| Author | Thread |
User 21.09.2007 08:13:16 | Various questions, compliments and humble suggestions... | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Hi, count me as another HUGE fan of Remote Buddy. I have been looking for a product that would simply allow me to display a "Now Playing" window with artwork to show what is playing in iTunes and had nearly given up on remote control ability. Anyhow, I purchased RB primarily because of the iPhone functionality but have discovered enough uses for it to dust off my Apple remote. Anyhow, here are some questions that I could not find answers to in the forums or online help: 1. I love the ability to change to CoverFlow in iTunes and have the ability to scroll through albums, change songs etc. However, I would like to be able to access the RB menu without going OUT of CoverFlow mode. I can't find a behaviour for CoverFlow and thus don't see any way to modify this. 2. Hide Menu: I saw a thread on the forums here regarding hiding the menu immediately after an action is performed - but I couldn't decipher whether there was a solution or not. In that thread where you had mentioned that The "Hide menu" item in fact is the same item as "Activate Behaviour" and "Deactivate Behaviour" so I thought perhaps adding behaviour action in a customized action to Activate iTunes Behaviour may do it but that didn't work. Neither did various combinations of activating/deactivating other behaviours. Activating Expose Behaviour seemed to partially work; it did hide the RB menu but then I was not able to deactivate Expose / activate iTunes without using the remote. If there is an easy - or even a difficult - way to do this, it would be very helpful. Suggestions, humble: A. Button sizes in Now Playing - Ajax Remote. I think I saw this mentioned elsewhere in the forums but the buttons are very small on the iPhone (or perhaps my fingers are too fat). I ended up modifying the .png files for previous, next and playpause - making them about twice the size and it made a huge difference. B. On a related note (and I realize this may be out of the realm of RB's intended purpose) - I also temporarily changed the display size of the album artwork so it would display better in browser window on a pc/Mac. I have to say, it looked fantastic - but of course it screwed up the iPhone display. There are other products that have this functionality - but I haven't found any that function as well as RB - so it would be cool if there were different display modes for iPhone and full size screens. Even cooler if it worked automatically. I tried to modify the code to do this....but I don't have the skills ;-) C. Again I think I saw this mentioned elsewhere - but I am curious if there is any plans to make any changes to the Now Playing window that will allow you to perform other actions without having to change to another menu? Since is the screen that is active almost all the time for me, it takes several steps to perform any other iTunes functions and then return to the Now Playing screen. D. I added some "Actions" to perform some of the functions that I use often in iTunes. They were all pretty easy to do and I love that RB lets you create add and remove menu items. I thought you might want to consider adding them to future versions. Also, they may help explain exactly what I am trying to do ;-). These are all added to my iTunes menu: - Current Song: Displays current album/song. (this is one of the places where I wish the menu would hide automatically). - "Jump To (A,D,M,R,Z)" - I have a large collection (35K+ songs), so it can be tedious to find an album / artist I am looking for. This just jumps to various letters in the alphabet and I can easily scroll to what I am looking for from there. - Next Album: Since I like to listen to a lot of Albums as opposed to individual songs it makes it easy to skip over an entire album. - Search: I am playing with this right now but it doesn't seem to be working. I have an action with 2 steps: 1. Go to the search window (can't recall the keystroke combination but this works fine. 2. Behaviour Action: Show/Hide Virtual Keyboard. (that doesn't seem to be working - but I just started messing with it). - Hide Cursor: I installed Cursorcerer which lets you hide the cursor automatically after a set period of time. It also lets you do so with a keystroke, so I added that to a lot of the behaviour actions. ...if anyone is wondering, yes I know that Front Row can do a lot of what I am trying to do and that's what I used before they added CoverFlow to iTunes. Since I use my HTPC primarily for music, I prefer iTunes to FR for a lot of reasons. Anyhow, I will quit babbling for now and go back to fiddling with RB. Thanks again for a very cool product and keep up the good work! eTip
| These entries from the FAQ may be relevant to this topic: Behaviours
There are several possible error sources:
- The application has been installed after Remote Buddy has already been launched
For efficiency reasons, Remote Buddy only searches for supported applications when its started. If you have installed an application after launching Remote Buddy, please quit Remote Buddy and launch it anew.
- Oudated program versions
The installed version of the program in question could be outdated and identify itself with a different Bundle Identifier than the version supported by Remote Buddy. This problem often occurs with Mplayer OS X. The most recent version of that application is not to be found on Sourceforge but on directly on the pages of Mplayer HQ.
- Custom menus
If you use a custom menu in Remote Buddy and you don't make use of Remote Buddy's smart folders, the menu structure is static. You have to manually add the behaviour into a place of your choice in the menu.
- The behaviour is deactivated.
Make sure, the checkbox in front of the Behaviour's name in the Mappings pane of the preferences is active.
- The Launch Services database is outdated.
