Signal 1.0.4
Signal 1.0.4 is now available and resolves a Leopard compatibility problem, an issue with displaying track titles for shared iTunes libraries on Windows, and includes several stability improvements for the HTML interface. Full details are available in the release notes.
November 16th, 2007 at 4:52 am
Great work! The ‘looping’ issue and occasional ‘hanging’ issues are both resolved for me with this update. Many thanks.
November 16th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Any planned update to change airport express speakers. The Remote Buddy package has that option so maybe that segment of programming could be incorporate into yours?
http://www.iospirit.com/index.php?mode=view&obj_type=infogroup&obj_id=24&o_infogroup_objcode=infogroup-23&sid=4650912Gb9c96891e14e5bec
Otherwise great work on a lean quick app. I trialed it and ended up buying it, keep it up.
November 18th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Santa: Yep, Signal has its own work-around for the Airport Express selection outage planned for 1.1.
November 24th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
I just installed (if that is what you call it)… the signal and am operating remotely all my I tunes on different floors of my house… I have been thinking about how to do this for years with my brother (who loves this stuff). So sick of chasing down CDs… Finally with the iphone, it all came together… and I am THRILLED… right before the holiday parties when you want music flowing seamlessly throughout the house and porches! THANK YOU ALLOY!
Karen
November 24th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Thanks Karen! Always great to hear from someone who enjoys the app
November 26th, 2007 at 11:58 am
Great update! There are really only 2 remaining issues that I’m hoping you’ll address.
• Airport Express speaker selection is #1, because then I could leave Remote Buddy behind completely and use this program to its fullest.
• I wrote earlier this month about a problem getting back to the Media Library screen. This problem persists. Many times, after using Search or drilling down through Artists and then playing an album directly, I cannot return to the Media Library screen except by doing a complete refresh or quitting and restarting the Signal MobileSafari page. Sometimes repeated presses of the “Back” button will get me there, but often, this merely toggles me between the “Now Playing” screen and the last screen I was in when I selected what to play. It would be really great, if clicking the Musical Note button in the “Now Playing” screen would always bring us directly to the “Music Library” screen.
Thanks for one of my favorite apps!
November 26th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Thanks for the comments! Airport Express selection will be coming in the 1.1 update. It’s actually working here on the development machine and supports both individual and multiple speaker selection so you can toggle individual rooms on and off.
The behavior of the music library icon was originally to always go to the top of the media library tree, but this proved to be quite annoying for users who were browsing the library and wanted the ability to go back to the now playing screen to make some adjustments, then return to the media library right where they left off. As a result the behavior was altered to the current implementation.
I would guess that the reason “back” sometimes returns you to now playing is that the header bar was actually hit instead of the back button. This was added as a (non-obvious) shortcut to return to the now playing screen from anywhere in the media library. My current plan to improve navigation here is to have the section title act as more of a drop-down that allows the user to go to any higher level in the media library as well as return to the now playing screen. I think this will help quite a bit with library navigation.
November 27th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
You’re correct that the header bar is the way I’ve been returning to the now playing screen, and I now understand the issue much better.
I have a pretty large music collection (25k songs or so), and browsing isn’t something I would normally bother with. So I normally either listen to a Playlist or I Search for an Artist, Album or Song. Both work fine. The issue comes when I want to Search for something new. If I’ve used the header bar to get to now playing, I run into the loop problem I described above. After reading your reply, I tried using the back button instead. While it solves the problem, it’s a LOT of extra key presses.
I LOVE the idea of having the section title act as a drop-down! If you can make that work, it will dramatically improve navigation.
Thanks much Matt, it’s nice to see a developer who genuinely cares about making a great product even better. Looking forward to the next release. If you ever need extra beta testers, keep me in mind.
November 28th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Hi there,
Awesome looking app! I was just wondering if its possible to do the reverse of the advertised action so therefore controlling the ipod touch from itunes?? I’d love to not have to buy a physical remote extra for my setup…
Cheers
November 29th, 2007 at 12:29 am
Hi Tom,
I’m afraid not. This would require a tighter integration with the software on the iPod than is possible with current web applications. Although more expensive than a separate remote, if you’re looking to play your music collection through the stereo you might want to check out the Airport Express. This device will allow you to stream your iTunes collection to a stereo and drive it from within iTunes as you’d like.
November 29th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
Hi Matt,
The product is awesome but you probably are aware of the existence of products similar in concept.
dot-tunes is one that i recently came across and though i find their website not as elegant as ur product advertisement,the idea of having both
“a) the iphone work as a remote
b) being able to stream entore itunes library to iphone”seems very appealing.
