (eg: iTouch) which may offer other benefits?

If you compared the friendliness of a SqueezeController and an iTouch when controlling a Squeezebox, are they much the same?

coolio107 · 29-03-2010, 2:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeilF

If you compared the friendliness of a SqueezeController and an iTouch when controlling a Squeezebox, are they much the same?

Not up to me to judge on

NeilF · 29-03-2010, 3:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolio107

Not up to me to judge on

Well, just after any impressions from those that have either/both of these systems of controlling it...

**amcluesent** · 29-03-2010, 6:32 PM

>My media player has a web gui so could the IPod touch be used to control that too? <

Logitech do a free app that makes the iPod Touch/iPhone work as a wi-fi trackpad/mouse, you do need the Logitech service running on the PC.

>XTreamer (at the moment)...<

Oh, wait, that's a standalone box. I had a great success using a 2nd hand Pronto 990 to control the SB Classic and everything else with IR remote. Since you can read the SB Classic display, I didn't need the playing information on the remote as with SB Controller or iPeng.

That said, I also have a Controller and iPeng on my iPhone

All told, I do like the Controller with the latest s/w, the scroll-wheel and dedicated buttons make it a breeze to use and it can be used as a 'free' 2nd player via the headphones. I'm sure Coolio is working on making iPeng a player too...

NeilF · 29-03-2010, 6:53 PM

Well, it sounds like iPeng on an iTouch is the way to go for usability...

hendrixhifi · 01-04-2010, 8:07 PM

I've just had an inspired idea. Will the ipad work as a controller of the squeezebox/ sonus? How long will it take to adapt the apps? Is this my excuse to buy one? With the big screen, will be amazing...

Autopilot · 01-04-2010, 8:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hendrixhifi

I've just had an inspired idea. Will the ipad work as a controller of the squeezebox/ sonus? How long will it take to adapt the apps? Is this my excuse to buy one? With the big screen, will be amazing...

Yes. Existing iPhone apps will run on the iPad. I believe Coolio is already working on a specific iPad version.

coolio107 · 03-04-2010, 2:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Autopilot

Yes. Existing iPhone apps will run on the iPad. I believe Coolio is already working on a specific iPad version.

Indeed. Yet don't expect it in the next three months or so. It will be at least a week until I get my iPad so no real life experiments before that

Crocodile · 03-04-2010, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amcluesent

That said, I also have a Controller and iPeng on my iPhone

All told, I do like the Controller with the latest s/w, the scroll-wheel and dedicated buttons make it a breeze to use and it can be used as a 'free' 2nd player via the headphones.

Does this work reliably for you & if so, under what server version? I find the playback frequently choppy for no apparent reason & the sound has a slight raspy distortion, a bit like a torn speaker cone. This is under the released 7.4.2 & seems to be common judging by the SB forums.

Quote:

Originally Posted by amcluesent

I'm sure Coolio is working on making iPeng a player too...

Any plans for this Coolio? I guess as the iPod doesn't support FLAC, any playback would have to be transcoded to MP3 by the server software?

**amcluesent** · 03-04-2010, 11:33 AM

>so no real life experiments before that<

I see Google has made GMail etc. iPad friendly...to see it you need to spoof the Agent code on Chrome -

Code:

chrome.exe -user-agent="Mozilla/5.0(iPad; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Mobile/7B314 Safari/531.21.10"

Crocodile · 13-04-2010, 7:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crocodile

Does this work reliably for you & if so, under what server version? I find the playback frequently choppy for no apparent reason & the sound has a slight raspy distortion, a bit like a torn speaker cone. This is under the released 7.4.2 & seems to be common judging by the SB forums.

Any plans for this Coolio? I guess as the iPod doesn't support FLAC, any playback would have to be transcoded to MP3 by the server software?

Something I said?

coolio107 · 13-04-2010, 9:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crocodile

Something I said?

Yes, of course. Been announced, hasn't it? Will come in 1.3 and no, I won't say when

**amcluesent** · 01-08-2010, 4:10 PM

Squeezepad

I've upped a video of Squeezepad 1.2 for peeps who are interested in seeing the app working.

A few points to note -

The app is exploiting Squeezebox Server addins like iPlayer and CustomBrowse which integrate with the menus, so some of the functionality depends on my set-up.

