Signal 1.1 – Hello, AirTunes
You’ve asked for it, and it’s here! Signal now gives you complete control of AirTunes speaker selection through iTunes. You can toggle multiple speakers on and off or easily redirect all audio to a single speaker, right from your iPhone, iPod touch, or Pocket PC. Here’s how it works:
If you tap on the album art image to display the additional controls, you’ll notice a new icon for multiple speakers. Tapping on this will take you to the speaker selection screen, and here you’ll see the list of all AirTunes speakers in your network as well as an entry for your computer and a switch to toggle between single and multiple speaker modes.
When set to single speaker mode tapping on a speaker name will redirect all audio output to that speaker, just like selecting it from the speakers drop-down within iTunes. This allows you to quickly send audio to a single room or back to your computer.
When set to multiple speaker mode tapping on a speaker name will toggle that speaker on or off, just like using the “Remote Speakers” window in iTunes. Signal will automatically remember the last speaker mode setting used, so if you’re always operating in multiple speaker mode you can just set the option once and never worry about it again.
The first time you use the speaker selection option on a Mac you may see a message asking you to turn on “access for assistive devices” on your Mac. This is a Universal Access feature that enables UI scripting, and it’s how Signal works around the fact that iTunes still does not include a proper API for AirTunes control. Signal will open up the Universal Access system preference pane for you, so all you need to do is check the box and you’re set.
But wait, there’s more!
It’s been a couple of months since the last update, and the time hasn’t been spent idly. In addition to the new speaker controls, 1.1 also includes some other great new features:
Alphabetic Media Library Jump
To speed media library navigation when browsing, an A-Z button is now included at the top and bottom of every media library group that spans more than a single page. Tapping this will bring up an alphabet overlay, allowing you to tap on a letter and have the media library scroll directly to the first entry starting with that letter. Coupled with Signal’s existing speedy search capability finding just what you’re looking for should be easy!
Landscape Support
Mobile Safari loves its landscape mode, and while for most web viewing it’s a great feature, for web applications it can sometimes get in the way. Since there’s no way to turn it off, why not use it! Signal will now properly re-arrange itself when in landscape mode, allowing you to utilize all controls and giving you more space to see media library artist and album names.
Back Button Support
Safari’s back button can now be used from anywhere within the Signal interface to take you back to the Now Playing screen with one tap. If you’re in the middle of browsing for something in particular but you want to skip a song or make a quick change to the volume, just tap the back button. When you’re done, tapping Safari’s forward button will take you right back to where you were.
Improved Podcast Organization
Podcasts are now a top-level category in the media library, organized by show rather than artist and sorted by date so you can easily find the latest episodes of your favorite shows.
…And the Details
- New icon!
- WebClip icon
- Previous now acts as backtrack in iTunes
- Bonjour advertisement for the HTTP interface
- The usual assortment of fixes and minor changes covered in the release notes.
This is a release that I’ve been looking forward to for some time now, and I’m very excited to see it get into your hands. It’s available right now on the downloads page, I hope you enjoy it!
February 24th, 2008 at 3:01 am
The update is great – especially the speaker control. Thanks for a brilliant piece of software. Apple -are you watching? This quality of software enhances their whole system – I for one bought a Touch because this software existed!
February 24th, 2008 at 4:03 am
Hi Matt,
A good update, very responsive and the A-Z facility will be much used!
The issue with the wrong track order (i.e. it’s presented alphabetically) being played still exists if an artist has only one album in the iTunes library. You had indicated that this would be resolved soon, any further news?
Alan
February 24th, 2008 at 5:13 am
This update came as a very pleasant surprise. Now my new Touch is a universal remote throughout the house. Thank you for adding what Apple forgets!
Mark
February 24th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Thanks for a great update. My wife and I both have iPhones and we have a “hacked-for-full-power” CCrane FM transmitter to send iTunes to radios throughout our house. Very effective.
We have a small baby and my wife loves the fact that she can control music (including baby playlists) and podcasts throughout the house without needing to go to our basement home office where the computers are. We also use it to listen to streaming radio (hint: just add your favorite iTunes radio feed to a playlist by itself and access via Signal).