How in your opinion is signal superior to dot-tunes to make me want to get it for a similar price?(other than a more elegant interface)
November 30th, 2007 at 12:32 am
Hi Matt,
I am glad to see new version. Although I was hoping that you would be able to fix that strange issue when iPhone doesn’t show artwork created by me - 600×600 jpeg. iTunes shows this artwork without any problem. All artworks from Internet work in both iTunes and iPhone. Maybe I am saving this jpeg in some kind of special way??? But since iTunes can display it, it looks that your application can be improved to do that as well.
Please let me know if you need some example (short aac file with my artwork in it) to troubleshoot it.
Thanks a lot,
MK
November 30th, 2007 at 12:36 am
nfa: For any good idea there will always be competition. I rather enjoy it, keeps one from becoming complacent. As for why you would choose Signal over other products out there, I think this is a decision best made by the customer. I could tell you why I prefer Signal, but it’s really about what product is best for you. This is why the free demo version is offered with all features enabled and no time limit. You can try the app for as long as you like, and if you decide that there’s a certain feature that you’ve just got to have, you can come back and try a newer version later. I think Signal stands on its own, and encourage you to try both apps and see which you like best.
Specifically to streaming, I won’t make any promises regarding new features, but it’s on the list for consideration.
November 30th, 2007 at 12:39 am
MK: If you can send an example to support@alloysoft.com I can certainly take a look and see if anything jumps out.
November 30th, 2007 at 10:21 am
First let me just say you have an awesome application going here. I was wondering if Signal could, or ever would be able to, play the music from your iPhone over your speakers that you see on the web. For instance if you look up a podcast on Digg and play the track it could play over the speakers in the house. Perhaps this has been asked before, if so, sorry, but I was just curious.
@MK: You might want to check the ID3 tags of the song. Some times things don’t save right in iTunes. If you right click the track there should be and Edit Info or get Info, then in the opening window click on the artwork tab. Not sure if this would fix it but I had an album art problem on my computer awhile ago and it seemed to fix it.
December 1st, 2007 at 10:27 am
Hi Matt, I’ve been using your app for some weeks now and thought I’d write with some feedback. I initially tested several solutions to achieve a simple remote streaming capability using Airport Express/Airtunes. Yours was by far the most elegant, Apple-like application and so I purchased a license. I’m happy to say that there have been no issues so far - minor or otherwise. I also discovered your ’secret’ shortcut back to the ‘Now Playing’ screen which had been my only niggle and look forward to seeing how your drop down menu suggestion develops.
There are two things that would make my life easier if you were to implemt them;
1. Group compilations. Currently, the only way to locate a compilation is to search for it by name which can be some feat when you have large library as I do. This could be as simple as adding another option on the top level menu making navigation that bit easier.
2. Make the contents of playlists visible before playing. Currently selecting a playlist means that it commences play from the first track. If the playlist was first presented as an ‘album’ then individual tracks could be selected or even allow the user to queue multiple lists.
Many thanks for building such a good looking, stable and most of all useful application. I can’t use Apple’s own Front Row app as it usually chokes on my 38,000+ iTunes library and won’t let me search when it does open successfully. You should definitely consider submitting your app to Versiontracker.com and even Apple themselves. Looking forward to Signal’s future development.
December 3rd, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Mc.Jiggle: Are you asking if Signal could stream content that would normally be played back on the iPhone itself out to remote speakers? Right now that’s not possible with a web application, something like this would require native application access.
LSR: Thanks for the comments! You have some great suggestions here and in fact these are both already on the list for inclusion in a future release. It will be post-1.1, but they’re definitely going in.
December 4th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Here is something i need signal to have power off time, could signal over wright the power off time of my WM pocket pc so when i am running signal i can set my own time, every time i have to weight till the wifi reconnects as my power off time is set for normal use. I would like to make this longer when i am using signal.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
any way to get signal on apple tv?
December 6th, 2007 at 1:17 am
joyce: This is something I’ve been thinking about adding for a long time, but haven’t actually ever done because I’m not too crazy about modifying the device’s settings. If the device is reset while Signal is running then the custom settings will persist, which is probably not what the user wants. I’ll think about it again when the WM client is next updated.
caleb: Currently not, unfortunately. Apple chose not to provide any kind of developer interface into the Apple TV, so there is no supported way of controlling it.
December 8th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
too big it doesn’t work with Chinese
December 10th, 2007 at 4:54 am
Hi Matt,
Your product is awesome. I send you an email at feedback@alloysoft.com. Please read it ASAP, I’m sure you’ll not regret it.
