Penguin Loves Music

iPeng 1.2.9/iPeng for iPad 1.0.2 are now available on the App Store and besides having some bug fixing, improving caching and changing startup behavior to better support slower servers and some smaller enhancements it brings you one cool new feature:

Party Mode / Kids Mode

The basic idea behind this feature is to allow you to block all functionality that can delete a carefully assembled playlist while still allowing you guests to influence the music choices.

By default, it will block play actions (which immediately delete the playlist) and only allow to add songs or to insert them after the currently playing track (play next).

In addition to this, it will block player management which could have similar effects (syncing two squeezeboxes will delete the playlist of one of them) and you probably also don’t want your guests to change your music setup for your party. This is a configurable option.

The same goes for playlist management. In party mode, clearing the whole playlist is not supported but optionally you can also disallow deleting or rearranging single tracks.

Kids Mode

And you can exclude Menus. There’s also an option to only do this (in which case you can still play and do all the other things Play Mode blocks) which I dubbed Kids Mode for myself. You can define a number of menus you don’t want your guests or kids to access.

There is a number of menus predefined which are known to be able to delete the playlist (although for most of them this, again will be blocked by Party Mode) or otherwise cause trouble like SvrPower Control which shuts down your server – something you probably don’t want during a party.

For all of this you can set a password. You’ll have to enter it under settings and then again if you want to enable the party mode. Note: Changing the password disables party mode first, just to be sure. The password is not encrypted so from an age of nine on your kids will probably find out how to hack it but that doesn’t matter because before hacking it they will find out they can clear it by uninstalling and re-installing the App anyway… Oh, wait, you can block that on iPhone, too, but they’ll know your password….

What does Party Mode Block?

Things that are being blocked when Party Mode is on:

• All kind of play actions. No guarantees taken but except for the limitations mentioned below I’m not aware of any ones left over. Note: 3rd party plugins might still have features that kill your playlist but are not blocked by iPeng. If you use such plugins, you need to disable them or block them using the menu exclusion feature.
• deleting the current playlist, except for doing it one item by the other
• saving playlists
• deleting stored playlists
• deleting favorites
• changing shuffle and repeat states (this also blocks the “love” and “ban” buttons
• re-scanning the server and changing WOL.

Limitations

Nothing’s perfect. There are a few limitations, some destructive Actions iPeng can not block due to general limitations:

• No guarantee for your guests taken! They can obviously still do nasty things like adding you whole collection of audio books as the next song to the current playlist. iPeng can’t block evil.
• iPeng has no influence on the player switching to MySB automatically (if you e.g. play an App through TinySBS). You’d have to block the Apps and Internet Radio menus to avoid this.
• It doesn’t work really well with Pandora. Pandora is a bit strange (I would call it “buggy”) in that it actually does a destructive play action even on some add commands or while opening a context menu. iPeng can’t inhibit this. Maybe it’s worth a bug report to Logitech
• iPeng can’t block library management functions from Apps such as Napster. So whenever somebody uses a Remove from Library menu there this will actually work.
• Loving/Banning through the Song Info context menu still works.

Other new features

Party mode is the big thing but there are some other changes in these iPeng versions as well:

Rescan Library from iPeng

You can now start a server scan from within iPeng. It works more or less like the control panel for the server and you can find it in the server’s settings menu, below the WOL settings.

Delete Stored Playlists

You can now delete a stored playlist through it’s context menu.

Enter Internet Radio URL

iPeng now allows you to enter a URL under Internet Radios for a custom radio.

You can then play this station or add it to your favorites.

No Manual Cache Flushing Needed

iPeng should now really always detect when your library changes and flush it’s cache automatically. The button is still there but I believe you’ll never need it anymore.

Unified Player Icons in the Player Screen on iPad

In iPeng for iPad the icons used in the Header Bar are now also being used in the MultiPlayer Screen.

As usual: Have fun with iPeng!

… And now Coolio is out for submitting just another update to the App Store which will add a nice feature for Christmas

iPeng now also on iPad

You have an iPad and you are a Squeezebox user? Or you do already use iPeng and you feel you sometimes need a big screen to search for stuff. The Squeezebox web interface is too slow for you? Then we’ve got something for you: iPeng for iPad is here.

iPeng for iPad is not just a scaled-up version of the iPeng App for iPhone and iPod, it’s a completely rewritten App with a new and exciting user interface.

What’s special about iPeng for iPad?

