Remote Free

[confusedvorlon]

Hi Folks,

I'm just uploading Remote Free to the homebrew store.
It's a free Lite version of Remote which lets you control iTunes from your Pre

Remote

I'll use this thread to talk about the app and release versions, but you can also post additional questions and comments in the Hobbyist Software subforum.

http://forums.precentral.net/hobbyist-software/

Difference between the free version (on Preware) and the Full version ($4.95 at the App Store)

Free Version:
Can use volume, position, play/pause, next/previous track and shuffle controls (when in Portrait mode)

Paid Version:
Can choose playlists, Browse songs by Album, Artist, Genre. Search for tracks, albums, etc. Play collections, albums or individual tracks. Also - can use app in Landscape mode.

Changelog:

0.1.8
-Much better battery usage as it makes fewer status calls (especially when card not active)
-Trying a splash screen. The idea is to give the Os a really quick scene to render while the real setup goes on in the background.
-position and volume sliders update as you move them (rather than waiting for you to finish)
0.2.0
-added detailed logging preference. Activate it from the preferences page.

[orizzle]

oh wow its extremely easy to set up!!! I was using the media remote app before which was difficult to set up because of windows firewall settings but I'll consider this one now.

p.s. you should add podcast to the playlist thingy

[confusedvorlon]

glad you like it - I tried to keep things really simple. We put a lot of work into making sure that the helpers sorted out your firewall if possible, and that you don't have to worry about IP addresses or that kind of detail.

Having said that - if you are running a non-standard firewall then you may have to allow access to the helper manually.

I actually just uploaded a video for setup here:
iTunes Remote Setup

and you can see what remote can do here:
Remote

Podcasts should actually show up in the remote, though you'll may have to search for them.

In my iTunes, Podcasts just show up as a playlist, though iTunes sometimes organises stuff wierdly.

[hckyplayer024]

Looks like a great app but I am having a bit of trouble getting it to sync with my computer. I have a macbook pro running Snow Leopard 10.6.2 I have the OSX firewall turned off and Little Snitch set to allow all connections to Itunes Helper. Have tried with both auto pairing and manual pairing but no luck. Also tried forwarding port 8910 to my IP with no luck. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[confusedvorlon]

Originally Posted by hckyplayer024

Looks like a great app but I am having a bit of trouble getting it to sync with my computer. I have a macbook pro running Snow Leopard 10.6.2 I have the OSX firewall turned off and Little Snitch set to allow all connections to Itunes Helper. Have tried with both auto pairing and manual pairing but no luck. Also tried forwarding port 8910 to my IP with no luck. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

please drop me a line at rob-at-hobbyistsoftware.com and we'll figure out what is up (and post back here).

as first guess, either
1) your pre isn't connected to the same wifi network as your macbook
2) your wifi router has the 'be mean to everything' firewall turned on.
What I suggest for issue 2 is to try turning off the firewall on your router to see if that makes things ok - then if that works turn it back on and tweak the settings.

Similarly I'd suggest turning off little snitch totally (turn off your questionable software first if necessary) and then turn it back on and tweak once things are working.

[shizzle]

Always get an error when opening iTunesRemoteHelper on my Mac.

Process: iTunesRemoteHelper [6330]
Path: /Applications/iTunesRemoteHelper.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesRemoteHelper
Identifier: com.HobyistSoftware.iTunesRemoteHelper
Version: ??? (???)
Code Type: X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [297]

Date/Time: 2009-12-01 00:00:15.642 +0100
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.6.2 (10C540)
Report Version: 6

Interval Since Last Report: 1096067 sec
Crashes Since Last Report: 40
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report: 3
Anonymous UUID: 86531F5E-21CD-49FA-B512-C3C32F8DF757

Exception Type: EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000
Crashed Thread: 0

Dyld Error Message:
Library not loaded: @loader_path/../Frameworks/Sparkle.framework/Versions/A/Sparkle
Referenced from: /Applications/iTunesRemoteHelper.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesRemoteHelper
Reason: no suitable image found. Did find:
/Applications/iTunesRemoteHelper.app/Contents/MacOS/../Frameworks/Sparkle.framework/Versions/A/Sparkle: stat() failed with errno=13
/Applications/iTunesRemoteHelper.app/Contents/MacOS/../Frameworks/Sparkle.framework/Versions/A/Sparkle: stat() failed with errno=13

[anaglich]

What is the difference between this free version and the paid version in the official app store?

