07-28-2004, 01:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 1,350
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eyeTuner: Control iTunes Through Your Pocket PC
So... you have your PC running iTunes in the basement, an Airtunes Express AP hooked up to your stereo in your living room, and you want control over what you're going to play next without having to walk to your basement all the time? Enter eyeTuner, an application under development using the iTunesCOMSdk. Jeff Schilling states he has a working version now that does a ton of things, except playing radio playlists which seems to have to do with the SDK limitations. What cool stuff can it do? Access a list of iTunes sources (cd, playlists, ipod, etc), select a track or artist, select next, previous, or pause, and display album art on the now playing page. :werenotworthy: For the developers among you: on the blog page covering eyeTuner, you can find a description and examples of part of the code that is used to create this. As an avid iTunes user (on both my Mac and my PC) I personally can not wait to get my hands on this. Jeff, you need a beta-tester? 
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07-28-2004, 02:30 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 545
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COOL!
I have been looking for something like this for quite sometime. It wasn't until I tried iTunes on a Mac that I liked any of the MP3 apps that have a jukebox feel to it, sticking with Winamp. Well, iTunes is SOOO much better then WMP and MusicMatch.
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07-28-2004, 03:03 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,329
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Marlof ,
I didn't see anything that stated that this is platform independent. Are you sure it will work on a Mac? I ask because I have a few Mac friends who have been jones'n for an app like this for a LONG time.
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07-28-2004, 03:34 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 1,350
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To be honest the fact that it spoke about iTunes, and didn't distinguish for Mac or PC usage in the description of the functionality made me believe it was platform independent. As it's a Windows SDK, I think I was completely wrong. But it's more important this runs on Windows than on Mac OS X anyhow. After all, your friends should stop jones'n this instant since Mac OS X users already have webRemote. Since my main iTunes library is on a PC (my iBook contains only a subset) that was insufficient to me, and I was dying for a Windows solution.
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07-28-2004, 04:16 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,911
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Pretty cool but what's with the MSN Messenger guys in the screen shot?
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07-28-2004, 05:01 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 80
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In danger of being a shameless plug (ok, it is a shameless plug) I thought I'd let everyone know that RemoteAmp 2.0 should be out very soon and also supports iTunes for Windows. In addition to playback and EQ control you can also access your iTunes music library from the Pocket PC to edit user playlists so you can change the position of a track or add/remove songs.
We actually are looking for beta testers to help find any remaining issues with the new version - feel free to send me an email or PM if you're interested.
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07-28-2004, 05:26 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,055
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Wow, these new software developments sound interesting. I was thinking about getting an Airport Express, and these programs would be a perfect complement to it.
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07-28-2004, 06:28 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 31
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Alright SmashCasi,
Back when I first used your software I made you a nice little skin called "AtomicAmp" - do you remember? I never saw it pop up on your website - which made me sad  well, not too sad.
So now we have some developers trying to make some software for Itunes control - now that's cool. My biggest question, will they play ITMS stuff? i.e., are there DRM restrictions? This is my biggest hurdle.
As for a few other things to both developers:
1) How is the connection made (wifi??), bluetooth (??)
2) How will you handle disconnects and reconnects. Since, once we have music loaded, we won't leave our PPC's on the whole time. Once we turn it back on, will it do a good job "refreshing" the connection?
3) On the fly playlist support?
4) Is this exclusively to be used with an Airport Express unit?
I'm sure there are other things too. I'd be interested in trying both of these out! Smashcasi, if you need some testers, I could possibly help depending on your requirements!
Hmmm...a wifi remote with LCD screen for Itunes/Airport Express Units....this is the missing link with Apple's new Express unit, interesting to see people developing this before Apple get's a new product on the market with the same capability!
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07-28-2004, 06:38 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 31
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Oh yeah, I am praying both of you guys make good interfaces for browsing large libraries. I love the "Browser" bar in Itunes (Ctrl+B) that lets you filter your library on the fly so easily (genre, artist, album), I also love being able to search my library so dang quickly (it begins filtering as you type!). Not sure how these could end up working for the PPC though (the Itunes XML file stored locally (on the PPC) for easy polling?).
Also, another couple of things.
Will you simply be able to select the Airport Express unit of choice, and will this lock up the instance of Itunes on the sharing PC (will the PC be able to play other files independent of what is being played through an Airport Express unit in another room)?
Anyways...
-Eric
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07-28-2004, 07:51 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 80
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by zoomer777
Back when I first used your software I made you a nice little skin called "AtomicAmp" - do you remember?
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I haven't forgotten  . In fact, on my list of post-2.0 items is converting your skin to the new format and finally getting that on the website. For anyone who's been asking about skins for the 1.x versions I've been pointing them at yours.
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My biggest question, will they play ITMS stuff? i.e., are there DRM restrictions? This is my biggest hurdle.
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Since the audio playback is going through iTunes it plays purchased music just fine.
Quote:
1) How is the connection made (wifi??), bluetooth (??)
2) How will you handle disconnects and reconnects. Since, once we have music loaded, we won't leave our PPC's on the whole time. Once we turn it back on, will it do a good job "refreshing" the connection?
3) On the fly playlist support?
4) Is this exclusively to be used with an Airport Express unit?
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1) Any network connection is supported. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth should both work.
2) The client automatically detects disconnects / power downs and attempts to reconnect when it detects the network conection again.
3) You can create new playlists at will - if you're referring to limiting an existing playlist based on search criteria I haven't seen any means of doing this via the iTunes interface yet.
4) Absolutely not! The use of the Airport Express is simply a choice of selecting where the audio is routed. The control still works when speakers are selected.
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I am praying both of you guys make good interfaces for browsing large libraries
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This has been a point of focus for the new release. Library browsing works much better in 2.0. You can also select the way you prefer to view the library (Genre/Artist/Album, Artist/Album, Album, or Folder structure). In addition there are robust searching capabilities to find tracks within the music library - you can enter partial search criteria and multiple keywords to match on just as you can through the iTunes search capabilities.
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Will you simply be able to select the Airport Express unit of choice
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Unfortunately it doesn't appear that the iTunes SDK provides a means to select the output device. Hopefully Apple will add this in a future version.
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Linear Mode
