A device like the Apple Watch brings new challenges for the app design, especially considering the limitations Apple’s current WatchKit has. Communication with the watch is not very fast and consumes a lot of battery power and since apps run on the iPhone, not the watch, every piece of information needs to go back and forth. So uploading long lists and the like or permanent remote communication right now don’t look like a good idea.

Also, there is a fixed and small set of user interface elements one can use on the Watch. This is a pity particularly when it comes to the volume buttons. Ideally, one would want to use the crown to change volume, but currently that’s not possible.

So browsing through long lists of thousands of albums or the like will probably not make sense (Apple’s own apps are all quite limited in that respect), Apple’s general guideline is to only implement tasks that don’t take longer than 10s since after that the arm will quickly start to tire.

iPeng tries to find the sweet spot in between these limitations with its current design, here are a few design features:

Glance as Entry Point

Navigating the honeycomb home screen is complicated and takes time. The easier way to launch an app is through a glance. iPeng’s glance shows you a “NowPlaying” screen, tapping it takes you to the app.

Currently, WatchKit glances can’t contain any active elements, so there are no buttons or other controls even though we would love to be able to have them.

Scrolling Track Titles with Custom Font

Apple’s system font on the watch is optimized for legibility at small font sizes. You can get a maximum number of (legible) rows on the display this way, but it’s not the optimum solution if – like in iPeng’s case – all you want to display are one or two rows of track title and that quickly exceeds the width of the display. So iPeng uses a different font with a smaller run width and uses a bigger character size instead.

To be able to show longer titles, the title label scrolls.

Page-Based Layout

iPeng uses a page-based layout, not a hierarchical menu structure. This is familiar from the layout of the “NowPlaying” screen on iPhone, but on the Apple Watch it’s actually a more important decision. Page-based apps cannot have a hierarchical menu like the main menu on iPhone, so that option is no longer available for additional functionality (like search). But a hierarchical structure would have meant it takes longer to get to the “NowPlaying” screen – not a good idea for a functionality you are probably going to use 90% of the time.

iPeng places the most important features right in front even if it means less often used features might be more difficult to access.

Speed

iPeng will sometimes trade perfect information for speed of access. On iPhone, iPeng will keep a permanent connection to the server, allowing iPeng to track a lot of states and always be aware of what’s going on with your Squeezeboxes. But establishing this connection takes seven seconds on average. Add a few seconds for the app launch and you end up with a time well in excess of the overall time you wanted to interact at all. So iPeng on the watch will always try to use the quickest way to access information or execute a command. Sometimes this means some information is limited or updates later (e.g. artwork), but at the same time it means it’s probably the fastest remote control app you’ve got around.

The Future

The Apple Watch is a very new product, we will see how it evolves in the future and what kind of usage schemes evolve, but right now I believe iPeng is giving you a really good UI for the quick control of your players on your wrist.

Apple also already announced watchOS 2.0 for this fall and it brings some changes, the most important of which is that Apps will actually run on the Watch, not the iPhone. This will probably help with performance for some features but might even hurt for others (everything requiring direct communication with the parent App on the iPhone will actually take longer to execute). Overall, I would not expect the biggest impact to be through faster loading times and access to the crown.

The release of the Apple Watch in April brought some new chances and challenges for iPeng, too: How could we realize a quickly manageable version of iPeng for the watch making the best use of its UI (which is like no other UI before attuned to the presence of the user), and which would be the most important use cases with iPeng?

Well, the biggest advantage (compared to the iPhone) of this “most personal device Apple has ever designed” certainly lies in its availability and the easy access to information and menu content it provides. Apple Watch has been designed to be worn, thus it offers the chance to simplify daily, frequent actions and interactions that are related to functions users care about the most. On the other hand, it implies a lot of limitations and restrictions (with regards to space, speed etc.), and besides that, the creation of Apps is limited by the capabilities WatchKit offers.

iPeng on Apple Watch: Glance, Main Screen, Current Playlist

So, for the first version of iPeng for iWatch, we decided to concentrate on the following (and in our eyes basic) functions:

• a “NowPlaying Screen” with info about the currently playing title; play-/pause-, skip to next-/previous track- and volume-buttons;
• a current playlist to show and select tracks;
• a context menu with two functions:
  • Choose Player. You can use “Select Player“ or “QuickSwitch“ to continue listening in another room;
  • Switch Players on/off. You can either only switch a single player off or switch off all players (“Leave Home”-function);
• a “Glance”, giving you a quick overview of what’s currently playing and a simplified way to launch the App.

As you will notice, familiar iPeng features have been preserved, like the volume control for synchronized groups for instance: If you control a group of synced players, all players will change the volume, not just one.  The popular QuickSwitch feature, too, will work with the Apple Watch.

We expect that the most frequent use cases will be to quickly start or stop music on a player, go to the next track, or change the volume without having to look for your iPhone. Within your own WiFi -Network, you don’t even need to have your iPhone with you, which makes the whole thing even more interesting (because you can use it in different rooms).

Switch Player Sequence

Please let us know what you’d like to see in iPeng on the watch!