Full use of the big iPad screen

• iPeng for iPad doesn’t just scale up the menu, it uses the space of the screen to show you more of your content while giving you quick access to all player controls.
• You have permanent, direct access to the main menu, so you can easily switch between your own library and online sources
• All Player and Playlist controls are just a tap away
• Use of big artwork for best visual appearance. Finally you know why you added all that cover art to your music collection
• See much more content at the same time than on a small screen; read even long titles as they are common in classical music.

Support of Portrait and Landscape Orientations

• Use portrait mode for long lists to see a lot of information simultaneously and to re-arrange your long playlists
• Use landscape mode to see your covers side-by-side.

Use Big Artwork for a Perfect Visual Experience

• You like the look of your music’s cover art? iPeng gives you big high-resolution thumbnails and let’s you scale them to fit with a pinch of your fingertips.
• For albums you can get a big cover and all the album’s  tracks in a clear side-by-side view. Even for whole collections of albums at the same time, e.g. all albums by an artist.

Screen Savers to View Your Music From A Distance

• If you want to keep your iPad running in a dock as a status screen, iPeng gives you a big cover view and a big playlist view to be watched from a distance.
• iPeng gives you access to all player functionality and the current playlist even from the screen saver.

Shortcut to Search Functions

• iPeng will always show you a search bar on the main screen giving you a quick way to search your library
• The search feature can switch between a local search (for your library only) and a global search
• Local search shows all results immediately in a single list
• Global search lets you search your library as well as online media from a single entry point. It can also be faster if you search on a slow server.

Get the Full Functionality

Of course, iPeng for iPad will give you all the functionality iPeng for iPhone provides to give you full control over your Squeezebox.

iPeng for iPad is now available on the App Store.

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Since today a new iPeng version – 1.2.7 is available on the App Store.

iPeng 1.2.7, along with an earlier 1.2.5.1 update, is mainly a bugfix release that also brings some minor improvements over 1.2.5:

• Easier discrimination between „On/Off“ states for Squeezeboxes and between the active and non-active players
• Dutch translation
• iPeng should no longer lose the connection to the server when waking up from the background
• Other improvements and fixes around WOL, caching and the display of very large covers, Global Search, some context menus and for moving players to MySqueezebox.com

• iPeng will no longer switch the active player when becoming active from the background
• Cover art thumbs now also show in full resolution on iPad
• Proximity sensor support with “Prevent Standby” no longer requires an App restart to switch state

After a period of silence there is now a new iPeng update on the App Store – 1.2.5

I call it the “iOS4″ update since one of it’s drivers was to provide full compatibility with iOS4 including multitasking support. But then this name is a bit inaccurate since

• iPeng 1.2.5 actually runs on any iPhone OS device from 3.0 on, not only on iOS4
• There’s more than just iOS4 support in this update

So what is it about?

Let’s group this into “what’s new”, “what’s improved” and “what got fixed”:

What’s New?

• iOS4 support. iPeng now makes use of fast App Switching and Multitasking. This means if you leave iPeng and come back later it will still be in the exact same place where you left. iPeng does NOT run in the background, this would eat up too much power, but it does continue synchronizing the cache from the server until that’s done.
• Landscape Mode. iPeng now supports both portrait and Landscape modes. The NowPlaying screen in Landscape mode will now provide a screen-saver like full screen view. Some spill over from some other development we’re working on
• High-Res graphics. iPeng now uses full-scale graphics on NowPlaying and bigger cover art thumbnails on iPhone 4 (and iPad). Actually the “and iPad” part for the thumbs doesn’t work right now but I will upload an 1.2.5.1 update shortly that will fix this.
• Accessibility. iPeng now fully supports VoiceOver (iPhone from 3GS, iPod touch from 3^rd generation and iPad only) making it probably the most powerful Squeezebox remote control solution for people with visual disabilities. This sounds like “what’s this good for?” for a lot of people but actually it’s a biggie. First: It’s not as simple as Apple claims and second: it’s really, really helpful for blind people compare to iPeng’s last release but especially to most other means of remote control
• Localization. iPeng is now fully localized in English, German and Danish languages and provides enhanced support for many other languages, too. More to come.

What’s Improved?

• Improved Player and Music Source handling. iPeng will now find your player automatically in even more cases and also switch Music Sources if required. This is especially important if you switch Music Sources a lot and don’t find your player then. Now iPeng usually will find it for you. Also: iPeng is ow able to reconnect “lost” players as long as they are still on the network, a big improvement especially for users of the SB Receiver.
• Even more enhanced Squeezebox feature and plugin support with additional search and context menu functionality. “Global Search” is now supported through “Extras” and also through additional context menus on the NowPlaying Context Menu.
• Enhanced Server configuration support. iPeng now allows you to change your MySqueezebox.com account and has improved support for Wake-On-LAN (WOL). WOL can now be activated manually, you can define more than one WOL address and iPeng autodetects your server’s MAC for convenience.

