Signal - The Ultimate Remote Control for Your PC's Media Player

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!

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.

Signal 1.0.2 was released last week, this version includes full support for the iPod Touch, an updated view for the playlist, a software update notification interface for Windows, and several stability and performance fixes. Full details are available in the releases notes.

In particular, the iPhone version is now much better at handling situations where the iPhone initially wakes up on EDGE and transitions to Wi-Fi. Signal will now automatically detect that it does not have a connection and queue up commands to be sent as soon as the iPhone re-joins the Wi-Fi network. This means you can wake up the iPhone and tap pause/play, next track, etc without having to worry about whether or not the iPhone is on the cellular data network - Signal will take care of getting that command sent as soon as there is a connection.

Today we’re very excited to announce the first public release of Signal. Signal is a remote control application that allows you to drive your Mac or PC’s media player wirelessly from your iPhone or Windows Mobile Pocket PC.

What makes Signal different from the typical remotes you use to control your stereo or PC is that it’s smart and it works anywhere. It uses your device’s gorgeous screen to display album art for the current song. It shows you the entire playlist so you can pick the next song instead of hitting “next” over and over until you find something you like. It lets you browse and search your entire media library so you can find and play exactly what you want - right from the palm of your hand.

Since these devices support Wi-Fi, you can go anywhere in the house and still control your music. Skip songs from the next room. Select a new playlist from your deck. Pull out the phone at your next party and use it to queue up your favorite songs.

But the best way to see what Signal can do is to download the demo and try it for yourself.

For those wondering what has become of RemoteAmp, it has become part of Signal. Signal provides the full set of Pocket PC control capabilities from RemoteAmp and takes them even further by adding album art support, a new media library view, Windows Media Player support, and iTunes for Mac support. Existing RemoteAmp customers can upgrade to Signal at a 40% discount, just enter the email address you used to purchase RemoteAmp on the purchase page.