Remote Buddy uses Launch Services to check for the availability of an application on your Mac. If the Launch Services database of OS X is incomplete or outdated, so is Remote Buddy's dynamically created menu. The solution, though is easy. Download LSRefresh, launch it, select the application(s) that don't turn up in Remote Buddy's menu, wait until the update is finished and then restart Remote Buddy.
You can create your own Behaviours with the Behaviour Construction Kit. A video on the Remote Buddy website provides you with an overview and step by step instructions.
You can also find step by step instructions in the Remote Buddy Help under "How Tos". You can access the Help via Remote Buddy's icon in the menu bar and via the support area of this website.
Behaviours - Support for iTunes® & AirPlay® You can enable/disable this functionality at "Preferences > Behaviours > iTunes® > Options". You can also set the duration of the display there.
Configuration 1) Open the Remote Buddy Preferences via the pulldown-menu and choose "Mapping".
2) Choose the mapping you want to modify.
3) Select "Custom actions" for the button you want to map to an action of your own.
4) Create the action you need using the appearing editor.
Hardware - Apple® Remote
To enable you to use all capabilities of the IR Receiver of your Mac®, Remote Buddy is using its own driver. In contrast, all other applications with integrated Apple® Remote support usually use the OS X Apple® Remote subsystem.
As long as you're running Remote Buddy, Remote Buddy and its driver are responsible for turning the received button presses into actions. As soon as you quit Remote Buddy, this task is again handled by the OS X Apple® Remote subsystem.
If other applications don't use the interface to the OS X Apple® Remote subsystem correctly, this can lead to the effect that nothing happens when you press a button on your Apple® Remote. For as long as you're running Remote Buddy, issues like this are covered by Remote Buddy and it's driver and are therefore not visible to you. However, as soon as you quit Remote Buddy, the OS X Apple® Remote subsystem is back in control and any issues caused in it by other applications become visible.
Therefore Remote Buddy is neither the cause of the issue nor is it responsible for it. Instead, the cause of the issue exists independently of Remote Buddy. It's located elsewhere and can also only be solved there.
Although our products can't cause any such issues, we're regularly contacted about such issues and asked for help. In order to make locating and fixing the cause of such issues as easy and efficient as possible, we've developed a free diagnostics tool: Remote Control Diagnostics. It can locate issues with a single click and will provide you with information about the issue as well as with instructions on how you can fix it.
Please update your copy of Remote Buddy to version 1.15 or later.
Hardware - iPhone™ / iPod® touch / AJAX Remote
Currently, these browsers are officially supported by the AJAX Remote:
- Safari® on iPhone™ with OS 3.0 or later
- Safari® on iPod® Touch with OS 3.0 or later
- Safari® 4 or later
The AJAX Remote is using the latest web standards (like CSS3, which is often only supported sufficiently by Safari®) to utilize the available bandwidth and CPU power efficiently.
IMPORTANT: to use the AJAX Remote, your setup needs to meet all of the AJAX Remote requirements!
These are the most frequent causes for this kind of problem are:
- The AJAX Remote is not active. Please check in Remote Buddy's preferences, that you have enabled the AJAX Remote and that it shows the status "active".
- The OS X firewall is active and blocking incoming connections. Please read the entry "How can I define a rule to allow access to port 8888 with active Firewall?" for a step-by-step howto for fixing this problem.
- Bonjour® only works LAN-wide. In order to reach your computer by its Bonjour® name, it needs to be located in the same IP subnet - which in this case means that it must be connected to the same WiFi network. If your computer is connected to the same LAN (wired connection) as the WiFi Access Point, but not to the WiFi Access Point itself, your computer and your device are located in different subnets, whereas Bonjour® services usually can't be announced beyond the boundaries of subnets. Furthermore, the iPhone™ does only support Bonjour® addresses starting with firmware version 1.1.1. Older firmware releases can't make any sense of them.
The solution - in both cases - is to directly enter the IP of your computer on your device. Complete URLs for all network connections/interfaces of your computer can be found directly within Remote Buddy under "Preferences > AJAX Remote".
- A firewall / router does not forward connections. If you are trying to access your computer from the Internet, only a direct connection using the IP of your internet connection is possible.
- If your computer has a direct connection to the Internet without any intermediate router, Remote Buddy will show the correct IP address of your computer under "Preferences > AJAX Remote".
- If your computer is connected to the Internet through an intermediate router, only that router knows your current IP on the Internet. Furthermore, you need to make sure, that it forward connections to port 8888 to your computer. Please consult the manual of your computer to learn whether your router supports that function and how you can set it up.
- Our service for you: you can let our server tell you your current Internet IP at http://www.iospirit.com/myip/.
Thanks for your interest in the future of Remote Buddy. Of course the iPhone™ SDK is also of interest to us.
Please understand, though, that we don't talk about future products or plans prior to to their close-to-complete-realization or release.