What Got Fixed?

• Several issues with iOS4 and Squeezebox Server on the Squeezebox Touch are fixed in this release:
• Alarms do work now in iOS4
• Drag&Drop now works in iOS4. This one was the technical biggie. Apple made a change in iOS4 that effectively means you can no longer update a view in the background when using D&D. Which is kind of a problem if the data you show is permanently being updated from an external server and can stop to make any sense if it’s not.

So wait a moment, what happened to iPad and Playback?

Now, playback has eaten up a lot of time and resources here and still doesn’t work correctly, I’m sorry for that.

Actually since it DOES take so much effort I decided a while back to focus on iPad first. So the next thing you are going to see is not an iPeng with Playback but iPeng for iPad.

Does this mean Playback is dead?

Not it’s not, but it’s delayed. We are pursuing some alternative options to integrate it that might speed things up but as it stands right now, iPeng for iPad will come first.

But for now: Have fun with iPeng 1.2.5!

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Dear Friends!

iPeng 1.2.1 has been out for a while now but the User’s manual was not completely up to speed with this release.

Now, this has changed. I’m happy to announce that the User’s Manual is now fully up to date with regards to iPeng 1.2.1. While completing the 1.2.1 version, we added some more detail and hopefully the readability has improved as well.

Also, the new User’s Manual is now available for download in PDF format.

Like before, it’s designed as an online manual, supports readability on iPhone/iPod touch through an iPhone skin and can be reached using the links in the App under “Help”.

You can find the User’s manual at

help.penguinlovesmusic.de

Even if you are an experienced iPeng user, have a look and see whether you’ll discover some features you didn’t know about, yet.

Have fun!

Today, iPeng 1.2.1 got released on the App Store.

iPeng 1.2.1 is a maintenance release which primarily improves the compatibility with Squeezebox Server 7.4 and fixes some errors but it does come with a few improvements as well.

Improvements include:

• Better handling of context menus in SBS 7.4, especially including the “Add to favorites” and “Remove from favorites” menus available on the Squeezebox Controller to streaming service context menus.
• Better detection of „hold“ gesture avoids accidental triggering of actions;
• iPeng reconnects to the server by server name; this improves automatic reconnection in DHCP managed networks, you no longer need the “Forget Last Server” Option
• Status icons for Alarms and Sleep plus a lot of additional icons for plugins;
• Support for Slide Show Artwork (e.g. in the Flickr app);
• Sorting of search results, Albums returned by “Search” now are sorted as defined in iPeng’s settings plus additional information for the albums will be shown;
• If “Play Single Tracks” option is set in settings, the “Play Shuffled” item in Playlists and Albums will be replaced by “Play All” since “Play All” is not redundant in this context.

Learn more about the major 1.2 release.

See the full list of bugfixes in 1.2.1:

https://trac.penguinlovesmusic.de/trac/ipengnat/query?status=closed&milestone=Release+1.2.1

Have fun with iPeng 1.2.1!

Hi folks,

You may have recognized that iPeng has got a new logo. It’s rather reputable and “chique”, I think, and I´m being replaced by a model. That´s fine with me, it gives me more time to do what I like: Care for iPeng and, well,… I’ve just returned from a trip to Scotland where I have examined the local fishing-grounds. Yum!!! View the pictures from my trip.

Best

Coolio

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I’m happy to announce the availability on the App Store of iPeng 1.2.

iPeng 1.2 is the third major release of iPeng and like 1.1 it will bring you major changes that will make iPeng an even better Music Remote.

Optimized for Squeezebox™ Server 7.4

To begin with, iPeng 1.2 is a complementary release for Squeezebox Server 7.4 and MySqueezebox.com. It fully supports these server releases and in many places also uses similar UI concepts.

In short: Here’s what’s new:

• New Look and Icon
• New User Interface handling ambiguous functionality through context menus instead of modes.
• New MultiPlayer control page that allows for easier player management (syncing, moving between sources,…)
• Group control for synced players.
• Player context menu bundling all player features, reachable through the MultiPlayer control
• Context menus for the current track and tracks in the current playlist.
• Improved management of current playlist including option to save it.
• Quick Tutorials explain the operation of iPeng.
• Many, many details.

New User Interface and Look.