-Dave
February 24th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
This update is just incredible! AirTunes support is greatly appreciated. Do you plan to keep this as a Web App once the iPhone/iTouch SDK is released. I for one would be willing to pay as you software is amazing to me.
February 24th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Russell, Mark, SYFer: Thanks for the kind words, I’m very glad to hear you’re enjoying the update! This kind of positive feedback means a lot.
Alan: You’re right, this one didn’t quite make it into 1.1. It’s high on the list for the next release.
David: Until we know exactly how the SDK will shape up it’s hard to say anything for sure, but there are definitely plans for a native app version of Signal.
February 24th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Hi
Firstly, great app! I purchased an Ipod for this software.
I wonder if it is possible to remove tracks from the singal playlist once they have been added? For example, you can press the blue + sign next to a track to add it to the singal playlist but you can not press again to remove it.
Also, any chance of making the screen display the entire artists list as a long scroll like an ipod does? This would be even easier the the A-Z for “guests” who like to browse.
Cheers!
Leon
February 24th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
This jukebox remote is getting better and better! Look at the iPhone sales on next month… people are going to purchase it just for the remote feature, thanks to Signal.
just one bug still to be fixed on my side: Is there other people who cannot start a playlist with a name that includes a special character (try this one: Albums Récents). Unfortunately, iTunes automatically spell its own playlist in the OS installed language… On my side it contains accents like éèàêë…
Still enjoy anyway!
February 24th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Leon: When tapping on a song title or selecting the “Play Now” option for a group this will automatically clear the queue and play just that selection. Removal of individual songs from the queue is planned for a future release.
For the media library, having a single long list is not really feasible due to the amount of memory this would take up in Safari. With a native app this would be less of an issue since the data could be pulled in off the network on demand.
Eric: You’re right, this looks like a bug. iTunes is storing these as wide charcters and Signal needs some work to send full Unicode names to iTunes.
February 25th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Matt
Thanks for such a great piece of software. I have tried others however your solution is the most elegant and provides a considerable speed boost over the others. I will be purchasing a license code.
Two questions – as per Leons above comment – instead of showing a single long list of all listings is it possible to at least show an entire list of each alphabetic letter? In other words if I use the A-Z facility and choose to view the A’s then ALL of the A’s would appear as a long list. Much in the same light a preference pane allowing users to control such options might be useful.
I also see that Signal can be used with other programs – any thoughts to having it control the Squeezebox and its Squeezecenter media player software?
Gregg
February 25th, 2008 at 12:56 am
Gregg: Showing the full list of titles starting with a particular letter would probably still need to be paged, as some users have very large libraries (I’ve heard of as many as 100,000 songs). While the system could trade larger page sizes for a greater delay in loading I think a better experience is achieved by keeping the interface responsive.
With that said, there are some ideas to further improve how the media library lists are interfaced with. Whether or not this work goes forward depends on what Apple announced in regard to the iPhone SDK this week – if supported native apps are a go that will result in the best performance.
As for the Squeezebox, it’s certainly a possibility. While it probably won’t go into the core application, a plug-in system is being considered that would allow drop-in support for other media players and devices.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:32 am
Hello! I’m a Japanese user. I’m pleased with this great software but have not made a registration yet because the Japanese language cannot be displayed properly on the ipod touch. I’m glad to know if you have a plan to fix this in the future.
February 25th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Hisao: Signal needs some work to update its database to support Unicode characters. This is definitely planned for a future release.
February 25th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Matt: Thank you. I look forward to internatonalization of this great software and my happy life with it.
February 25th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I have a sonos system throughout my house, but have been aware of Signal since it launched. I recently tried the app on an iPod Touch and couldn’t believe how mature it is. I thought I might have to also use Remote Buddy’s ajax remote since it allows speaker switching and scrolling the library by letter, but guess what happened the next day! You added those very features–and improved on them v. Remote Buddy in my opinion. Thank you so much for continuing to improve the app. I feel very lucky to start using Signal just as new features are added.
February 26th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Many, many thanks for releasing such a well thought out & useful update to what is without a doubt my most used app – apart from iTunes. I’m one of those users who has in excess of 100,000 tunes so the alphabet selection is most definitely going to be of use here!
