Signal 1.7 Beta

[Matt Stevens]

Supporting iTunes 11 required some substantial changes so I'm making this beta version available early to make sure nothing was missed. Here are the highlights:

- iTunes 11 support
- The queue now uses Up Next if available
- Media library sorting improvements

Signal now requires pairing with iTunes, so if a pairing was not already established for speaker control the 1.7 release will prompt you to create one. In addition the Mac version now requires OS X 10.6 or later. Please let me know if you run into any issues and enjoy the update!

Mac: http://www.alloysoft.com/download/signal/beta/Signal_1.7.zip
Windows: http://www.alloysoft.com/download/signal/beta/Signal_17.exe

Matt

[Mark Spano]

Hi Matt,

Just got around to installing the full version as I saw it pop up this evening. I like the functionality and it does seem to clear up some of what I was experiencing previously. I have noticed a couple of peculiar things:

If I start by adding stuff to a queue without having a track playing first, then go to play, a message comes up in iTunes that says: "You are about to start playback. Do you want to clear the 35 songs previously added to Up Next?" with the choices Play Song, Cancel, Clear Songs. No control from the remote device running Signal can then be used as there's a prompt on screen that must be cleared. Choosing Play Song will play the first song in my library, then the Up Next queue. Cancel ignores everything and doesn't play. Clear Songs clears everything I've queued and starts playing in library order.

OK, so I figure instead of queuing first before playing, I'll start playing first and then add things to the queue.

if I choose Play Now to start an album going, and then start adding other things to the queue, the additions insert themselves so that they play before the upcoming tracks from the first album. Example: I choose Pet Sounds to Play Now, it starts going like this:

Pet Sounds song 1
Pet Sounds song 2
Pet Sounds song 3
etc.

While Pet Sounds song 1 is playing, I choose Revolver and say Add to Queue. My playing order now shows:

Pet Sounds song 1
Revolver song 1
Revolver song 2
Revolver song 3
etc.
then
Pet Sounds song 2
Pet Sounds song 3
etc.

Adding another album or song to the queue adds after Revolver but before the remainder of the Pet Sounds tracks.

When I take a look in iTunes, the Up Next section shows everything I started with Play Now as "Music" and everything I chose to "Add to Queue" as "Up Next".

Neither of these methods is quite right. Of course there are ways to work around them, but so far it usually requires me to hear the mistake first and then jump to Signal to figure out how to correct it.

Thanks for keeping up with all this - let me know if you find anything out here.
-Mark

[Matt Stevens]

On Feb 19, 2013, at 1:05 AM, Mark Spano <cutan...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Just got around to installing the full version as I saw it pop up this evening. I like the functionality and it does seem to clear up some of what I was experiencing previously. I have noticed a couple of peculiar things:
>
> If I start by adding stuff to a queue without having a track playing first, then go to play, a message comes up in iTunes that says: "You are about to start playback. Do you want to clear the 35 songs previously added to Up Next?" with the choices Play Song, Cancel, Clear Songs. No control from the remote device running Signal can then be used as there's a prompt on screen that must be cleared. Choosing Play Song will play the first song in my library, then the Up Next queue. Cancel ignores everything and doesn't play. Clear Songs clears everything I've queued and starts playing in library order.

This is a bug, thanks for letting me know. iTunes thinks you're asking it to play what is currently presented in its interface but of course you can't see that through the remote. I'll put in a check for this and start playing what's in Up Next instead.

> OK, so I figure instead of queuing first before playing, I'll start playing first and then add things to the queue.
>
> if I choose Play Now to start an album going, and then start adding other things to the queue, the additions insert themselves so that they play before the upcoming tracks from the first album. Example: I choose Pet Sounds to Play Now, it starts going like this:
>
> Pet Sounds song 1
> Pet Sounds song 2
> Pet Sounds song 3
> etc.
>
> While Pet Sounds song 1 is playing, I choose Revolver and say Add to Queue. My playing order now shows:
>
> Pet Sounds song 1
> Revolver song 1
> Revolver song 2
> Revolver song 3
> etc.
> then
> Pet Sounds song 2
> Pet Sounds song 3
> etc.
>
> Adding another album or song to the queue adds after Revolver but before the remainder of the Pet Sounds tracks.
>
> When I take a look in iTunes, the Up Next section shows everything I started with Play Now as "Music" and everything I chose to "Add to Queue" as "Up Next".
>
> Neither of these methods is quite right. Of course there are ways to work around them, but so far it usually requires me to hear the mistake first and then jump to Signal to figure out how to correct it.
>
> Thanks for keeping up with all this - let me know if you find anything out here.

When selecting a song within a group and then adding other albums to the queue the behavior matches what iTunes does, so I plan to keep that. I agree that when using the Play Now option on a group this should maintain the order in Up Next, I'll add that to a future release.

Thanks for the feedback!

Matt

[Matt Stevens]

Just posted Signal 1.7.1 which should address both of these issues.

Matt

[Mark Spano]

Matt,

Finally had some time to install and give it a runthrough. Everything you fixed is excellent. Thanks for getting this update out so quickly!

On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 11:11 PM, Matt Stevens <ma...@alloysoft.com> wrote:

Just posted Signal 1.7.1 which should address both of these issues.

Matt

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