December 18th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
This has to be the best app I’ve found in a while…. it works great with Windows Media Player and my iPhone!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for this!!!!
December 28th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
I am not sure I know how to use this app. It shows i am turning the volume up on my iphone, but it doesnt actually turn my volume up. I cant change songs or really do anything except browse my music. Is there something I am missing?
December 29th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Chris: Signal acts as a remote control for iTunes on your computer. When you’re adjusting the volume it doesn’t actually adjust the volume of the iPod or iPhone, but rather changes the volume in iTunes on your computer. What this is useful for is having your computer play music through your house either directly or through your stereo. You can then drive the music from your iPod or iPhone without having to go back to the computer every time you want to pause the music or change the song.
January 1st, 2008 at 9:37 pm
I understand, but it does not work. I try to change the song and nothing happens, the volume slider wont change the volume on my computer either. I even tried it while sitting at my computer desk. Am I missing a program needed for this? Please help.
January 2nd, 2008 at 1:08 pm
If you’re using the Windows version, try pulling up the debug log to see if there are any errors reported. To do this, bring up the Signal settings interface on the computer and press Ctrl+Shift+D. This should open the debug log. Once it appears try to perform an action through Signal.
If you see any errors messages along the lines “iTunes is not installed or not accessible”, you may be running into a rare iTunes bug. For some reason iTunes sometimes fails to register its COM programming interface properly. If this message appears in the log this is most likely your problem. To fix it, shut down iTunes, Signal, and any other program that interfaces with iTunes and re-install iTunes. This seems to be the most reliable way to resolve the issue, and afterwards Signal should be able to find the iTunes interface.
January 3rd, 2008 at 7:06 pm
This worked! Thank you so much for your help. Great program. I must admit I was skeptical at first, but you helped me out. Thanks again…keep them coming!
January 10th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Great app. I will be buying a license today. Just wanted to remind you to keep working on the WM client. It could really use full screen width (either 240×240 or 480×480 on VGA devices) album art similar to the iPhone interface. Otherwise, great app- it just works on both my WM devices and my iPhone (I have a house full of potential remotes!).
January 10th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Absolutely. I know it may seem that the Windows Mobile client is not seeing as much development as the iPhone version, this is primarily because the WM client already has years of development behind it and has a solid feature set. The iPhone client requires a bit more work to get to a point where I’m equally happy with it.
Going forward both of these clients are going to end up being thick clients sharing common code, with the intent of keeping their development as close as possible.
January 13th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Matt,
Happy New Year. Thanks for your great product!
I was wondering what it would take for your app to work with Firefly on my NAS box(Infrant ReadyNas). I think it is apache2 on a Linux based OS. Firefly emulates an iTunes server
January 14th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Happy New Year! Support for shared libraries (which the Firefly server should appear as) is in the Windows version, and will be added to the Mac version in a future update. While it probably won’t make 1.1, it is high on the priority list.
January 18th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Hi, Matt
Any idea if SIgnal work to control the Linn digital streaming music servers (http://linn.co.uk/digital_stream_players)? Linn say that any upnp device is compatible. Thanks for any thoughts on this.
January 21st, 2008 at 4:37 pm
I am trying out the trial version of Signal and am very impressed so far. The only problem I am having is the fast forward button will not work. It just goes to a black screen, trying to find the next song and never finds it. It doesn’t matter if random is turned on or not. I can go back a level and pick the next song from the list, but that defeats the purpose of the fast forward button. Is this a limitation of the trail software? I am on an iMac (Power PC) 10.4.11 running iTunes 7.6 and iPhone 1.1.3 software.
January 21st, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Figured it out. Got to make an on-the-go playlist for the album to be able to fast forward to another track. Seems like an extra step, but not a big deal.
January 30th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
It seems that when I pick an album in its entirety to play, SIgnal plays the tracks back alphabetically rather than in the natural order on the album. Am I missing something obvious here? Thanks.
January 30th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Hi Mark,
There is a known issue if playing back an artist that has only one album - in this case the tracks will be played back in alphabetical order. If the artist has multiple albums the tracks will be played in album order. The single-album issue is high on the list and will be resolved in a future update.
February 4th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Hi Matt,
Great software so glad a purchased it! Do you have any time line for the next release? Many of the issues I have seem to be addressed in previous entries.
February 4th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Hi Darren,
Thanks! The next release is getting very close. There are a couple of final issues found during testing with speaker selection for some different languages and Airport Expres discovery in the Windows version, once these are worked out it will be ready to go. This one has admittedly taken longer to get out than I would have liked, the holidays and some other things that have been going on really slowed down development! Once 1.1 is out I plan to see Signal put back on a more regular update schedule.
