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

Signal 1.1.6 is now available and resolves a compatibility issue with iPhone OS 3.0.

My apologies for not catching this one before launch day, it should have been found earlier and fixed in advance of the iPhone update. Signal was tested thoroughly against earlier development versions of the iPhone 3.0 software and I made the mistake of assuming that no compatibility-breaking changes would be made to the browser in the final release. Not so lucky.

The problem was caused by Signal’s use of a persistent HTTP connection back to the desktop application for fast interface updates. When putting the device to sleep with such a connection running Safari was suspending all JavaScript execution and Signal was not able to recover when the device was woken up again.

The 1.1.6 update resolves this issue and offers an added bonus – by taking advantage of network state notifications in Safari to fix the problem the iPhone interface now reconnects faster than ever. This fix has also served as a good reminder that even small OS changes can have a big impact.

For those of you running out to buy a Palm Pre I’m happy to say that the Signal web interface designed for the iPhone is working on the device on day one. To access it add “iphone” to the URL shown in the Signal application window on your computer, so you’ll end up with something like this:

This will bring up the web control interface on your device and you’ll be able to use your Palm Pre to control your media player!

John Forsythe wrote to let me know that he’s released ChumbiTunes, a very cool widget for Chumby owners that lets you view now playing information and control playback from the device. John has built a free iTunes control server for Windows users, but also made it compatible with Signal in the Advanced mode so any Signal user can use a Chumby to control iTunes on their Mac or iTunes, Winamp, or Windows Media Player on their PC.

To enable ChumbiTunes to talk to Signal an XML file needs to be installed alongside Signal, instructions are available on the Google Group. This file will be bundled with the next Signal release so the setup step will not be required in the future.

It’s great to see users extending the application this way, if you have a project you’d like to integrate Signal with just let me know and I’ll be happy to help.

Stack Overflow has turned into a great resource for developers, the social aspect it brings to helping other users out has brought a lot of very smart people to the site. Often times when a Google search lands me there I’ll end up browsing around a bit because I usually learn something in the process.

Since it’s not exactly obvious how to narrow down the focus to particular development topic, I wanted to share a bookmark I use to browse recent Mac and iPhone development questions:

Stack Overflow: Mac/iPhone

This works by browsing a combination of tags and has turned out to be a great addition to my list of time killers.

Up to now Signal’s documentation has been available through the help files bundled with the application, accessible via Help > Signal Help on a Mac or Start > Programs > Signal > Signal Server Help on a PC. Starting today that documentation is also available here on the web site for users who would like to view it in advance or find it more convenient to view in their web browser.

I’ve set up a system to keep the two in sync (they’re actually generated from the same source files) so as tips and troubleshooting suggestions are added they’ll be available both here and within the application’s bundled help file.