iPhone 1.1 Compatibility (Yes, it’s compatible!)
With all the press around third-party apps being broken by the iPhone 1.1 update, there have been a few questions about whether or not Signal is compatible with the new firmware. The answer is absolutely yes. Web applications like Signal are supported by Apple and should always work. It is only native applications that require hacking of your iPhone that are being disabled.
While there are any number of cool things that Signal could do as a native application, this is the main reason it remains a web app. What Apple chooses to do with the iPhone is completely up to them, and it wouldn’t be right to sell a product that’s beyond our ability to support.
October 10th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Couldn’t get it to work, and followed directions to a tee. Opened up ports, and then even turned off firewall after no luck with ports. Still nothing. Double checked everything.
October 10th, 2007 at 10:52 am
mac4life: Could you tell me what error message you’re seeing on your iPhone or iPod? Does it say something about “the server stopped responding” or do you get a different message?
A couple other quick questions:
- By any chance is the computer running the Signal application connected via both wireless and wired ethernet?
- Just to rule out the simple stuff, could you check the wireless network settings on your iPhone or iPod to verify that a) it’s connected to the correct wireless network and b) it’s IP address matches up with the address displayed by the Signal server application? Within the IP address everything except the last digit should be the same.
October 13th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Hi,
Just got the app off the apple website. Love it and am considering the buy…great potential! My question is where and how do i find the volume control for signal when i’m using the product on iphone?
October 13th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Hi, I’m waiting for Leopard to come out unless it will work regardless of the operating system. Can you let me know if this is the case?
October 13th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Spencer: Tap once on the album art to bring up the additional controls. From here you can change the volume, rate the current song, and toggle shuffle and repeat options for the current playlist. Volume can be adjusted in increments by tapping the volume up and down icons, or set to a specific point by tapping directly on the volume bar.
Mike: Signal has been tested on Leopard and works great.
October 14th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
mac4life: I just tried this out on Friday, had a similar problem. Here’s what fixed it.
The IP address that Signal told me to use wasn’t right. Once I got the right IP address and used that instead, it worked great. If you’re using a Mac you’ll find it in System Preferences under Network. Not sure where on a Windows PC, don’t have one at home.
October 14th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Nice app to go along with my web based iPhone/Touch remote…I am using the Windows version and am considering registering it…but I have a few issues and questions…
How do you get back to the main screen without hitting refresh?
Does Signal support Podcasts and Radio from iTunes without adding to a playlist?
Any way to get the information by alphabet rather then the whole list at once (without using search) or even go back to the same page I came out of? It’s a PITA when you go back to the beginning of the list when you go back a step.
Is there any way to add a custom button to the main page to go back to another definable web site (or to customize the html/css)? This is so I can go back to my main remote page and maybe do a few other things without going back.
Will the Signal app lead to faster battery drain since it seems to be constantly communicating?
Also, the main page does not update properly sometimes without a refresh and the lower buttons lose functionality on occasion.
Again, nice work! Thanks in advance.
October 15th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
Scott, mac4life: If you’re using a Mac and an iPod touch or iPhone with the 1.1 firmware another option is to use the computer’s name and let the iPhone or iPod find it via Bonjour. You can find the computer name under System Preferences > Sharing. Near the top of the screen is a message along the lines of “Other computers can access your computer at X.local”. You can use X.local in place of the IP address, like so:
http://silver-shadow.local:3569
This will usually figure out the correct IP address to use automatically, and is also useful if operating in an environment when your IP address changes frequently. It’s not currently displayed in the UI due to iPhone 1.0’s lack of Bonjour support, and the fact that Windows PCs won’t be able to resolve it.
I&I: There are a couple of ways to get back to the main screen. You can scroll up and use the back button to navigate backwards to the main screen, or you can tap on the header bar as a quick shortcut to drop you back to the main screen. A better solution is being investigated.
Podcasts are supported and should be categorized separately in the media library under Music. Radio stations currently need to be added to a playlist to appear in the media library view. The reason for this is that iTunes loads the list of radio stations on demand and there does not appear to be any way to tell iTunes to do that automatically. So for the moment putting your favorite radio stations in a playlist is the only reliable way for radio access to work.