February 6th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Matt– Really glad to here 1.1 is almost here! The speaker selection is the one aspect that is holding this back for me… Any chance of getting the Mac version out right away, since apparently it’s ready?
February 7th, 2008 at 8:45 am
It’s possible, though I would like to see updates released for both platforms simultaneously so that no one feels left behind if word of the update starts to get out. I’ll certainly consider it if it looks like completion of the Windows version is going to take some time.
February 10th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Hi Matt,
Great software and with speaker selection this piece of soft becomes a real “smash hit”…..but for me one thing is missing. is it possible to play all tracks on my display without building a playlist. something like a “play all” button.
February 11th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Thanks! It’s possible to play all items in a group (in an album, by an artist, etc) by tapping on the plus next to the group item name and selecting “Play Now”.
I’ve been thinking about making some modifications to the media library layout to make it function more like the iPod application (automatically plays everything visible) with an explicit “queue up” mode.
February 12th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Hi Matt,
I primarily use signal to play avi files. However, Windows Media Player does not default to full screen, so I either have to watch my movies windowed or go to the computer to switch to full screen. Any plans to add a feature to signal to either switch between fullscreen and windowed in WMP, or play all movies in fullscreen?
Otherwise, great product and totally worth the registration fee.
February 12th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Hi Jason,
Absolutely. In fact, I spent some time working on this for the next update but ran into a few issues that require some more work. I’d rather leave a feature out than put one in that doesn’t work reliably, so this one is going to have to wait a little longer. If all goes as planned, what I’d like to do is have WMP go into full screen mode by default when a video is launched through Signal, with an option in the interface to toggle the full screen mode when Signal detects that a video is being played.
February 21st, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Hey there, trying the demo version out with Winamp. I have one problem with signal and it’s that it uses up 70-95% CPU usage? Anyone else have this problem?
Other than that issue its worth buying if it doesn’t suck up all my CPU which boggs down everything else on the pc.
February 21st, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Matt,
Eagerly awaiting the remote speaker selection in 1.1. Anyway it will be released before the Windows version. Even a beta would do!! I am sure the other Mac users here would not mind either.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:51 am
any way to display albums in coverflow format? also take this as a vote to implement the “play everything visible” mode you mentioned. the ipod format and controls are reasonably well-tested and fairly popular last i looked–the more closely signal follows those, the better, imho.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Chris: Is the CPU spike constant or just when first starting the app? At startup it will index your media library which can result in a hit if it’s large. Once this is done Signal should use very little of the CPU.
santa: Working as quickly as possible - I want to get it out too
Peter: CoverFlow isn’t doable within a web application today, but it will certainly be something to investigate when the native SDK is released.
February 24th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Signal 1.1 is now live - enjoy!
February 27th, 2008 at 11:36 am
hi, im using signal 1.1.02
i have a feature request, would it be possible to add a feature to select which media player we would like to control directly from the ipod… so if itunes is selected on the PC but we would quickly like to switch to WMP, we could just do it directly on the ipod?
otherwise a fantastic program
February 28th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Gavin: It’s certainly possible, but my first impression is that this seems like a rare use case. I’d like to see the interface kept as simple as possible. Perhaps if there is a configuration screen in the future this could be set up there.
March 11th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
WOW! I’m looking for an app for a classroom setting. Elementary teacher wants to play music/programs for kids and be able to start/stop as needed. You can imagine with 25 six-year olds…
I admit to being a newbie to all this music technology. I’m a lazy radio guy. Waht has struck me as odd is the notion that it’s useful to stick an ipod into a speaker system on a shelf. It seems to me you lose all control and have no ability to adjust on the fly (beyond pause/resume).
I think this program might be what she needs. I’m still learning and don’t know that yet. But what I do know is I’ve not seen feedback like this in a long-long time. I’m talking about the proprietors feedback to customer comments, inquiries and suggestions. It has been absolutely amazing to see and read. Granted he’s small at this point. But the open and honest attitude is soooo refreshing after getting the corporate BS typical of almost all companies today.
I hope you have huge success with your program!
March 12th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Thanks Tom! Being able to interact with users like this is one of the best parts of the job. To hear people’s experiences and thoughts on something you created is just a blast.
I think Signal should be able to give you the control you’re looking for, but keeping the iPod out of the kids hands is a whole different problem
Just let me know if you’ve got questions or if there’s any other way I can be of help, and thanks again!