We are going to maintain and further improve the app in the future, at the moment features like a search- and favorites-function are planned, further (possible) features could be:

• ratings, adding tracks to favorites, “love”ing tracks etc.;
• changing shuffle- and repeat-states for the current playlist.

Feel free to tell us your suggestions with regards to preferred use cases and let us know how iPeng works with Apple Watch for you!

As usual: Have fun with iPeng on your Apple Watch!

iPeng ue, the iPeng App for the Logitech UE™ Smart Radio, has now also taken the step to version number 8. This means, it adopts the iOS 7/8 user interface already familiar to iPeng for Squeezebox users as well as some new features.

iOS 7/8 Look-And-Feel

Version 1.x of iPeng ue was still based on the old iOS 6 user interface design. With version 8, the interface scheme now adopts the new UI design in line with the modern iOS versions.
And it  got quite a beautiful redesign, too.

Dark and Bright Color Scheme

By popular demand, iPeng ue now features a dark and a light color scheme – you’ve  got the choice. And by default, it will always select the most appropriate scheme, based on your current lighting conditions.

Redesigned iPad User Interface

iPeng ue’s iPad user interface got a complete redesign. Player- and playlist-related controls have been separated out to different bars at the top and bottom of the screen, there are no “hidden” controls anymore (yet there still are convenience gestures, actually a lot of them!), and the whole screen layout got tidied up.

In landscape mode you can now pin down the current playlist to permanently show it next to the library content, and the content window can be scaled to show even more of the gorgeous views iPeng uses to present your music library and other content.

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Full support of the new iPhone 6/6 Plus form factors

The new NowPlaying screen makes use of the additional space available on the new, larger phones.

And for the current playlist, iPeng ue now shows thumbnails in portrait mode. And finally, on iPhone 6 and 6Plus, there is a new landscape mode NowPlaying screen that shows the current playlist alongside the album cover in a beautiful layout.

Fully Customizable Main Menu

A lot of users have asked to be able to change their main menu structure to have other menu items on their home menu or hide things they don’t need. iPeng ue now allows you to do that through a simple drag-and-drop interface.

New MultiPlayer Control

The MultiPlayer Control, used to select players and music sources and to manage synchronization, has been redesigned to structure it better and to make changes more easy and transparent.

Other New Features

Other new features include the capability to edit stored playlists, an improved sharing functionality and a direct swipe-to-delete playlist editing.

It’s a Free Update

And the best news: It’s a free update for existing users of iPeng ue. Unlike iPeng 8 for the Squeezebox, this is not a new App but an update of the existing one. iPeng ue has seen much fewer updates than iPeng Classic since it was initially released, and it has also always been a universal App for iPhone and iPad, so we chose to make it just an update.

The restriction that this version only works on iOS 7 and newer still applies, though – users of devices with older iOS versions (since iOS 5) can still download the old iPeng ue through the App Store.

Have fun!

As springtime approaches, iPeng comes up with its first bigger update in 2015, bringing you some brilliant and fresh functionality for your music control.

The first novelty we would like to introduce to you today is Quick Switch, a functionality that allows to switch your players without interrupting your music with only one swiping gesture. Forget about manually syncing your players, saving playlists or re-starting your album and all the other inconveniences you had to take to take your music from one player to the other before. Now iPeng does it for you.

Further improvements concern the management of favorites and stored playlists. Many of you have asked us for a capability to edit these lists, so iPeng 8.1 comes with a functionality that allows you to re-arrange, rename and delete them.

Last but not least, iPeng 8 now fully supports VoiceOver on both iPad and iPhone, an important improvement for visually impaired users.

Welcome to Quick Switch!

I guess you know the situation: You got 30 minutes in the morning for breakfast (i.e. a black coffee), a shower and a makeup (or if you are a guy: a shower and a shave), and to get dressed, grab your things and leave the house, but you really want to start your day in the right way and continue listening to that brilliant Alabama Shakes album you found on Spotify yesterday. So while you’re heading for the bathroom with your coffee cup in one hand and a towel in the other, you wonder if there is an easy and quick way to switch your music from your kitchen player to the bathroom player and you mean a REALLY quick and convenient way. So add an iPhone or an iPad and iPeng 8 to the scene and there you go: Quick Switch is the most simple, quick and modern way to switch playback from one player to another one, for example if you move between rooms.

And that’s how it works:

– Swipe right on the player that should take over from the current player.

– The new player will take over playback right where you are, so it’s a continuous experience.

– The old player will be turned off.

It’s as easy as that. Your teenager’s One Direction choreography can be relocated from the living room into her room (where you secretly think it belongs) without any interruption – the best thing being that the living room player will be silent immediately.

iPeng Adds Management for Favorites and Stored Playlists

Many of you have asked us for a capability to edit and rearrange favorites (such as radio stations, albums or single tracks) and stored playlists with iPeng. Until now, it was only possible to delete items in the context menu and playlists could be rearranged through the current playlist only (which was a little complicated and time-consuming), while favorites couldn’t be rearranged at all.

