Comments on: Signal 1.0.3

By: Matt Stevens

Matt Stevens — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:37:28 +0000

Paul: Currently what you describe isn’t possible through a web application, and I’m not aware of any hacked apps that have this ability. I agree that such streaming capabilities would be very cool, but one thing to keep in mind is power consumption. If Wi-Fi was in constant use as it would be for streaming I expect he iPod’s battery would be drained in just a couple hours.

By: Paul Clawson

Paul Clawson — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:03:03 +0000

Hi, all. I have been reading through the comments and suggestions.
I recently bought an i touch and was hoping to play music straight from my Itouch though airport to my speakers,
I know the signal program uses the computer and acts as a remote.
Does anything like my first thought exist?
I just would like to be able to play it on my headphones, walk into my room, and select the airport and play through the speakers.

A pipe dream or something possible around the corner?

Thanks

By: Matt Stevens

Matt Stevens — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 03:42:05 +0000

There are alarm clock solutions that integrate with iTunes such as Awaken and Alarm Clock 2, you could use something like this to give you an alarm clock setup similar to the Sonos'. There have been a couple of requests for integrating an alarm clock solution directly into Signal for the snooze integration you suggest, this is on the list for consideration. Personally I've found the iPhone's built-in alarm function to be sufficiently annoying to wake me up, then I flip over to Signal to get the music going.

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 20:55:57 +0000

Thanks for the consideration, Matt.

One other question — in looking to replace the Sonos with this simpler solution, I wonder if you can recommend any approach of setting up an alarm clock that could be integrated into it. Just setting alarms and having music to play at a certain time would be great, but of course, allowing a user to snooze from the iPhone would be killer.

By: Matt Stevens

Matt Stevens — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 06:41:01 +0000

calob: You’ll get the best performance out of Wi-Fi, but Signal will work with any network connection, so you can use it over the cellular data network. This does require some additional work to set up, as you’ll need to forward a port in your router to the computer running Signal and connect using your public internet IP address or a Dynamic DNS service.

Dan: Thanks for the comments! I’ll look into the sort fields, if this information is easy to access and can be automatically incorporated I’ll put it on the list. As for independent streams to different Airport Express units – you’re right, currently AirTunes can’t do this.

By: calob

calob — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:40:35 +0000

Sorry for this noob question. But is this just for wifi?

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 20:08:53 +0000

Hey, just wanted to say thanks for such a wonderful program! Heard about it, tried it and purchased it yesterday — which is a rare thing for me to do that quickly, but it’s certainly worth a few bucks, so thanks! Nicely done!

It’s been surprising to me that Apple didn’t ship an app like this for the iPhone and iPod Touch already — the integration of these devices with iTunes (and Apple TV) seem just like such an open area for innovation. Glad to see you stepped in with an offering, especially given that you’re limited to Safari!

One issue I’ve noticed that I do hope you’re able to consider for an upcoming release is the sort order of artists and albums. iTunes has “Sort Artist” and “Sort Album” fields that allow the user to control the sort order for those of us who think, for example, that Paul McCartney should be listed under M, not P. Assuming you have access to those fields, it should be pretty straight forward to use them, when present, over the regular artist or album fields. Would make a world of difference to those of us who have set these fields and would prefer the iPhone view to mirror the iTunes view. Thanks for your kind consideration of this request.

I’ve had a 3-zone Sonos setup going for over a year, and your program, my iPhone and a few Airport Expresses are a heck of a nice alternative (and much cheaper) — I’m tempted to sell my Sonos system and just go with this instead. True, I can’t play different music to different Airport Expresses (that I’m aware of), but I don’t have to worry about updating the Sonos version of the music library either.

Am anxiously awaiting to see the direction this goes in when Apple releases their iPhone SDK.

Dan

By: brett

brett — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 00:40:47 +0000

matt – thanks for your reply. i look forward to seeing what you come up with.

brett

By: Matt Stevens

Matt Stevens — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 22:00:04 +0000

brett: Thanks! Right now there isn’t any planned support for foobar2000, but what is being looked is the possibility of an extensibility framework to allow for add-ons to control other media players. This would allow others to develop plug-ins for players that aren’t supported in the core application.

By: brett

brett — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 19:18:14 +0000

hi matt,

great application…the first true killer app for the iphone / ipod touch platform!!!

question for you. is there any planned support for foobar2000?

thank you in advance for your response.

brett