The music is NOT being played on the iPad, the camera is picking up the hi-fi.

There's some obvious 'to-dos' on the app, around handling the current playlist.

MysteryMan · 01-08-2010, 4:32 PM

My set-up is:

Squeezebox receiver hard-wired to router
Synology NAS hard-wired to router
iPod with iPeng 1.2.1

Most of the time this is fine, but, I do notice that if something is playing and I haven't touched iPod for a while (maybe 20 minutes) then when I come to try to use it then it takes quite a few seconds (20-30) for it to regain control of the SQB and be able to transmit commands.

This is particularly annoying if you get a phone call and are trying to lower the volume!!!!!

Has anyone else noticed this behavior and is there anything that can be done?

Although the iPos/iPeng combination is great then this may force me to look into a Squeezebox remote control!

coolio107 · 02-08-2010, 7:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MysteryMan

Has anyone else noticed this behavior and is there anything that can be done?

Yes. It's because the iPod shuts down WiFi after 20min or so and this is the time the iPod needs to reconnect.
The only workaround I know is to enable
Settings-iPeng Settings->Keep Connection
If you do this you can change the volume even without disabling the screen saver (using the volume buttons) but it will somewhat drain your battery.

MysteryMan · 02-08-2010, 9:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolio107

Yes. It's because the iPod shuts down WiFi after 20min or so and this is the time the iPod needs to reconnect.
The only workaround I know is to enable
Settings-iPeng Settings->Keep Connection
If you do this you can change the volume even without disabling the screen saver (using the volume buttons) but it will somewhat drain your battery.

Thanks, will give that a try!

candg · 03-08-2010, 6:13 PM

Try Tango app from itunes. Free and incredible Wi Fi control of Ipod from another Ipod or Ipad. I love it.

Simples !

Would love to know what others think of it.

Graham

spizz · 07-08-2010, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amcluesent

Squeezepad

I've upped a video of Squeezepad 1.2 for peeps who are interested in seeing the app working.

A few points to note -

The app is exploiting Squeezebox Server addins like iPlayer and CustomBrowse which integrate with the menus, so some of the functionality depends on my set-up.

The music is NOT being played on the iPad, the camera is picking up the hi-fi.

There's some obvious 'to-dos' on the app, around handling the current playlist.

Love the functionality of the youtube clip you posted. I was looking at getting an Olive 4HD and using an Ipod/Ipad app they have to use with my Denon AVP-4308.

However it looks like you have more info on your ipad in your setup (as the Olive app is pretty basic from what I've read).

What equipment are you using to achieve this? Can you easily fast forward through a track? Love that it also shows the track running time at the top.

**amcluesent** · 08-08-2010, 7:34 PM

video

Squeezepad has been updated, so playlist handling now works, as do most of the context menus. I've done another video to show this; as before an amount of the functionality exposed from the Server is due to the CustomBrowse plug-in.

Strocky · 18-08-2010, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amcluesent

video

Squeezepad has been updated, so playlist handling now works, as do most of the context menus. I've done another video to show this; as before an amount of the functionality exposed from the Server is due to the CustomBrowse plug-in.

Is it Napster compatible yet?

bluedroog · 30-08-2010, 5:04 PM

I think I'm bein g pretty thick here....I've been trying to download the ipeng app on to my Ipod Touch as I'm about to get a SB Touch but I just can't seem to download it. I never really use my ipod so haven't much experience. Was it once free and now it's a paid for app, is that where I am going wrong?

Autopilot · 30-08-2010, 5:26 PM

Always had been a paid 'app' but it started out as a free browser 'skin'. Well worth the money though.

bluedroog · 30-08-2010, 7:06 PM

Ah right, thanks for confirming that. No problem paying for it just didn't want to be the odd one out!

rodymary · 23-09-2010, 9:44 AM

Hi all
I just purchased an iTouch 4G. iPeng will follow it soon.
The only point that make me waiting for iPeng is the possibility to drive my hifi amp (power on/off, volume +/-, source selection)
Do you know if iPeng can do that, as for waking up my PC...?

I've got a SB classic, IRblaster, USB-UIRT, i think enouth things to make it possible, no ?

Thanks a lot !
Rod