The first thing you’ll notice is changed colors.But believe me, it’s not about colors.

iPeng now has a stringent UI concept that tries to do away with the confusion around SqueezePlay menus and different play modes. iPeng’s new interface logic goes as follows:

• Every item that has more than one action attached to it does have a Context Menu
• You reach the Context Menu through a “hold” gesture (hold an item for approx. 1s). This will work almost everywhere (as long as there is something to be displayed): menus, library items, NowPlaying cover, playlist item, current player, you name it.
• Simply tapping an item will trigger the default action, most of the time this means: descend to a lower menu.
• Clicking an Album Cover (in a menu) will immediately play that album (there are one or two exceptions to this in places where it doesn’t make sense to play the album).

There is one exception: When viewing an Album or Playlist (that is: anything containing only tracks) there is still the old “mode” scheme. This is to allow you faster access to tracks for playing whole albums or building playlists; for many users these are the things they usually do with iPeng:

• There are the tree modes in the navigation bar that determine what happens when you tap a track
• play plays the whole album from that track
• add adds the track to the end of the playlist
• play-next inserts the track after the current one in the playlist.
• hold will, as always, bring up a context menu.

New MultiPlayer Control

First of all: Yes, it does scroll . Apart from that, the whole thing has been completely redesigned.

• Synced players are now grouped in sync groups that are distinguishable by the currently playing track and play state. Below this there are the individual players and you can set individual volume and power state of each player.

• The MultiPlayer control has an edit mode in which you can move players between sync groups and also music sources. This can be done through drag’n'drop or by selecting several players and clicking a command button.

Group Control

If you select a player from a sync group, the main volume and power controls no longer act on the individual player, but on the whole group. Note: this is different from the “Sync Power” and “Sync Volume” settings in Squeezebox Server since you still have individual control over each player:

• The main volume slider will show the average volume of the sync group. Moving the slider will change the volume on all players synchronously. You can change the relative volume between players using the controls on the MultiPlayer control.
• The main power button will switch power on all players. You can still change the power state of individual players using the MultiPlayer control.

Player Context Menu

By clicking the accessory button on the current player in the MultiPlayer control or by holding the player you get to a player context menu. This menu will bundle all player specific settings and features such as

• Alarms
• Sleep
• Player name
• some plugins that act on players
• Digital Inputs (Transporter only).

NowPlaying Context Menus

The cover art on NowPlaying and the tracks in the current playlist now have a TrackInfo context menu that allows you to access features like

• Add to favorites
• Browse by album/artist etc.
• Access similar music through Apps
• Get more Information about the track

Current Playlist

• Deleting tracks from the current playlist has been changed to a batch delete (just try it, you will understand it).

• Also, the current playlist can now be saved.

Quick Tutorials

In several places in iPeng, features you encounter for the first time will be explained by a short, animated tutorial.

And many more details…

• Keep Connection now really works (at least for 30min)
• WiFi will no longer be shut down as long as the App is in the foreground.
• Apps can be included in the main menu.
• there is more…

As usual: Have fun with iPeng

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Since the iPeng App came out last November it turned out to be much more popular than the free iPeng plugin, so there wasn’t a lot of news here.

Now we promised to keep it supported yet with iPhone 3.0 it stopped working. Obviously due to a bug done by somebody else, but what help is that…

Now here’s a small maintenance release (iPeng 0.5.4) which will work around this and make the plugin work with iPhone 3.0.

Yet, while this fixes the Safari crash on NowPlaying there are still a few things that won’t work in 3.0 due to changes made to the platform:

• Playlist reordering. The iPeng scheme for doing this was to “hold” an item to move it around. Now “hold” in Safari now activates cut&paste so this feature obviously doesn’t work anymore
• MultiPlayer Control. This feature requires dynamically added CSS styles which are no longer available due to the pre-compiling nature of Safari in 3.0.

I hope you still find it useful and apologize for the limited support – but there are just so much more users of the native iPeng App that this one takes precedence.

Have fun!

iPeng 0.5.4 – Compatibility Release for iPhone 3.0

How About Android? Volunteers Out There?

One thing that came as a surprise to me today is that iPeng 0.5.4 is obviously almost compatible with Android Phones. Transforms and transitions work and the layout almost fits.

I don’t have the time to work myself into the depths of the browser used there (a chrome variety?) so does anybody else feel like it?

Like he did last year, little Coolio is visiting Apple’s developer conference WWDC to learn about all the new and cool things he’ll be able to do with an iPhone or an iPod touch in the future.

Last year’s visit finally brought us the iPeng App, let’s see what this year’s results in…

Let’s just hope that someday they design badges that fit little penguins