[thb]

i am unable to connect to itunes, too.

pre is connceted to the same wlan, the router is an airport express base.
itunes and itunesremotehelper running and connected.
remotehelper is configured in powerbook firewall.

it says:
got pairing info from server
trying to pair to 10.0.1.3 (that right)
unable to contact helper at that IP address.
couldn't connect to that IP address.

your held will be appreciated! thanks.

[anaglich]

Originally Posted by thb

i am unable to connect to itunes, too.

pre is connceted to the same wlan, the router is an airport express base.
itunes and itunesremotehelper running and connected.
remotehelper is configured in powerbook firewall.

it says:
got pairing info from server
trying to pair to 10.0.1.3 (that right)
unable to contact helper at that IP address.
couldn't connect to that IP address.

your held will be appreciated! thanks.

any chance you have installed parallels in the past?

I had to delete the parallels network drivers for it to auto pair with the correct ip.

[hckyplayer024]

any chance you have installed parallels in the past?

I had to delete the parallels network drivers for it to auto pair with the correct ip.

I am also having this problem and I think it does have to do with parallels. I created a new location where I used the minus sign to delete the parallels network connections in the network preferences tab and it still doesnt work. If you could give me more detail as to how you deleted the network drivers I'd appreciate it. Thanks

[goodness]

Oddly enough I'm not having any problems with this app. I say oddly because I always have a problem with any kind of remote app but this one worked on the first try. I'm almost tempted to buy the full version if I could think of a reason i would use it on a regular basis. Nice app.

[Babywayne]

Rob,
Nice to see you Home Brewing. Can't wait for some truly experimental stuff. After all you are one of the original Palm Developers. I've never really figured out a reason to use one of these but I'll give it a whirl and see if I find it useful.

Edit: Wow that was the easiest set-up ever. Thanks Rob. I'll keep playing with this for a bit and see if I find it useful beyond pranking my kids and cool factor.

[orizzle]

Originally Posted by soccerpathic

What is the difference between this free version and the paid version in the official app store?

One thing in the free version that isn't in the paid version is that you can't access the playlist. They show up but you can't click'em and play the media

[confusedvorlon]

Hi Folks,

a few answers here:

1) difference between free & paid. I have put details in the top post. Essentially, in the paid version, you can play tracks, albums, etc

2) shizzle - can you try the latest remote helper. I just upgraded to 10.6.2 and it works fine for me. I can see from your report that you must have a fairly old version. Possible that it doesn't have the right library for snow-leopard.

3) people having trouble connecting. My guess is that this will be firewalls running in your routers. I have added a troubleshooting page here Remote troubleshooting - Hobbyist Software

I have created a seperate thread for connection issues here:
http://forums.precentral.net/showthread.php?p=2071671

[confusedvorlon]

PS - I'm loving getting some feedback at last. It can only help me to make the app better.

Thank you.

[shizzle]

Thx for your reply.

I'm using the iTunesRemoteHelper i downloaded yesterday from your homepage. (Downloaded it again this morning, but still the same issue.)
I also looked via Google, but didn't find a newer version.

regards,

shizzle

[confusedvorlon]

Originally Posted by shizzle

Always get an error when opening iTunesRemoteHelper on my Mac.

Originally Posted by shizzle

Thx for your reply.

I'm using the iTunesRemoteHelper i downloaded yesterday from your homepage. (Downloaded it again this morning, but still the same issue.)
I also looked via Google, but didn't find a newer version.

regards,

shizzle

can you drop me an email rob-at-hobbyistsoftware.com
I'm not sure what is going on...

[anaglich]

Beautiful Remote logo btw!

[anaglich]

I've been getting sad battery life the past few weeks and I am wondering if maybe the Remote is doing something in the background? Even when not opened.

It could very well be another issue but can you either confirm or deny this?

[confusedvorlon]

Remote reduces the wifi polling a lot when in the background, but it is still active and still uses wifi intermittently, so it will use battery.

My suggestion would be to close it when you're not using it.

Figuring out the best way to manage battery usage is another thing on my to-do list. I'm thinking that a preference to let users choose between more battery life, or more rapid updating of status would probably make sense.