Alphabetic jump is definitely coming, and the 1.0.3 update posted today now remembers the last page it was on when navigating backwards, so browsing through a list to queue up songs should be slightly less painful.
Since Signal makes extensive use of the Wi-Fi connection it does have an impact on battery usage while the device is active. However, when the device is put into sleep mode it uses no more power than normal. The Wi-Fi connection is closed automatically after a short time and at this point Signal is completely idle. To give you an idea, I use Signal almost constantly at home and charge my iPhone about once a week.
As for accessing other sites, the HTML is there but I wouldn’t recommend modifying it as your changes would be lost with each software update. I’d suggest bookmarking the site you want to access as an alternative, as Safari’s bookmarks menu is always accessible and would provide a way to have any number of additional links.
If you continue to run into the interface getting stuck please send an email to support@alloysoft.com, we’ll work to get some debugging information and see if we can track down the source of the problem.
October 15th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Mike,
Thanks for your thorough reply. I will be registering shortly. Keep up the fine work.
October 25th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
im getting an error from safari posix error 12 cannot allocate memory. how do i solve this one
October 25th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
It sounds like your iPhone or iPod has run out of memory (Safari seems to leak memory a little). Try holding the power button down until the shut down prompt appears, then turn the device off and back on.
November 13th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
It is also compatible with iPhone firmware release 1.1.2 which should be coming soon as part of a future iTunes update.
November 21st, 2007 at 1:48 pm
I love this little app - consider to buy it as well now. One thing - I found something amazing - and I’m not sure whats the reason for this: I could see the album art work on the iPhone when there was nothing in iTunes. Some of my tracks in iTunes have no album artwork. I’m wondering where Signal got them from. Any explanation?
Thanks and keep up your great work!
John
November 21st, 2007 at 6:39 pm
When Signal cannot find album art locally it will automatically go out to the internet and search for a match. It will also do this for internet radio stations that expose track title information. It’s not 100% successful, but it generally does a pretty good job and provides a nicer-looking UI than just the default “no album art” image.
November 25th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Error. Says safari cannot download this file? What can I do?
November 26th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Bob: Signal is actually installed on your Mac or PC and not directly onto the iPhone or iPod (as Apple doesn’t support this yet). After downloading and running the Signal application on your computer a web address will be displayed - enter this address into Safari on your iPhone or iPod and the remote control interface should appear.
December 27th, 2007 at 1:14 am
This app is insanely cool. I can’t believe it.
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Great app, but will you have support for all iTunes functions, Movies in Particular as i would like to use your app on my iphone as the remote for all digital media from my mac linked to my projector and amp
Regards Tony
February 4th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Hi Tony,
You should be able to control movie and TV show playback using Signal today. These items are already indexed by the media library and when played back you they will display using the default iTunes video preference (windowed, full screen, etc). Just let me know if you have any further questions.
February 17th, 2008 at 7:37 am
Is this the same thing a “remote buddy” without the other remote control features ? If not what is the difference ?
February 17th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Hi Alex,
Signal acts as a remote control for your media player - iTunes on the Mac or iTunes, Winamp, or Windows Media Player on the PC. You can find more information on the main web site at http://www.alloysoft.com/
As for control of other applications, my philosophy for software development is that an application should do one thing and do it well. This keeps development focused, makes the application easier to use, and as the product evolves time is put into making the primary purpose of the app better and better. If a program tries to cover every possible function that development time gets split over far more areas and I believe you see an impact to quality as a result of this.
Just let me know if you have any other questions, always happy to help.
February 23rd, 2008 at 3:34 pm
I love this web app… Incredibly useful, simple, free, I’m always using it now
Will register for sure.
Thank you sooo much, man, keep up the great work.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Hi, my Signal downloaded properly onto my PC yet I can’t get it to open on the iPhone because the “server stopped responding”. I’ve entered the URL correctly and don’t know how this could be solved…