I’d still like to see functionality added to view a playlist rather than have it commence immediately, I’m sure this was mentioned by you earlier as a suggested feature.
Keep up the good work, Signal is without a doubt the best iPhone/iPod Touch application out there by a mile.
All the best. The Duffer
February 26th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Hi Matt,
Great App! Can’t believe how easy you made this and how great the program is!
I have over 30′000 tunes in my library and it works like a charm!
Looking forward for the next update!
Thanks again
February 26th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Brad, Basjee: Thanks for the support!
The Duffer: I’d like to see this added too. Before it goes in I want to make sure it performs just as well as the rest of the media library interface and for shared playlists this requires a little more work.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Matt, this looks really cool… looking forward to trying the demo. I use Roku’s Soundbridges myself — any chance I could do the big-puppy-dog-eyes in the hopes you’d add support for that someday? Roku’s remote protocol is pretty robust ( http://www.rokulabs.com/community_developers.php ) and many people on their forums have been looking for an iPhone/iPod touch-based remote.
But even if the best you can say is “maybe down the road,” this really looks like a cool app and worth trying just for the experience. Thanks!
February 26th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
the update is great and love the fact that you have added the remote speakers. I am having a problem though as I can not access the remote speaker option. I tap on the picture to see the other controls, but thier is no icon for the remote speakers.
Using windows vista with itunes 7.6.029. is there something I am missing?
thanks
February 26th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
never mind my post above. for some reason had to restart the computer and then it poped up. This is great thanks for the update.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Bob S: To be completely honest “maybe down the road” is the best answer I can give right now. There are a number of devices out there that Signal could make a great remote for, and I think a plug-in system to support them could be very useful. Doing that right will take time, and there are a few other things on the roadmap first.
Jaso Girt: If you have an AirPort Express in your network and the speaker selection drop-down appears in the bottom-right corner of the iTunes window you should see the speaker selection icon in Signal as well. If you have Signal firewalled on a per-port basis you may need to open up UDP port 5353 as well to allow it to find the AirPort Express units in your network.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Jaso: Glad to hear you got it working!
February 26th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
This is awesome! I love Signal and it’s great for parties. The new Airtunes is nice! However, I use Airfoil from Rogue Amoeba software.
Is there anyway that can be integrated in the same way as regular airtunes? Since I never found itunes to sync music as perfectly as Airfoil does.
I believe Airfoil has an extensive applescript support.
February 26th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Lee Liu: I agree that this could be a useful addition, and it’s on the list for consideration.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:33 am
Thanks for the update Matt,I’m having a slight problem here though. Signal now only displays the playlist I created in iTunes and won’t display “search” or “now playing” screens. I’ve just applied firmware version 1.1.4 to my iPhone and gone through a restart before clearing caches etc. Has anyone else had this problem?
Thanks again Matt.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:43 am
Apologies for the above post – problem sorted now,I’d set my web clip on a playlist page! Thanks again Matt
February 27th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Amazing! This is by far the best app I’ve seen. You’ve set the bar high and I bet you will only keep on raising it.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Wow!! This is the missing link to make airport express a compelling product. I may end up buying 2-3 more now that this app is available. I am currently testing one airport express to see how often reported interruptions occur when using airport express.
My one wish is that (like the Sonos product) there was no need to even turn on the computer.)
Any suggestions on powered bookshelf speakers?
Ideally, they would include a remote to handle power/volume since I may place some out of the way.
February 27th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
LSR: Glad you got it sorted out. I’ll look into whether or not it’s possible to ignore the hash for the initial navigation, currently this is what’s used to enable support for Safari’s back button.
Fitz, marte: Thanks! As for powered speakers, I haven’t heard these myself but I know that the Audioengine speakers have received rave reviews and are even designed for the AirPort Express. I’d also love to hear about any other powered speaker recommendations that others have.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
I have two pairs of audioengine speakers, and I think they’re a great match for airport express systems. I’m very happy with them.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:40 am
Thanks for audioengine reference. They look awesome.
Last night I got ongoing audio dropouts. I know there is a lot out there on drop-outs using AirTunes, but wondering if anyone can lead me to a easy to understand/follow list of suggestions.
