iSub iPhone Client - Version 2.0 Released

[aakashamin]

If everything goes well, expect a submission sometime next week (*crosses fingers*). And if it makes you feel any better (or maybe it's rubbing salt in the wound) iOS4 multitasking is already implemented in my latest beta and working beautifully including lock screen and task switcher player controls.

Sounds great, i am really really looking forward to this.

[esper]

my Subsonic/iSub setup is flat out better than Simplify. I just had to tell someone. Can't wait for the new version because the only thing it's missing is multitasking. Woooooooo!

[Alpione]

my Subsonic/iSub setup is flat out better than Simplify. I just had to tell someone. Can't wait for the new version because the only thing it's missing is multitasking. Woooooooo!

Me too. I've been very happy with it since I tried it a few days ago. Subsonic itself is great, too.

My only gripe was detailed a few posts ago - having to make neat directory structures for your files. I broke down and did that last night, though, so it should be easier going forward.

Any word on the update? Looking forward to it.

Adam

[u2jrmw]

Looking forward to 2.2

Have had to abandon iSub for now until the problem with very large music collections is resolved. iOS4 multitasking will be perfect as well.

[aakashamin]

iOS4 multitasking is already implemented in my latest beta and working beautifully including lock screen and task switcher player controls.

are these going to be included in 2.2?

[tenblack]

On occasion I cannot connect to my server using iSub and get the message that either my IPod/IPhone cannot connect to the internet or that the server is unavailable but I do have internet and the server is up.

Anyone encounter this? Any ideas?

thanks

[Concept211]

Any chance of implementing a "Random Playlist" option like we currently have in the standard Subsonic client under the "More" menu?

Great job, btw!

[thomasbruce]

On occasion I cannot connect to my server using iSub and get the message that either my IPod/IPhone cannot connect to the internet or that the server is unavailable but I do have internet and the server is up.

Anyone encounter this? Any ideas?

thanks

i have the same issue. if i restart isub a couple of times it usually works, but not always. i've also noticed the same issue with subsonic from the browser. everything is working at the server end, have my subsonic address, port 4040 is forwarded. everything should be working correctly...

[wdpaynter]

Einstein

Any news on the 2.2 release? I realize the magnitude of the release, but was just wondering if we could get an update, as its been a little while. Has it been submitted to Apple, or is there a new Beta or RC? Any updated timeline?

Also, have you had any luck with correcting the loading of large playlists? This is really what has been preventing me from using iSub (instead I've been using Zsubsonic).

Thanks for your hard work!
BP

[chris13]

On occasion I cannot connect to my server using iSub and get the message that either my IPod/IPhone cannot connect to the internet or that the server is unavailable but I do have internet and the server is up.

Anyone encounter this? Any ideas?

thanks

i have the same issue. if i restart isub a couple of times it usually works, but not always. i've also noticed the same issue with subsonic from the browser. everything is working at the server end, have my subsonic address, port 4040 is forwarded. everything should be working correctly...

i fixed that bymaking my changes on server subsonic then u go in network and u save again.. dont forget to restart server ofc. (port 80 works)

[einsteinx2]

It's bedtime for me on the east coast USA so I'll answer all the posts I missed tomorrow, but I wanted to stop in and let everyone know that iSub 2.2 will be submitted to the App Store tomorrow.

It's been ready for a few days now but I ran into a problem that was preventing O2 wireless users from playing music over 3G. It only affected O2 users, luckily I have one as a beta tester or I wouldn't have caught the problem.

Anyway, completely rewrote the network code and now it's working great on O2 and is finally ready to submit. I'll post a complete change log tomorrow, and within a few days I'll have links to some youtube videos explaining features and other help topics.

Also, the best way to get updates on iSub is to follow me on twitter @einsteinx2

[ChrisTX]

I am sorry if this has already been covered, or is documented somewhere and I'm just missing it ... but when a song is playing and I'm looking around for the next song, is there a way to enque the next song (ie: add to the playlist of what's currently playing)? When I click on the next song, it starts playing immediately, "overwriting" the currently playing song.

[einsteinx2]

In isub, where you can see what others are listening to, wouldn't it be great if it was possible to click on the song and have it also played?

I had planned to include this in the 2.2 update, but between everything somehow it slipped through the cracks. This will be included in a future update.

If you are successful in fixing the "timeout" issue, then this should be irrelevant. Though I will send you the logs ASAP. Can't wait for 2.2 on my new iPhone 4!! Thanks!

I have raised the default network timeout for everything but the initial URL check to 30 seconds. This should enable you to load even very large playlists. In a future update, playlist loading will be done in a background thread so the time limit will be non-existant. Also, full iPhone 4 retina display support is in 2.2 and it looks beautiful

Hi, Since I've updated to the latest iSub, it actually seems to crash much more often than the previous version. Typically it seems to crash when it tries to resume what I was playing last before exiting out of the app.

