play:Sub — a new Subsonic client for iOS.

[Michael Bech Hansen]

Hi all,

I’m pleased to announce my take on an iOS client for Subsonic: play:Sub — Subsonic Media Streamer.
play:Sub is available on the App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/play-sub-subsonic-music-streamer/id955329386?mt=8

The features of the first version:
• Intuitive and beautiful interface, with a smooth, wait-free experience.
• Browse your music by folder, artist, album or track.
• Play your music over cellular or WiFi connection, at home or on the move.
• Play cached music when connectivity is bad.
• Easily see your newest albums, or re-discover music with the random albums or songs feature.
• Quick access to currently playing song information, playback controls and playlist.
• Control playback using gestures, buttons or remote controlled from your headset.
• Automatic caching of played tracks, incl pre-caching of upcoming track.
• Manually cache selected folder, artist, album or tracks without having to play them.
• Seamless offline mode - shows only cached content.
• Fully integrated with you iDevice: AirPlay, Bluetooth, remote control, lockscreen and control center integration.
• Resumes music after being interrupted by phone calls etc.
• Requires iOS7.1+ and Subsonic 4.8+

I have a rather long list of features that I want to add to play:Sub - search and playlist support being first in line.

If you have questions, feed back or feature requests, feel free to contact me on via these forums, or using the in-app feedback option.
I’ll be more than happy to hear your input.

Cheers,
Michael.

[tmwsiy]

Bummer- I was excited for this as iSub has issues lately and not being maintained properly.
I rushed to buy without really reading the description.
Headline should be a "new Subsonic client for iPhone" as it is only designed for that.
I don't have an iPhone and would not have purchased if I had known not optimized for iPad.

Also, I've used a dozen apps and clients, this is the first one I've seen that loads the library like this app.

I have 200,000 tracks and I've had the app opened for a five minutes or so and up to 11,000 tracks loaded.
Is it really going to take almost 2 hours to open this the first time?

What is going on actually while these tracks load?

Anyways, I do wish you the best with this app and hope it is successful enough to warrant iPad development.

[Michael Bech Hansen]

Hi,

I'm sorry if the headline was misleading - you are correct that the UI is not optimized for iPad yet.
Optimizing the UI for iPad is on my backlog, and it will happen eventually (probably at the same time as video support).

As for the loading of the library, then you are also correct that play:Sub loads the whole library when the server is initially configured.
With a large collection like yours, it will take considerable amount of time to load the first time, but after that it will only load updates as they are detected.
You can dismiss the loading screen and start using it while the loading continues.

Cheers,
Michael

[BruketFans]

Good morning, Michael

The app looks nice...
Please, can you fix so the app works in iOS7.0.4. Still people (me) who uses that version. Jailbreak iPhone with BiteSMS .

Thank you in advance

[Michael Bech Hansen]

Hi,

Thanks.

As for supporting iOS below 7.1, I'll just have to dig through the archives to find the reason for limiting to 7.1+ (can't remember the reason off the top of my head).
If there is a simple workaround for whatever feature I needed or issue I had with iOS < 7.1, I'll be happy to support 7.0.4 as well.

Cheers,
Michael.

[timlance]

A very nice initial offering. I can recommend it for those 1) unsure/unhappy with iSub's current development "plan", and 2) not a fan of some of the UI facets of AVSub (have bought both).

And to be clear, the iPad version works perfectly fine on iPad. It is just not optimized (read: leverages bigger screen) for iPad.

Besides the iPad optimization, the one feature I hope to see in the future would be it adapting to landscape mode. But I suppose the two may come hand-in-hand.

[captaintrips]

great, will check it out- I do love iSub for my iPad but issues with some persistent bugs that have been a year plus with no fix.
good luck with the development.

[rich600]

Hi Michael,

App looks great - welcome to the party!

Cheers
Rich

[Michael Bech Hansen]

Hi Richard,

Thanks a lot - so far the party is going great

Cheers,
Michael.

[mattiasyeah]

Looks great, keep up the good work!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[thatkeith]

Looks really nice... actually quite elegant!
Just a note: I was fairly short of space on my iPhone – around 300MB free, which isn't ideal I know – and once the app had reached 21k tracks it would crash within seconds of launching. Once I cleared a gig more of space it carried on.

[padraic]

Looks promising, but before i spend another $5 I'll wait and see that development is sustained and performance is rock solid, and that features meet and/or exceed that of iSub. Have been burned before, and have learned my lesson.

[Michael Bech Hansen]

Looks really nice... actually quite elegant!
Just a note: I was fairly short of space on my iPhone – around 300MB free, which isn't ideal I know – and once the app had reached 21k tracks it would crash within seconds of launching. Once I cleared a gig more of space it carried on.

Hi ThatKeith,

This issue has been fixed in the current development version (along with a bunch of other fixes).
The next version will be sent for App Store review within the next week, and hopefully be available soon after.

Sorry for the inconvenience,
Michael.

[Michael Bech Hansen]

Looks promising, but before i spend another $5 I'll wait and see that development is sustained and performance is rock solid, and that features meet and/or exceed that of iSub. Have been burned before, and have learned my lesson.

Thanks padraic.

I have probably been spending $$ on the same abandoned iOS Subsonic clients as everyone else around here... which is part of the reason for starting development of play:Sub, so I can fully understand where you're coming from.
The next version of play:sub will be sent for App Store review soon, and contain both fixes for most of the v1.0 bugs as well as a few features.
Stick around, play:Sub and I will

/Michael.

[lpr]

If I buy this for my iPad, can I use it in landscape mode knowing that it's not optimized?