Tx.
February 28th, 2008 at 9:33 am
marte: Your issue is most likely either interference or bandwidth. If you’re using an older 802.11b-only base station replacing that would be my first recommendation. It may also be worth checking with a laptop or iPod/iPhone to see what the wireless signal strength is like near the AirPort.
You might also try moving the wireless network to a different channel. You can use a utility like iStumbler (Mac) or NetStumbler (Windows) to see what wireless networks are on what channels in your area and try to pick one that’s clear.
You can also increase the streaming buffer within iTunes under Preferences > Advanced.
February 28th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Matt,
Thanks for the tips. I’ll try them tonight.
This morning it was working fine….
I do have a new extreme base station and my appletv on which i’m now running AirTunes has a bunch of bars….
This is a bummer as I was totally psyched on extending the network with some Airport Expresses and new speakers…
February 28th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
I hope you’re going to jump aboard the SDK train once it finally departs the AppleStation.
I could see some truly remarkable things from this kind of app (in the same vein as salling clicker was for my old ericsson).
What I’d really love to see would be a way to have my music automatically pause as I’m leaving the house, and start-up again when I walk through the door.
February 28th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
JR: There are definitely plans for a native app version of Signal. We’ll just have to see when the SDK finally arrives.
Detecting presence on the network would be very cool, but is a challenge for a mobile device. Leaving Wi-Fi or Bluetooth on constantly is a pretty big drain on the battery so you would typically want these to turn off when the device is idle (as the iPhone does today). When that happens the iPhone is “dark” to both the network and computer and would look as if you had left.
February 28th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
It can be done without too much of a hit on the battery life via BT. quite a few people leave their BT radio on, so this would be one way to accomplish it.
I agree though, forcing the WiFi to stay on and connected to a hotspot would be a drain on a battery life. From my understanding (and own experiencing), leaving the BT radio on have any major adverse effects on battery performance.
February 29th, 2008 at 5:36 am
Matt, thanks for the update. I appreciate that this is mainly an Apple focused product but I very much apprecite your on-going support for Pocket PC. Signal is the best application available for remote control on the platform. Please continue supporting the PPC.
db
March 1st, 2008 at 10:07 am
This is absolute genius … thanks for working on the software, its really a missing link in the whole wireless streaming music thing … got sick of running up and down stairs to change tracks – I just spent the whole afternoon listening to music and changing tracks! thanks again
J
March 1st, 2008 at 12:36 pm
this app is so good i wanna cry
March 2nd, 2008 at 5:24 am
Thanks for the update (and seemless upgrade procedure). This really is a great product and the perfect complement to my VIA EPIA setup as it’s so lightweight on the server.
A couple of things I’d like to be able to do: re-order tracks in the current playlist and be able to remove more than one track at a time. Is this likely to be possible? I use the PocketPC version.
Thanks, Dan
March 2nd, 2008 at 6:22 am
Just tried the demo.
I was just a happy iPod Touch owner.
Now I’m an EXTREMELY happy iPod Touch owner.
I will be buying this software for sure.
Also, I’m a technology consultant, so I’m always looking for the best tech gadgets and software. Signal is now at the top of my list, so I will definitely be recommending this to all my clients who have media libraries and iPods (iPhone/Touch) or PocketPCs.
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:36 am
jon, iName, John: Thanks, glad to hear you like the app!
Darren, Dan: There are additional updates for the Windows Mobile client on the roadmap, these will likely come following the native iPhone version (assuming the SDK is released soon). One benefit to WM users of the iPhone version going native is that Signal is designed through and through to be cross-platform, so the back end driving both clients will be common.
Playlist re-ordering is possible for Winamp and WMP and is on the list for consideration. Re-ordering for iTunes is difficult to accomplish today because here again we have no API within iTunes to reposition a track. Workarounds for this one are possible, but less practical so we probably need some action from Apple before it can go in.
March 3rd, 2008 at 3:35 pm
All great updates. Thanks to the remote speaker support, you got my $$.
Any chance connected speaker state could bubble up to the UI?