With iPeng 8.1, you can now rearrange, delete and rename items in your favorites list, and you can even arrange your favorites in subfolders. Playlist items, too, can be deleted or renamed directly in the list and single tracks can be rearranged.

And that’s how it works:

Enable Edit Mode

For editing both favorites and playlists, you first have to press the “Edit” button on the top right of the list. Playlists/favorites lists are now set to edit mode.

Favorites

Rearrange Favorites

To rearrange your favorites list, pick up an item by holding it briefly and then move it to the destined place in the list with a drag and drop gesture.

With this gesture, you can simply rearrange items or you can move items into folders (by dropping them onto a folder).

The favorites list also gets a “New Folder” button to create new subfolders.

To remove an item from a subfolder, hold the item to reveal the higher level (enclosing) folder on top of the list. Drop the item onto that folder item to move it back up to the higher level folder.

Delete or Rename Items in Favorites

When in edit mode, swipe to the left on an item to reveal two additional buttons for it:

“Delete” will allow you to delete the item,

“Rename” will allow you to change the item’s name.

With a longer swiping gesture (swipe through) you can also directly delete an item.

Playlists

Delete or Rename Playlists

Deleting/renaming playlists or tracks within a playlist works like in favorites:

When in edit mode, swipe to the left to reveal two additional buttons for an item:

“Delete” will allow you to delete the item,

“Rename” will allow you to change the playlist’s name (playlists only, not for tracks).

With a longer swiping gesture (swipe through) you can also directly delete an item.

Rearrange Tracks

Please note that playlists are always shown in an alphabetic order, so they can’t be rearranged! But with iPeng 8 it is now possible to rearrange tracks in playlists, which works as in favorites:

Again, pick up an item by holding it briefly and then move it to the destined place in the list with a drag and drop gesture.

PlaylistManager

Pro-Tip: And if you work with playlists a lot, you might also be interested in the PlaylistManager plugin which gives you a convenient way to add new tracks directly to a stored playlist: http://www.hergest.demon.co.uk/Music/slim/PlaylistManPlugin.htm

VoiceOver

And last but not least: iPeng 8 now finally fully supports VoiceOver on both iPhone and iPad. VoiceOver, Apple’s accessibility feature to allow blind users to make use of iOS Apps, has been fully supported on iPeng Classic and on iPhone/iPod for iPeng 8. With iPeng 8.1 it will now work on iPad, too. This includes the new favorites and playlist editing features. To make best use of it, you should have at least iOS 8 running on your device.

We hope to be able to help blind Squeezebox users to make better use of their music system. Please let us know if you have any feedback on how it works.

Have fun with iPeng 8!

With Apple progressing from iOS 7 to iOS 8, iPeng 7 obviously needed an overhaul too. So, we are happy to announce that iPeng 7 is now iPeng 8 and it’s available on the App Store.

iPeng 8 is more than just an update to get along with iOS 8, it has been adapted to make the best use of the capabilities and the larger screen of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. In addition to this, we plan to successively introduce more iOS 8-specific features (like Notification Center widgets) within the coming months.

iPhone 6 Support

iPhone 6 and especially iPhone 6 Plus has a much larger screen than earlier models, and we decided to make good use of the additional screen space.

Modified NowPlaying Screen: The NowPlaying screen got slightly updated and now features additional volume buttons along with more space to show the current track information

Thumbnails in the Current Playlist: Just like on iPad, iPeng 8 on iPhone 6 now also shows artwork thumbnails in the current playlist in portrait mode.

New default thumbnail sizes for album views: The tile view for albums now uses different default sizes (you can still scale it at will) to allow showing more albums on a single screen on iPhone 6 Plus. This way, iPhone 6 plus can show almost as much content as an iPad (in default configuration), making it a real good alternative to the tablet for browsing your library.

iPeng browse screen size comparison – iPhone 4, iPhone 6, iPad

New landscape mode for NowPlaying on iPhone 6: NowPlaying in landscape mode always has been a bit limited on iPhone/iPod touch in iPeng due to the limited screen height. With iPhone 6 this problem doesn’t exist anymore – iPeng now has a gorgeous new landscape mode in which it can now also show a current playlist next to the familiar cover view. Since you can also bring down the player list with a swipe from the top now, this actually gives you all the control functionality in landscape mode that you are used to in portrait mode.

iPhone 6 Plus – Landscape Playlist

This also shows the size of Apple’s new device: the current playlist in landscape mode on iPhone 6 plus has almost the same size as the current playlist in portrait mode on iPhone 4. Have a look at all the sizes that are now available in iPeng.

Size Comparison – Current Playlist

And All That Attention to Detail…

These were the big points. But in addition to that, we also paid a lot of attention to the details in iPeng to make your favorite controller App even better. Apart from the obvious fixes of issues introduced with IOS 8, this includes a significant performance update with some servers, some design improvements (finally, the new iPhones are quick enough , so that iPeng 7 looks as originally intended by us J), smoother scrolling and a better index-bar on iPhone/iPod, better support of Logitech Media Server 7.9 and many more small details.

Have fun with iPeng 8!