That's almost definitely caused by the song taking longer than 10 seconds to resume and the OS killing the app. I'm looking into ways to prevent this even on slower connections where a 10+ second resume time is inevitable. This will be fixed in an upcoming update.

One challenge: I have a reverse proxy running on my HP Mediasmart Server that redirects my subsonic.org personal web address so I don't need to enter the port to access the application.

I would have to test your URL specifically since you have some funky proxying going on and the subsonic.org url is already a redirect. If I can do some testing on my end I should be able to point you to the problem/solution.

I've also noticed some number discrepancies. iSub lists my total artists as 277, Subsonic as 351, iTunes at 257. I'm guessing it might be the way compilation artists are tallied or something, I'm not sure. I haven't actually looked to see if any particular artist is missing.

The reason for Artist count inconsistencies has to do with the way the different applications count artists. I can't speak for Subsonic or iTunes, but iSub simply counts all of the top level folders. Most likely there is nothing actually missing.

The "Artists" tab seems to be a directory structure of the "watched" folder rather than a query using ID3 tags (like "Albums.") Is it possible to make "Artists" ID3 tag reading an option in iSub? I ask because not all of my music is organized into directory structures and it can be a chore to find things with the current sort.

For example, I have a folder called "Miscellaneous," which is mostly unsorted live stuff. In iSub, I just see a long list of song names without artists, album names (important for live music when it gives the show date,) etc.

You are correct, right now the Artist tab simply shows the top level folders in Subsonic. And actually, the Albums tab simple shows the second level folders, it doesn't go by tags. Now that I have changed the whole backend of iSub to sqlite3, I have a lot more flexibility regarding how to display the tabs. In a future update, there will be a Folders tab that shows what the artists tab does now, and then Artist, Album, and Song tabs that are loaded based on tag information.

Also, regarding needing to see artist names of live performances, the 2.2 interface has been updated so that all song cells show the artist underneath them (also great for albums with multiple artists).

Looking forward to 2.2 Have had to abandon iSub for now until the problem with very large music collections is resolved. iOS4 multitasking will be perfect as well.

2.2 now has no problem loading the largest music collections on even an iPhone 3G with it's limited memory. I have also implemented resuming of tab loads because of the length of time it takes to grab all that information from Subsonic. So if the phone goes to sleep, you take a call, app crashes, whatever, you can continue loading from where you left off. It also shows information on the loading screen of which artist or album is being processed and how many albums/songs have been processed so far.

Also, iOS 4 multitasking is enabled and working perfectly. Even works on jailbroken an iPhone 3G with multitasking enabled.

On occasion I cannot connect to my server using iSub and get the message that either my IPod/IPhone cannot connect to the internet or that the server is unavailable but I do have internet and the server is up. Anyone encounter this? Any ideas?

Most likely that's because the URL check is timing out. That's why it's so random. I increased the URL check timeout to 15 seconds to combat this. I also put more information in the error message. It now says what the error code is and a short description (i.e. connection failed, connection timed out, etc).

Any chance of implementing a "Random Playlist" option like we currently have in the standard Subsonic client under the "More" menu? Great job, btw!

This is on the to-do list for a future update, as well as a dedicated search tab that would allow you to do more detailed searches as well as not needing to load the album or song tabs to do searches (great for people with huge collections).

I am sorry if this has already been covered, or is documented somewhere and I'm just missing it ... but when a song is playing and I'm looking around for the next song, is there a way to enque the next song (ie: add to the playlist of what's currently playing)? When I click on the next song, it starts playing immediately, "overwriting" the currently playing song.

Local song queuing and local playlists are new to 2.2. All you have to do is slide to the right on any table cell to reveal the queue button.

[einsteinx2]

I submitted the 2.2 update on Friday for review. Hopefully it will be available sometime early this week. It almost immediately went from "Waiting for Review" to "In Review" which is unusual, so hopefully that means that some app reviewer immediately put the app in their review queue.

Also wanted to let everyone know that I'm currently working on a series of videos detailing the features of iSub and installation troubleshooting. These will be available directly from the new Help tab when you tap the gear in 2.2 and on. They will be hosted on YouTube so I'll post links here as well when they're ready.

Partial changelog (full one available later on my website):
- Local playlists
- Full song caching
- Manual song caching (aka Wifi Sync)
- Offline listening
- Background audio/multitasking
- Genre browsing
- Bookmarks
- Choose max bitrate right from the app
- Optimized for iPhone 4 retina display
- Optimized for very large libraries
- Twitter integration - tweet what you listen
- Bug fixes galore

[chris13]

...............

Partial changelog (full one available later on my website):
- Local playlists
- Full song caching
- Manual song caching (aka Wifi Sync)
- Offline listening
- Background audio/multitasking
- Genre browsing
- Bookmarks
- Choose max bitrate right from the app
- Optimized for iPhone 4 retina display
- Optimized for very large libraries
- Twitter integration - tweet what you listen
- Bug fixes galore

it rocks !