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:54 pm
John: I would like to see this too, but it gets somewhat tricky. As you discovered already, the iTunes API still doesn’t actually have speaker selection support so Signal is basically simulating the user input to accomplish this. This is far from ideal, but it does work and makes for a killer feature so it went in. Figuring out which speakers are actually active is possible, but becomes even more of a hack and may not be that reliable.
To any Apple employees that may be reading: Please, please, for the love of all that is shiny, put speaker controls into the iTunes API! This request has been in Radar since 2004, so I now simply resort to begging. Or bribery. You want cookies? You got cookies. Just give me speaker controls.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Thx Matt. I was pretty sure it wasn’t an oversight, but I had to ask
I feel like maybe we should get a bounty together to lure someone at Apple to include this.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Hi Matt,
This app looks really neat and it just does what I need, except for one thing (one of the most important things actually): I cannot get the speaker selection working. I just downloaded the demo to my Windows XP PC, running iTunes 7.6.1.9. My client is a Pocket PC (HTC Touch) running Windows Mobile 5.0. All firewall software is turned off on the Signal server.
So i guess it should be working. However, it doesn’t. Can you please tell me what I am doing wrong? Thanks in advance for your answer!
Oh yeah, one more question: are there any more skins available? I would like to see a controller unit that looks a bit more like iTunes, just like the iPhone skin you designed.
Bram
March 4th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Bram: On the Pocket PC speakers are accessible under File > Speakers. By any chance do you have iTunes minimized to the system tray or the mini-player? If so, try restoring iTunes and selecting a speaker again. Currently restoring from these modes won’t work.
If that doesn’t help fire off an email to support@alloysoft.com and we’ll do some debugging.
As for skins, there aren’t any others today but a Windows Mobile UI update is planned following the native iPhone client release.
March 5th, 2008 at 7:31 am
You are my hero. I am building a new home and going to use multiple AE’s to create whole-house audio with itunes. Having Signal on the itouch will let me avoid having any room by room audio controls installed as a wall switch. Naturally the missing piece in this puzzle was having control of multiple speakers so I could control what rooms had music. I was betting that you would solve this problem and now you’ve done it! The house isn’t finished yet but my electrican said if my system works he might market it to other owners since its so simple and elegant. Again kudos to Signal for such great software.
March 5th, 2008 at 10:32 am
This is one cool app, and I’m looking forward to the native version. Three questions:
1. Songs that I’ve deleted from iTunes are still showing up in the Signal track list. How do I “force” an update?
2. I have some live Internet radio streams in my music library. Signal can see them, and when I select them, Signal switches to it’s “play” screen, but doesn’t play the stream. Am I missing something?
3. I have several artists with only one album. When I select one of those artists, Signal shows me the list of tracks from that album, but is there any way to tell it to play the entire album short of a) manually adding all the tracks to the playlist or b) navigating through the Album hierarchy?
Happy to submit these to support@ if that’s the proper route. Thanks.
March 5th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Cameron: I can cover your questions here – it’s just that when troubleshooting an issue it’s usually just faster to do it via email since there’s some back-and-forth.
1. On the Mac version the Signal application currently needs to be restarted to pick up iTunes library changes – automatic detection and updating is on the list. The Windows version should already automatically update itself within a few seconds of iTunes library changes.
2. If you add the internet radio stations to a playlist then you should be able to access radio stations by starting that playlist playing, then selecting the particular station you’d like to play from the playlist view.
3. Tapping on the plus button next to the artist name should display a “play now” and “add to queue” option. From here you can immediately play everything by this artist or add all tracks by this artist to the queue.
Hope that helps, just let me know if you have any other questions.
March 11th, 2008 at 9:20 am
After a week or so your suggestion to increase the buffering helped relieve my skipping problems so I pulled the trigger on your app. Thanks so much for your help!
Is it possible a native application will allow access to itunes via the app without turning on the primary computer? That would take this app to the next level in my opinion.
March 11th, 2008 at 10:45 am
marte: Glad to hear it! If I understand your question correctly, you’re asking if it would be possible to stream directly to the AirPort Express from the iPod without needing a computer? It likely possible technically, but Apple may not allow this kind of interaction with the device.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
A great product Matt. Personally I love how you can search your entire music library in the palm of your hand and can queue up songs just as you would on a jukebox in a pub. This obvious and familiar feature is oddly lacking from most home Hi-Fi systems.