If you want to stay up to date on this topic, we recommend to follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our newsletter or RSS feed (find all links at the footer of the product page). News will be available here, first.
| User 21.09.2007 16:26:01 | Re: Various questions, compliments and humble suggestions... | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Hello Eric, thanks for your extensive feedback. Regarding 1)
The CF fullscreen mode of iTunes is using OpenGL and will not allow
any other window to appear on top of it. Thus, in order to view the
Remote Buddy menu, quitting the CF fullscreen mode is absolutely
necessary. Regarding 2)
You'll see changes regarding the "hide menu when choosing an action
through the menu" topic in the next release. I'm not sure, if I
understood what you want to achieve in the rest of this point, though.
Please elaborate a bit more, if it's more than the "hide menu when
choosing an action through the menu" ability. Regarding A)-D)
I like all of your suggestions. Some, however, will be impossible to
implement because of a lack of functionality in the iPhone's web
browser. It's really a shame that Apple decided to not allow third
parties to heavily innovate on the iPhone platform. Yet, still, a lot
of development is happening right now regarding the AJAX Remote. The
next version will present dramatic improvements all over the place. The virtual keyboard show/hide action issue is known and already fixed
in the private build. Best regards,
Felix
| User 30.09.2007 19:08:54 | Re: Various questions, compliments and humble suggestions... | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Hi all, I'm following up on this thread as I think it is not worth starting a new one. I've been using RB for quite some time now, loved it since the beginning and especially appreciated the dynamism of the development (regular, worthy updates).
That being said, I'd like to add my $0.02 with another round of humble suggestions for AJAX RB (tested on IPhone). First, some comments and suggestions about the ITunes-related functions.
As Eric mentioned it, I also find playback buttons on the "now playing" screen difficult to manipulate. A possibility could be to simply grab more screen space by "getting rid" of Safari's address bar. They do it in Signal, not sure how though (seems like the AJAX page is scrolled down, the address bar is still there, just "hidden").
In fact, I really like the way the guys from Signal mimic the IPhone/ITouch native interface, especially the now playing screen. Having volume controls (and rating) in "poping" menus is convenient and space-efficient. With RB's current "now playing" screen, I do not have access to volume control directly and have to switch to "remote mode", and even activate itunes behavior if it isn't already.
To sum up my "wish list" :) :
- bigger control buttons
- volume control
- some kind of "poping menu" to hide/show volume and rating control?
- and... as developed thereafter, the possibility of switching directly to the music browser Is there a rationale behind having separate items for "Music" and "Now playing"? Both are ITunes-related, and I personally would love being able to go back and forth:
- consider "now playing" as the ultimate item in the hierarchical menu.
- being able to switch to "now playing" from the music browser (one big button ?)
- switching directly to "now playing" when selecting a song
- from "now playing", having a back button to access the music browser Concerning the music browser itself, here are my unworthy remarks:
- I love the "letter splitting", actually more efficient than a search functionality
- I'd love to be able queue songs in some playlist, instead of playing them directly (some kind of "+" button in front of artists, albums and songs names?)
- the back "<" and forward ">" items appearing aside each category/artist/album/song are, for me, redundant. When I think about it, the forward button does the same as clicking on the item. For the back button, only one is needed as it is a tree structure. For me, the perfect solution would be to have a HUGE back button at the top (e.g., in the light gray title bar). Ideally, you could add another huge button to reach directly the "now playing" screen, of course ;). I realize your rationale behind those duplicated buttons is probably related to scrolling, but I personally would not mind quickly scrolling to the top of the page to reach those shortcuts.
- I experienced slight performance issues when browsing especially large list (like my entire album collection, as a stress test), but nothing alarming given the technical constraints. I did not dare trying with my whole track listing... I love the trackpad mode, really handy for presentations. No particular suggestion there. Concerning the remote control mode, I guess that "emulating" hold functions must have given you some headaches. Duplicating the buttons seems like a good solution, but it somewhat clutters the interface. My main "problem" comes from not having the "click" ones on the periphery. I personally use them more than hold ones, maybe it's just me. Also, slightly bigger buttons would be more comfortable. A shortcut/button displaying the current behavior and allowing to switch it could be great too. There is some vertical screen space to be taken (again, the address bar), but I admit I have not found the ultimate layout yet... I realize it's a tricky problem and that you visibly already gave it a lot of thought. I'll let you know if I have any proposal. Again, thanks for the amazing work towards making RB (and now, my IPhone) the ultimate companion of my computer. All the updates/surprises I had in the past year are way more than worth my initial investment. I'm really looking forward to the next steps! Best regards,
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David | User 05.10.2007 10:57:08 | Re: Re: Various questions, compliments and humble suggestions... | |
This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information. Thanks for your feedback. The great majority of your points has been addressed with yesterday's
release of version 1.7. Best regards,
Felix
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