I’ve posted a short video of me using it, primarily to show to my mate how it works. However others may find it interesting to watch.
With Matts permission to post the link, it can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3DlAyjlnrs
March 14th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Hi Matt. Since Apple has now released the SDK for the iphone, does that mean there will be a native Signal available in June? I’m assuming you have already downloaded and taken a look at the SDK. What new features can we expect to see in a native version of Signal?
March 14th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Jon: Very cool, thanks for sharing this!
Daryl: There is definitely a native app version of Signal in the works, and the plan is to have it ready whenever the 2.0 firmware is released. As for new features, I’d like these to be a bit of a surprise so I’m not going to talk about them just yet.
March 14th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Matt,
I’m trying to ask/suggest is whether I could play songs via an iphone and airport express set up without turning on my primary computer where my musical selection resides?
Sonos seems to represent that it can on its website, though I’ve never used the product myself.
Thanks.
March 14th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
marte: Currently you’ll need to have a computer on and running iTunes in order to use Signal. I agree that streaming directly from the iPhone would be a very cool solution, but whether or not Apple will allow this and the technical feasibility (e.g., battery life) remains to be seen.
As for Sonos, that’s not exactly true. The powered ZonePlayers can connect to any network share and pull music from it. In most cases this is a computer that is on in your network, but it can also be a Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:40 am
Don’t know where to do feature requests: but a full screen button would be awesome.
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:18 am
Oh please…add a festure: “Switch Off Your Mac” would be really just great. How many times did i watch a TV Show in my bed and i wanted to swith off my mac right from the apple remote?
March 24th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Hi Matt
Remote is working great for me still. Now and then have a few connection issues but nothing much. I think that the playlist needs some work. It would be good to easily activate and deactivate tracks for the playlist and then maybe have an icon which allows you to jump straight to the playlist. The main thing i think that needs to be added is for the speaker control page to actually show which speakers are on and which are off. I have 5 floors and i never know if they are on or not
Cheers!
Leon
March 26th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Hi Matt,
One more thing, “remote buddy” also tries to accomplish what you have done, your app works way better and faster, but they have some nice tiny features you don’t have yet, you might one to check it out:
http://www.iospirit.com/index.php?mode=view&obj_type=infogroup...
Cheers and can you tell already when we can expect an update?
Bas
March 26th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Steve: Were you referring to the Pocket PC or iPhone/iPod interface?
Macro: Thanks for the suggestion! This is on the list for consideration in a future release.
Leon: I’d really like to be able to show which speakers are actually active, but this one kind of crosses the hack acceptance threshold for me. Since iTunes doesn’t actually have any API for speaker status or control Signal has to sort of hack its way around this. Figuring out what speakers are active is technically possible, but it would have to be done in a really ugly way that wouldn’t always be reliable.
For the playlist, an edit mode is planned to allow tracks to be removed, but there aren’t currently plans for a toggle mode. As for an icon to jump straight to the playlist, do you mean to go straight there from the media library? Right now this isn’t really possible within Safari, but you can accomplish this with two taps – one on the browser back button and another on the playlist icon. From the now playing screen you can also tap on the name of the current playing song to jump straight to its location within the playlist view.
Bas: I’d love to hear about any specific features you have in mind that you’d like to see added to Signal.
I don’t really comment on release dates, for the simple reason that giving one usually guarantees that something will come up to cause it to be missed. With that said, there is an update being worked on that contains some bug fixes, including the much-requested sorting fix for single-album artists.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Hello!
I just purchased the app. This is the most wonderful program — I feel like I just rubbed a magic lamp and all my music has filled my house at my command! It’s wonderful!
I especially like that I can put radio stations into playlists. I am so impressed that the album artwork appears on my iPod as the song plays on the radio!
Is adding radio stations to a playlist the only was to access iTunes radio through the app? It would be nice to be able to browse through the full list of iTunes stations through the Media Library top page.
Any chance of having a cover flow-like interface for browsing through albums?
Thanks again for a wonderful program. Best thing since iPods themselves.
March 28th, 2008 at 7:10 am
Re: PodCasts
Can you program a way to perform a “get” of Podcast programs remotely from Signal? Right now I get a list of available shows for a particular radio podcast in Signal but Signal doesn’t indicate that they have not been downloaded or let me download it.
March 28th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
David: Thanks! Supporting the Radio source in iTunes directly poses a problem. It’s technically possible but you’ll notice that when you expand a genre that iTunes displays “Refreshing (genre)” and downloads the list of stations on the fly. There’s no way for Signal to ask iTunes to do this, so if you haven’t done it manually you’d need to walk back over to the computer and expand the list. Not a very pleasant or consistent user experience.
Unless this can be improved somehow I’m inclined to leave it out so it doesn’t confuse people. Users shouldn’t have to know about iTunes API limitations when using the app.
Stan: If I understand correctly you’re asking if it’s possible to update a podcast through Signal? It’s not possible today but is something that I’ve thought about adding, and it’s on the potential feature list.
March 30th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Hi Matt, awesome program, I have purchased a Touch finally because of your program (and my 4g iPod died!!).
Here is my setup and can you help me clarify my setup.
I have a Macbook as my computer
Apple TV (160gb) synced not streaming, hooked up to LCD and connected to stereo
iPod Touch (32gb)
Is there any way to use signal to control the music on the Apple TV rather then the itunes on my macbook as it is sometimes in sleep mode or not in the house.
I would love to be able to completely control ATV with my touch.
Can you please offer feedback
Thanks.
March 30th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Hi Jason,
I’d love to see Signal be able to control an Apple TV directly, but unfortunately this is not possible today. Apple has not provided any kind of developer API for the Apple TV, and unless this changes there is no way for Signal to talk to it.
You can certainly still stream to the Apple TV using your MacBook and Signal, but talking to the Apple TV without a computer requires some changes from Apple.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Hi Matt,
I’ve been using Signal since the early days, and it just keeps getting better! With the addition of Airport Express Speaker selection, I was finally able to retire Remote Buddy.
One last feature request. WIth the upgrade to 1.14 firmware, the iPhone/Touch can now display lyrics that are embedded in tracks. This is a feature I really enjoy in the native player. Any chance you’ll add that capability to Signal?
Thanks.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Hi David,
Thanks! Support for lyrics is indeed on the list. I can’t say exactly when it might go in, but I agree that this could be a useful feature.
April 11th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Spring is here in Cali and I can’t tell you much I enjoy controlling my outdoor speakers via my iPhone and Signal at barbeques!
The wow factor is undeniable.
A follow-up question: can you clarify how to create a static ip address for Signal?
Also, I second someone else’s recommendation to make this work with Airfoil as I’m really enjoying pumping out XM radio via Airfoil.
Thanks.
Much appreciated.
April 11th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Just wanted to check in and see if you were still planning on releasing a Windows Mobile UI update, and if so when.
This is a great program, which could look even better on Windows Mobile devices (because the iPod touch/iPhone UI looks amazing).
Thank you.
April 12th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
How do you configure the server to display the pages in Landscape? All of my client browsers (Firefox/PC, Opera/Wii, Opera/Nintendo DS) all have landscape screens. I’d love to view the page without having to scroll.
April 13th, 2008 at 5:38 am
MC: Thanks! I’ve just posted some instructions for accessing Signal via Bonjour, which eliminates the need for a static IP address on an internal network. Just let me know if you were looking for something else.
Donald: There are still plans to update the Windows Mobile interface, this will happen sometime after the native iPhone version is released.
Dave: The current web interface is designed somewhat specifically around the iPhone/iPod touch, and this is what the landscape support is referring to. A more desktop-oriented interface is planned for the future, but you should be able to get a better experience today by accessing the iPhone interface directly at http://x.x.x.x:3569/iphone/. This should take up the full width of the screen and remove the “picture of an iPhone” view.
September 5th, 2008 at 5:50 am
Superb little application. Was using net remote on my PPC to control itunes, but that only worked occasionly, with lots of restarts on my PPC and it doesn’t support airtunes. Thanks.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Thanks, glad to hear you’re enjoying the app!